Tendering info on the Koningsdam

[JJPacer]

We just returned from the July 17-31 Voyage of the Midnight Sun on the Koningsdam. There is an announcement in the Daily Navigator the day before tender ports. They offer tender tickets on a first come first serve basis with a specific time for you to board the tender. The first session to get the tender tickets was at 8:00 AM and then another session is in the afternoon around 4:00. (not positive about this time. Check for correct time.) People were lining up an hour before the start time for the tender ticket. This is important., because if you have booked an independent excursion, you’ll want to get off the ship in time for your excursion. At the first tender port, we thought tendering wouldn’t be a long drawn out process, so we didn’t go to the 8:00 session. When we went to the afternoon session, the only times being offered were 2:30PM – 3:30PM (4 hours after the ship arrived at that port). After 3:30 all passengers could get off, no tender ticket required. It was shocking that they felt they had to allow 4 hours to get all the passengers tendered to shore. 2:30 -3:30 was too late for us to make our independent shore excursion. THERE WAS NO ANNOUNCEMENT MADE THAT IF YOU WAITED FOR THE AFTERNOON SESSION TO GET YOUR TENDER TICKETS, ONLY MID AFTERNOON TIMES WOULD BE AVAILABLE. We went to the customer service desk and they were helpful and gave us an earlier tender time ticket. We didn’t tender after all at that port. We were able to dock. But the same thing happened at the other tender ports. From that point on we were in line by 7:00 AM along with a lot of other folks. Be aware of this and plan accordingly.

Edited August 7, 2016 by JJPacer

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info ...

[Daisyloo]

Thanks for this info. Is this something new on your sailing, or have they been doing it on other Koningsdam sailings?

[leenieweenie]

We were on this sailing also and ran into this problem. We went early to get our tender ticket only to be told earliest available time was 1:30. Our private excursion was leaving at 12:30! Sorry, nothing could be done! We went to guest services and after some back and forth-we got tickets for the earlier tender. Many others had this same scenario. Luckily for all we did not have to tender,(for some reason) and so it became a moot point.

I would have been so upset if I had to miss my excursion because of this "new" procedure! Hopefully things will straighten out on future sailings. But as said by op, please make sure to go early as possible to get tender tickets!!

By the way--we loved the ship and had a great cruise!

[lahlah57]

This is all so good to know! In october will be touring Spain with private guide at each stop.....thankyou for the heads up......sheesh! :eek:

Hoping we will be pulled up on docks instead of dealing with tenders.....,what a hassle!!!

Edited August 7, 2016 by lahlah57
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[florisdekort]

4 hours?! That's absolutely abysmal. Even RCI gets 5,000 guests off of monsters like Oasis in under 2 hours... HAL needs to fix this.

[JJPacer]

Thanks for this info. Is this something new on your sailing, or have they been doing it on other Koningsdam sailings?

 

Nothing was mentioned regarding what happened on earlier sailings. So I cannot comment. Perhaps someone who was on an earlier sailings can tell us what happened on their cruise. Our assumption was that since the Koningsdam is a larger ship than any other HAL ship, they thought it was a "good idea". Even with more passengers to tender, it does not seem possible it would take as long as "they" thought it would.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you or this information.

This is new for HAL as I haven't heard of this happening on any other HAL ship.

How many tenders were they running?

[sppunk]

Was the tender itself a HAL one or port-provided one? IF port-provided it might explain it a little better.

 

Still, it's very poor organization and I assume they'll get it tweaked based on feedback.

[nycruiser80]

I was on this sailing too and ran into this issue. I have to say it was frustrating as, I too, had an independent excursion (in the afternoon) and they didn't have the tender departure I needed because I went too late to obtain tickets.

 

Honestly, I don't recall getting a time frame last year when I tendered in Maine on the Maasdam. I remember the tender ticket last year had a number on it. On the Koningsdam the tickets had a number and a time frame.

 

I will say I felt there was a lack of communication on this ship - not just limited to the tendering. Not sure if that was something that had to do with the cruise director? In any event I feel they should elaborated a bit in ALL of their communications. I was heavily relying on the new "online Navigator" that you get on your phone and no where on the online Navigator did it say the tender tickets were first come first serve.

 

I have been fortunate enough to have gone on many, many cruises on various lines and this distribution left a lot to be desired. However after a few visits to guest services they weren't able to get me an earlier tender ticket but promised they would squeeze me into one of the boats at an earlier time.

 

sppunk - this was to be a HAL tendering not the port. I was told they were going to use the tender lifeboats.

Edited August 8, 2016 by nycruiser80

[easyboy]

Very useful info. Thanks.

[garden girl]

I just completed my survey last night and I did mention that I thought the cruise director should have spent more time informing us of things instead of telling poor jokes. I havee never cruised with so little daily communication.

[nycruiser80]

I just completed my survey last night and I did mention that I thought the cruise director should have spent more time informing us of things instead of telling poor jokes. I havee never cruised with so little daily communication.

