Coral Breeze or Shore Trips

[Millie&Boo]

I've checked out both Coral Breeze and ShoreTrips websites for snorkel trips. Any advice on which one is best? Also, I see that Coral Breeze picks up passengers at the tourism village. Does anybody know where ShoreTrips picks up its passengers? Thank you, anybody who can give me a bit of advice here.

[GINNY L]

Just got back from the GRAND on Saturday. Did the Coral Breeze tours and it is good for snorkeling. For those who are planning to go to Caye Caulker for a beach day, there is nothing to do there. There was eight of us in my group and a couple went diving two did the beach day, and the rest went snorkeling. I loved the snorkeling. But the beach people were bored. There was not much beach there and there were only a few shops opened and they all had the same stuff.

 

I hope that helps.

[travgurl]

I booked our snorkeling excursion with Coral Breeze for our cruise in July. I did alot of research on these boards and they came highly recommended. So, I hope that it pays off to be a great trip for my family! Good luck with your decision.

[Millie&Boo]

Thanks for the input. I was considering the ship's snorkel tour, but the private operators sound better . . . longer snorkeling, smaller groups. I just have to not worry about getting back to the tender on time.:rolleyes:

[florida cruiser girl]

DO NOT worry about getting back to the ship on time. Trust me, Coral Breeze (if that's who you book with) has it down & know exactly what time to be back. We went & had almost 2 hours after to shop & have a drink at the Wet Lizard (with our buy 1/1 free coupons!)

We did the beach day & loved it!! We toured the island, very scenic!! We didn't really go to shop...we compare it to Key West many decades ago!! We ate at the Rainbow restaurant on the water & you are rich when you are there as everything was very inexpensive! And very very good food. The people there were extremely nice & not pushy at all.

It is true that there isn't a huge beach, but that was part of the attractiveness to us (of course we are from FL & try to get away from tourists!!haha!) It's a more private laid back island with a small beach for tanning, relaxing under the trees.

Anyway, have a great time & no worries about getting back in time...

[astridwilson]

So has anyone used shore trips??

[TwinMom7]

We used Coral Breeze last December and are planning to use them again. They are very professional and our Shark/Ray Alley excursion was perfect!

 

On this particular day, the weather was cloudy/drizzly and the water was choppy. We were delayed getting off the ship and they announced that all Carnival excursions had been cancelled. We weren't sure what to do, so we decided to go ahead and grab the tender and go to the Wet Lizard Bar just to make sure our private tour was cancelled. (Didn't want to lose our deposit). Sure enough, all private tours were going on as scheduled and we didn't miss out. The Coral Breeze rep told us that Carnival cancels their tours at the drop of a hat. That evening, when we got back aboard ship and others asked how we spent our day - they were extremly aggravated to hear we went snorkeling and swam with the rays and they ended up sitting on the ship.

 

Next spring, we're hoping to use them again for our river tubing excursion.

[astridwilson]

any one used shore trips?

[astridwilson]

I used shore trips in Belize in October of 2007. The vendor was actually wet & wild or ecotoursbelize. I pre paid $57 for the snorkeling trip with shore trips. If you go direct to ecotoursbelize dot com you can get the trip for $55; however, if you wait and book it when you get there you can negotiate down to $50. This would be risky if there are a lot of cruise ships in port. You can check how many ships are in port at cruisecal dot com. Ecotours is right there at the dock to meet you. Because I prepaid, they actually had a sign with my name on it. Very nice touch. The advantage with shore trips is it is paid in full and you have a reservation. Keep in mind, that in Belize you have to tender to the docks, so the small boats could all be full if you do not have a reservation. With Royal Caribbean you have to get a tender number to go ashore. Carnival does not adjust thier ship time. Royal Caribbean adjusts ship time; however Belize does not observe day light savings time so they are one hour earlier than ships central time. We were told to meet at 10AM local time; we got there at 9AM local time and left at 9:45 local time which was 10:45 ship time. The last tender for the carnival boat was at 4PM, the last tender for Royal was at 4:30PM, we got back to the port right at 3:45 PM. It was approximately a 5 hour trip. We spend ~45 minutes getting to the reef, at least an hour at the reef, ~30 minutes to get to shark alley and ~45 minutes there. ~60 minutes at Caye Caulker and ~45 minutes coming back to the tender port. I did not actually check times, these are estimates.

Ecotours were very VERY good and everyone was pleased. There were 24 on the boat and more then half just went to Caye Caulker to spend a few hours there. So there was about 10 of us that went snorkeling. Ecotours have a small boat so you get a small group which is what I preferred. The max on one of their boats is 35. The trip was some of the best snorkeling I have ever experienced; LARGE schools of blue tangs, large schools of jacks, some of the biggest parrot fish I have ever seen.

At shark alley we only saw one shark but were surrounded by rays and we saw a 5 foot barracuda, he more than made up for the lack of sharks. He hung around and watched us. He was only 5 feet away. Tip, remove your jewelry before snorkeling, barracuda are attracted to anything shiny.

If I had to do it again, I would use shoretrips again. They provided clear instructions and the trip was pre paid with an email confirmation.

[HappyChick]

We used Shore Trips in January 2007 while on the Grand Princess. We had prepaid and had reservations w/clear directions from ShoreTrips. When we got off the tender, we went right to the shop we were directed to (can't remember now). They were expecting us, and we left immediately for Bannister Island (we had the beach break excursion). Our actual vendor was Wet and Wild.

 

I can't remember the names of the gentlemen that took us, but they were great. We had several adults and 4 children under the age of 5. The beach was very nice, the food there was good, and we had a great day.

 

We have used Shore Trips for other excursions and have always been very pleased. We are planning on using them again on our next cruise.

 

Lisa

[sms30519]

Hmmm...I was pretty much all set to go snorkeling with Coral Breezes until I saw the good reviews on Shoretrips and almost a $60 price difference for my family of four. Now I am so confused:confused:

[astridwilson]

book with shore trips, its the same trip and you will NOT be disappointed.

[Cruzaholic2000]

We used ecological tours for our snorkel and cave tubing trip last week and they were excellent.

[Cruzaholic2000]

We used ecological tours for our snorkel and cave tubing trip last week and they were excellent.