Carnival tender process in Grand Cayman

[Duanerice1]

Hi All,

We've never taken a tender on Carnival.  Going to Grand Cayman in a couple of months and wondering how the process works.   Each cruise line is a bit different.  We need to be one of the first tenders off do to a early non Carnival tour.

 

Thanks

Duane

[klfrodo]

Diamond/Platinum status first

Carnival purchased excursions second

Everyone else.

[BallFour4]

1 hour ago, klfrodo said:

Diamond/Platinum status first

Carnival purchased excursions second

Everyone else.

Learned that it's one-way priority when we made platinum. They could care less what precious metal you are on the return. Our strategy since then is to grab a bottle of water, find a spot in the shade and wait for the line to diminish!

 

.

[sailorfool57]

Went up to Red Frog bar at 6:30 am the morning off to grab an early time slot ticket.  Supposedly disembark at 10:30 without ticket. Had to be back on ship at 1:30.  I got a 9:30 time slot, then found they had already opened it up to everyone 30 minutes before. Coming back was a little rougher because the line wrapped around and up and down the whole area.  Get off early, but come back very early!

[DANCING GRANDMOMMY]

My husband and I are platinum and my son and his wife are not. Can they get off with us?

 

[klfrodo]

28 minutes ago, DANCING GRANDMOMMY said:

My husband and I are platinum and my son and his wife are not. Can they get off with us?

 

Have they earned that benefit?

 

[kctwinmommy]

Like it was already said, they will make sure all of the Carnival excursions are done first. They have everyone gather in the theater, organized by groups based on your excursion, then call them each off. I just looked at my pics and we were on our tender at 8:02, and then lining up to get on our bus around 9:00. I think it took about 20 minutes or so to get onto the island.

 

Coming back, the line was super long! I want to say the last tender was at like 4 or 4:30 and we were walking up right around then. However, so were 100 other people. LOL! We were all on Carnival excursions though, so we weren't worried. But there's no guarantee they'll be waiting like that.

[Duanerice1]

Thanks all.  Looking to do a snorkel excursion and they all want

you on shore by 8:30 (9:30 ship time).  I am only Gold so don’t have any status on Carnival.   We dock at 8 ship time. Just not sure we can get off on time.  The Carnival excursions are at Least 30% more and go to 2 less snorkel spot so we are not interested. 

 

Since we dock at 8, what are the odds of us getting off by 9:00 ship time?    We are on a small ship, the Paradise.  Just a quick 5 night cruise. 
 

Thanks 

[Bgwest]

9 hours ago, DANCING GRANDMOMMY said:

My husband and I are platinum and my son and his wife are not. Can they get off with us?

 

No

[Brkintx]

The Google isn't cooperating - does anyone know when the new berthing (eliminating the need to tender) is supposed to be complete in GC?  That will improve things dramatically...

Edited July 19, 2022 by Brkintx

[bguppies]

6 hours ago, Duanerice1 said:

Thanks all.  Looking to do a snorkel excursion and they all want

you on shore by 8:30 (9:30 ship time).  I am only Gold so don’t have any status on Carnival.   We dock at 8 ship time. Just not sure we can get off on time.  The Carnival excursions are at Least 30% more and go to 2 less snorkel spot so we are not interested. 

 

Since we dock at 8, what are the odds of us getting off by 9:00 ship time?    We are on a small ship, the Paradise.  Just a quick 5 night cruise. 
 

Thanks 

Paradise will help, but also depends on how many other ships will be in port at the same time.

 

I've been to Grand Cayman with just two ships in port with a non stop flow of tenders back and forth. (I think it was four tenders per ship)

 

I've also been there with six ships and only had one tender ferrying people back and forth, so it took forever that day.

 

Check thje schedule for Georgetown that day and what time your ship arrives compared to the others.

 

If it just the Paradise and maybe one other ship you should be good. Just get the earliest ticket you can.

[Schoifmom]

16 hours ago, DANCING GRANDMOMMY said:

My husband and I are platinum and my son and his wife are not. Can they get off with us?

