Water Shuttle Question

[groundloop]

It's been about a year since I was at a water shuttle port and it looks like things may have changed.

 

I'm on board Glory right now and our second stop will be at Grand Cayman, so we'll have to take the water shuttle.  

 

In years past anyone with a Carnival shore excursion was given a time and place to meet up on the ship (usually the theatre) and everyone on your excursion got on the water shuttle at the same time.  This time my excursion ticket only says "take water shuttle 45 minutes prior".  Can anyone who's done this recently tell me if I'm missing something?

 

Also, I'm Platinum - how will the water shuttle priority work for me?

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

I'm surprised you haven't gotten an answer to this... let me throw my two cents in.

 

I am going to guess that either your excursion is small or it's not very time sensitive.  They probably also did this for similar excursions back in the old, old days when they called them tenders.  My experience with excursions at tender ports was the same as yours - we met somewhere inside the ship and were guided directly to the tender/water shuttle/whatever.

 

I don't recall using my Platinum card for water shuttle priority, but I THINK the way it worked was that excursion groups had first priority, then it's Diamond/Platinum/FTTP - depending on the exact mix, they might be called separately.

 

I hope this has been of some help.  I assume if I'm completely out to lunch, I'll get called out quickly.

[BrianMD]

18 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I'm surprised you haven't gotten an answer to this... let me throw my two cents in.

 

I am going to guess that either your excursion is small or it's not very time sensitive.  They probably also did this for similar excursions back in the old, old days when they called them tenders.  My experience with excursions at tender ports was the same as yours - we met somewhere inside the ship and were guided directly to the tender/water shuttle/whatever.

 

I don't recall using my Platinum card for water shuttle priority, but I THINK the way it worked was that excursion groups had first priority, then it's Diamond/Platinum/FTTP - depending on the exact mix, they might be called separately.

 

I hope this has been of some help.  I assume if I'm completely out to lunch, I'll get called out quickly.

I'm in agreement with Honolulu Blue but I would also suggest just calling or going to the excursion desk to make sure.

[sparks1093]

12 minutes ago, BrianMD said:

I'm in agreement with Honolulu Blue but I would also suggest just calling or going to the excursion desk to make sure.

Yep, you'll get a much faster (and accurate) answer from the excursion desk.

[clackey]

If I remember correctly, we went to the guest relations or excursion desk and they boarded us on the next tender.  That is about the only perk that platinum has really been of benefit to us.  Well, that and the free drinks at the party.

[ncovert]

This is how we did it on our last cruise.  We met (actually only platinum guest getting off at that time) by guest services and they took us down.

[highcorral25]

Nov 2022 on the Panorama. Group of 6 going on an excursion at Cabo.  Ticket said to meet in the dining room (I don't recall which one -- but it was a dining room) 1 hour prior to the excursion time (or 45 minutes... not sure... but it was definitely earlier than the excursion time).

 

I found that strange because of the time that was stamped on the excursion compared to the time the ticket said to meet in the dining room.

 

I asked the Excursions desk and yes, the time to meet at the dining room was correct.

 

There were many groups of people.  They called out "Those on Excursion such and such" and those people got up and left.  Then they called for another excursion and that group of people got up and left.  And so on and so on until my group's excursion was called.

 

From there we were in line to board the tender.  It actually worked out very smoothly despite the anxiety.

 

Bottom line: For peace of mine confirm with Excursions on time and place to meet.

 

I am Gold -- can't speak to Platinum.

 

 

[notscb]

On 1/24/2023 at 10:30 PM, groundloop said:

This time my excursion ticket only says "take water shuttle 45 minutes prior".  Can anyone who's done this recently tell me if I'm missing something?

 

I can answer this one!

We did a Carnival excursion in Belize and had to take the water shuttle. Our tickets that were delivered to our room on day 1 had a time to meet in the theater to pickup the water shuttle "ticket" which was really  just a sticker with the excursion name on it. We got to the theater a bit late and had to wait in a huge line just to get this sticker and then make our way downstairs, where we happened to get on a tender with a bunch of other people with the same sticker. The line of folks waiting to get into the theater were for all of the excursions, it was fun to talk to folks while we wondered if we'd miss it.

 

It seemed like Carnival was just doing their best to get all of their excursion sponsored folks off first (ish) and there were multiple tenders doing so.

[groundloop]

I finally found someone at the excursion desk who knew what he was talking about.  

 

MOST excursions are still being handled the way I remember, meeting in the theatre and waiting to be called to board the shuttles in groups.  SOME excursions are meeting at the pier in Grand Cayman, and for these they're simply telling folks to board the water shuttle an hour before the excursion time.

 

[MsOne]

A couple of weeks ago for Grand Cayman they said anyone with a Carnival Excursion just show your Excursion ticket. No need to get the tender/water shuttle tickets. Also there was mention of higher status levels getting some kind of priority.

 

But the thing was, after showing up at 6am to get the passes for my group (no excursion or high status), turns out they weren't needed. No one was in a hurry to get off the boat. The Cruise Director was basically begging people to go ashore. The announcements were blasting about every 20 minutes "reminding" all passengers that we were docked and they could go aboard, no need to wait on assigned tender ticket. Even said there was no wait at both mid-ship and forward.

 

Guess we weren't the only ones who knew Grand Cayman is limited in things to do (i.e. boring, lol). I just got up early since we were with first timers and just in case they wanted to get off and go explore sooner rather than later, I didn't want them to feel stuck on the ship.

Edited January 27, 2023 by MsOne