At a tender port the ship anchors and small boats carry you ashore, which quietly removes an hour or more from your day and makes the call easier to cancel. Here is the full dock-or-tender list for the Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico, and how to book a tour that still gets you back in time.
Updated October 13, 2026
A tender port is one where your ship cannot tie up to a pier. The ship anchors offshore and small boats, called tenders, shuttle passengers between the ship and a landing on shore. On most big ships the tenders are the ship's own lifeboats, enclosed and flat-bottomed, carrying roughly 150 to 200 people a trip; in some ports local operators supply larger ferries instead. Carnival calls them water shuttles. The ride is free.
Ships tender for three reasons: there is no pier big enough, the water is too shallow for the ship's draft, or there are more ships in port than berths. That last reason is why a port can be a dock for one ship and a tender for another on the same day, and why cruise-line lists of tender ports include places that normally dock.
Going ashore is organized. Guests on ship-sold excursions are called first to a meeting point and board the first tenders. Suite guests, top loyalty tiers and buyers of priority packages such as Royal Caribbean's The Key are usually next. Everyone else collects a numbered tender ticket (or waits for a group number in the app) on the morning of arrival and goes down when that number is called. Royal Caribbean Blog's tip is to be in the ticket line 15 to 20 minutes before distribution opens if you want an early boat. Coming back you need no ticket; you join the queue at the landing and take the next boat.
Your paperwork tells you in advance. On Royal Caribbean the itinerary says 'Tendered from 8 AM to 5 PM' instead of 'From 8 AM to 5 PM', and the e-docs travel summary has a Dock or Tender column with D, T or C (sea day). Other lines show it in the daily program and the app.
Count the pieces. Boarding a tender takes 10 to 20 minutes, the crossing another 10 to 20, and before that you wait for your number; Suburbs101 budgets at least an hour from deciding to go to standing on the pier, and Life Well Cruised puts the whole process at 30 minutes to an hour. In the Caribbean the crossings are on the long side: about 15 minutes at Grand Cayman, about 15 minutes from an anchorage 2 miles off Belize City, and 10 to 15 minutes at Cabo San Lucas.
Then it happens again in reverse, with a hard stop. The ship publishes a last-tender time, and in practice that is 30 to 60 minutes before the sailing time. Princess passengers who checked their daily programs found the last tender set at 30 minutes before departure even when the ride took 40 minutes. Because everyone wants the same late boats, the afternoon queue at the landing is the longest of the day; the Belize City landing is busiest between 3 and 5 pm.
So a port day listed as 8 am to 5 pm at a tender port is really something like 9 am on the pier to 4 pm back in line, or seven hours instead of nine. That is the number to plan a tour around, not the times on the itinerary.
Two things change at a tender port when you book outside the ship. First, you lose the head start: ship-sold excursions board the first tenders, so an independent operator who meets you at the pier at 8:30 may be waiting while you are still holding ticket number 14. Build in the gap, and if the pickup is fixed, ask for a time at least an hour after the ship's scheduled arrival.
Second, the whole call is more fragile. Tendering needs calm water, so rough seas, swell or wind can cancel a tender port on a sunny day, and ships sometimes cancel in advance if the forecast looks bad for the afternoon. Grand Cayman is the classic case: its anchorage is unprotected, the Port Authority has shut cruise traffic when waves made the ferry service unsafe, and in October 2023 ships were diverted to the Spotts dock because westerly swells made George Town unsafe for tendering. The Bahamas private islands sit in Atlantic swell and are also skipped regularly.
If the ship misses the port, a ship-sold excursion is refunded automatically; Royal Caribbean's FAQ says so in one line. An independent booking is only as good as its cancellation terms. Cruise Hive reported Carnival Legend passengers left out of pocket in 2023 after a tour operator changed its refund wording when the ship could not reach the port. Before you prepay anything at a tender port, read the operator's terms, keep a dated screenshot, and prefer tours that refund in full if the ship does not call or tendering is cancelled.
None of this means you must book through the ship. It means the independent tour you pick at a tender port should be refundable for a missed call, should start late enough to absorb the tender queue, and should end with you back at the landing with time to spare.