 

 

You used to be able to take a certain number of "guests" with you using your priority tender benefit.  I don't know if that has been eliminated with the restart or not.

[MisterOJ2]

7 hours ago, Duanerice1 said:

Thanks all.  Looking to do a snorkel excursion and they all want

you on shore by 8:30 (9:30 ship time).  I am only Gold so don’t have any status on Carnival.   We dock at 8 ship time. Just not sure we can get off on time.  The Carnival excursions are at Least 30% more and go to 2 less snorkel spot so we are not interested. 

 

Since we dock at 8, what are the odds of us getting off by 9:00 ship time?    We are on a small ship, the Paradise.  Just a quick 5 night cruise. 
 

Thanks 

 

For the most part, independent excursion operators know when your ship gets in and have reasonable expectations when it comes to leaving on the excursion. We've been right there on time with several of them, but the operators do their best to wait and not leave anyone. So, it's actually very rare to leave right when they say you will. 

 

My advice to people wanting to hurry off the ship to make a private excursion is to not dawdle, but also don't break your neck and worry yourself to death trying to be the first ones off. If you do try to be the very first ones off, chances are very high you'll just be waiting around with the tour operator while you wait for others to get off the ship.

[PrincessPatti]

1 hour ago, Brkintx said:

The Google isn't cooperating - does anyone know when the new berthing (eliminating the need to tender) is supposed to be complete in GC?  That will improve things dramatically...

I wouldn’t count on it happening anytime soon.  The people that wanted the berth were voted out of office.  
 

During the island shut down, they realized they didn’t need the tourism dollars cruising brings in.  They are now limiting the number of people and ships in port on a daily basis.

[Gregoryfo]

14 hours ago, MisterOJ2 said:

 

For the most part, independent excursion operators know when your ship gets in and have reasonable expectations when it comes to leaving on the excursion. We've been right there on time with several of them, but the operators do their best to wait and not leave anyone. So, it's actually very rare to leave right when they say you will. 

 

My advice to people wanting to hurry off the ship to make a private excursion is to not dawdle, but also don't break your neck and worry yourself to death trying to be the first ones off. If you do try to be the very first ones off, chances are very high you'll just be waiting around with the tour operator while you wait for others to get off the ship.

This has been my experience as well.  It also depends somewhat on what percentage of the excursion you had to prepay in advance.  If you are paying in full on the island or only had to prepay a small deposit, trust me they will wait for the $$ to get there before leaving.

[Brkintx]

18 hours ago, PrincessPatti said:

I wouldn’t count on it happening anytime soon.  The people that wanted the berth were voted out of office.  
 

During the island shut down, they realized they didn’t need the tourism dollars cruising brings in.  They are now limiting the number of people and ships in port on a daily basis.

Thanks for that bit of info - it's hard to keep track of something the interwebs don't seem so concerned about... 😉

[jsglow]

Let me add once piece of info not yet mentioned.  For those without priority (CCL excursions and D&P), go as early as possible to pick up a Tender Boarding tag from the display rack.  Lowest numbers get called first and in order.  You will need to show it to the staff.

[Duanerice1]

On 7/20/2022 at 1:05 PM, jsglow said:

Let me add once piece of info not yet mentioned.  For those without priority (CCL excursions and D&P), go as early as possible to pick up a Tender Boarding tag from the display rack.  Lowest numbers get called first and in order.  You will need to show it to the staff.

OK, next silly question.  What is a Tender Boarding Display rack and when is it set out?  Thanks

 

[TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail]

We stopped off in GC in May on Horizon.  Didn’t have status NOR a Carnival excursion.  But we did ask the excursion desk the day before where the tender tickets were located since we had an early non-Carnival excursion.  Really nice agent just said show up in the theatre at a certain time and they would let you board with the Carnival excursions.  Was a very easy process & they were very nice with no tickets needed to show.

[Sgwscruiser]

Also everyone must be present to get a tender ticket. ie one person can’t get 4 tender tickets