Epic tender Cayman Is.

[Jonjonisatiger]

I've booked an outside excursion for this port, but I'm starting to have second thoughts as I'm hearing that the tender process has been loooooooong here. We are in port 11AM-7PM and are to meet the tour provider at 12:15PM. I have already resigned myself to the fact that we might miss this port due to weather, but missing our excursion due to Epic tender shenanigans would likely spoil the mood for a good part of the cruise.

 

Should I cancel and just book a stingray excursion through NCL? (Way more expensive, and I've heard overcrowded boats)

 

Or do you think the tendering problems might iron themselves out by March?

 

I know there are no crystal balls to see into the future but any advice would be appreciated. Also, this will be my only second cruise and never tendered before.

 

TIA

[cb at sea]

You will make it...no worries, UNLESS the ship is late getting in.....

 

The tender trip is only 5 mins...and there should be at least 2 tenders running.

[Bonobochick]

You should be fine with Cayman Islands tender. It's relative quick plus a short ride.

 

It's the Great Stirrup Cay tender you should worry about...

[Jonjonisatiger]

Excellent! Thanks a bunch!

[BirdTravels]

The tender will take a lot longer than 5 minutes. And the lines will be long. And you will need to reserve an early time for tendering (don't delay when they make tender ticket available).

 

BTW: When we went to the stingrays off the Epic, there were about 25 of us on a 150 person boat. I think that it was probably an anomaly, but was very comfortable.

[hhalliv]

The tender will take a lot longer than 5 minutes. And the lines will be long. And you will need to reserve an early time for tendering (don't delay when they make tender ticket available).

 

BTW: When we went to the stingrays off the Epic, there were about 25 of us on a 150 person boat. I think that it was probably an anomaly, but was very comfortable.

 

I'm in a similar situation as the OP...do you happen to know when they generally open up the tenders for reservations?

[Bonobochick]

The tender will take a lot longer than 5 minutes. And the lines will be long. And you will need to reserve an early time for tendering (don't delay when they make tender ticket available).

 

BTW: When we went to the stingrays off the Epic, there were about 25 of us on a 150 person boat. I think that it was probably an anomaly, but was very comfortable.

 

From the time I got in line - Cayman tender group B but got on after D was called cause we got cleared quickly and I wasn't ready - It took about 20 minutes from lining up, getting on the tender and getting to shore. Return, which I got on about 5:45p, was about the same. :)

 

Your description of your Cayman tender reminds me a lot of the GSC tender, which took me almost 90 minutes from leaving my cabin, waiting in the Epic theatre, getting on the tender, and then getting off at the island. :mad: The 50 minutes standing in line to get on a tender to return to the ship at 3pm wasn't much better.

 

My Cayman tender was quick and a piece of cake but obviously mileage varies. :cool:

[zqvol]

Cayman tender is very quick unless the seas are rough. The biggest delay is how quickly people can managed to get themselves on and off the tender boat. The ride is less than five minutes from ship to shore. I would not think twice about a 12:15 excursion, as mentioned unless the ship is late you should be there with no problem.

 

One thing to watch out for is the time. It seems to me every time we go to GC, I have no idea what local time is compared to ship time. NCL is good though, about keeping the ship on local time.

[Binturong]

The tender will take a lot longer than 5 minutes. And the lines will be long. And you will need to reserve an early time for tendering (don't delay when they make tender ticket available).

 

How does one reserve a time for a tender? Can you please explain the procedure to reserve a time &/or get a ticket?

[lihoney]

You can order tender tickets from your cabin on the tv.

[dexddd]

We were last at GC about just one year ago on the Spirit - a much smaller ship than Epic. There was NCL Spirit, DCL Fantasy or Dream, a Carnival ship and MSC Divina.

 

All except Divina were using large tenders from shore - MSC using life boats and their line to get back on were super long.

 

NCL line to depart was fairly long - we had suite so by-passed all the lines. My guess only is similar to Birdtravels in terms of times.

[hhalliv]

You can order tender tickets from your cabin on the tv.

 

Do you know when you can start reserving them? Is it the day before, or as soon as you board? I just know reservations go fast on the Epic

[JoeTec]

I was on the Epic thanksgiving week & we went to GC on day 4 Tues) on day 2 in the freestyle daily it says to book your tender tickets if going ashore. So you can probably book when you get on board or the next day. I missed seeing that until they had it again in day 3's freestyle & by the time we booked we were in the M group. But no one checks what group you are in - my sons & brother when they booked were assigned T group but they went on with us. After I think C group they start calling several letters at the same time. Even with being assigned M we were on the tender by I believe 11:45 when they had called the 1st tender at 11?

