Sharks, Rays and Island Getaway

Hi. We are looking at RC's excursion, Sharks, Rays, and Island Getaway. If you have done this, would you recommend it? Does it leave right from the ship? Thanks for any input!

Interested in same info.

I am following also for info. My daughter is very interested in this.

Reviews on Royal's site are very good. I was hoping for some feedback from the Cruise Critic family.

They take you out to Shark Ray Alley off of the Reef. The island getaway is Caye Caulker island and it is an amazing fishing village type of place. Cool places to eat, shop, and walk around. Carnival has the same excursion and so does Coral Breeze Excursions. I highly recommend it.

One of the independent shore excursion outfits eer has the same tour for less $. They do pick you up from the pier so you have to tender into port first.

We're on Liberty the first week of August and are looking at the same tour. It got great reviews.

One of the independent shore excursion outfits eer has the same tour for less $. They do pick you up from the pier so you have to tender into port first.

 

We're on Liberty the first week of August and are looking at the same tour. It got great reviews.

Which independent outfit has this?

Which independent outfit has this?

We just returned yesterday and did the Island Getaway portion (although most on the boat did the sharks and snorkeling too) and absolutely loved it. Caye Caulker is amazing.....just really a cool place. The boat ride out was a bit of hell, but once we got there an the ride back was fantastic.

We did it through Coral Breeze tours.

We just returned yesterday and did the Island Getaway portion (although most on the boat did the sharks and snorkeling too) and absolutely loved it. Caye Caulker is amazing.....just really a cool place. The boat ride out was a bit of hell, but once we got there an the ride back was fantastic.

 

We did it through Coral Breeze tours.

Hi. Can you elaborate on the "bit of hell"? We were on a sailboat in St. Maarten a couple of years ago and my son was seasick. Thanks.

Hi. Can you elaborate on the "bit of hell"? We were on a sailboat in St. Maarten a couple of years ago and my son was seasick. Thanks.

the boat is fairly small and you sit facing each other on a long bench seat. The ride was REALLY bumpy (not seasick rough, jarring bumps) for the 45 minute ride out. We poor girls with our bathing suits on and not that much support (if you know what I mean) had to sit with our arms crossed as to not have sore mammaries by the time we got there. We were all laughing about it, but my butt is still bruised from the constant bumping up and down on the water. The boat goes fast, so that was fun, but my poor friend with a bad back didn't fare so well. He's still sore.

We also just got back from our cruise last week and we went to Shark Ray alley, coral gardens and Caulker Cay. We went with Coral Breeze and they did a very good job. The coral gardens area was really neat with a lot of beautiful coral and tropical fish. I saw a cutter fish that was neat and my husband saw a huge white angel fish and a 4ft. green eel. I would highly recommend this tour.

I went online to book this excursion through Royal Caribbean. It said it must be booked when I board the ship. Why do I have to wait to book this particular excursion on board the ship? Thanks.

I went online to book this excursion through Royal Caribbean. It said it must be booked when I board the ship. Why do I have to wait to book this particular excursion on board the ship? Thanks.

Probably means that it is sold out. Checking onboard they can tell you of there are any cancellations or put you on wait list.

We also just got back from our cruise last week and we went to Shark Ray alley, coral gardens and Caulker Cay. We went with Coral Breeze and they did a very good job. The coral gardens area was really neat with a lot of beautiful coral and tropical fish. I saw a cutter fish that was neat and my husband saw a huge white angel fish and a 4ft. green eel. I would highly recommend this tour.

Hi. Did you prebook online?

I just tried to book online thru ship and its sold out.

We booked this excursion through Carnival for a cruise in September. Following for more reviews!

We did this tour and booked using NCL and had a great time. The sharks and rays were amazing and it was a good day. I don't feel that when you book using the cruiseline that you get that great personal one on one type of experience. If I ever do it again, I will go with a local vendor like Caveman. We just couldn't do that this time since we were with a group of friends that didn't feel comfortable going outside of the cruiseline, which was fine.

I have a complete review of our day with TONS of pictures, located in my signature line. Just click the link and it may take a minute for it to load, then pop to the beginning of the review. :)

We ended up going with Coral Breeze and they did a great job. I was reluctant at first, since it wasn't through the cruise line and I was unfamiliar with tendering. But they are organized and got us back in plenty of time.

We ended up going with Coral Breeze and they did a great job. I was reluctant at first, since it wasn't through the cruise line and I was unfamiliar with tendering. But they are organized and got us back in plenty of time.

I have a few questions about your experience with Coral Breeze if you don't mind.

Can you tell me what kind of boat they use to to take you to Caye Caulker? How many people were there for the excursion? Did it feel crowded? Once you tender to port and meet them, did you have to wait long before you actually leave for Caye Caulker?

We are leaning toward a private excursion with Caveman, but we are worried about the water taxi ride to and from Caye Caulker, so we might just go with Coral Breeze to avoid any problem.

Thank you!

I think there were about 45 people on the boat, so the boat felt crowded. There are benches along the side and back of the boat; I guess a little similar to a speed boat, but without cushions? It took about 40 minutes to get to Caye Caulker, but they stopped and chatted with us for a few minutes. Someone else said they had a very bumpy ride, but ours wasn't too bad. We were tender ticket #7 and we were among the first to meet them outside the gate. We immediately walked to their pier and others quickly joined us (so we did not wait long, maybe 10 minutes?).

