Snorkeling & Beach Break- Which Private Operator?

[trtllovr]

I'm trying to decide between between the private operators for a beach break and snorkel tour during our stop in early Feb.

 

It's a toss-up between:

 

Island Marketing- Goffs caye and 2 snorkel stops

4 hours for $40 per person

 

Coral Breeze- Sting Ray Alley & Caye Caulker exploration- Can't do due to NCL Tendering issues

But I can do: Manatee Watch, snorkeling and beach break- 4.5 hours for $60 per person

 

Fab Tours- snorkeling and private island

4 hours for $49 per person

 

Ecotours- Gallows Reef Snorkeling and Beach Break- Bannister Island

4 hours for $49 per person

-or-

Sting Ray Alley & Caye Caulker

5 Hours for $60 per person

 

Does anyone have any recommendations/pros and cons with any of these excursion companies and or locations OR any other companies I didn't research that I should know about?

[amy feigen-pilott]

I just booked Coral Breezes Sting Ray Alley for Jan 20... we will be on the NCL Jewel. I spoke with someone from Coral Breezes and he did not say anything about tender issues. Can you explain why I would be unable to do this? Now I am nervous :(

[amy feigen-pilott]

I just booked Coral Breezes Sting Ray Alley for Jan 20... we will be on the NCL Jewel. I spoke with someone from Coral Breezes and he did not say anything about tender issues. Can you explain why I would be unable to do this? Now I am nervous :(

[trtllovr]

Oh I'm sorry to worry you! According to the email from Mark from Coral Breeze it's only the NCL Spirit that has tendering timing issues, and I'm sure they would have said something to you when you made the reservations! Have fun on the cruise, please be sure to write a review!

[trtllovr]

Oh I'm sorry to worry you! According to the email from Mark from Coral Breeze it's only the NCL Spirit that has tendering timing issues, and I'm sure they would have said something to you when you made the reservations! Have fun on the cruise, please be sure to write a review!

[amy feigen-pilott]

Thanks! Mark did not say anything in his email to me and he knew which ship I was on!

 

I was on the Spirit this time last year. We loved sailing out of NOLA and the ship was lovely. In Belize, we did the river tubing and ruins tour through NCL. It was a great day! Great tour guide took us on a bus about an hour inland and we spent the day on a "lazy" Belize river floating along and learning about the country and wildlife. It was an awesome day. However, I have heard about the great snorkeling, hence my Coral Breezes tour this time around.

 

I spoke with the group fro EcoTours... they seem really nice and very helpful. For our particular day, they do not have enough people to run a rout but they seemed lovely and told us to book with Coral Breezes.

[amy feigen-pilott]

Thanks! Mark did not say anything in his email to me and he knew which ship I was on!

 

I was on the Spirit this time last year. We loved sailing out of NOLA and the ship was lovely. In Belize, we did the river tubing and ruins tour through NCL. It was a great day! Great tour guide took us on a bus about an hour inland and we spent the day on a "lazy" Belize river floating along and learning about the country and wildlife. It was an awesome day. However, I have heard about the great snorkeling, hence my Coral Breezes tour this time around.

 

I spoke with the group fro EcoTours... they seem really nice and very helpful. For our particular day, they do not have enough people to run a rout but they seemed lovely and told us to book with Coral Breezes.

[shipty2]

We just used eco tours last week and loved it. We only did the beach part and it was $35 per person but some people went on to do the snorkeling.

 

We loved our beach break and we would use eco tours again,

[raquel]

I was on a New Years cruise on Carnival Valor...just got off the ship this past Sunday. We had nothing pre-booked for Belize...it was our intention to book something from an independent company at the pier when we got off the ship. There were many awaiting us as we tendered in. The most prominent was a company called Ecological Tours...you can't miss them when you get on the pier...turquoise shirts holding up their signs. They also have a website...ecotoursbelize.com. We paid $40. a person for a 3-hour snorkeling/beach tour. I'll give you negatives and positives:

 

Negatives: We were promised 1 1/2 hrs of snorkeling but had actually 45 min. They got a little greedy and tried to jam as many people as they could on the boat...we actually left the dock, but they turned around to squeeze in more people who had just signed up. Also, several precious minutes were wasted as it was discovered we were short on masks when we got there...spent MORE time trying to get additional masks from other boats in the area.

Positives: The snorkeling was very good. We were taken to a large reef area and saw many pretty fish...some quite large. Also saw eel, sting ray, turtle....

