A Newbie to ‘Tendering’

Having cruised countless times, maybe 30 by now? I have never actually been on a Tender, surprising I Know! The days where a tender service has been required on a cruise I have either decided not to visit that port of call, or when I have tried to disembark I have found the queues and wait to to get onto a Tender to have been ridiculous and gave up!

But on my last cruise I finally made it on to my first Tender crossing! Seems a little silly but i was quite excited about this!

We were onboard the Ventura and were visiting St Peter Port, Guernsey, If you are a seasoned cruiser you may well know this port of call always requires a Tender service. I have been on cruises visiting St Peter Port previously but this was when I experienced a very very long waiting time to get onto as Tender service so gave up and stayed onboard.

This time we decided to get up early, skip breakfast onboard and head down to the restaurant , which is where you had to head to for the Tender service, to see how it was looking, and to our surprise it was quiet there were only a handful of people waiting. We were given a raffle ticket with a number on , and when our number was called we had to follow the crew member to the Tender. We waited around 10 minutes and then headed of, we were the first 2 people in the que so we thought we had the ‘pick’ of seats onboard, but me being clumsy me, I realised I had forgotten to puck up my cruise card! I could not disembark the ship without this, the tender service was on the deck below our cabin and we were pretty much right below the area of our cabin too, forward, so I shot back up the stairs managed to get to the cabin grab my card and still made it on to that tender, phew! Note to self, always remember to pick up my cruise card!

The crossing was a little bumpy, we were sat right at the front and the Tender was completely full, it took maybe 10-15 minutes I guess to reach St Peter Port, and you arrive right into town , great!

We headed of into town, had breakfast and a spot of shopping then headed back to the port to pick up a return Tender, with a short wait we were guided down the ramp to our Tender to find we were the only 2 people waiting so had what you could say as a private Tender service straight back to Ventura! We sat up top , so we had a great view leaving St Peter Port and arriving to Ventura , now that’s what you call great service!

Hopefully my next Tender experience will be just as good as this time ! Well done P&O!