How long of a wait to tender?

[mateome]

We will be on the Carnival Legend in a few weeks. I am wanting to book a cave tubing excursion, but not with the cruiselines. But I'm concerned about how long it will take to get on a tender. I understand that passengers with cruise sponsored excursions get priority, so how tricky will it be for us to get off in time to meet our excursion? If we were only saving $40 to do a private excursion, I'd probably suck it up and go with the ship, but since it looks like about $50 per person savings....boy, that's a lot of drinks that could buy!

[Banditswife]

How funny, we are on Legend in Dec. I posted same question on Carnival Forum. Wondered about how long to get a tender if I booked outside of Carnival's offerings. I was told to get to tender meeting area well ahead of time to get a tender ticket, hopefully you can get an early tender. I was told by my independant tour guide that they are well aware of ship's schedule and would work with us whenever or however long it took to get off ship, also promised to get us back on time. Just curious: when are you sailing? And what tour are you looking at?

[mateome]

Thanks for responding! We are on the Legend on October 30th. Thinking about cave tubing with VIV.

[CACkles]

We were on the Carnival Valor in September, so I imagine it would be similar. The tender boats are pretty large, so it doesn't take too long. We had a group of six. Four of the group got to the lounge/waiting area about 20 minutes before tendering was to start and they got tender ticket #1. I'm not positive if that was actually the first tender boat or the first one after the Carnival excursions, but I think it was the actual first boat. Two of our group arrived about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time and got tender ticket #3. They took groups 2 and 3 and the second boat, so the second group arrived about 15 minutes after the first group.

 

We also took VIV and you don't have to worry. They had more than one tour group, so they took the ones that were ready and were waiting for ones who were still coming. I do recommend one of the earlier tenders because the earlier you get to the river the less crowded it is.

[Banditswife]

We were on the Carnival Valor in September, so I imagine it would be similar. The tender boats are pretty large, so it doesn't take too long. We had a group of six. Four of the group got to the lounge/waiting area about 20 minutes before tendering was to start and they got tender ticket #1. I'm not positive if that was actually the first tender boat or the first one after the Carnival excursions, but I think it was the actual first boat. Two of our group arrived about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time and got tender ticket #3. They took groups 2 and 3 and the second boat, so the second group arrived about 15 minutes after the first group.

 

We also took VIV and you don't have to worry. They had more than one tour group, so they took the ones that were ready and were waiting for ones who were still coming. I do recommend one of the earlier tenders because the earlier you get to the river the less crowded it is.

We are w/David-cabetubingrus. He assures me he will wait for us and will have us back to ship on time. I think they are all aware of ship's schedule.

[Banditswife]

Thanks for posting that CACKles, it is good to know the tender boats are of the larger variety. Valor will be in port on same day as Legend the day we are in Belize. Our tour will have some folks from both ships according to David.

[CACkles]

Thanks for posting that CACKles, it is good to know the tender boats are of the larger variety. Valor will be in port on same day as Legend the day we are in Belize. Our tour will have some folks from both ships according to David.

 

Check the arrival times of both ships. If they are not the same and you are the earlier arrival, you might not like having to wait for the second ship for the rest of your group.

[Banditswife]

Check the arrival times of both ships. If they are not the same and you are the earlier arrival, you might not like having to wait for the second ship for the rest of your group.

Thanks will check it out