Second positive, the hour beach time we had was great! Took us the Bannister Island...absolutely beautiful...not crowded...walk around the island...so pretty. Chairs, full bar, facilities...I could have hung out there for the day!

Hope I don't get blasted here for answering a Belize question on a Roatan site...but what the heck...it came up! ;)

[GrandmaCat43]

We will be doing the Beach Break Only with Fab Tours wk of Jan. 18. The cost for just the Beach Break was $30 per person. We are sailing on the Carnival Miracle.

[blessedwith12]

We booked Caye Caulker with Coral Breezes, and they canceled on us at the dock. Another ship in port was having trouble tendering and they refused to honor their agreements with the 4 of us who had reservations with them. They told us they couldn't make enough money on us. ("They" being Hammerhead Sports who Coral Breezes uses in Belize.0

 

I don't know anything about any of the other tour groups - however, I have booked through Island Marketing Nachi Cocom in Cozumel and never had any trouble with them.

 

If I booked with Coral Breezes, I would have a back up plan in place in case they cancel on you.

[exgrill]

Hello

 

We were in Belize January 7th and used Coral Breezes for the Manatee Watch, snorkeling and beach break.

 

It was drizzling on and off and the excursion went as planned.

 

The snorkeling was great. There were about 20 us with 3 guides. They split us up to snorkel so we room around us. The guides would go to the bottom and point out items as well as bring some to the surface for us such as a lobster and a sea urchin.

 

The beach break was not great due to weather but there was a huge covered area to relax under.

 

We knew ahead of time that the Manatee watch can be a bust but we saw at least six. The captain idles the boat and the guides look from different angles and call out the location using time references (i.e. Manatee at 6 o'clock).

 

On the way back to the port they made a surprise stop at Starfish Alley, jumped in and brought up starfish for the guests to hold and have photo ops.

 

While I know there are so many variables and options, but we had a great time and would not hesitate to use them again.

[trtllovr]

Great, thanks so much for everyone's replies! I actually booked the coral breeze manatee watch snorkel/beach break tour. There were a few people from my roll call interested so we were applicable for the group discount!

 

I'll give a review once I'm back!

[slotaddict]

Great, thanks so much for everyone's replies! I actually booked the coral breeze manatee watch snorkel/beach break tour. There were a few people from my roll call interested so we were applicable for the group discount!

 

I'll give a review once I'm back!

 

 

Interested in hearing about your day - I booked the same tour for February...

[jordan52]

did you book in advance @ Fab Tours or at the pier? Did you tell them you only wanted to go to a beach?

[Jan_In_Maine]

Great, thanks so much for everyone's replies! I actually booked the coral breeze manatee watch snorkel/beach break tour. There were a few people from my roll call interested so we were applicable for the group discount!

 

I'll give a review once I'm back!

 

How many people did you have to have for the group discount? What was the difference in price? Thanks, Jan

[trtllovr]

There's only 6 of us from the Roll Call going so I think the cutoff is around 5 or 6. The discount is 10% less per person so the total comes down to $54 from $60 which isn't huge, but it's something!

[BeachChica]

I'm trying to decide between between the private operators for a beach break and snorkel tour during our stop in early Feb.

 

It's a toss-up between:

 

Island Marketing- Goffs caye and 2 snorkel stops

4 hours for $40 per person

 

Coral Breeze- Sting Ray Alley & Caye Caulker exploration- Can't do due to NCL Tendering issues

But I can do: Manatee Watch, snorkeling and beach break- 4.5 hours for $60 per person

 

Fab Tours- snorkeling and private island

4 hours for $49 per person

 

Ecotours- Gallows Reef Snorkeling and Beach Break- Bannister Island

4 hours for $49 per person

-or-

Sting Ray Alley & Caye Caulker

5 Hours for $60 per person

 

Does anyone have any recommendations/pros and cons with any of these excursion companies and or locations OR any other companies I didn't research that I should know about?

 

I didn't see this tour offered on their site, does anyone know if they still offer this?

 

Island Marketing- Goffs caye and 2 snorkel stops

4 hours for $40 per person

[trtllovr]

That's interesting, I just went to their website and found nothing about snorkeling too! I must have gotten that info from somewhere, I wonder if they took it off their site.

 

Actually I just googled the name of the trip and this is what comes up. Considering there's no link from their website I am wondering if they don't offer it anymore.