Status as of October 2026. Dock means ships tie up and you walk off; Tender means every ship anchors; 'Dock (tender on busy days)' means there are berths but a ship can be sent to anchor when more ships call than fit. Two private islands changed in 2026 and are marked as such. Your own e-docs beat this table: if your travel summary says T, you tender, whatever the port normally does.
| Port | Dock or tender | Notes | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Cayman (George Town) | Tender | No pier at all. Every ship anchors off George Town and tenders about 15 minutes to the Royal Watler, North or South terminal on Harbour Drive; the terminal is assigned on the morning of arrival. Voters rejected a pier plan on 30 April 2025 (about 64% no), so tendering continues. Westerly swells can make George Town unsafe for tendering; ships are then sent to Spotts on the south coast (as in October 2023) or skip the island. | Port guide |
| Belize City | Tender | The coast is too shallow for a cruise berth. Ships anchor about 2 miles out and tenders take roughly 15 minutes (other guides say up to 25) to the Fort Street Tourism Village, where four tender docks meet one pier. Norwegian's Harvest Caye, far to the south, is a separate port with its own pier. | Port guide |
| Harvest Caye (Belize) | Dock | Norwegian Cruise Line's private island off the Placencia peninsula has a single pier, so NCL ships walk off. It is not the same stop as Belize City. | — |
| Cabo San Lucas (Mexico) | Tender | No cruise terminal. Ships anchor in the bay and tender 10 to 15 minutes to the pier inside the marina, about a 10-minute walk from downtown. Calls are long (often 7 to 11 hours), but queues build when several ships share the anchorage; plan around the posted last-tender time rather than the sailing time. | — |
| Half Moon Cay / RelaxAway (Bahamas) | Dock | Changed in 2026. A pier opened on 1 June 2026, with Carnival Sunrise the first ship alongside, so Carnival ships no longer tender. CruiseMapper says the Holland America side of the island is still served by tender or ferry until its own works finish late in 2026, so Holland America and Princess guests should check their e-docs for a T or D. | — |
| Princess Cays (Eleuthera, Bahamas) | Tender | Princess and Carnival ships anchor and tender to the Love Boat Marina landing, one ship at a time. Princess warns that the tender can exclude guests with limited mobility and that crew will not lift more than 50 lb when helping. | — |
| Perfect Day at CocoCay (Bahamas) | Dock | Royal Caribbean built a pier on the north side of the island in the 2019 rebuild; ships dock and guests walk off. CocoCay was a tender stop before that, which is why older lists still show it as one. | — |
| Great Stirrup Cay (Bahamas) | Dock | Changed in 2025-2026. Norwegian's two-ship pier took its first ship (Norwegian Getaway) on 28 December 2025, closed for final construction from 1 April 2026 while ships went back to tendering, and reopened in August 2026; Norwegian Prima and Getaway docked together in September 2026. Oceania and Regent ships also use it. If a third ship calls on the same day it would have to anchor. | — |
| Castaway Cay (Bahamas) | Dock | Disney ships dock at a dedicated pier beside the family beach on the island's west coast. Exposed Bahamian islands can still be skipped in high winds even with a pier. | — |
| Grand Turk (Turks and Caicos) | Dock | Grand Turk Cruise Center is a three-berth pier south of Cockburn Town, financed by Carnival in 2006. Hurricane Fiona damaged it in September 2022 and it was repaired. | — |
| Key West (Florida) | Dock | Ships tie up at Pier B by the Truman Annex, Mallory Square or the Outer Mole; as of 2024 Pier B handles the large ships and Mallory Square mostly small ones. Tenders are used only if a ship anchors in the harbor, which is unusual. | Port guide |
| Cozumel (Mexico) | Dock | Three cruise piers: Punta Langosta downtown, Puerta Maya and the International Pier south of town. Carnival lists Cozumel as a 'possible tender' port because the downtown ferry pier is used for tenders on the busiest days, but almost every call docks. | Port guide |
| Costa Maya (Mexico) | Dock | Four-berth pier at Mahahual; a ship tenders only if a fifth one turns up on the same day. Royal Caribbean's planned Perfect Day Mexico next door was rejected by Mexico's environment ministry in May 2026. | Port guide |
| Roatan (Honduras) | Dock | Two piers: Isla Tropicale, the renamed Mahogany Bay (two berths, Carnival and Princess), and Coxen Hole (Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, Virgin Voyages). | Port guide |
| Nassau (Bahamas) | Dock | Six berths, three of them sized for Oasis-class ships; the port handled a record seven ships on 12 March 2024. The port also lists an anchorage where ship tenders are allowed, so tendering is possible on an exceptional day but is not the norm. | Port guide |
