Written by Chillie Falls, November 8, 2022 for Accessadventure.net
On Wednesday, December 7, 2022, Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam visited tender port Georgetown, Grand Cayman. A tender port is one where there is no pier or dock for cruise ships to land. Instead, they anchor at an assigned spot, or hover over an assigned spot while guests go ashore. Tenders run every 15 minutes or so all day. Some are full, some nearly empty.
Due to my daily LIVE show, I was unable to go until after noon and boarded an almost empty tender. Just like the tender embarkation at Half Moon Cay, I had to go up a ramp, but not a very steep one. Unlike Half Moon Cay, I was able to park on Deck 2 and did not have to traverse that awful ramp to deck 1.
There were only two cruise ships in port yesterday, us and Carnival Horizon.
It was a very comfortable ride from my perch on the tender and lasted about 10 minutes.
Once we reached the dock, I found another ramp, but again, a reasonable slope and not nerve racking at all.
Unfortunately that late in the day, there were no excursions available, and probably none that are accessible anyway. Very few ports have wheelchair or scooter accessible transportation. So, I rolled around the “tourist” area, found a local adult beverage establishment and ordered a pina colada.
The tender back to the ship was about half full as guest were beginning to return from excursions.
I can only speak about the port area and cannot comment on the many wonderful excursions available from Georgetown. however, the tender operations were so much smoother and easier than Half Moon Cay. The port are is nice an smooth, with accessible restrooms. There are numerous shopping opportunities.
The warning I would offer is to be careful from the ramp to the “shopping” area. It has a slight slope toward the water and if one does not proceed with some caution, this might be a spot to roll a scooter. A wheelchair or power wheelchair would probably do OK since they have a wider base and less likely to tip.
I highly recommend Grand Cayman for any level of mobility challenges.