Great Stirrup Cay

[cruisekitty22]

Whats the earliest tender back to the ship for this port.  We are sailing on the Bliss March 22-29, 2020. Does it run all day?  Is it hourly?  Just curious.  I am a redhead so I don't want to fry to a crisp on this island all day.

[mking8288]

Most of the early tenders ... those in the morning, sail back to pickup more ship passengers, virtually empty.  They run continuously and you are free to step foot on the private island, walk around for 15 minutes, take some photos, then step back on the next available tender immediately - no lines, no wait & plenty of seats.  It easily take the double decker tenders, Norway 1 and 2, as much as 15 to 20 minutes to unload pax on the earliest priority tender.  

[complawyer]

i havent been to grand stirrup cay in years, but as i recall, the tender boats come in quite often, i think we spent about 2 hrs on their beach then took the tender back. personally, i'd prefer to stay on the ship, last time i was there, i was underwhelmed to say the least. i know its been highly upgraded, but i would personally not feel i missed anything not going ashore. ( the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own)

[beachbabybingo]

I'm curious how the tender tickets are handled. First come, first serve or is more organized with getting tickets (earlier in the week) for a particular time? Will passengers with a "Priority" status get any priority treatment?

[maja651]

6 hours ago, beachbabybingo said:

I'm curious how the tender tickets are handled. First come, first serve or is more organized with getting tickets (earlier in the week) for a particular time? Will passengers with a "Priority" status get any priority treatment?

I’d like to know this as well.

[smplybcause]

It varies by ship - each has a different method to pick it. But in my 3 goes at GSC I've never actually used my ticket (I'll explain more in a bit). If you have an excursion on GSC you get priority (and even renting a clamshell is technically an excursion). As do Haven, concierge, or suite guests (but not mini-suite). Anyone at Latitudes level Platinum and above can also enter the tender line at any time. Everyone else is by tender ticket until they've called them all and then it's first come first served get your butt in the line.

 

Why have I never used my ticket? Well for one the ships usually got there a little bit earlier than the planned time which meant they started calling ticket numbers early. But a lot of the people with the early numbers weren't ready to go on shore early so not many people showed up so they keep calling numbers and then end up blowing through the numbers early. Also, I think a lot of people underestimate their actual desire to get up that early or how fast they can make it through breakfast or how long it will actually take to go through the ticket numbers or decide not to go afterall so they're also not showing up when called.

 

The Away class give out the tender tickets via the interactive TV screens they have. It's first come first served and they go live a day or two before a tender port. Not sure on the other ships as the only other one I was on was Sun and if they did tickets of any kind we didn't bother, but had no problem walking off around 9am. 

Edited February 7, 2020 by smplybcause

[AviationInScale]

7 hours ago, beachbabybingo said:

I'm curious how the tender tickets are handled. First come, first serve or is more organized with getting tickets (earlier in the week) for a particular time? Will passengers with a "Priority" status get any priority treatment?

 

 

[Paul Bogle]

2 hours ago, smplybcause said:

Anyone at Latitudes level Platinum and above can also enter the tender line at any time.

 

Thank you for providing so much information. Just wanted to add for the benefit of others, Gold and above have priority tendering.

 

https://www.ncl.com/shorex/210500895/latitudes

 

[smplybcause]

5 minutes ago, Paul Bogle said:

 

Thank you for providing so much information. Just wanted to add for the benefit of others, Gold and above have priority tendering.

 

https://www.ncl.com/shorex/210500895/latitudes

 

 

Thanks, pretty much the one thing that's not Platinum and above and I forget it!

[BirdTravels]

On 1/26/2020 at 5:16 PM, cruisekitty22 said:

Whats the earliest tender back to the ship for this port.  We are sailing on the Bliss March 22-29, 2020. Does it run all day?  Is it hourly?  Just curious.  I am a redhead so I don't want to fry to a crisp on this island all day.

10:30 (assuming that passenger tendering starts at 10:00)

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Paul Bogle said:

 

Thank you for providing so much information. Just wanted to add for the benefit of others, Gold and above have priority tendering.

 

https://www.ncl.com/shorex/210500895/latitudes

 

Anyone with a ShoreEx ticket gets priority tendering also. 
 

Priority tendering means that you can join the BACK of the line without having a tender time. The line could be VERY long. 
 

They use large tenders and it takes 15+ minutes to fill a tender, one person at a time.