Problems with Apex Tendering in Grand Cayman

[phoenix_dream]

21 minutes ago, StillLooking4Adventure said:

I guess for some reason they can't use their own tenders. Shame. 

The local tenders here are actually quite large, but maybe not enough of them with so many ships in today.

[goofysmom99]

31 minutes ago, DCPIV said:

 

I want to get back to Summit even more than I thought I did! 

It's been outstanding!  Our friends are in the PH this cruise and we're having a great time.  Your ears should have been burning, too. 😉

[DCPIV]

11 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

It's been outstanding!  Our friends are in the PH this cruise and we're having a great time.  Your ears should have been burning, too. 😉

 

So that's what it was. I thought my allergies were acting up again! 😉

 

I miss y'all! 

[hcat]

Sea conditions often affect timing and safety of Tendering  to Gr Cayman....sometimes they have to suspend service or switch the tendering side of the ship.  We have seen a few bad injuries of those being loaded on..not worth it!

 

We don't bother anymore.  Last time awhile ago we were finishing up a great lunch in  Bistro on 5..they were still calling Tender Nos..  We have enough expensive tee shirts, snorkel photos.. ..too much traffic when more than a few shipsl.

[mac_tlc]

14 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

The local tenders here are actually quite large, but maybe not enough of them with so many ships in today.

Captain Kate indicated that this was why we did not use the MC in GC last month, although there were only 2 ships there that day. Seemed like everybody wanted to try it using the MC.
 

mac_tlc

Edited February 24, 2023 by mac_tlc

[cluso]

Yep, Grand Cayman is a throw of the dice.  When we anchored, 5 other BIG ships were there.  We finally got off 3 hours after arrival.  The town was a zoo.  We walked south to the Sunset House and had a nice relaxed late lunch.  It's on the water and caters to divers (it's a hotel, too).

[TeeRick]

18 hours ago, StillLooking4Adventure said:

I thought one of the benefits of the Edge class ships was the very large tenders with easy access from the magic carpet? I've been on the Apex but none of the ports required tenders.

Like everything else on GC, the government has the control.  The local tenders are always used there.  Not the ship tenders.  And if is in the slightest bit windy or rough, the tendering is very slow.  

[reedprincess]

Pool bar and Cafe Al Bacio for Apex in CG yesterday "due to government regulations" - which apparently didn't apply as stringently to Summit for some reason.

And Eden opened around 3ish (could have been a touch earlier). 

It was a complete mess. Tons of people missed Excursions as even excursions couldn't get off the ships in a timely enough manner to make it to the actual excursions with enough time to have the trip. Crazy.

None of the 4 ships were large ships at all, both Carnival ships were smaller older ships (Paradise and Glory), then Summit and Apex.  

Why they were handing out tickets before 10 as listed in the Event schedule, who knows. My brother got 46 (in line at 9:45 or so) and gave up by 11:30, when they were at 10 or 12, far less waiting for 46! Insanity. 

 

With port times of only 6 hours to begin with (10:30-4:30) - for us, it was a planned sea day - except the bar limits were ridiculous.

 

By 3:30 there was literally a line of people for the pool bar down the stairs, down towards the Master Grill.. crazy..

 

We've been to CG numerous times - by far the worst tender mess we've seen in any visit, particularly with handing out Tix long before the listed times... 

Yes, I know - local tenders, sea conditions, etc - if the country can't supply enough tender boats to service the amount of ships they allow, they shouldn't allow so many ships. It leaves a bad impression for visitors - who then won't come back, or won't bother going ashore should it be via ship... 

 

There's been a few snafus this cruise (dining room service is very very hit or miss, last night took 3 hours, the night before 1.5, same restaurant, same amount of courses, etc - 🤷🏻‍♀️) but overall it's been a great sailing...

 

 

[DCPIV]

31 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

Why they were handing out tickets before 10 as listed in the Event schedule, who knows.

 

If I had to guess as to why, I would say that it likely was a combination of pax lining up at 9 or before plus crew seeing or anticipating that things were going to be slow and cruddy.  It stinks, nonetheless, but it sounds like GC is causing ships a lot of headaches.

