Great stirrup cay clamshell rental?

[connolk]

We will be on the Encore this Sunday, April 9, 2023. I am reading about renting a clam shell on great stirrup cay, but I don’t see anything in the excursions on the NCL site to do so. Does anyone know how you do that? Do you just have to wait until you get onto the island?

[jrlamour]

You can reserve them once you get on the ship. I just went to one of the kiosks and did it there. It wasn’t available before the cruise for me either.

[connolk]

Ok thank you, good to know!! 

[vacation44]

Strange as we are able to reserve one now for our February 2024 cruise.  

[connolk]

8 hours ago, jrlamour said:

You can reserve them once you get on the ship. I just went to one of the kiosks and did it there. It wasn’t available before the cruise for me either.

How much was it to reserve?

[jcollin]

we used our $50 excursion credit to book.  It was $45 if I remember correctly so with the credit $0.00.  If you want more quite area go to the clamshells on the far right.  The others are a little more of walk but are also closer to the action.

[BirdTravels]

12 hours ago, connolk said:

We will be on the Encore this Sunday, April 9, 2023. I am reading about renting a clam shell on great stirrup cay, but I don’t see anything in the excursions on the NCL site to do so. Does anyone know how you do that? Do you just have to wait until you get onto the island?

Order on one of the touch screen kiosks in the elevator lobbies. The voucher is delivered to your room. It will keep you dry (the clamshell, not the voucher). If the ship does not make it to GSC due to wind (15 mph winds are marginal for tendering) or seas, you will get a refund. 

 

GSC

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by BirdTravels

[connolk]

7 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Order on one of the touch screen kiosks in the elevator lobbies. The voucher is delivered to your room. It will keep you dry (the clamshell, not the voucher). If the ship does not make it to GSC due to wind (15 mph winds are marginal for tendering) or seas, you will get a refund. 

 

GSC

 

Thank you very much!!

[BirdTravels]

1 minute ago, connolk said:

Thank you very much!!

Also, arrive at the ship earlier on Sunday since the weather may turn a bit "tropical' (i.e., thunderstorms) in the afternoon. 

[jrlamour]

3 hours ago, jcollin said:

we used our $50 excursion credit to book.  It was $45 if I remember correctly so with the credit $0.00.  If you want more quite area go to the clamshells on the far right.  The others are a little more of walk but are also closer to the action.

You were? We weren’t allowed to use our shore excursion credit as it stated it didn’t apply to equipment rentals which I was told the clam shells were. Good to know for next time.

[belchro22]

6 minutes ago, jrlamour said:

You were? We weren’t allowed to use our shore excursion credit as it stated it didn’t apply to equipment rentals which I was told the clam shells were. Good to know for next time.

We were told the same. The price was $39. We ended up renting an umbrella and 2 lounges for $29 instead. We had perfect sunny weather. We were glad we didn't go for the clam shells. They are all lined up in a row so if you don't have a front row one your view is the back of someone else's clamshell. 

[wil e coyote]

16 hours ago, belchro22 said:

They are all lined up in a row so if you don't have a front row one your view is the back of someone else's clamshell.

I was going to say the same thing. We did rent a clamshell - interestingly, we were able to book in advance for our Jan 2023 sailing on Escape, and we were able to use our $50 excursion credit, so it was free (well, actually it was included in the cost of our cruise - nothing is free!)

But back to my initial point - the area on the right side of the beach where the clamshells are located is very flat, so unless you are in the first couple of rows, all you see is the clamshell in front of you. On the day we were there, only about half of the clamshells were in use, so we moved to one near the back, which gave us several rows of empty clamshells ahead of us. Since the staff only sets up the clamshells when they are assigned to someone, all the empty ones are down, so we actually had a view and didn't feel like we were surrounded by other people.

Also, some of the clamshells have a mesh panel, and others don't. We liked the mesh panel as it helped with air movement. Others prefer no mesh to avoid the sun. That is your call but just be ware of the options.

