Goffs Caye through Island Marketing??

[John F]

We are wanting to do a day at Goffs Caye through Island Marketing. Can we rent a couple of lounge chairs for the beach and how much are they?? I their ad, it says you can set on the beach with your towel. Sure would like to have a chair. Many thanks for any help. John & Priscilla :) :)

[sharks48]

There are absolutely NO amenities of any kind at Goff's Caye, but for a little barge that sells water, juice, etc. and, I think, has a toilet. No chairs, umbrellas, etc. The island is literally the size of a football field.

 

You should compare the price of using anything but a ship's tour to GC, because with the ship's tour, you leave directly from/return to the ship itself, without having to take the long tender into/out of port - saves a LOT of time.

 

GC is one of our favorite excursions ever!

[SuperTrooper00]

I would love to do a ship tour to there, but unfortunately I am not seeing that NCL does one.

[Cecethekittencat]

I agree ... Goffs was one of the best tours we have ever done in any port anywhere. However, I did feel like it was a long ride from the ship [our tour was from ship/back]! Cannot even imagine having to take the tender into port ... and then another boat to Goffs ... and then back to port ... and tender back again to ship.

 

However, this tour is not being offered on my next ship ... what to do? We are not sure?!! I already have 2 days at sea on that itinerary ... so we have to find something to do in Belize ... :confused:

[doublej]

There are absolutely NO amenities of any kind at Goff's Caye, but for a little barge that sells water, juice, etc. and, I think, has a toilet. No chairs, umbrellas, etc. The island is literally the size of a football field.

 

You should compare the price of using anything but a ship's tour to GC, because with the ship's tour, you leave directly from/return to the ship itself, without having to take the long tender into/out of port - saves a LOT of time.

 

GC is one of our favorite excursions ever!

Our group has booked this excursion through Island Marketing in a few weeks. We must tender to port, then take the boat out to Goff's Caye. Do you remember how long the snorkel was? Were the guides always aware of the time and prompt with getting folks back to the ship? We'd like to get back with plenty of time to spare. Thanks.

[Cecethekittencat]

We were on the ship's tour to Goffs Caye ... so I had no worry of missing the ship ... but seriously, even though the tour picked up/dropped off directly from the Valor ... it was still a pretty long ride out there. We were really bummed when they made us head back to the ship. The place was awesome ... and we definitely did not have enough time there.

 

I don't know that I would do a private tour to this location ... too far and too much hassle ... but that's only MHO ...

[John F]

Many thanks for the comments on my question about Geoffs Caye. I think we will pass on this trip with the long boat rides to get to the Caye and back.. John & Priscilla

[Otowncruiser]

We are doing this trip in May. We wanted to shop a little bit anyway, so don't mind tendering in.

[enester]

I did the tour through Island Marketing last week. The tendering wasn't a problem for us - and they made sure that we were back in time.

 

When we went out for the snorkeling we got hit with some big chop - - they had a hard time maneuvering the boat and getting people back in. The guides stayed out there with us - and four of us (with a guide) finally just swam back to shore. (Note that life jackets are required, so there was no emergency).

 

The snorkeling itself was awful (for obvious reasons) - the best was when I got close to shore. There were scores of colorful fish swimming near it's rocky outcroppings, I was a little too pooped by this time to spend much time with it.

 

Anyway, once on shore we relaxed in the warm sun near the water... The included rum punch made the trip all better - and we had a great time.

 

The guides were fun & competent (the chop came up quickly so it wasn't their fault) - it's a unique experience.

 

enester :cool:

Edited December 8, 2011 by enester

[marshhawk]

This is one of my favorite pictures, it's even my screen saver at work-but you can see how small the island is.

 

Carnival is not showing this as an excursion anymore either, and here are two reasons-In my opinion

One, the reef itslelf is dead here and needs time to recooperate, the other was the people who ran this tour for Carnival really had very little interaction with the patrons, nor did they run the safest boat in the fleet-preferring to be a little reckless on transporting us all out there. When they started slamming the waves, two rather large women went up out of their seats, and came down hard, cracking the fiberglass seats in the center of their boat-poor ladies, how embarressing, but in regards to breakage, I think the staff got what they deserved.

[enester]

This is one of my favorite pictures, it's even my screen saver at work-but you can see how small the island is.

 

Carnival is not showing this as an excursion anymore either, and here are two reasons-In my opinion

One, the reef itslelf is dead here and needs time to recooperate, the other was the people who ran this tour for Carnival really had very little interaction with the patrons, nor did they run the safest boat in the fleet-preferring to be a little reckless on transporting us all out there. When they started slamming the waves, two rather large women went up out of their seats, and came down hard, cracking the fiberglass seats in the center of their boat-poor ladies, how embarressing, but in regards to breakage, I think the staff got what they deserved.

 

What a great shot! - - - I'll have to agree on the state of the reef.. at least the day that we were there. The exception being when I was very close to the island itself... otherwise, there wasn't allot to see (at least compared to other snorkel sites that I'd been to) - - enester

[mitsugirly]

This is one of my favorite pictures, it's even my screen saver at work-but you can see how small the island is.

 

 

So this pictures represents the entire island? It really is this small that you can fit it all in a picture? Or do the ends of it extend out more? How many people usually come here during a cruise day? I can't imagine how crowded it would be if a bunch of people showed up.

 

Regarding the snorkeling...is the reef close enough to swim to from shore? I've seen people saying things about the actual reef that they take you too being dead now and better snorkeling in more. Is this in more like right off the shore?

 

Off the subject, looking at your picture, is that a barracuda under the walkway there in your picture in the lower right hand corner? :eek:

[Feelin' Nauti']

Excursion to Geoffs Caye sounds nice but after reading everyone's comments, think we will pass on this trip