Excursion timing

[KJ1231]

This is our second cruise. In Alaska we did one excursion at each stop as most of them seemed long enough to not allow for a couple.

In Grand Cayman my son and I want to try the "Discover Scuba Diving" which is 3 hours beginning at 11. We get into port at 7:00 so I was also thinking we could do the Catamaran Sail and Stingray City which is 3 hours beginning at 7:30. In theory, we are back from the first one at 10:30 and leave for the second one at 11:00. Is that doable?  

[KJ1231]

Anyone?

 

[NS8VN]

You would be banking on there being zero delay in getting in to port (a 30 minute delay would delay the first excursion but probably not the second), zero delay in getting back from the Catamaran Sail, and that the Scuba Diving will meet at 11 and doesn't want to meet earlier and have the bus leave at 11 sharp.

IMO that's a lot of possible delays for only a 30 minute window.  Also to consider is whether you are going to want to go scuba diving after spending the morning sailing and where you are going to fit meals in.  If it were me I wouldn't want to deal with all of that just to hit two excursions, but it is up to you if you feel the risk is low enough and reward high enough.

[tiny260]

I don't know what ship you are on but arriving in Grand Cayman at 7am is not typical for that destination, Grand Cayman is a tender port, so you have to wait in line, get on a tender craft and then are taken to shore.

I'm going there next week on Liberty OTS, coming from Cozumel on the 1st day, we don't get the Grand Cayman until 10:30, (ship leaves at 6:30), then the tender ride to port, I'm Diamond and also have a suite so I get priority tender access, but I'm still keeping it to 1 excursion.

As @NS8VN , 2 excursions would be very tough to make.

Double check your time in port also.

[Matt]

Given the fact there are tenders involved, the sliver of time gap between excursions and the fact your arrival time is not the same time as what time you are going to be cleared by local officials, I'd say it's much too close for comfort.

[KJ1231]

Thanks for the replies! I double-checked and it has 7 AM arrival. We're on Brilliance out of Tampa and Grand Cayman is our first stop after a cruising day the day before. I have the Compasses from an identical cruise earlier this year and of note under "Tendering Procedures", "the peak time for going ashore is between 7:30 am - 9:30 am, please be patient at this time and listen to the PA announcements."

This will be our first experience with tenders. There are a bunch (9) of 7:30 AM excursions so will be interesting to see how it unfolds. 

Added: When we were in Juneau on Radiance, people going on pre-arranged excursions had to go to the auditorium and were then escorted off the ship in groups to go to their busses on the pier. Will we be doing something similar so that excursion folks get priority over non-excursion (except Diamond, etc.)?  

 

[twangster]

49 minutes ago, KJ1231 said:

Thanks for the replies! I double-checked and it has 7 AM arrival. We're on Brilliance out of Tampa and Grand Cayman is our first stop after a cruising day the day before. I have the Compasses from an identical cruise earlier this year and of note under "Tendering Procedures", "the peak time for going ashore is between 7:30 am - 9:30 am, please be patient at this time and listen to the PA announcements."

This will be our first experience with tenders. There are a bunch (9) of 7:30 AM excursions so will be interesting to see how it unfolds. 

Added: When we were in Juneau on Radiance, people going on pre-arranged excursions had to go to the auditorium and were then escorted off the ship in groups to go to their busses on the pier. Will we be doing something similar so that excursion folks get priority over non-excursion (except Diamond, etc.)?  

 

Many excursions will meet in the theater.   Groups will be escorted to a tender much like the buses on Radiance. 

Depending on group sizes multiple excursion groups might share a tender.  This of course impacts self-explore guests who just want to tender, likely leading to the warning that 7:30am starts peak tender operations. 

If two excursion groups have consumed 2/3 of one tender then the remaining seats will be filled with guests who have queued up and are waiting for a tender.  As a result non-excursion guests can face some wait time while they ensure excursion guests get to shore promptly.  

Some excursions feature a boat that comes directly to the ship to pick up guests.  Scuba diving, snorkeling, other water based excursions often fall into the category.  It depends if the excursion boat is suitable to dock beside the ship to load guests.  Some small snorkel boats are not.

Guests with suite or concierge access can often get tender priority from the concierge.  Diamond access for tender priority varies by ship.  On Anthem at CocoCay Diamond didn't do anything for me, I had to get a ticket just like a pre-gold did.   

Coming back to the ship there is typically no differentiation.    Excursion guests coming back queue up with everyone else.   Queues on land to return to the ship can be lengthy.  

[tiny260]

44 minutes ago, KJ1231 said:

Added: When we were in Juneau on Radiance, people going on pre-arranged excursions had to go to the auditorium and were then escorted off the ship in groups to go to their busses on the pier. Will we be doing something similar so that excursion folks get priority over non-excursion (except Diamond, etc.)?  

I actually think you are correct, I think Royal sponsored shore excursions get priority, not sure how Diamond's fit in on that part though. Glad to hear the port time is correct. I was just a little bummed when I saw we would be in port until 10:30...

[WAAAYTOOO]

I don't know about C&A loyalty priority (I don't recall there being any but it's been a long time since I was at a tender port) but when we were in a suite a few years back, the Concierge took us downstairs for our "priority" tender boarding and we had to wait for all of the excursion folks to go before they started letting us on.  So, for those who had no tender priority (neither on an RCCL excursion or in a suite), the first "regular" tender was a considerable wait.

[tiny260]

5 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I don't know about C&A loyalty priority (I don't recall there being any but it's been a long time since I was at a tender port) but when we were in a suite a few years back, the Concierge took us downstairs for our "priority" tender boarding and we had to wait for all of the excursion folks to go before they started letting us on.  So, for those who had no tender priority (neither on an RCCL excursion or in a suite), the first "regular" tender was a considerable wait.

Yes, I looked, you are correct, didn't see anything for C&A, must have been thinking about priority boarding, but it is definitely part of the Suite perks, looked at my concierge email, but it still sounds like we will have to wait, from your experience anyway.

[KJ1231]

I had sent a message through the RC website on this topic and the response from shorex@rccl.com was:

"Kindly note that it is generally recommended that guests allow at least 45 minutes between tours.

Shore Excursion times are established according to information received from the local tour operators, and may be subject to change should the vessel's arrival time at the port be delayed, or should circumstances arise whereby the itinerary for a particular Shore Excursion must be altered".

Now that I think about it, my birdwatching excursion in Hoonah/Icy Strait was moved up from 8:30 to 7:30.

Thinking we'll stick with the early excursion and then if it's possible to still do a second when we get back then we can book it at the pier.

THANKS AGAIN!