Major Tom cave tubing

[transam84]

My DS just called from the Valor. They were in Belize today and they did the cave tubing with Major Tom. He said it was great. Lots of fun. Not just the cave tubing part but they loved doing the rope swings and "other fun stuff" to quote him. We didn't talk long, but he seemed really happy. Said he didn't miss the zip line at all. I'm glad though that I gave him the heads up that is was not functioning. I will give a full report when my DS returns home. But seems like Major Tom is class operation. :D

[worshipsf]

My DS just called from the Valor. They were in Belize today and they did the cave tubing with Major Tom. He said it was great. Lots of fun. Not just the cave tubing part but they loved doing the rope swings and "other fun stuff" to quote him. We didn't talk long, but he seemed really happy. Said he didn't miss the zip line at all. I'm glad though that I gave him the heads up that is was not functioning. I will give a full report when my DS returns home. But seems like Major Tom is class operation. :D

 

Glad to hear that your DS and his friends had such a great time. Certainly we did not get to do the rope swing or any other such fun extras; I imagine that type of thing would have changed our experience significantly. It does seem like our experience the other day is kind of rare, considering the number of positive reviews to the small number of negative. It was very disappointing for us since we had looked forward to it so much, but I hope that others have a much better experience.

[3redheads]

What time have other people gotten back to port? I don't want to cut it too close.

[jcross2]

...... But then hit another snag... one lady in the group (who is older, and a large woman) only wants to do the tubing and not the hike - she says she had emailed about this beforehand and was told that it was ok. ......

When we finally get going again, the hike itself is quite disappointing. ..........

 

I am so sorry to hear you had a disappointing experience! Seems like one of the main problems originated with the confusion over the woman who didn't want to walk. Sounds like it threw the whole schedule off kilter, and you were rushed through the hike.

 

So I'm really curious: what did they finally end up doing about her?

 

Having done this twice, I can't see how anyone can do the tubing without first walking to the put-in spot. I didn't see any roads up there, and the trail was definitely not wheelchair accessible. But maybe I missed something.

 

2redheads, we got back about an hour before the last tender, but we did just the tubing, not ziplining. We did stop at a lovely restaurant on the way back for lunch (no boxed lunches). We were a smaller group, in a van, which probably helped us in keeping on schedule.

 

Regards,

Jan

[worshipsf]

Jan,

 

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why the schedule was so tight. Yes, the issue with the woman caused a delay, but that of itself wasn't more than ~20 mins or so if I remember right. I guess it was a combination of all of the delays - waiting at the dock for more people, the stop at the store, waiting for the other guide, waiting for the issue with the woman, getting everyone linked up (took longer than i expected). But even so, if your group was able to stop at a restaurant and still have an hour to spare, and mine did none of that or any of the little extras (playing in the water with the rock/swing, eating termites, seeing an extra cave), that seems pretty strange.

 

I'm mostly upset with Major Tom for sending off a group of 29 with 2 guides. That should not have happened, especially as they should have known they would not be allowed into the park with that ratio. Also, it definitely seems as though the smaller groups tend to have a better and more personal experience, with less waiting around.

 

As for the woman, I'm not quite sure what ended up happening... maybe other guides came and pulled her up the river in her tube? We met up with her again in the river after we came out of the cave, and it seemed that she had beaten us there, as she mentioned seeing many other groups come by before us.

[jcross2]

Worshipsf, that is such a shame that you had to wait around so much, and not get to do everything you were looking forward to. I feel bad for you, and hope that never happens to you again.

 

I'm pretty sure Major Tom reads these boards, so hopefully he will analyze what went wrong that day and keep it from happening again.

 

As far as our group having time for the restaurant, it is possible that we had a longer time in port than some other ships that day? We were on Enchantment, but I don't remember the exact schedule. I do remember that we left fairly soon after arriving at the dock from the tenders.

 

I hadn't thought about guides maybe pulling that woman up the river, but that makes sense. (In Jamaica, there are all these teenagers pulling those long rafts back up the river (empty, though) for the "captains" to take people downriver in again.) Hope she tipped those guides well!!

