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Grand Cayman Docked or Tendered?

Luvcrusn

By Luvcrusn,
in Celebrity Cruises

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Grandmaanne7

Grandmaanne7

Posted
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Yes, you will be tendered. We were quite amazed that they actually don't lower the anchors due to possible reef damage. The bay is very sheltered and the ships stay perfectly still. We asked an officer about this and he confirmed it.

 

Sent from my SM-G530W using Tapatalk

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cynbar

cynbar

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Usually the tenders drop you right in Georgetown, the main town, where there are plenty of taxis and tour companies right at the pier. But once the ship stopped on another side of the island due to rough seas, and we were tendered into a very quiet area. Also, sometimes ships have to skip Grand Cayman if the weather is too bad, so be aware of that as you make your plans or book any private tours.

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lvz2cruz

lvz2cruz

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We were tendered off Reflection last month stopping at 10. Tender numbers were still being called at 1 but they were not giving out tickets anymore so if you hadn't gotten one you could not get off yet.

Important to know if you are planning an excursion on your own. Usually in tender ports we are off first hour but here it took three.

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TeeRick

TeeRick

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Usually the tenders drop you right in Georgetown, the main town, where there are plenty of taxis and tour companies right at the pier. But once the ship stopped on another side of the island due to rough seas, and we were tendered into a very quiet area. Also, sometimes ships have to skip Grand Cayman if the weather is too bad, so be aware of that as you make your plans or book any private tours.

 

This is a good point to note. We have missed Grand Cayman 3 times out of 6 cruises there due to winds/rough water. Maybe just unlucky but something to be aware of when booking excursions.

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lvz2cruz

lvz2cruz

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Last time we had booked a tour with the ship - now just want to take a taxi to Seven Miles Beach. Will it really take 3 hours to get ashore? What are your experiences? If so we might consider to book a tour again.....

 

You should be okay if you get tender tickets. Usually open tenders are announced after first hour or so but not this time. We often wait but it took til after one to have open tenders. Next time we will get tickets or do the elite priority tendering.

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grandgeezer

grandgeezer

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If you are Elite, or higher, just go to the Explorer Lounge and when they get a small group, they will take you down to the tender, no ticket needed. In December, as soon as we got to the lounge they took us to the tender. This was about 1/2 hour after they started calling numbers.

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Duanerice1

Duanerice1

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Starting to get a wee bit concerned re a private excursion at Grand Cayman. We are Select and are getting picked up at 11:20, 10:00 arrival at port. What are our chances of not making it to the town on time?

 

We've never had a problem getting off the ship except once when we took a Carnival cruise. Cruise was fine, tender process was crap.

 

Last time we were waiting for our tour 30 min early becasue the process was so fast. You should not have an issue getting there within an hour of docking.

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cb at sea

cb at sea

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GC is always tendered...there is no dock for large vessels.

 

On most ships, suites do get priority, after early excursions. If you don't NEED to be 1st off...then just wait 30 mins...and it's easy to catch the next tender. The trip to shore is about 5-8 mins.....max!

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MichaelCMTX

MichaelCMTX

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This is a good point to note. We have missed Grand Cayman 3 times out of 6 cruises there due to winds/rough water. Maybe just unlucky but something to be aware of when booking excursions.

 

You might just have bad luck, we're 4 for 4... but 3 of those were January and the one in November ended up rainy.

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rjg41

rjg41

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Yes, you will be tendered. We were quite amazed that they actually don't lower the anchors due to possible reef damage. The bay is very sheltered and the ships stay perfectly still. We asked an officer about this and he confirmed it.

 

Sent from my SM-G530W using Tapatalk

 

1) There are no cruise ship docks at Grand Cayman.

2) For those that think about these things, the sheltered harbor helps the ship stay in position but they maintain their position by use of the navigation system, bow thrusters, and izopods(steerable aft propellers/engines).

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FreestyleNovice

FreestyleNovice

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1) There are no cruise ship docks at Grand Cayman.

2) For those that think about these things, the sheltered harbor helps the ship stay in position but they maintain their position by use of the navigation system, bow thrusters, and izopods(steerable aft propellers/engines).

 

Azipods. And not all cruise ships have Azipod propulsion. ;)

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greydog

greydog

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Grand Cayman does get high winds and rough seas at times over on the west end - ships sometimes will move down around Bodden Town on the south shore. No dock there, either.

 

We've skipped GC on a couple cruises due to rough seas. There was discussion a couple years ago about a ship started tendering pax ashore in morning but seas got rougher as day passed. They started blowing the fog horn for pax to return early. There was a lot of trouble boarding elderly with the tenders rocking badly. GOOD LUCK

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