Tendering Process..Don't miss your tour

[Kimbahh]

We just came back from a cruise on the Costa Atlantica, and the tender process took almost an hour. We completely missed our tour we booked with Moby Dick, and were forced to go with a company on the peir called Dockside. This was a total joke of a tour. The boat was old, no bathroom, they served apple juice, and the bus driver drove like a maniac. Book your tour in advance, get your tender tickets early, and make sure that you go with a reputable company so you don't have to be disappointed. Sorry we missed you Moby Dick, I am sure our day in the Caymans would have been much better had we been able to join your tour.

[lauren0309]

My biggest fear is missing our tour. I hope we get our tender early. Did you at least get to swim with the stingrays?

[Kimbahh]

Thanks for asking, we did swim with the rays, which was a very cool experience, but we know it could have been so much more enjoyable with Moby Dick.

[Sammy*]

I'm fearful of this exact scenerio when we arrive in Grand Cayman on March 3rd on the Mariner. Do you think it's wise, just for this destination and in light of the tendering issues, to book an excursion through the ship.....??

[Boo's Mom]

If you are tendering.....and have a tour.....you have to allow yourself a lot of time to get off the ship.

 

If you end up getting to the pier an hour early....... :D ....do some shopping!

[zydecocruiser]

Especially in Grand Cayman, but in any tender port, I think you should allow at least 45 minutes to tender in - an hour is better. Even if you can walk right on a tender, if they are the huge ones, it will take a will to fill it up and if the small ones (like the ship's lifeboats), it still takes a while. Longer if you have to wait for the next one, or the one after....

 

Shopping? Yuck. Unless perhaps for a rum cake! A turtle burger? More food is certainly in order.

 

If your ship is late or a no show, I don't know of any tours that will charge you or fail to refund any money paid. You may need to document that the ship was the reason - not sure how that works, but know that it happens and that it does.

 

Ship stingray tours are the FIRST to cancel if there are rough seas, yet lots of tours will still go out, and all will all be cheaper than the cruise ship. If the ship tour cancels, you will have to scramble to the dock to pick up an alternate. I didn't really think there were any bad stingray tours, but I guess it can be hit or miss. I still think there are more hits than misses at the dock tours, but haven't tried that, yet. Last time, I went with Soto's and think they are great.

[Boo's Mom]

A turtle burger?

 

 

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: .......for real? :confused:

[msweezie99]

How do you assure that you get an early tender out to make your excursion booked off the ship? How are these "tenders" passed out? I am so unfamiliar with the whole process, could someone explain?

[Boo's Mom]

If you book an excursion thru the ship, they will know of your need to be off the ship at a certain time....and if it is early....you will get a priority tender opportunity.

 

Some cruiselines, will offer priority tenders to their suite passengers...as a perk.

 

Some cruiselines will offer priority tenders to their higher level loyalty passengers (ie: Captain's Club Elite Member on Celebrity)

 

If I have booked an early excursion...thru a private company....and I am not in a suite that offers a priority tender....I will go to Customer Relations before the day of my excursion...and very nicely inform them that I have an early excursion...and would like an early tender.

 

Note: You will not tender at every port. You should know well in advance of sailing (not always, though)...whether or not you are tendering at any port.

 

Don't worry too much! :D

[zydecocruiser]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: .......for real? :confused:

You used to be able to get one... Haven't seen for a while. You still can get a turtle steak (and soup and stew)! Think it is kind of traditional fare. But kids will never forgive ya - at least for a while.

[Boo's Mom]

I will not even mention this subject to my children. :eek:

[msweezie99]

I am looking at a tour with Soto's for stingray city and snorkeling. They do offer a 9:30 to noon or a 1:00 to 3 PM, we are on Royal Caribbean's enchantment. Maybe I should just do the afternoon tour as to be safe, what do u think?

[msweezie99]

another question.... what about getting back on the ship, the itinerary says they leave at 5 PM, do they announce the last tender to get back on, in this case, what time do u think that would be at?

[zydecocruiser]

How do you assure that you get an early tender out to make your excursion booked off the ship? How are these "tenders" passed out? I am so unfamiliar with the whole process, could someone explain?

