Time to debark for excursion @ Tendered port

[LindaKE]

We'll be going to Bar Harbor, St. John, Halifax, Sydney, and LaBaie in October. I think the only port that is tendered is Bar Harbor where we are doing the Acadia National Forest excursion. Will the excursion meet on board so that we all tender in at the same time? Or will we need to tender in ourselves then meet the excursion? If the latter, how much extra time should we allow to insure that we get onto the tender in time to meet the group? The tour starts at 10:00 am.

[Don Haynes]

Attempt to leave the ship on the earliest tender, so wake up early and grab an early tender ticket. The people who run the independent shore excursions know the system, ships excursions are off the ship first, suite passengers second, then the tender tickets. They track the tenders, and if the ship is held up by customs, will wait for the proper tenders. There is no sense whatsoever to embark on the excursion when none of the independent excursion passengers have arrived on any tender yet.

 

On the other hand if you are lazy, sleep in, and have a late tender ticket instead of an early one for an early excursion, they may leave without you. If you do your part and get an early tender ticket, you should be okay, they will wait for a while, but not all day or an hour.

 

It normally takes about a half hour for customs to clear the ship, and usually within an hour the early tenders have delivered their passengers. Its not in the interests of the shore excursions to leave booked customers behind.