Cave Tubing – must you be linked together?

[elmojessi]

I’ve seen a few photos of people cave tubing with their feet on the tube in front of them, so the whole group is linked together. I also ran across one tubing company’s website where they specifically stated that this is for safety. Is this standard practice for cave tubing? Are there any companies that don’t require you to be linked? We’re adventurous people and would rather not be linked if not necessary…

[crewsweeper]

I’ve seen a few photos of people cave tubing with their feet on the tube in front of them, so the whole group is linked together. I also ran across one tubing company’s website where they specifically stated that this is for safety. Is this standard practice for cave tubing? Are there any companies that don’t require you to be linked? We’re adventurous people and would rather not be linked if not necessary…

Unless you can rent the tubes on your own at the site and do this without a guide, you'll be linked with your group. And as adventurous as you may think you are, if the water is up higher than usual you'll appreciate having a guide get you through together. It's not a speed race and you'll be bumping into other groups, so relax and enjoy the guano:)

[LdyDDS2]

Yes, you will be linked together unless your guide is not very competent. Used Cavetubing.bz and were extremely happy that we used them. While floating in the caves and on the river we saw many people with other companies who's employees seemed less experienced/capable. Our guides were EXTREMELY organized and competent, even the one who was "in training". Other groups split off from their guides, had problems with the innertubes, etc. They had some trouble getting out of the water at the end. NO problems with our group/guides.

[Mack2]

Probably for the safety of the caves, too... the caves are technically, still growing. Stalactites would get ruined by touching... I'm sure damage is already present with tourists keeping souvenirs from the ceilings.

 

 

When there was the fatality in the caves, it occurred because the linked groups were too big, and people ended up bottlenecking in a corner of one of the caves. The lady drowned underneath the pack.

http://www.wftv.com/news/17577889/detail.html

The 52-year-old nurse was reportedly healthy. She had even run a marathon recently, but the river was too much. Witnesses said the river she was tubing down was too full, the current was too strong, and that no one should have been in it in the first place.Witnesses also said a strong current forced Linda Linan and her husband Eduardo, to hit a cave wall and flip over.

 

They were taking part in a ship-organized activity called dark cave tubing.An eyewitness who didn't want to be identified said he heard people screaming and just narrowly missed colliding with them himself."The river basically dead ended straight into a wall. The current was pushing people against a wall and tubes were going on top of people," said the eyewitness.

[Dunner]

I noticed that this happened in September. Is it because the water is fast at that time? We are going mid March is that a time that we would want to think twice? Do all of the companies have lifejackets?

[maryland]

I noticed that this happened in September. Is it because the water is fast at that time? We are going mid March is that a time that we would want to think twice? Do all of the companies have lifejackets?

 

We just returned from a week on the NCL Sun. We did cavetubing with NCQ Adventure Tours (Nacho & Cynthia) and would highly recommend them. At the beginning of the "ride" thru the caves we were linked w/feet under the arms of the person in front and also 2 across (there were 14 in our group) so the train wasn't too long. Everyone had to wear life vests and a helmet with a light on it. The river guides we had were great. They made sure everyone was safe as we went thru the caves. Some spots in the river were very shallow (it's the end of the dry season now) so the guide kinda pulled us thru and other spots had a current to push you along. There were quite a few people floating thru the caves at the same time we did and it is dark, so it definately is better to have order and safety when going thru the caves. Once we got thru the caves we were able to free float the rest of the way or stay connected to someone if you wanted to. Once again, the guides made sure everyone was safe. They kept a constant watch on everyone in our small group and rendered assistance if any was needed. Even though the water wasn't very high and super fast, sometimes the current took you in a direction you didn't want to go, but our 2 guides were there to help. We had a great time and our family said it was the highlight of our cruise. Again, I would highly recommend NCQ.

[Eileen G]

We are also adventurous and didn't want to be linked together. However our guide insisted we link up and after the trip I was glad he did. He worked real hard to keep our little group safe from dangerous currents and snags just below the surface of the water that unless you were familiar with the river would never know they were there. The tubes are hard to steer and even if you saw something dangerous you might not be able to avoid it in time.

[Fourseventeen]

I have been to these caves twice now...neither time did we need to be linked up. We went with X-stream cave tubing. I was there last in Oct 2010.

[cruisemainiac]

We went cave tubing and loved it, would do it again in a heart beat. There are reasons for certain rules when your life is potentially at risk. http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2836

[lcyccruiser]

Unless you can rent the tubes on your own at the site and do this without a guide, you'll be linked with your group. And as adventurous as you may think you are, if the water is up higher than usual you'll appreciate having a guide get you through together. It's not a speed race and you'll be bumping into other groups, so relax and enjoy the guano:)

 

It's obvious that no one watches "Billy", or they would be commenting on the guano!

[SugarStar00]

I don't really think this is an "adventurous" kind of thing, its more like sightseeing. I was expecting to be swept down the river and go over rapids, to be honest, half way through I was kind of bored and could have just fallen asleep in my tube. We just did this excursion last week, the river was so low in spots we had to "butts up" a lot. Maybe its different at other times of the year...