Help, please ! Water Caye?

Hi.

It appears that currently RCI goes to either Rendezvous Caye or Water Caye for their excursions. There is a lot of information on the boards regarding Rendezvous Caye, but very little concerning Water Caye. I'm trying to decide whether to do their snorkeling excursion to Rendezvous or their Snorkel/beach excursion to Water Caye.

So, has anyone gone on a recent excursion to Water Caye? And I'm trying to figure out if the Water Caye that gets mentioned under RCI, NCL and Carnival posts are all the same caye. Wouldn't that make for one really crowded little island? :eek:

Am doing some research on this myself. Water caye is larger but I have read that they do not allow you to snorkel from the beach which would irritate the DH. Goffs and rendezvous are very small little spits of sand. They are pretty but for instance when we went to Goffs we had no chairs to sit on and very limited shade.

I am going to choose one of those you mentioned just because tendering off the ship in May took two hours from getting in line to the dock in Belize. I want an excursion this time that leaves from the ship to save on that process. Shopping is not great there so I can skip that and never touch the mainland this time.

I will watch and see if anyone else comments about water caye and then decide.

Thanks, Cruiselvr.

I will be looking also.

Unfortunately, it seems that information about ships' excursions is harder to find that info about other topics. I wonder if a lot of people of cruise critic are experienced cruisers and just don't do ship excursions.

I usually don't, but as you have confirmed, the consensus is that getting off the ship in Belize anytime in the morning is a pain if you don't have an excursion through the ship.

I was just debating changing our excursion to Rendezvous Caye to the one at Water Caye because the Water Caye excursion leaves on a separate boat directly from the ship. Rendezvous Caye excursion does not say that.

On the other hand, I have heard Rendezvous Caye has pretty good snorkeling, and I can find absolutely nothing about Water Caye :(

We already booked a Belize excursion with Coral Breeze for snorkeling at shark/ray alley, but I was getting a little concerned about all the RCCL tender nightmare stories :eek:! I was on the RCCL site this evening and there are some pretty bad reviews on there about the two possible snorkel excursions through the ship. It's pretty slim pickins' to go through the ship for a snorkel excursion!! I think we may just stick with our private excursion and take our chances. I guess DH and I can take turns sitting down while in line for 2 hours :( BTW, I ALSO could not find anything about "Water Caye". Not sure that's an accurate description or proper geographical name for the location.

Please,for your own good, stay away from Coral Breeze. There were a bunch of posts on this. My daughter used them 3 years ago when Hammerhead was the boat crew . They were great then, so we all went together, and after booking they did away with Hammerhead , and that is when their ship sank. They crammed us in a small, one engine boat for the hour and a half trip, and we were plastered with sea spray the whole time ,there and back...The boat was overloaded and it could not plane out..My wife and I were in Belize in March on our last cruise and I happened to see the Hammerhead guy I met the year before, and he told how Coral dumped his crew and he hoped they never had another client. Just a word to the wise. Also , Shark Ray Alley is pretty but it is a very long ride. I hope whatever you do that it turns out well. After a bunch of cruises we just did an AI in Playa Del Carmen and loved it, so we are going again in November...

We already booked a Belize excursion with Coral Breeze for snorkeling at shark/ray alley, but I was getting a little concerned about all the RCCL tender nightmare stories :eek:! I was on the RCCL site this evening and there are some pretty bad reviews on there about the two possible snorkel excursions through the ship. It's pretty slim pickins' to go through the ship for a snorkel excursion!! I think we may just stick with our private excursion and take our chances. I guess DH and I can take turns sitting down while in line for 2 hours :( BTW, I ALSO could not find anything about "Water Caye". Not sure that's an accurate description or proper geographical name for the location.

P.S. Not telling you what to do, but for less money, a comfortable, faster ride, you can take the water taxi to Caulker and then get a local snorkel boat, 4 minutes out to SRA...

TXSail - I absolutely agree, but I was trying to avoid the long wait to get off the ship in the morning.

Most reviews have said it takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get off the ship if you are trying to do it in the morning. Have you had any experience with this? I'm wondering if we waited until, say, 10:30 or so to get off the ship if the lines will have gone down a little?

We usually do excursions in the morning because we don't want the stress of worrying about getting back to the ship on time, so I'm thinking 11-12 is the latest we would want to start a four hour or so excursion.

I did find one review on the Rendezvous Caye excursion, by the way, that said it took an hour on the boat to get there? Does that sound right? Seems like a long boat ride.

This is kind of a crazy thought, but could a person book the cheapest ship's excursion, then ditch that excursion once they have gotten to shore on the tender and book a fairly cheap local snorkel boat?

I'm thinking that the net cost would be about the same as a ships' snorkeling excursion, and would avoid the tender wait getting off the ship?

There is a train excursion that only costs $34, our snorkel excursion is $70 . . .

Hi. Sorry for the late reply..We had our longest tender wait with Carnival even though we are platinum...We had much better luck with Royal as long as we got our tender tickets early. Both times there on Royal we were to shore in about 40 minutes all together. As far as booking a cheap ship excursion and ditch it I think you will end up spending more and actually wasting money in my opinion..Belize is really kind of pain because of all this . In March we just went to the tourism village and hung out as we had such a disaster with Coral . I think since you are on Royal you can get to shore fairly quickly. I hope it works out for you and you enjoy it..

