Tender procedures/schedules

[JoyGirl]

I'll be on the Inspiration arriving in Grand Cayman at 7am on a Monday, where I know that you must take a tender into the port. Will I be able to make it to the port by 8am? Is there a way to request a spot on an early tender, or is it first come first served? I do not plan on taking a Carnival excursion.

 

Also, the ship is scheduled to leave at 2pm. Will I have any trouble getting back on the ship in time if I plan to be back at the port by 1:30pm?

 

I appreciate any help.

[gtalum]

If you're not on a Carnival excursion, my advice to you is to just head straight down to Deck A (where the tenders board) and get on the first available tender. No one checks for tickets. If you follow official policy, you have to wait for the all-clear. If someone were to try to stop you, just play dumb and go back upstairs. But I doubt it will happen.

[emmysmommy]

You shouldn't have a problem making it into port by 8 am if you board one of the early tenders. I was never asked for an excursion ticket or document so you can be one of the crowd! Also, the tour operators that operate independently from Carnival are very good about getting folks back to the port in time to make the last tenders back. Fortunately for Grand Cayman, the ship is not anchored too far off shore, so the tender ride is very brief.

[JoyGirl]

Thank you for the info! We're hoping to drive over to Rum Point on our own, and I don't want to cut it too close in getting back to the ship, but I also want as much time as possible at the beach.

[Chief Cruiser]

I'll be on the Inspiration arriving in Grand Cayman at 7am on a Monday, where I know that you must take a tender into the port. Will I be able to make it to the port by 8am? Is there a way to request a spot on an early tender, or is it first come first served? I do not plan on taking a Carnival excursion.

 

Also, the ship is scheduled to leave at 2pm. Will I have any trouble getting back on the ship in time if I plan to be back at the port by 1:30pm?

 

I appreciate any help.

 

I was on this cruise just a couple of weeks ago and the early tenders are for Carnival's Shore Excursion folks.....they say. As already suggested, I would play dumb and get down early in order to be in port by 8 am. The tender ride iitself is very short. But, that's not the total time involved if you have to wait while other tenders are unloading and loading.

 

As far as getting back to the port by 1:30, I would never cut it that close. The official time to be back on the ship is 1:30, not be at the port trying to catch a tender. I was on the upper deck to watch us sail out of port and I don't recall seeing a tender leave the port and come our way that late. I just think waiting until 1:30 to get back is to close of a call. Especailly if you're not on a Carnival Excursion. The ship won't wait for you if you are running late. Vehicle traffic was terrible. More than half of our 2 hour and 15 minute shore tour was spent sitting on the bus in traffic.

 

I don't know how many ships are in port that day, but when I was there, there were 3. My wife and I got back to the port around 12:30 and had wait in line for about 20 minutes for a tender. The port was jammed packed with people. By the time I got back to the ship, went to my stateroom and dumped the souveniers, and went back up top to sail out of port, I had about 10 minutes to spar.

 

I hope your experience in Georgetown was better than mine. With 3 ships in port, the stores, shops, resturants and sidewalks were so crowded, it was just awful. Perhaps coming from a small town, I wasn't use to that kind of crowd. Nevertheless, it was push, shove, and fight your way through an ocean of people to get to where you were going. I just don't enjoy that kind of thing.

 

Anyway, good luck. Think seriously about that 1:30 issue!

[serene56]

You didnt say WHAT Monday you will be visiting Grand CAyman. At the present time Cayman is 1 hour behind FLorida time. (I do not know if the island does daylight savings time when we move our clocks at the end of the month. so 8am ship tme will be 7am island time.

Sorry if this confuses you more--