Tendering in Disemarkation? Are You Kidding?

[knittinggirl]

Reading the reviews for Radiance, by Megajoy, she explained the disembarkation nightmare, because they anchored off shore and tendered in.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=564951

 

Tendering sounds like a nightmare to me too. The tender bobbing up and down, and with luggage?

 

How often does this happen?

[marci22]

wow, that was a pretty thorough review.

[grandgeezer]

I'm guessing that if they had to tender at disembarkation, they probably had to tender the new passengers to the ship. That would be an unbelievable nightmare. Maybe there were a bunch of people getting off before the final destination.

[Fouremco]

So many questions, like how could the port authority schedule more ships than available berths? What happened with passengers with mobility issues who never tender because of them? How did the ship take on fuel and provisions for the next cruise? Did the passengers for the next cruise have to tender out to the ship? Why has no one else reported this débâcle? I'd love to see more details.

[knittinggirl]

We don't tender.

 

On our cruise last summer, we heard of a few people getting injured when they got their leg caught between the boat and dock.

 

The review didn't say if they used lifeboats or the tenders w/ a ramp like in Grand Cayman and Bar Harbor.

[harz99]

Just guessing here, but it maybe that another ship is due to vacate a berth early afternoon and Radiance moves in to embark/provision/fuel.

 

I've seen previous reports of a ship on turnaround that is docked and due to stay overnight where they move out after embarkation to anchor and run tenders until near departure time, that was also at Sydney.

[knittinggirl]

On the Serenade, we had to embark in a tent. Instead of the normal covered gangplank, we had steep gangplank more like bridges. Later we did get some of our port fees refunded.

[emilygrace]

I just read that review and I just want to say that I didn't know Princess had free wi-fi. I've sailed with them 3 times and silly me, I've had to pay for wi-fi. Maybe it's something new, but I doubt it. Maybe the reviewer has done a lot of Princess cruises and does get free wifi, but that part of her review is misleading.

[harz99]

But notwithstanding that, this thread is about embark/debark via tender on an RCCL ship not the wifi on Princess.

 

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[CruisinNole]

[quote name=knittinggirl;52278726)

 

Tendering sounds like a nightmare to me too. The tender bobbing up and down' date=' and with luggage?

[/quote]

 

I believe that the author of the review mentioned that they received luggage tags so I am assuming that their baggage was tendered over separately. We were on a cancelled cruise and had to be tendered to Nice. Our baggage was picked the night before as usual and was waiting for us when we got off the tender. In our case, it was placed in the parking lot by the tender dock.

[Fouremco]

I believe that the author of the review mentioned that they received luggage tags so I am assuming that their baggage was tendered over separately. We were on a cancelled cruise and had to be tendered to Nice. Our baggage was picked the night before as usual and was waiting for us when we got off the tender. In our case, it was placed in the parking lot by the tender dock.

The majority of passengers have carry on luggage as well as checked luggage. I imagine that this would have travelled with the passengers, as most carry their medication, valuables, etc., in their carry on.

[knittinggirl]

I'm guessing they had one boat for luggage and one for passengers.

 

We're always told not to leave before our luggage number is called, because it won't be ready.

[tomatosauce]

The reason that Radiance had to tender was that there is only 1 berth in Sydney that can handle both Radiance and Ovation as neither can get under the Harbour Bridge to White Bay where the other terminal is. So the Radiance stayed at a buoy called Athol Buoy near Taronga Zoo and they shuttled people from White Bay and took their luggage separately. They are doing this for 2 or 3 sailings this cruise season.

[robtulipe]

The X Solstice is at the overseas passenger terminal near the Sydney Opera House and the smaller ship, across the peninsula where The Rocks district is located, is at the White Bay terminal. Note the low clearance Sydney Harbour bridge.

 

[Susie001]

Here's the story of how this came about :)

Sydney has two cruise terminals, the major one, the Overseas Passenger Terminal on the eastern side of the Harbour Bridge, and White Bay Cruise Terminal, on the western side of the bridge. White Bay is limited in its usage because only smaller ships can reach it. Larger ships can't sail under the bridge. This is not normally an issue, as the cruise lines and the Harbour Authority coordinate schedules throughout the season.

This year, however, RCI brought Ovation here for the first time, and then extended her visit. This has meant that there have been a few turnarounds where both Ovation and Radiance have been in port, both only able to dock at the OPT. The solution has been to anchor Radiance at a buoy in the Harbour and transfer luggage by barge and passengers by large hired ferries (not ship's tenders).

An added complication has been that White Bay was already booked by another line, so the terminal building was unavailable to RCI. This meant passenger processing had to be done in a marquee, then passengers were bussed over to the terminal for customs clearance, then back to the marquee for boarding the ferries out to Radiance.

A number of my friends went through this process quite uneventfully, and rather enjoyed their precruise cruise. I think where the system fell down was with those passengers who chose to ignore the boarding times that were given, and not adhered to. Given the complexity of the system, it didn't take much to throw it out of whack, leading to some unhappy cruisers. That obviously occurred for disembarkation as well. Still, it wouldn't be a cruise if there weren't some complainers! :rolleyes:

Edited February 13, 2017 by Susie001

[knittinggirl]

We were actually booked on Radiance for Australia this year, but we're so glad we changed our cruise to Alaska.