| St. Maarten (Philipsburg) | Dock | The Dr. A.C. Wathey facility has two piers and six berths, two of them for Oasis-class ships. We found no 2025-2026 reports of routine tendering; if your ship anchors on an overflow day, your itinerary will show a T instead of a D. | Port guide |
| St. Thomas (Charlotte Amalie) | Dock (tender on busy days) | Havensight takes three large ships and Crown Bay two. When more ships call than there are berths, one may anchor in the harbor and tender to the Charlotte Amalie waterfront. | Port guide |
| Ocho Rios (Jamaica) | Dock | Two single-berth piers, Turtle Bay and Reynolds (James Bond) Pier. The port reopened in November 2025 after repairs following Hurricane Melissa. | Port guide |
| Falmouth (Jamaica) | Dock | Two-berth pier built for the largest ships afloat. | Port guide |
| Amber Cove / Taino Bay (Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic) | Dock | Two separate docking ports about 10 miles apart. Amber Cove has one pier for up to two ships and is used mainly by Carnival Corporation brands; Taino Bay in town has two piers for up to three ships (Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, Celebrity, Virgin, Disney). Confirm which one your ship uses. | Port guide |
| Cartagena (Colombia) | Dock | Cruise terminal in the Manga port area with five berths; free shuttle buses run between the ship and the terminal, and the walled city is a 10 to 20 minute taxi ride. | Port guide |
| Bonaire (Kralendijk) | Dock | North and South piers right in the town center; the tourism board states that no tendering is required. | — |
| Aruba (Oranjestad) | Dock | The terminal handles up to five ships at a time; downtown is about 0.6 mile from the pier. | — |
| Curacao (Willemstad) | Dock | The Mega Pier takes the largest ships, and the older terminal inside St. Anna Bay serves smaller ones. | — |
| St. Kitts (Basseterre) | Dock | Port Zante has the original pier plus a two-berth second pier finished in 2019, enough for three Oasis-class ships. On exceptionally busy days a ship may use the Deep Water Harbour east of town or anchor. | — |
| Antigua (St. John's) | Dock | Five berths at St. John's; the fifth, completed in early 2021, is sized for Oasis-class ships. | — |
| St. Lucia (Castries) | Dock | Pointe Seraphine on the north side of the harbor and the Queen Elizabeth II dock by La Place Carenage downtown. Ships too large or too deep for the harbor anchor and tender to the QEII dock, and some small ships tender elsewhere on the island. | — |
| Barbados (Bridgetown) | Dock | Deep Water Harbour with four quays for up to six ships; a cargo berth is used as overflow when everything else is full. | — |
| Dominica (Roseau) | Dock | Roseau Cruise Terminal on the Bayfront in town, the Woodbridge Bay cargo port outside it, and Cabrits near Portsmouth for small ships. Some ships anchor and tender. | — |
| Grenada (St. George's) | Dock (tender on busy days) | Melville Street Cruise Terminal for large ships and the Carenage for small ones. When more than three ships call, the extra ships anchor and tender. | — |
| St. Barths (Gustavia) | Tender | Ships anchor off Gustavia and use their own tenders into the harbor. A small-ship and luxury-line stop. | — |
| Virgin Gorda (BVI) | Tender | Ships anchor and tender to Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour near Spanish Town (38 anchorage calls in 2023). Mostly small and luxury ships. | — |
| Jost Van Dyke (BVI) | Tender | Great Harbour is small and shallow. Ships anchor off the island (56 anchorage calls in 2023) or tender across from Tortola. | — |
| Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) | Tender | Ships anchor in Admiralty Bay and tender into the center of Port Elizabeth. | — |
PortClock's rule for tender ports is simple: add 45 minutes to the ship's arrival time before you count on being ashore, and treat 30 minutes before all aboard as your personal last tender. That squeezes roughly an hour and a quarter out of the published call, which matches what experienced tender-port passengers do: aim for the landing 60 to 90 minutes before sailing, and never plan to be on the final boat.
'All aboard' means something different here. At a dock it is the time you must be walking up the gangway. At a tender port the number that matters is the last tender, printed in the daily program and usually posted at the landing. Be in the queue before that time and the crew will get you to the ship, even if the boat leaves a little late; arrive after it and the ship may already be weighing anchor. If you miss it, call the port agent whose number is on the daily program, and expect to pay your own way to the next port.
If the queue at the landing is long in the afternoon, do not leave it to go shopping; the line is the safe place to be. In the morning the opposite applies: if the ticket numbers are running high, have breakfast and come back, because tenders keep running and the wait is usually shorter an hour after the first boats.
