Tendering

JoeyandDavid · April 9, 2009

While on a cruise there is a distinct possibilty that you may have to tender to shore (tendering is a process where the ship anchors out at sea and then you go ashore using smaller boats) The ride tends to be choppy and some pax prefer to stay on board rather than take the tender ashore ..

What about you?

Would tendering into a port of call stop you from going ashore?

mercedes · April 9, 2009

Not at all. We did it in Hawaii and it was not a problem.

deb1220 · April 9, 2009

It doesn't bother me. The only unpleasant experience we had was taking a ferry from Cozumel to the mainland for an excursion once. It was so choppy and rough that it was the first time in my (cruising) life I even came close to being seasick.

JoeyandDavid · April 9, 2009

I thought the tender water shuttle in Venice was way to choppy maybe it was the time of year...Late october/november

rogue · April 9, 2009

It wouldn't stop me from going ashore at all. Ships usually are at a port for quite a few hours, and there will be some part of the day when the tendering line gets lighter, so even if we've been there before, we'll tender in.

sailingrose · April 9, 2009

If I have to tender I will but with that said I always check the conditions before getting on a tender. If it's too choppy and it's somewhere we've been already then we will stay on the ship.

One cruise we went to Grand Cayman and saw how choppy it was so we stayed on board.......glad we did, the weather turned uglier sooner then the captain predicted and we couldn't get the passengers back on the ship. We tried using the Liberty of the Seas to block the waves but no help. We had to go to the other side of the island and pick up our missing passengers. There were close to 1000 still stuck in Grand Caymen including the Cruise Director!

Joanandjoe · April 9, 2009

Tendering won't stop us from gong ashore, unless the seas are rough; but it's still a drag not being able to come and go as you please. We had one port (Porquerolles, France) where I went back to shore for a second time after lunch, while Joan stayed on the ship because she though the seas were too choppy. She thought that my skin color when I got back to the ship was the loveliest shade of green she's ever seen.

We had another cruise that was almost all tenders. One or two on a trip isn't bad, but four or five was a bit much. We now refer to the cruise as "the tender trap".

DebbieandJerry · April 9, 2009

Okay, some I'm nuts. I LOVE TO TENDER! I love watching the tender go down in the morning and go up at the end of the day. I love the rocky, rolly (if that's even a word) of the tender. I love when the water sprays in and you get all wet. And the people's expressions are priceless.

The Mercury made it very clear (at least 2 days beforehand) which islands were tender islands and the level of difficulty with the tender and the ports. I think they did an excellent and extremely accurate job of depicting the situations. Sadly, a lot of the passengers chose to ignore the warnings and tried to make the steep step in Kona when it was a struggle for their frail bodies. So they had to just ride back and not stop in Kona. And, there were the few who fell and got hurt and spent the majority of the day getting stitched up.