CocoCay Tendering Strategy

[nostalgiaguru]

If I book an excursion through RC, will my excursion group be meeting on the ship, and if so, does our group get tendering priority when our group gets ready to leave the ship?

 

Or, will we meet as a group outside of the ship, and therefore, it's each man for his own as far as getting on a tender?

 

Otherwise, what's the best strategy for tendering at CocoCay? Get there for the first boat, or wait a while, if schedule allows?

[DeadPhish]

You meet on the island, but you get priority getting on the tender.

[papaflamingo]

If I book an excursion through RC, will my excursion group be meeting on the ship, and if so, does our group get tendering priority when our group gets ready to leave the ship?

 

Or, will we meet as a group outside of the ship, and therefore, it's each man for his own as far as getting on a tender?

 

Otherwise, what's the best strategy for tendering at CocoCay? Get there for the first boat, or wait a while, if schedule allows?

 

If you aren't doing an excursion, the early boats tend to be most crowded. We usually wait. If you are the only ship there is always lots of chairs available on the island. If there is another ship there, you might want to go early.

[ckfred]

We've usually found that the first or second tender is not that crowded, while the third or fourth one is packed.

 

We've always tried to get on an early tender, simply because the weather can change quickly. In June of 2014, a storm rolled in shortly before lunch. We left at the first crack of thunder. In fact, tendering stopped for about an hour. We had already been scheduled to leave 2 hours early, because of a forecast for rougher seas and early evening storms.

 

This past March, the same thing happened. We had planned to eat on the island, but got on a tender with the first rumble of thunder around 10:30. Then tendering stopped around 11am. The forecast showed a brief respite before more storms, so the decision was made around noon to clear the island and leave early. By the time passengers and crew were all back on the ship, it was around 2pm.

[cb at sea]

No "strategy" is needed! Folks aren't in a mad rush to get off....so the early excursions will have no issues!