Have a back-up plan!

[emrmom]

We just got back from our NCL Spirit cruise that stopped in Belize. The one thing I was looking forward to the most was cave tubing (we had reservations with cave tubing dot com). Unfortunately, with the unsettled winter weather that seems to be sending lots of rain/snow to places that usually don't get it, the inclement conditions also affected Belize. Rain two days before we arrived meant cave tubing was closed the day we got in.

 

We had booked the tubing/ATV combo and cave-tubing dot com steered lots of other cave-tubing hopefuls into buses and took us all to the ATV course. We also got a city tour, a hit of cashew wine, and lots of funny stories.

 

The ATVing was awesome and my teens REALLY loved it -- my husband veered off course and ended up caught in a thorny vine, but the staff was quick to help him clean up and hit him good with the hydrogen pyroxide!

 

BUT, if I had known that cave-tubing was going to be cancelled, there are several other things I would have preferred doing other than ATVing. We had fun, but I didn't feel as if we got the same sense of place that we had gotten from some of our other stops. With hindsight, I would have reserved cave-tubing (since they did not require a deposit) but also booked something else as backup. Between the chaos of the tender, the port, the cancellation, and wrangling my family, I didn't have a chance to reconsider other options when Myles said hey no cave-tubing, but we'll still take you to the ATV.

 

If we go back to Belize, I'll try for cave-tubing again, but I'll also have a Caye Caulker expedition in my back pocket, just in case!

[karenh1127]

Was there an age minimum for the atv? I believe the carnival excursion says you have to be 18. My 13 year olds would love to do this and have been on atv's many times before. Just curious...

[fotog303]

Our water excursion in Belize was canceled in Oct of 2008. I suspect this happens more than we would guess. Luckily we had booked with the ship so we still had a long list to choose from or the credit for our bar bill.

[emrmom]

There is an age minimum when you book through the cruise ship. Cave-tubing dot com did not have an age minimum, but they encourage kids to ride with their parents (we ended up being charged $45 per adult and $25 for my 9-year-old who rode with me). My daughter wanted to drive her own (which I was totally against) and afterwards, she said how happy she was to be riding with me! Think the rugged course scared her more than she expected! ;)

 

I saw a couple of boys who looked like they were about 12 riding on their own -- after they were sure about how to run the machine. The guys who work with cave-tubing dot com are really good about being in several places on the course and available when ATVs get bogged down or run into trouble.

 

I don't know if this is the only place to ATV in Belize, but it was fun and it was a good long ride (maybe about 40 minutes).

 

Have fun!

[CMM]

we couldn't do the tour we booked with cave tubing . com on Thanksgiving 09 either as the caves were closed for safety reasons (flooding) they took us to an alternate site called crystal caves that they had no experience in before. Never thought guides with a company who specializes in cave tubing excursion would take busloads of people to a dark, steep/slippery site they had never stepped foot in. It was extremely overcrowded and unorganized and we said over and over again that we were shocked nobody was seriously injured that day.

 

Although I hear so many wonderful reviews of cave tubing (and I read probably hundreds of them here on cc and Travelocity) I would think long and hard if an alternate tour is offered or pushed upon you. The area is a hour long bus ride to a site patrolled by machine gun armed men. Not a place I want to question if things are going to go as planned. Especially when you have your kids with you.

 

Consider yourself lucky that you went on an excursion that cave tubing .com operates and has a solid reputation with. At least they knew what they were doing with the atvs. Don't know if they more or less told you what you were doing rather than explained & offered it as an alternative. Our experience was not explained to us what it would be in detail ahead of time.

 

I was anxious and should have followed my gut instinct when they refused to give me any information about the changes( that a security guard had alerted me of) unless the bus was fully loaded first. My suggestion to any future cruisers is to only go if you are assured that which tour you are going on and you are completely comfortable with the plan prior to departing the pier area.

[somerandomguy]

Wow that sounds really sketchy! No weather problems when I went so I didn't have that problem. We had a great time, sorry you didn't.