Tendering at Grand Cayman

[luckydogone]

We're going to be sailing on the Legend late June and we're wanting to use Soto's Cruises for their Sting Ray and Reef snorkeling excursion. The itenerary shows the Legend arriving at 7:00 am, Soto's cruise has two times for their tours. 9:30 - 11:30 and 1:00 - 3:00. We would like to do the morning tour but I'm wondering if we will be able to get off the ship in time. The last cruise I took to Grand Cayman we had to tender into the port and they only allowed those who booked through Carnival to get off first.

Has anyone used Soto's cruise or any other early shore excursion and been able to make it off the ship by 9:00 or so? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[*Mach*]

We're going to be sailing on the Legend late June and we're wanting to use Soto's Cruises for their Sting Ray and Reef snorkeling excursion. The itenerary shows the Legend arriving at 7:00 am, Soto's cruise has two times for their tours. 9:30 - 11:30 and 1:00 - 3:00. We would like to do the morning tour but I'm wondering if we will be able to get off the ship in time. The last cruise I took to Grand Cayman we had to tender into the port and they only allowed those who booked through Carnival to get off first.

Has anyone used Soto's cruise or any other early shore excursion and been able to make it off the ship by 9:00 or so? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

You'll have an opportunity to speak to a staff member about the necessity to get off the ship early. Carnival does give guests booked on Carnival excursions priority but it's not going to be a big deal. The tenders run frequently and it's only a few minutes ride to the dock at Georgetown...

I had a non-Carnival excursion on Grand Cayman and was off the ship at 7:10 AM...

[sunchasers64]

On the Conquest, we had to go to the theater and get tender tickets. Those with early excursions got off first. We REALLY enjoyed the Stingray City excursion. Amazing creatures. :)

[dalsti]

If you leave the ship early, you can go straight down to the tenders, no ticket necessary. They start handing out tickets when a line starts to form. You would need to go to the theater to get tickets. Since you are wanting to get off early it shouldn't be an issue. They said it gets busy around 9am.

 

Enjoy stingray city, its a blast.

[nolaAlive]

Before I was Platinum, I used to print my own tender tickets (stickers)! :eek: ;)

 

Not that they actually check anything that closely.

 

If you want to play by the rules, they used to say allow 45 minutes to get to shore (it is only a 5 minute tender ride). To allow 45-60 minutes is probably still a good rule, although often you can often just show up and get on the next tender. Check with the purser's desk to see if that is still a good rule.

 

Anyway, you can make a 9am tour, but don't wait until 8:55am to try to catch a tender.

 

With Soto's, they are going to meet you and drive you to where their boat is, and then it takes time to fit everyone with snorkel gear and sign waivers and pay, yada yada, and the van(s) may need to make multiple runs to pick up everyone anyway.