CaveTubing.com -Belize

[jonsmom]

Hi

 

I have ressies for April but I have been reading on these boards that no one has been able to contact them. I have emailed them also with no response. I am getting a little nervous.

 

I didnt give them a deposit but my family wants to do ATV'ing.

 

Any advice.

 

Thanks.

[PhillyDad]

Try cavetubing.bz they seem to be very reliable for booking excursions in Belize.

[ltbw038]

try cave-tubing.com. I went with them in December and had a great experience. They are a solid company and a lot less money.

 

Ben

[jonsmom]

try cave-tubing.com. I went with them in December and had a great experience. They are a solid company and a lot less money.

 

Ben

 

I do have an excursion booked, but they are not returning emails.

[Cruisin4]

We went cave tubing with Reggie's company a number of years ago and had a great time.

 

regtour@btl.net

[jennp40]

Hi I am going cave tubing with this company in April. May I ask what you do with all your cash/valuables and cruise ship cards when you are tubing? Also what do you suggest you wear on your feet?

[danacline]

May I ask what you do with all your cash/valuables and cruise ship cards when you are tubing? Also what do you suggest you wear on your feet?

 

You can buy, in any port and probably on the ship, a plastic box with lanyard big enough to hold a pack of cigs and lighter, ship's card, ID, and cash. I wore my Teva sport sandals, others wore "water shoes". There is a bit of a walk involved over uneven trails. Cheap sneakers would work OK too...

[dhawkins]

I do have an excursion booked, but they are not returning emails.

 

I spoke with them via e-mail jut 2 days ago. Check your junk folders.

[nw_cajun]

i enjoyed my experience totally. try emailing ==> yhony at cave-tubing dot com. yhony replied each time w/i 24 hrs. website is cave-tubing.com.very popular & reliable tour. 2 other couples from my ship failed to appear, so JEFF was my personal tube guy, pulling me thru the cave, answering all my questions to & from the cave. so much fun. i'm 65. the walk along the path was easy, with only a set of steps to handle. jeff even carried both our tubes. we launched the tubes where i could easily mount the tube. i felt about 30 seconds of 'refreshing' (haha!) water, then very comfortable. cave is magnificent!!! we didn't need to pay anything til the trip was over. i highly recommend this business & am very surprised you haven't heard back from him???:confused:

 

P.S. i don't recommend wandering around belize yourself. my husband was warned by police that the nice-looking area near our dock was not safe. i'd stick with an organized group if walking around.

[LJLB6]

We used cavetubing dot com last week, and to be honest, after reading the rave reviews on this board, they did not live up to our expectations. Our bus broke down enroute to the caves--it is about an hour drive, and we were almost there. They promptly got us a replacement bus---but if this would have happened on the way back to the pier, I would have been extremely nervous that we were going to miss the last tender.

 

They clearly had more people than they were expecting--in their confirmation email, they tell you to bring your friends from the ship---well, there must have been a lot more friends than they were expecting. We made a stop to let the ATVers off, and at that time, we were told to use the restrooms *as quick as possible* so we could get going to the river. Once we got there, we took a somewhat slow walk through the jungle---a LOT of other groups passed us by. We did stop to look at some vegetation---one guest acutally asked why we were taking so long because so many groups were going around us. In the long run, the reason for the slow walk, was so the ATV people could catch up to us after they were done with their ATV adventure.

 

Once we got to the river, it was total chaos, while they tried to figure out how to divide all of us up. We ended up with 16 people in our group--some were children. They wanted to connect tubes together so we would be two abreast--they actually asked some guests to give up their life jackets so they could use them to tie the tubes together. Other companies had groups of only 6-8 people. At the beginning, our guide wasn't paying attention and our group actually started floating away--- the two people in front had to use their feet to kick away from the side of the cave. The cave was VERY crowded, to the point of having a bottle neck with other groups because we were floating two abreast.

 

On the way home, we made a 20 minute stop where you could buy an optional lunch for $5--jerk chicken, rice and coleslaw. They also had Belkin beer ($5) and various sodas ($1) and doritos/cheeros for $1. You cannot wear flip flops due to the walk through the rainforest--uneven terrain. They did have watershoes for rent for $3.

