Tendering in Belize from Ex OS

[MNice99]

Hi we are starting to plan for out up coming cruise one stop will be Belize and we want to do a snorkeling tour.   Reading about Belize it's about a 20-30 minute ride to shore.  That means it's at least an hour for the tender boat to drive to port unload passengers and get back to ship for the next group.   

 

My question is:  Will they have enough tenders lined up to clear the ship, or will there be a point that all tenders are still heading to shore and we will have to wait until they unload drive back to the ship and get back for the next group? 

 

Those of you who have done it.  How long of a wait time did you have?  Do we need to get up super early and get in line early to get one of the first tenders or will it go fairly fast?  About how many people fit on a tender? 

 

Then follow up question on the return how often to they run? is an every XX minutes thing or will they just sit in port until the boat is full, then head back to the ship?    

[firefly333]

I think tenders run every 30 minutes.

 

Belize tenders are unusual in that they take hc scooters etc. Not every tender is set up, but many are.

 

I've had to wait or take the last seat, upper deck of the tender. It's very windy going top speed. Longest tender in the world. No one here can promise you can be on the first tender leaving for the day and they do take a while to fill. 

[Cigar King]

Remember, the folks with status AND/OR a tour bought through Royal will have priority.

[cruisegirl1]

4 minutes ago, Cigar King said:

Remember, the folks with status AND/OR a tour bought through Royal will have priority.

By status are you meaning suites? Lately I've been advised that Pinnacle (or other C&A levels) have no tender priority status.  This past September we had a tender port in Greenland and  no P priority tendering. 

Do Key have priority tendering? 

M

[firefly333]

51 minutes ago, Cigar King said:

Remember, the folks with status AND/OR a tour bought through Royal will have priority.

Didnt happen for me and I bought my tour from rcl. 

 

Didnt in caymans either. Our meeting place was a tent in the port is why they said. Only if you were leaving on a tour from the ship, not from the shore. 

 

I wasnt happy with rcl to be told we dont get priority on tenders. It's not a perk on rcl. It is on carnival but not royal. 

[Cigar King]

I've never had problems with the tenders, but, that being said, we're almost always in a suite.  I think what this thread makes clear though is the tendering process is less than ideal.  True, it does allow us to access areas we might not be able to get the ship into but that comes at a cost to the passengers.

 

[Septemberbride07]

When we were in Belize, we asked the Loyalty Ambassador about tender tickets. She was able to get our group of 6 on tender 2 without a tour or status(we were lowly Emerald at the time). It doesn't hurt to ask.