George Town, Grand Cayman * This port requires tendering

[cyctorres]

Is it true that the cruise has no dock where to dock? Do they use small boats to go to the island? Are they rescue boats or do they use a separate company for that?

 

[Marc D]

Yes. Grand Cayman is a tender port. They use the local boats there.

 

[Aby]

Yes, for Georgetown Grand Cayman you will use tender boats to get to shore. They are quite large vessels, made just for this purpose. The tender boats will run back and forth from ship to shore all day you are in port and they can hold a lot of passengers at a time. The ride isn't very long and I quite enjoy it.

Aby

 

[cyctorres]

Yes. Grand Cayman is a tender port. They use the local boats there. View attachment 468215

 

[cyctorres]

Yes, for Georgetown Grand Cayman you will use tender boats to get to shore. They are quite large vessels, made just for this purpose. The tender boats will run back and forth from ship to shore all day you are in port and they can hold a lot of passengers at a time. The ride isn't very long and I quite enjoy it.

Aby

 

[Tehanna]

They also run the tenders all day long and you can come and go as you please.

At one point my husband was the only passenger when returning to the ship. He quite enjoyed it.

 

[mevelandry]

Is it true that the cruise has no dock where to dock? Do they use small boats to go to the island? Are they rescue boats or do they use a separate company for that?

True and while there was talks about a dock being built at some point in the last year, they decided to preserve nature and not build it.

 

[cyctorres]

The waves don't jump the boat?

 

[Marc D]

The waves don't jump the boat?

Hmmm. First of all, what waves ?

Also, that’s not a canoe in open seas. It’s a passenger boat with two levels navigating in a cove. The boat holds at least 45 people, if not more. They service around 90 cruiseships a month, year round.

 

[cyctorres]

Hmmm. First of all, what waves ?

Also, that’s not a canoe in open seas. It’s a passenger boat with two levels navigating in a cove. The boat holds at least 45 people, if not more. They service around 90 cruiseships a month, year round.

I just ask, because I was in the vision of seas( royal Caribbean), they did the same in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and they used the lifeboats of the cruise ship, made 100+ passengers, and back to the cruise the waves got into the boat and wet many passengers. Very bad experience, my wife fears it will be the same.

 

[Marc D]

I just ask, because I was in the vision of seas( royal Caribbean), they did the same in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and they used the lifeboats of the cruise ship, made 100+ passengers, and back to the cruise the waves got into the boat and wet many passengers. Very bad experience, my wife fears it will be the same.

We have tendered often, using both local boats in GC and ship lifeboats in other ports. The situation you mention never happened to us. Of course, if the wind picks up and you do the run in a storm, you might get wet, but they wouldn’t use those boats if they were not adequate for most days.

 

[KMack]

I just ask, because I was in the vision of seas( royal Caribbean), they did the same in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and they used the lifeboats of the cruise ship, made 100+ passengers, and back to the cruise the waves got into the boat and wet many passengers. Very bad experience, my wife fears it will be the same.

We have never used the lifeboats as a tender on any of the Disney Cruises we have done. Honestly, I don’t think Disney does that. They hire a tendering service if it is required.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I have never


We have never used the lifeboats as a tender on any of the Disney Cruises we have done. Honestly, I don’t think Disney does that. They hire a tendering service if it is required.

Correct, DCL uses the port tenders. Other cruise lines use either their own lifeboats or a combination of their lifeboats and the port tenders.

 

[mevelandry]

I just ask, because I was in the vision of seas( royal Caribbean), they did the same in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and they used the lifeboats of the cruise ship, made 100+ passengers, and back to the cruise the waves got into the boat and wet many passengers. Very bad experience, my wife fears it will be the same.

If the seas are too choppy, they will cancel the port.

I've been to GC twice. Sometimes it rocks a little bit and you have to be careful for your head and duck a little bit (I don't but my husband is tall so he has to) as you transfer from the ship to the tendering both but nothing scary.

 

[LAX]

I have a question somewhat related to tendering at GC. Do people generally feel a tendering port is at a higher risk of cancellation and thus more inclined to book excursion through DCL? I know many independent excursion operators offer refund if a port is cancelled, but would it be a hassle trying to get refund from a foreign merchant?

LAX

 

[Lynne G]

I booked an independent excursion, a few weeks ago. The water was too rough to go to Sting Ray City, and by the time we got our first tender off our ship, all the other tours from that vendor had already left. When I complained, they took a screen shot of my reservation, and wrote cancelled on it. Checked my credit card I used to book it, when I came home, a few days later, and they had refunded me 2 days after I personally cancelled. We decided, since the weather was not perfect, we hopped on a public bus, got off at the Turtle place, and enjoyed that place for a few hours, then luckily a public bus arrived, as we were thinking how to get back to port, as the public bus that took us, refused to come back to get us if we did not just stay less than an hour. That bus driver was so nice, he took just us, quickly back to port, and all was well. Compared to other tender ports, I didn't think the tender was that long. I was on a Carnival cruise that stopped in GC on January 10.

Anyway, FWIW

 

[msmama]

When we stopped at GC they said the seas were too rough to stop at George Town, so we stopped...somewhere else (sorry I don't remember where). Seas were smooth as glass where we were - I would guess the tenders would hold 100 people, they're not tiny things. They were shuttling people (via bus) to George Town or people with excursions were picked up at the new spot (it was little more than a dock with a parking lot, honestly).
They'll do what they can to get you to where you're supposed to be safely.

**Just remembered, the tenders at GC were double decker - on the island side you got on the bottom, on the boat side, you got off on the top. There was a kid in a wheelchair on our tender that was able to be carried by boat staff. I don't know how it would work with a larger adult. But it might be something worth looking into if someone in the traveling party has mobility issues.

 

[mevelandry]

I have a question somewhat related to tendering at GC. Do people generally feel a tendering port is at a higher risk of cancellation and thus more inclined to book excursion through DCL? I know many independent excursion operators offer refund if a port is cancelled, but would it be a hassle trying to get refund from a foreign merchant?

LAX

I think it's important to do research first but I believe most merchants would refund you if your ship can't tender.