Altun Ha/Belize City tour

[jakenashleysmom]

We took the Altun Ha/Belize City tour excursion with NCL on our recent Star cruise. Just a word of caution for those thinking of this excursion from any cruiseline. It appeared the tour company for these ruins runs several tours at one time, for several ships in port....point being it is likely that you may experience much of the same no matter what ship you are on.

 

The city tour did show us what it is like in Belize City, but basically it is the bus ride to the ruins that just happens to go through the city. Once we arrived, we were offered bottles of water and were instructed to follow our guide on the tour. He brought us to a shady spot where we could see the ruins and take photos. He then went into a 30 minute dissertation on how we as humans are not prepared for what may happen if the world comes to a halt in December 2012, blah blah blah. By the time he was finished, we knew nothing about the ruins we were looking at and had 20 minutes to be back on the bus! Dissappointed and hot, we walked around a bit and then went to the little straw marked and attempted to stimulate the economy....we ended up stimulating the beer brewing economy LOL.

 

Once we returned to the bus for the 1 hour drive back through the "city", we were handed tickets and dropped off 4 blocks from the port in a bit of a "sketchy" section of town and told we could get a drink with the tickets at a local restaurant and given directions on how to walk back to the port. We were also told by one of the guides that he would meet us there to help us get back to the ship. Wait a minute, walk back to the port? Didn't we pay for a round trip? We chalked it up to part of our adventure and walked down the road to the restaurant and had our "free" rum punch.

 

Well, the guide mysteriously was a no show so we began walking in the direction we thought the port was. A couple of ladies asked us if they could walk with us because they were a bit uncomfortable, and my husband made them feel a bit safer.

 

In conclusion, if you want to see the ruins and not spend a ton of time in the extreme heat of Belize this is a good excursion. I just want to warn people ahead of time that they may encounter the same things we did and to be prepared for more of an adventure than you were planning on! We had a nice day and the ruins are pretty spectacular, just be prepared...

[lexanna02]

Thanks for the heads up!

[crusinpsychRN]

I keep reading about how great AltunHa is. I must have missed something. All I saw was an L shaped ruin that wasn't very big. It was way too hot to climb the only way you're allowed to.

 

Did the excursion through Carnival. Went on a very long boat ride stopping at every freaking plant or bird. Rode around in a circle for 25 min. looking for manatees no one saw. Then a 45 min. bus ride to the ruins which I thought were not much to see.

 

What did I miss??

[noodlebrain]

The only tour guide I would rely on is Dave's Eco Tours. David Chan only charters individuals and will mold his tour to suit your wishes. If you want to spend half the day touring restaurants, he'll do it. If you want to tube the river, he'll do that to. His knowledge of Belize is remarkable. Your only problem is getting him booked early enough since he is first come first served. Trip Advisor lists David as a Maskall company but his primary focus is Cruise day tours. Try him, we thought he was great.

Craig & Debra Johnson

New Orleans