The Tender Process

[CruisingJs]

Not always. Lately they have been not tickets handed out. Just show up & get in line.

 

We had a suite in April and were given tender tickets. We didn't use them because we're elite but they were in our cabin when we boarded.

[floridalover5623]

We had a suite in April and were given tender tickets. We didn't use them because we're elite but they were in our cabin when we boarded.

 

Occasionally they still give them out but I haven seen them in a few years on the ships we've been on.

[Ando]

Thirty minutes? The member in response #10 continues her dubious streak.

 

To use Princess' most visited tender port strictly as an example: At Princess Cays they usually call open tendering about 2 to 2 1/2 hours after arrival. At other ports I have seen much longer waits, including on a British Isles cruise where tickets were required even well after lunch.

 

I nearly fell off my chair when I read the 30 minutes comment hahaha. We have been on several cruises where it has been well after midday before open tenders are called. Specific ports that come to mind in more recent years are Bali (Benoa) on Diamond Princess and Pt Denarau on Sun Princess.

[sjmbruce]

Ugh. Now I am not sure what to do. Originally we were going to have a relaxed day without any plans - tender off the ship, find a water taxi, go past the Arch and be dropped off at Medano beach for an afternoon/evening on the sand.

 

Princess has two excursions that involve sightseeing from a boat. The simple one is sold out already, and the other excursion involves extra time at a random restaurant. We wouldn't be back to the ship until 4:30, would still have to find a taxi, and then would have a couple of hours at the beach at best (the sun sets at 7:45ish).

 

I'm not sure what the best course of action is - use a Princess excursion and still get to cruise by the Arch and Lover's beach, but not get to Medano beach until later in the day. Or, wait for the tenders, maybe two or more hours, which wouldn't put us that much ahead time wise. Thank you for all the replies, I'd rather know about this now and figure it out rather than be surprised with a two hour tender line.

[peety3]

A problem that will continue to grow as Princess builds larger and larger ships with more passengers that need to tender.

 

And the line to get a tender back to the ship can also be quite lengthy.

There's a difference between a capacity problem and a rate problem. You're confusing the two here. The lines are long because the tender rate is too low to service the "demand". Increasing the ship's capacity likely comes with larger capacity lifeboats/tenders, which will inherently increase the rate. Now, if the ship doesn't activate a sufficient number of tenders, you still have rate challenges, but that's up to the ship.

 

Remember, the tenders become your friend if the ship goes down. They do have enough of them for that.

[CRUZBUDS]

Cabo has a ton of local tender's that support the ship's. They are nicer since they are open.

[feedmytummy]

I nearly fell off my chair when I read the 30 minutes comment hahaha. We have been on several cruises where it has been well after midday before open tenders are called. Specific ports that come to mind in more recent years are Bali (Benoa) on Diamond Princess and Pt Denarau on Sun Princess.

 

full disclosure that i'm about to hijack this thread... sailing with princess for the first time this coming january. one of the stops is bali and i can't seem to find the info i need or get replies to my posts. anyway, i was considering booking a private tour in bali but now it sounds like it might be a bad idea because i may not get off the ship until several hours after the scheduled arrival time?? and did princess adjust ship time so it was the same as local? any input would be much appreciated. yes, yes, i know everything will be fine and i should just enjoy my vacation but i tend to be a nervous nellie in the planning process :(

[spirit28]

full disclosure that i'm about to hijack this thread... sailing with princess for the first time this coming january. one of the stops is bali and i can't seem to find the info i need or get replies to my posts. anyway, i was considering booking a private tour in bali but now it sounds like it might be a bad idea because i may not get off the ship until several hours after the scheduled arrival time?? and did princess adjust ship time so it was the same as local? any input would be much appreciated. yes, yes, i know everything will be fine and i should just enjoy my vacation but i tend to be a nervous nellie in the planning process :(

 

Was on Sea Princess in Bali just over a week ago. The ship was on local time.

 

I imagine if you arrived at the gathering place (usually one of the dining rooms) for tender tickets early enough you may be lucky and get off on one of the first tenders. We got to the dining room at 7:30 am and had number 280 something!! One of the problems with Bali is that the ship anchors a long way from the tender disembarkation wharf - approx 25-30 min. So for each tender, it is nearly an hours round trip to collect the next lot. Each of the ships tenders (x 4) can only carry 80 people, so you can see it can take a while to disembark some 1,800 passengers. Sometimes Princess may engage a local ferry that can carry a few hundred to speed things up. At Lombok & Ko Samui that did occur and waiting times were reduced significantly. Did not see that in Bali in the morning (but may have been running), but there was definitely a private ferry operating in the afternoon/evening. I say evening, as last tender was meant to be 4:30pm, but we did not weigh anchor and get underway to nearly 7:00pm due to the backlog of passengers waiting to get back to the ship.

 

The other thing that slowed down progress in the morning was the Indonesian Immigration officials taking seemingly forever to grant clearance (as opposed to Lombok a couple of weeks earlier which was rather quick) after the ship anchored.

 

Others may have had differing experiences.

[floridalover5623]

Was on Sea Princess in Bali just over a week ago. The ship was on local time.

 

I imagine if you arrived at the gathering place (usually one of the dining rooms) for tender tickets early enough you may be lucky and get off on one of the first tenders. We got to the dining room at 7:30 am and had number 280 something!! One of the problems with Bali is that the ship anchors a long way from the tender disembarkation wharf - approx 25-30 min. So for each tender, it is nearly an hours round trip to collect the next lot. Each of the ships tenders (x 4) can only carry 80 people, so you can see it can take a while to disembark some 1,800 passengers. Sometimes Princess may engage a local ferry that can carry a few hundred to speed things up. At Lombok & Ko Samui that did occur and waiting times were reduced significantly. Did not see that in Bali in the morning (but may have been running), but there was definitely a private ferry operating in the afternoon/evening. I say evening, as last tender was meant to be 4:30pm, but we did not weigh anchor and get underway to nearly 7:00pm due to the backlog of passengers waiting to get back to the ship.

