Have booked a private excursion (not thru RCCL) and am concerned about being on the island by 8AM. The local port authority shows 3 ships all tendering as of 7AM that morning and I understand that RCCL-booked excursions are top-priority passengers. What's a realistic time we can expect to be on the island, and what "tips" can help our group of 18 use to get on land quickly? (outside of bribery )

Personally, I think that 8am is unrealistic. This delay in arrival is the cost of a) traveling on one of these large supersized ships and b) booking excursions outside of the cruise line. Tendering makes it impossible to unload all these passengers within the one hour time frame you have set - not even considering the other two ships in the port at the same time. If you started tenders at 7am, I'd guess you would be lucky to hit the island by 9am. (before anyone blasts me, please remember these folks are NOT part of a RCCL excursion so will be the last to leave.)

Also factor in that the ship may dock late or have other problems not getting there on time. It happens. The 2 cruises we've been on, we allowed 3 hours from the time the schedule said they would dock to actully getting off the ship and onto the pier.

Can you reschedule your excursion for later in the morning or afternoon to be on the safe side? Or just book through the ship so you won't have to worry about getting there and getting back timely?

I have had different experiences I guess. I've found there's always a crush at the beginning, but if you wait a little bit, say 45 mins, then it becomes much better. Alot of cruisers that don't have excursions booked will take their time enjoying breakfast before rushing to the tenders...it's not like everybody's going to try exiting the ship at the same time.

Another thing, you are a group of 18 from the same ship. That's a considerable amount of revenue for any excursion. I'd bet they will wait on you, heck they know better than you do what time you'll show up!

Which port are you talking about?

8:00am is def. too early. The earliest I would expect to be off is at 8:30am.

Have not been on RCCL but have been on Carnival and Princess. I have always shown whoever is in charge our confirmation and they have allowed us to get off with the ships tours. We have never had that large of a group but i would also recomend talking to the cruise director.

Great replies - thanks to all who commented. I booked "Stingray City & snorkling" via Dexter's Fantasea Tours (GCayman) & spoke with him a few days ago by phone). While I agree he'll wait as long as he must, the reality is that his afternoon commitments COULD impact our 2-stop tour length (currently set at 3.5 hrs). A target of 8:30A is what we were both shooting for and, based on feedback, sounds like that may be 50/50 odds at best.

Being this is our 1st cruise, I've no idea on the details of disembarking (i.e. # of tenders, size, etc.) or the transit time from pt A-->B.

I've done four cruises that stopped at Grand Cayman. Twice the ships were unable to stop at Grand Cayman because of rough seas. Tendering into Cayman is slow.

The best tip I can give you is just roll with the punches, expect the worse and hope for the best. If you don't make it to Cayman until later, you will still enjoy the time you have at stingray city.

Captain Dexter is great and you'll be glad you're going with him instead of the ship's excursion.