🚢 Taking the Tender Boat – Lessons from a Rainy Day in Koh Samui

One of the more interesting (and sometimes frustrating) parts of cruising is when the ship can’t dock at the port, and passengers are taken ashore using what’s called a tender boat. The tender is actually one of the ship’s lifeboats — normally reserved for emergencies, but in situations like this, it doubles as a shuttle to land.

During our cruise, Koh Samui was one of those tender ports. It’s always a bit more adventurous and logistically trickier. Some cruise lines let you collect tender tickets the day before, others only on the morning of the stop. One thing is consistent: if you’ve booked a shore excursion through the ship, you’ll get priority access to the tender.

In our case, something a little unusual happened — local two-story Thai tourist boats joined the process, which made everything faster and smoother. Since we decided to go ashore a few hours after arrival, there were no lines, no tickets, no hassle — we simply boarded and left.

Here is our video about the tender servise in Koh Samui, we made in April, 2025 from Mein Shiff 6.

And that’s when the rain hit.

Koh Samui is a tropical paradise, but the day we visited, it was gray skies and pouring rain. It’s hard not to feel a little disappointed. If I had to point out one downside of cruising, this would be it: when you only have one day in a destination, and it rains, it can feel like a real loss.

We ended up doing a little shopping and then heading back to the ship early. At the pier, staff checked to make sure we were cruise passengers, and back onboard, we went through a quick baggage screening — the usual routine, but it always feels a bit like airport security.

And still, we didn’t let the rain ruin our spirits. Because even if a day is short or soggy, an experience is still an experience. Walking around in another country, even for just an hour or two, meeting new people, seeing new places — this is why we travel. Every single moment adds something to who we are.

And next time we’re at a tender port? We’ll get on that boat again — with a rain jacket in our backpack.