Great Stirrup Cay

[tw67]

I will be at GSC for the first time in January. Can you rent umbrellas or clam shells once you get there? I didn't see the opportunity to do it on the excursion page.

 

For those that have been there before, please tell me the good, the bad and the ugly. This is my first time on NCL, so I am not used to everything being different than I am used to!!  

[wolft927]

So, Clam Shells are usually available through the Excursion portion of the app, if you don't see it possibly sold out already especially if there is 2 ships in. We were there Early January and was plenty of free chairs but sections with umbrellas did come with a charge and honestly i have no idea how much. As far as the good bad and ugly here we go

 

Good

Drink packages work at GSC, not like Carnival private islands where your drink packages don't work

Plenty of chairs

water is very clear, and where we were on the beach did not have to deal with any rocky areas getting into the water

 

Bad (not that bad lol)

Bars get very very busy about an hour or two, but if you drink beer, there are beer carts throughout the island. 

Buffet will get insanely busy especially if there is two ships in like we had. We waited till about 1:30pm to eat and the line had pretty much went down to almost nobody. I recommend eating a good breakfast before you get off and eat the buffet or food trucks later in the day to eliminate waiting in line

If you have gone to Cocoa Cay, GSC may be a let down. It is smaller and with a lot less to do. but if you simply want a relaxing beach day it will be enjoyable

We snorkeled on our own with our own gear and honestly did not see much

 

UGLY

Well honestly the only ugly thing that can be is the Tender process. So, We stayed in the Haven so we were on the first tender and did not need to get a tender ticket. But I heard people saying that they didnt even get to GSC until around 1pm, and we started tendering around 10am. When returning if you stay till the last tender time you will be in a massive line to get back onboard. The good news is NCL is getting ready to start the construction for a Dock that can hold 2 ships which will be great!

 

 

[Ivanmorrin]

I would second the opinion that tendering was horrific.  We did not know you had to get tender tickets several days prior to the port., so we ended up with number 18.  1,2,3 called at 9:30 abut we did not get called until 11:30 off ship until 12:15 or so!  Then got in line to get back on ship a little before 3 and not onboard until a little after 4.  Spent more time waiting to get on and off the island than we spent on it!  

[Tyler414]

On 2/2/2024 at 9:34 AM, wolft927 said:

The good news is NCL is getting ready to start the construction for a Dock that can hold 2 ships which will be great!

 

 

I was under the impression that NCL would/could not add a dock at GSC. I don't recall the exact reason, I thought maybe to shallow, I guess when your very close neighbor (coco cay) adds a dock it can change things quickly. lol 

[CruisinTrucker]

On 2/3/2024 at 9:53 AM, Ivanmorrin said:

Spent more time waiting to get on and off the island than we spent on it!  

What ship were you on? Is this normal to expect with any sailing? I will be there on the SKY in May and from what I found in Google searches, there won't be any other ships present. I would assume that it wouldn't be as bad with a small ship and no others to jam things up. This is my first cruise and just want to know what to expect here since it's the only tender stop.