Major Tom?

[Dannie138]

We are going to book the zipling/tubing combo. I see there are three options to pay...how did you all do it and were there ever any problems?

[jessed]

I paid the full amount when we met him at the port.

[bigbuck]

We emailed to make the arrangements with Major Tom and paid when we got there.

[travelntreats]

Everytime we have used his services.... we always paid AFTER the tour was completed and included a generous tip ! GREAT TOUR and a GREAT GUY !

[Zada]

We pre-paid our tour through payPal and never had any issues with it. Not only did the tour live up to the CC hype, it probably exceeded it as well. In addition to major Tom himself our other guides were Mike and Junior.

 

Throughout the trip everyone was extremely professional and yet, not coldly so. Indeed, they were very helpful and informative in addition to just being really nice guys. Never did we feel unsafe nor neglected. Someone was always around to answer our questions or to point out things of interest.

 

One warning, though....if you do not like bitter flavors do NOT try the ***** Bitters. Or if you do, hope you have some chewing gum or something else to rid your mouth of that taste! That said, DO try the fresh pineapple and papaya, go ahead and eat the termites (they are slightly citrusy and minty in flavor), try the Cow's Foot (what our group liked to call jungle rhubarb) and for sure sample the leaf from the all-spice tree.

 

Also, I would recommend the lunch option as well. the rice and beans with stewed chicken was absolutely fantastic. the Belikin beer was pretty darned tasty too, come to that.

[TheHappyWanderers]

Tubed with Major Tom in Jan., and had ZERO hassle. Pre-paid deposit via pay-pal, and paid balance when we arrived at pier.

 

Worth noting: The ship tubing adventure was cancelled due to high water in the Caves. Major Tom made some calls, and got us rerouted to Crystal Cave without any extra charges. They say this was $15 to $20 more, but Major Tom ate the difference. Had a great time, and I feel this is something that everyone should experience.

 

Nothing but props for the Major and his staff!!!!!!!!

[black forest]

I am glad to read all the positive experience with Major Tom. We are booked on cavetubing to in February. I didn't book lunch because of time, I mean being back on the ship in time.

[Dannie138]

We booked the zipline/tubing combo. Are they always running both, regardless of numbers?

[lacey57]

We booked a cave tubing tour but due to 4 previous days of rain the water was too high and it got canceled. He offered us 3 options, money back, Altun Ha or the zoo. We chose Altun Ha and were very pleased. Major Tom drove there with Mike as the tour guide. Mike knew everything about the area and had a great since of humor. They stopped on the way and bought a fresh Papaya for us to taste. When there. Major Tom did most of the talking he is very intellegent and yet very down to earth. He shook the May Trees and we got to taste the plums. I highly recomend booking a tour through him.

 

:)

[Dannie138]

When you went to Altun Ha, how much did he charge you? Did you enjoy it?

[cruzeluver]

We also had Mike and Junior as our guides and they were wonderful!! One in our group was an older woman and Mike took amazing care of her, made sure she was able to walk the path, carried her tube for her, everything.

 

Cannot recommend Major Tom and his crew enough.

 

We paid in cash when we arrived before the tour started. No problems.

[2-laner]

How far in advance should I reserve ziplining with Major Tom for our cruise the middle of April? I have been reading awesome things about him, and am really excited about this excursion.

[black forest]

I wonder how have you managed to get off the ship early (first tender). Any recommendation are appreciated. We are first time cruisers.

 

Thank you!

[lacey57]

I wonder how have you managed to get off the ship early (first tender). Any recommendation are appreciated. We are first time cruisers.

 

Thank you!

 

What I did was bring a copy of my e-mail with me showing I had a trip booked and needed to get off on the first tender. I was on the Costa Fortuna, and they let me do it.

[lacey57]

When you went to Altun Ha, how much did he charge you? Did you enjoy it?

 

We paid $45 each. Yes I enjoyed it, I always wanted to see Mayan ruins. I am not a history buff so 'I did that now scratch it off my list'......lol. But if you want to see the ruins it is a great deal, and Major Tom is a wealth of information. His guide (Mike) was a lot of fun too.

[black forest]

Thank you lacey 57! :-)

[k.hill]

I am one of those people who can make any experience fun..and can ignore the silly stuff that may go awry at times, but I feel it only fair to warn everyone of this tour:

 

We had a miserable experience with Major Tom. We were yanked, pushed, pulled, grabbed, bruised and kicked by a "tour guide" through the caves who appeared to be terrified of the water and like to have beat me to a pulp trying to supposedly "lead" us quickly through the caves. I was offerred nothing more than a "sorry...she's new"...really scary if she would have been leading someone who was afraid of water or younger children. This was really bad....I was left with a bruise on my thigh (from grabbing at me to pull us) and my backside (from kicking me with her feet while attempting to hand-paddle our group). Both of which happened after I told the lady that she needed to be easy because she was hurting me.

 

The zip-lining may be fun...but the tubing is a bit of a snooze and would be with or without the crummy tour guide, who are evidently not trained and quite unsafe.