 

Here's hoping that your next shore excursion is much, much better!

 

Regards,

Jan

[3redheads]

I emailed Major Tom and asked when we would get back to port. Here's what he sent me:

 

About 45 - 60 minutes before the last tender.

 

Two things keep an independent operator going : SAFETY and TIMELY RETURN.

 

You'll be OK.

 

Major Tom

 

I hate cutting it that close. One traffic jam could put us behind.

[North Carolina Cruiser]

went with major tom last year, not going again and suggest you don't! worshipf, our experience was similar, guide at the front of the trip through the junge, have no idea what he said, very unorganized! lots of glitches along the way, the food, what a joke, if you weren't perished you'd know how bad it was. lots of good reports from others but so many don't know about cc. other groups seems much more TOGETHER. smaller also. Some limit thier #s so they can manage better

[3redheads]

We ended up canceling Major Tom and did the Landrover 4 x 4 tour/cave exploring through Carnival. We had a blast!!! We went through waist deep mud.

[loveJake]

We will be doing this tour in July 2009. Lunch is extra. Husband and I are picky eaters. Anyone tell us about the lunch on the tour and if it was good? Considering just bringing sandwiches from the ship.

 

To answer your original question DH is picky, will not try new things and will not eat off the ship in any port outside the country, so he goes without lunch. I on the other hand will try anything anywhere and loved the lunch, it was the 2nd time I had the rice/beans/chicken in Belize. So only you know what you like or will try, but to me it is really good. If not I suggest taking prepacked wrapped snacks from the ship, or bring from home and eat when you return to the ship.

[Ambercakes]

Hey everyone who has done the cave tubing before. .. I am a single mom taking my kids for their first cruise in Oct. I would LOVE to go cave tubing, but not sure how safe it is watching 2 kids? my 8 yr old is a very strong swimmer, she swims year round on the swim team, but my 4 yr old would probably have to be in my lap. Is that even possible? Is the hike to the cave easy enough for the 4 yr old, and me managing both kids??

[Lisichka]

Hey everyone who has done the cave tubing before. .. I am a single mom taking my kids for their first cruise in Oct. I would LOVE to go cave tubing, but not sure how safe it is watching 2 kids? my 8 yr old is a very strong swimmer, she swims year round on the swim team, but my 4 yr old would probably have to be in my lap. Is that even possible? Is the hike to the cave easy enough for the 4 yr old, and me managing both kids??

 

I am not normally a paranoid Mom, but I too am going to Belize as a single Mom with 3 of my sons. I decided against the cave tubing and am doing the landrover/cave/river expedition instead. The reviews are EXCELLENT and I feel much safer doing it.

[mmachi]

My wife and I just got back from a trip on the Carnival Valor with some friends and we had a blast. The absolute highlight of our entire cruise was Major Tom's Cave Tubing experience. Like most of you, I did some online research prior to the trip and other than a few small negative comments saw overwhelmingly positive post-tubing reviews with Major Tom. I reserved online for 4 of us and was pleasantly surprised that advanced payment was not required. Right off the bat this indicated to me that Major Tom was focused on customer satisfaction before $ and I am happy to say that the trip proved this to be true!

 

We caught the first tender off the ship, got to the shore at around 8:30AM and were quickly gathered by Major Tom's group and walked 2 minutes to a meeting area. We met more of Major Tom's crew and confirmed our reservation and made our payment. Shortly thereafter Major Tom made an appearance himself and took control of getting everything moving forward. Major Tom obviously knows how to make things happen having done this for so long. We walked a bit and were met by one of Major Tom's veteran crew, Mark, who was the senior guide and bus driver for the day. We were also introduced to our other guides for the day (Peter, Mike, George, & Aman). The bus was clean and cool and we were off and running quickly. As soon as we got on the road, George grabbed the PA system and without even pausing began to entertain and enlighten the group with information about Belize as we traveled. It was obvious that the guides were on friendly terms with each other and they continued to joke back and forth all day. After getting out of Belize City George passed the reigns over to Mike who began to give us information on the cave tubing process. We stopped briefly at a local market to pick up some beverages and snacks for the ride and were introduced to a great local drink, Cashew Wine! It was very tasty and something that I would not have had a chance to try otherwise.

