Tender Tip For First-Time Carnival Cruisers

[shaklee3]

After having an awful experience in the Grand Cayman tendering process on Carnival last week, I'll share a tip for future cruisers here. Basically we didn't see more than 3 hours of the Grand Cayman islands because of how carnival handled the tender process, and allowed people who don't follow the rules to cut ahead. I pointed out what these people were doing to the assistant cruise director, and she just dismissed me without being of help. Since they obviously allow this, here's all you have to do to get off the boat on one of the first tenders:

 

Don't bother with a tender sticker. Get in an elevator that's directly over where the tender boats are getting off (where you see huge lines of people), and take it down to floor 0.

 

In our case, we were group #10 for the tenders, and after over an hour of waiting to be called/in line, we saw loads and loads of people taking advantage of what I mentioned above, so I thought I'd share it here so everyone can do this until Carnival fixes it. Because of this, they ruined our trip to the one port we really wanted to see, and as they told me when I pointed it out -- "we can't do anything about it".

[kcam213]

Thanks for the tip. I am tendering in GC next week and have planned excursion starting at 800AM. My boat arrives at 700am. Shoudl we line up at 700. I don't want to miss my excursion

[shaklee3]

If you have an excursion through carnival they let you off early anyways. If you have an independent one, or none at all, you need a tender sticker.

[Cruzaholic41]

Grand Cayman is the worst for tendering. All the cruise ship tenders drop you off in the same place, which can be total chaos when there are numerous ships anchored there.

[silentbob007]

These types of line enforcement can be hit or miss ... one day someone may let everyone by, the next day a different crew member may require the stickers. I have been told by multiple Carnival crew members on multiple ships that guests with independent excursions can board early tenders as long as they have proof that they have an excursion booked.