Royal Caribbean Bannister Island excursion

[Kimmer727]

Has anyone done this through Royal Caribbean? I will be on Enchantment of the Seas - April 27th cruise and want to do the Bannister Island excursion. Is it better to do it on your own - or through the ship? I have never been to Belize before - so I'm kinda thinking I should stick with the ship excursion?? Thoughts?? Suggestions???

[joepeka]

We did the Bannister Island excursion through Carnival on our cruise last May. We were thinking like you: never been to Belize and being cautious, stuck with a ship arranged excursion. The island is very nice, clean and relaxing. There is a small gift shop, a grill for hamburgers and chicken sandwiches (and maybe other items) and a bar. It was about a 10-15 minute tender ride from the ships anchorage, we got there about 10AM local time and left about 1:30PM. I don't remember the precise cost but I'm thinking it was like maybe $45pp?

[Dr. Jack Daniels]

Not sure if Royal Caribbean is the same as Carnival but the major difference between booking the tour with the cruise line and privately is that the cruise line tender takes you directly to Bannister Island when you leave the ship.

 

We booked privately and had to tender to shore and get on a separate boat to be taken to Bannister Island. Many of the prime locations were taken by the folks that booked the cruise line excursion since they arrived 45 -60 minutes before we did.

 

Dr. Jack

[joepeka]

That is true - our Carnival-booked excursion took us directly from the ship to the island and back again. There was another group that arrived at the island about an hour and a half after we did and we discovered they had arranged their excursion through a tour company and had to tender to the mainland then catch another ride back out to the island. They obviously did not get to spend as much time on the island as we did.

[Kimmer727]

Thanks for your help. I'm going to go through the cruise line on this one- better safe then sorry.

[tntheresa]

I was wondering if you were picked up right at the ship and returned to the ship does this mean although you got to the beach quicker you were not able to see any of the shopping or sites at the port?

[Dr. Jack Daniels]

I was wondering if you were picked up right at the ship and returned to the ship does this mean although you got to the beach quicker you were not able to see any of the shopping or sites at the port?

 

One you returned to the ship you would have to catch another tender to go to the port for shopping/other sight seeing.

 

Dr. Jack

[Kimmer727]

One you returned to the ship you would have to catch another tender to go to the port for shopping/other sight seeing.

 

Dr. Jack

 

 

Is there enough time to do that??

[Dr. Jack Daniels]

Is there enough time to do that??

 

It probably depends on what time your ship sails.

 

But I would not count on it. The tender ride is about 10-15 minutes if I recall so that would eat up a chunk of your time.

 

When we booked privately we had about 45-60 minutes to shop before catching the last tender back to the ship. We also had about 30 minutes before we took the boat over to Bannister Island in the morning.

 

Dr. Jack

[webteach]

I did RC to Bannister last year. I loved the island but was disappointed that we had to leave at 12. It had just gotten sunny when it was time to go. Only drawback that I could see.

[shiela]

We are a small group of adults who will have an infant (8 months) with us. We were hoping that a few of us could go snorkeling, then return to the beach. But none of the descriptions make it clear which beaches they are utilizing. Can anyone tell us how to accomplish this - so that some of us can have at least a fair snorkeling experience - while the others enjoy the beach?