Last tender in Argostoli and Santorini

[njdad01]

Hi, I'm going to be on the NCL Jade in September going to Greece. I'm trying to coordinate a shore excursion from outside of NCL in Argostoli and Santorini. Both require transportation via tender to the ports in both cities. I was wondering, based on previous cruises to both, what time would the last tender be for both ports? Chatted with NCL and they indicated its decided onboard the ship, but indicated last tenders are 2 hours prior to departure. That doesn't seem right for a 15-20 min. trip. Anyone else have any ideas based on previous experience? Thanks.

[SummmerInKefalonia]

52 minutes ago, njdad01 said:

Hi, I'm going to be on the NCL Jade in September going to Greece. I'm trying to coordinate a shore excursion from outside of NCL in Argostoli and Santorini. Both require transportation via tender to the ports in both cities. I was wondering, based on previous cruises to both, what time would the last tender be for both ports? Chatted with NCL and they indicated its decided onboard the ship, but indicated last tenders are 2 hours prior to departure. That doesn't seem right for a 15-20 min. trip. Anyone else have any ideas based on previous experience? Thanks.

Which date are you travelling? Maybe you are docked in Argostoli. Last tender here is half an hour prior to departure.

[MeHeartCruising]

As mentioned above, last tenders are usually 30 minutes prior to scheduled departure.  At least on pretty much all ships I’ve been on.  But yes, it is possible that a particular sailing might specify their own timing for some reason. 
 

In Santorini, be reminded that you must get yourself down to the tender location from the town up above on the caldera.  If you intend on taking the cable car down, there can be a lengthy line to wait through.   Especially if there are more than one ship departing near the same time.  I’ve read reports of 30 minutes or more in line.  You can also walk down the switchback path used by the donkeys if you want.  That takes about 15 minutes or so to walk down.  I guess you can also ride a donkey down.  Not sure how long that takes.  I walked down and it wasn’t bad, but some people cringe at the thought of doing that. 
 

My guess on that 2 hour guidance is that your agent didn’t know the answer and tried to rely on something they read somewhere.  NCL has famously had similar wording on their website for years, but it refers to when you need to be on board at the original embarkation port.  Not port stops.  On the website, it is unclear that they are referring to the embarkation port only. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by MeHeartCruising

[njdad01]

58 minutes ago, SummmerInKefalonia said:

Which date are you travelling? Maybe you are docked in Argostoli. Last tender here is half an hour prior to departure.

Thanks. I was told there will be 1 other ship in port at that time and we will be anchored off of Argostoli requiring a tender to the dock.

[njdad01]

43 minutes ago, MeHeartCruising said:

As mentioned above, last tenders are usually 30 minutes prior to scheduled departure.  At least on pretty much all ships I’ve been on.  But yes, it is possible that a particular sailing might specify their own timing for some reason. 
 

In Santorini, be reminded that you must get yourself down to the tender location from the town up above on the caldera.  If you intend on taking the cable car down, there can be a lengthy line to wait through.   Especially if there are more than one ship departing near the same time.  I’ve read reports of 30 minutes or more in line.  You can also walk down the switchback path used by the donkeys if you want.  That takes about 15 minutes or so to walk down.  I guess you can also ride a donkey down.  Not sure how long that takes.  I walked down and it wasn’t bad, but some people cringe at the thought of doing that. 
 

My guess on that 2 hour guidance is that your agent didn’t know the answer and tried to rely on something they read somewhere.  NCL has famously had similar wording on their website for years, but it refers to when you need to be on board at the original embarkation port.  Not port stops.  On the website, it is unclear that they are referring to the embarkation port only. 

Thanks for the info. I'm looking into a boat cruise in Santorini that leaves and returns directly to the Fira old port. That way I can avoid the cable car and just go directly to the tender, saving us some time. As for the 2 hour quote, you are right. I read that we need to be onboard at embarkation 2 hours prior to departure. Don't think the agent really wanted to do any research or just didn't understand my question.

[MeHeartCruising]

1 hour ago, njdad01 said:

Thanks for the info. I'm looking into a boat cruise in Santorini that leaves and returns directly to the Fira old port. That way I can avoid the cable car and just go directly to the tender, saving us some time. As for the 2 hour quote, you are right. I read that we need to be onboard at embarkation 2 hours prior to departure. Don't think the agent really wanted to do any research or just didn't understand my question.

Ignore this.  I didn’t realize what was the old port. 

Edited July 30, 2022 by MeHeartCruising

[SummmerInKefalonia]

9 hours ago, njdad01 said:

Thanks. I was told there will be 1 other ship in port at that time and we will be anchored off of Argostoli requiring a tender to the dock.

