Cave kayaking, not a cruise offered excursion - too risky?

Looking at ViV tours - they have an excursion where you kayak through several caves instead of tubing through just one. It sounds amazing and we placed a deposit, but doing some reading tonight revealed youre on the water for five hours - coupled with transport time it seems like that puts you over on time to get back to the boat. Has anyone does this excursion or know anything about it? We booked through Shore Excursioneer.

We have done cavetubing before, and we just return to do the kayaking in the cave and we saw more caves in the same time it took to do the tubing, since the kayaks have no drag. Its and awesome experience, only 5 hours roundtrip.

Stu

If the vendor is an established one that offers cruise guest tours with

Depends on how long you are in port. It may not be doable for your ship's times.

We did Cave Kayaking with VIV Tours this past February! It was awesome! They had great guides, small group, and excellent equipment. I would never do the cave tubing again since you see more caves and it's much more comfortable on a kayak you control.

I too did this excursion last February. I don't recall the length of time we were in port, but it was the standard length, not anything extended. We made it back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. We loved this and it seemed way more fun than the tubing. We werent on the water for 5 hours. I would say the whole trip was 5 hours, if that.

VIV is GREAT and so was the Tour.

We are looking forward to going back next month.

Take: water shoes, bug spray, waterproof camera or phone and tip money (the guides are well worth it!)

I'm thinking about Kayaking during our stop in November.

I have 2 kids, 9 and 11. Is this a kid friendly tour? I'm afraid the kids won't be able to kayak by themselves. Do they have 2 person kayaks?

They do have two person kayaks. The guides are awesome and make sure you are safe.

I just booked V.iV. for our Dec. cruise. I have more experience booking non-cruise excursions than cruise offerings. I'm not at all worried about timing. They know who you're cruising with, they know the port times, this is their livelihood and a lot is at risk to have bad reviews. I'm sure there are many areas in the tour that can be adjusted if time is running short.

Good thread, I was wondering about this excursion. I contacted VIV, I was concerned about the early start time, 9 am, and being able to be on time since we are tendered. They said they met their clients at a convenient area at the port so it sounded like there would be no problem.