Grand Cayman tenders

[cujobugs]

I've noticed after reading the Navigators that people who didn't book their excursions through Disney have to wait for tenders while all others get off ship. How long do you have to wait in the theatre to get a ticket? Is this a LONG nightmare? Just curious as we were wanting to do an early excursion to Capt. Marvin's for stingray city. Now I wonder if I should just book it through Disney instead. Anyone had good or bad experiences with this process?

 

[LAMPSKIES]

If I remember correctly the "non-excursion" people were able to get off after 8:30. We waited 'till 10:30 and went to "hell"....

 

[jerry112]

Back in Nov. we had an excursion on our own with Captain Marvins. We had an early check-in time of 9:15. We met in the theater at 7:00 figuring we would have a long wait plus we had to walk a few blocks to get there. To our surprise, there were only about 3 rows of people waiting for the first tender. We made it on that first tender and got to Captain Marvins about an hour ahead of time.

I don't know if that is the usual way things happen, but we were pleased!

 

[cathie]

We booked directly through Captain Marvin's for our July 2004 Western cruise & we had an 11:00am reservation. We went down to the theater to get our tender tickets around 10:00am & only waited about 15 minutes. We were on the tender within a few minutes & then walked directly to Captain Marvin's office to take their taxi bus to the snorkeling boat area. Their office is just a short distance from the dock & the locals are very helpful with directions. You'll love Captain Marvin's ,the excursion was awesome! They take a DVD or video of each excursion that you can purchase for about 45.00. (a little pricey but it was worth it..great to watch during one of our snowstorms here in the North). Have a great cruise!!! Cathie & The Gang

 

[The Brechun's]

Just got back from the March 12 2005 western and was booked for Captain Marvins Stingray tour for 8:00 a.m.

Went to the Walt Disney Theatre at 7:30 and was on the tender by about 7:50.

Got to Captain Marvins by 8:15 and the bus left by 8:30 for the tour .
The people at Captain Marvins are great and know when the ships come in and will wait for you within reason.

 

[webray]

If you have the earliest excursion booked, check your navigator the night before to see what time the theatre opens for tender tickets. Then plan on being there a good 15 to 20 minutes before that opening time. A line will have already started forming. You will want to be on the 1st tender if possible.

When we were there..plenty of people didn't plan properly..they do what they can..but the do not let you cut in front of the other people, just to make your none disney planned excursion. There were also people who did plan properly..early and were in front of the line. They had no problems at all getting where they needed to be.