Hello everyone,

I am just counting down the days until by Celebrity Century cruise in December.

It was just brought to my attention by someone who just recently sailed on the Celebrity Century that at one of the ports of call the ship tendered and everyone was brought onshore by boats.

Since this will be by first time cruising I am a little concerned about this whole process. My seventy year old mother will be traveling on this cruise as well.

I was wondering if anyone could let me in on what this whole process of tendering/disembarkement is.Does one have to climb down a ladder to get onto the boat?

Any and all information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

When ships use tenders you disembark the ship at one of the lower decks designated. (This will be announced and posted in the daily bulletin you receive in your room) There usually is a platform you step onto from the ship, and then from the platform usually two or three steps down into the tender.

We´ve been on a couple of cruises and the tendering isn´t as bad as it sounds. There´s no ladder involved. You go down to a lower deck and then out on to the tender via a wide gangplank/walkway. The stepping on to the tender will be the trickiest part, but there are always crew on hand to help.

Look at this photo and you'll get an idea about tendering. The cruise ship is on the right. As previously mentioned, crew members will be at the entrance to the tender to assist anyone who needs it. In this photo they are using a ship's tender. In most cases they have much larger chartered tenders from the local ports.

Thanks to you all. The information that you provided was very helpful.

Thanks again