Port of Belize???

[Silvestri4]

Heard on my last cruise that the itinerary had been changed for the western carib. and the port of Belize was closed for some reason. Wondering if anyone else has heard this or has any recent news about it....hoping i can find some answers on here...

[forwardcabin]

There was another thread about this topic. See: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1772879&highlight=belize+costa+maya

[JUGGER]

heard on my last cruise that the itinerary had been changed for the western carib. And the port of belize was closed for some reason. Wondering if anyone else has heard this or has any recent news about it....hoping i can find some answers on here...

hi---we have sailed into belize many times-----but----this is a different time----tourist are being robbed and attached in this island----that is why some ships have eliminated from the western itinerary-----you know--of course---during these times---no one and i mean---no woman should wear jewelry of any kind when in the island---or-----in europe---so remember----and have a good time---everyone is suffering financially----irene and john---cruisers---55 on carnival---plus 3 more in the future---

[Silvestri4]

hi---we have sailed into belize many times-----but----this is a different time----tourist are being robbed and attached in this island----that is why some ships have eliminated from the western itinerary-----you know--of course---during these times---no one and i mean---no woman should wear jewelry of any kind when in the island---or-----in europe---so remember----and have a good time---everyone is suffering financially----irene and john---cruisers---55 on carnival---plus 3 more in the future---

 

Thanks for the response...i have been to Belize 2 times already, don't actually have anything against the port. I do understand the dangers of being there also, and we try to be smart travelers wherever we go. i.e staying in our group, not wearing expensive jewelry, keeping cash in my front pocket and cheap wallet in my back pocket with useless business cards in it...ect... I will say Belize did scare the crap out of my GF, but shes a lil high strung to begin with anyways, so i didn't exactly expect much less when i took her there.

 

The reason I ask this question is because i've heard that they closed the port due to a tender service making a monopoly out of the business and not allowing many of the other tender services that operate on the island to due business. (not sure how reliable any of my info is tho) I did hear that it was the cruise lines that decided to stop taking their guests there, and that all cruise lines were cancelling the port of Belize. Just wondering if anyone else has heard something similar, or something different....or just if any cruise has taken its guests there as of late.

 

We are planning on booking the Sunshine, Western for Jan. 12, even if Belize is a port of call....just looking to get some inside CC information....this forum seems to share information faster than TA's and Cruise lines can get it out.

[Silvestri4]

There was another thread about this topic. See: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1772879&highlight=belize+costa+maya

 

This thread was a conversation about the change of an itinerary, and how good/bad the port of Belize is in comparison to Costa Maya. I don't care about that. In fact the reason i cruise now is for the Cruise part, not the ports of call.

I've done the western 3 times the Eastern 2 times and am taking a group of friends to the Western that have not been...

 

Thank you for the link, however it didn't really help answer the original question that i was asking...

 

Which was.....

 

Does anyone out there have any information on the Port of Belize being closed recently?

 

I am planning a western carib. cruise and am looking for some inside info that i always seem to find on CC. Thanks in advance for anyone that has any info.

[DanJ]

I think it was a year or more ago that they had the tender issues there. We were there 2 weeks ago on the Carnival Dream. I know the cruise before us, they didn't go there for weather reasons.

[Riversedge]

Good luck getting a firm answer on this one. We're on the Legend, sailing in 11 days and still not absolutely sure. I've contacted Carnival 4 different times and gotten different answers. The latest contact was with my PVP and she is "reasonably sure" we are going to Belize. It was because of tender issues with too many ships in port for the tenders to accomodate all of the passengers in a timely manner. It sounds like you are looking at January 12 of next year? I don't think anyone will be able to guarantee you anything that far out.

[Porchcruiser]

Heard on my last cruise that the itinerary had been changed for the western carib. and the port of Belize was closed for some reason. Wondering if anyone else has heard this or has any recent news about it....hoping i can find some answers on here...

 

I read a couple days ago on Cruise Critic news that a couple of lines were thinking about not going to Belize and Grand Cayman because of issues with the tender operators. I don't know if a final decision has been made or not. We are booked to go to Belize in March. We are the only boat scheduled in port that day for Belize so tendering shouldn't be an issue for us.

[KatieCharlotte]

Thanks for the response...i have been to Belize 2 times already, don't actually have anything against the port. I do understand the dangers of being there also, and we try to be smart travelers wherever we go. i.e staying in our group, not wearing expensive jewelry, keeping cash in my front pocket and cheap wallet in my back pocket with useless business cards in it...ect... I will say Belize did scare the crap out of my GF, but shes a lil high strung to begin with anyways, so i didn't exactly expect much less when i took her there.

 

The reason I ask this question is because i've heard that they closed the port due to a tender service making a monopoly out of the business and not allowing many of the other tender services that operate on the island to due business. (not sure how reliable any of my info is tho) I did hear that it was the cruise lines that decided to stop taking their guests there, and that all cruise lines were cancelling the port of Belize. Just wondering if anyone else has heard something similar, or something different....or just if any cruise has taken its guests there as of late.

 

We are planning on booking the Sunshine, Western for Jan. 12, even if Belize is a port of call....just looking to get some inside CC information....this forum seems to share information faster than TA's and Cruise lines can get it out.

 

I know the Carnival Magic went to Belize two weeks ago. I'm pretty sure cruises scheduled on non-busy port days have continued to go to Belize, as I have not heard any reports otherwise.

 

Two years ago, Carnival had a big conflict with the tender service. More recently, they have cancelled Belize stops for cruises scheduled to arrive on the same day as three or more other ships and added Costa Maya. They say this is because the tender service could not handle that many ships effectively, which sounds reasonable. It takes a lot of boats and workers just to unload/load one large ship. OTOH, Carnival should have anticipated the issue months earlier.

 

We could speculate that Carnival might also be using this as a bargaining technique, but there's no actual evidence supporting that speculation except their past conflicts with tender operators. I have heard that these tender operators have a monopoly. They were also very pushy asking for tips and more disorganized than I expected in deciding the order the tender boats would unload at the ship, but I don't have other tender experiences to compare it to.

 

I would check the port schedules for your Belize date to see if the port will be congested, although more ships could be added later. Other than that, I think it's impossible to know for sure whether Carnival or any other cruiseline might have future conflicts with the tender operators, especially almost a year from now. I understand the desire to have more information, but I don't think anyone has any right now.