Tenders are boats that take you back and forth from you ship to the dock. They come in all shapes and sizes.

 

If you book a tour through the ship, the tour ticket will say meet at a specific place at a specific time on the ship and if you do, you won't miss the tour - ship tours have priority. If your tour is not an early one, it may just say meet on the dock at a specific time, in which case I like to try to tender in an hour before the appointed time. It may only take half that time to get to shore, but maybe not.

 

If you book a tour on your own, there are different policies, but it seems that in general, you will meet somewhere on the ship and they will hand out tender tickets - first come first served, so get there early. The tender tickets will be numbered by boat - 1, 2, 3...

 

When terndering begins, they might announce tender tickets 1 and 2... for example. You need to stick close to where they are announcing.

 

After a couple of hours, it will just be first come first served for all, and no more tender tickets are needed.

 

The specifics of how your ship will work will be identified in whatever the daily paper on your ship is called.

 

Of course, if you are not with a large group, it is usually possible just to merge in with a group currently boarding a tender and walk on and bypass the whole process. This is usually my preferred method.

 

And there are privileges for special guests as mentioned. And you can request an early tender, but cruise ships really want to sell you their tours cause that's one of the ways they make money.

[zydecocruiser]

another question.... what about getting back on the ship, the itinerary says they leave at 5 PM, do they announce the last tender to get back on, in this case, what time do u think that would be at?

They tell you, in advance, the last tender time and as long as you are in line by then, they will run tenders until all are back on ship. The closer you get to that time, the longer the line may be.

 

As for Soto's (or any others) - I liked Soto's. The afternoon one would certainly work. The morning would also work, but you want to try to get on one of the early tenders - wouldn't have to be on the first tender off, but I don't know the specifics for your ship. Worst case, you might have to get up earlier than you might like and maybe :eek: do some shopping waiting for Soto's van - but they should be waiting even if you are early.

[msweezie99]

Thanks for the info.. I guess than if they are docking at 7:00 in Grand Cayman, I should be able to get off the ship for a 9:30 tour. Another questions, you said the tender tickets are passed out, first come first serve basis, Can one member of my family get a ticket for all of us, or do all need to be present early to get it??

[zydecocruiser]

I'm not familiar with how they do it on the ship you will be on, but I think the rule is everyone has to be there, ready to go.

 

Of course, you need to know what the rules are, so you know how to break them. ;)

 

On Carnival, they give you stickers, not tickets and it is one per person. But nobody says you can't conceal the first sticker and go through the line again and again, until you have enough, or they figure out what you are doing. :eek:

 

Making sure any excess ones are not visible, you plead ignorance and claim you gave them to other members of your party so they would be together on a tender and you would risk being on the next one. For extra credit, you can even wave at some other group.

 

As it turned out - I waited all of about 5-10 minutes after receiving my sticker before they called my tender group, so I was ashore within 30 minutes of showing up for a tender, but it could have just as easily been twice that long. As usual, nobody even checked for stickers or tickets, so once again I could have just walked on - ya just never know.

 

But again, I am not sure if this is exactly how RCCL does it.

[kjanders]

I hope this doesn't open a whole new can of worms, but don't forget time zone changes. If your ship leaves from Miami, your itinerary will be in eastern time, while Grand Cayman is in standard time. Therefore, if your itinerary states you'll arrive in Cayman at 8 AM, that is Miami time, Cayman time would actually be 7 AM. However, if your ship leaves from Galveston, that would be Std time and the times would be the same for both.I hope that is correct, I know I get confused about time zones and itinerary time zones, etc., but I believe that is accurate. If not, please let me know here.

[zydecocruiser]

Some ships change time and some ships don't so the itinerary time may or may not be local time.

 

You forgot one worm - Grand Cayman never goes on daylight savings time. Right now, Grand Cayman and Miami are the same time. When DST is in effect, Grand Cayman and Galveston have the same time.

[grenouille]

Just to cut up that worm a little....;)

 

Grand Cayman is in "Grand Cayman Standard Time ", which is GMT - 5hrs. (GMT=Greewich Mean Time)

Florida is in Eastern Standard Time, also GMT-5 hrs

Texas is in Central Standard Time, which is GMT-6 hrs

 

When spring rolls around, Grand Cayman doesn't observe any kind of daylight savings, so it remains at GMT-5 hrs.