Finally, there are also clamshells on the left side of the beach, near the zipline tower. That area seemed to have fewer clamshells, but (as I flew over them on the zipline) appeared to be on a sloped part of the beach, so the views might be better from the back rows. Perhaps someone else can comment.

Enjoy!

[vacation44]

16 hours ago, belchro22 said:

We were told the same. The price was $39. We ended up renting an umbrella and 2 lounges for $29 instead. We had perfect sunny weather. We were glad we didn't go for the clam shells. They are all lined up in a row so if you don't have a front row one your view is the back of someone else's clamshell. 

Thank you for pointing this out.   Our Plan A is to go with a lagoon cabana, but these are our Plan B.

[mcmomny]

On our March 18th cruise on The Escape we could not pre book a clam shell nor figure out how to use our excursion credit.

 

Frist we called NCL before our cruise and they told us to do it at the excursion desk once on board.

Once on board they told us they were all sold out but to ask at the beach if any were available. So we did which they told us yes they were available but we could not use our excursion credit so we chose an umbrella instead.

 

Once settled in we witnesses lots of people just walking up and taking empty clam shells and umbrellas for their own use as the two young men running the area weren't paying any attention.

 

Frustrating to us

 

 

[Ellipooh]

I tried to pre-book online this week and couldn’t find anything to click. I did a “chat” and was told I needed to call the Excursions desk to reserve. So I called (and waited) (and got a call back) and was told that clamshells are only available to reserve at a kiosk AFTER boarding. Furthermore, the $50 credit did not apply because this is an equipment rental and not an excursion. 
 

So, fooey. 

[connolk]

1 hour ago, Ellipooh said:

I tried to pre-book online this week and couldn’t find anything to click. I did a “chat” and was told I needed to call the Excursions desk to reserve. So I called (and waited) (and got a call back) and was told that clamshells are only available to reserve at a kiosk AFTER boarding. Furthermore, the $50 credit did not apply because this is an equipment rental and not an excursion. 
 

So, fooey. 

Thanks for the info! 

[schmoopie17]

Clamshells were not an option to be pre-booked on our January Prima cruise. Our price was $59.

 

Also, be careful when choosing your clamshell. If you want shade, do not get one with the mesh on the top. While it does allow for air to get in, it also allows the sun to come in. Not optimal if you wanted the clamshell to provide shade. We tried dodging the sun for about a half hour and eventually gave up. We tried to get our money back, but you can probably guess how that went.

[cruiser3017]

I'm trying to make my clamshell rental online in my NCL account, and it's asking me to enter my CC information to pay $44.10.  Is this because my cruise hasn't reached the paid in full date yet?  I thought my $50 shore excursion credit was supposed to be applied to this.

[Traveling Fools]

On 4/8/2023 at 7:40 AM, vacation44 said:

Our Plan A is to go with a lagoon cabana, but these are our Plan B.

 

There will be 6 of us in our group and this is what I'm thinking of doing.  Any idea what is included in the rental?

[Sunseeker810]

I booked one for a January cruise.  They will not allow the credit to be used.  I was told that it was "equipment", therefore, not ☹️

[cruiser3017]

15 hours ago, Sunseeker810 said:

I booked one for a January cruise.  They will not allow the credit to be used.  I was told that it was "equipment", therefore, not ☹️

Thank you!  I understood the equipment rental part and was thinking more along the lines of the wave mats, the snorkel gear, etc..., but I was not considering the clamshell as "equipment", because it was listed as a "shore excursion", therefore, In my thinking, should qualify for the excursion discount.  They're tricky!

Edited September 4, 2023 by cruiser3017

[BirdTravels]

On 9/3/2023 at 8:54 AM, cruiser3017 said:

I'm trying to make my clamshell rental online in my NCL account, and it's asking me to enter my CC information to pay $44.10.  Is this because my cruise hasn't reached the paid in full date yet?  I thought my $50 shore excursion credit was supposed to be applied to this.

Welcome to Cruise Critic 

 

Clam shells are considered a “rental” and not a “shore excursion”. So there is no discount.