Major Tom? (****************)

[KMSnevit]

After reading reviews a couple months ago, we were sold on booking with Major Tom. I was about to book today but thought to come back and look through the reviews one more time. Now, it sounds as though there is a bit of waiting. We will not be doing the zip line. What was your experience with Major Tom? Should we rethink our decision?

 

(Whoa, the title got messed up . . . I had cave-tubingdotnet in there to clarify)

[smoore16]

After reading reviews a couple months ago, we were sold on booking with Major Tom. I was about to book today but thought to come back and look through the reviews one more time. Now, it sounds as though there is a bit of waiting. We will not be doing the zip line. What was your experience with Major Tom? Should we rethink our decision?

 

(Whoa, the title got messed up . . . I had cave-tubingdotnet in there to clarify)

 

 

We went cave tubing a couple years ago with them and although we did have a good time, we felt extremely rushed through the whole thing because we had to wait forever before we left for the caves. We were very disappointed that we didn't have time for shopping before we had to get back on the ship. :(

[Katty30]

After reading reviews a couple months ago, we were sold on booking with Major Tom. I was about to book today but thought to come back and look through the reviews one more time. Now, it sounds as though there is a bit of waiting. We will not be doing the zip line. What was your experience with Major Tom? Should we rethink our decision?

 

(Whoa, the title got messed up . . . I had cave-tubingdotnet in there to clarify)

 

 

Hey Karyn,

 

We were just on the Valor this past week and we took the Major *****/inor Tom Cave Tubing and Ziplining tour with them. We went this past tuesday. Tendering from the Valor went pretty smooth...we were in the Eagles Lounge very early to get the ticket needed to get off first....We meet up with Major Tom in Terminal 1 and I asked if we would have time to do both tours before our last tender left (it left at 415P) and I was assured by Major Tom himself the tou would have us back 45 minutes before the last tender left the dock. (we had heard all kinds of horror stories and we were uneasy about this so we asked a couple of times to avoid being late)

 

That being said......the tour guides, Stephanie, who was very nice and very knowledgeable about Belize and Arlene and Kim, which were both very nice as well....I liked them and I LOVED the ziplining...However they didn't split the group up *had both zipline/Cave tube and just cave tube tours on same bus* and it went to hell in a hand basket from there. We ziplined first and when we finshed none of the tour guides were around to tell us where to go from there. We wondered back down the path to the bus where we finally ran into them. No hurry from anyone. (that should have been our first clue).....we finally got the group together and got the tubes/life jackets.

 

We then made the 25/30 minute hike up to start of the cave tubing area. Again the time was running a little short and the guides kept stopping on the path and showing things (which was nice but we were on borrowed time) and then Kim was not really familiar with the cave tubing tour for he was just helping out that day b/c of the large group. Our tour group ended up split up, all over the place, none of us near anyone. Then it was so crowded on the river that there was an accident in the cave that pushed a few of our group into the cave walls and this is where we all got split up. The chain was broken (they make you hang on to your group so ya'll stay together) Didn't work!

 

The guides are suppose to keep you moving for the current isn't really that strong this time of year and you just don't move fast down the river and it is VERY SHALLOW in parts so we ended up walking some as well. Our guide disappeared and we hooked up with another guide and finally made our way to the end. (there was no hurry on their part) Everyone finally made it back to the bus (which no tour guide was there to tell us to hurry, get lunch, eat on the bus, etc... we all just wondered around a bit and finally found a guide to ask what to do next).

 

Now it is an hour ride to the place and an hour back to the port. Our bus left the park at 345PM...our last tender was 415PM.....yes as you can see we missed that time bye a landslide. However lady luck was on our side and the carnival cave tubing tour was also late. My biggest beef was that Stephanie and Arlene kept coping an attitude with us when everyone on the bus kept asking will we make it back....The whole bus was extremely stressed on the way back. She basically relied on Carnival's tour to be late. We literally ran from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 to the very last tender and my group was the last ppl to get on that last tender. They were fixing to send the tender off but held it as they seen us running for it. (Thank you Carnival for that)

 

I wouldnt do that again in Belize if my life depended on it. I would do one or the other but with Major Tom/Minor Tom they didn't break of the tours and both tours were together and that made both tours late for the tender.

