Carnival Legend - Belize and Roatan excursion?

Considering Carnival Legend in August. Two of the ports are Belize and Roatan. Wondering what excursions to do in Belize. Don't want to do Cave tubing or zip line. Might consider snorkeling or Altun Ha and city tour. Have seen Chichen Itza. How does Altun Ha measured up? Have 3 teens who might not be that keen to see a ruin unless it's really impressive. Belize city tour is it worth it? Normally we like to hire local people to do tours but being in a third world country and having read some reviews, thought maybe it might be worth it paying more (a lot more) to sign up with Carnival excurions? Is the snorkeling better at Turnoff, Goff's Cay or Sergeant' Cay for beginner swimmers? Ideally would like to do a combination of seeing a bit of Belize to get an overall idea of the place. Heard about Victor Bodden tour in Roatan, is it good? Heard you pick what to do for a few hours with his tour? We are also going to Cozumel and Grand Cayman on the same tour, so want to do some land stuff and not all beach stuff. Has anyone be shipped to another port before because the tender boat can not dock in Grand Cayman? What port does Carnival substite? Thanks.

I have been to both Chitchen Itza and Altun Ha. The pyramids (temples) at Chitchen Itza are more spectacular and the site is more thoroughly excavated. Altun Ha is also fascinating but not as excavated. ( Not as much money to put into it.) It still has many many partially overgrown buildings etc. Scenery wise it is far prettier. Altun Ha is definitely not a waste of time or money, and was actually my favorite of the two.

In Roatan were went on a semi-submersible reef cruise that was pretty good. It was definitely a low key kind of thing, not much physical activity required, but the fish you could see out at the reef were pretty cool. I liked it. And it was inexpensive.

It wasn't a very long tour, as I recall. Maybe a half hour on the semi-submersible, with a guide that knew what she was talking about. Afterward they took us too a really nice bar out on a pier, but it was only about 10 or 11 am so I wasn't yet in drinking mode. Nearby there where a bunch of little touristy shops we visited. Their merchandise was pretty inexpensive. A lot of nice wood carvings, as well as the typical tee-shirts and such. And then on the way back we stopped at the cameo factory, which didn't seem to hold much interest to anyone. That part I could have lived without. I think we were back around lunchtime.

In Roatan were went on a semi-submersible reef cruise that was pretty good. It was definitely a low key kind of thing, not much physical activity required, but the fish you could see out at the reef were pretty cool. I liked it. And it was inexpensive.

 

It wasn't a very long tour, as I recall. Maybe a half hour on the semi-submersible, with a guide that knew what she was talking about. Afterward they took us too a really nice bar out on a pier, but it was only about 10 or 11 am so I wasn't yet in drinking mode. Nearby there where a bunch of little touristy shops we visited. Their merchandise was pretty inexpensive. A lot of nice wood carvings, as well as the typical tee-shirts and such. And then on the way back we stopped at the cameo factory, which didn't seem to hold much interest to anyone. That part I could have lived without. I think we were back around lunchtime.

Was that a Carnival excursion? If not, where did you book it?

Considering Carnival Legend in August. Two of the ports are Belize and Roatan. Wondering what excursions to do in Belize. Don't want to do Cave tubing or zip line. Might consider snorkeling or Altun Ha and city tour. Have seen Chichen Itza. How does Altun Ha measured up? Have 3 teens who might not be that keen to see a ruin unless it's really impressive. Belize city tour is it worth it? Normally we like to hire local people to do tours but being in a third world country and having read some reviews, thought maybe it might be worth it paying more (a lot more) to sign up with Carnival excurions? Is the snorkeling better at Turnoff, Goff's Cay or Sergeant' Cay for beginner swimmers? Ideally would like to do a combination of seeing a bit of Belize to get an overall idea of the place. Heard about Victor Bodden tour in Roatan, is it good? Heard you pick what to do for a few hours with his tour? We are also going to Cozumel and Grand Cayman on the same tour, so want to do some land stuff and not all beach stuff. Has anyone be shipped to another port before because the tender boat can not dock in Grand Cayman? What port does Carnival substite? Thanks.

I'm booked on the same ship as you but in Sept. :)

I've been to Belize twice and Roatan once. We did a private island and snorkel tour the second time we were there. It was a blast. CoralBreezetours.com and the tour was called Bannister Island.

In Roatan we used Victor Bodden and plan to use him again this time. His tour was very nice and we got to see a lot of Roatan and got tp play the monkeys. :D

Considering Carnival Legend in August. Two of the ports are Belize and Roatan. Wondering what excursions to do in Belize. Don't want to do Cave tubing or zip line. Might consider snorkeling or Altun Ha and city tour. Have seen Chichen Itza. How does Altun Ha measured up? Have 3 teens who might not be that keen to see a ruin unless it's really impressive. Belize city tour is it worth it? Normally we like to hire local people to do tours but being in a third world country and having read some reviews, thought maybe it might be worth it paying more (a lot more) to sign up with Carnival excurions? Is the snorkeling better at Turnoff, Goff's Cay or Sergeant' Cay for beginner swimmers? Ideally would like to do a combination of seeing a bit of Belize to get an overall idea of the place. Heard about Victor Bodden tour in Roatan, is it good? Heard you pick what to do for a few hours with his tour? We are also going to Cozumel and Grand Cayman on the same tour, so want to do some land stuff and not all beach stuff. Has anyone be shipped to another port before because the tender boat can not dock in Grand Cayman? What port does Carnival substite? Thanks.

