No Lamani and river tour

[erRN2be]

I am so disappointed. We are planning on traveling on the Carnival Valor to Belize in April. There is no Lamani tour listed. This sounds like such a lovely tour, but as close as everyone else has made it back to the ship I hate to risk it with a private tour.

 

Does anyone have any other suggestions that would be another good tour?

 

Thank you

Chelle

[sanrionjb]

I don't know for sure if this will be the case for your cruise, but I'd say don't give up hope on that tour not being offered. Maybe try emailing carnival and asking? I say this because I'm going on the Carnival Miracle to Belize in January and back when I booked the cruise in September, the only Belize excursion listed to sign up for was a Beach break. I emailed Carnival and asked if any others would be offered since there are a bunch listed under the info about each port. They said there possibly would be more to come. Sure enough, earlier this month more Belize excursions were listed. Cave tubing still wasn't listed and we were disappointed since that is what we wanted to do (and feel most comfortable going through the cruise line). But then just this week, cave tubing joined the list. I'm not sure if the Lamani one is on there since we didn't consider that one.

[Ellya]

Yes, that was our experience too. As time went by, more excursions were added to the list of available excursions. Belize seems to get excursions posted later than a lot of other ones.

[erRN2be]

I would love to do the cave tubing, but sadly that does not fit well with all of our group, I figured the Lamani tour would be perfect for all of us.

 

I will email about the Lamani tour for a possiblity, but this one is just such an iffy time constraint, and I will also keep an eye open on the carnival web site.

 

 

Chelle

[caa]

We did Lamanai last Wednesday off Norwegian Sun. It was an excellent trip, but quite long. We were on one of the first tenders off the ship at 8:00 a.m. and got back to the village area after 4:00 p.m. with the last tender leaving at 5:30 p.m. I'd definitely recommend doing it as a ship's excursion because it's so far.

[BobbieSu]

Does Carnival offer a tour to Altun Ha with a river cruise? That might be a good substitution. We went to Lamanai with RCCL, but I was looking at the Carnival Valor ship for awhile and it seemed like Altun Ha was listed.

 

Su

[Ninja Jo]

I would love to do the cave tubing, but sadly that does not fit well with all of our group, I figured the Lamani tour would be perfect for all of us.

 

I will email about the Lamani tour for a possiblity, but this one is just such an iffy time constraint, and I will also keep an eye open on the carnival web site.

 

 

Chelle

Please inform us what you find out. I'm cruising Carnival in June and would like to go to Lamani booked through the ship.

[Big Tillie]

We did the Lamani tour in Oct 2011 with Island Marketing. We were back at the port with plenty of time to spare. They know what they are doing. The would not stay in business very long if people were getting back too late. This is the best excursion we have taken out of the 8 cruises we have been on.

[jfoga99]

I ended up booking with shore excursions group for the lamanai tour as it wasn't offered on my carnival cruise either. They guarantee on time return to the ship and provide food, hotel, and transportation to the next port if you miss the ship.

[longbranch]

Proceed with caution since this is a tender port!

In December 2011 we were on a Celebrity Equinox Cruise and decided to book this tour on our own since it was not offered by the ship.

The tour started late, probably waiting for people, since were were tendered.

We were told it was a small group when we booked and turned out to be about 45 people in an old bus that kept stalling!

The bus ride is over 1.5 hours and then a 26 mile boat ride to reach Lamani.

We express concerned about missing the tender back before we even got on the boat but we were assured that we will get back on time???

Sooo we sped up and down the river and ran through Lamani. We just made the last tender back to the ship.

The code word among all the other worried passenger was "I don't belize you!"

I would think twice before booking a non-ship excursion at tender port...not worth the worry and stress!

[bklsmom]

We too are on a Carnival Ship in May that does not offer a tour to Lamanai:( We are in port for 9 hours, and have decided to book Lamanai through a private company. I've searched and found one that offers guarantee return to the ship, or they will provide food, lodging (if needed) and a flight to the next port of call along with $500 in the unlikley event that we miss the ship. So we are going for it! We've been to Belize many time and Lamanai is the only thing that is still on our "must do" list for Belize.

