I am finding postings on other boards that say the tendering at Half Moon Cay is atrocius Folks are saying they waited over an hour to be tendered in and more than an hour to be tendered back to the ship. Have any of you experienced this? We are seriously debating whether or not to even go ashore. We have heard so any great things about Half Moon we feel it would still be worth the wait. Thanks.
We've been there multiple times, on HAL and Carnival. Never had much of a wait. And, even if there was a wait, I would still do it. It's about the only thing that I would wait patiently in line for.
In general, lines for tenders, be it Grand Cayman or Half Moon Cay, Belize, etc can look really long. But the tenders hold a lot of people, so it goes faster than you might expect.
Marty
The problem with the tendering is the later you arrive the longer you wait. The trick is to have a cabana, the grand cabana, or ANY shore excursion booked. Any and all shore excursion people are let off the ship before anyone else is let off! So those who do not have a excursion booked have to wait to get off after the shore excursion people who get the first and possibly second tenders ashore. The only other way to guarantee a quick arrival on HMC is to be waiting at the doors a good 30 minutes before the time the tendering starts (so if it is 9am then be waiting on Lobby Deck by the main showroom at 8:30 to get tender stickers #1 which guarantees you will be on the beach by 9:30-9:45. Shore excursion people will be ashore by 9:15-9:30am from a 9am arrival!
As with any ship that tenders passengers ashore, anyone with Carnival booked shore tours gets off first and meets in the show lounge--in the case of the ship I was on we met on Deck 4 balcony and within a few minutes told to go down to 0 deck to board the tenders! By the way, I did the stingray tour at 11:30am and was off the ship and enjoying the warm Caribbean sea by 9:45am and back at the welcome center for 11am to wait for my tour. Tender stickers in the low teens were coming ashore at 11am.
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Not going ashore...........BIG MISTAKE. This is one great beach day. The tenders are large and run frequently. I have always thought the tender service was pretty good considering they are moving 2500 persons off the ship in a short period of time.
The problem with the tendering is the later you arrive the longer you wait. The trick is to have a cabana, the grand cabana, or ANY shore excursion booked. Any and all shore excursion people are let off the ship before anyone else is let off! So those who do not have a excursion booked have to wait to get off after the shore excursion people who get the first and possibly second tenders ashore. The only other way to guarantee a quick arrival on HMC is to be waiting at the doors a good 30 minutes before the time the tendering starts (so if it is 9am then be waiting on Lobby Deck by the main showroom at 8:30 to get tender stickers #1 which guarantees you will be on the beach by 9:30-9:45. Shore excursion people will be ashore by 9:15-9:30am from a 9am arrival!
As with any ship that tenders passengers ashore, anyone with Carnival booked shore tours gets off first and meets in the show lounge--in the case of the ship I was on we met on Deck 4 balcony and within a few minutes told to go down to 0 deck to board the tenders! By the way, I did the stingray tour at 11:30am and was off the ship and enjoying the warm Caribbean sea by 9:45am and back at the welcome center for 11am to wait for my tour. Tender stickers in the low teens were coming ashore at 11am.
When do they let the Platinum pax off? After the excursion people?
In Grand Cayman they took us right to the front of the line.
How can you secure a cabana?????? Do you have to wait until you are onboard and go to the pursers desk??? Could someone please educate me on securing a cabana as we will be having my 11month old daughter with us and I want to make sure we have a place we can lay her down for naps out sun
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Half Moon Cay
Folks are saying they waited over an hour to be tendered in and more than an hour to be tendered back to the ship. Have any of you experienced this? We are seriously debating whether or not to even go ashore. We have heard so any great things about Half Moon we feel it would still be worth the wait. Thanks.
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