Book the ship's tour instead of your own when the tour depends on an early start you cannot guarantee from a tender ticket (a first-boat Stingray City trip at Grand Cayman, where the sandbar is calmest and emptiest before 9 am), when the day is long and inflexible (Lamanai from Belize City, with a long drive plus a river boat), when several ships share the anchorage (Cabo San Lucas on a three-ship day), or when the forecast is marginal, because only ship-sold tours are refunded and rerouted if the call is cancelled or the ship is sent to an alternate dock such as Spotts.
Mobility. Boarding a tender means a step across a moving gap and down a few stairs, and the ship, not you, decides whether it is safe. Royal Caribbean's accessibility page says guests must be able to take steps and use a collapsible manual wheelchair to board most tenders; motorized wheelchairs and scooters go only where roll-on capability exists, which is not guaranteed, and staff may assist but are not permitted to lift guests or equipment. Carnival says some tenders are not accessible to wheelchair and scooter users, that weather and water conditions can prevent a safe transfer, and that ship officers make the call. Princess advises an able-bodied companion and limits crew lifting to 50 lb. Royal Caribbean adds that there is no refund or credit if you cannot tender for these reasons. If you use a mobility device, tell the line before sailing, ask Guest Services on board about roll-on tenders for each port, and have a plan for staying aboard.
Kids. Crew stand on both sides of the gap and keep a hand on small children as they step across; parents on Cruise Critic's boards describe baby-wearing as the easiest way to board, and a Cruise Critic infant guide puts it bluntly: strollers and tenders do not mix, so bring a carrier and a stroller that folds and can be carried. Tenders carry life jackets, so you do not need to bring a child's vest for the ride. Early boats and a return 30 to 60 minutes before the last call keep little ones out of the worst crowds.
Seasickness. The tender is a small boat on open water and the afternoon return can be rougher than the morning run. If you are prone to motion sickness, take your usual remedy before you leave the ship, sit low and near the middle, and watch the horizon. Tender crossings in the Caribbean are short, usually under 20 minutes, which helps.
Yes, for every ship. George Town has no cruise pier; ships anchor offshore and tender about 15 minutes to one of three terminals on Harbour Drive. Voters rejected a pier project on 30 April 2025, so this will not change soon. In rough westerly swell ships are moved to the Spotts dock on the south coast or skip the island.
No. Cozumel has three cruise piers (Punta Langosta, Puerta Maya and the International Pier) and almost every ship docks. Carnival lists it as a 'possible tender' because the downtown ferry pier can be used for tenders on the busiest days, so check the D or T code on your own itinerary, but plan on walking off.
Allow about an hour from deciding to go ashore to standing on the pier: a wait for your tender number, 10 to 20 minutes to load, and a 5 to 20 minute crossing (about 15 minutes at Grand Cayman and Belize City). Coming back there is no ticket, but the afternoon queue at the landing is the longest of the day, so budget the same hour again.
Yes, with two adjustments. Set the pickup at least an hour after the ship's arrival, because ship-sold excursions board the first tenders and you may be waiting for your number. And book only tours that refund in full if the ship does not call or tendering is cancelled, since tender ports are the ones most often skipped for weather and a missed call does not refund a non-refundable independent booking.
The ship either stays at sea, substitutes another port, or, at Grand Cayman, may be sent to the Spotts dock instead of George Town. Ship-sold excursions are refunded automatically; Royal Caribbean's FAQ confirms this. Independent bookings depend on the operator's terms, which is why we recommend prepaying only refundable tours at tender ports. Cruise lines do not refund the missed port itself.
Usually, if you are going ashore on your own in the morning. Most big-ship lines hand out numbered tickets or assign group numbers in the app on the morning of arrival, and guests on ship excursions, in suites or with top loyalty status are called ahead of the numbers. Later in the day you can generally walk down without a ticket, and no ticket is ever needed to come back.
It is printed in the daily program and posted at the landing, and it is normally 30 to 60 minutes before the sailing time rather than at the all-aboard time. PortClock plans your return for 30 minutes before all aboard; experienced passengers aim to be in the queue 60 to 90 minutes before sailing. If you are in line before the last tender leaves, the crew will get you to the ship.
Often not. Royal Caribbean requires guests to be able to take a few steps and use a collapsible manual wheelchair to board most tenders; powered chairs and scooters are allowed only where a roll-on tender is available, which is not guaranteed. Carnival and Princess say the same in different words, and the officers on the day decide based on sea conditions. Tell the line before the cruise and ask Guest Services on board about each tender port.