Belize Cave Tubing question

[timmy1958]

We're doing the cave tubing next week, and I have a potentially dumb question. After you walk through the rain forest to the river, what do you do with the stuff you want to keep dry? Like your shoes, maybe the shorts you had on over your swimsuit, etc? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

[Bribrittmom]

I think you can leave your stuff on the bus. I have read that the bus is locked.

[DapnKap]

Never a dumb question!

 

Just got back from cave tubing last week. You have to leave your clothes and stuff on the bus (which is locked). You walk through the rain forest in your bathing suit and water shoes. You are carrying your tube and life jacket. You can wear shorts over your suit, but then you are wearing them as you tube down the river.

 

We had a blast and it was one of the best tours we have ever done! It is a workout, so make sure you have a lot of energy!

 

Enjoy!

[grayling111]

Never a dumb question!

 

Just got back from cave tubing last week. You have to leave your clothes and stuff on the bus (which is locked). You walk through the rain forest in your bathing suit and water shoes. You are carrying your tube and life jacket. You can wear shorts over your suit, but then you are wearing them as you tube down the river.

 

We had a blast and it was one of the best tours we have ever done! It is a workout, so make sure you have a lot of energy!

 

Enjoy!

 

What company did you go with???

[Back on the Horse]

I highly recommend them -- our stuff stayed locked in the their van the entire time, and the driver parked right next to the restaurant for added security.

[Tarheelbelle]

Ditto---went with X-streme last November and it was truly excellent!

[grayling111]

Ditto---went with X-streme last November and it was truly excellent!

...well I did end up booking with Cynthia & Nacho, they also got excellent reviews. the reason is, that I understand Cynthia&Nacho use the Jaguar Resort for their lunch, and I have some grandparents along that can not do the zip-line, nor the cave tubing, but will be sitting around the resort. Nacho said he would tour them around the resort, and I thought that would work out well. I wasn't sure if the x-stream company also had complete access to the a/c dining room and resort. Both had a price of $110 for the zip&tubing tour.

...anyway, I'm sure both are good. but any comments would be helpful.

[Tallycruiser]

We were with Nacho and Cynthia just last week. We had a great time! We were able to bypass all of the big groups, the long lines etc. We had a much smaller group therfore our tour was much more specialized. Your grandparents will have a lovely time at the resort. Nacho loves Belize and loves share his knowledge with you. He will take great care of them.

[excitedcruiser]

We used Coral Breeze and "Speedy" Gonzalos was our guide. There were 8 in our group. It was perfect. Kept everything locked in our van and had no problems. Lunch afterwards at the restuarant there was awesome.

[odiesam]

Cave-tubing.com was only $45 (Yhonni's group) and our bus also was locked and safe and we also did lunch at Cheers. Plus we pulled in to a Belize grocery store and our guide went in and bought us some Belize cashew wine!

[Debra Lynn]

I have never heard of Cashew Wine.... What was that like??:confused:

[SmoodSalin]

Hi,

 

We recently came back off our criuse, we took a criuse with Carnival Meracle Criuse, that was in Belize the 1st of this month and we had a blast. In Belize we did the cave tubing, and that was great. I had book with belize shorex.com for $45.00 per person and we had 10 people in our group. The guide did a great job by keeping the group together while we were in the cave. We had lunch at the site as soon as our tour was finish, the B.B.Q was freshly down while we were doing our tour.

 

Belize shorex also do the zip line tour as well, because that is in the same area as the cave tubing. Just that we would had to pay additional charge for the zip line tour. I should have had more money with me.

 

However I did had enogh change to get me a bottle of that same cashew wine. My guide Rudy said that is the ( poor man wine) because it drunk you for days.

From that saying I make sure I had just a little, it tast good.:cool:

[LHARTWICK]

Did you ride in a/c vans or school buses? I thought I read somewhere that cave-tubing.com uses old school buses. I'd prefer an a/c van since the ride is long.

[LHARTWICK]

Also, who has the better "changing" facilities: cave-tubing.com, x-stream or Nacho/Cynthia? Trying to decide who to use in Belize.

[akcruz]

I am not 100% sure, but I believe they all use the SAME changing facility. The caves are located in a 'national park' and you use their facilities (bathroom/changing room in one).

 

We used cavetubing.com and can recommend them. We saw vans/busses from many other tours and we were all in the same place, so don't know that changing location is a deal breaker.

 

As far as transportation, yes it was a school bus type vehicle, but it did have air conditioning in it. Not a luxury tour bus, but with only 10 of us on it we had plenty of room to stretch out. Besides, our guide Richard, talked the whole way there so the ride seemed much shorter than an hour. He also did provide us with a taste of that cashew wine. One of their unadvertised 'trademarks' I guess.

[LHARTWICK]

Thank you for your response!

[gonole1972]

Ship - Miracle

 

For those of you who booked on your own cave tubing -- Hhow did you arrange to get off the ship on the tender and what time did you get of the ship?

 

Did you have to wait until all the cruise booked excursions were off the ship?

[akcruz]

Ship - Miracle

 

For those of you who booked on your own cave tubing -- Hhow did you arrange to get off the ship on the tender and what time did you get of the ship?

 

Did you have to wait until all the cruise booked excursions were off the ship?

 

While I was not on the Miracle, I was on the Glory last week and had booked with Cavetubing.com. Carnival will definitely try to scare you about booking on your own, but it is definitely do-able and in the end they will work with you but you have to speak up and be firm with them. Don't be overly obnoxious or pushy because they will not help then.

