Tender

[tapia]

Good morning everyone! I am traveling on Princess to the Southern Caribbean in February with a group of people. One is elderly and disabled. She has an intense fear of falling and tendering to the shore. Can anyone tell me what ports of call we're going to do not actually dock? Thank you SO much for your help!

 

Ports: St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Barbados.

 

THANK YOU!

[Starbright]

We visited the Southern Caribbean on Golden last year. We visited all the ports you mention and docked at all of them. In fact we didn't tender at any port.

[tapia]

Thank you SO much for responding. For some reason I heard that someone tendered in St. Lucia...... I researched it myself on as many sites as I could get to and I can't find anything conclusive about experiences. Do you dock unless it's full or something?

[Starbright]

I think if there are several ships in port at once some of them have to tender because there's not enough room for them all to dock. Don't know how they decide who draws the short straw! We were there in September when it was fairly quiet. The most ships in port was one day at St Thomas when there were three. I would imagine in February it will be a lot busier.

 

Have a great time - we loved it!

[tapia]

I REALLY hope we don't get the short stick then!

[mpdahmer]

Also you can go online to either Princess' website or http://www.kroooz-cams.com and watch the previous cruises to your at how they are docked. On kroooz-cams website you can see not only the cruise web cams but also the islands web cams. From this you can see if the ship is docked or watch as the people are tendered to shore (this is true for Grand Caymen). Not sure if this will help or not but at least it is interesting to see.

 

Happy sailing...

[tapia]

That's true. I didn't even think of that--thanks!

 

So, has anyone actually been tendered at any of these islands?

[Pam in CA]

On our cruise to Hawaii last year, we tendered at a couple of ports. The staff was fabulous with very elderly people in wheel chairs or disabled. They took them by elevator directly to the tender platform and then had them on and off the ship with everyone very safe and sound. I understand the intense fear of someone who is essentially helpless. Hopefully, she'll have a good experience onboard the ship and trust the crew.

 

I believe your cruise itinerary will list which ports, if any, are tender. If it's not on your itinerary, I know it's listed on your pre-cruise shore excursions form and then on your final cruise docs.

[tapia]

Sadly, it doesn't say anything yet.....

 

I'm sure everything will be fine. I'd just like to know the facts as early as possible though...

[donna5]

Good morning everyone! I am traveling on Princess to the Southern Caribbean in February with a group of people. One is elderly and disabled. She has an intense fear of falling and tendering to the shore. Can anyone tell me what ports of call we're going to do not actually dock? Thank you SO much for your help!

 

Ports: St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Barbados.

 

THANK YOU!

 

On the Golden last year we tendered in St. Lucia.

[Pam in CA]

Sadly, it doesn't say anything yet.....

 

I'm sure everything will be fine. I'd just like to know the facts as early as possible though...

The thing is, is that what one ship does doesn't mean the others do. And if a ship tenders one time doesn't mean it tenders all of the time. This far in advance, I don't think there are any "facts" yet if they haven't been released. I wouldn't set my expectations on what's happened in the past or what other ships have done because there are so many variables: the number of ships in port that day, the number of ships from a single cruiseline, etc. The larger ships tend to dock and if there are a lot of ships in port that day, the smaller ships will tender. But it all "depends."

[tapia]

Thank you so much for the info! Do you, by any chance, know when they publish the information? How far in advance.....

 

THANKS!

[coiran]

You may not know if it is a tender port until the day before you get there.

 

Ron

[TEXASMUNK]

is determined by arrival time...He who gets there first....gets to dock

[Pam in CA]

is determined by arrival time...He who gets there first....gets to dock

Jim, I'm not sure it's quite that simple. My guess is that the order of ship arrival is determined beforehand. Almost always, from my observation, if two ships from the same cruiseline are in port at the same time, the larger ship is at the dock and the smaller ship tenders.