Tendering at Kona

[50thBdayCruise]

We're leaving for Hawaii in four weeks (yay!) and my husband came up with two new questions I couldn't answer.

 

1. We don't understand how tendering works. Does the shuttle boat (or whatever it's called) go back and forth continuously while we are in port, or only at specific times?

 

2. We have plans to take the dolphin/snorkel/catamaran tour at Kona. We'll be finished about 1 p.m. but don't have to be back on board the ship until around 5:00, so we were going to walk around town, shop, etc. Should we bring clothes to change into after the snorkeling trip, to avoid having to go back and forth to the ship, or is that not a big deal? If we do take clothes with us, will there be a place somewhere where we can change?

[CRUZBUDS]

Tendering is a necessary evil in ports without docking facilites or not enough capacity.

 

Tendering is done by the ships lifeboats. Some ports these are supplemented by local tenders.

 

In the morning for the first several hours the tenders are very busy and you must get tender tickets with numbers so the ship can control the number of people lineing up to go ashore. After the rush is over tender tickets are no longer needed.

 

Returning to the ship is reverse. At the end of the day expect lines to get back on the ship.

 

You probably want to carry what you need for the the day. In Hawaii, you'll go through security on the dock and again when you get on board. The ride it's self is only 10 minutes or so, but the loading and unloading of the tenders can take a lot of time. This is especially true if the sea are not calm.

 

Once in Lahiani, one of our table mates was much smarter than us. The line was very, very long and moved very slowing. It was hot and we were tired. Our tablemate was in a bar across the street having a few cold ones. There were several crew menbers in the bar. He just watched them and when they left he went with them and caught the last tender with no waiting.

 

Aloha!

[suziehmkr]

We're leaving for Hawaii in four weeks (yay!) and my husband came up with two new questions I couldn't answer.

 

1. We don't understand how tendering works. Does the shuttle boat (or whatever it's called) go back and forth continuously while we are in port, or only at specific times?

 

2. If we do take clothes with us, will there be a place somewhere where we can change?

 

Tendering is a pain... but unavoidable sometimes. We actually missed Kona on our cruise because of the surf. But I understand that doesn't happen very often.

 

There is a restroom right at the little beach at the King K hotel that you can change at... so that won't be a problem at all. Enjoy Kona. We just spend 8 days there and had a wonderful time!

[The 4 of Us]

I have a similar question. We are also doing the same excursion and was wondering if there was anything to do within walking distance of the tender pier. We want to make the most of our time on the island but do not think it is worth the hassle to rent a car for a few hours in the afternoon after our excursion. Is there a nice beach that we can walk to?