 

After an enjoyable 45 minute drive we arrived at the park area along with about 5 other buses (I think Major Tom had a total of 3 bus groups on the day we were there.) We changed clothes, were given our tubes and a life vest, and set off on the trail. There was a checkpoint at the beginning of the trail to ensure that the guide to guest ratio was OK. Since we had 5 guides to about 36 guests we moved quickly through this phase. A 2 minute walk let us to a small creek crossing where we swam and jumped off some rocks for about 10 minutes before getting moving down the trail again. The walk lasted about 30 minutes or so with a few brief stops to hear about the local plant life before reaching the drop in place in the river. We linked up into groups of 8 or so with a dedicated guide (We had 2 - Aman and Mr. Mark) and set off down the river. We entered the amazing cave system and Aman pointed out some points of interest while explaining some cultural aspects of the Mayan mythology. The cave was a lot longer than we had thought and contained some beautiful views. We left the cave system and floated down for another 10 minutes or so before ending up at the same place we had initially crossed. Having played around a bit before the hike we didn't linger rather we got out of the water and made our way back to the bus area.

 

We changed clothes and spent a few minutes talking to Major Tom about both our experience, past experiences with other guests, and his history in Belize. What a guy! He really believes in what he does and is a wealth of knowledge about Belize. We had such a great time that we're actually thinking about taking a trip to Belize in the future to see more of this beatiful country.

 

In closing (sorry for rambling...), please don't miss this tour. Try to lose yourself for a day and experience a group of people sharing information and fun with a group a strangers on vacation. It is what you make it and I truly believe that if you leave any lingering attitude behind and allow yourself to have fun you will not be disappointed. My 2 practical suggestions are: Bring a waterproof camera and print your email confirmation from Major Tom. At Mike's recommendation we left the digital camera behind as it would have been destroyed, but we should have at least bought a disposable waterproof camera to capture the hike and tubing experience on film. Oh well, I guess we'll have to go back and try again... Also, Carnival indicated that we needed to bring proof of our private tour to get on the first tender and, although I'm sure it would have been fine, I paid Carnival some money to jump on the internet and print it to be sure. I could have saved a few dollars had I not forgotten to print before I left home.

 

Thanks to Mr. Mark, George, Peter, Mike, Aman and Major Tom! We had the best vacation ever on this 7 day cruise and the Cave Tubing experience with Major Tom won't be forgotten.

 

Thanks,

M&K

[klmorg]

My wife and I just got back from a trip on the Carnival Valor with some friends and we had a blast. The absolute highlight of our entire cruise was Major Tom's Cave Tubing experience. Like most of you, I did some online research prior to the trip and other than a few small negative comments saw overwhelmingly positive post-tubing reviews with Major Tom. I reserved online for 4 of us and was pleasantly surprised that advanced payment was not required. Right off the bat this indicated to me that Major Tom was focused on customer satisfaction before $ and I am happy to say that the trip proved this to be true!

 

We caught the first tender off the ship, got to the shore at around 8:30AM and were quickly gathered by Major Tom's group and walked 2 minutes to a meeting area. We met more of Major Tom's crew and confirmed our reservation and made our payment. Shortly thereafter Major Tom made an appearance himself and took control of getting everything moving forward. Major Tom obviously knows how to make things happen having done this for so long. We walked a bit and were met by one of Major Tom's veteran crew, Mark, who was the senior guide and bus driver for the day. We were also introduced to our other guides for the day (Peter, Mike, George, & Aman). The bus was clean and cool and we were off and running quickly. As soon as we got on the road, George grabbed the PA system and without even pausing began to entertain and enlighten the group with information about Belize as we traveled. It was obvious that the guides were on friendly terms with each other and they continued to joke back and forth all day. After getting out of Belize City George passed the reigns over to Mike who began to give us information on the cave tubing process. We stopped briefly at a local market to pick up some beverages and snacks for the ride and were introduced to a great local drink, Cashew Wine! It was very tasty and something that I would not have had a chance to try otherwise.

