Non-Cruise Ship excursions

[tbdb2]

Hi. I will be taking my first cruise with Carnival Miracle. I was looking at booking several excursions through Island Marketing Ltd. Has anyone used them or have recommendations. I was planning to do Cave Tubing in Belize with X-Stream Cave Tubing, Chaccoben Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya,Cozumel all inclusive resort, and Buccaneer Stingray tour in Grand Cayman.

[tbdb2]

Hi. I will be taking my first cruise with Carnival Miracle. I was looking at booking several excursions through Island Marketing Ltd. Has anyone used them or have recommendations. I was planning to do Cave Tubing in Belize with X-Stream Cave Tubing, Chaccoben Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya,Cozumel all inclusive resort, and Buccaneer Stingray tour in Grand Cayman.

[tbdb2]

Hi. I will be taking my first cruise with Carnival Miracle. I was looking at booking several excursions through Island Marketing Ltd. Has anyone used them or have recommendations. I was planning to do Cave Tubing in Belize with X-Stream Cave Tubing, Chaccoben Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya,Cozumel all inclusive resort, and Buccaneer Stingray tour in Grand Cayman.

[MamaParrotHead]

I had my eye on a few excursions from them myself, and did some research on the boards here. All opinions I got were favorable, so I did book them. Going in April, booked private van tour in Cozumel and Jeep Safari in Grand Cayman.

[LHP]

Also check on the individual "ports" section of these boards. You will find more folks who have experienced them first hand.

 

Have a great cruise...

[crusinsd]

on our cruise we noticed that you cna do the same kind of activities for FAR less if you seek out the trips on your own in port. Just make SURE they can and will get you back in time for departure!!

[HERKIMER417]

It was only after my first cruise that I learned of this board. On that first cruise I used the ships excursions.

 

Without question - the port listing on these boards are the best source of information I have ever found. They will give you alternatives that you didn't know existed.

 

The information regarding the excursions are mostly unbiased but always genuine. After experiencing the excursions and comparing them to the posting - I feel that the people are mostly just like myself and do give an honest review.

 

So I would suggest that you go to the port you are going to and read the posts on these boards regarding that location. They can save you money, headaches and they they are far more honest than the information the ship gives.

 

Good sailing

J

[I&MsMom]

Hi! I agree that private, non-ship excursions are almost always the way to go. In five past cruises, we have taken only one ship-sponsored excursion. We are doing a 12 night Eastern Med. in April, and we are planning to do everything either on our own or with a private guide/driver.

 

The one ship-sponsored shore excursion we did take? Our second visit to Belize. Because tendering can be time consuming, and becasue much of what you'll like be interested in is some distance from the port, I just felt better being on a ship excursion.

 

As it turned out, huge swells delayed tendering. We actually got on a tender a bit more than 90 minutes after we were supposed to. Passengers with ship-sponsored excursions get priority tendering. I have no idea what time those not on ship's tours were eventually able to tender in.

 

BTW: we were on the last tender back to the boat, which they held for our bus full of people.

 

Good luck, and enjoy your cruise!

[KAWS]

Hi. I will be taking my first cruise with Carnival Miracle. I was looking at booking several excursions through Island Marketing Ltd. Has anyone used them or have recommendations. I was planning to do Cave Tubing in Belize with X-Stream Cave Tubing, Chaccoben Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya,Cozumel all inclusive resort, and Buccaneer Stingray tour in Grand Cayman.

 

We're taking the same cruise. We booked cave tubing with cave-tubing.com and got a wonderful price. Super reviews on them everywhere too. And we've booked excursions with Island Marketing for Cozumel and Grand Cayman (Buccaneer tour in GC). Again, I've only heard positive things about these people too. Both places have been extremely diligent in answering emails and Island Marketing even has a present time chat feature to ask questions. I wouldn't worry at all.

 

When we get back from our cruise (we're leaving in two weeks) I'll be posting a review so it will contain the ports and what we did everywhere. There's 4 ports and my son and his gf are doing two of the excursions separate from us so that will mean 6 excursion reports. I hope it will help others planning things too.

 

Kim

[Scarlet-lips]

If you are going to a stingray trip in Grand Cayman go for Captain Marvin. Very highly recommended.

[mayfly511]

we did cave tubing last yer with cave tubing.com- Yhony. What an awesome experience!.Very professinal, humorous, entertaining guy. There were 19 of us and had 2 guides. The carnival group had about 50-60 people. I don't know how many guides but thre weren't many. We did 2 caves and carnival group did 1. We paid $45.00 and carnival paid aroun $90.00. Who got the better deal? We are going again in 2008 and will book with Yhony from cave tubing.com again. Have fun!

[vacruizer]

Cave-tubing.com is great for Belize and David and Ivan are great for the Chacchoben tour in Costa Maya. We did the Rays, Reef and Rumpoint with Nativeways in Grand Cayman - great tour, had a blast, but they promised us we'd be back a the dock by an hour before our last tender and we made it with only five minutes to spare. Had us a little stressed.

 

Can't speak for Cozumel - used that as a shopping day and it was kind of a waste. Would go to the beach there next time.

[tbdb2]

Thank you Kim and everyone else for all your correspondence. I am also leaving in two weeks, maybe I'll see you on the Buccaneer trip.

[dyin2cruz]

HI, we use shoretrips.com in Belize and for chakanaab in cozumel. Much better price and much better excursion than cruise line. In Belize, they were very concerned with getting us back in time. We did Belize Best by Boat, wonderful experience!!! Very professional.