 

http://www.belizecruiseexcursions.com/BeachSnorkelingBelize.htm

[snorkelgirl1]

Was just in Belize Dec 31 on Carnival Valor. I opted for

Carnivals' excursion to Geoff's Caye. Reason: tendering is a hassel, and this one is longer than others (grand caymen, etc)....this excursion picked us up on the boat and we took off directly from there to the Caye..so instead of getting onto a tender, we got directly onto the excursion boat. Also, must watch your port call time to see if excursion works for you. Also, be aware of "ships time" vs "local time" so you make your independent excursions.

You MUST snorkel in Belize....it's the place to do it!

[BeachChica]

Was just in Belize Dec 31 on Carnival Valor. I opted for

Carnivals' excursion to Geoff's Caye. Reason: tendering is a hassel, and this one is longer than others (grand caymen, etc)....this excursion picked us up on the boat and we took off directly from there to the Caye..so instead of getting onto a tender, we got directly onto the excursion boat. Also, must watch your port call time to see if excursion works for you. Also, be aware of "ships time" vs "local time" so you make your independent excursions.

You MUST snorkel in Belize....it's the place to do it!

 

Snorkelgirl1 - how was the snorkeling at Goff's Caye - I have read some mixed reviewes. Was there coral, fish, etc to see even if you have to swim out a ways?

 

Thank you,

Jessie

[trtllovr]

Just returned from my day of snorkeling/beach break/manatee watch with Coral Breeze, here's my review:

 

We were on NCL Spirit which is notoriously bad for it's tendering operations. We were supposed to meet Coral Breeze at 10 AM, but we didn't end up getting into port until 11 AM. They were right as we got off the tender in front of the Wet Lizard Bar. Everything went so smoothly from paying, getting our gear, and we were on the boat within minutes and off into the beautiful Belizean waters.

 

It was a windy but clear day, the waves were quite high around 5-6 feet so we all had to sit in the back of the boat for a more comfortable ride. We arrived at Bannister Island after a 20-25 minute boat trip to drop off the beach goers, and 10 minutes later we left to go snorkeling. It was about a 5-10 minute boat trip to the reef where several other snorkel groups were.

 

Due to the high wind and waves, there was a lot of sediment kicked up in the water so going into the deeper water areas visibility was poor, but in shallow water it was great. We were told to follow our guide (Mr. Bigs- a really big guy) and were sternly told to stay behind him if we accidentally got in front- word to the wise, stay behind Mr. Bigs. We had to wear the big bulky orange life preservers around our waist which is fine for most, but I'm a marine biologist and enjoy diving down and exploring but couldn't do that with them. Mr. Bigs did try to do a search for brittle stars, sea stars, pencil urchins, for people to see which was nice. The fish were great, it turns out there were more fish in than normal due to the high winds, so we got to see some great species.

 

After snorkeling we took the quick trip back to Bannister and spent the next 1.5 hours there. Nice beach, but it's man-made. They filled in a beautiful island of mangroves to create that beach. The sand has filled in some of the outlying areas around the island due to erosion so it's not very good for the environment, but it was a very nice beach. Plenty of beach chairs, a few palapas, palm trees, playground, food area, bathrooms, kayak rentals, etc.

 

After our beach break we hopped back in the boat to go look for manatees. This part took about an hour. Only one person on our boat saw one, but it was just the tail splashing the water as the manatee tried to get away from us. Going between the mangroves was beautiful, the water that day was truly a stunning green/blue.

 

We got back to the port around 3-3:30. Plenty of time to get the tender back to the boat.

 

All in all we had a great day! I had a great time talking to Kareem and quizzing each other on our knowledge of latin names for the animals. That is one thing I will say is great about these guys, they're knowledge of the biota and the ecosystem is great and they also love what they do.

 

Feel free to check out my photos:

http://www.pbase.com/trtllovr/belize_2010

 

I might add more photos as time goes on!

[amistad]

Trtllover, Great review, very informative and good pictures. I really appreciate the info, I read your review on Guatemala and you let me know about this one.

[BeachChica]

Trtllover - great info. Did you do any snorkeling at Bannister or could you tell from the boat ride in if it looked like there was anything to see there.

 

Thank you! :)

Jessie

[trtllovr]

If I had more time I would have done some snorkeling around the mangrove trees. There really wasn't anything in the line of reef system or even spot corals heads near the island, but it was hard to tell because the water was a bit cloudy. I did see some needle fish hanging around so i'm sure if you went snorkeling you'd be able to see something cool!