stunned Posted April 11, 2007 #1 Share Posted April 11, 2007 Does anyone know which outfitter is the best to book with for cavetubing and zipline? Would like to do both, but want to make sure we aren't rushed on either one. Going in September. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwells Posted April 12, 2007 #2 Share Posted April 12, 2007 Go with Nacho and Cynthia. We just returned from Belize and we used them for the combo tour. It was awesome! They are great people. They can be reached at Nacho_Cynthia@yahoo.com. Please tell Nacho that the Wells' said hello!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isettaw Posted April 12, 2007 #3 Share Posted April 12, 2007 I completely agree, we also just returned from a trip booked with Nacho and Cynthia, and they were AWESOME!!! It was GREAT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunned Posted April 13, 2007 Author #4 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Does Major Tom do ziplines and tubing in one trip and how large of a group does he take out? How large of a group does Nacho and Cynthia take out? I am hoping to not be in a large group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwells Posted April 13, 2007 #5 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Our group with Nacho was only 5. I know he will take less. I also know that the price varies by the size of the party. Send him an email and he will explain it all! Please let him know that the Wells' sent you and said hello! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunned Posted April 15, 2007 Author #6 Share Posted April 15, 2007 When do you pay Nacho - before your cruise or when you arrive in Belize and go on the tour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwells Posted April 16, 2007 #7 Share Posted April 16, 2007 We paid Nacho after he dropped us off back at the port.... give them a try, you won't be disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwells Posted April 16, 2007 #8 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Wow... it sounds like you were on our tour!! (except we saw the monkey and only had to wait about 5 minutes to enter the water) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmmorton Posted April 16, 2007 #9 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Just got back yesterday- Used Nacho and Cynthia and had the best time ever! We were on the Explorer and it was very easy to get on the first tender. Cynthia and Nacho picked us up and gave a great tour of the city on the way to Jaguar Paw. Our group got ahead of a huge bus load of people and we were first at the zip line. I was a little nervous, but the zip line people were great and the equiptment was top notch. Very safe. Even on the platforms in between the zip lines, you are attached at all times. Next was the cave tubing. The vans can get much closer to the cave tubing than the tour buses, so we had a 30 min. walk. The caves are huge and the water temp. was perfect. We then got changed into dry clothes and had a tastey lunch inside the resorts restaurant. Next we went to tour the butterfly house and then got in the vans to go back to the town. The whole family loved every minute of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merl Posted April 17, 2007 #10 Share Posted April 17, 2007 I think we were in the same group you were. We were off the Grand Princess. I agree with you - what a great tour and what a great time. Nacho and Cynthia are fabulous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddi Posted April 18, 2007 #11 Share Posted April 18, 2007 dmmorton and merl - Thanks for the comments. We are booked with Nacho & Cynthia at the end of May, sailing the Carnival Valor. Just curious if you had any issues getting on the early tenders from your respective ships and meeting up with Nacho & Cynthia. Any advice? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmmorton Posted April 18, 2007 #12 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Reddi, On the Explorer, we needed to get tender tickets to get on the first tender. Very easy, just got to the line 15 min early. Diane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunned Posted April 18, 2007 Author #13 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Just booked with Nacho and Cynthia, but also wondering about getting off in time. Will be on Glory, do you need a ticket or something to get on earliest tender, or just show up and get in line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddi Posted April 20, 2007 #14 Share Posted April 20, 2007 Thanks Diane! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merl Posted April 23, 2007 #15 Share Posted April 23, 2007 We also just returned from combo tour with Nacho and Cynthia and highly recomment them. Price is reasonable and you are able to do both zipline and cavetube. When we were there the lines for cavetubing were very long (many ships in port) but it was fun once we got in the water. Also, with Nacho and Cynthia's tour you get lunch inside the air-conditioned restaurant, not out in the heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazygal Posted May 5, 2007 #16 Share Posted May 5, 2007 Some pictures from our tour with Major Tom: His price cannot be beat and we requested the two rivers via the internet. You do have to wait some at the pier while he fills the van from people tendering in late, but you can shop and soak up some local culture. click on the link, then the picture again for A BIGGER VIEW. If you are logged out, you can see the full pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junogirl Posted May 14, 2007 #17 Share Posted May 14, 2007 We went with Nacho & Cynthia. www.ncqadventuretours.com. Great price, and even lower when five or more people show up! You walk out the back of the cruise terminal and there they are. Airconditioned van with cokes and bottled water. Nacho gives you a small tour of the area all the way to the jungle. You beat the cruise excursions to the zipline, and it's great! Then, you get to tube in the river (also great), followed by an indoor lunch with wonderful food and hospitality. The cruise excursions had to walk the long way to the zipline and the cave tubing, but Nacho has a shortcut due to his connections with the Jaguar Paw Resort. Also, he is a licensed tour operator. On the way to the jungle, there were checkpoints in the road where the people on tour with unlicensed operators were pulled over and had to leave the vehicle. The cruise excursions also had to eat outside in a crowded group, where our tour enjoyed the restaurant to ourselves! We even had time to tour the butterfly habitat and the resort. We got back in plenty of time, too. Enough time that we enjoyed a margarita on the dock! The cost of all this? $125 or $110, and you pay him at lunch. Nacho and Cynthia are a lovely couple, and Nacho tells some very funny riddles and jokes as you ride along. We had 10 people in our tour, so got to bond with fellow passengers in a way that is not possible on the big shore excursions. I loved it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junogirl Posted May 14, 2007 #18 Share Posted May 14, 2007 We just came back from the Norwegian Sun. People who had booked a shore excursion in Belize through the ship were going to be on the first tender. The rest of the people had to line up at 8:00 to get a ticket. We went to stand in line at 7:00 and were the 3rd in line. Second in line got 46 tickets! Each tender was supposed to hold 150. Sun told us we couldn't wait on the stairs above the offload deck, but we did it anyway. Lucky for us, too, as the ship excursion people didn't fill the first boat and they were suddenly looking for 20 more people. Since we were the closest, we got to go on the first boat, which only had (including us) 70 people on it! So, get your tender ticket early and don't wait in one of the restaurants. Hover around the stairwell. