Tendering in Belize

My husband and I will be taking our first cruise to celebrate if 25th on May 2nd to the Western Caribbean (Roatan, Belize and Cozumel). We will be doing Little French Key in Roatan and a beach day of some sort in Cozumel. I really haven't found anything in Belize so I thought we would just look around the port. Question: Is there much to do without booking an excursion? Since it is a tender port are there specific times we have to wait for the tender boat to get back on the ship? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

My DH and I went cave tubing and zip lining. Didn't know if i would like it but loved it. It took us the while day so we didn't have time to do anything else. If you can't find anything else that you want to do I would highly recommend that.

I'm not a fan of how Carnival takes on the Tendering process, especially in Belize since it is a long tender to shore.

I have vowed that if I ever return to Belize City via Cruise ship I will be staying on the ship as an extra sea day.

My DH is a pretty big guy so ziplining is not an option I did see that though and it looked like fun. Do you know if they have places to eat and shop where the tender boat drops you off?

Tenders come and go all day long about every 30 minutes or so.

If you are into snorkeling, do an excursion out to the reef. Some of the best snorkeling I have done all over the Caribbean. My wife and I took an excursion early in the morning. Had an hour or so at the reef, then free rum punch (not watered down) to a private island for an hour on the beach. Then more free rum punch for the ride back to the ship. Got back to the ship by noon.

Cleaned up, had some lunch and then tendered to Belize City.

Not much to do outside the little port area ( unless you do an excursion), but found a great little bar called the Wet Lizard. Second floor open air bar that had great margaritas and chips, tacos and sandwiches (all pretty cheap). We sat there and enjoyed the food, drinks and warm Caribbean breezes. One of the best day we've had in all our cruises since day one.

Book an excursion through Carnival and you can be on one of the first tenders. Not much to do at the little port, maybe 10 shops and a place to eat, inside a locked fence. We did the 4x4 land rover & cave tubing excursion. It includes a speed boat ride too, my family says this was the best excursion ever. I highly reccomend booking an excursion in Belize for 2 reasons, the tender & not much to do at the port.

We also did a carnival excursion. We did the Rendezvous Cay snorkel. Really liked it. We had time to catch a tender after and go to port. The port area is not much to speak of. A little shopping and some bars. We didn't spend much time. We also didn't even attempt to leave the port area. I have no idea what was beyond the walls. There were some guys looking over the walls trying to get us to go on an excursion. No thanks!! Lol

Thanks for the info everyone. I love these message boards, they are so helpful

Tenders come and go all day long about every 30 minutes or so.

 

Not much to do outside the little port area ( unless you do an excursion), but found a great little bar called the Wet Lizard. Second floor open air bar that had great margaritas and chips, tacos and sandwiches (all pretty cheap). We sat there and enjoyed the food, drinks and warm Caribbean breezes. One of the best day we've had in all our cruises since day one.

We also enjoy going to the Wet Lizard! :D

LuLu

We've done the port and stayed on the ship. Being anchored way off shore it's a peaceful day to be on the ship. If we tender in, my wife usually just looks around the shops and I stop and buy cheap Belikin beer at almost every vendor we pass.

Next week we're staying on the ship, though.