 

We have a chance of avoiding that tender since we booked on Noordam, two fewer decks. And we're using Sydney as a port of call.

[J_Busworth]

I wouldn't imagne it happens often, in this case, Radiance had to anchor in the harbour as she is too big to fit under the harbour bridge and Ovation was using OPT on one of her extra cruises from Sydney.

[Biker19]

still, it wouldn't be a cruise if there weren't some complainers! :rolleyes:

 

+1.

[Bentleg]

I wouldn't imagne it happens often, in this case, Radiance had to anchor in the harbour as she is too big to fit under the harbour bridge and Ovation was using OPT on one of her extra cruises from Sydney.

 

While Sydney has its limitations, RCCL brought the issue on themselves by scheduling two big ships at the same time for reasons best known to them.

 

Having said that, when the two Queens came in some time ago, they docked one at the Garden Island Naval base, which has no passenger facilities. This may have been considered and found not practical. I do not know.

[BekkaW]

I think where the system fell down was with those passengers who chose to ignore the boarding times that were given, and not adhered to. Given the complexity of the system, it didn't take much to throw it out of whack, leading to some unhappy cruisers. That obviously occurred for disembarkation as well. Still, it wouldn't be a cruise if there weren't some complainers! :rolleyes:

Agreed, people ignoring the boarding times caused the vast majority of the problem. People were posting a Facebook about 1130am complaining that they had already been forced to wait 2 hours... no one was supposed to arrive before 12!

[Sallyandtex]

Agreed, people ignoring the boarding times caused the vast majority of the problem. People were posting a Facebook about 1130am complaining that they had already been forced to wait 2 hours... no one was supposed to arrive before 12!

 

 

True, people do the wrong thing, but unless you were involved in this nightmare, you wouldn't lightly call people "complainers". I think they are very justified making a complaint, as this was handled very badly by RCI.

When booking, it was not revealed that tendering was taking place...not until full amount was paid. (and no offer of OBC or other compensation) that the plan to bump us off Circular Quay OPT was revealed.

We couldn't even use the usual checking in White Bay OPT that is airconditioned and has chairs, as there was a P & O boat there.

 

We had a 12.45- 1.30pm checkin time.

Arrived from Newcastle (had to organise private transfer as couldn't get to White Bay on train) at 1pm. The Marquee was set up on a hot tarmac. it was extremely crowded and extremely hot. There were many elderly people, some with walking aides, having to cope.

After a long wait in line, we were lined up again to be put on a bus, went to the Customs...another line up, through customs then yep another bus back to the Marquee.

From here we had another long wait for our ferry.

Once on the ferry it was ok and we accessed our room about 4.30pm.

We sat in the Harbour until MIDNIGHT! That's right, no nice sail away party thru the Sydney Heads that we were really looking forward to. To add salt to the wounds, we watched as the Ovation of the Seas cruised by us out through the Heads in the early evening.

 

Disembarkation was also a long tender process, but much smoother as we didn't need to checkin.

 

RCI's communication with this debacle was very poor. It was so bad that I wouldn't trust booking another cruise with them in case the same happens.

[BekkaW]

True, people do the wrong thing, but unless you were involved in this nightmare, you wouldn't lightly call people "complainers". I think they are very justified making a complaint, as this was handled very badly by RCI.

When booking, it was not revealed that tendering was taking place...not until full amount was paid. (and no offer of OBC or other compensation) that the plan to bump us off Circular Quay OPT was revealed.

We couldn't even use the usual checking in White Bay OPT that is airconditioned and has chairs, as there was a P & O boat there.

 

We had a 12.45- 1.30pm checkin time.

Arrived from Newcastle (had to organise private transfer as couldn't get to White Bay on train) at 1pm. The Marquee was set up on a hot tarmac. it was extremely crowded and extremely hot. There were many elderly people, some with walking aides, having to cope.

After a long wait in line, we were lined up again to be put on a bus, went to the Customs...another line up, through customs then yep another bus back to the Marquee.

From here we had another long wait for our ferry.

Once on the ferry it was ok and we accessed our room about 4.30pm.

We sat in the Harbour until MIDNIGHT! That's right, no nice sail away party thru the Sydney Heads that we were really looking forward to. To add salt to the wounds, we watched as the Ovation of the Seas cruised by us out through the Heads in the early evening.

 

Disembarkation was also a long tender process, but much smoother as we didn't need to checkin.

 

RCI's communication with this debacle was very poor. It was so bad that I wouldn't trust booking another cruise with them in case the same happens.

 

 

I think we'll have to disagree... at the time you booked the cruise they probably didn't know this would be the case, as it was arranged later after the changes to ovations schedule, but there was significant notice ahead of cruise day about the boarding times and process. I saw it advertised heavily in addition to emails and other notindications that were sent to passengers. So people who knew they should arrive after 12 arrived at 930 and then complained about it. I do not and will not ever think that is justified.

 

You are not entitled to compensation or OBC, you received the cruise that you purchased. Having to board by tender doesn't negate that in any way. I'm actually shocked that anyone would even suggest this in Australia.