[mahdnc]

Here's a photo of the tenders used at Grand Cayman during our Eclipse sailing in 2016.  

 

[madieu23]

39 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

Pool bar and Cafe Al Bacio for Apex in CG yesterday "due to government regulations" - which apparently didn't apply as stringently to Summit for some reason.

And Eden opened around 3ish (could have been a touch earlier). 

It was a complete mess. Tons of people missed Excursions as even excursions couldn't get off the ships in a timely enough manner to make it to the actual excursions with enough time to have the trip. Crazy.

None of the 4 ships were large ships at all, both Carnival ships were smaller older ships (Paradise and Glory), then Summit and Apex.  

Why they were handing out tickets before 10 as listed in the Event schedule, who knows. My brother got 46 (in line at 9:45 or so) and gave up by 11:30, when they were at 10 or 12, far less waiting for 46! Insanity. 

 

With port times of only 6 hours to begin with (10:30-4:30) - for us, it was a planned sea day - except the bar limits were ridiculous.

 

By 3:30 there was literally a line of people for the pool bar down the stairs, down towards the Master Grill.. crazy..

 

We've been to CG numerous times - by far the worst tender mess we've seen in any visit, particularly with handing out Tix long before the listed times... 

Yes, I know - local tenders, sea conditions, etc - if the country can't supply enough tender boats to service the amount of ships they allow, they shouldn't allow so many ships. It leaves a bad impression for visitors - who then won't come back, or won't bother going ashore should it be via ship... 

 

There's been a few snafus this cruise (dining room service is very very hit or miss, last night took 3 hours, the night before 1.5, same restaurant, same amount of courses, etc - 🤷🏻‍♀️) but overall it's been a great sailing...

 

 

wow even those who booked excursions with celebrity cant tender on time? That's crazy.

[jwlane]

18 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

photo of the tenders 

Same ones are visible looking at the webcams.

[Bill Miller]

Acronym update. MC is short for hugely expensive Magic Carnival ride. Infrequently used but the shipyard design engineers loved it.

[rmalbers]

One thing this reminds me of, one time, at Bar Harbor (M class ship),  the waves were big enough that it took the 'typical' X cruiser forever to get on/off the tenders.  It was nuts. 

Edited February 24, 2023 by rmalbers

[mahdnc]

55 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

One thing this reminds me of, one time, at Bar Harbor (M class ship),  the waves were big enough that it took the 'typical' X cruiser forever to get on/off the tenders.  It was nuts. 

 

During our Great Barrier Reef cruise in Jan 2018, the winds were high enough that the crew had difficulty in getting Solstice's anchor to hold during our overnight port stop at Cairns.  The anchor dragged several times before they could get it to dig into the seabed sufficiently to finally hold.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by mahdnc

[reedprincess]

3 hours ago, madieu23 said:

wow even those who booked excursions with celebrity cant tender on time? That's crazy.

Yes, even excursion guests were missing their excursions as they just couldn't get people off the ship in time to be able to have their complete excursion.. it was a mess .

Spoke with several folks we've met a long the week who missed different ones, and would be refunded... 

[miched]

The cruise ships should boycott GC.  I m sure there are other ports they could go to.    
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[SbbquilterUT]

We had the chance to board tenders from the MC on the apex when sailing Ireland and it was the easiest I have experienced - that day the seas were lovely.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, SbbquilterUT said:

We had the chance to board tenders from the MC on the apex when sailing Ireland and it was the easiest I have experienced - that day the seas were lovely.

The problem in Grand Cayman is often choppy seas and too many ships tendering.  

Had to laugh about the Bar Harbor comment.  On Millenium we were anchored at the farthest spot.  Got dark quickly followed by misty rain and fog.  One of the Celebrity tenders hit a rock.  Thankfully no major injuries.  The passengers were transferred to  local boats.  The tender was finally towed to back to the ship.

[Guest ldtr]

If I recall correctly the tenders all go the the same place. If you have lots of ships in port it means lots of congestion at the tender dock.

 

GC has already made the decision not to build a pier for cruise ships due to the number of passengers. Would not take much for them to start restricting the number of tendering ships as well.