Best water taxi to Caye Caulker, where is 'the split'? etc

Been browsing these message boards for a while now and have found more helpful information here than i've found on 100 different websites combined. We are leaving out on the Carnival Dream on April 26th and will be stopping at Belize, Roatan and Cozumel. Thanks to this website I was able to find out about Victor Bodden tours and booked with them for Roatan.

I have a few questions about Belize. We will have my elderly grandma as well as my 4 year old with us so we aren't doing any cave tubing or ziplining, which seem to be the popular activities in Belize. So we are thinking about doing the water taxi to Caye Caulker. I came across 'Caye Caulker Water Taxi', which I wanted to do, but the ship doesn't port until 8am and the departure times to CC are 8am and then 1030am. So we would miss the 8am, leave on the 1030 and have to head back on the 130pm. I was interested in that company bc my 4 year old would be free and it's $14.5 for round trip. Are there any other reputable companies with more departure times?

Also, once we get to Caye Caulker, is getting to "the split" self explanatory or do I need directions? I've heard it's the best area to lounge/swim?

Ambergrise Caye also seemed nice but from my understanding it would be too far for the short amount of time we have 8am-5pm to go via water taxi?

One last question, how can I find out how many ships will be docked on the days that we stop at our ports of call; Belize, Roatan and Cozumel?

Thanks guys!!!

There's several places that people on here use to find out about the amount of ships in port during any given day.

http://ports.cruisett.com/

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/

There's several places that people on here use to find out about the amount of ships in port during any given day.

 

http://ports.cruisett.com/

 

 

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/

Thank you!

Thank you!

You are welcome. I wish I could help you with your other questions, but the only way that I have ever been here was by a booked excursion doing the swims first and then taken over to Caye Caulker.

I'm not positive what the split is unless its the area the boats go between the island there. We passed it (while in the boat) if that's it and people were laying out on this dock-like area. They told people if we were to go down there to be careful because of the boats going back and forth between the islands and it could be dangerous. It didn't look like a place I wanted to hang out at so we just walked around the place to check it out after having lunch since we really didn't have a lot of time.

These are the only pictures I have if it's the right area:

This is where someone swam from the Caye Caulker side to the other side:

This is where everyone was hanging out at...it reminded me of spring breakers lol

I see, yeah I'm not sure what the split is really. Just thought I read somewhere on here that it was the best area to swim. No biggie, I'm sure we won't have a problem finding a good area to swim.

Thanks again.

I spent a week on Caye Caulker and really liked it. Be careful with the water taxis since they always run late and can cancel as well. As for the split, cool ace to hang out and have some drinks and swim.

I have a few questions about Belize.

Hi, I might suggest that the water taxi may not be the most comfortable ride for your elderly grandma(depending on conditions). It can be a bumpy transit on a cramped boat if there's any wind/wave action.

Of real importance here -- Make sure to check if your ship's time is the same as Belize time(CST), as it is possible that there may be a 1 hr difference depending on whether you are travelling from a (CST) U.S. port or an (EST) U.S. port.

With the presumption that the (ship and local) times are the same. there are two water taxi companies that offer service to Caye Caulker(Belize Express being the closer to the ship's tender dock of the two).

Belize Express offers a 9am water taxi. However, with the time that it takes to tender from the ship(35 minutes to and from shore)....If your group is literally not the 1st on/1st off the first available tender(likely needing priority tender tickets to do so) and willing to hustle to the water taxi dock(5 minutes by foot)...catching that 9a will not be possible.

We recently did the same, yet even as the 1st group on w/ priority tender tickets (the larger tender was a little slow in filling up and we didn't leave from the ship until about 8:20a), we barely made the 9a water taxi with seconds to spare.

The water taxi trip takes about 45 minutes(1.5 hrs RT) to Caye Caulker, so taking the 10:30a and returning on the 1:30a would only provide for about 2 hrs on Caye Caulker. Factor in the 10-15 minutes(RT) walking up to the split and it really wouldn't be worth all of the effort to go in my honest opinion(almost 3 hrs. total transit time).

Belize Express does however also offer a 3:30p water taxi back which would allow for more time on Caye Caulker and still get your group back to Belize City in time. Once again, check to make sure that your ship's time will be the same as local time.

If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them as we just did this a couple of months ago.