My parents are going on a cruise in a few days?

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Dr. Teddyâ„¢

What you are talking about is called "docked" and "tendered".
A ship that is pulled up alongside a pier and unloads passengers directly to shore is "docked".
Not all ports are big enough, or have the facilities, to accomadate a cruise ship, so the ship anchors off-shore and you are ferried in by small boats called "tenders".
Depending on where you are going, all your ports may be docked, or some of them may be tendered.

sally b

A lot depends upon the size of the ship and the depth of the water. Most ships do both. they dock at some ports and tender at others. It also depends upon how many ships are in port because there is only room for a certain number and the other ships have to anchor and transport to the island on small boats called tenders. The tenders take around 150 at a time and there are several of them. It usually takes less than 5 minutes to get to shore.

Anja H

It depends on the size of the ship and the facilities on port. Some places do not have a dock, in some places the dock is to small (short) for the ship, some ports are too shallow to accommodate the depth of the ship, sometimes there are too many other ships and there is no more space to dock.

In these cases the Ship will anchor off the port and tenders (again depending on the size of the ship - they hold between 50 and 150 people) will bring the people ashore to either a small jetty - or direct to the beach (beach landing)

Often it will tell in the itinerary of the ship is docked or at anchor.
If you tell us the ship and the itinerary they are taking, I am sure between all the seasoned cruisers here - you will get an answer on where the ship will be docked and where it will be on anchor.

(Providing that the reason for anchoring is not due to many other ships in port - because in this case, the ships which always come to that port have priority over others and then it goes by - who comes first is served first. )

Mary L

Tell you parents to stop arguing, because a ship does both at different times and places. There is probably something about how that works in the cruise line brochures.

Bedford S

Size of the ship and if port has large dock depends whether ship will dock at port or lay off shore and take smaller boats in. So both were right.

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