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasonrt2 Posted May 14, 2007 #19 Share Posted May 14, 2007 We just got back from a cruise on the Carnival Glory. We did the cave tubing excursion with Nacho and Cynthia and loved it. The toughest part about booking an independent tour is getting on the first tender. Carnival doesn't like people who don't book through them to get on the first tender. All you really need to do is either sneak into the group on the first tender or tell them you booked through the cruise line, they don't check. Unfortunately we got on the first tender but the other group in our party did not, so we had to wait about a half an hour. Nacho starts out the excursion by talking about local landmarks, the schooling system and the local economy. Since both Nacho and Cynthia have lived in the US and have children who currently live in the US, they are able to make some interesting comparisons to life, government and the economy in Belize. Once we reached Jaguars Paw it was a 20 min walk to the starting point of our cave tubing. Cynthia takes over as the cave tubing guide and guides you down a relaxing ride through the caves. It was funny watching all the cruise excursion people paddling like crazy down the river all hooked together as if they were in a race while we leasurely floated along by ourselves or next to Cynthia. After the excursion we ate a great lunch in the air conditioned Jaguar Paw resort. It was an excellent combination of chicken with rice and beans. They even served ice cold coke in a glass bottle. Once lunch was over we toured the grounds of the resort before getting back in the van for the ride back to Belize City. We made it back in time to do a little shopping before getting back on the ship. We loved Nacho and Cynthia so much that we are planning to go back to Belize and hire them exclusively as tour guides. Who knows we may even take them up on their offer to stay at there house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sallywallygal Posted May 16, 2007 #20 Share Posted May 16, 2007 "The cost of all this? $125 or $110, and you pay him at lunch. Nacho and Cynthia are a lovely couple, and Nacho tells some very funny riddles and jokes as you ride along." Junogirl, $125 is a LOT more expensive than Major Tom or Yhonny! Why is it so much more money? Eating at the air conditioned resort would be nice, but not that nice! Just wondering! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalltowngrll Posted May 16, 2007 #21 Share Posted May 16, 2007 For the combo tour, Major Tom charges $110. So, it's not that much different. For just the cavetubing, I see that he's running a 'special' on the website for $45. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falcor_The_Trough Posted May 21, 2007 #22 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I just got back from sailing on the Legend today and one of our stops was Belize. I booked a zip line and cave tubing with guides Nacho and Cynthia who own their own tour company. Including myself, there were six of us total. Words can not express how wonderful this trip was with our guides. The ships tour was crowded and not very personal. I saw a lot of long lines waiting for their turn at the zip line while we were leaving and already on our way to go cave tubing. Nacho and Cynthia were with us the whole day and explained many things about the area. The trip to the resort is about 45 mins long and having our own guides who told us everything about the area and its inhabitants was priceless. The zip lining and cave tubing was very well done and extremely fun. Nacho seems to have some kind of inside knowledge about the people who run the zip line and cave tubing because we always seemed to be a couple steps ahead of the cruise ship excursion. Which means no lines and more time for fun. Another big difference between Nacho and the cruise excursions is lunch. We had a wonderful lunch in a beautiful restaurant in Jaguar Park. Sitting in an air conditioned, glass enclosed restaurant in the middle of a tropical jungle is something to behold. Trust me, if your going to zip line and cave tube, you can not do any better than Nacho and Cynthia. Please check out their web page at NCQadventuretours.com. Don't be turned off by their site. I know it doesn't look like much, but remember, this is not some huge tour service with unlimited money and that is what made the tour great. It was very personal and you end up wanting to take them home with you. I promise. Tell Nacho that Daniel sent you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalltowngrll Posted May 21, 2007 #23 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Thanks for the review, Daniel. My daughter and I will be there in late July and we are already booked with them!! Can't wait! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiseQueen13 Posted May 22, 2007 #24 Share Posted May 22, 2007 Any website for the Major? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angeluv Posted May 28, 2007 #25 Share Posted May 28, 2007 i just got back today and we went with belize shore tours or VIV thier website is ************ they were so great. we did zipline and cave tubing. there were only 4 people on our tour and the guide "JR" knew practically anything and everything about belize, he was amazing and had a great personality. theyre price is way cheaper than nacho and cynthia and we got to go through 3 of the caves and do all the zip lines and have a great belize style lunch a cute little ranch. they also take the short cut and the hike through the jungle is pretty cool and he explained many things we saw along the way. unfortunely we hit the tubers who had booked directly with the cruise in the caves and there were like 50 of them clogging up the caves but since there were only 4 of us we navigated our way past them pretty quickly. we locked up together for most of the way, my friend and i cant swim and we didnt have our life vests on becuase we wanted to be more comfortable and we felt completely safe the whole time although there were some areas of deep water and towards the end we just floated on our own. the ziplining was such a rush, i dont think its something you can experience anywhere else, all you see is trees all around you, to the top, left, right, and bottom, and in some lines, all you see is the rope and no ending. it was soo much fun and doing the cave tubing afterwards was very relaxing and we got back to the port saftely with enough time to board the ship. it was only 85 and well worth every penny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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