How important is it to get priority tendering for Meditterean ports?

[peacefrogdog]

Planning an anniversary Mediterrean cruise for just me and my wife.  I've that for some ports that if there are delays in getting on a tender, you may be at risk of missing time in port or not making tours that you book on your own.  We are looking at May 2021 for which itineraries have yet to be released yet, so we don't even know which class of ship we will book. However we are looking towards booking itineraries with ports in Italy, and if we can make it work, Croatia and Montenegro.

 

Because we are making this a special trip, we would like to avoid adding stress of having to line up for tender tickets if at all possible.  Thus I am trying to compare the costs of the different options to avoid this, including: 1.  booking a JS rather than a OV balcony, 2.  booking The Key, or 3.  paying the extra money to book RC-organized excursions vs booking a tour independent of RC.  

 

My question is, for each of the classes of ships that have for the past few years sailed to these ports (Vision, Radiance, Voyageur, Oasis), how bad are the lines for tenders such that arranging one of the options above would be worth it?  I assume Oasis class would be the most problematic.  

 

 

 

[little britain]

Oasis class never tender!

 

Kotor, Montenegro is a tender port - every time I have just strolled straight onto the tender. No need for a tour there - a beautiful little walled city, and if you are energetic there is a large hill that you can climb for the view.

 

 

[blackshirt]

That threat of missing private excursions is Royal’s way of getting you to book with them. The excursion companies know you are tendering, they will generally wait for you.

[aring75]

If you are tendering in Santorini, it will depend on the type of private tour you book. Some leave via boat right at the place where the tender drops you off. This won't be a big deal. However, most of the other private tour vendors meet up top where the cable car lets off. If you don't get off the ship pretty early, the line for the cable car can get backed up fast. That line is LONG.

 

As blackshirt said, though, if you stay in touch with your tour company, most will wait for you. After all, that's part of what you are paying for with a "private" tour.

 

Our June Med/Greece cruise on Vision, the line for tender tickets started at 6am.

[peacefrogdog]

16 minutes ago, aring75 said:

 

Our June Med/Greece cruise on Vision, the line for tender tickets started at 6am.

 

Ugh... that is what I'm hoping to avoid. I've read about this challenge for tendering to Santorini.  Any other ports where this is a similar issue? 

[aring75]

1 minute ago, peacefrogdog said:

 

Ugh... that is what I'm hoping to avoid. I've read about this challenge for tendering to Santorini.  Any other ports where this is a similar issue? 

 

I will say that we had the Key and didn't wait in line at all. They gave us "Priority Tender" tickets and we just went down when we were ready. We actually made it onto the first tender. It was nice not having to wait in line for tickets. I don't think the Key is worth the price in many respects, but that morning I was very happy we had it.

 

Because of the Key, we also had priority disembarkation at every other port too. Not just the ones where the ship was running tenders. Just FYI.

 

 

[Bizzie07]

We did the RCCL excursion in Santorini and it worked great.  We were first off on a special tender which took us down the coast to where a bus was waiting to take us up to Oia.  We were probably one of the first groups there so we got lots of good photos before the crowds arrived.  The first time we tendered at Kotor was a bit of a disaster.  It was a lovely day but there was a swell which meant they had to stop tendering at times and wait till it improved.  It took us a few hours to get off.

[livylotte]

I think it does depend on the ship - the bigger the ship the bigger the queue.  And some ships are more organised than others.

 

On Brilliance for Santorini we were given numbered tickets which we got from Guest Services the day before.  We were also able to buy cable tickets in advance too. We had no problem getting off and there were no queues for tender or cable.  Getting back on board we boarded early to avoid the queue.  Again no waiting. 

 

The above worked well for us.  We weren't first tender off ship but we were fairly early as I wanted to avoid the crowds and the cable queue.  If you need to be off ship first then I suggest either The Key,  book a suite or be prepared to set your alarm and get in the queue.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by livylotte

[Norwich Cruiser]

8 hours ago, little britain said:

Oasis class never tender!

 

Kotor, Montenegro is a tender port - every time I have just strolled straight onto the tender. No need for a tour there - a beautiful little walled city, and if you are energetic there is a large hill that you can climb for the view.

 

 

Should you wish to venture further afield to experience the true beauty  of Montenegro I can highly recommend 

Tours by Milo.

[little britain]

2 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Should you wish to venture further afield to experience the true beauty  of Montenegro I can highly recommend 

Tours by Milo.

Yes,having been to Kotor several times we used Milo on one occasion to go to Budvar and to see Sveti Stephan.  Montenegro is beautiful. 

[Norwich Cruiser]

39 minutes ago, little britain said:

Yes,having been to Kotor several times we used Milo on one occasion to go to Budvar and to see Sveti Stephan.  Montenegro is beautiful. 

Plus the sail in and out are fantastic.

[George C]

9 hours ago, little britain said:

Oasis class never tender!

 

Kotor, Montenegro is a tender port - every time I have just strolled straight onto the tender. No need for a tour there - a beautiful little walled city, and if you are energetic there is a large hill that you can climb for the view.

 

 

I knew nothing about Kotor before our cruise, just loved walking around the walled city , main church was celebrating 850 year , people ware super friendly , one of the real highlights of our cruise.

[Calbeeman]

3 minutes ago, George C said:

I knew nothing about Kotor before our cruise, just loved walking around the walled city , main church was celebrating 850 year , people ware super friendly , one of the real highlights of our cruise.

If you enjoy thrills ride a tour bus up the mountain from the town. About wide enough for one vehicle and always an adventure when two vehicles meet. Wish I had gotten liquored up before heading ashore 😀

[lovemylab]

8 hours ago, peacefrogdog said:

 

Ugh... that is what I'm hoping to avoid. I've read about this challenge for tendering to Santorini.  Any other ports where this is a similar issue? 

For Santorini, we booked a ships excursion to avoid queues.  We chose an excursion that visited a winery and then gave free time in Oia and Fira.  From Fira we were provided a ticket for the cable car and could make our way back to the ship when convenient for us.  The excursion was decently priced and I'd book it again in a heartbeat if I were to return.

[George C]

14 minutes ago, Calbeeman said:

If you enjoy thrills ride a tour bus up the mountain from the town. About wide enough for one vehicle and always an adventure when two vehicles meet. Wish I had gotten liquored up before heading ashore 😀

Can’t be worse than our many many tours in Jamaica where drivers going around mountain will just toot horn and not slow down. With driver smoking a funny cigarette 😁😁

[zooma]

20 hours ago, livylotte said:

We had no problem getting off and there were no queues for tender or cable.  Getting back on board we boarded early to avoid the queue.  Again no waiting. 

 

Do you recall approximately what time you headed back to the cable car to return to the ship?

[livylotte]

1 hour ago, zooma said:

 

Do you recall approximately what time you headed back to the cable car to return to the ship?

 

No I'm sorry I can't remember.  We were back on board before the masses - so I'm guessing it was probably at least an hour before last back on board time.

 

We were the only ship visiting Santorini that day which helped - it might be an idea to check if there are any other ships in port -   2 ships could double the amount of people waiting for the cable.

Edited August 3, 2019 by livylotte

[Cachecara]

We were on Jewel late May-early June to Mediterranean.  Itinerary Rome, Crete, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Athens, Naples, Rome. Tendered to Santorini with no issues at about 8:30am. We had a private tour which was much less than the similar tour RCI sponsored.  There were 5 cruise ships in port that day.  The cable car line at 2:30 pm was ridiculous.  Roughly 90 minutes. Tourists could have been shopping or dining and putting much needed $ back into the economy vs standing in line.  The cruise lines have reps monitoring and no one missed the ship