Grand Cayman- tender/excursion timing

Disney Magic 5 night Western Caribbean out of Miami, end of March

My first cruise, hoping to get insight from the pros. There doesn't seem to be many excursion options for young kids (2yr old & 4 yr old). We thought the Hell/Turtle Farm tour through Captain Marvin's might be fun.

The online reservation form lists times of 9am and 11am. The earlier time would be more convenient but I don't think we'd make it. Disney lists ashore time as 7:30am. Port Authority of Cayman Islands lists Disney Magic arrival at 8am. End of March would be after daylight savings starts so ship time and island time don't match??

There are 3 other ships due to arrive at 8am also. What time could we realistically expect to get on land?

Thank you

It depends on how much you want to rush. You cannot depend on being on the first tender EVER.

First tender, the concierge guests get priority tender tickets. If you are on the Magic, that's not a huge number. On the Fantasy it is a lot more! Then all the early departure DCL tour groups get to cut the line. Even if you are in line well before they are, they show up with their escort and 60 people may cut in front of you. And multiple tour groups might do this. It doesn't matter that your tender ticket number was called and you went to the boarding area following your guide as instructed. You will stand there while they board, and will get on if there is any space left. Secondly, we've been on a cruise where the first tender was taken for an "emergency" situation. Thus, only one guest, in handcuffs, was on that tender.

Our tendering experience has always been good. When we arrived last time at Grand Cayman, we were the only ship anchored. We had three tenders serving our ship for over an hour until the next ship arrived and was ready. At that point, one of our tenders broke off and went to the other ship. Still, we had been able to unload a lot of passengers given that as soon as one tender departed from the ship, the next one tied on and began to load--no

"in transit" waiting."

We've done the half day island tour which included Hell and the Turtle farm as well as a couple of other stops thru Captain Marvin's. Honestly, I don't think young children would enjoy the island tour part at all. You can do the turtle farm thru Boatswains (the operators of the turtle farm) where they provide your transportation. Since this does not include the island tour, there are many more departure times. Hell is a rock formation with a post office and a couple of tourist stores. Yes, all the street signs around it are references to hell. Reality....it's not much to see. I honestly wouldn't recommend it for kids. That said, we had a super guide and the tour was a lot of fun for the teens and adults.

If you "rush" and make it to the first tender, your arrival on land depends on when the ship actually anchors and the tender departs. Captain Marvin's is used to dealing with this situation. But if you are not on board till the third tender, which is totally possible, you should plan on about an hour later than the first. You might luck out as we did and get an earlier arrival, but you can't depend on it.

The trip is about 5 mins after you pull away.. doesn't take that long! Takes longer to load the tender than the trip takes!

The trip is about 5 mins after you pull away.. doesn't take that long! Takes longer to load the tender than the trip takes!

Definitely--but loading can take 30 minutes depending on how fast people move, etc. Each tender holds about 200 people, some even more.

I thought about booking the Turtle Farm directly. It looks like if you have pre-booked, they have a van/shuttle at the port to bring you to the center. Are you on your own to get back? I can't find anything about returning to port (other than city bus or taxi).

We will probably only be on land a few hours and be back on the ship early-mid afternoon. It's Pirate Night later so hoping both girls will nap to be ready for a late night. Are the tenders bringing passengers back as they fill up or at scheduled times?

I thought about booking the Turtle Farm directly. It looks like if you have pre-booked, they have a van/shuttle at the port to bring you to the center. Are you on your own to get back? I can't find anything about returning to port (other than city bus or taxi).

 

We will probably only be on land a few hours and be back on the ship early-mid afternoon. It's Pirate Night later so hoping both girls will nap to be ready for a late night. Are the tenders bringing passengers back as they fill up or at scheduled times?

There used to be vans from Boatswain's that took people back to the tender area. I would e-mail them to be sure that is in effect. It WAS a situation where you lined up and hopped on the next van--no scheduled to get back.

The tender to return to the port works the same way. The tender boat sits at the dock and fills up as people return. When they decide that either it has been waiting long enough or it is full enough, it heads over to the ship and unloads. Then it returns to the dock and begins filling again. Depending on when you arrive at the tender area, you may have no wait at all or may wait 20 minutes or more (sitting on the boat, waiting to depart). They will announce the time for the LAST tender in the Navigator and thru multiple other sources.

Bottom line--any time you are dealing with a tender situation, you can't plan the timing accurately. You can arrive at the tender area at 2 and be on the ship at 2:10. Or you can arrive at the tender area at 2 and not arrive at the ship until 2:30. SO if you have a plan to meet someone or an appointment on board, be sure to allow extra time.

I'm pretty sure we had the 9am time for Captain Marvin when we went to GC last February. It was a snorkeling excursion though, and we JUST made it to the office (which is really easy to get to) only to be told that the water was too choppy to do the snorkeling and did we want to do an island tour. We said yes and had a great time.

Our cabin was on deck 5 aft so RIGHT NEXT TO the movie theater where we were to meet. We got there at whatever time it was to get there and I think we were the second tender out. Now, there was only one other ship that was due to be in port and it wasn't due until 10 am. So we were getting all the tender boats. I think that was key because the wait was very short.