Excursions outside of NCL - Tender Process?

[wmakayu]

I'm relatively new to cruising NCL and have a mediterranean cruise coming up and I have a few excursions booked not from the cruiseline. They have pretty early departures, what is the process if I need to be off the ship by a certain time to meet a group? Do I need to tell the cruiseline so I get an earlier tender ticket? and what about when a tender is not needed.

Thanks!

Edited August 8, 2022 by wmakayu

[BirdTravels]

24 minutes ago, wmakayu said:

I'm relatively new to cruising NCL and have a mediterranean cruise coming up and I have a few excursions booked not from the cruiseline. They have pretty early departures, what is the process if I need to be off the ship by a certain time to meet a group? Do I need to tell the cruiseline so I get an earlier tender ticket? and what about when a tender is not needed.

The cruise line does not care about your independently booked tours. If you miss your tour, that is your fault for booking a time which you could not meet.

 

Everyone wants to get ashore early. If you are on the Epic, there will be 4200 passengers lined up waiting to get off. If you decided to book a tour shortly after ship's arrival, you will need to be in line bright and early to get off (like way early). 

 

For tenders, when you embark the ship, use one of the touch screen kiosks in the elevator lobby to reserve your tender time. Remember, this is the time you are allowed to join the tender line. The line may be an hour long before getting on a tender if they are using lifeboats. And there is the time to physically get from the ship to shore.

 

Remember that there are priority guests who do not have to pull tender tickets. Suites guests will be moved to the front of the line along with some cruise line run shore excursions. Top tier cruisers also do not need tickets. And sometimes even top tier casino guests do not need tickets. 

 

Also remember that if you are on a ship like the Epic which is dual home ported in the med, there will be people who board 3-4 days before you that have already had an opportunity to pull tender times.  And some of the early times may be sold out. 

[bianks]

Wow so much has changed since I last cruised with NCL. I don’t recall needing to book a tender. 
so there’s booking screens available in lift areas. ? 

[KeithJenner]

The situation isn’t quite as bad as birdtravels post makes it sound.

 

Not everyone wants to get off the ship straight away. The Italian ports are early arrivals and many people aren’t in such a rush. The only hold up to get off the ship is scanning your keycard, so it really shouldn’t take long.

 

In Rome and Livorno there are restrictions getting in and out of the port, so make sure you know where you are meeting your guide. If it is outside the port then your biggest hold up could be getting on a shuttle bus. If they pick you up at the ship then you shouldn’t have too much trouble.

 

Tendering is more of an issue. I’m not sure on what ports the Epic is doing at the moment, but I would be wary of booking anything too early at places like Cannes because of the possible delays tendering. We always wait an hour or so before getting off and there is never a queue then, but I imagine it is slow before that.

[KarimaJ]

Just got off the Gem. In Kotor we had a 3:00 excursion, we docked at 2:00 and had no problem getting there on time. I got tender group #3 and the meetup location was very close to the port. 

In Santorini we did the NCL excursion to make it easier. Didn't want to wait for the cable car. Got off first at 2:00.

The tour companies keep an eye on the arrivals and may wait a bit if others are joining from your cruise. But I would leave enough time to get there.