Review: Coral Breeze Cave Tubing

[curlymason]

We were on the 9/11/05 sailing of the Explorer of the Seas. We opted to go independent with Coral Breeze cave tubing. Two thumbs up for Coral Breeze! Here's what happened:

Tendering into port was a pain...a word of advice, if you're taking an independent all day tour in Belize, be early for the tender line...it took FOREVER! In fact, 3 members of our group didn't make it in time and we had to leave them (the folks from Coral Breeze were nice about this and let us wait around for a little while to see if they would make it, although we did end up having to pay for their tours since they were booked with two other members of our group who did show up on time - I'm not sure if this is their policy or what, but it seemed to me they should have just lost their deposit, not their whole tour payment). Anyway, the actual tour was fabulous...we had a fairly comfy ride to the cave tubing site (well, as comfy as possible while driving down an unpaved road that resembles a rock quarry). Our tour guide was Carlos "Speedy" Gonzales. He was so friendly and helpful! We had a really good time getting to know him. Once we reached the parking area, we had a chance to use the surprisingly clean bathrooms and then we picked up our tubes and were off. A warning for the less than physically fit considering this tour - the website does say that there is a 30 min jungle hike...what it doesn't tell you is that the path can be steep in places and downright slippery. Some places were so muddy that my foot completely disappeared. However, the huffing and puffing and sliding was worth it to walk through this jungle....Speedy stopped at places along the way to give us info about the local fauna, and even took us inside a small cave on the walk to show us some bats. He was also nice about stopping to wait on a few of us slowpokes to catch up to the rest of the group! When we finally got to the place to get in the water, he gave us the option of jumping off a rock about 10 ft above the water, or easing into the tube from the side. The group opted to jump with the exception of myself (scared of heights), and listening to the gasps as they hit the cold water was great. We all got into our tubes, hooked up in a line and off we went. Speedy helped us cool off by having everyone splash the people near them. We floated through some amazing caves and saw a few spots where it looked as though windows had been cut out to see the green jungle outside. It looked like something from Jurassic Park! We went over a few small rapids, and generally just relaxed and enjoyed the view. The lunch was fantastic afterwards! Grilled chicken, beans and rice, grilled plantains, other fruit, pasta salad, and a fantastic oh my god banana muffin for dessert. Then we headed back to the van after changing clothes and Speedy sped us back to the port. We got back with about 15 mins till the last tender, so we did some super fast shopping to pick up a couple of souvineers. We would have had more time if we hadn't waited on the no-shows that morning, but live and learn.

 

I hope this helps anyone trying to make up their minds about this tour...it was a great experience! Feel free to contact me with any questions!

 

Heather "Curly" Mason:)