 

We left our backpacks and money on the bus---they assured us that everything would be secure.

[Morebeer]

I've just read too many negatives about really any of these independent cave tubing excursion companies. I know I've read it's quite a long tendering process at Belize I was just too cautious taking a chance with any of them but since we really wanted to try the cave tubing I spent the extra money and booked through Carnival themselves for the piece of mind. Just wanted to share my thoughts as I've seen so many cave tubing posts. Thanks.

[Fourseventeen]

never had any issues booking excursions with island marketing.

 

as far as your feet...old tennis shoes you dont mind leaving there when you leave or invest in some water shoes...cheap ones are about 6 bucks at wal mart or buy some nice ones like my wife and I did and another poster above for about $100.00

[LJLB6]

Oops . . typo in my above post. Belkin beer was $3, not $5.

[spalmer114]

We used cavetubing dot com last week, and to be honest, after reading the rave reviews on this board, they did not live up to our expectations. Our bus broke down enroute to the caves--it is about an hour drive, and we were almost there. They promptly got us a replacement bus---but if this would have happened on the way back to the pier, I would have been extremely nervous that we were going to miss the last tender.

 

They clearly had more people than they were expecting--in their confirmation email, they tell you to bring your friends from the ship---well, there must have been a lot more friends than they were expecting. We made a stop to let the ATVers off, and at that time, we were told to use the restrooms *as quick as possible* so we could get going to the river. Once we got there, we took a somewhat slow walk through the jungle---a LOT of other groups passed us by. We did stop to look at some vegetation---one guest acutally asked why we were taking so long because so many groups were going around us. In the long run, the reason for the slow walk, was so the ATV people could catch up to us after they were done with their ATV adventure.

 

Once we got to the river, it was total chaos, while they tried to figure out how to divide all of us up. We ended up with 16 people in our group--some were children. They wanted to connect tubes together so we would be two abreast--they actually asked some guests to give up their life jackets so they could use them to tie the tubes together. Other companies had groups of only 6-8 people. At the beginning, our guide wasn't paying attention and our group actually started floating away--- the two people in front had to use their feet to kick away from the side of the cave. The cave was VERY crowded, to the point of having a bottle neck with other groups because we were floating two abreast.

 

On the way home, we made a 20 minute stop where you could buy an optional lunch for $5--jerk chicken, rice and coleslaw. They also had Belkin beer ($5) and various sodas ($1) and doritos/cheeros for $1. You cannot wear flip flops due to the walk through the rainforest--uneven terrain. They did have watershoes for rent for $3.

 

We left our backpacks and money on the bus---they assured us that everything would be secure.

 

 

I was on the same bus. I thought they handeled it pretty well, car problems can happen to anyone at any time. I agree though, I would have been very worried if it had happened on the way back to the port!!!

 

I was getting a little irratated when all the other groups were passing us by on the trail, but at least our guide, who I thought was very informative, was showing us a few things.

 

I was surprised at how many people were on the river that day, I thought it wouldn't have been so crowded in the cave, but he did tell us it was the most popular excursion in Belize and I think I counted 5 ships there that day.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to use them again, but given a choice I would prefer a smaller group.

[LJLB6]

Spalmer114, I thought that there were way too many people for the number of guides--I agree that they made the best of the situation but it should have never gotten to the point of having such big groups. The whole reason why I booked with them was because they supposedly had smaller groups.

 

My husband and I waited patiently on the side of the river while they loaded everybody into their tubes and got the kids situated. One of the guides finally realized that they still had two more people to add--and he turned to me and was clearly annoyed when said "where did you come from?" Duh--we stood there for 20 minutes while they shuffled people around--it wasn't like we appeared out of nowhere. Plus, they had told us that a Carnival passenger had drowned 2 years ago in the caves--but then they turned around and asked passengers who were strong swimmers to give up their life vests so they could tie tubes together. The guy in front of our group gave his up so they could tie the front two tubes together. I just felt overall it was very disorganized, and they did not plan accordingly for the number of people they had.

[hamlettm]

Read my review for information and images on Cave Tubing - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1173073