Norway tender problems

[w]

I am going on 5/4/3. Wondering if it is a good idea to sign up for shore excursion so I could have priority to get onto the earliest tender. I don't want to sign up for excusion by the cruise line since it is more expensive. But also don't want to wait forever for the tender either. I heard sometimes it could take forever for all passengers to board the tender.

Is there a best way to deal with it? Thanks.

 

[tef43]

The only shore excursion passengers who receiver tendering priority are the ones who book the ship's tours.

If you have booked a suite, you may obtain priority tender tickets through the concierge.

Otherwise, your choices are to stand in line for tender tickets, or wait until open tendering begins.

The Norway's tenders are large, capacity 350-400 passengers. But the ship anchors so far out, that the round trip can take quite a while.

 

[ginny]

If you don't want to book excursions through the ship or have a suite, there will be a posted time each port day for tender tickets to be picked up. One person from your party can get tickets for everyone with you. If you want to be on one of the first tenders just go to the ticket pick up area 5-10 minutes before the time they will begin. The Norways tenders are much larger than most ships, holding 400 pax. They start tendering with the excursion pax for the early tours, after that it's first come first serve. You have the advantage of information that is not common knowledge to most pax, just those that are reading boards like this, it took us maybe 5 minutes to get our tickets in November using this system and were on the second tender, and they run two at a time. If someone tells you they had a hard time getting off the ship it was because they didn't pay attention to the posted time to pick up tickets. Enjoy your cruise!