Altun Ha through Carnival vs. Private Tour Operator

[CruisinMomma2]

Our family will be in Belize at the beginning of February. Not sure what exactly we should do. I have read through several different posts that the tender process can be very long and unless you have an excursion booked, it may take over 2 hours before you ever get off the ship and on land. Has anyone every booked the Altun Ha & Belize City Tour through Carnival? 4 in our party (DH, DW 10 & 12 yr old kids).

[NCTribeFan]

Two hours? You mean 2 hours just to tender over to the port? No way. Carnival has a process for getting a tender if you are on an independent excursion. You just have to let them know when you have to meet your tour. They'll get you on a tender and the ride over is probably not even 15 minutes.

 

The problem with this type of question is that most people won't have done both, so you won't get a comparison, just impressions of one or the other. I specifically did Carnival's tour (and I hate ship excursions) just because all the independent tours were Belize City & Altun Ha, but I wanted the River Wallace portion.

 

Unfortunately, due to the weather and the time constraints, it wasn't as great as I had hoped it would be. :(

 

We were there last Sunday. Here's a link to my review.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1107851

 

The Belize portion is in posts 33-35.

[CruisinMomma2]

Thanks for your opinion. This will be our first time to Belize, so I think we would be interested in seeing the ruins and parts of Belize City. I thought if we didn't go through Carnival and it being a tendered port, we may miss our excursion if we booked outside. I was looking at Island Marketing and they offer a 4 hour Altun Ha/Belize City Tour excusion which includes lunch for $42.50 pp.

[NCTribeFan]

Ah, OK. You want the city tour. I get it now! :D

 

Did you check Coral Breeze? They get pretty good reviews. Check Trip Advisor, too, for reviews of independent tours.

 

I think some of the people on our Roll Call went to Caye Caulker using them and some others had used them for other tours on prior cruises. Not sure if their tour includes lunch, but check them out, too.

 

Good luck!

[MDSue]

We did have a long wait to take the tender to shore when we were on the Legend in the spring. We were told that we could not get a tender ticket until 9:30 am for an 8 am arrival time. We had to catch a tender back by 3pm. We decided to do a ship sponsored tour for that reason. I've read others state that it is possible to get on an earlier tender even without a ship sponsored tour, but I didn't want to depend on it.

 

I highly recommend choosing the river/ruins tour over the Belize City tour. I think your kids especially will enjoy that much better.

[bethohio3]

We did have a long wait to take the tender to shore when we were on the Legend in the spring. We were told that we could not get a tender ticket until 9:30 am for an 8 am arrival time.

 

We were on the Carnival Miracle last February, and we didn't get off the ship until pushing 10:00. The weather was bad and the snorkel trips didn't go, so all of those people needed to be tendered (and if they'd signed up on a Carnival tour they got preference for getting a tender).

 

The tenders were slow and there weren't very many of them. There were a lot of ships in port, and I presume that was the reason for the delays.

 

(It was also in Belize where we almost missed the ship, but that's another story)

 

I'm considering booking a snorkeling cruise through Carnival this February just because of our issues in Belize last year.

 

--Beth

[ylimemh]

We did a private tour of Altun Ha through Island Marketing. We met in the lounge early, and we were given a number. I don't know if this is the norm or not, but pretty much everyone in the lounge got on the first tender out, private tour or Carnival tour. I think we were on the dock by 8:30. Even if you didn't make the first tender for some reason, the second tender should have you to the dock by 9:00, which would give you more than enough time to meet the Altun Ha tour. We had to kill over one and a half hours of time before our tour left, so not making the tour leaving (the island marketing one anyway) shouldn't be a concern.

 

The tour was great, I would recommend it if you want to see ruins. We had ample time before the tour to shop, had plenty of time at the ruins, and we got back to the pier with more than an hour to spare before the final tender left. And lunch was great! I myself was nervous about a private tour in Belize, but I would recommend Island Marketing in Belize for the Altun Ha tour.

[mrpayroll]

We did a private tour of Altun Ha through Island Marketing. We met in the lounge early, and we were given a number. I don't know if this is the norm or not, but pretty much everyone in the lounge got on the first tender out, private tour or Carnival tour. I think we were on the dock by 8:30. Even if you didn't make the first tender for some reason, the second tender should have you to the dock by 9:00, which would give you more than enough time to meet the Altun Ha tour. We had to kill over one and a half hours of time before our tour left, so not making the tour leaving (the island marketing one anyway) shouldn't be a concern.

 

The tour was great, I would recommend it if you want to see ruins. We had ample time before the tour to shop, had plenty of time at the ruins, and we got back to the pier with more than an hour to spare before the final tender left. And lunch was great! I myself was nervous about a private tour in Belize, but I would recommend Island Marketing in Belize for the Altun Ha tour.

