Buccaneer or Capt. Bryan's Hannibal

[JudiH]

;) I am getting ready to reserve on one of the two. What is the big difference???? The Buccaner goes to Stingray City and has 2 other stops for snorkeling... The cost $39.00. It is suppose to be from 10AM - 1PM.

Capt. Bryan's Hannibal goes to Stingray City and has 1 other stop for snorkeling... The cost $35.00. My DH and adult DD will be going with me. Please give me your opinions which one is best. We are sailing on the Miracle on 7/16 and will be in GC on Tuesday.

[Sheffie]

We did the Buccaneer and love the 3 stops. We also liked the times of the excursion, which gave us plenty of time to tender onto the island, and time aftewards to do some shopping and get lunch. For only $4pp more, I would choose the Buccaneer.

 

Here is a link to some of my pictures from that excursion and our time on GC: http://community.webshots.com/album/530801710NJTzFf

[JudiH]

:) ;) :o :rolleyes:

Michelle;

Thanks for the advice. I shall book with the Buccaneer. I am a newbie to this board. I've cruised before but always booked our excursions thru the ship. I think this is a much better way.

Judi

[Sheffie]

Judi, it is thanks to these boards that I now book most of our excursions with independent companies, and I don't have one complaint!

 

GC is a great place to book you own excursion; the island is small, and the trip to SRC is short.

 

Have a great cruise!

[snorkelmom2]

I too am booked on the 3-stop tour. I'm a little worried about the time though. We get finished at 1:30 which is 2:30 ship time. Our ship departs at 4. Will we catch the last tender?

[Sheffie]

It takes less than 1/2 hour to get back to the pier. You should even have enough time to get a t-shirt or two!

[jwlane]

What is the big difference????

One snorkeling stop and 4 bucks. We've done both (Capt. Bryan operates both), prefer Hannibal, but liked both.

[JudiH]

Hey Snorkelmom2 I think Capt. Bryan has changed the times by a half hour. I think the cruise starts at 10 and finishes at 1. What day are you taking the tour? What ship are you sailing on? Sure hope there is no problem with the timing.

Judi:cool: :cool: :cool:

[naragonl]

Hey Snorkelmom2 I think Capt. Bryan has changed the times by a half hour. I think the cruise starts at 10 and finishes at 1. What day are you taking the tour? What ship are you sailing on? Sure hope there is no problem with the timing.

Judi:cool: :cool: :cool:

 

Hi JudiH

 

Where did you hear that about moving the times by half an hour. THat would make me feel a whole lot safer. I'm on Crown Princess and it departs at 3PM. Now I'm all confused if that is ship time or local time. I'm planning on checking things out with Capt Bryan's. If we back in at 1PM that would be wonderful and give us an hour vs half an hour to get back to ship (even though it's supposedly a 5-10minute walk from drop off to ports.

 

If anyone else has info could they please advise. (I'll do the same after I speak to the office).

[JudiH]

With regard to the time of the tour for Capt. Bryan. We are going to be on Carnival Miracle arriving in GC on 7/18. We have booked a tour with Capt. Bryan on the Buccaneer and my confirmation back from his has the time down as 10AM to 1PM "local time". Now, I'm not to sure about "local time" and "ship time" If anyone out there can explain the difference please enlighten me. As I said before, this is the first time I've booked my own tour. Always before we booked thru the cruise lines and never had to worry about times.

Judi:cool: :cool: :cool:

[redtop101]

Some ships change their clocks whenever they cross a time change boundary eg Eastern/Central/Mountain etc.

 

In the case of our chip, Caribbean Princess, our ships clocks go back one hour the day before we arrive at GC - so in our case, ship's time is the same as local time in both Jamaica and GC. The change in ship's clocks, if any, will be clearly indicated in the daily newsletter.

 

Other ships, apparently, don't change their time at all and will stay on the same time as when they left their departure port. This is where ship's time will be different from local time. It's advisable to double check with your cruise line what their procedure is, before booking any private tours.

[jim+4]

We were on the 5/29 2 stop tour from the Inspiration. Ships time is 1 hour later than local time. We met behind the bakery at 7:45 local time (8:45 ST) and were brought back to the tendering area at around 11 local (12 ST), which gave us about an hour or so to walk around and shop before we went back to the ship.

I wish we could have taken the longer tour, because we had such a great time. There were only 12 on the boat, and we even made an extra short stop to look at starfish and take pictures with them.

I would highly recommend Captain Bryan to anyone..

[Starz723]

I booked Capt Bryan's Buccaneer. 3 stops.

 

I did alot of research. He has a great reputation.

[snorkelmom2]

Hey Snorkelmom2 I think Capt. Bryan has changed the times by a half hour. I think the cruise starts at 10 and finishes at 1. What day are you taking the tour? What ship are you sailing on? Sure hope there is no problem with the timing.

Judi:cool: :cool: :cool:

Will be there July 13 on Rhapsody. I got an email reply stating "your reservation is confirmed for this day", but have never received anything with policies or detailed info from them. Did you receive a confirmation?

[snorkelmom2]

Sorry JudiH, saw your note that you did receive confirmation after asking that question. RC keeps their ship time the same throughout the cruise, but carnival may convert to local time. Cayman stays on eastern standard time and does not do daylight savings. That means that our ship leaves at 3:00 local time, and I don't know what time our last tender will be. I'm sure we are cutting it close!

Capt. Bryan's original message said the ship's dock was a four minute walk from their office, but now I hear it's really 30 minutes? I hope we make it onboard.

[naragonl]

Hi ALL,

 

AS mentioned yesterday, I did get in touch with Capt Bryan's about local vs ship time. (I too was nervous about the timing of the 3 stop excursion).

 

I'll post my question and their answer. I am a bit more relieved.

I hope it helps others.

 

Question

Hi, I already have reservations for this excursion. However I have a timing

question. First, I am real nervous about missing the ship (Crown Princess)

departure at 3PM ship time. There appears to be a difference in ISLAND TIME

vs SHIP TIME. The excursion supposedly gets back at 1:30 Island time (i

think that would be 2:30 ship time). This only leaves about 30 minutes to

get back to ship (that is cutting it very close, and that is if we are on

time getting back to office). I saw on the web that someone mentioned that

the Buccaneer excusion MAY have been moved up half an hour which means it

leaves at 10AM and gets back at 1PM (THIS WOULD BE GREAT)! Could you

elaborate or advise on timing? If too close, I may want/need to change to

the shorter excursion.

ANSWER

Good morning,

 

Your times are actually fine as Princess and Disney, are the only cruise

lines smart enough to change the ship clocks to match local time so you will

have plenty of time.

 

Thanks,

Tracy