BMW325 Posted July 14, 2005 #1 Share Posted July 14, 2005 I plan on taking the Nativeway Rays, Reef, and Rum Point excursion while in Grand Cayman on September 6. Another thread is talking about experiences with folks not making it back to the ship in time. They say to only book with the cruise and not independant companies for the shore excursions. Nativeway is to be back by 2:45 ship time and the ship departs at 4:00. Does that give me enough time? Many say you should allow 3 - 4 hours after your excursion to get back on the ship. I say, why bother getting off then. Has anyone taken the Nativeway excursion I'm speaking of, and if so, were you rushed for time??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWog Posted July 14, 2005 #2 Share Posted July 14, 2005 3-4 hours seems extreme to me, but then again I wasn't in whatever situation they may have been in. I would want to be back at least 30-45 mins prior to last tender and that is usually 1/2 hour prior to ship sailing time. Your plan seems to be fine. The issues you may run against are boat trouble with Nativeway or some other traffic delay or something, but you can't foresee that. Nativeway has many good reviews and essentially relies on cruise ship passengers for its business, so to have too many screw ups is not in there best interest. I am sure they have a contingency plan in place to make sure all guests return to the ship on time. Next time I cruise to GC I plan on using a local tour guide for our Stingray City tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenandlaura06 Posted July 14, 2005 #3 Share Posted July 14, 2005 Missing the boat would be such a hassle that I think leaving 3 hours to be safe is the smart thing to do. Better safe than sorry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkletoes4445 Posted July 14, 2005 #4 Share Posted July 14, 2005 I plan on taking the Nativeway Rays, Reef, and Rum Point excursion while in Grand Cayman on September 6. Another thread is talking about experiences with folks not making it back to the ship in time. They say to only book with the cruise and not independant companies for the shore excursions. Nativeway is to be back by 2:45 ship time and the ship departs at 4:00. Does that give me enough time? Many say you should allow 3 - 4 hours after your excursion to get back on the ship. I say, why bother getting off then. Has anyone taken the Nativeway excursion I'm speaking of, and if so, were you rushed for time??? I'd do the Nativeway excursion, then hang around the shops near the port. The tender line will be very, very long. I'd make sure I was in the line by 3:00 or so. They aren't going to leave you if you are in the tender line. On our cruise, they said the last tender was at 3:45 (the ship was leaving at 4:30). The line was so long, that people were still tendering until almost 4:30. IMO, the ships use scare tactics to get you to buy their excursions. Sure, they do say they won't leave you behind if you are delayed on a ship sponsored trip, but I've read where that isn't always true. On our cruise we were worried about getting back to the ship on time. We ended up booking our own excursions, and made sure we had plenty of time to get back. Another thing...these companies (in GC) do this all the time, so they know the drill. They are going to get you back to the ship...and if they have a problem, I'd bet they find a way to get you back to the ship. Stingray city is a busy place...and if someone has boat troubles, they could radio for help. I do understand your concern...we felt the same way. Do the tour, have a great time, and you'll get back to the ship on time. The tender line back to the ship is going to blow your mind. You think getting off is interesting...I couldn't believe how long the line was getting back on! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boatbunny Posted July 14, 2005 #5 Share Posted July 14, 2005 Go and enjoy your excursion with Nativeway. The outside tour companies rely heavily on cruise business to keep in business. They are going to do everything to insure you are back in plenty of time because once word gets out that they let passengers miss the boat, they will have to close their doors. Based on just CC alone, you can imagine how word would spread like wildfire. I agree with a previous poster that the cruise ships use the scare tactic thing to keep you booking through them. The only time I use a cruise ship sponsored excursion is when there is something we want to do that involves lengthy time and distance from the ship. Such as visiting ruins, etc. But, honestly, from what I have read on these boards, I really shouldn't even be concerned about that. I have had much better experiences, and paid significantly less, on outside vendors. In fact, they are even more eager to please because they know they don't have the guaranteed business from the cruise ship line. And lastly, I firmly believe that if there was a legitimate tour operator who had several cruise ship passengers out on an excursion, and they had a major delay such as transportation breakdown, they would contact the pier and let the ship know that there were several passengers running late. In these instances, I have heard that the tour operator ends up paying a fine to both the pier and the ship for the delays. So, obviously, they make sure they have back up plans in case a boat or bus breaks down. Make sure you stick with legit tour operators, there are plenty of glowing references to good companies on these boards, Nativeway being one that gets very high ratings. Have a great cruise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenandlaura06 Posted July 15, 2005 #6 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Good points made by above poster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zydecocruiser Posted July 15, 2005 #7 Share Posted July 15, 2005 I plan on taking the Nativeway Rays, Reef, and Rum Point excursion while in Grand Cayman on September 6. Another thread is talking about experiences with folks not making it back to the ship in time. They say to only book with the cruise and not independant companies for the shore excursions. Nativeway is to be back by 2:45 ship time and the ship departs at 4:00. Does that give me enough time? Many say you should allow 3 - 4 hours after your excursion to get back on the ship. I say, why bother getting off then. Has anyone taken the Nativeway excursion I'm speaking of, and if so, were you rushed for time??? Just make sure Nativeway knows which ship you are on when you make your reservation, and they will let you know if you can do or not. If you ship leaves at 4pm CAYMAN time, you have lots of time, but I would get back to the tender area and hang around there after the tour. A concern might be are you going to be there early enough for the tour beginning? I've gone out with a few operators including Nativeway and I trust what they tell me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMW325 Posted July 15, 2005 Author #8 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Thanks to all for the posts and advice. I feel much better about this now. Nativeway knows the ship I am on and the times. I will remind them again when we get there of our time constraints. I just didn't want to spend my day on Grand Cayman 'watching my watch'. I want to relax and count on the expertise of the tour company to get me where I need to be, when I need to be there. And from what I have read about Nativeway, they are very reliable. I thing word would be out on this board if they had problems getting people back to their ship on time. So many people on the other thread 'heard' about people missing the ship, but not one post from someone who actually did (and there were over 100 posts) so I think it is more rumour and exaggerations. Thanks again and if anyone has taken this Nativeway tour and wants to get me even more excited, please post. Also, anyone on the Empress of the Seas leaving September 3???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenandlaura06 Posted July 15, 2005 #9 Share Posted July 15, 2005 One person probably misses the boat every 100 cruises, but the whole boat is watching the person run up to the dock, so everyone hears about it!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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