Grand Cayman Tendering on Carnival

[CHATTACRUISER]

Does anyone have an idea on  tendering at GC on Carnival Freedom? I want to schedule a 10:45 am tour. Our ship arrives at 8 a.m.

I'm concerned because of a recent Carnival tender fiasco in Kona, Hawaii.  Thousands of passengers but only 2 tenders in use. By the time our tender # was called, we had only 2 hours to tour the island!  I hope the situation is better in GC and Carnival has more than 2 tenders in operation! TIA for any advice on the earliest I should plan a non-Carnival sponsored excursion.

Edited July 4, 2019 by CHATTACRUISER

[crewsweeper]

I heard the Kona fiasco was a one off.

 

In my past experience, there have been tenders running back and forth.  Maybe 5-10 minute intervals.  It's a short tender ride.   But will probably depend on how many other ships are in Georgetown that day so check with cruisett.com or cruisetimetables.com to see the schedule, remembering these may change.

 

In GC you sometimes run the risk of NOT being able to moor or tender in due to weather or currents.  Its the call of the port authority.  Affects all ships scheduled.

 

If concerned about getting to shore, get to the tender meetup place as early as you can and sign up.  You'll be on the first couple of tenders to leave, maybe even with the priority passengers.

Edited July 5, 2019 by crewsweeper

[CHATTACRUISER]

 

 

Very helpful information and I appreciate it!  Thanks very much!

[Paul Bogle]

Ships tendering in Kona use their own tenders/life boats. The situation in Grand Cayman is very different. The Cayman Islands have their own tenders which are double deckers and hold around 250 people. The service is very fast and efficient. 

 

You should arrange for an early tender ticket but a 10:30 excursion when the ship arrives at 8:00 should need exceptional issues to miss.

[bankofdad]

Good advise by others for Grand Cayman, so nothing to add here.  Just wondering about Kona - that used to be a port where you docked (I've been a Pride of Aloha and Pride of America passenger in the past).  I wonder what changed that and when?

[Chervil]

We have been two GC three times and each was exceptionally easy and fast.
As Paul Bogle mentioned, the tenders are double decker and usually have one or two idling as one fills up, so it goes quick.
Same with the return trip to the boat.

I attached a photo, if you zoom in a bit you can see it.

This is the last one before the ship leaves, but usually there are 2-3 idling nearby.

However as Crewsweeper said, our first trip that included GC as a port, the winds were too strong to tender, so they cancelled GC and took us to Belize instead (in hindsight, we were robbed, but discretion is the better part of valor...)
So find out what the refund policy is if the boat can't dock at all.