Tender Nightmare in Lahaina

[JoRoy218]

On 4/22/2023 at 3:57 PM, travelin.sisters said:

at least you got to tender in Lahaina, for our cruise last month; the Crown tied up, dropped the tenders in the water...then the captain's voice in our stateroom saying it is too rough & we will have a sea day... 

same thing happened to us last year and missed Grand Cayman, which was the main reason we chose that itinerary. Capt. stated same, water too rough for the tenders, even sent out crew to check it out. It was a no go. 😕

[Guest ldtr]

6 hours ago, Belle said:

Yes, always long lines getting back unless you can time it right. I was

lucky last time there, found the right time, lucky because it was so hot.

People waiting 2 hours or more after I got on.

They were passing out water to people in line.

 

One reason why it took the Crown so long to get people off might be what

 happen on Royal, March & April (was on both) was Maui told the ship/captain

 they couldn't tender in till all the fishermen and other boats left port. Some

of them weren't in a hurry. The people who had tours were an hour or more late.

Some people just gave up and stayed on the ship. The all clear to get off ship the 

without tickets was way after 12 - 12"30

 

Work on the dock. What they did who knows? Nothing has changed helping the tenders.

Same spot, same everything.

The work which started in 2021 was supposed to add a new arm for the ferry. This should improve tender access.

 

[theloo]

On 4/22/2023 at 7:47 AM, LACruiser88 said:

I was hoping that their updating the docking marina last year would have helped this long standing issue with the water shuttles. We are on the July 6th Emerald Hawaii sailing and will plan accordingly.

We are on the same cruise 🙂  When you say plan accordingly, do you mean you will plan for a long wait, cut your onshore activities short, or ???  Is there a particular time that tours come back that we should try to avoid?  This is our first cruise to Hawaii and have just started planning our excursions.  

[LACruiser88]

4 minutes ago, theloo said:

We are on the same cruise 🙂  When you say plan accordingly, do you mean you will plan for a long wait, cut your onshore activities short, or ???  Is there a particular time that tours come back that we should try to avoid?  This is our first cruise to Hawaii and have just started planning our excursions.  

We will be traveling with our 9 yr old granddaughter and her parents 😄.  We are planning on going to Kaanapali so our granddaughter can use the beach.  If she is having a great time, we will stay there later and return to the water shuttle dock right before last call. 

 

They will not leave you behind if you arrive before their "last shuttle" time.

[theloo]

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

We will be traveling with our 9 yr old granddaughter and her parents 😄.  We are planning on going to Kaanapali so our granddaughter can use the beach.  If she is having a great time, we will stay there later and return to the water shuttle dock right before last call. 

 

They will not leave you behind if you arrive before their "last shuttle" time.

That sounds fun!  One of my kids wants to try snorkeling and Kananapali seems like a good place.  How do you get there for the day?  We have always driven around the islands, but car rentals might not be practical for one-day shore excursions.  

[LACruiser88]

27 minutes ago, theloo said:

That sounds fun!  One of my kids wants to try snorkeling and Kananapali seems like a good place.  How do you get there for the day?  We have always driven around the islands, but car rentals might not be practical for one-day shore excursions.  

We will try Uber.  If that is not available at the time, we will use the bus shuttle that is down the street from the water shuttle port.  In the past, the bus shuttle was $3 pp (???) round trip and it drops you off at Whaler's Village in Kaanapali.  The buses run every 20 min's or so.

[Centsless_Cruiser]

22 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

We will try Uber.  If that is not available at the time, we will use the bus shuttle that is down the street from the water shuttle port.  In the past, the bus shuttle was $3 pp (???) round trip and it drops you off at Whaler's Village in Kaanapali.  The buses run every 20 min's or so.

 

We normally take the bus (KA’ANAPALI ISLANDER RT#25) which leaves the back of the Wharf Center every hour on the Hour and Whaler's Village back on the Half-Hour.  The fare is $2 PP each way for Adults, $1 PP for Seniors, kids under 5 Free or you can ask the driver for an unlimited Day Pass $4 PP.

 

We almost always eat at Leilani's before leaving.

 

[Ronnieslady]

On 4/23/2023 at 4:47 PM, Thrak said:

It's not always like that. We've tendered there twice and both times it was "fairly" quick and easy.

I agree,  but not this time.  We are on this sailing too right now .  It was a nightmare.  For passengers in Suites & elite that had No priority, when at least getting a tender to Lahaina was nice & easy with those little tickets we used to get in an envelope in your suite on embarkation day.  I guess those days are over.  On the Crown they told us we had to wait in one of the dining rooms for a tender.   1st half of the dining room was full,  we were the 2nd half. After over an hour they were just about to have the 1st half get in the line that started on the 5th floor to wait to get to the 4th floor. After we heard that, I we just said forget it.  Passengers had a really hard time standing for that long.  There goes another perk down the drain.  Even for full suites,  they lump us with all the hundreds or thousands of elites.    Wish I would have known, I guess I need to read these boards more often.    We did have the forethought to realize if getting there was this much of a mess, what would it be like getting back to the ship.  ❓
     I had a talk with the Hotel manager on the ship in his office & he told me 2 of the tender boats were not working.   I said, but aren’t they the lifeboats ❓ oh they would have worked for that he said.  Sure doesn’t sound right to me.    Seems we are still getting a bunch of baloney (lies) .   The Loyalty Manager was feeding the dining room group( Elites & Full Suites ) a bunch of other lies .  Read the other reasons “cool aid” the other passengers (above) were being fed.   I’ve learned when the upper Managers are giving out different stories , it’s all bull s……..          I could tell he knew , I didn’t believe a word he said.  
Sorry I went on & on, but it’s very frustrating not being told ahead what to expect when things change . We sure missed not going to Lahaina, but will have other Hawaii cruises to look forward to.

[memoak]

13 minutes ago, Ronnieslady said:

I agree,  but not this time.  We are on this sailing too right now .  It was a nightmare.  For passengers in Suites & elite that had No priority, when at least getting a tender to Lahaina was nice & easy with those little tickets we used to get in an envelope in your suite on embarkation day.  I guess those days are over.  On the Crown they told us we had to wait in one of the dining rooms for a tender.   1st half of the dining room was full,  we were the 2nd half. After over an hour they were just about to have the 1st half get in the line that started on the 5th floor to wait to get to the 4th floor. After we heard that, I we just said forget it.  Passengers had a really hard time standing for that long.  There goes another perk down the drain.  Even for full suites,  they lump us with all the hundreds or thousands of elites.    Wish I would have known, I guess I need to read these boards more often.    We did have the forethought to realize if getting there was this much of a mess, what would it be like getting back to the ship.  ❓
     I had a talk with the Hotel manager on the ship in his office & he told me 2 of the tender boats were not working.   I said, but aren’t they the lifeboats ❓ oh they would have worked for that he said.  Sure doesn’t sound right to me.    Seems we are still getting a bunch of baloney (lies) .   The Loyalty Manager was feeding the dining room group( Elites & Full Suites ) a bunch of other lies .  Read the other reasons “cool aid” the other passengers (above) were being fed.   I’ve learned when the upper Managers are giving out different stories , it’s all bull s……..          I could tell he knew , I didn’t believe a word he said.  
Sorry I went on & on, but it’s very frustrating not being told ahead what to expect when things change . We sure missed not going to Lahaina, but will have other Hawaii cruises to look forward to.

Sounds like every tender back from Cabo. Don’t even bother anymore