 

Anyway, we were told the night before that anyone with cruise line excursions meet where your tickets said, anyone else, go to the vacation club desk at 9AM to get a tender ticket (we were arriving at 8 AM). Our confirmation from Yhonny had to meet him outside the pier between 8 AM and 10 AM SHIP TIME. I knew if we waited for the tender tickets we would be late. So, I went to the desk the night before to find out what to do. I was sent to the shore excursion desk where I then talked to the manager. He tried to tell me that there were 2 hours between Belize time and ship time so I would not have a problem going on the regular tender. When I showed him my confirmation with SHIP TIME plainly displayed, he got a little flustered but told me to go the Amber Palace between 8 and 8:30 the next morning and speak to one of his reps. We did this, and they then called him to ensure we had spoken with him. They had us sit for a little while, called the first tours to get on the tenders, then when they knew there was room left, told us to go ahead. We made it out on the 1st tender with the ship tours. There were many people who showed up in the Amber Palace with confirmations, but none had ship time written on them. They sent them all away to go get tender tickets after 9 AM.

 

Long story made short, have written confirmation stating SHIP TIME your tour departs, speak up but don't go crazy, and you will be off the ship on time without trouble. We were with Yhonny by 9 AM and had a great day. There were 2 others who were early like us, and 4 that were just a little later. The 10 of us got to leave and head out for our tubing adventure with our guide, Richard, while Yhonny waited for the others signed up that day to get off the ship. So, we had a longer, more relaxed day because we spoke up the night before.

 

Relax, and enjoy your cruise!

[awsm-red]

Need the info on cave tubing in Belize? I want to hear from anyone who has done it. If they liked it or not. Do we need to get bug repellant? This is going to be a great trip...so excited! Miracle 10/1:) :) :) Any info is so appreciated..Thanks!:rolleyes:

[kcscrapper]

I did it with Reggie's Cave Tours in January 2003. We had a total blast!

Reggie picked us up at the pier, drove us in air conditioned vans to Jaguar Park -- it was at least a 30 minute drive -- we arrived at a "staging" area and received inner tubes and head lamps. We had to leave everything that wasn't going into the river in the vans -- where they were watched by Reggie's staff. We walked into the jungle -- about a 1/2 hour hike, not strenuous -- it was a groomed area - the path was covered with pebbles, some areas had wooden steps built in to the path, but still muddy. You will want water shoes that are comfortable enough for walking. We forded the river at one point -- ropes were set up to help us across the river -- finally we entered the river and began the float. We floated for over an hour through the ancient cave systems. It was never completely dark -- we were directed to look at "cave drawings" -- who knows about that!! I couldn't see very well as the cave ceiling was higher there. Some areas were very shallow -- so much so that we got out of the tubes and walked -- it was a bit gloomy so walking was ..... uncomfortable -- couldn't see very well and we were walking in water.

We had a great time -- they were set up for pictures at the end -- well, it was the cruise line that was set up and we just got in to that line for pictures!

On returning, we had the same hike back to the staging area -- Reggie stopped at a .... cantina.... along the way back -- that had bathrooms, beverages -- and a beautiful view!

It was a great excursion with a careful independent operator --

http://www.cavetubingforless.com/regtour/

[Bayonnegrl]

I did the cave tubbing with carnival two yrs ago. We had a long bus ride and they fed us lunch first. Where they fed us rice, chicken or iguana, yep i'm serious lol. Def wear comfy water shoes or sandals that strap on. We walked and were showed different plants and wild life. We were on the river over an hour. Given lights as the caves are dark. There are bats in the caves you can see. The water was very chilly when we went in aug. There were some shallow parts but we didn;t have to get out of tubes just lift our butts. There were also little tiny fish that would bite your butt in the water. It didnt hurt at all just make u jump a little but they warn u about it first. It was a fun time and i enjoyed it.

[finoky]

We used www.cave-tubing.com with Yhonny and would recommend them to everyone. My wife still talks about it as one of the highlights of the trip. They accomodated our group of 11 with no problems.

[odiesam]

Agree with the previous poster - book cave-tubing.com $45pp. Yes, bring bug spray and bring water shoes!

[Ms_Pammy]

We used www.cave-tubing.com with Yhonny and would recommend them to everyone. My wife still talks about it as one of the highlights of the trip. They accomodated our group of 11 with no problems.

 

I second cave-tubing.com, its was a blast!

[piddypat]

We had a lot of fun on this tour. We did it thru Princess in Feb. The only time the mosquitos started biting me is when your walking (with your tube) comes to an end and each person was being lowered while holding a rope into their tube. There was a brief wait and when you stand still,they started to bite.

As I recall,at the beginning there was a building with individual restrooms on both sides of it for changing, and a small screened house with rooms for each cruise line for their people to leave their belongings.

I think ours cost 99$ pp. I signed up on the web beforehand and we took old sneakers to wear during this.

On our tour, the first part we stayed together as a group sort of, but after the first cave everyone kinda was all over the place which I liked. There was two spots of small rapids that are fun. If you are not too weak to paddle yourself with your arms this is a good choice. The cavetubing. com group looked like they were having fun, he kept screaming 'cave tubing .com' all the time, but his group was connected in a chain with your legs on tube in front of you and with the tourguide facing the first guy and dragging the whole thing backwards. Sounds good for someone who doesnt want to paddle as much.