Cruise ship holidays in the Caribbean may be on many Briton’s wishlists but such trips don’t come without their dangers. A former cruise worker has revealed one way passengers put themselves at risk on Caribbean holidays at sea. This comes about when there is no dock at the port or the dock is at full capacity and passengers have to journey ashore in smaller boats called tenders. “Tenders often carry about fifty passengers at a time, and you’re often taking a risk when you climb aboard a tender,” ex cruise ship worker Joshua Kinser wrote in his book Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Member.
Cruise ship crew reveals passengers take this big ‘risk’ on Caribbean cruises
“Most people cruise in the Caribbean where the weather is extremely volatile.”
Kinser recalled one episode which saw a passenger-filled tender struggle in very bad weather off the coast of Saint Thomas.
“A fleet of six or seven tenders was still attempting to return to the ship,” he said.
“The tenders couldn’t rope up to the side of the ship; the seas were too high.
“They were in no man’s land, forsaken castaways trapped between ship and shore.”
Kinser continued: “The tender would disappear behind a wave, and everyone feared it would capsize and the Coast Guard would be called.
Cruise: "You’re often taking a risk when you climb aboard a tender” (Image: Getty Images)
“I imagined them dredging the bottom of the Caribbean sea, only to cover the badly sunburned bodies of passengers with braided and beaded hair, each clutching their soggy boxes of Tortuga Rum Cakes, perfectly sealed bags of illicit Cuban cigars, unopened bottles of