Our last trip to Belize, we did the captain your own boats and it was a lot of fun, so if you don't want to risk Lamanai, I recommend this tour. Also thr River Wallace Altun Ha tour was nice and with both we made it back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. Both can be booked through Coral Breeze tours.

[bobhsv]

We too are on a Carnival Ship in May that does not offer a tour to Lamanai:( We are in port for 9 hours, and have decided to book Lamanai through a private company. I've searched and found one that offers guarantee return to the ship, or they will provide food, lodging (if needed) and a flight to the next port of call along with $500 in the unlikley event that we miss the ship. So we are going for it! We've been to Belize many time and Lamanai is the only thing that is still on our "must do" list for Belize.

Our last trip to Belize, we did the captain your own boats and it was a lot of fun, so if you don't want to risk Lamanai, I recommend this tour. Also thr River Wallace Altun Ha tour was nice and with both we made it back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. Both can be booked through Coral Breeze tours.

 

 

Are you allowed to say the name of the company re Lamanai? Am pretty sure you are if requested....if so, can you tell me:) Thanks.

[suzski]

Yes, please tell bklsmom! My DH and I will be in Belize (albeit, not on a cruise) and I want to go to Lamanai and the price our resort is charging sounds WAY too much so I'm trying to shop around.

 

Thanks!

[jfoga99]

I just went on the Lamanai excursion through shore excursions group dot com the 2nd week of March. They offered the guaranteed return to the ship and $500 if you miss your ship. The tour was actually run by ecotours. If you book directly through ecotours you might not have the same guarantee. Overall the excursion was fantastic! Our cruise ship was late being cleared by the authorities, so we were late by about 45 minutes getting to the port, but it wasn't a problem. There was 7 total on the excursion. It was an hour on the bus, and hour on the speedboat, about 1.5 hours for lunch and touring Lamanai and then the boat/bus back to port. We got back to the port with about an hour to spare despite being delayed 45 minutes at the beginning. I would absolutely recommend this excursion and tour company again.

[bobhsv]

I just went on the Lamanai excursion through shore excursions group dot com the 2nd week of March. They offered the guaranteed return to the ship and $500 if you miss your ship. The tour was actually run by ecotours. If you book directly through ecotours you might not have the same guarantee. Overall the excursion was fantastic! Our cruise ship was late being cleared by the authorities, so we were late by about 45 minutes getting to the port, but it wasn't a problem. There was 7 total on the excursion. It was an hour on the bus, and hour on the speedboat, about 1.5 hours for lunch and touring Lamanai and then the boat/bus back to port. We got back to the port with about an hour to spare despite being delayed 45 minutes at the beginning. I would absolutely recommend this excursion and tour company again.

 

 

I just checked online, and they do not have Lamanai listed for our particular cruise date...1st May 2013. I wonder why? Too early perhaps? It sounded perfect for us.

[CRUISING71]

We wanted to tour Lamanai Ruin as well, but too chicken to book privately because it is a long tour and it is a tender ports. On our roll call, there are 13 of us going to Lamanai privately.

 

We decided to book the Xuntanunich tour through the ship just to be safe, since this is an all day tour as well.

[crusinmama22]

Yesterday the NCL site did not list this tour as it had in the past.

 

Today it offers it ??

 

We do sail till Presidents week Feb 2013 so I will wait till we get closer

 

Really what else can I do

[BeccaStorm]

I recommend Belize Cruise Excursions fo Lamanai, we LOVED the tour. It is a long tour so we didn't have a lot of time at the port after the tour but we knew that in advance. It was an incredible experience and I would do it again.

 

The only complaint I have is one couple on the tour with us were all freaked out about missing the ship and I felt bad for our guide IC who had to keep reasuring them that he did this all the time and would have them back on time. They kept asking everyone, aren't you worried about missing the ship? It got to be really annoying after a while.

 

They had it all under control and we were back with plenty of time to spare. BTW, our guide was in constant contact with the port on the radio and the tenders run all the way until the ship leaves port, they don't stop 30 minutes before, just and FYI