 

After an enjoyable 45 minute drive we arrived at the park area along with about 5 other buses (I think Major Tom had a total of 3 bus groups on the day we were there.) We changed clothes, were given our tubes and a life vest, and set off on the trail. There was a checkpoint at the beginning of the trail to ensure that the guide to guest ratio was OK. Since we had 5 guides to about 36 guests we moved quickly through this phase. A 2 minute walk let us to a small creek crossing where we swam and jumped off some rocks for about 10 minutes before getting moving down the trail again. The walk lasted about 30 minutes or so with a few brief stops to hear about the local plant life before reaching the drop in place in the river. We linked up into groups of 8 or so with a dedicated guide (We had 2 - Aman and Mr. Mark) and set off down the river. We entered the amazing cave system and Aman pointed out some points of interest while explaining some cultural aspects of the Mayan mythology. The cave was a lot longer than we had thought and contained some beautiful views. We left the cave system and floated down for another 10 minutes or so before ending up at the same place we had initially crossed. Having played around a bit before the hike we didn't linger rather we got out of the water and made our way back to the bus area.

 

We changed clothes and spent a few minutes talking to Major Tom about both our experience, past experiences with other guests, and his history in Belize. What a guy! He really believes in what he does and is a wealth of knowledge about Belize. We had such a great time that we're actually thinking about taking a trip to Belize in the future to see more of this beatiful country.

 

In closing (sorry for rambling...), please don't miss this tour. Try to lose yourself for a day and experience a group of people sharing information and fun with a group a strangers on vacation. It is what you make it and I truly believe that if you leave any lingering attitude behind and allow yourself to have fun you will not be disappointed. My 2 practical suggestions are: Bring a waterproof camera and print your email confirmation from Major Tom. At Mike's recommendation we left the digital camera behind as it would have been destroyed, but we should have at least bought a disposable waterproof camera to capture the hike and tubing experience on film. Oh well, I guess we'll have to go back and try again... Also, Carnival indicated that we needed to bring proof of our private tour to get on the first tender and, although I'm sure it would have been fine, I paid Carnival some money to jump on the internet and print it to be sure. I could have saved a few dollars had I not forgotten to print before I left home.

 

Thanks to Mr. Mark, George, Peter, Mike, Aman and Major Tom! We had the best vacation ever on this 7 day cruise and the Cave Tubing experience with Major Tom won't be forgotten.

 

Thanks,

M&K

 

Thanks for the review! We have plans with MT in January. I take it you had enough time to catch the tender back to the ship, which seems to be a concern around here.

[mmachi]

We made it back with about 60-90 minutes to spare before the last tender. Although there was no real risk of missing the boat, we didn't have a large amount of time to linger around and shop. The trip was so great it didn't matter to us at all though. We simply spent more time in Cozumel shopping to make up for it! Also, Major Tom specifically mentioned that he had read the reviews about timing and has made arrangements to add another bus to ensure that there is as little waiting as possible for other members which seemed to help when we were there as there was not an excessive amount of downtime for us.

 

Thanks,

M&K

[klmorg]

We made it back with about 60-90 minutes to spare before the last tender. Although there was no real risk of missing the boat, we didn't have a large amount of time to linger around and shop. The trip was so great it didn't matter to us at all though. We simply spent more time in Cozumel shopping to make up for it! Also, Major Tom specifically mentioned that he had read the reviews about timing and has made arrangements to add another bus to ensure that there is as little waiting as possible for other members which seemed to help when we were there as there was not an excessive amount of downtime for us.

 

Thanks,

M&K

 

 

Thank you again! I do recall in an email from Major Tom when I booked our reservations that he said they have not had any folks miss the ship in however many years he's been in business (can't remember), and basically assured us that should not be an issue of concern. Looking forward to it...

[North Carolina Cruiser]

went with them last year, NOT GOOD!:mad:

[klmorg]

went with them last year, NOT GOOD!:mad:

 

You already posted this in this very thread on 9/7/09. MT has received very favorable reviews on here. There will always be good & bad reviews; hopefully you just caught them on a bad day. Or maybe not. Regardless, we'll find out for ourselves in a couple months.

