Tender with Non ship excursion

[margincall]

We were thinking of doing a private snorkel trip that begins at 930 and would want an 830 tender just to be safe but I ve heard conflicting stories on how soon you can get a tender off the ship if you dont have a ship's tour. Has anyone had experience with this? I could get an 1130 tour but i d rather an earlier one and then get back to the ship for lunch:confused:

[Capt_BJ]

I suspect the reason you are not seeing replies is

 

"it depends"

 

What ship are you on - some ships do the tenders by tickets and some are first come - some reserve early tenders for ship's tours but not all....

 

What day - some days 4 or more ships are in Cayman at the same time and some days there is ONE (best days there are none). Factors that can come into play:

 

- - tender pier crowding for unloading

- - waiting to be cleared by local officials - tenders can not start to run until the ship has been cleared

 

Some ships use their own boats as tenders (small) and some ship buy tender service (large)

 

On a recent visit on FOS (5/10) I had gone ashore by tender, found a taxi and got to Sunset House by about 9:15 . . . we were the only ship in but a BIG ship and used the local tenders which carry about 300 at a time..... I had a ressie for a 1000 dive but they were wonderfully firmly flexable. Frankly, I was very very happily surprised how fast I was able to get ashore from FOS and the return trip was just as good. About 3 minutes from boarding until the tender got underway with no lines other than a short one at security.

 

IT DEPENDS .... but your tour operator also knows all this and I doubt they will leave you....and lunch on the ship is served late isn't it?

[sbnuggie]

Yea...you need to post some more info, ship, date of arrival but Capt BJ post pretty much sums it up nicely, depends.

 

We have been on Carnival for both of our visits to GC and both times we booked private excursions that departed early in the morning. When booking private excursions in the western carribean be wary of the time differences, the private tour operators will always quote you local time, you need to know what time your ship is using vs the local time in port (GC is EST year round, no Daylight Savings). Here is a great thread (if I do say so myself :D ):

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1141873

 

Carnival gives the old song and dance that people who book their excursions will have priority to the tenders, we just took our printout showing our reservation for our excursion to the main show lounge on the day of arrival and they gave us an early tender sticker and we made it no problem. YMMV.

[margincall]

sorry took so long to get back

Its the Carnival Valor and we will be arriving on a tuesday morning(not for over 5 months so have time to decide)

 

not sure how many ships will be in port that day--its January 4

[margincall]

Interesting-just went to cayman port authority-4 ships there that day-all carnival--but carnival says its there from 7 am to 4 pm and thats eastern time-cayman authority says 9 am to 4 pm-hmmm:confused:

[Bakincakes]

Most good tour operators know how many ships will be in port and when.

 

They also know the score about tendering and will probably give you a bit of leeway..you might want to connect with them via email and just confirm that they will give you a bit of wiggle room.

[EviesCruisin]

I actually am wondering the same thing with a non-ship tour for a Holland America cruise.

 

Ship gets into port at 7:00 AM and we are supposed to join the tour at 8:45 AM Eastern Time.

 

Assuming ship time is Eastern Time, should we have any issues with getting on a tender and to shore by about 8:30 AM?

[margincall]

well I sent e mails to sotos ,captain marvins and moby dick-only one who answered after 3 weeks was marvin--at least they know how to attract clients-lol