Question on tender

[jacksmycat]

I have been to the Cayman Islands before and booked a Carnival excursion, so we were taken on a tender boat as a group. This time I still am taking a Carnival excursion, but it doesn't start until noon. I want to leave the ship as soon as possible in the morning. I don't have fttf. How does it work? Will we just be able to get in line to leave the ship like when the ship docks or is it different?

[cb at sea]

The early excursions will board the 1st tender....so that one might be full. Simply get in line, and you'll get on the next one! Not everyone is in a huge rush to get off!

[mrsfuzzmo]

When you are ready to head to town, just head down to the tenders. You may have to wait for a little while, but when it's your turn, hop on.

 

Some ships will do a ticket system for the first few tenders to keep order and peace. They will let you know that in your newsletter the night before.

 

One thing to make note is where your meeting place for the tour is. They may meet on the ship, or they may meet on land. If they meet on ship, you would have to tender back, or make arrangements to let them know you'll meet them at the tender pier.

[jacksmycat]

Thank you both for the info. I will be sure to look at my tickets and the newsletter.

[Keith1010]

You'll have time to take the tender. Not a long ride.

Keith

[SeaPA1]

I've been to Gran Cayman twice on Carnival, procedure for tenders was the same both times.

 

*First off are those on official ship tours

*After that, they do a "ticket" system. They hand out priority tickets (they'll announce where to go get them, this past December it was up by the main pool). Must have your entire party there, ready to exit, to get tickets for them. Tickets are in "groups" (i.e., they hand out maybe 20 "1"tickets, 20 "2" tickets...)

*After ship tour folks leave, they start calling the ticket groups in order. As soon as a tender is full, it leaves & another comes shipside.

 

At some point, they'll be down to where you no longer require a ticket because there is no longer a crowd waiting to exit; at that point, they'll announce "open boarding for tenders" and the tenders will start leaving incrementally (every 15 minutes or whatever).

 

If your tour isn't until noon, most likely you'll be able to just wait until open tendering (unless you want to get ashore & look around prior to your tour). When we were there a couple of months ago they started with the ship tours around 9, it was open tender by around 10:30.

[jacksmycat]

Thanks for the info.