Newbie here - 15 of us to go Cave Tubung

[The Klev]

Friends:

 

I have read with much interest your previous recommendations for tours, guides, etc...

 

The question for this cruise newbie is as follows:

 

There are 15 of us, ages ranging from 5 to 42. With such a group, is it your collective opinion to find a personal guide or a "tour." I ask because a few of us thought of seeing howler monkeys before embarking, but would like to get to the caves as early as possible so as to not get caught up in the tubing crowds. I see good comments about cave-tubing.com and cavetubing.bz, but would prefer to be picked up in a large van and take off, rather than waiting for everybody on the boat to disembark and fill a 40-something passenger bus.

 

Of course, I appreciate your personal recommendations!

 

Last, since we cruise in 2/09 (Carnival Valor), is 9 months too early to start thinking about this?

 

I thank you for your collective wisdom!

 

Alan K.

[kamper427]

I recently booked with cavetubing.bz for our group of 16 ranging in age from 9 to 69. We don't cruise until Nov. so I can't say what the tour was like, but I can tell you that they have been great to work with so far. When I e-mailed them for information, Vitalino called me to answer all my questions. He did say that with a group our size we will have a private tour with our own van for transportation. He is also giving us a nice group special.

[Travel Angel]

I am sure that if you email Major Tom via his website he would work with you and make your group more personalized and possibly the only ones on the tour within your group. He will possibly offer a group discount as well. When contacting him, make sure you ask about a great lunch stop he can add to the tour price !

[molliegirl13]

We had a group of 19 ages range of 7 to 42. We were on a large comfertable bus with one other group but we had our own guides just for our group. The ATV's were fun and they let the kids decide if they wanted to ride with a parent or ride by themselves. The tubing was great too...we had a guide for about 5 tubers and the keep you connected with your feet and arms like a train! They made sure to keep our group of 19 together teh whole time...unlike the carnival tubers who were floating individually and getting seperated from the group! Yhony is great with communication and will return an email questions that you have usually within the hour!

[cpa cruiser]

Very difficult to beat the ship tours to the caves, since the ships let their tours get off the ship first and then the private tours off next. You take a 20 min tender boat ride to get to Belize from the ship. But no worries, because most private tours take you to a second cave where the ship tour do not. So there was no crowds there, then by the time we got to the main cave, the ship tours were mostly gone (except for a few lost people).

 

Have fun.