 

In the future, I will try only to pay with cash AFTER the tour. And don't bother getting off with the Carnival tours...you just end up having to wait around (covered area...but no place to sit for like 30 min or so) for all the others to get off at the regular tender time.

[Jackrjc]

We are going to book the zipling/tubing combo. I see there are three options to pay...how did you all do it and were there ever any problems?

 

We payed at the dock. I had started a thread about our experience with this tour, but it was pulled, I believe, because of the title I used. So, our experience is included below.

On 20 Jan, we used Major Tom for cave tubing and ziplining. Major Tom is a nice guy and obviously well known in Belize. The cave tubing and ziplining was a lot of fun. The zipline had five stations which is not very much. However the zipline is in a beautiful location and probably the best put together zipline of the three ziplines that we have been on. This zipline was also higher, at times about 80 feet. Major Tom’s employees are fun and know what they are doing. Although, mistakes happen. Our party of five was separated upon entering the cave because of a rock encounter. After about ten minutes we were reunited. Not a big deal. We enjoyed the cave tubing very much. We went through one cave and not the two caves that we had heard about. We assumed this was because of the lack of time due to the late start.

Major Tom may be victim of his own success. After tendering to port we waited for a long time (about an hour) for Major Tom to gather everyone. A party of 16 was loaded onto a van and about thirty of us were loaded onto an old bus. This late start had an impact later on. I stated that I wanted to be back to port no later that 2:30 PM Belize time at least three times. If necessary I wanted to cancel the zipline to accomplish this. Each time I was told there would not be a problem. The last time was after the cave tubing and before the zipline, but I was told again that there was no problem. The last tender was scheduled for 3:15 local time. We arrived at the tender location at 3:25 local time; fortunately the tender was still there. The guide on the bus told us that if we missed the last tender, Major Tom would provide a tender and we would not miss the ship. When we were about ten minutes from port an alarm went off to inform the driver that the bus was over heating. He thankfully kept driving. So, we were late getting back to port, did not have time to shop as desired, and just made the last tender. This part was not a hoot. Major Tom needs to get better transportation and break customers down into smaller groups and get them out a lot sooner. I had heard this is the way he operated in the past. Also, there were two ships in port, the Miracle and the Independence of the Seas. He had customers from both ships.

[Dannie138]

These last two reviews are making me nervous!

[packard89]

Yes, now I am a little worried too! I am in charge of making arrangements for over 40 people, I hope he doesn't put us into an old, almost broken down bus.

[VaTraveler]

We are booked for the cave tubing/zip lining excursion. I got concerned, too, especially about getting back to the ship on time, so I sent Major Tom an e-mail expressing those concerns. He got back to me almost immediately, and his response was reassuring to me. Here is his response:

 

HAL and NCL are the cruiselines with the most shore time of all the lines, and we very comfortably carry out the combo tour from them. We absolutely love working with them.[/b]

 

Carnival and RCCL have less shoretime, so we are far more careful with our tour timings on those two lines, and we remain alert to their movements.

 

Our system is about the best there is - communciations, extra transport, "standby" tenders just in case our people should be late for the ship's last tender; ships stay at anchor for about 60 minutes after their last tenders, so we are utterly confident on ensuring guest are back on board in any event. So far, we have never missed the scheduled tenders.

 

Wolrking with cruise guests since 1998 has given us this confidence.

 

There will always be the "concerned few" but they cannot be blamed - we build up confidence in them by getting everyone back on time, in the knowledge that we have alternate transport to the ship.

 

You can print this in the cruise forums if you would like to, please. We actually were the ones who first started working with cruiselines in Belize (the first larger ships in Belize were M.S. GRUZIYA and M.S. OCEAN SPIRIT way back in 1998). Then along came Premier Cruises, with whom we also worked.

 

Our guides have cave tubed since 1992 and up to the present. We have complete confidence in their abilities - my son and I are the lead guides and organize everything from A-Z each cruise day.

 

Solutions - not problems - this is the way of Major Tom and the Fun Team. Safety and ensured return time - our hallmarks.

 

Regards, Major Tom

 

 

 

 

[black forest]

Thank you so much for caring and letting us know. I was a bit concerned, too but I have read so much good things about Major Tom that I had decided to go with his organisation. But this helps a lot!! Thank you again. :-)

[packard89]

Thanks VaTraveler, I was pretty much freaking out after reading those negative posts. I always research before I choose a tour company and I've read way more good reviews for Major Tom than negative.

 

Again, thanks for putting my mind at ease.

[ShenValleyGal]

Thanks fellow Virginian! In my dealings with Major Tom, he has always seemed very upfront about things which is reassuring! I was very happy to read about the contingency plans if there's an oopsy with the time.

 

Being on HAL I knew that we had a fairly long shore time - I think 8 hours. My concern is making sure that we can be among the first to tender. If anyone has experience with HAL for an independent early excursion, please let me know how they handled it.

 

Thanks,

 

Rachel

[VaTraveler]

I was wondering about that first tender thing, also. Some lines are very gracious about it, and others are downright snarky and will put you on the last tenders if you have an independent tour. Since this is my first Holland America cruise, I don't know how they do things.