I have done Goff's Caye and Sgts Caye (with the Mangrove snorkel). The Sgts. Caye would be a tougher snorkel as it is open water (they Caye got burried in a hurricane a while back) and with Goff's you can go from the island or the boat, the later at your own pace. We loved both. I would recommend snorkeling in Belize as it is one of the best places for it. Belize, outside the small city walls is rough.

As for GC, we missed the port due to rough seas (and they did not look bad at all) and they did not replace the port. Rather, we went on to Roatan. The sting rays are great.

I can't comment on the ruins in that the only ones that we did were @ Costa Maya - Chachobeen - and enjoyed them very much, but I understand they are not as excavated/extravagant as the others.

If you are interested in a Dolphin encounter - book Chankanaab directly. Wonderful place.

I have not done Victor Boden, but understand he is great.

We went out to Altun Ha. Very interesting and beautiful, but as others have said, not as impressive as Tulum or some of the others. (My photos are at www.jenbo.smugmug.com. Each port stop has it's own gallery.) We booked the tour through Belize Shore Excursions and our guide was the best! A local who obviously knew and loved Belize.

On Roatan we rented a car, and had the best experience I think we could have had! The island is small, there's really only one road, and it's impossible to get lost! We stopped and bought ice cream from kids selling it along the side of the road, found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant with the best burgers I have ever eaten, stopped on the West End -- just had a fabulous day! My husband wants to buy property there; we'll be going back soon!

I'm booked on the same ship as you but in Sept. :)

 

I've been to Belize twice and Roatan once. We did a private island and snorkel tour the second time we were there. It was a blast. CoralBreezetours.com and the tour was called Bannister Island.

 

In Roatan we used Victor Bodden and plan to use him again this time. His tour was very nice and we got to see a lot of Roatan and got tp play the monkeys. :D

Do you remember the name of the tour you took with Victor Bodden?

Just got back from both ports on Sunday. Belize was great but our favorite was Roatan. We booked Victor Bodden and our guide, Frank, was fantastic! Very informative and absolutely a safe driver, had a great van with a/c and he took us all over the island. For $25 pp we got him for the whole day and he was great company. He took us to some inexpensive souvenir shops and to the West End where we had a great lunch/drinks on the cheap and were able to hang out on the beach. He also took us to Victor's monkeys and parrots...we loved that! It is really fun if you are a kid or a kid at heart. Just email victor and he will do whatever you want. There are zip lines available that I wanted to do as well but they wee $45 for about an hour of zipping and not everyone wanted to go...so I passed.

On Belize we booked a private tour to Lamanai (Mayan ruins) and it was fabulous. I can honestly say now that I would never book a tour of Belize City. But we did get one as we drove out to the ruins. It took an hour to get to the boat launch along the New River...and then about 40 minutes on the boat up to Lamanai, stopping along the way to see crocs and beautiful birds and other wildlife. We could hear the howler monkeys [my husband got photos of some at Lamanai] and when we got to the ruins the tour served us a delicious jerk chicken lunch that was very filling. [We used belizeexcursions.com and were very pleased with our guide, Tracy.]

It is further away and we had about an hour and a half at the ruins instead total, but we got to climb them and hear about their history and it was our favorite part of the trip. We loved the boat ride -- it was smooth and glassy and we are boaters so it was an extra treat. Enjoy!

Do you remember the name of the tour you took with Victor Bodden?

We did the "Best of Roatan" tour with the monkeys, iguana farm, and short beach break. This time we're doing the "Zip-n-Dip" excursion.

:) Tabyana Beach on Roatan is a beautiful white sand beach with excellent snorkeling from the shore. This is probably one of the most beautiful beaches I have been to.

Considering Carnival Legend in August. Two of the ports are Belize and Roatan. Wondering what excursions to do in Belize. Don't want to do Cave tubing or zip line. Might consider snorkeling or Altun Ha and city tour. Have seen Chichen Itza. How does Altun Ha measured up? Have 3 teens who might not be that keen to see a ruin unless it's really impressive. Belize city tour is it worth it? Normally we like to hire local people to do tours but being in a third world country and having read some reviews, thought maybe it might be worth it paying more (a lot more) to sign up with Carnival excurions? Is the snorkeling better at Turnoff, Goff's Cay or Sergeant' Cay for beginner swimmers? Ideally would like to do a combination of seeing a bit of Belize to get an overall idea of the place. Heard about Victor Bodden tour in Roatan, is it good? Heard you pick what to do for a few hours with his tour? We are also going to Cozumel and Grand Cayman on the same tour, so want to do some land stuff and not all beach stuff. Has anyone be shipped to another port before because the tender boat can not dock in Grand Cayman? What port does Carnival substite? Thanks.

