Tendering In Grand Cayman

[BUGBUG62]

I HAVE AN EXCURSION WIHT CAPT. MARVINS. CAPT M STATES TO GET THERE AT 9:15 FOR A 10:00 TRIP. WHAT IS THE BEST AND FASTEST WAY OFF THE SHIP. DO WE SHOW SOMEONE AND WHO OUR RESERVATIONS. WILL THAT HELP?? OR JUST BLEND IN AND BE A LITTLE PUSHY GETTING ON THE TENDER. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT LOCATION ON THE SHIP TO GET THE TENDER TICKETS FOR GRAND CAYMAN?:confused:

[cardinalfan]

I believe you will make it easy. They start with people who have Carnival excursions but other people got on the first tender as well. The key is to be there when they start handing out tickets for tenders and be on the first one. The tenders are big and hold alot of people. I was on the Conquest last week.

[kujobie]

Depends on when you are going (GC does not observe daylight savings time) and what time your ship arrives in port. We need more info. In our experiences, there are no tender tickets, you just get in line. The earlier you get in line, the earlier you get on a tender. If your ship arrives at 7:30 or 8:00 island time, you should have no problem. Just wait till the crowd dies down and you should be able to walk right on to a tender at 8:45 or 9:00. If you want to be on THE FIRST tender, get there early and be prepared to stand in line for a long time or book an early tour thru the ship.

[martdm]

I'm a little worried about the tendering process holding us up as well; perhaps one of you experts can give me some guidance.

 

Liberty will arrive at 8am ship time (EDT). We've got an independent excursion booked at 8:30 island time, which from what I understand is 9:30 ship time because Grand Cayman doesn't participate in daylight savings time. We need to meet about 15 minutes before the excursion so we'd have about 1.25 hours to get on a tender, to shore, and meet our guide. Is this doable?

 

How will we know when to go get tickets - do they announce it or do we need to camp out & wait? How does one manage to simply slip into line for a tender if everyone has a ticket?

 

Sorry for all the questions but I've never tendered (every time we've been on a cruise with a tendered port, it's been cancelled due to weather)...

[mongie]

We just returned from the Miracle. We went to GC one week ago today. They do a great job of getting people off the ship.

 

If you have an excursion through Carnival, they'll get you off in plenty of time. Folks who have excursions are the first ones off.

 

This was true in all the ports (Cozumel, Belize, and GC).

 

Also, don't worry about time changes. The Miracle didn't change clocks at all. We were all on "ship time" which made life a whole lot easier.

 

If anyone would like to know more about the Miracle, let me know. I've sailed on HAL, Celebrity, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, and Princess. This ship ranks up there with the best of them!

 

Mongie

[GinnyJ]

Read recent reviews of your sailing. Find out where the tender tickets are handed out. If the ship gets to port at 7am, be in line around 6am - 6:15am. I know this seems early but by the time they start handing out the tickets, the line will be llllllooooonnnnggg.

 

Capt. Marvin ( and other tour guides) already know when your ship will be there AND that you are trying to get off as soon as you can. This is how they earn a living. Ask Ruth (Capt. Marv), she will answer any questions.

[cruisemomof2]

I just returned from the Inspiration. I was told by the purser's desk that GC was an hour behind ship's time. I informed them that I had an independent excursion booked (with Capt. Marvin's), and I was told to be there by 8 am. They were very explicit in saying that we had an extra hour to spare and that 8 there time was acutally 9 ship's time.

 

Fot the GC port, they didn't give out tender tickets. It was a free for all. So, we got in line (at least what we thought was early), and didn't arrive to shore until 8:40.

 

To our dismay when we arrived at Capt. Marvin's...they are not an hour behind the ship's time. Therefore, we lost our excursion with them. There wasn't enough time to go on another tour with them due to our ship leaving so early that day.

 

I would check the time and then check again. Hopefully you can learn from my mistake of listening to the ship's crew:( .

[cruisingrobinsons]

As I understand it we are on the same time zone as Grand Cayman (EST)

until we move to daylight savings time (which is April-October).

That is when there is one hour difference. Grand Cayman does not switch to daylight savings time.The rest of the year (October-April) is standard time and the same time zone as Grand Cayman. We have

tried to e-mail and talk to everyone to be sure of this understanding before we make our excursion purchase. Now our biggest concern is

the tendering and how to be sure we get off and to where we are

suppose to be for a great excursion. Sorry about your experience.

Were you able to get something else on shore? We are being told to

wait till we get there to finalize the arrangements because they say

ships are late, rough waters may cancel tendering, other tendering

issues....