Western Caribbean

[jglenn]

Just back from Explorer of the Seas Western Caribbean Cruise! How lucky am I to miss the hurricanes!!??? We had wonderful weather and a great trip. :D We visited Belize, Grand Cayman, Costa Maya and Cozumel. We had wonderful excursions on Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We booked the Trimaran Snorkel on Cozumel thru shoretrips.com. We chartered the boat (9 of us). It was wonderful and is highly recommended. Also, did the Buccaneer Snorkel on Grand Cayman booked thru grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com. Also, a GREAT trip. So much better than booking thru the ship. About 25-30 people on the catamaran. The guides were great. Swam with us the entire time. Coaxed out the morays, etc. Any questions, feel free to ask. Don't do the coralbreeze tour in Belize. Almost missed our ship! Only bad experience. :eek:

[chuibaca]

really? coral breeze? I've booked with them for my cruise in 2 weeks. what happened with coral breeze? :confused: :confused:

 

Just back from Explorer of the Seas Western Caribbean Cruise! How lucky am I to miss the hurricanes!!??? We had wonderful weather and a great trip. :D We visited Belize, Grand Cayman, Costa Maya and Cozumel. We had wonderful excursions on Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We booked the Trimaran Snorkel on Cozumel thru shoretrips.com. We chartered the boat (9 of us). It was wonderful and is highly recommended. Also, did the Buccaneer Snorkel on Grand Cayman booked thru grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com. Also, a GREAT trip. So much better than booking thru the ship. About 25-30 people on the catamaran. The guides were great. Swam with us the entire time. Coaxed out the morays, etc. Any questions, feel free to ask. Don't do the coralbreeze tour in Belize. Almost missed our ship! Only bad experience. :eek:

[jglenn]

Sorry it took so long for me to respond to you. Belize seems to me to be "not quite ready" for the cruise population. Coral Breeze snorkel started ok. Ivar was a good guide and gave us lots of info. He also was in the water with us on each and every snorkel stop. That's the good news. We were late getting started because we had to wait on one of the crew. Don't know why we waited on him, he contributed nothing! Ivar had to basically force him into the water to follow the end of the line of snorkelers. The motors on the boat were covered with t-shirts. When I asked the captain why they were covered, he said because they were so old and looked so bad. Only 2 of 3 motors were functioning. The ladder to get back on the boat was tiny and rickety. Very hard for the older people to get back into the boat. Then.....we ate lunch at a wonderful little water front restaurant on Caye Caulker. We were running late at this stage. We had 2 guys from a Carnival ship on the excursion. Their boat left an hour earlier than the Explorer of the Seas. They wound up having to get a water taxi to get them back to their ship. I wonder if they made it????? It was going to be close. Then, the worst of the trip. Our boat left us on Caye Caulker. Ivar jumped in a golf cart and started down the island to go and look for them. We all felt like we were going to be stuck there indefinately!!!!!The boat DID come back, but we had to go full-throttle to get back to Belize! We caught the LAST tender back to the ship. It should have been a relaxing excursion and it wasn't! The captain also let a passenger bring live conch on the boat to take back with him. Empty shells are one thing, but taking live conch is another! They said it was not legal, but they let him do it anyway. Just felt like we were in a 3rd world country.(Guess we were). Usually, the island people are a bit more civilized with the cruise population. Not in Belize!!!! Good luck. I hope your excursion with Coral Breeze is better than ours. Let me know when you return. Have a great trip!

[carolynhan]

Our family of 23 just disembarked from the Carnival Elation cruise departing May 29,2005 and returning June 5, 2005. My brother-in-law found the Coral Breeze website and encouraged us all to sign up. All 23 ranging from age 84 to 9 including a special needs adult of 28, participated in the tour. I am a 53 year old breast cancer surviver of 2 years and had no trouble entering or exiting the Coral Breeze boat nor did anyone else. The patriarch (84 years old) of our group joined the snorkeling experience at all stops and the 78 year old matriarch entered the water, but chose to not snorkel. We encountered no problems and actually rated it the best of the cruise excursions we all enjoyed. The Coral Breeze staff worked with our group from the time we signed up to when we said adios. Our 5 branches of the family signed up individually online, but were accommodated by the staff repeatedly. The staff made sure we were all on one boat, were treated professionally, educated about what we saw with a little history of Belize and Caye Caulker, allowed to pet the sting rays at both stops (I requested another petting of the rays at the reef), never wanted for fresh water (cute little sterile pouches free to all), fed a delicious meal of which I ate seconds (remarkable for me since I lived in Indonesia and am adamant about not eating local food or drinking water not bottled) and made to feel comfortable in a third world country. I am proud to report I have not had any ill effects from the experience of local food and drink. :D My family would consider this a wonderful experience and would sign up again immediately if in the Belize area. Iver was also our guide and extremely polite even helping the special needs family member avoid the reef. We passed on buying the Coral Breeze t-shirts at the time of the tour, but I am actually ordering shirts now. We had 1 1/2 hours in the shops at the pier before taking the tender back to the ship. What a great experience!