Question regarding Carnival shore excursions in tender ports

We are docking in Grand Caymen at 7:00 AM but our Carnival excursion isn't until 12:45 PM. I'm sure we will want to go on shore for a while before the excursion. My question is this, do Carnival Excursions in tender ports normally meet on board and take the tender over together or do they meet on shore? I'm just wondering if we are going to have to take the tender back to the ship to meet up for our excursion.

What is your excursion?

That information should have been provided when you booked It ?

Your shore excursion tickets will tell you where to meet and at what time. It's usually on the ship and then they walk you down to the tenders. Since you want to go ashore ahead of time, I'd check with the shore excursion desk onboard to ask if you can meet the tour on shore. I've had excursions where the tour left straight from the ship on a designated boat so obviously if it is an excursion like that you'd need to return to the ship to meet up with the tour.

Some meet on shore and some on the ship ask when you book tickets.

I would go off early come back for lunch and leave at appropriate time for your tour

Thanks. i know the information is normally on the tickets but I was wondering what the "normal" procedure is. I haven't done a whole lot of Carnival excursions but it seems like they usually meet in a lounge and then head to the tender boats as a group. We are doing the Deluxe Stingray City Sandbar excursion. I would hesitate to ask if we could meet on shore if the tickets say to meet on the ship, even if the boat doesn't come out to the ship for pickup. I just don't trust the shore excursion people enough to pass along the info that we are meeting on shore if the meeting spot is supposed to be on board. I would hate to be responsible for holding up an excursion because they were waiting for us and we were on shore waiting for them. If we have to take the tender back to the ship to meet for the excursion we'll just make sure to allow enough time for that. And if we end up sleeping a little late and don't have time to get off the ship before the excursion, no big deal. I think this is my 4th visit to GC anyway.

What we would do is go to port of call pages and find private tour companies that offer this.

You will know where you will meet and since they will have multiple times you could pick something that works out better for you.

I don't know of any Carnival excursions that have you meet on the ship first. There is a large meeting area near the port where you will just walk around looking for someone holding up a sign with the name of your excursion. Try to be there about 15 minutes before your appointed time.

Grand Cayman is a tender port, but the tender boats are huge and go a very short distance to the pier. There are lots of shops close to the port if you want to do a little shopping before your excursion.

We booked a private tour there through nativeway water sports. Awesome. Booked the Rays, Reef and Rum Point. Much smaller boats than you get with Carnival. Thomas was a fabulous captain. We were with the stingrays for a while, then they took us over near the coral reef and provided snorkeling gear. Did that for about 30-40 minutes. After that we headed to Rum Point. they passed around the menu for everyone to pick out what they wanted for lunch, which was included. By the time we got to Rum Point, our lunch was ready. Just be sure to guard your lunch from the huge birds that will dive bomb to knock something off of your plate to the ground. After lunch, we had a good hour to relax on the beach and play in the water. Would do this tour again any time. You can book online with them, but you don't pay in advance. They only take cash. Definitely give them a tip as well.