 

The other thing that slowed down progress in the morning was the Indonesian Immigration officials taking seemingly forever to grant clearance (as opposed to Lombok a couple of weeks earlier which was rather quick) after the ship anchored.

 

Others may have had differing experiences.

 

That's when being Elite really pay off big time. :D

[tml1230]

It was a simple comparison that those who pay or earn benefits get them while others don't get them. :rolleyes:

 

for whats it is worth, i understood and appreciated your comparison ...i thought it was a very good one!

[feedmytummy]

Was on Sea Princess in Bali just over a week ago. The ship was on local time.

 

I imagine if you arrived at the gathering place (usually one of the dining rooms) for tender tickets early enough you may be lucky and get off on one of the first tenders. We got to the dining room at 7:30 am and had number 280 something!! One of the problems with Bali is that the ship anchors a long way from the tender disembarkation wharf - approx 25-30 min. So for each tender, it is nearly an hours round trip to collect the next lot. Each of the ships tenders (x 4) can only carry 80 people, so you can see it can take a while to disembark some 1,800 passengers. Sometimes Princess may engage a local ferry that can carry a few hundred to speed things up. At Lombok & Ko Samui that did occur and waiting times were reduced significantly. Did not see that in Bali in the morning (but may have been running), but there was definitely a private ferry operating in the afternoon/evening. I say evening, as last tender was meant to be 4:30pm, but we did not weigh anchor and get underway to nearly 7:00pm due to the backlog of passengers waiting to get back to the ship.

 

The other thing that slowed down progress in the morning was the Indonesian Immigration officials taking seemingly forever to grant clearance (as opposed to Lombok a couple of weeks earlier which was rather quick) after the ship anchored.

 

Others may have had differing experiences.

 

 

thanks for all the info! now i'm definitely thinking twice about booking a private tour. decisions, decisions...

 

 

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[Astro Flyer]

for whats it is worth, i understood and appreciated your comparison ...i thought it was a very good one!

Thanks...too often their posts are confrontational. :(

[Katwoman007]

Ugh. Now I am not sure what to do. Originally we were going to have a relaxed day without any plans - tender off the ship, find a water taxi, go past the Arch and be dropped off at Medano beach for an afternoon/evening on the sand.

 

Princess has two excursions that involve sightseeing from a boat. The simple one is sold out already, and the other excursion involves extra time at a random restaurant. We wouldn't be back to the ship until 4:30, would still have to find a taxi, and then would have a couple of hours at the beach at best (the sun sets at 7:45ish).

 

I'm not sure what the best course of action is - use a Princess excursion and still get to cruise by the Arch and Lover's beach, but not get to Medano beach until later in the day. Or, wait for the tenders, maybe two or more hours, which wouldn't put us that much ahead time wise. Thank you for all the replies, I'd rather know about this now and figure it out rather than be surprised with a two hour tender line.

"

 

Sorry for bumping an older thread, but I was wondering what you ended up doing! I am searching for Cabo excursions because I do not know what I want to do!! Thanks!!

[skynight]

So suites don't need to bother with tickets, they just go down and join in the tender line??

This depends on the ship. Our latest experience on the Crown, Royal, and Emerald is that full suite passengers were required to go to the DR. They are grouped with the next tender out. You don't just show up at the pontoon. After a certain time, say about 10/10:30am tender tickets are no longer needed. An announcement will be made. Then all passengers just go directly to the pontoon.

[nicecruiser]

I have a question-will priority tender apply for mini suite's guest or only to suit's? Thanks,Irina;)

[Alaskanb]

I have a question-will priority tender apply for mini suite's guest or only to suit's? Thanks,Irina;)

Not for minis.

My rule is that I set up a ship's excursion at tender ports.

[sjmbruce]

"

 

Sorry for bumping an older thread, but I was wondering what you ended up doing! I am searching for Cabo excursions because I do not know what I want to do!! Thanks!!

 

We ended up doing a Princess exursion that involved a boat ride past the rock formations and the arch. That portion was actually really nice and we took some great pictures. The tour also included a bus ride to a restaurant for a 30 minute drink stop. That part was a waste of time. We went back and just explored the port and had some fresh seafood for dinner after that. It wasn't bad.

 

While we weren't as adventerous as I had hoped, I'm glad we didn't wait for the tenders without an excursion. The excursions took forever to tender - our group waited close to an hour and there were groups after us still waiting. It was well past the start time for the excursion before we even got off of the ship. I am sure people without an excursion waited for at least two hours.

[alwalaska]

We ended up doing a Princess exursion that involved a boat ride past the rock formations and the arch. That portion was actually really nice and we took some great pictures. The tour also included a bus ride to a restaurant for a 30 minute drink stop. That part was a waste of time. We went back and just explored the port and had some fresh seafood for dinner after that. It wasn't bad.

 

While we weren't as adventerous as I had hoped, I'm glad we didn't wait for the tenders without an excursion. The excursions took forever to tender - our group waited close to an hour and there were groups after us still waiting. It was well past the start time for the excursion before we even got off of the ship. I am sure people without an excursion waited for at least two hours.

 

Sorry to bump thus back up, but you did an amazing review for Hawaii. We added a Mexican Riviera cruise before our Hawaii cruise and the boards don't have as much info as other places we've gone to. Do you have a review, photos, or anything? We're on the Grand out of San Fran, so a little different, but I'm sure a lot in common.