Having second thoughts, suggestions

[airlink diva]

I'm booked on the Miracle in late April/early May. One of the stops is Belize. I'm looking forward to visiting this port for the first time. I booked a cave tubing with X-stream.

I gave the times of the ship in port (I normally place an earlier departure time to give a good window of time). Can anyone tell me X-Stream track record of returning you to the pier? Any close calls?

What other options in Belize that I can do?

I'm going solo and this is a factor.

Help!!

[Scorpiorose]

Hi there....I'm torn too. Booked on Altun Ha tour but am thinking of backing out and doing the plantation horseback riding tour. I hear it's a great tour....other suggestions?

[kingclick]

Book through the ship. You will better off and less stressed.

[my4gals]

We took the cave tubing excusion with X-stream 2 years ago. We made it back with about 10 minutes to spare. The whole trip felt very rushed.

[D4]

Belize is the only port where we've ever split up from our kids. That was 3 years ago when they were 15 & 18 and wanted to cave tube. DH and I wanted to go to Altun Ha. We bought all our tours from the ship just because we didn't want any of us being stranded there. We're going again this summer and doing the same tours with the ship.

 

Sure we could save money and be with a smaller group, but it's not worth the risk to us in Belize when we split up. It would be different if we were together on the same tour. (We book independently in most other ports.)

 

A side note on the ruins: This summer we're going back to Altun Ha and going to the ruins in Costa Maya with David and Ivan. We've also been to Tulum a couple times. Although Tulum was very impressive and right on the ocean, we really liked Altun Ha. It was discovered in the 1950's and different buildings are still being excavated. I've read the Costa Maya ruins are in a similar state. We both find that more interesting since the process is still going on and you can see huge hills and you know ruins are inside them. It will be interesting to see how Altun Ha has changed in the last 3 years.

[Denham33]

We booked with Cavetubing.com, and were back to the ship in plenty of time, even after going out to lunch at a local restaurant on the way back! I would argue against going with the ship tour, unless that's the only way you'll be able to sleep at night. We paid 1/2 of what the ship was charging ($45pp vs. $98pp) and got to do 2 caves instead of 1. We also were guided through the caves, through safe currents. Cruise passengers were floating all over the place, and we saw some get pulled by the currents and hit the walls! Some lucky cruisers came up next to us and our guide warned them about the upcoming danger spot, so that group (just a few people) were OK. We watched the others when we got to that spot and saw what he meant about the current pulling them to the wall.

We loved this excursion - a real highlight of the cruise for us! Check out this company!

[dlstex]

I'm booked on the Miracle in late April/early May. One of the stops is Belize. I'm looking forward to visiting this port for the first time. I booked a cave tubing with X-stream.

I gave the times of the ship in port (I normally place an earlier departure time to give a good window of time). Can anyone tell me X-Stream track record of returning you to the pier? Any close calls?

What other options in Belize that I can do?

I'm going solo and this is a factor.

Help!!

Just got back from the Miracle. Belize is a beautiful stop if you have an excursion. This was the only port we stopped at that that I made sure we booked the excursion through Carnival. The ship was 45 minutes late leaving because of late retuns. Most of the people on excursions were for cave tubbing. Tendering for the cavetubbing started at 8am and they were still embarking at 9am. We did the River Wallace tour. We were schedualed to embark at 8:30 and did not get off till 9:20. By the time we got back we only had an hour before last tender.

[lazyart]

I just came back from Belize on Carnival Glory's 3/11 sailing. I had booked with X-Stream as well, doing the combo zipline and cave tubing excursion. Both adventures are at the same site. I got off the ship early, taking the first tender normally reserved for excursions booked with the cruise line. Didnt matter much as we had to wait about an hour for the others to tender in (good time to do some shopping in port if you wish). We did our tubing (great fun) then ziplining (even more fun) and then had some ridiculously yummy mayan barbeque at the site and finally bought some souvenirs before heading in. We returned about an hour before the last tender and decided to head back to the ship.

These people are professionals. My tour guide was Ivar, aka Party Boy. Gave some great narratives of the city and outlying areas while we traveled. Good stuff. You won't be disappointed.

[marianneyaya]

dlstex...

How did you like the River Wallace tour? I'm looking for something for my friends in their 70s.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[dlstex]

dlstex...

How did you like the River Wallace tour? I'm looking for something for my friends in their 70s.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

We enjoyed it very much. The tour guide was very informative. It allows you to get out of the city and get a chance to see the real country. It’s not too strenuous of a walk but climbing to the top of the only temple you can climb might be a little challenging for some. The cruise on the river was really enjoyable and we had the opportunity to see a lot the local wild life. This was perhaps the highlight of our trip. We had planed to go to Costa Maya on the following day and see the Mayan Temples (much nicer) but weather would not allow us to dock. :( So I am very glad we had the opportunity to see what we could. Other than that, there is not a whole lot to see at the docks and I definitely would not venture out of the port facilities.