Viking Ocean - Saturn Boarding

[Porcupine123]

 

2 Things - On the Iconic Western Mediterranean cruise, which port is a tender port? I need to confirm that it is Villefrance-sur-mer for Monaco. Also do we embark/disembark on Deck one?  It sure looks like it.

[formernuke]

Take a look at your guest statement. It will show if it is a tender port or not (will be a red anchor to the right). Embark/debark location varies depending on the port/facilities. Can be deck 1 or 2, for example.

[Jim Avery]

What difference does it make??

[OneSixtyToOne]

Our cruise last April listed Monaco as a tender port, however we docked when we arrived. You can ver be 100% sure.

[kcpvwill]

Our Monaco stop this year was supposed to be a tender (red anchor shown on invoice) as well, but in the end we docked.  
 

A previous Viking cruise a few years ago was just the opposite, should have been port, turned out to be tender.  Often don’t know till you get there. 

[CannotSwim]

On 11/29/2023 at 6:13 PM, Jim Avery said:

What difference does it make??

With a Tender Port you are transferred to shore in a Tender Boat. Instead of everyone walking down the gangplank onto the shore you wait for boats. A boat pulls up, a couple hundred people load, that boat pulls out and another takes it's place (hopefully immediately). When the boat lands the passengers unload. Returning to the ship you have the same wait for tender boats.

 

The result is it takes much longer to get people on and off the boat, and the time to shore is longer.

 

A related issue is whether you leave the ship at city center or far away. The best case is a dock near  the city center. The worst case is a tender boat ride to a dock far from the city so you need to take a shuttle bus into the city. We have seen all four combinations.

 

(Part of the reason we like River cruises better is the boats dock near the city center much more often.)

[Jim Avery]

24 minutes ago, CannotSwim said:

With a Tender Port you are transferred to shore in a Tender Boat. Instead of everyone walking down the gangplank onto the shore you wait for boats. A boat pulls up, a couple hundred people load, that boat pulls out and another takes it's place (hopefully immediately). When the boat lands the passengers unload. Returning to the ship you have the same wait for tender boats.

 

The result is it takes much longer to get people on and off the boat, and the time to shore is longer.

 

A related issue is whether you leave the ship at city center or far away. The best case is a dock near  the city center. The worst case is a tender boat ride to a dock far from the city so you need to take a shuttle bus into the city. We have seen all four combinations.

 

(Part of the reason we like River cruises better is the boats dock near the city center much more often.)

Wow, I didn't know that.  I think I will cancel my world cruise because of too many tendering ports...

[CurlerRob]

46 minutes ago, CannotSwim said:

With a Tender Port you are transferred to shore in a Tender Boat. Instead of everyone walking down the gangplank onto the shore you wait for boats. A boat pulls up, a couple hundred people load, that boat pulls out and another takes it's place (hopefully immediately). When the boat lands the passengers unload. Returning to the ship you have the same wait for tender boats.

 

The result is it takes much longer to get people on and off the boat, and the time to shore is longer.

 

A related issue is whether you leave the ship at city center or far away. The best case is a dock near  the city center. The worst case is a tender boat ride to a dock far from the city so you need to take a shuttle bus into the city. We have seen all four combinations.

 

(Part of the reason we like River cruises better is the boats dock near the city center much more often.)

 

Sometimes it's worth looking at the number of posts listed by a poster, prior to assuming they are unfamiliar with cruising ...

 

PS - Viking tenders are nowhere near a couple of hundred people, more like 50-75 per. 🍺🥌

[CannotSwim]

19 minutes ago, CurlerRob said:

 

Sometimes it's worth looking at the number of posts listed by a poster, prior to assuming they are unfamiliar with cruising ...

 

PS - Viking tenders are nowhere near a couple of hundred people, more like 50-75 per. 🍺🥌

I don't know where you got the "50-75" estimate. On a recent cruise I looked at the official seating chart for the Viking tender boat we were using. The official capacity for tender seating was over 200 and the seating for use as a life boat was higher.

 

And I'm not the only person to give this number.

 

Viking might sometimes hire other boats from the port to help with tendering but I haven't seen it.

[CurlerRob]

6 minutes ago, CannotSwim said:

I don't know where you got the "50-75" estimate. On a recent cruise I looked at the official seating chart for the Viking tender boat we were using. The official capacity for tender seating was over 200 and the seating for use as a life boat was higher.

 

Viking might sometimes hire other boats from the port to help with tendering but I haven't seen it.

 

My comment was from personal experience. I've never seen a tender filled anywhere near to rated tendering capacity. Loading to lifeboat capacity or even near it, would be a nightmare to be avoided. YMMV. 🍺🥌

[CannotSwim]

15 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Wow, I didn't know that.  I think I will cancel my world cruise because of too many tendering ports...

Some people reacted with a ha-ha, but I can't tell if you are serious or not.

 

Tender ports can be a bit of a pain (and any port can turn into a tender port, or be cancelled, due to bad weather), but we still think cruising to tender ports is the best way to get to those ports. The tender isn't as bad as packing and unpacking for each port, which is the alternative to staying on a cruise ship.

[CannotSwim]

14 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

 

My comment was from personal experience. I've never seen a tender filled anywhere near to rated tendering capacity. Loading to lifeboat capacity or even near it, would be a nightmare to be avoided. YMMV. 🍺🥌

In our experience the first tenders of the day and the tender for the last scheduled return to the ship tend to be annoyingly packed. We have seen lighter loads in-between, but we see those less often as we tend to spend time ashore.

[CurlerRob]

4 hours ago, CannotSwim said:

In our experience the first tenders of the day and the tender for the last scheduled return to the ship tend to be annoyingly packed. We have seen lighter loads in-between, but we see those less often as we tend to spend time ashore.

 

Valid points. We don't mind giving up a bit of time on either end to avoid that crush, but shorex times  sometimes dictate otherwise. 🍺🥌

[CDNPolar]

I spent 10 days in Monaco overlooking the harbour and the cruise ship port.  I saw Viking in the harbour several times.  Sometimes they were anchored and sometimes they were at the dock.  I believe that there is only room for one ship to dock in Monaco, so it is luck of the draw.