Priority Tender at Grand Cayman

[April42749]

We are platinum and I believe this gives us priority tendering.  I'm asking about Grand Cayman specifically.  Does that mean we just walk to the front of the line?  Do we have to book the tender?  I'm booking a private excursion for noon time and I want to plan appropriately.

Thanks!

[RedwingHockeyFan]

People with Excursions also get priority, based on the time of the excursion.

 

[casofilia]

In general the Platinum "Priority Terndering" only means that you don't have to line up to get tender tickets, you just turn up and join the BACK of the queue and show your room card when asked for the tender ticket.

 

That is for people who are NOT in a suite or on an NCL shorex.

[minniemulticar]

Humongous line.

Being platinum didn’t help at all.

 

[dcruiser50]

Being platinum you only get to ask for the lowest tender number available, NCL excursions have priority. Usually I have found that most ignore the system and just clog up the stairways, and then again there are so many platinum cruisers it's a horror show. Therefore I suggest that you make your excursion plans with NCL 

[david_sobe]

14 minutes ago, dcruiser50 said:

Being platinum you only get to ask for the lowest tender number available, NCL excursions have priority. Usually I have found that most ignore the system and just clog up the stairways, and then again there are so many platinum cruisers it's a horror show. Therefore I suggest that you make your excursion plans with NCL 

 

Now that is the truth.  We tendered on the Jewel and the amount of pushing on the stairs was crazy.  The poor NCL guy kept telling people there is no need to push.  You cant swim to get there so everyone must wait.  One mother of a family was so irritated and started yelling and her teenage daughter actually acted like the parent and shamed her mom in front of everyone.  Everyone was in awe.  Of course that did not go over so well with mom who then verbally attacked her teenage daughter in front of everyone shaming her that she paid for her kids to go on vacation and this is how she is treated.

Not a fun wait to tender at all.  I also would suggest buying an excursion or just peacefully wait till the masses leave the ship.  

[Granny DI]

We were in the Caymans on Thursday. We are staying in the Haven and we are platinum. We had reservations at Locked in Cayman for 11:30. We got in line shortly after 10:00. They use triple decker boats to fender into port. Takes forever to load and unload. We reached our destination on Fort Street about 11:00.

There were 8 cruise ships in port. This is our 5th visit to the Caymans. We will NEVER get off the boat again in the Caymans.

We  have played golf, done two island tours, done the stingrays and now Locked in Cayman which is an escape room.

There were so many people you couldn’t walk. We gave up 10 minutes after leaving Locked in Cayman and went back to the ship. We had a very pleasant afternoon on the ship.

[BirdTravels]

On 1/10/2019 at 10:44 AM, April42749 said:

We are platinum and I believe this gives us priority tendering.  I'm asking about Grand Cayman specifically.  Does that mean we just walk to the front of the line?  Do we have to book the tender?  I'm booking a private excursion for noon time and I want to plan appropriately.

Thanks!

Platinum priority tendering means you can join the BACK of the line. You just don’t have to pull a number. The only people going to th front are suites guests who are escorted by the concierge. 

[April42749]

Hmmm....thanks for the responses.

According to "Timetables" there's only going to be one other ship that day.

NCL has a submarine tour @ 11:15 which I estimate would mean meeting in the theatre about 10:30. I spoke to the vendor; I wanted to make sure I could book directly. (Vendor told me NCL is scheduled for the 11:30 sailing.)

Same tour...same submarine but an hour later (price difference is minimal), at 12:30....and vendor doesn't ask for pre-payment.

I'll plan on joining the line about 11.  And if we don't make, well then I have over $200 extra to buy a bauble.

[dexddd]

18 hours ago, April42749 said:

Hmmm....thanks for the responses.

According to "Timetables" there's only going to be one other ship that day.

NCL has a submarine tour @ 11:15 which I estimate would mean meeting in the theatre about 10:30. I spoke to the vendor; I wanted to make sure I could book directly. (Vendor told me NCL is scheduled for the 11:30 sailing.)

Same tour...same submarine but an hour later (price difference is minimal), at 12:30....and vendor doesn't ask for pre-payment.

I'll plan on joining the line about 11.  And if we don't make, well then I have over $200 extra to buy a bauble.

The subs are a lot of fun.

[cdnsteelman]

When I was recently on the Epic they had a solution for the tender line nightmare that I thought was quite brilliant. They called tender numbers to go to the Manhattan dining room. They checked your tender number card or your Lat status and funnelled only those who qualified by either tender card or priority status through a loop around the dining room. The stairwell to the tender was blocked off by ship security. Once they had the headcount in the dining room and the available tender ready they released the people "holding" in the dining room to the stairwell and tender. They had two or three tender groups in the holding area at the time and had staff working the area near the dining room pre-checking those who were gathering to ensure there was no out of sequence crowding. I know the layout of the various ships may not allow for this kind of a setup but on the Epic it worked brilliantly!