FOS Grand Cayman Tender Questions

[nt13]

We are sailing FOS on Sunday and have booked an independent stringray tour with Moby Dick at 9:30. I am reading stories of nightmare experiences tendering in a timely manner in Grand Cayman. Does anyone have any advice for getting off the ship early and easily? What time do I need to line up for tender tickets? We are traveling with two young children which makes me all the more nervous that it will be difficult! We are not suite guests. Thank you in advance for any advice!

[njm5378]

You will struggle to find options other than lining up early, very early. Tender lines can be long and suite guests and RCI excursions will be the first to tender. I would be in line at least an hour before scheduled arrival time. You can start checking the lines earlier and adjust accordingly.

[cb at sea]

What time does the ship say they will get there? If you don't make the 1st tender, you will almost certainly make the next. Not everyone is in a huge rush to leave, and the tenders hold at least 150...if not more! No worries! Get in line around 8:50..... Your guide knows how this works, and will wait a reasonable amount of time.

Edited November 20, 2015 by cb at sea

[nt13]

Accidental double post.

Edited November 20, 2015 by nt13

[nt13]

What time does the ship say they will get there? If you don't make the 1st tender, you will almost certainly make the next. Not everyone is in a huge rush to leave, and the tenders hold at least 150...if not more! No worries! Get in line around 8:50..... Your guide knows how this works, and will wait a reasonable amount of time.

 

We get in at 8am. Thank you and njm for the input!

[filmstar40]

Last week the Ship was taking us ashore just after 8am.

 

Use the fwd lifts as they have less queues not that there was too much anyway.

 

Hope you have better luck on your trip, we did the Turtle swim and this was way overpriced.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Here's what worked for us...

 

DD had gotten injured the first night of the cruise and the doctor wanted to follow up before we got off the ship at GC. So we were at the infirmary when it opened, and when we were done (just after tendering started), we were able to get right in line (the line to the tender goes by the door to the infirmary).

[nt13]

Thank you!

 

 

Sent from my phone so typing may be suspect

[jticarruthers]

We were on the same cruise with you and had a similar planned excursion booked.

 

Tendering was no big deal, went down when they called they were ready and walked straight on to the first tender, unfortunately our stingray tour was cancelled due to winds :(

[BillOh]

What time does the ship say they will get there? If you don't make the 1st tender, you will almost certainly make the next. Not everyone is in a huge rush to leave, and the tenders hold at least 150...if not more! No worries! Get in line around 8:50..... Your guide knows how this works, and will wait a reasonable amount of time.

 

This is probably a reasonably worded answer based on my last visit last May. We had a Royal excursion, but nobody checked, and we got off the ship pretty quickly with no problem. They were running 2-3 tenders pretty much non stop just to our ship. There were 3 ships in port that day.

[nt13]

Just back from the trip and we had no problems. Got off quickly at 7:45! Thankfully no lines and nothing like the disaster stories I had read about. They did not use tender tickets on freedom of the seas. Coming back around 2:15 we had to wait about 20 minutes. Thanks everyone for the input!

 

 

Sent from my phone so typing may be suspect