Which date? I have the program in front of me.If you are visiting 15 September you will be docked.

[pdmlynek]

20 hours ago, njdad01 said:

Hi, I'm going to be on the NCL Jade in September going to Greece. I'm trying to coordinate a shore excursion from outside of NCL in Argostoli and Santorini. Both require transportation via tender to the ports in both cities. I was wondering, based on previous cruises to both, what time would the last tender be for both ports?

...

Based on my experience, the last "official tender" leaves 30 minutes prior to the departure time.  This is in line with what @SummmerInKefalonia and @MeHeartCruising wrote.  A couple of notes:

 

(1) In my experience, the last official tender leaves about a minute late.  Not 5 minutes, mind you, but if you are 45 to 60 seconds late, you are still fine.

 

(2) At the Santorini stop this June, an NCL crew member(s) who loaded up the last official tender does not return to the ship until the security personnel relayed the accounting of the passengers.  After that, the crew member took a small tender to Jade.  The small tender had room for about dozen pax, which included some of my family members.  😒 

 

The small tender left about 10 minutes after the last official tender, or about 20 min before departure time. I have no idea if waiting until the last passenger is on board before the crew member is returned by a small tender is a standard procedure, but to me such a procedure would make sense.   

Edited July 30, 2022 by pdmlynek

[John Bull]

My experience of tendering anywhere, including Santorini, has always been that the last tender leaves 60 minutes before the advertised sailing time, though clearly others have experienced a 30-minute deadline. Two hours is a nonsense except perhaps for exceptionally long tender rides

That's the time you have to be at the tender pier, not on the ship. And if the line for the tender hasn't been mopped-up by last-tender time, they will continue running until it's cleared. I've even seen passengers sheepishly joining the back of the tender line after last-tender time - but they're seriously pushing their luck.😮

Last Tender Time will be in the previous evening's ship's newsletter, and displayed at the gangway.

(that's ship's time, which isn't always the same as local time, but I don't think the times will be different at those ports.)

 

Yes, passengers will be clicked aboard, the crew will know if/who/how many are unaccounted for. Whether the ship will wait for those who've not arrived on time will depend on a number of factors, including availability of a pilot, sea & tide conditions, minimum time required to get to the next port, etc. 

 

Of no concern to those who return to the tender pier by boat, but the line for the cablecar can stretch for up to a couple of hours, and the time taken to walk down the zig-zag path is about 25 -30 minutes (not unsafe or arduous)

 

JB 🙂

[pdmlynek]

10 hours ago, John Bull said:

My experience of tendering anywhere, including Santorini, has always been that the last tender leaves 60 minutes before the advertised sailing time, though clearly others have experienced a 30-minute deadline. Two hours is a nonsense except perhaps for exceptionally long tender rides

...

Good post from @John Bull, as always.

 

A minor point, or rather, a question, on the above snippet. Does the period of the last tender to departure time depend on the time of day?  The reason why suspect that it does is that late evening  departure passengers do not need to be herded as strenuously on board as for a midafternoon departures. I imagine that many passengers would think of the tendering like this:

 

For a midafternoon (say 16:00) departure: "we'll need to hurry to see the island, and we'll just make the very last tender."

 

For a late evening (say 22:00) departure: "we'll see the island during the day, then take a tender back late afternoon, shower, get dressed for dinner, and by 22:00 we'll be enjoying a show."

 

In order for the NCL crew to obviate clearing hundreds of people close to the departure time, NCL tells pax that the last tender is 60 min prior to the departure time.  They know that it will take 20 to 30 extra minutes to load up everyone. 

 

So I am interested: dear reader, when was your departure time, and when was the last tender?

 

 

 

[pdmlynek]

11 hours ago, John Bull said:

...

Of no concern to those who return to the tender pier by boat, but the line for the cablecar can stretch for up to a couple of hours, and the time taken to walk down the zig-zag path is about 25 -30 minutes (not unsafe or arduous)

...

 

NCL (and I suspect other cruise lines as well) advises passengers not to walk up or down the "donkey path".  I suspect that NCL does not want to be held liable if someone gets hurt on the path, by slipping or getting kicked by a donkey.  

 

But also, I suspect that NCL does not want passengers walking down the path, stepping accidently into donkey poop or donkey pee, and tracking it all over the ships.

 

And I agree with the time.  The path can be walked down easily in 25-30 minutes, even with stops to take sunset pictures.  About 15 minutes, if you walk purposefully and don't have mobility problems.