Thread: Dock or tender?

When I saw what seemed like a great itinerary on princess.com I saw absolutely nothing about tendering in Santa Barbara. Great. I want to dock at every port.

Then I asked people on Cruise Critic what I can do before 10:00 on a Sunday because the Sapphire Princess docks at 7:00 a.m. One reply was, "Santa Barbara is a tender port." How do people know before they go there? If the cruise line will not indicate if an itinerary includes tendering at one port, choosing a cruise will be very difficult because I don't want to tender on my first cruise if at all possible.

You find out about these things by asking questions, just like you are doing now.

Also an internet search will bring up a lot of facts.

Here is a link that has info on some of the major ports.--> LINK

This is from the Santa Barbara Port listing from the above link:

2013 Santa Barbara Cruise Port
....snip..... All cruise ships must tender since there is no dock for the large cruise ships to tie up to.


Oh, the 2013 cruise schedule on the Princess web site has the time of arrival in Santa BArbara as 8:00am not 7:00am. Maybe the schedule is different from the one you are asking questions about on the other cruise forum since that one is for the 2012 roll call.

Where did you get 8:00 from? I double-checked and in 2013 it is 7:00 according to the Princess website.

But that is beside the point. I just wanted to know where I can get information about which ports require tendering because when a stop is so short I certainly do not want to tender at that port.

Originally Posted by Smart Traveler

Where did you get 8:00 from? I double-checked and in 2013 it is 7:00 according to the Princess website.

But that is beside the point. I just wanted to know where I can get information about which ports require tendering because when a stop is so short I certainly do not want to tender at that port.

I looked at the May 4th sailing instead of the 11th!
Sorry for the confusion.

Anyway, the link I posted has info on a lot of ports.

Tendering is not that bad , it can be fun , especially if it is just one port in your itinerary and you can sit outside on the tender.

Originally Posted by tonylinsdell

Tendering is not that bad , it can be fun , especially if it is just one port in your itinerary and you can sit outside on the tender.

I think of tendering as a free boat excursion

Doesnt do any good to think of it in a negative way. It really does not take that long to tender into most ports. Belize is the only long tender that I can think of. I sat outside the first time, was a Princess cruise, and my long hair knotted in the wind .. princess tendered in as if they thought they had a speed boat .. bring a rubber band if you have long hair and sit outside for that port. The rest of the tenders I have seen are a piece of cake.

There are some ports where we'd rather tender than dock!

Originally Posted by LuLu

There are some ports where we'd rather tender than dock!

My sister is a bit mobility impaired, so tendering into Caymans where you are right there on the dock in the town is easier for her than walking down a long dock, for instance Cozumel has a very long dock to walk down she hates.

Originally Posted by LuLu

There are some ports where we'd rather tender than dock!

Why do you say that, Lulu?

Originally Posted by tonylinsdell

Tendering is not that bad. It can be fun , especially if it is just one port in your itinerary and you can sit outside on the tender.

Sit outside on the tender? I did not know you can sit inside.

Flowers, I have the opposite problem: getting in and out of a little tender boat. I can walk normally, but my balance is not very good (I can't ride a bike or climb ladders).

Originally Posted by Smart Traveler

Why do you say that, Lulu?



Sit outside on the tender? I did not know you can sit inside.

Flowers, I have the opposite problem: getting in and out of a little tender boat. I can walk normally, but my balance is not very good (I can't ride a bike or climb ladders).

My sister cannot judge stepping up or down, so I just really hang on tight or when getting in and out of the tenders, there are guys on duty who help you in and out of the tender. If you need more hanging onto, for the few steps, take their arm and let them help you. Once you are on the deck of the tender, just go take a seat. Tenders can often hold several hundred people, so there can often be a upper and lower level. Tenders are not as small as you are probably imaginingi

We take elevators everywhere, so that is why when I was cruising with her we would take a convenient inside mid deck on a upper level over a OV on the bottom. My sister wanted it so we didnt have as much elevator time.

She also had seizures which we could not predict when she would have a bad day, so thats why my attitude where we waited until that day to figure out what we would do in port. Bad day we hung around the ship and I would just say to myself .. we will be back.

Her seizure doctor made her start using a cane for balance she has fallen so often. I was just extra extra careful when we used to cruise. Now she got married, so Im just recently starting to cruise by myself and figuring it all out. .. what to do now that I can do anything in the ports.

what Im saying is if my sister can manage to get in and out of a tender, you probably can too. She really has serious balance issues. We would get a shower chair on our cruises so she could sit in the shower and not have to hang on as even standing in the shower is almost too difficult to keep her balance if she has to close her eyes.