Carnival Valor Cave Tubing Excursion Belize?? Anyone gone yet?

[TamLaiSang]

I have a couple questions for the people that have done the cave tubing.

I see a lot of companies offer double excursions like, cave tubing & zip lining or atv. If you are only booking the cave tubing, what do you do while the rest are doing the other excursion?

Also what kind of footwear did you wear? I have a pair of old crocs I was thinking of wearing, but was also thinking of picking up some water shoes for myself & boyfriend.

 

I just got back from the Carnival Valor and scheduled the Cave Tubing through Cavetubing.com. Our group consisted of my wife, myself, and two children ages 6 and 9.

 

The Guides met us exactly where they told us they would be and hurried us onto a nice air conditioned bus. The tour guide was very funny, although some of his material might have been a little PG-13, but my kids were pretty oblivious to it anyway.

 

We first stopped at their ATV site where we dropped off the ATV people and a second bus quickly pulled up and loaded the extra people with those of us that were going straight to the caves.

 

We arrived at the parking lot for the caves, and people were given about 10 minutes to change and use the restrooms. We were then assigned a headlamp ($10 charge if you loose it). After that, we hiked for about 10 minutes through the official park entrance. There were signs at the entrance with safety information proclaiming that people needed to be linked together, and no more than 6 people per guide) The guides checked in with the ranger at the station, and then we hiked about 5 minutes or less to a shack that was very close to the river. there, we were given black inner-tubes.

 

I noticed ALL other tour groups got their tubes much farther back...cavetubing had a tube hut that was the closest to the river. Really though...that's not saying much...because really...you are only talking about walking an extra couple of hundred yards with a tube. Also...the tubes used by other operators, as well as headlamps seemed to be in much nicer condition, and of much better quality, than the equipment issues by cavetubing.com. Cavetubing used old black innertubes, but other operators used the kind you might see in a water park. The headlamps used by other operators were much larger and much more powerful, which doesn't seem like much...but since most of the trip is through a cave...that is important. My headlamp (as well as the others) smelled of mildew which was extremely distracting, as it is a smell I find very unfavorable.

 

We hiked a few yards until we came to the river crossing. There was a rope across the river, but it wasn't more than 2 and a half feet deep where we crossed. There was a cliff near the crossing that was deep enough for people to jump off of. From the ground I thought I would let my 6 year old try it (He really wanted to), but once I surveyed the cliff from the top, there was a little lip that stuck out a foot or two...and you had to jump just right, so I told him he couldn't do it. The cliff was just barely deep enough...I hit my rear end on the bottom of the river when I jumped off! No harm done...:D

 

After the river crossing, we hiked at a leisurely pace for about 30 minutes. ALL GROUPS hiked the same trail...because that is how you get to the entrance to the caves. The tour guides were very instrumental carrying inner-tubes for people that were having trouble. We were the only people with small children (all the rest of our group were adults). and the guides looked after us.

 

When we got to the cave entrance it took a while to get organized. When people asked what the hold up was...the guide pointed to the park ranger and explained that we had to wait until he left, because we did not have enough tour guides for the size of our group.

 

After waiting for approximately 20 minutes we organized into groups of 12+ people per guide. There were 5 cruise ships in port, and the caves were PACKED!!!. They were packed so full of people that there were literally traffic jams in the cave, with tubes shoved against tube. The river was EXTREMELY shallow, ankle deep in many places, further delaying the tour as tour guides were literally dragging their groups through the caves, and over the rocks. Several groups came right over my 9 year old inner tube, with the guides unaware of what they were doing. I never felt unsafe, even though I wasn't wearing a life vest, because it was being used to strap my sons tube next to mine (his feet weren't long enough to reach)...but I certainly didn't feel comfortable or relaxed.

 

The cave was fine...but I've been in plenty before...even on water...and our lights were so poor, it was hard to really see or appreciate much. Fortunately..there were about 100 other lights in there...so it made it a bit easier to see things.

 

Once we got out of the cave and into open water, we continued to be challenged by the shallow water. Our guide just didn't have the strength to muscle our group over the rocks, and eventually just allowed us to float freely down the river, like many of the other groups were already doing. The guides stayed with my kids...and we just made it down the best we could. There were some places were I just got up and walked through the river.

 

We were running late, due to traffic, and low river level, and did not tour the second cave.

 

When we got back on the tour buses, we went back to the ATV site were lunch was served. There were about 4 or 5 large tour buses already there...we parked in front, because there was no parking for us. We were given 10 minutes to grab our lunch, and get back on the bus. One of the tour members was tasked with timing us, and notifying the guide when it was time to go.

 

Lunch was a small plate of rice, chicken, and coleslaw. It was good food, but the proportions were tiny, especially by cruise standards, hehe.

 

I don't have time to rate my experience...I will only say that it was okay. Given the amount of people on the river, and how low the river was...I'm not really sure what cavetubing could have done to make the experience any better.

[TamLaiSang]

In that long post, I forgot to answer the question about footwear.

 

We brought our own water shoes which were an absolute must. If you don't have water shoes, I think you can rent or purchase shoes there. I'm sorry, I can't remember the price, but it was pretty reasonable. All the same...due to the amount of walking you are doing, you will probably going to want shoes that are comfortable, and will not result in blisters after walking half a mile or so.

[carynman]

After much research both here and on trip advisor, we went with cavetubing.com for our trip on Glory 5/2.

 

I am ultra excited and will post a review and pics of all of it when I get back. :)