Carnival Tendering @ Half Moon Cay

[swimgirl1]

I have posted this to the Half Moon Cay thread also, but no responses yet... I wanted to find out recent the past experiences with Carnival's tendering process to HMC? Both with a ship booked excurision, FTTF and without either?
We had a very bad experience a few years back on another line tendering to Grand Cayman, took 3+ hours and we lost valuable beach time :cool: I was reading reviews, but any other info or "tricks" would be much appreciated.

[Buffalofirsttimer4]

In my experience getting off is not normally a problem, it's the getting back on. The lines can be long and FTTF does not work for tendering back to the ship. We booked a cabana last trip as well as this one but will not be going over on the first tender ( at least that is the plan right now). It is only a 15 minute or less ride over.

Happy Sailing!!

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[irishnyc]

Gain back your lost beach time by waiting for the last tender. We were the last ones on the last tender back last trip there.

[golfadj]

[quote name='irishnyc']Gain back your lost beach time by waiting for the last tender. We were the last ones on the last tender back last trip there.[/QUOTE]

Not going to leave you if you are standing on line for tender

[OCruisers]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="3"]The one time we tendered to HMC on Carnival, it was no problem either going or returning to the ship.
But, but, but ... we were not in a big rush to get there so had some breakfast, etc. before taking the tender. We returned when the bar tenders announced "last call for alcohol". :D

LuLu
~~~~ [/SIZE][/FONT] Edited January 8, 2014 by OCruisers

[cruise_gal21]

We had FTTF for tendering and were the first tender to the island. Got there at 9:00am and left before the crowds at 2:30pm. By that time we'd had enough of the sand, surf, and exploring the island. Beautiful place and would love to go back, but we're happy with only a few hours of the beach and not a whole day.

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[jayisgerman]

We were on HMC in December with HAL. The tenders are now island-based, big ferry-like boats. We had priority for tender because of our suite, but did not even need it. There is no gridlock leaving anymore, because the boats hold so much more people.

On the way back - the wait was about 10 minutes give or take.

[lingram001]

We had a cabana and went over during the 2nd or 3rd boat. You really don't wait long, there are 3 tenders used.

[cruise_gal21]

[quote name='jayisgerman']We were on HMC in December with HAL. The tenders are now island-based, big ferry-like boats. We had priority for tender because of our suite, but did not even need it. There is no gridlock leaving anymore, because the boats hold so much more people.

On the way back - the wait was about 10 minutes give or take.[/QUOTE]

I don't think Carnival does it differently, but we did talk to a family when we were packing up our beach stuff, ended up giving them our clamshell, who said they couldn't get a tender till 1:00pm :eek: So, I do believe sometimes there can be long waits. Maybe it depends on time of year, we cruised early August.

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[kona_wahine]

I will be there in 11 days with FTTF. My plan is to be on the first and last tender. :p Edited January 8, 2014 by kona_wahine

[JWGrayson]

[quote name='jayisgerman']We were on HMC in December with HAL. The tenders are now island-based, big ferry-like boats. We had priority for tender because of our suite, but did not even need it. There is no gridlock leaving anymore, because the boats hold so much more people.

On the way back - the wait was about 10 minutes give or take.[/quote]

Thanks for that info Jay, or should I say "danke schön!" I recently saw a youtube video and it looked like they were using much bigger boats for tendering. So, you have confirmed it.

We are platinum and are renting (sharing) a cabana, so we should have no trouble getting to HMC. Since we have a cabana, I see no problem waiting for the last tender. John

[golfadj]

Last time there in Oct seem to take about 90 minutes and than there was no wait at all to go