 

Something was off, while I enjoyed the cruise, I had a lot of bumps in the road - not sure if it was teething problems due to Koningsdam being new or just a new culture at HAL. I know their focus is on the younger traveler, I'm 35 and did not find most of the changes all that wonderful. I really felt there was a break in the communication chain, this included other departments. I unfortunately got the Freestyle Beverage Soda Plan which was handled very poorly. I may make a post about it not to complain but as a heads up to others.

Edited August 8, 2016 by nycruiser80

[theduffys]

We were also on this cruise and experienced the same problem. We missed the announcement (only in the daily navigator) about picking up tender tickets starting at 8am. Went down at 9 and could only get a 2:30 time. Since we had a 1:30 private tour booked,we explained our situation and were told absolutely nothing could be done. Went to the service desk and were told to come there at 12:30 and someone would escort us to the gangway and get us on the tender. I am sure that the ship excursions had first priority (as they should have) and took most of the early times but a few days notice or a verbal announcement would have helped a great deal.

For the next tender port we got there at 7am, already a long line, a got the time we needed. I seem to remember that 6 tenders were used.

[JJPacer]

Something was off, while I enjoyed the cruise, I had a lot of bumps in the road - not sure if it was teething problems due to Koningsdam being new or just a new culture at HAL. I know their focus is on the younger traveler, I'm 35 and did not find most of the changes all that wonderful. I really felt there was a break in the communication chain, this included other departments. I unfortunately got the Freestyle Beverage Soda Plan which was handled very poorly. I may make a post about it not to complain but as a heads up to others.

 

I agree with you. Communication was very poor. Not only about the tender situation. They used the ships' life boats as tenders. 3 of our independent tours were placed in jeopardy because of HAL's failure to communicate. Two of the three worked out, but not without a great deal of angst for us. The Flam Railroad did not. HAL released some Flam railroad excursion times in Geirganger, because they could not sell them or they knew the ship was leaving early from Flam & wanted to dump them. We didn't know about it until we'd already left Geirganger. So I don't really know what the choices were. Geiranger was the port the day before we docked at Flam. If we knew there were earlier ticket times for the Flam Railroad to be had while in Geiranger and the ship was leaving Flam 4 hours early, we could of possibly gotten earlier tickets and had the Railroad trip done before the ship left. Instead, our pre-purchased tickets had us return from the railroad ride after the ship departed at 3:30. So, we didn't do the Flam Railway. Customer service told me the ship was leaving Flam at 3:30 because that was when all the ship excursions were complete. No thought at all about the other 2K passengers.

 

Speaking of beverage packages...On the first day of the cruise, we asked at 2 bars to buy the soda card where you pay $25.00 and get $50.00 of soda. We were told this card was not being sold, and their computer system was not compatible with this card. They were pushing the $8.00/day Coca Cola Freestyle beverage package but we did not want that because they give you a plastic drinking bottle to fill up/reuse/carry around with you to get the refills. Could they have possibly have created a more inconvenient system? We went to the Customer service desk and asked about the soda card. They sold us the soda card we wanted, and we had no problem using it anywhere on the ship. We were charged slightly more on our soda card when we used it in the lido buffet and in the Dutch Café. For some reason, they considered it part of the Coca Cola Freestyle package and charged approximately 50 cents more, even though we weren’t using that package. Yes there were a lot of bumps in the road.

[Love the beach]

Thank you so much for posting this info! We are on the Aug 14th sailing and do have a private tour planned for our tender port and we also have an all day private tour planned for the day before!

[Fouremco]

I'm one who still enjoys HMC. When we visit in November, I hope that the HMC tenders can handle the Koningsdam's passenger load.

[easyboy]

Thanks for those info JJPacer.

[iflyrc5]

Did they still honor the 4 and 5 star priority tendering where we normally don't get a tender ticket or was that gone also?

Edited August 9, 2016 by iflyrc5

[mrbeaver]

I'm one who still enjoys HMC. When we visit in November, I hope that the HMC tenders can handle the Koningsdam's passenger load.

 

Does HMC have large tenders on the island? If so, will it be necessary for the ship to give out numbered tender passes? I'm hoping I won't have to wake up early on the first morning of the cruise to go stand in a line! Jeff:(

[JJPacer]

HMC has large tender boats they keep at the island. I wouldn't think there would be an issue there. However, I didn't think there would be an issue on our cruise, so who knows. But I think you'll be OK. The HMC tenders are at least 3 - 4 times larger than the life boats they use as tenders.

 

I don't know about the 4 & 5 star tendering, as we are only 3 star. Hopefully someone else can answer that question.

[jtl513]

I'm one who still enjoys HMC. When we visit in November, I hope that the HMC tenders can handle the Koningsdam's passenger load.

They seem to handle much larger Carnival ships okay in the summertime.

.

Edited August 9, 2016 by jtl513

[nycruiser80]

Did they still honor the 4 and 5 star priority tendering where we normally don't get a tender ticket or was that gone also?

 

Yes they were honoring that and priority tendering for suite guests as well. They announced this during ticket distribution.