Grand Cayman Tenders

[kittygirl]

We are booked on the Inspiration this Saturday. We will be going to Grand Cayman on Monday the 28th of February. We are not booked on a Carnival excursion, and I was wondering how long it takes to get on a tender. Do we have to wait for all the Carnival excursions, or can we go early. The ship docks at 8:00. How early should we be down at the tenders to get the 1st tender to the island.:)

[Sargent_Schultz]

Dunno how Inspiration does it, but probably you'll need tender stickers and they will call you by groups. I'd say allow at least 45 minutes to get ashore if you try during prime time. To get tender stickers, all of you group should be together and ready or maybe miss yer boat. :eek:

[Cupcrazy]

THey will usually let the people who have early excursions off first. After that it shouldn't take too long for you to be able to grab a tender to shore.

[JohninDC]

It takes longer to load the tender than the journey - 10+ minutes to fill her up and under 5 minutes to the pier. Just listen to the announcements, but there's usually not a big line for early morning tours. Island time is usually an hour behind ship time so your 8:00 AM tour will not leave until 9:00 AM ship time - it can get confusing! :rolleyes:

 

Good luck! :)

[golfadj]

If you have an early tour you can ask one of the social hosts for a ticket for an earlier tender. This did work for us once when we had an early tour.

 

Otherwise be prepared to wait.

[Nanaimobound]

If we don't have an excursion, we usually just go have something to eat and wait a while. If you are in the initial rush to leave the ship as soon as possible, you will be standing in lines pretty long. Unless you have something pre-booked, why rush? about an hour after they release you it will be relatively easy to disembark. Everything will still be there. They have all the excursion people waiting right at the pier, so if your choice is to purchase one not with the cruise line, it will be simple to do. Other than that there is the shopping, which is all within walking distance as well. have fun! We love Stingray city tours. gets you out in that beautiful warm turquoise water!:D

[vfb2girls]

It takes longer to load the tender than the journey - 10+ minutes to fill her up and under 5 minutes to the pier. Just listen to the announcements, but there's usually not a big line for early morning tours. Island time is usually an hour behind ship time so your 8:00 AM tour will not leave until 9:00 AM ship time - it can get confusing! :rolleyes:

 

Good luck! :)

We have an independent excursion booked that starts at 10, I am assuming island time, what time would you recommend that we get in line for a tender? Since we missed GC on our last cruise I really don't know what to expect.

[bguppies]

We are booked on the Inspiration this Saturday. We will be going to Grand Cayman on Monday the 28th of February. We are not booked on a Carnival excursion, and I was wondering how long it takes to get on a tender. Do we have to wait for all the Carnival excursions, or can we go early. The ship docks at 8:00. How early should we be down at the tenders to get the 1st tender to the island.:)

 

The Freedom was better than the Inspiration for letting no-Carnival excursion people slip into extra seats on tenders with the Carnival excursions.

 

Both times we had independant excursions booked.

 

Both times we showed up a half hour before the 8AM loading was to begin,(to ensure we could get off as quickly as Carnival would allow) in the show lounge, as instructed in the Fun Times, and got tender tickets #1.

 

On the Freedom we actually were able to take two of the extra 10 seats on the 2nd tender leaving. (after they had loaded probably 6 or 7 full Carnival excursions on the first 2 tenders.)

 

On the Inspiration, they actually loaded probably 15 or so Carnival excursions before they let any of the Non Carnival excursions on.

I believe we were on the 5th or 6th tender and it was almost 9AM before we were allowed down.

 

It seems to rely on how organized the entertainment staff is (since they are the ones herding people) and how many other ships are in port simultaneously with you. (I think the Freedom day was 3 ships and the Inspiration day was liike 5 or 6 ships, so I think the tenders were spread a bit thin)

 

Luckily my Wife hits her Platinum on our upcoming cruise, so we get priority tendering, from here on. (I hit it the next cruise)

No more worrying about making a meet up with an independant excursion.

 

Bill