which ports require tendering?

[littlegrif]

How do I find out which ports the boat can tie up to and which ones require tendering? Husband and I are on Mariner Feb 12 and want to plan land tours. what is the time we need to allow to go from boat to tender to dock? thanks so much for your help!!!

[tinsel57]

It varies tremendously. It changes. For instance in the western caribbean there is now a lot of tendering due to storm damage. It did not use to be that way!

 

I don't know where you're going so I suggest you call whomever you booked your cruise through and ask them what ports are tenders for your itinerary.

 

If you book your excursions through the ship, though you'll pay a bit more you do get priority tendering.

 

If you do not book your excursions through the ship, give yourself PLENTY of leeway, I'd say an hour both ways. You'll have to get in line for tender tickets and then wait in line to board and in some cases,wait in the tender to dock. It can take a lot longer than you think it will!

 

This past Dec at the Grand Caymans many people missed their excursions due to tendering problems. So many ships trying to get tenders docked to unload at the same time.

[Sekhmet]

How do I find out which ports the boat can tie up to and which ones require tendering? Husband and I are on Mariner Feb 12 and want to plan land tours. what is the time we need to allow to go from boat to tender to dock? thanks so much for your help!!!

 

If it's the same in the US as in the UK, get hold of a brochure and the ports which are usually tender ports are all marked, but as mentioned above, there may be late changes.

[nparmelee]

Some ports that are usually docked ports could be a tender if there are a lot of ships in that day. We had that happen at Key West last April.

[cruisin newbie]

We did W. Carib. in Nov. and only docked in Costa Maya. We tendered into G. Cayman, Belize (about a 20 min. tender) and Cozumel.