We just got back from the Legend and we did Victor Bodden tours in Roatan, it was great. We were able to tell the guide what we wanted to do and he did it. He knew the island, he was born and raised there. His English was good, he drove very safe, we never felt uncomfortable with him at all. We would highly recommend Victor Bodden! Good luck and have fun.

:) Tabyana Beach on Roatan is a beautiful white sand beach with excellent snorkeling from the shore. This is probably one of the most beautiful beaches I have been to.

Tabyana gets my vote, great snorkeling.

How did you get to Tabyana Beach?

We were on the Feb. 22 sailing of the Legend. In Roatan, we spent the day at Fins & Flippers. If you do a search here, you will find lots of info. The place was like having a private beach. The snorkeling off the dock was superb. This was our favorite port of call day.

We book the excursion with Carnival.

We also did Victor Bodden's "Best of Roatan" tour when we were there last year. We went to the iguana farm, stopped at some scenic views (the shipwrecks and a beach, although we didn't swim), went to lunch at a small resort called "Blue Bahia" run by a couple originally from California (asked our driver for a recommendation, and the food was great and reasonably priced), and then went to Victor's house. It was a great tour.

I did Goff's Caye with my then 11 year old son and it was pretty rough. If you go, wait until they stop at the island (2nd stop for us) before snorkeling. Of course, this will force you to miss part of the snorkeling. IMO it was way too rough to snorkel the day we went. Not enjoyable. On a calm day I might think differently.

Have fun!

We went to both of these ports on the Glory in October '08. The weather was not great - there had been rain in Belize the day before we got there so most of the excursions had been cancelled - apparently most of the roads are dirt. They warn you on the ship not to go outside the gated area where the tender drops you off - they have razor wire and everything. There are signs posted "no cruise ship passengers beyond this point" and there are a bunch of locals calling to you from the other side of the fence to come out and they will give a tour...one man from our group took his wife and they hired a guy for $20. He took them all around sight seeing and to his own house for lunch with his family. They thought it was awesome but I personally would never do that. We just stayed in the shopping area there where the tender boats go and shopped - then went to a bar on the pier. Wish I could remember the name - but it sticks out into the water and is painted a bunch of bright colors (there are only two that stick out like that) anyway, we had a great time just relaxing there by the water, drinking the Belizian beer, called Beliken.

In Roatan we did the Tabyana Beach excursion. I think it was about $36 per person. This is a beautiful beach with shade and plenty of chairs. They have food and drinks, even have servers come around for drinks. You can snorkel right there off the beach and they have life guards in sea kayaks (they actually had to make us stop snorkeling because the seas were getting rough) - just one of the hazards of cruising during hurricane season! Anyway, the beach was beautiful and they have clean facilities. There is a resort (I think it's a time share) right next to where we were on the beach, it's called Infinity Bay. Check out the website - it's beautiful also! We walked through their pool area - an infinity edge pool with swim up bar (only for Infinity Bay guests).

How did you get to Tabyana Beach?

It was our first time at Roatan so we booked this excursion through Carnival. We got off our ship and boarded an older yellow school bus.

We all had a good laugh about that. We were all blown away by the beauty of this beach area. :)

Were there a lot of people at Tabyana trying to sell items while you're trying to relax?

Thank you for all your replies. I have heard about Victor Bodden from other reviews and I think we would consider doing that in Roatan. I still don't know what to do in Belize. Carnival charges $51 for the combination of Altun Ha and city tour, I checked a local website and they charge $42.50. However, I am getting an impression that the "city tour" part could be depressing. One one hand I like to experience the culture, on the other hand I like to do a "mild physical acitivity" with the teenagers. (15,17, 19). My husband and they are pretty good swimmer, but I don't swim. I did snorkling for the 1st time in Cozumel with a vest on and it was fine. So I don't mind doing that again but not in rough water. Also, because of the fact that it adds up paying for 5 people, we like to pick just one out of these 4 destination to snorkle and I heard Beize is one of the nicest places to do that? Do you actually see coral and more than just fish? Any more suggestions are welcome!

...They warn you on the ship not to go outside the gated area where the tender drops you off - they have razor wire and everything. There are signs posted "no cruise ship passengers beyond this point" and there are a bunch of locals calling to you from the other side of the fence to come out and they will give a tour...one man from our group took his wife and they hired a guy for $20. ...

I have done something like this and would not recommend it. Belize City was not a place I have any interest in seeing again. As far as going beyond the gates, there are some great shops across the street, with much lower prices. It did not feel unsafe there at all. Just politely tell the drivers no thank you, and visit some of these shops if you are looking for that sort of thing.

I would never get in a stranger's car in a depressed foreign country unless he was an official tour guide or taxi driver. How do you know he's not going to put a gun to your head and rob you?? :eek:

I would never get in a stranger's car in a depressed foreign country unless he was an official tour guide or taxi driver. How do you know he's not going to put a gun to your head and rob you?? :eek:

You don't.;)

It all depends on your tolerance for risk. In my case, he "seemed" like a nice kid, and there was three of us, and he was driving. The kid really wanted to make a few bucks, and was recommended to us by one of the vendors inside the "encampment".

As I said, I would not do it again, but only because I was not impressed with Belize City.