 

However, Eastern Time moves to Daylight Savings , which means it becomes GMT-4 hrs.

Similarly, Central Time also moves to Daylight Savings, which means it becomes GMT-5hrs

 

Clear as mud? :p

 

here's a great site to check all caribbean island times

 

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/caribbean/

[kjanders]

Thanks for posting the link to the time zones. The more I think about it, the more I confuse myself. We arrive in Grand Cayman on the Voyager at 8 AM. I booked the Cpt Marvin tour at 11:15. I think that should give us plenty of time. I figure we'll wait until the tenders clear out, eat a big breakfast, then head into port. The tour is over at 1:15, so then I think we might try to get to the turtle farm or 7 mile beach.

[cdncruzer]

It is very confusing. I just booked a GC tour for Feb/05. Our info clearly states that:

 

**LOCAL TIME**SAME AS USA EASTERN TIME ZONE**

 

Now...if I could just figure out what time the ship uses...I might be OK! Maybe I'll just leave my watch on Florida time just in case! :confused:

[RDWills]

**LOCAL TIME**SAME AS USA EASTERN TIME ZONE**

 

-looks like the exact message I got from Soto's.

 

ZydecoCruser - It sounds like you used Soto's. My question is we booked on the 1 - 3 PM cruise with them. Our ship leaves at 4 PM, so I assume the last tender back is about 3:30. I was fine with this when I booked. but now find out that there are 6 ships in Georgetown that day with about 16,000 passengers. I'm starting to worry if traffic/congestion might be a problem in getting to the tender dock. Do you have any thoughts or experience with this?:confused:

[zydecocruiser]

**LOCAL TIME**SAME AS USA EASTERN TIME ZONE**

 

-looks like the exact message I got from Soto's.

 

ZydecoCruser - It sounds like you used Soto's. My question is we booked on the 1 - 3 PM cruise with them. Our ship leaves at 4 PM, so I assume the last tender back is about 3:30. I was fine with this when I booked. but now find out that there are 6 ships in Georgetown that day with about 16,000 passengers. I'm starting to worry if traffic/congestion might be a problem in getting to the tender dock. Do you have any thoughts or experience with this?:confused:

 

Currently local time in GC is equivalent to EST which is what Florida is currently on.

 

I went with Soto's and really liked them - but I went on the morning tour last November and had no trouble making the 9:30am trip. I was on the Conquest and we were the first ship in port - closest to the dock. There were four ships in port that day - the first time since Ivan. I thought tendering was very smooth for us, looked like at least one ship was using some of its life boats for tenders in addition to the GC tenders.

 

I don't know that traffic will be your problem - Soto's (or whoever they use for transportation), dropped us off a couple of blocks from the dock area, before the heavy congestion and it was an easy walk.

 

One concern I have is that on the Conquest, we were in port from 7am to 4pm, but the last tender to ship was posted as 3pm (looking at my Capers now). I doubt the last tender was actually 3pm, but you are getting outside my comfort zone to cut it that close.

 

Carnival's guidelines for getting ASHORE on your own was to allow at least 45 minutes, but I think I would allow at least 1 hour - even though in my case it was less than 30 minutes last time. But all of the ship's stingray tours were canceled and my guess is a lot fewer people were trying to get ashore first thing in the morning.

 

But even for the ship tours, the instructions were that all tours departing before 9:30am met on the ship to go on a tender together, those after 9:30 met on the dock and had to make their own way ashore (aka tender tickets).

 

I don't know if they have opened the north dock yet or not, which would help speed up tendering. Guess I'll find out in March when EIGHT ships are currently on the schedule (not sure if that's going to happen). Something about the number of ships in port - the arrival and departure times are staggered to some degree, so peak tendering does not occur at the same time for all ships.

 

Probably too much information, but I think if you ship arrives at 7am, a 9:30am tour is safe - if you start early. Think I would skip the 1-3pm one, if your last tender time is posted as 3pm. You might be ok, you might not.

 

Hope this helps.