sitka tender delays

[Travel-Bug]

A friend recently was on Dawn Princess and had a 2 1/2 hour wait to get off the ship in Sitka due to the slowness of the tenders. Is this always a problem? His group did not have a tour scheduled, as I don't in August, which delayed him getting ashore. He suggested I find out the info the night before and make sure to be in one of the early groups. Any suggestions? Thanks

[Jennifer31]

Hi

The people who have tours early will get off first to go to their tours. Then the rest can get off.

I leave in Sep and scheduled a tour at 8:30 am so I will be tendered off first.

Jennifer

[Travel-Bug]

Thanks Jennifer for the info. I guess we will wait it out with the rest of the passengers without tours. I was really excited to just walk around Sitka. Hmmm... wonder if there is an inexpensive early morning tour......

[Krazy Kruizers]

[B]We have been to Sitka several times and never had to wait that long to get off the ship.[/B]

[mii]

[B]This last May my friends were on the Dawn and one stop was Sitka. They were also told that there would be a very long wait. Come to find out they had only put one tender in the water so after many passengers were waiting and waiting they then put two more tenders in service. I have no idea why but that was what they were told.[/B]

[B]Marilyn[/B]

[mtd1]

[quote name='Jennifer31']Hi

The people who have tours early will get off first to go to their tours. Then the rest can get off.

I leave in Sep and scheduled a tour at 8:30 am so I will be tendered off first.

Jennifer[/quote]
Is this only if you schedule a tour thru the ship?

[Jennifer31]

Hi

Yep. It is through the ship. I was originally going to go independent and decided against it because I didn't want to go on a small boat and risk losing my breakfast. So, I opt to go through the ship tour which takes place on a larger boat.

Jennifer

[Cleocruiser]

We had no trouble at all last week on the Serenade. We booked an independent excursion at 8:30 with Captain Davey! IT WAS THE BEST! We were afraid that we wouldn't make it, but we had no trouble at all. We found out the day before--where to go to get out tender tickets. We lined up about 20 minutes early--got out tickets and went straight to the deck assigned. We ended up on the tender with some of the crew going over to man the tender station. Sea lions were waiting to greet us and we made our excursion with time to spare! Go independent!!! [URL="http://www.puffinsandwhales.com"]www.puffinsandwhales.com[/URL] We had an outstanding time. He will go where you want and stay as long as you want. The whales were putting on quite a show for us.

[Jennifer31]

Hi

That is good to know about tendering with Serenade. I will be on there in Sept.

I have seriously thought about going with Davey, but there was an concern about my back problems and being on a small boat in Sept. Davey told me that it could be rough and bumpy. I also couldn't see the benefit of paying more to go independent on a small boat when I couldn't see puffins in Sept.

Did you go over to the island and get pictures of the Puffins. Can you post them.

Thanks
jennifer

[Budget Queen]

Some general information for tendering- it pays to be ready to go 30 min. prior to the posted morning time. I have never had a problem making one of the first tenders, and never book ship excursions. Problems with tendering come when you have a later port time, when everyone is up and wants off the ship. This probably should be a consideration with ship decisions when booking. I've seen hours of waits for tenders, many times.

[Travel-Bug]

[quote name='Budget Queen']Some general information for tendering- it pays to be ready to go 30 min. prior to the posted morning time. I have never had a problem making one of the first tenders, and never book ship excursions. Problems with tendering come when you have a later port time, when everyone is up and wants off the ship. This probably should be a consideration with ship decisions when booking. I've seen hours of waits for tenders, many times.[/quote]

Budget Queen- We come into Sitka on the Dawn Princess at 12pm. It sounds like this could be a problem. I will plan on heading down early and try to secure an early ticket off to maximize my time at Sitka even though I have no planned tours scheduled.

[Budget Queen]

[quote name='Travel-Bug']Budget Queen- We come into Sitka on the Dawn Princess at 12pm. It sounds like this could be a problem. I will plan on heading down early and try to secure an early ticket off to maximize my time at Sitka even though I have no planned tours scheduled.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it certainly can be a problem with this timeframe.

[luvavacation]

Its not just the Dawn Princess, apparently! We were on the Carnival Spirit, and tendering was ridiculously slow! We chalked it up to Carnival being disorganized, but apparently it isn't just Carnival with this problem.

I can't remember when tendering was supposed to start, but before you can get off, you have to have a tender ticket. Imagine almost 2500 people getting in a line that is manned by only one person, all wanting a tender ticket! We did not get in line until 1 hour after the tenders started, and still there was a line from one end of the ship to the other just for the tickets! As we were nearing the one guy passing out tender tickets, he started talking to someone on the walkie-talkie, telling them the line was longer than he had ever seen it, and they needed to add more boats. At that time, there were only two boats running. It took us almost 2 hours from the time we got in line to the time our tender ticket was called before we actually got on a tender.

Imagine our surprise when the tender, which is one of the lifeboats, pulled up, let passengers on, and pulled away with only 60 people on a boat the holds 150! There was plenty of room for more people, I know on the way back to the ship from Sitka we were packed in, I don't know why on the way out they did not do the same. This could be one reason why the tendering takes forever, someone is not managing the tendering process very well.