Could we miss the ship???

[valeriekc]

We are wanting to to the stingray city tour in the afternoon in Grand Cayman and Magic departs at 5:30.
Has anyone had trouble making it back to the ship??
Our tour leaves at 1:30 and returns at 4:30. I see that the Disney excursion leaves at 1 and is 3.5 hours long. I'm hoping that we will be in good shape? It certainly won't be any fun on the excursion if we are stressing about missing the boat.
Has anyone cut it that close with an afternoon trip to Stingray city?
thanks in advance!!

 

[GenieDana]

If it's a DISNEY excursion, the ship will wait until you return. If it's a privately booked excursion, be on time. Very long swim to Cozumel!

 

[jel0511]

I'd book another excursion if I were you. The last tender LEAVES the tender dock at 4:30, meaning if your excursion is even on time, you'll miss it. The DCL excursion will not miss the boat, since it's DCL sponsored and they might be brought back directly to the tender dock. You will not and probably will miss the boat. If you really want the afternoon snorkle, book with DCL. Otherwise book another time.

 

[valeriekc]

Wow!!
In the guide it says nothing about having to be back at the ship at 4:30?? It says that the ship departs at 5:30 with no mention of having to be there an hour earlier.
It would seem strange to me that all these excursion companies that make their living from cruise ships would schedule times that would leave their customers stranded on the dock.
Does anyone else have experience with this??

 

[DMOMof3]

Ship leaves at 5:00pm not 5:30pm. Other cruise ships may leave later. The last tender to the ship leaves at 4:30. The ship will leave without you if you are not on a Disney excursion. Book an earlier time or book a Disney excursion.
We did the 10-1 Captain Marvin excursion to be on the safe side.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

The excursion companies that do the private excursions (non-ship sponsored) don't make their schedules around one ship. While in Grand Cayman you may have 5, 6, or even up to 8 ships in port at one time (Cozumel is the same way), and many of these ships stay later than 5 pm. So the excursion companies just pick a general time and whomever signs up, signs up. You WILL have to be back onboard at LEAST 45 minute before the ship sails if you are on a non ship excursion. I don't know the tender times and the official "All Aboard" time for Magic, but I think your excursion is cutting it WAY too close. Like the other posters said, the ship will wait for it's own excursions, but no one else. If you want to do an afternoon with the Stingrays, book with Disney, otherwise, do a morning. We booked a trip leaving at 10 am and returning at about 2 pm. Perfect timing if you ask me. We don't have to be on the first tender off and we will have plenty of wiggle room on the return time.

Mrsfuzzmo

 

[RKB]

Definitely don't do the later excursion. Everyone is correct. Do the earlier - then you may also have time for a few other things in town before it's time to get back on the boat.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

My docs show that the Disney Magic departs from Grand Cayman at 5:15 p.m.

The January 20, 2004, Navigator (7-night Western) at http://www.castawayclub.com/ says, "Last Tender 4:30pm - Port Departure 5:00pm."

The excursion operators not only serve passengers on other cruise lines (with other departure times), they also serve guests in resort hotels, for whom port departure time is not an issue.

Personally, I'd avoid any non-Disney excursions that are scheduled to end after 3:00 p.m.

 

[DawnCt]

Also check the time. When we sail on RCCL we stay on ship time. If you book an excursion independently, you will be booking on local time which, if Disney stays on EST will be an hour earlier, since Cozumel is west of Fla....or is the other way around??

 

[DMOMof3]

Disney does tell you to change your clocks, the ship changes time with the time zone.

 

[valeriekc]

Well I'm not too sure about this but I'm sensing from all of the repsondents.......that I should CANCEL and fast!!
I appreciate all of your replies and would not have had any idea about the last tender leaving at 4:30 if not for the helpful (and unbiased) folks here at DIS!!!
We are doing horses in the AM and it did seem like maybe a little much to do another excursion in the afternoon....so it's just as well.
Thanks again for all your help!!

 

[Katdb]

This doesn't really have much to do with missing the ship (I'm pretty sure that it has been adequatley answered).

My family and I generally only do the Disney excursions, even if it costs a little bit more, and boy were we glad that we booked through Disney last april!

My Mom, Nana, Sister and I were booked for the stingray, turtlefarm and hell tour through disney. We went through everything fine, until we went to leave for the stingrays and the boat wouldn't start. (apparently there were other boats having problems that day too). Disney managed to get us on another boat a couple hours later (and refunded my Nana's stingray portion as she didn't want to wait) and we were able to finish our tour.

From what I have heard from another couple who booked through a non-Disney tour (I can't remember which one at the moment) said that their boat also broke down, and they were unable to get to stingray city through that company and had a much harder time getting a refund.

We also like the guarentee that DCL will wait for us if the tour goes late. I know many people use the non-Disney sponsored tours with no problems, just thought that I would bring up a few reasons for considering booking through DCL.

Katdb