Tender question - Grand Cayman

[FlyGirl22]

We will be visiting Grand Cayman on Celebrity Century next week. We have booked a non-cruiseline tour (Captain Marvin's) that requires us to check in at 8:30 am (9:00 am departure), at an office about 2 blocks from the tender dock.

 

Our itinerary says that we will be in Grand Cayman at 7:30 am. Is it hard to get on a tender that early? Will it be crowded? Would it help to get in line really early? :confused:

 

Also, some friends we're traveling with have an excursion booked through Celebrity, so they might be given some type of priority tender time, right? What are the chances that we could get in line with them?

 

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on the situation!!! Have you done anything like this before, even on another cruise line?

[myrtle0116]

Just returned from Voyager. Had booked excursion at 11:30 thinking we'd have plenty of time to make it as were only going to meet about a block (or a bit less) away. We were supposed to arrive at 10:00. The only reason we made it to the tender at 11:05 was I explained about our situation. They rushed us to tender #2 but we were supposed to be on #8 - which probably didn't leave the ship until - at least - 12:00 (and that's probably really rushing it.) We were 10 minutes late and they almost left us. This was the most disorganized part of the whole cruise. All else was great.

 

Susan

[TeresaJ]

Our ship arrived at 7am and we were off the ship by 8am (didn't even wait in line to get on the tender) and we didn't have an excursion booked. It was very fast and orderly. The tender ride was barely 5 minutes.