 

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[lihoney]

Do you know when you can start reserving them? Is it the day before, or as soon as you board? I just know reservations go fast on the Epic

You could book tender tickets for gsc as soon as we got in the cabin. We were in gsc the next day. I am not sure about Grand Cayman. It may be the same time or the day before.

[hhalliv]

Thank you everyone for the responses!

[BensonFan711]

Are you going to GSC on your cruise? If so, I highly recommend the Stingray City excursion there rather than at Cayman. I've done both, and GSC was worlds better. Have a great trip!

[BermudaBound2014]

Are you going to GSC on your cruise? If so, I highly recommend the Stingray City excursion there rather than at Cayman. I've done both, and GSC was worlds better. Have a great trip!

 

 

 

This is interesting. Can you tell me why you liked gsc better?

 

 

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[BensonFan711]

This is interesting. Can you tell me why you liked gsc better?

 

Sure. The excursion on GSC is catering only to NCL guests. The stingrays are in a pen (at least an acre of ocean floor), and there were only two tour boats at a time - ours was on one side of the pen and there was a second one on the other side of the pen....pretty far away). The groups are smaller than the Cayman one, too, so you have much more time with the rays and much more interaction with them.

 

The one in the Cayman Islands was...chaotic. There were at least a dozen boats all anchored in a fairly tight semi-circle. More boats meant far more people. Between all of the people and all of the rays, I was convinced someone was going to get stung. (No one did that I recall, but it wasn't anywhere near the level of calm GSC was.) There was less interaction with the rays, and the ray that our tour guide had was having a bit of a temper tantrum. I don't think she was used to the tourist thing, or it could be that there was too much activity for her to be comfortable.

 

If I remember, they were priced about the same, but GSC was definitely worth the $70 (I think) we paid for it. I would do that one again, but I would never do the one in the Cayman Islands again.

 

Hope that helps!

[NittanyCruise]

You will make it...no worries, UNLESS the ship is late getting in.....

 

The tender trip is only 5 mins...and there should be at least 2 tenders running.

 

That's a lie. It takes at least 10 minutes once the tender leaves the Epic to get to the Dock. That doesn't include the time it takes to fill and empty the boats and such. Also, last week on the Epic, the line for the tender boats snaked the whole way through the Manhattan room and back out to the casino. So make sure you get an early tender ticket if time is of a concern.

[JassyTrue]

We just got back from cruising on the Epic - stopped in Grand Cayman and had no problems with getting on shore. We got our tender tickets for both Grand Cayman and GSC on the first day of the cruise (for some reason we had to book our tender tickets with guest services).

 

We docked in Grand Cayman at 8 AM and we were in Georgetown by 8:45. We did have to wait in a line to get back on the boat -- but I don't think you will have as much of a problem with the later tenders (we were competing with 4 other boats for tenders).

 

We had zero problems with tenders at GSC, but we went over late and left early.

[rhiannon35]

Sure. The excursion on GSC is catering only to NCL guests. The stingrays are in a pen (at least an acre of ocean floor), and there were only two tour boats at a time - ours was on one side of the pen and there was a second one on the other side of the pen....pretty far away). The groups are smaller than the Cayman one, too, so you have much more time with the rays and much more interaction with them.

 

The one in the Cayman Islands was...chaotic. There were at least a dozen boats all anchored in a fairly tight semi-circle. More boats meant far more people. Between all of the people and all of the rays, I was convinced someone was going to get stung. (No one did that I recall, but it wasn't anywhere near the level of calm GSC was.) There was less interaction with the rays, and the ray that our tour guide had was having a bit of a temper tantrum. I don't think she was used to the tourist thing, or it could be that there was too much activity for her to be comfortable.

 

If I remember, they were priced about the same, but GSC was definitely worth the $70 (I think) we paid for it. I would do that one again, but I would never do the one in the Cayman Islands again.

 

Hope that helps!

 

This is great info! I'm sailing same itinerary in March and was afraid CI excursion would be crazy.

By any chance, do you know if the stingrays at GSC are de-barbed? I know the ones on Disney's private island are. I'm a bit of a worrier!

[BensonFan711]

This is great info! I'm sailing same itinerary in March and was afraid CI excursion would be crazy.

By any chance, do you know if the stingrays at GSC are de-barbed? I know the ones on Disney's private island are. I'm a bit of a worrier!

 

They're not, BUT, in the history of the tour, only one passenger has ever been stung. (I asked about this at GSC, as stingrays scare the bejeezus out of me....my sister loves them, I went with her...yeah). Anyway, the one person that was stung was a teenager who was told multiple times by the tour operator to quit screwing around during the safety talk. He didn't. So, when he got in the water with the rays, he did what he wasn't supposed to do, and the ray stung him.

 

Moral of the story? Listen to the tour operator, make sure to do the "stingray shuffle" (they'll explain), and don't make sudden movements with your feet. Problem solved.