Tendering

[CPT Trips]

On a recent visit (early Dec.) HAL used four of the lifeboats for tendering - it was a mess with lengthy waits. One other line also used its lifeboats. There were larger tenders from the port in use for the remaining two ships.

 

We are going again in a week. What has been the recent experience? Has it improved? I am particularly interested in RCI Splendor.

[LKitt82566]

I am also interested, going on splendour Feb 26.

Thanks for any information you can supply.

[Lynda S]

The answer depends on the ship & the circumstances - we were there twice in Dec - we did back to back cruises on RCI Grandeur of the Seas, Dec 11th and Dec 18th from New Orleans. The first week the tenders went very smooth - I was amazed, I have been on smaller ships that were not as well done as the Grandeur did it in that first week! We arrived early at 9 am, (was supposed to be 10 am), they made the announcement for tender tickets, we went, and we got tender # 3. About 5 min later, they called tender 1, 2 and 3 - I was amazed. They had the use of two of the big tenders from the Caymans - probably about 400 passengers apiece. Only drawback was loading time - it took about 1/2 hr. So, that was week one when there were 1700 people on board the ship.

What an unpleasant surprise week 2 was! Christmas break, 2318 passengers with (I swear!) over half of the passengers being under the age of 18! Again, we arrived early, but they didn't call as early this time for tender tickets, they called at 9:30, exactly when they said they wer going to originally. They told my husband and I to go on the first tender (the big one again) as he walks with a cane, we were on the pier by 10:30, but the rest of our party ended up with tickets for tender 14 and 16. The first three (tender 14) came into the pier at 11:20 on the third big tender, the next two (tender 16) came in on a ship's tender at about 12:00. Needless to say we missed out on our pre-booked internet tour - so if you are independent please leave yourself enough time to get off the ship if it is a big one. If you are early then that will be a bonus!

[jep]

Just back from 12/26/04 sailing of Carnival Valor which stopped at Grand Cayman on Dec. 30. The tendering was a complete mess! There were probably 5 ships in port that day, and due to rough seas, all of the Stingray tours for all of the ships had been cancelled, leaving thousands of additional passengers that had to tender to shore rather than hop directly on the snorkel tour boats. The big bottleneck at this port is not the number and capacity of the tenders used by your ship, but the fact that the location for docking the tender at the port is very limited, with only a couple tenders that can dock at a time. After we were in the tender, we waited near the dock in a line of tenders for about 15 minutes for a spot to open up where the tender could dock and let us out. I imagine the system works much better when the Stingray tours are not cancelled, but under the circumstances, the port facilities were simply inadequate for tendering five cruise ships. Our ship arrived about 10 am, and we didn't get on shore until about 1pm. The tenders back to the ship had the same problem. The last tender was supposed to leave at 4:45, but because of the slow process, the last one left at 5:30.

[dna1990]

I hadn't heard of leaving the ship directly onto a tour boat before (in GC). The Stingrays are on the opposite side of the island, however are there snorkel reef tours that leave directly from the ship?

 

If so, that would influence our decision to book via the cruiseline...

[simkoreb]

I've never heard of this in grand cayman either!