Reserving tender times

[Dreams42Day]

I read on another post that with NCL you have to reserve the time you want to board a tender boat to shore (for those ports that require tender). Is this true? If so, where and when do you do this? I have booked excursions NOT through the ship and need to be sure I am off the boat on time. 

[ighten]

Some ships you can actually do it on the tv screen... On others you have to go to the desk for a tkt from the time they announce (usually the previous evening).. If your Latitude is Gold or Above you dont need to reserve  and have priority.

 

After a certain amount of time it just reverts to free for all.

 

 

Edited July 2, 2019 by ighten

[www3traveler]

Information about getting Tender Tickets will be in the Freestyle Daily the day before reaching that port.  The tickets are free and the location as to where to get them varies from ship to ship.

 

It is for more a of crowd control situation than anything else.  

 

Those who have purchased excursions through Norwegian are gathering in one place and led off excursion by excursion.  Then those with Tender Tickets and eventually everyone one else.  Coming back from an excursion-  you just show and board the tender.  You have to be on board 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time.  Information will be posted as to the time of the last tender to the ship.

[BirdTravels]

48 minutes ago, ighten said:

Some ships you can actually do it on the tv screen... On others you have to go to the desk for a tkt from the time they announce (usually the previous evening).. If your Latitude is Gold or Above you dont need to reserve  and have priority.

 

After a certain amount of time it just reverts to free for all.

Follow the directions in your Freestyle Daily.

 

Note: the tender group gives you a time you can join the line. NOT the time you board the tender. The lines can sometimes be long (we have waited in line up to 45 minutes). Often much quicker.  Plan accordingly.

 

Also, if you are on a NCL ShoreEx, they will often escort you to the front of the line if your meeting point is in the Theater. If your meeting point is on shore, you have to leave early enough to get ashore on time. 

[Dreams42Day]

So if my NON NCL excursion leaves 1 hour after we arrive in port, am I going to have any problems getting on the first tender to make it to my excursion?

[ighten]

2 hours ago, Dreams42Day said:

So if my NON NCL excursion leaves 1 hour after we arrive in port, am I going to have any problems getting on the first tender to make it to my excursion?

 

If your gold or above No - If not you can make sure you you get the first tickets the evening before (as Bird above says check your details on your daily or the announcements)..

 

TBH though I have never know a private tour excursion have issue re tendering (it wont be the first time they have come across it)

[dcruiser50]

Simply non NCL excursion = No guaranty good luck 

[zqvol]

5 hours ago, Dreams42Day said:

So if my NON NCL excursion leaves 1 hour after we arrive in port, am I going to have any problems getting on the first tender to make it to my excursion?

 

You may. All NCL excursions have priority for the tenders.

[Gizmosmum]

On our 1/2 transit Panama cruise we could pick up our tender tickets from the pool deck from 8.30am. I was in line by 8.10 and received tender tickets for the 2nd tender. We ensured we made our way to as near to the disembarkation point as we could get. Staff were stationed at the stairs and checked your ticket before you could go downstairs to where you board the tender. We were lucky enough to get on the first tender with others who didn't have an NCL booked tour.

Best of luck.

[chipmaster]

We just did the Star for Greek Islands, can't comment about those with status, but as a first time cruiser you secure your tickets the day of the tender, the location / time is in the daily letter they leave in your cabin.

 

Those with tours get preferential meeting location and priority off ( FIRST ), we did DIY in two ports and for at least one of the ports it was a total mess, took us two hours to get off eating into valuable short port time.   The luck of the draw, we actually had tender ticket 3, they did the tours and status people and didn't call tender #1 till more than one hours after the tendering had started.

 

Plan carefully assuming you could lose one - two hours in that whole get to port process!

[BirdTravels]

On 7/2/2019 at 5:40 PM, zqvol said:

You may. All NCL excursions have priority for the tenders.

"Priority" whether for a shoreex or Platinum does not mean "front of the line". It means "join the line". On Grand Cayman, our meeting point was on the dock. And from the time we joined the line with our "priority" ticket/status, it was still over an hour to get ashore. Granted, that was an anomaly and is not normally how long it takes.