To scared for cave tubing

[spleenstomper]

The woman who died was a cruise ship passenger-- it was about 2/3 years ago. There were several tours that got hung up together in a deep Part of the cave and the tubEs bumped together and bumped her Out of her tube. She was pinned against the cave wall and then she went under and the tubes went on top of her and held her down until she drowned. It was dark and I don't believe her husband even knew what was happening. I think she was 50/60 ish.

 

The threads are on this board. I believe there have been safety changes since then.

[spleenstomper]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2836

 

 

About the situation where the woman died.

[spleenstomper]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=850175&highlight=Died

Another link.

 

 

Also, a woman drowned while cave tubing in 2006.

 

That said, we are considering it as an excursion.

[BrendaJ]

FWIW, we took the cave tubing excursion through the cruise line (Celebrity) in Belize two weeks ago. There was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. I believe the company we were with was called Chukka tours and I never had a moment of uncertainty (other than perhaps the fact that the road to the tubing off the main highway was really rough and we were stuck behind a dump truck on the way back, which made us arrive about 15 minutes after the last scheduled tender pick-up. Of course, they sent another tender for us, as it was a ship's tour. Not sure I'd book the tubing on my own unless we had a longer day in port - our ship departed around 4pm and the tender ride is about half an hour.)

 

There were about 40 people on our bus; however we went in groups of 8 and never saw the other groups while in the caves - they really spaced us out.

 

Our guide was always nearby and every place we got off the tubes to walk a bit in the cave, there were extra staff nearby. My husband started slowing down at one point because he wasn't comfortable propelling himself backwards (the guide pulled us most of the way); the guide went back to my husband and pulled him - no problem.

 

Our tour was the type with the simple tubes where you put the feet of the person behind you under your armpits. It was actually no problem at all - very comfortable, and at least the tubes were nice and light, which was good, considering we had to carry our tubes on a short walk through the jungle, and some spots where we had to walk while in the caves.

 

There are lockers you can rent for $5 before you get on the tubes, so you can feel free to bring whatever you like on the bus. You can also rent water shoes. They do not allow flip flops or any type of shoe that might fall off - we brought water shoes and they were perfect. There was no problem wearing glasses, and I probably could have managed to keep my camera dry in a ziplock back if I'd felt comfortable bringing it. Since you are in the dark 99% of the time, bringing a camera might not be worth it anyways.

 

We had a great tour and I would highly recommend it.