Tender wait time

[Sunsetters]

Was wondering what peoples recent experiences have been in Belize and Grand Cayman with Tenders. Friends on the liberty last week had shore booked excursion in Belize and it took them over 2 hours to get off ship, they said that Carnival kept making announcements that it wouldn't be that bad in Grand Cayman but it was. We are booked for these tender locations in 6 weeks on the Liberty and wondering if our already pre booked excursion with Island Marketing should be cancelled and re book something through Carnival ( although, nothing is looking great to me) I understand FTTF and Platinum are off first, then Carnival booked excursions, hmmmmmmm

[larkz]

I had FTTF on my most recent cruise (and for priority tendering, it was well worth it), but on my previous 3 western Caribbean cruises, I was able to get off the ship within 30 to 60 minutes only because I got in line a hour (or more) before tendering was scheduled to begin. And of course, there's an additional 20 minutes that it takes to get from the ship to shore in Belize, maybe half that in Cayman.

[bellasteena]

I was on the Feb 9th sailing of Conquest. We booked an excursion through carnival for belize and we were in the first tender group. Our tender had people not on carnival tours on it. In grand cayman we booked privately and went to the lounge before the announcement was made to come. We were group 11 and it took over an hour to get off the ship. Our tour guide said the first tender to port was non carnival excursions. We barely made our tour at 11:30 and there were people with number 26 by the time we left.

I think it's possible to get off early doing private tours but you have to go extra early to the lounge to get your place.

Also note that there were more people doing carnival tours in belize than in grand cayman on our trip.

 

 

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Edited February 22, 2014 by bellasteena