[Kasey9]

I will be going on the Canival Valor in February for my honeymoon. My fiance and I have never been on a cruise before. I was given this website to check out in my planning. To someone who has never been on a cruise I am struggling with the lingo. Please bear with me. I am guessing that "tender" means scheduled time slots to re-enter the boat.\

 

Can anyone hook me up with the website for cave tubing with Major Tom or his email?

[loveJake]

I will be going on the Canival Valor in February for my honeymoon. My fiance and I have never been on a cruise before. I was given this website to check out in my planning. To someone who has never been on a cruise I am struggling with the lingo. Please bear with me. I am guessing that "tender" means scheduled time slots to re-enter the boat.\

 

Can anyone hook me up with the website for cave tubing with Major Tom or his email?

No tender means you do not step off the ship on the dock/Island, you have to take a small boat from the ship to the dock/Island.

 

Don't have the e-mail address, but if you do a search for magor tom you can get it.

[klmorg]

I will be going on the Canival Valor in February for my honeymoon. My fiance and I have never been on a cruise before. I was given this website to check out in my planning. To someone who has never been on a cruise I am struggling with the lingo. Please bear with me. I am guessing that "tender" means scheduled time slots to re-enter the boat.\

 

Can anyone hook me up with the website for cave tubing with Major Tom or his email?

 

Try cave-tubing dot net. With the dash. And .net, not .com.

[Seechell]

I chose to book with Major Tom for my upcoming cruise on the Glory (10/31). Making a reservation was very easy, I went to his website and gave him all the information about us, and shortly after received a confirmation email. I really like the fact that I did not have to give a deposit, I just stated I would like to pay in Belize. I have read that it takes time to receive refunds, and if anything should go wrong this will not be an issue.

I would say most reviews I have read have been very positive, and I will be happy to give my opinion upon return. Check back mid-November!

[baterocks]

My family of four was signed up for the tubing/ zip line tour with Major Tom .....After a slightly hairy 1 hour bus ride we arrived at the park, which was very busy. Our guide informed us that the zip line area was very busy ....It was a pretty long walk, I'm guessing 30-45 minutes, on a dirt trail through the jungle and river, while carrying your inner tube, PFD and headlight. .......then we were told that we would not have time to do the zip line. .

 

 

How old were your kids and what did they think of the whole experience? We're trying to decide on what to do in belize with our 12 and 13 year olds. Thanks.

[loveJake]

How old were your kids and what did they think of the whole experience? We're trying to decide on what to do in belize with our 12 and 13 year olds. Thanks.

 

I think your kids that age would love it. My DH and I went with Major Tom last September and since our experience was different then the above poster I thought I would reply. We did not find anything hairy about the bus ride, it was a nice fairly new bus. The site was not overly busy. The walk thru the jungle was very injoyable, but we also love to hike in the mountains, and the tubes not heavy. You go thru some rocks, with a small cave and at one point have to forge a small river, ropes to hold on to, or else you can jump off the bank at one spot into the river, younger ones did this. Felt safe the entire time, the caves are cool and neat floating thru. The lunch we stopped for was very good, but you would have to have not picky kids to enjoy. And by the way we were both 60 so younger people should have no trouble with this tour, as we had none.

[Caliterp07]

Hey everyone who has done the cave tubing before. .. I am a single mom taking my kids for their first cruise in Oct. I would LOVE to go cave tubing, but not sure how safe it is watching 2 kids? my 8 yr old is a very strong swimmer, she swims year round on the swim team, but my 4 yr old would probably have to be in my lap. Is that even possible? Is the hike to the cave easy enough for the 4 yr old, and me managing both kids??

 

I'm sure this is too late, but there were two very small children on our trip (probably 4 and 2?) They were both lap children, and both had a blast. The water was really low when we went in April, so there wasn't much danger there, but I would think your kids should be fine.

 

The only trouble the little guys had is that it's quite a long walk. The parents ended up having the carry the children AND the innertube up to the starting point.