Glad to hear this news. We are booked in Jan for this tour and am glad to hear the good review...:rolleyes:

[Kpino]

I love cruising. I hate tendering. I have experienced long wait times for tendering. This is what I have done in the past. Ask the excursion people for an early pass. (I generally do not purchase excursions from the ship, they are way overpriced and a cattle call.) That has worked in past. However, one time I asked the person and I was told just show up and that she would be there. She was not there. I simply acted like I was in the right place (even though they kept announcing this was for certain excursions only) and me and my party walked out with the group without tickets. (Even though there was a person "checking" for them.) Since that time I have tried it a couple of more times. I just show up where the excursion people are (just make sure it isn't a tender that takes you directly to a tour area) and I walk on the tender with the first group. (Amazingly, the tender usually isn't even full. This really irritates me!) I have never been turned around.

 

And yes, I have been on cruises that it has taken 2 hours to get off by tendering. Agan, this is my biggest beef with crusing. I think they could do this much faster but there isn't any real motivation for them to improve on this. (Or maybe it's a union thing? Or maybe they have to use a certain company for the tendering?)

 

I hate that they will list 8:00 am to 6:00 pm on the itinerary but that will mean get on the tender at 4:30 pm so they can start closing the doors at 5:30.

[Kpino]

I have also been there. It is a good way and isolated but worth it. The mosquitos were out in force though. (I am from teh Texas Coast so when I say there mosquitos...)

[gidgetglam]

We did a private tour of Altun Ha through Island Marketing. We met in the lounge early, and we were given a number. I don't know if this is the norm or not, but pretty much everyone in the lounge got on the first tender out, private tour or Carnival tour. I think we were on the dock by 8:30. Even if you didn't make the first tender for some reason, the second tender should have you to the dock by 9:00, which would give you more than enough time to meet the Altun Ha tour. We had to kill over one and a half hours of time before our tour left, so not making the tour leaving (the island marketing one anyway) shouldn't be a concern.

 

The tour was great, I would recommend it if you want to see ruins. We had ample time before the tour to shop, had plenty of time at the ruins, and we got back to the pier with more than an hour to spare before the final tender left. And lunch was great! I myself was nervous about a private tour in Belize, but I would recommend Island Marketing in Belize for the Altun Ha tour.

 

Thank you for the great review... we will be going next week through Island Marketing. I was nervous but I look forward to going!

[NCTribeFan]

Well, I've only been to Belize twice and we were the only ship there both times. That may have had something to do with it.

 

The first time, we had booked cave tubing with Major Tom and had been told to get the 1st tender, but they were already loading when I got to the theatre.

 

I simply told the Carnival person I was going cave tubing and got a ticket for the 2nd tender.

 

Now that I'm Platinum, I won't have to worry about that.

 

The tenders are various sizes, too. The one we had a couple of weeks ago was quite small, and we were the only tour on it.

 

I suppose pretending you were given a tender ticket and just jumping on the tender might work, but those of us to try to follow the instructions, show up at the crack of dawn for our ticket, and then wait until called may not appreciate your line jumping! :(

 

There were no mosquitos when we were there, but it was very cool and was raining by the time we arrived. I always take bug spray ashore with me.

 

Be aware that there has been a malaria outbreak in Belize, so I would apply the spray early and often.

[J&E07]

We are also considering Island Marketing. Do most find that their excursions run on time, both start time and trip duration?

[mactrio]

I wasn't on Carnival; but last Feb we were in Belize and the water was very rough so the tender wouldn't leave from the ship; we had booked thru the ship to do Altun Ha & the Old Belize River and the tender operator had a radio and was in contact with our tour operator and they waited for us. We had an 8:15 tender ticket and didn't leave from the ship until almost 9:00 and due to the waves we went slower than usual (so I was told) and the tender ride took over 30 minutes. There was a couple on the tender from Vegas who had an 8:30 private tour set up and they wouldn't or didn't wait for him. He did some yelling and cursing that morning.

I know booking thru the ship is more expensive; but it's also guaranteed. Double check with whoever you book with to make sure they will wait if the tender is running late.

[Carol1560]

I don't know but I think with Alta Hun being about 45-50 minutes away from the port and going through no-man's land. I prefer spending the extra $5.00 and going with the Carnival excursions. Due to the fact, that you never know what can happen with bus, etc and they will hold the ship for you if you have problems on one of their excursions. I have been there before and there is NOTHING out there, just the ruins, and a few small shops. It definately is a place that you should see just be a little smart about it. I usually book most of my tours from anyone other than Carnival but when it comes to ones that have a little time and miles associated with them I would rather not take a chance. You do have plenty of time to shop after the excursion.