Now, even though the boat felt crowded, the snorkeling itself was not. Not everyone on the boat did the snorkeling, some just went to Caye Caulker. They break you into small groups, of about 6 per guide, for snorkeling the reef. So, you don't really experience the flippers in the face, that I read about. But, when you go to swim with the sharks and rays that can feel a little crowded, but no big deal (and there are no flippers then).

Thank you so much for your reply! I don't think I mind the snorkeling with the sharks being crowded. I actually would prefer it. I guess there is safety in number!:p

We were able to secure a space once on the ship.

Unfortunately we were very disappointed in the excursion.

As most of you know it's about a 15 minute tender ride into Belize.

After arriving in the Belize port everybody gathers around with the tour operator. Once everybody is present you take a short walk to the boat. Before boarding you must sign a waiver and are given the chance to go to the restroom. It's about 20 minutes before you leave since there is a line for the women's restroom.

It took about 45-60 minutes to get to Caye Caulker. We stopped once when they spotted to dolphins and another stop for a little local history.

Lunch is not provided. However the tour operator is associated with a restaurant where we docked at Caye Caulker. They handed out menus and took lunch orders during the ride. If you do not bring your own water shoes you are forced to rent their VERY worn out shoes for $3.

Once at Caye Caulker we spent about 20 minutes waiting for people to go to the bathroom and for the tour operator to turn in lunch orders.

From there you are issued your life vest and snorkel equipment. A brief instruction from the tour operator and then another 5 minute boat ride to the anchoring position. It was quite obvious where we were going since there was already a number of boats there and lots of people in the water.

We only spent about 30 minutes in the water. Saw one small shark and several sting rays. We were told that all the sharks left because there were so many people there.

On the way back we were taken to an area where they throw out "chum" and dozens of huge Tarpon can be seen.

From there we return to the restaurant where we stayed for 1 hour for an overpriced below average lunch and approached by the local vendors.

From there it was another long boring ride back to the port.

In my opinion it was a waste of time. 5 hour trip to basically spend 30 minutes in the water and forced to buy a bad lunch.

We just did this excursion last week. I loved it! We booked on board NCL so I'm not sure the name of the company they use. This was actually my favorite excursion of the 4 we did during our cruise.

You do have to tender into Belize City, then you are walked over to a covered speed boat. There were about 30 people total on our tour. The speed boat ride was a lot bumpy at first and for some reason I figured we would be on a slow ferry but no it was VERY fast. You get used to it though pretty quickly. The ride to Caye Caulker was about 45min. I enjoyed it very much.

During the boat ride they give out menus to a restaurant on the island. It's not mandatory to order from them and there are other options on the island. The pricing from the menu you they give was very reasonable, between $6-10 for meals.

Once you arrive to the island they have you use the bathrooms, change etc for about 15 minutes. You then get back on the speedboat and head out on a 3-4minue ride way out into the ocean at a reef. It is literally in the middle of the ocean, it is not the type of snorkeling where you walk right into the water. The water was pretty deep and for good reason everyone must wear a life vest. The water was kind of strong, not waves but you could feel it pull you. They divide everyone up into groups of 5-6 people and you are with one guide. We ended up being the only ones with our guide b/c it was us 2 adults and our 2 seven year olds. He had the kids hold onto a life bouy that was tethered to him (thankfully). You do not stay right up against the boat either, there is a lot of swimming and/or walking (the depth changes throughout). Our guide was great. There was also a medic on board which I wasn't expecting them to have.

The day we did it we saw about 8 sharks, tons of rays, 3 big barracudas, a bunch of fish, sea urchins etc. It was amazing. I'm guessing the amount of marine life you see may depend on weather, the day etc and isn't really anything the tour company can control. The guides were very friendly, knowledgable.

Once we finished in the water we were brought back to the dock and those who ordered went right into the restaurant, the food was brought to our table in about 10 minutes. What we had was delicious..and this is coming from people who eats real Caribbean food on a pretty consistent basis. We had stewed chicken, rice & beans and plantain. Very good. That meal was about $9 per person. The kids had chicken tenders with fries which were real chicken breaded and fried, not the frozen kind. They were very good. I believe the kids meals were around $6.

After that we had about an hour and a half to explore Caye Caulker, I LOVED this island. Very slow, quiet, exactly how you would imagine a little island getaway type of place. It was not overly commercialized and there were only 1 or 2 small venders set up on the road sides. No crazy hawking. Lots of little shops but you didn't get the feel that you were in a place created just for cruise ship visitors, it felt authentic. There isn't really a beach to go on where we were but they have little sea walls and if you go in from there the water is only about 2 feet deep and you can wade out. A lot of people did this.

Once that was done we got back on speed boat and headed back. Overall I would really recommend this.

We just returned yesterday and did the Island Getaway portion (although most on the boat did the sharks and snorkeling too) and absolutely loved it. Caye Caulker is amazing.....just really a cool place. The boat ride out was a bit of hell, but once we got there an the ride back was fantastic.

 

We did it through Coral Breeze tours.

Can I ask why the ride out was a bit of hell? What type of boat did you use? I'm not looking for exact just big or small. Also, how many people were on the excursion? Was it overcrowded? I ask the size of the boat because we were almost stranded one time taking the same type of tour. Just not with this company.

Thanks!

T*

How long do you get to stay in Cay Caulker when you book through Coral Breeze?