Coral Breeze Shark/Ray Alley review

[Babie]

Don't expect this to be the best written review, but I wanted to share my experience with everyone.

 

Let me say that despite any negatives, I'd do this excursion with Coral Breeze any time (in fact, I plan on putting together another group of us for this again in December)

 

First the positives.

 

The crew were fantastic. Henny, Margarite (I think I have her name right, she wasn't with us the entire time) and our captain, Tony. They were very friendly and shared lots of information with us.

 

The weather was great, and the marinelife was out and about.

 

On the way to Caye Caulker, Tony stopped the boat for several minutes as there was a group of dolphins playing. I believe most of us got pictures. Then on to the Caye for those people who needed snorkeling gear. This is also listed as a short bathroom break which I'll get back to shortly.

 

Once everyone was fitted with fins, masks and snorkels, we were off to the Coral Gardens. I was amazed. This had to be the most beautiful coral area I've ever snorkeled in. Granted, I've only snorkeled a handful of times, this was quite impressive. The fish were plentiful and the water very clear.

 

We were supposed to be there for about 45 minutes, but I estimated we were there over an hour. As we reached the boat, we were surprised to find about 5 stingrays swimming around. This was a nice surprise.

 

Then it was off to the Shark Ray alley. This was an amazing experience. We had 3 people who at first said there was no way they'd enter the water. Within minutes everyone on the boat was in the water and had gotten to pet one of the sharks. We had read and been told that the sharks are skittish and tend to swim off as soon as people got into the water, but we were pleasantly surprised to find them hang around for 10-15 minutes (until other boats started to arrive). There was 1 really large shark that returned over and over.

 

Now with everything, there are negatives. Some that cannot be controlled, and some, most people wouldn't mind at all.

 

Here's my main concern (which I've voiced to Coral Breeze a little while ago). They list the 2 stops on Caye Caulker as "bathroom stops". So on our first stop, I had to go to the bathroom. You can imagine my surprise when AFTER I was done, Henny, the guide told me that the bar whose restroom she had sent me to use wanted me to pay $1 for the bathroom. Whether this was a Belizean dollar or USD is beside the point (I ended up throwing the $1 USD at the lady.... Not Henny, the barkeep at the beachside bar) I've yet to ask any of the other people on our tour if they were also asked for any money. Coral Breeze should be ashamed of this aspect of the tour. If it's a "pay as you pee" type of tour, they should say so... otherwise I would have waited til we were in the water lol.

 

My other 2 complaints aren't really complaints.

 

1. The guides should ask if anyone wants to feed the sharks and rays instead of assuming no one wants to. I think a lot of people would have enjoyed throwing food to them (the guide may have asked after I entered the water, but I never heard anyone being asked).

 

2. There should be an option for a guided or an unguided tour of the Coral gardens. Experienced snorkelers know how to avoid coral, and the guided part caused quite a few collisions (no injuries, BTW). It also slowed some of us down that wanted to see more. Also, the fact that Coral Breeze enforces a life jacket while snorkeling was very obnoxious. We were told that it was a law that anyone swimming near the reef had to have one on, or at least carry it with them (I found that tieing it around your wrist worked fine). However, I believe this to be at least partially untrue as when we were leaving the gardens, there was another boat of snorkelers getting into the water, none of which had a lifejacket on, nor were they carrying one with them (I understand it's a safety precaution, but I found it cummbersome and made diving down for good pictures near impossible, even with the rope just attached to my wrist)

 

All in all, I highly recommend Coral Breeze for this excursion.

 

Let me also mention that because the Grand Princess changed the itinerary and we anchored at 6:30am, Paul with Coral Breeze set up a special tour just for our ship to fit into our early and short port time. I was very impressed and thankful for that.

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me CruiseAddict@gmail.com

[jshawnh]

I also loved our recent Coral Breeze Shark/Ray alley tour. I have the exacty same complaints that you do, but I lalso feel the positives far outweight the few negatives. I just carried the life jacket in my hand and left it on the surface when I swam down to take pictures. It really made me quite angry at first, when they told me I had to take it, but I got over it. I really don't know how anyone could have trouble floating on top of the ocean with a mask and snorkel. They pride themselves in being "safety certified". I suppose that is a positive. The tour was awesome though. The crew was very friendly, the snorkeling, sharks and rays were unbelievable. I love Caye Caulker, but I'm a traveler, not a tourist. So, if you expect fake glitz you won't find it on Caye Caulker; just an authentic, layed back, carribean Island. I loved it!

 

Shawn

[Beach Hunter]

I have found that most cruise ship snorkel trips make you where a life vest. If you go on your own, or with a local guide you do not need a life vest. My guess is that their insurance company is the law, not local requirements. We took a local guide from San Pedro and did not need a life vest while snorkeling.

[zydecocruiser]

When I went with Coral Breeze in late March, no life jackets were required. They were recommended, but not required. I did without.

[aggieastrosfan]

Thanks for saving me a review, Les. :)

 

I was on the same trip as the OP, and he did a pretty good job of summing up our experience!

 

The only complaint I would add is that we had a VERY long boat ride. The trip is advertised at about 40 minutes, but ours was well over an hour. In talking to Tony, the captain, while we were at Caye Caulker waiting to head back to the city, the boat we were on had new engines on it, thus was only able to go half speed. With this trip taking so long to go to/from, this was not the best time to break in new engines; we left Caye Caulker at about 11:15, and arrived back at the pier at 12:45 - our last tender was at 1:00.

 

Note to Paul/Coral Breeze - please don't use this tour as a chance to break in new engines. The trip is long enough as it is without having to go half speed for 22 miles. I was getting really nervous around 12:15-12:30, as we were supposed to be back by 12.

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

what island is this? Did you stop here?

[aggieastrosfan]

what island is this? Did you stop here?

 

I wish. :( That is an island that Les (the OP) and I first saw when we were on the Grand in December. He named it "Mereles" and we deemed it our private island. Silly, I know, but it's fun to dream. ;) Anyway, when we were leaving Belize, I happened to see it again, so I snapped some more pictures. Looks like the same island to me! I just thought it was cool to be able to spot an island that small twice!

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/319087314/319103110QtkLKH - New picture from April

http://community.webshots.com/photo/232429553/232429811UUiMdl - Old picture from December

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

Looks like the same island to me. Very cool!!!