Disney Cruise to Grand Cayman (Excursion Mistakes to Avoid)

Disney ship at Georgetown Grand Cayman

If you’re wanting to visit one of the best islands in the Caribbean, you really can’t beat the Cayman Islands. This is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and it’s easy to get to if you’re sailing on a Disney Cruise!

My family and I were lucky enough to visit George Town, Grand Cayman on a 5 night Disney cruise out of Miami, Florida. I can honestly say that this destination had the most beautiful water I have ever seen. Plus, the ocean water was super warm – even in December!

If you have a Disney cruise to Grand Cayman booked, you’re in for a treat! This amazing place is full of fun things to do in addition to its natural beauty and friendly residents.

In the post below, we will cover the popular port adventures in Grand Cayman as well as a rundown on how the tender process works when getting off the ship. So, continuing reading below for information and tips on making the most of your Grand Cayman cruise excursions!

Grand Cayman Excursions

After booking this cruise, I browsed through the Grand Cayman Port Adventures that Disney Cruise Line offered and noticed that most of them weren’t going to work for us. We were sailing with our one year old, and a lot of the excursions had minimum age requirements that were far older than toddler ages.

For example, some of the Grand Cayman shore excursions offered on this cruise were as follows:

  • Stingray City Sandbar (5 and up)
  • 2-Tank Dive Tour (12 and up)
  • Catamaran Tour (5 and up)
  • Dolphin Swim (6 and up)
  • Starfish Beach and Mangrove Forests (5 and up)
  • Kittiwake Snorkel Sail (5 and up)
  • AGUA Glass Bottom Boat Tour (5 and up)

After reading through the list, I realized our options for our one-year-old included the dolphin observer, island tour, undersea tour, private boat, or the beach. Luckily, we are beach people and just really wanted a nice place to hang out for the day.

Seven Mile Beach Grand Cayman
Seven Mile Beach Grand Cayman

Since Grand Cayman is known as a safe, easy island to tour, I felt comfortable with just grabbing a taxi in port instead of booking an official excursion through Disney. This seemed to be the cheaper way to go, and I wanted the freedom to return to the ship whenever we pleased.

I had also read that the beaches in Grand Cayman are all public and free, so we decided to just do the beach on our own. Once onboard the ship, our Concierge Hosts enthusiastically agreed that this was a super easy and great way to spend the day.

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Disney Cruise Planner

On a side note, if you haven’t read our Disney Trip Report from Miami you can find it here. We were lucky enough to upgrade to the concierge level on that trip, and the hosts were absolutely amazing.

They instructed our family to find a taxi in port and request to be dropped off at Royal Palms. In my head, I envisioned quickly hopping in a cab, requesting Royal Palms, and being driven directly there. However, this is NOT what happened, but I will detail our actual experience below.

Grand Cayman Cruise Port Map

Before our scheduled stop in Grand Cayman, our stateroom host placed Grand Cayman port information in our cabin. This included a detailed map of the George Town cruise ship port, which you can see below.

Map of Port Grand Cayman
Map of Port Grand Cayman

We also received information on safety precautions you should take while in port. We left our passports in the safe inside our stateroom, but we took our Key to the World cards and drivers’ licenses off the ship with us. Note that you need your Key to the World card any time you get on or off the cruise ship, even on Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island in the Bahamas).

Safety letter from Disney Cruise Line in Grand Cayman

As mentioned above, we had towels for each family member to take to the beach. We also took a backpack with baby supplies like diapers and wipes. In addition to these necessities for our toddler, I packed the following items in our day bag:

  • Snacks– You are allowed to take pre-packaged food off the ship. I brought Lara Bars with us on the cruise, so I put a few of these in our bag.
  • Water Bottles– We grabbed water bottles from the Concierge Lounge before leaving. You could also take your refillable water bottle with you.
  • Beach Toys– We brought a few Barbie dolls and toys for my six year old and one year old to play with on the beach.
  • Sunscreen– I packed extra sunscreen to take to the beach so that we could re-apply it throughout the day.

Tendering Process

In addition to the information about the port, our stateroom host left a Disney Cruise Line letter explaining the Grand Cayman tendering process. At the time of our sailing, Grand Cayman did not have a dock at their port. (I believe they are planning to build one in the near future.)

Because of this, the ships visiting Grand Cayman must anchor offshore. Then small boats (called tenders) pick up passengers from the cruise ships and transport them to the shore.

Grand Cayman tender letter from Disney Cruise Line
Information on how to tender in Grand Cayman

You can read the letter pictured above for Disney Cruise Line’s full procedure for tendering. My experience was a bit different because we had upgraded to Concierge in Miami.

One of the Concierge perks is that you get priority tendering. This was a huge bonus for us since we were traveling with our toddler who isn’t quite known for her patience. Our Concierge Hosts had given us instructions to meet in the Concierge Lounge at 8:00 AM.

Towels and Sunscreen in the Concierge Lounge on the Disney Magic

So, after eating breakfast at the buffet, Cabanas, we headed to the Concierge lounge for the hosts to escort us to the tender boats. There were towels and sunscreen on the sun deck of the Concierge Lounge that we were permitted to use for free.

We had already grabbed towels from the pool deck after breakfast, but we did use the sunscreen provided. Then, the hosts led the Concierge passengers down to Deck 1 where the tender boat was waiting.

Tender Boat in Grand Cayman
Tender Boat in Grand Cayman

We swiped our Key to the World cards to get off the ship, and then we walked onto the tender boat. I’m not sure how many people each boat holds, but it has seating both upstairs and down. So, a lot of people fit on each tender.

