JeffNeedsACruise Posted June 5, 2023 Report Share Posted June 5, 2023 We'll be on Granduer OTS for the July 29th sailing, and I'm finally getting around to booking excursions. No time like the present, eh? I just realized that Belize is a tender port. I'm looking at booking 3rd party excursions, instead of thru Royal. We 'arrive' at 8am, and the earliest excursion thru Royal looks like it starts at 8:30. I'm assuming we will begin tendering by 8am. If I have an 8:30 excursion booked on my own, will I be able to request to be one on the first tender? Or will royal give preference to those who have booked excursions through them? Hopefully someone here has experience with this and can offer some insight. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristiZ Posted June 5, 2023 Report Share Posted June 5, 2023 6 hours ago, JeffNeedsACruise said: We 'arrive' at 8am, and the earliest excursion thru Royal looks like it starts at 8:30. I'm assuming we will begin tendering by 8am. If I have an 8:30 excursion booked on my own, will I be able to request to be one on the first tender? Or will royal give preference to those who have booked excursions through them? If the earliest Royal excursions leave at 830a, expect tendering to not start until 830a. Once the ship arrives they will need time to get set up and clear any local authorities before starting the tendering operation. And you are correct, Royal excursions will have tendering priority. RafaellaCG and Ryan79 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RafaellaCG Posted June 6, 2023 Report Share Posted June 6, 2023 The port authorities will need to check the ship, so if you only arrive at 8, tendering can't start that early. They'll send those on Royal excursions first. If you're stressed for time queue up before they announce the tenders. We were there 5 minutes after the announcement and went out in the fourth group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordell1 Posted June 6, 2023 Report Share Posted June 6, 2023 The first tenders will be for those on early RC excursion followed by suites/pinnacles and The Key guests. Tickets will be given out for everyone else at a set time. Probably 630 or 7am that morning. This is one of the few instances where I would either choose a RC excursion, or purchase The Key. Belize is particularly bad because a lot of excursions require a second lengthy boat ride once your tender gets you yo the dock. Ryan79 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffNeedsACruise Posted June 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2023 Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'm thinking of this wrong. The itenerary says arrival at 8:00 am. Is that ship time, or local time? We sail out of Tampa, so (correct me if I'm wrong) ship time will be EST. Belize is in CST time zone. So, 8:00 am EST is 7:00 am CST. If that is true, then the time listed on Viator (tripadvisor) should be local time... meaning we will have plenty of time (if we're in a tender right after all the special people). Does that sound correct? Or am I off base, and the time listed in the Royal itenerary the local time for each port? Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TakeMeSomewhere Posted June 9, 2023 Report Share Posted June 9, 2023 The itinerary time will be ship time. I can't say for sure but it's a good chance that there will be a time change on the ship at some point to bring it to the local time. Changing ship time and not having the same time as local time both have their issues/difficulties. When I was on ship in December, I believe that ship time and local time were the same. So the ship is expected to arrive at 8 am, then it takes approximately half an hour to be able to start tender operations. That's if everything goes smoothly and as expected. As other people mentioned, excursions, suites, Diamond/Diamon Plus, and The Key all get priority before others that got up early that morning for tender tickets. Then once you actually get on the tender, you still have to get tendered to the port. Long story short I strongly believe you won't be able to get to the port for 8:30 to meet the 3rd party excursion unless it's a private excursion and they are willing to wait for you. Ryan79 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlantix2000 Posted June 9, 2023 Report Share Posted June 9, 2023 On 6/8/2023 at 2:29 PM, JeffNeedsACruise said: Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'm thinking of this wrong. The itenerary says arrival at 8:00 am. Is that ship time, or local time? We sail out of Tampa, so (correct me if I'm wrong) ship time will be EST. Belize is in CST time zone. So, 8:00 am EST is 7:00 am CST. If that is true, then the time listed on Viator (tripadvisor) should be local time... meaning we will have plenty of time (if we're in a tender right after all the special people). Does that sound correct? Or am I off base, and the time listed in the Royal itenerary the local time for each port? Thanks again! The decision is always up to the captain of the ship, but generally the ship will change time as it crosses time zones. Any reputable 3rd party excursion company already understands when the ship arrives and how long it takes for people to get off. What you may not be considering is that the listed start time of an excursion is the meeting time on the dock (or other specified location) and there will always be stragglers. It is not necessarily the time when you would actually depart for your excursion. If you are booking a unique or private excursion, then they'll be waiting for you even if tendering takes longer than expected. If you're booking a popular excursion, then smaller groups may depart whenever a full van/bus load of guests have arrived. Remember these companies survive on their reputation. They don't want anyone to write a review that says "they left me behind!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billdauterive Posted June 9, 2023 Report Share Posted June 9, 2023 On 6/5/2023 at 1:42 AM, JeffNeedsACruise said: If I have an 8:30 excursion booked on my own, will I be able to request to be one on the first tender? Or will royal give preference to those who have booked excursions through them? 0% chance of getting on a tender in time to make a 8:30 3rd party excursion (unless 95% of the passengers are staying on the ship). I would give AT LEAST 2 hours from tender start time to when you'll actually be able to board one after all the royal excursions and statuses have finished. I learned this lesson the hard way a few years ago in Belize when I missed my 3rd party excursion that was booked to start 2 hours after arrival. I didn't set foot on land until 4 hours after arrival even though I was up and in the tender line 30 mins before it opened that morning. Pooch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CynBeth Posted June 16, 2023 Report Share Posted June 16, 2023 Are Junior Suites included in tender priority? We are doing a Med cruise and are mostly going out on our own and have 2 tender ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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