chanceflight Posted April 22, 2009 #1 Share Posted April 22, 2009 We are thinking of doing the Coral Breeze Bannister Island stop w/snorkel, but we are not sure yet. If we book through them, they require a deposit. I would hate to loose this if we change our mind. Can you book at the port for this tour with Coral Breeze, or with a similar outfit the day we arrive in Belize? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberdyver Posted April 22, 2009 #2 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Booking tours, especially jungle and marine tours on your own in Belize can be risky. Ships don't dock in the city. They anchor out and guests who book shore excursions get off first while everyone else has to wait. This leaves you with very little chance to shop around go out and come back before the ship departs. There are several shore excursions on board and different ships have different cancellation policies. I don't think anyone will refund in the last 24 hrs before your tour. It is very unlikely any of the ship's contractors will have anything available ashore due to conflict of interest. On shore you may want to take Fab's Tours. They go to Spanish Lookout caye only about 20 minutes away. Do not take anything to Caye Caulker or San Pedro unless it's a shore excursion from the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarperSays Posted April 22, 2009 #3 Share Posted April 22, 2009 We were on the NCL Spirit last week and did the Coral Breeze Caye Caulker/snorkel tour. It was fantastic! We were able to get a tender ticket for the first tender boat, but other people from our ship were on later tenders and the tour waited for them. The tour guides were great and we had a blast snorkeling (it was our first cruise and first snorkel). I would certainly recommend this tour. We arrived back in port about an hour and half before our ship left so we had plenty of time to shop and get a tender back. There were a couple of people on another cruise that had 5 mins to be back on the ship, by the time we made it back to port, but the tour guides made sure they were back on time even though it cut into our beach time. We noticed when we first tendered into port there were a lot of companies bargaining tours so I would think you didn't need to book early. But it would be up to you if you want to risk not getting a certain tour or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southern cruising couple Posted April 22, 2009 #4 Share Posted April 22, 2009 We are thinking of doing the Coral Breeze Bannister Island stop w/snorkel, but we are not sure yet. If we book through them, they require a deposit. I would hate to loose this if we change our mind. Can you book at the port for this tour with Coral Breeze, or with a similar outfit the day we arrive in Belize? We were just there Easter Sunday when on the Carnival Miracle. We actually did exactly what you are asking...got off the ship, tendered on one of the very first ones (since Carnival let's Platinum guests have priority tendering) and when we got to the port area we just looked around and found a guy selling tours to bannister with or without snorkel. For $35 each we had a lovely time relaxing on the beach and it is a BEAUTIFUL private island!!!! So you can definitely wait to see if you feel like that or see how the weather is then book at port...get them to show you pictures of the exact place you are going....we didn't snorkel but others with us did and said they saw alot!!! have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Mummy Posted April 23, 2009 #5 Share Posted April 23, 2009 We are thinking of doing the Coral Breeze Bannister Island stop w/snorkel, but we are not sure yet. If we book through them, they require a deposit. I would hate to loose this if we change our mind. Can you book at the port for this tour with Coral Breeze, or with a similar outfit the day we arrive in Belize? we winged it on our March 2009 tour with Coral Breeze/Hammerhead. If you have your hearts set on them then it might be risky to wing it due to the availability of space on their tour. SURE there are a lot of operators on the dock but you might not get what you are after. Our rule was that dont expect too much went you wing it!!!Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rose21 Posted April 23, 2009 #6 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Booking tours, especially jungle and marine tours on your own in Belize can be risky. Ships don't dock in the city. They anchor out and guests who book shore excursions get off first while everyone else has to wait. This leaves you with very little chance to shop around go out and come back before the ship departs. There are several shore excursions on board and different ships have different cancellation policies. I don't think anyone will refund in the last 24 hrs before your tour. It is very unlikely any of the ship's contractors will have anything available ashore due to conflict of interest. On shore you may want to take Fab's Tours. They go to Spanish Lookout caye only about 20 minutes away. Do not take anything to Caye Caulker or San Pedro unless it's a shore excursion from the ship. We did the caye caulker with coral breeze last time we went to belize and it was ana amzing experince. The ride is a bit long atleast 45 minutes but it was real fun seeing all the samll cayes along the way. I would not hestitate do book with them again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motherchic Posted April 23, 2009 #7 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Which is easier and cheaper and faster, booking the private beach encounter with Carnival or booking thru Coral Breeze or booking on shore for Bannister beach. We dont want to shop afterwards just want to go to the beach and maybe snorkel or kayak when we are there? Would really appreciate any help. I have tried reading all the posts and I am sure its me but I am MAJOR confused Thank you so much, Nadine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southern cruising couple Posted April 24, 2009 #8 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Booking through the cruise line will almost always be the most expensive! It was $35for beach break and I think $45 for beach/snorkel booking on the port the day of and took about 5 minutes total once off the tender....hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.