Once the boat was full, we pulled away from the ship and headed toward the shoreline. This whole process took maybe ten minutes – so not long at all. The ride on the tender boat goes by really quickly and is so scenic.

Grand Cayman on Your Own

We stepped off the tender boat and right into the Grand Cayman cruise port. The port featured little stands that were set up selling merchandise and excursions. Then, we walked toward the exit to where the taxis were located.

Since we had decided to experience Grand Cayman on our own, we did not have organized transportation options through Disney to take us to the beach. Instead, we followed the signs to where the local taxis were parked. These taxis actually looked like mini buses and held maybe 20 people a piece.

Disney Magic in Grand Cayman
Disney Magic in Grand Cayman

So, we walked out of the port gates to the taxi area. There were TONS of taxis (mini buses) waiting. I stopped and asked a gentleman for a cab to Royal Palms like our Concierge Hosts had recommended. He said to follow him, and he showed us to his minibus.

Before climbing onto the bus, I asked again if he was going to Royal Palms. He said yes, so we climbed on. Since no one was in the cab yet, we went to the very back. And we sat – with no air conditioning – and an impatient toddler – for over 30 minutes.

Disney Wonder In Grand Cayman
Disney Wonder was also in Grand Cayman.

The driver of the taxi had left to gather more people who wanted to go to the beach. As we watched out the minibus window, we realized that all the drivers were trying to fill their taxis up before leaving the port, which makes complete sense for them. However, this meant that we had to sit in the steaming vehicle for over half an hour.

And when I say that the drivers were filling up the taxis, I mean PACKING people in. Our taxi looked insanely full to me at one point, but the driver added more people so that we were elbow to elbow.

I say all of that to give you this tip: Choose a taxi that is almost full if you can! If you are not able to find a taxi that is loaded and ready to leave, hopefully this post at least gives you a heads up on what to expect once you board the minibus.

Beaches Near the Cruise Port

Our taxi driver drove our bus load of people through town for a short drive (about 15 minutes) before we reached our destination. He pulled up in front a beach shack that said Calico Jacks and had us all pay him as we exited.

It was $6 per person for the ride. The driver initially told me I owed for four people, but my husband told him that our one year old didn’t take up a seat since we held her. The driver quickly agreed and just had us pay for the three of us who took up seats.

Grand Cayman Beach Chairs Public Beach
Chairs and Umbrellas Available to Rent

We walked through the shack and right onto the beach where we saw people renting out chairs with umbrellas. We paid $20 for two chairs and an umbrella, and we were given wrist bands to show that we had paid.

The beach here seems to have eroded pretty badly, but I had read about this before our trip. The lounge chairs we rented were probably only two feet from the water because there wasn’t much sand/beach space at all. Even with the erosion, this beach was AMAZING and probably the most beautiful beach we had ever seen!

seven mile beach grand cayman

The white sands and ocean floor were both soft, so we didn’t need water shoes. The shallow waters of the ocean were the prettiest color I have ever seen! It was crystal clear and SO warm…even in December! I don’t think I even needed to get used to it. I just walked right in, and it felt incredible!

I will note that we didn’t see any marine life. So, if you’re looking for a place to snorkel, this may not be the right spot. The beach area we initially stopped at was a popular destination, and it started to get a little busy. This is because it was the first place you came to when you entered the beach.

Also, I think we may have been the first cruise ship to arrive in Grand Cayman that day. The people who rented the chairs had told us to grab ANY set of blue chairs we wanted. And, we noticed more chairs further down the beach.

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Disney Cruise Planner

It was much less busy at that end, so we took our things down there. We were right beside a resort called Seafire. I had never heard of Seafire prior to this trip, but now I really want to stay there! They had a huge sandy beach area with loungers and cabanas. It all looked really upscale and clean!

As I was admiring Seafire, I realized I didn’t see any mention of Royal Palms anywhere. Well, this is because we weren’t at Royal Palms. I was kind of annoyed because I had specifically told the driver twice that that’s where we wanted to go. Still the beach that we were on was beautiful, so it all worked out in the end.

Final Thoughts on Our Disney Cruise to Grand Cayman

We spent a few hours enjoying the beach, and then we decided to head back to the ship. I wanted to grab lunch on board before putting our one-year-old down for a nap. So, we walked back up to the beach shack, and a lady approached us asking if we wanted to go back to the port.

She told us she had a FULL bus and that we could leave immediately. Since we sat for 30 minutes to get to the beach, the option to get on an already full bus sounded much better. We washed the sand off in the outdoor showers and headed to the taxi.

Disney cruise ship with text Disney Magic Western caribbean Trip Report

**Note that there were also restrooms here that my husband said “weren’t bad” for public restrooms. The driver then pulled away from the beach, and we took the 10-15 minute drive back to port. The driver dropped us off in a big parking lot near the gates to the cruise port.

Here, we had a really pretty view of the ships anchored offshore. A couple security guards stood at the entrance to the port and asked us to show them our Key to the World cards to enter.

Seating on Top Level of Tender boat
Seating on Top Level of Tender

They didn’t ask for ID or anything. We then strolled over to the signs for the Disney Magic. I believe there were signs posted for the other major cruise lines too. We showed our key cards again and walked right onto a waiting tender boat.

The tender had plenty of seats for us to choose since it was fairly early in the day to return. Most of the Disney Magic passengers were still enjoying the island. The tender boat pulled off to take us back to the ship without waiting to fill up with passengers. Once back on the ship, we went through security on Deck 1. Then we headed up to the pool deck for lunch.

Do you have any tips for visiting Grand Cayman on a Disney cruise? What are your favorite excursions? Comment below to share with us!

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