 

I was very disappointed on this tour. I had read such good things and this all happened.

[Darkwolfe]

That's pretty surprising. Tom and his team are usually watching the clock like mad to make sure it all goes well.

 

Only thing I can think of is if there were some really big groups in the caves that forced a wait.

[Katty30]

That's pretty surprising. Tom and his team are usually watching the clock like mad to make sure it all goes well.

 

Only thing I can think of is if there were some really big groups in the caves that forced a wait.

 

 

Not really sure what happened...but they were not watching the clock, we all were.

 

As for the wait...the group that only had the cave tubing had to wait on the bus for us and once we found our tour guide and got our tubes there was no wait to get into the river....It just seemed they were on their own time that day.

 

Like stated earlier...I was very surprised by this for all the good reviews I had read... I was greatly disappointed in his tour.

[KMSnevit]

Katty - thank you very much for your detailed description. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I think we'll go with .com after this and feel a bit more at ease.

[WeatherBoy]

Not really sure what happened...but they were not watching the clock, we all were.

 

As for the wait...the group that only had the cave tubing had to wait on the bus for us and once we found our tour guide and got our tubes there was no wait to get into the river....It just seemed they were on their own time that day.

 

Like stated earlier...I was very surprised by this for all the good reviews I had read... I was greatly disappointed in his tour.

 

We were on the Legend and everyone else on Valor. Our last tender was 4:00pm. We left the cave park at 3:15. These people didn't care. Your review is everything exactly as it happened on our tour April 7th. We were very stressed but DID make the tender only because the bus carrying the Carnival Legend tour broke down.

[doctordi]

Katty - thank you very much for your detailed description. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I think we'll go with .com after this and feel a bit more at ease.

 

 

Don't be so sure! I was there the last week of March and used .com and felt a tremendous amount of stress getting back to the ship. I think that they forgot that ship's time was actually 2 hours ahead instead of the usual 1 hour. The US had just gone through DST and Central America hadn't. We had about 10 min to eat lunch. We were back to the port with about 20 mins to spare and got on the last tender.

 

The problem as I see it, is that they are combining the zip line, ATV and cave tubing people all on the same bus and this is causing problems for everyone.

[DAP2]

We are just back from cave tubing on 4/5 with Charlie Chan, charliescavetubing.com. It was the highlight of our trip. He is a very well known and respected local ecologist type. We were concerned about some of the negative reviews you mention regarding the larger tours with .com, .net, and .bz. Mostly the waiting and waiting for late comers during the drive and crowds when loading into the river. We also didn't want to do the local chicken lunch. Our solution was to book a PRIVATE tour for just our family of 4 with Charlie. Instead of $50 pp it was $70pp but that was still cheaper than Carnival. We were literally the first people to leave the pier and the first people to arrive at the cave tubing site. We were the only people on the path for the longest time and as a result we got to see and hear howler monkeys! We opted for a longer hike to do more caves as we knew we would have time since we were skipping lunch. Charlie is well known and respected among the community. You pass by both .net and .bz home basis on your way to the cave tubing...I was so glad we went with the private tour.

 

Charlie explained the rushing that happens to us...it's all about availabitily of equipment. We saw a guide running down the path with head lamps that weren't available when his group started. 1st to the site...problem solved!

[Katty30]

Katty - thank you very much for your detailed description. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I think we'll go with .com after this and feel a bit more at ease.

 

 

You are welcome, glad I could help. This port was extremely stressful for our group. We stressed the whole way back on the bus. LOL And the poor people on the Legend were more stressed then we were.

[djmaine]

We did the cave tubing with Major Tom in on March 24th and we were stressed getting back as well. Rushed to the pier and caught the last one going out. I we a bit bummed because I wanted to do a bit of shopping at the pier. I wouldn't not ever do a non ship excursion again in Belize if we ever go back.

 

If they had seperated the zip lining and cave tubing and brought them back sperately there wouldn't have been a problem, we got done they give us a boxed lunch and said we had to go on the bus with it because we were running late and we sat on a hot bus for a good 45 mins waiting. ( the food was wicked good though, I will add, as was the cave tubing).