Tender Ports

[helvic]

We are looking at our first Viking Cruise, but it has 4 tender ports.

This is something that we have not done for many years, also not on a newer ship.

My other half is a bit nervous about this how easy is it on the Viking ships.

Thank you 😊

 

 

[Little Monty]

16 minutes ago, helvic said:

We are looking at our first Viking Cruise, but it has 4 tender ports.

This is something that we have not done for many years, also not on a newer ship.

My other half is a bit nervous about this how easy is it on the Viking ships.

Thank you 😊

 

 

 I can only give you our experience.. easy as pie. We have had two tenders in 7 days with another tomorrow. Obviously you are at the mercy of the seas if it is rough and or windy and have to take into account the frailty of some of your fellow passengers.

 

That said, the staff in Sky are well drilled and as organised as they can be and the process for us has been quite literally as easy as pie.

 

The staff assist as you step from the ship onto the tender and back as you return - and even those less confident on their feet seem to be coping fine. Don’t stress, based on our experience you will be fine 😀

[zonahiker]

Hello - I have a question too on the tenders. How does the priority of getting on a tender if you are not booked into a Viking excursion? We have arranged a couple of private tours and would love to be off the ship as soon as able. Will this be a problem or are they able to get all off who want fairly quickly (weather permitting). 

Thank you!

 

[Peregrina651]

So, I'm gonna disagree, just a bit, with Little Monty  just because of some other things I have read here of late.

 

It isn't always all good.  Right now there are reports from another sailing that the tendering situation has been terrible--like nothing I have ever heard reported on these boards -- long, long waits caused  by things out of Viking's control.

 

In other words, zonahiker, normally, yes, you should have no problems getting on shore to meet your guide at the agreed upon time, but there are no guarantees here.

 

[Little Monty]

Just now, zonahiker said:

Hello - I have a question too on the tenders. How does the priority of getting on a tender if you are not booked into a Viking excursion? We have arranged a couple of private tours and would love to be off the ship as soon as able. Will this be a problem or are they able to get all off who want fairly quickly (weather permitting). 

Thank you!

 

Talk to Guest Services when you get on board. We have used tenders twice in the past week and both times those booked on private excursions had to wait for space to open (eg ‘wait in the Atrium area until you are called’). 

 

I don’t know know how long they had to wait (they may have boarded the first tender ?) but I suggest you are proactive and prepared.

[Little Monty]

Just now, Peregrina651 said:

So, I'm gonna disagree, just a bit, with Little Monty  just because of some other things I have read here of late.

 

 

 

That’s ok 🙂

 

I read some of those other reports so I used the old ‘from my experience’ disclaimer in my post.

 

I hope those other problems get sorted.

[Little Monty]

It’s too late to edit my earlier post .. but what I should have said was .. it is important to get a broad cross section of views by reading multiple posts and threads.

 

I was obviously just reporting my experience - and Peregrina651 is correct, there are no guarantees. 

[Pushka]

We are on Orion now and as Peregrina has mentioned it’s been problematic for us. Viking excursion people get priority to board the tender. Period. But even those excursions didn’t tender on time with early ones over an hour late. Their excursions were shortened so as later ones continued. We waited 75 minutes to board a tender as we were not on a Viking excursion.  

 

We we had a work around. We joined the queue for Viking excursions on the stairs. There has been more than a little angst for the current cruise. Loyal Viking cruisers say we are not experiencing normal Viking service. Thankfully Alaska is making up for that. 

[Captain_Morgan]

As has been said, those booked on Viking excursions get priority albeit that is an entirely separate kettle of fish when it comes to being organized....the idea of herding cats comes to mind at times.

Depending on the size of each group going on tour, i've seen and experienced having 'independent' passengers being squeezed onto the tenders among the tour groups to 'fill in the gaps' lets say if there's any space left.

 

One strategy we've employed in the past is to check the daily for the included tour times as these are guaranteed to be the busiest and depending on your own schedule/desire to get ashore we've found that if you're near the embarkation point before the madness ensues you can get ashore without issue.  Of course this is dependent on local officials and the time it takes to 'clear' the ship but we've had more success than not.

 

As for the reports of things being chaotic, we've also experienced this as well on a recent trip on Sea where we saw literally half a dozen senior hotel managers stood about the tender embarkation point, all trying to talk over one another and to try and take charge of the tender loading which was both uncomfortable to watch and left us thinking that it was a very unprofessional approach to a seemingly easy process.  

[molymoo]

Is that Alaska cruise a new one for Viking?  We saw some general organization issues surrounding the excursions last summer on the British Isles cruise ... new itineraries can sometimes be problematic and although the issues there were fairly minimal (just not up to expected Viking standards) we decided to avoid new itineraries in our future travels ... let them get the bugs ironed out.

[zonahiker]

Great information - thank you all for taking the time to post. I will check in with Guest Services and the daily and try to be proactive. Love the herding cats analogy. Any clue of on an estimate number of how many can fit on a tender? Or are they port specific?

[Peregrina651]

42 minutes ago, zonahiker said:

Great information - thank you all for taking the time to post. I will check in with Guest Services and the daily and try to be proactive. Love the herding cats analogy. Any clue of on an estimate number of how many can fit on a tender? Or are they port specific?

 

Viking tenders hold a couple of hundred people.

 

3 hours ago, molymoo said:

Is that Alaska cruise a new one for Viking? 

 

Yes. This is Viking's first year doing Alaska, an already (over?) saturated market. I guess the process of lining up new ports is a lot like shopping for any new service provider; they wine you and dine you and promise you everything but you don't really know how things are really going to work until you start actually using the service.

[Captain_Morgan]

10 hours ago, zonahiker said:

Great information - thank you all for taking the time to post. I will check in with Guest Services and the daily and try to be proactive. Love the herding cats analogy. Any clue of on an estimate number of how many can fit on a tender? Or are they port specific?

During a 'normal' tender service we've seen the average tender loading approx. 110-120 people when it comes to the bulk tour dispatch, not because they're not capable of carrying more (in an emergency they hold 235) but because more than 120 and it can be quite uncomfortable, especially when people 'spread' themselves across the seats.

[zonahiker]

Thank you Capt Morgan for the info. Will use it to beg if need be ;)