midwestgal81

What I learned on our trip:

1. Get in line for a tender ticket an hour before they start handing them out. Have proof of the excursion booked and we need the cards for everyone in our group. We were on Royal, so if a different line, ask in those groups for specifics for the tendering process.

 

2. Pay attention to ship time vs port time. It makes a big difference. Our ship time was an hour earlier than the port. This means our 10:30 arrival time was 11:30 for Grand Cayman.

 

 

3. So the boat arrived at 11:30 Grand Cayman time, and excursion was meet up at the pier at 12:20. It was about 12 when we boarded the first tender group that wasn't entirely Royal excursions. Tender took about 10 minutes, and we easily found our group by 12:15.

 

 

4. Even if they say they don't wait, most tour operators will try to give a little leeway. It helps if you have your phone on and can receive messages and communicate with the tour operator. We waited for one group (10 people) for almost an hour after the meeting time because they were on a later tender.

 

Moral of the story, if you think it is worth the risk, make the effort to get off the ship as quickly as possible. Even if it means one person skips breakfast to get in line for the tender tickets.

Thank you for sharing. I'll be on a Norwegian ship and there isn't a lot of information about how the tendering process works on their site, so this is very helpful.

I'm in a similar situation with snorkeling tour company I'm looking to book, but my question is how long does it take to get off the ship to tender over to the island? If we are in port at 8am, will I have enough time to get off the ship if the tour says its meeting at 9:00am. I've never tendered before.

I'm a first time cruiser, and was looking at a booking a snorkeling tour on Grand Cayman, but not through the ship I'm on, and I'm worried about how long it takes to get off the ship. We are in port at 8am, but the tour I'm looking at wants people to meet at 9am because their ship leaves at 9:15am for the tour. Is that enough time if I don't have priority tendering on the ship?