Top 10 Tips for Surviving Tender Ports
The latter will need you to tender to shore from your ship and if you are new to the industry, that basically means you have to board a lifeboat to get from ship to shore.
The thought of that can be a scary one for many and if you are in a location known for rough seas, it can be a daunting task.
For me, well I actually quite like tender ports and if you are in the right part of the world, somewhere such as the Norwegian Fjords, it’s almost like a bonus fjord boat ride excursion.
I have done quite a few tender ports over the years and have learnt a few things along the way that if you are in the hate camp for tender ports, may just make it a better experience, or at least something that you don’t avoid opening up more ports and more opportunities.
Our Top 10 Tips for Surviving Tender Ports
Give Space for Private Excursions
This is a lesson I nearly learned the hard way as it came the first time I had to tender to shore. It that circumstance, it probably wasn’t the best option to choose to book an excursion directly with a local company set to depart not long after arrival.
We arrived a bit late, had some delays in getting clearance and that led to a lot of worry for my wife as we waited in the atrium, waiting for the announcement that our tender number is ready to depart.
Thankfully, we had managed to get one of the earliest tenders ashore and there were a few on our tender also booked onto our excursion.
That meant the minibus waited for us and as soon as we all boarded, we were off but if we hadn’t gotten an early tender number, I am not sure what would have happened.
Now whenever I book a private excursion at a tender port, I always give plenty of leeway for getting to the pick up point and from arriving back and the last tender time and you probably should as well.
Don’t Leave Coming Back Until The Last Minute
It is always tempting to maximise the amount of time you are on shore, and why wouldn’t you as the places you get to visit is part of what makes cruising so great.
If you are in a city centre cruise port, dock right next to the beach or you are in a small village such as what you’d find in the Norwegian fjords, that will often be no problem and to be honest, preferable as you can walk back to the ship with little chance of a hold up.
When tendering, that goes out of the window as there are a lot more variables at play and most of them are out of your control.
In the worst case scenery, the weather can change and the ship has to stop the tender process, so make sure you are at least within sight or the tender pier an hour before the last tender and in a best case scenario, you don’t want to be the last back to the tender pick up, so make sure you are there at least 15 minutes before the last tender is due to head back.
No When and Where to Get Boarding Tickets
After around an hour or so after the first tender leaves, the ship will announce that tenders are open and you can just head down to get on one, before that, you will often need to go to a bar or a lounge, where you are given a number.
That will be the number of the tender boat you board, so the lower the number, the sooner you will go ashore. This is your ticket to go ashore and can be incredibly important, especially if you are booked on a private excursion- excursion booked through the line get their own tender boats to go ashore on.
To make sure you get ashore when you need to be ashore, make sure that you know where you need to be to get your tender ticket and what time it opens up, as it will be before the time you are set to arrive.
Check Priority Access
If you are on a huge ship or only have short time ashore, the tender process can be chaotic and even following the points in this list cannot always stop that.
Something that can do is if you have priority access to tenders and this can-do everything from giving you access to tenders not open to anybody else or to jump the queue and board a tender when you want.
It really does depend on the line, the ship and why you have priority access as to what you get in return, but if you are sailing in a suite or have a high ranking in the lines loyalty programme, it will likely be worth checking if you get a benefit.
Head Up On The Roof
A big part of the problem many people have with tendering is that you feel catastrophic on a life boat, or you feel unwell due to not been able to see where you are going or the fact you are on a lifeboat makes you feel you are in a disaster movie ready to sing my heart will go on!
They all make sense and whilst I don’t personally have any issue been on a tender boat, something I do always try to do is to head up on to the roof.
It is often much quieter up there, so you get more space and maybe even some leg room as life boats aren’t exactly designed for comfort.
If you are in the right port, it also feels more like a boat ride rather than a transport shuttle and can even add to your day ashore.
Inform Staff If You Have Mobility Issues
It can be tricky to get onto a tender boat, especially if rough weather and especially when you feel the pressure of a line of other cruisers behind you.
If you have mobility issues and just need a little bit more time to get a tender boat, make sure you let the staff involved know and they will likely either allow you to board first in your group number or be there to help you get onboard and keep the baying masses behind you at bay.
Go With Flow
Yes tendering can sometimes be stressful, yes it can often be the case that it doesn’t go to how you hope it will and yes it can lead to delays affecting your day but it doesn’t have to ruin things for you.
No matter what the process throughs at you, just relax and take it in your stride- you are on holiday, enjoy it!
Fill All Space
This is a pet peeve of mine and is at its basic form just polite, but it can make or break the day for your fellow passenger.
The tenders are designed to carry a certain number of passengers, and the ship will allow that many people through at any given point.
That is based on all of the seats been used but as most are just bench like seating, so many will spread out and take 2-3 seats up for themselves.
Whilst that may mean you have a bit more space, or you don’t get stuck in that awkward position of sitting staring at someone the whole ride in, it will likely mean somebody misses out on getting onboard.
In having to wait 10-15 minutes for the next shuttle, they may miss any connections they had organised onshore and there whole day get ruined.
In a play it forward way of viewing things, by you doing it the right way next time, somebody else may do it the time after and that maybe the difference between you getting onboard a tender or not.
Wear Decent Shoes
When boarding a tender, you usually stand on a metal platform over the sea, which can and will get wet and that will make it slippy.
You then have to get onto a tender boat where the entrance will usually have lots of metal around it and again that can get slippy.
Then you have lots of sticky out bits, sharps bit and point bits all waiting for you to stub your toe on them, so what you really want to be wearing is something such as trainers but what you often find is people wearing flip flops or sandals and often with hilarious, sorry unfortunate, consequences.
Keep Electronics and Important Documents Safe
Tender boats move around and therefore you are likely to move around and in especially rough conditions, water can splash in and you may get a soaking-oops.
Even if thing aren’t too bad, you may stumble or get jolted unexpectedly so you really don’t want to be holding an expensive phone or id document, in those ports where you need your passport.
At best it may get a bit damp, at worst, it may end up at the bottom of the sea, which may seem like a exaggeration but I was once on a tender where a passenger next to me had there passport in there back jean pocket (not the best idea), we hit a wave hard and it went flying.
Thankfully, it remained on the tender but as we were on the roof at the time, it could have been so much worse.