I do not think that R. Caye is an hour away as Caulker is farther quite a bit and is about an hour by water taxi...Also with Coral we did Shark Ray Alley and had very little time on Caulker itself, just the long, miserable boat ride back. They pulled up at a different spot where there were some kind of agents waiting to check them out but they did not detain us. Here are some pics from Shark RA and Caulker when we were there..Good luck..

free upload

upload images

free upload pictures

image ru

P.S. Not telling you what to do, but for less money, a comfortable, faster ride, you can take the water taxi to Caulker and then get a local snorkel boat, 4 minutes out to SRA...

I TOTALLY appreciate the warning on Coral Breeze!! The TA reviews I've read recently appear that they've corrected their problems (crossing fingers). However, I'm soooo torn with going with a private tour because of all the nightmare stories about getting off the ship. I'm almost ALL FOR the "buy a cheap ship excursion" trick just to save time getting off the ship!! I'm also VERY disappointed with the RCCL choices for excursions in Belize, so I'm just undecided about what to do in that CRAZY RIDICULOUS port! :eek:

Have you (or anyone looking at this) taken the water taxi to Caye Caulker before and/or hired a local snorkel tour once there? Just wondering if the local vendor could get to shark/ray alley and the good snorkeling. Thanks for the advice!

Well, we cancelled Caye Caulker Shark/Ray Alley through Coral Breeze (easy-peasy, quick, and friendly deposit refund btw) and went with the RCI ship excursion Beach Break to Water Caye. I agree there's so little info on the CC boards about it! :( From a web search, appears it used to be a day resort for cruise tourists and has been reworked, so it might be really new. It's also not on Trip Advisor AT ALL. :confused: A realty website I found says this: "Water Caye is a 511 acre island located near the deep water channel in Belize. The cruise ships pass this island every time they are in port. The island was once the site of a day resort operation serving the cruise lines. A significant amount of improvements have been made to the island including 10 acres of filling and a fully functioning resort facility on site."

We are sit-on-a-beach-and-take-in-the-view type folks, so the description of the excursion sounded perfect for us. AND THE BEST OF ALL....we are taken RIGHT FROM THE SHIP to the caye, :D which saves all the wait and tender time. I was just getting more bummed the more I thought about the time we'd waste getting off the ship and the hour-long trip to Caulker. We'll take our own snorkeling equipment and hope for a local vendor to take us out snorkeling.

I think that's the best we could hope for in this CRAZY port. Before September (our cruise date), I'll definitely continue to look for reviews on Water Caye.

Sherri

Here you go!! Best info and pics on the web of Wayer Caye. Looks pretty nice.

http://www.caribbeanislandbrokers.com/Water-Caye-Resort-Belize/

Sherri

Well, we cancelled Caye Caulker Shark/Ray Alley through Coral Breeze (easy-peasy, quick, and friendly deposit refund btw) and went with the RCI ship excursion Beach Break to Water Caye. I agree there's so little info on the CC boards about it! :( From a web search, appears it used to be a day resort for cruise tourists and has been reworked, so it might be really new. It's also not on Trip Advisor AT ALL. :confused: A realty website I found says this: "Water Caye is a 511 acre island located near the deep water channel in Belize. The cruise ships pass this island every time they are in port. The island was once the site of a day resort operation serving the cruise lines. A significant amount of improvements have been made to the island including 10 acres of filling and a fully functioning resort facility on site."

 

We are sit-on-a-beach-and-take-in-the-view type folks, so the description of the excursion sounded perfect for us. AND THE BEST OF ALL....we are taken RIGHT FROM THE SHIP to the caye, :D which saves all the wait and tender time. I was just getting more bummed the more I thought about the time we'd waste getting off the ship and the hour-long trip to Caulker. We'll take our own snorkeling equipment and hope for a local vendor to take us out snorkeling.

 

I think that's the best we could hope for in this CRAZY port. Before September (our cruise date), I'll definitely continue to look for reviews on Water Caye.

 

Sherri

I'll really be looking forward to your review; we'll be there in Nov. on RCI with 12 family members who haven't cruised much and want a great experience for them. DH and I have already done the cave tubing, which we loved, but I think most of the group wants to snorkel/beach. Like you, I would love to avoid the long tender rides.

We'll be anxious to hear how Water Caye worked out. We have some who may just want to relax on the beach and some who want to snorkel.

I don't know if this will make a difference to anyone, but I was looking at the Celebrity excursions website for the snorkeling tour they offer. It's also Water Caye. I noticed that the Maximum age is 60 years old! :eek: This does not make a bit of sense, since the other snorkeling tours offered have a limit of age 80. :rolleyes:

I don't know if this will make a difference to anyone, but I was looking at the Celebrity excursions website for the snorkeling tour they offer. It's also Water Caye. I noticed that the Maximum age is 60 years old! :eek: This does not make a bit of sense, since the other snorkeling tours offered have a limit of age 80. :rolleyes:

What!! Now that's crazy--at 69 I'm a lot better swimmer than most people, and in pretty good shape. Former lifeguard and swimming instructor and have done lots of swimming my whole life--we live on a lake and I swim daily once the water warms up.

Talk about age discrimination.

On the Royal Caribbean Shore Excursion site it only states that one must sign a waiver before going to the Water Caye Beach Break.

DW and I are just 4 weeks from the Navigator sailing and yes we plan on going to Water Caye. I will post about everything concerning this excursion!

Yes, please do! :)

I can only hope that there is a mistake with this age limit. I'd call Celebrity to ask, but the wait time to talk to someone is unreal! :rolleyes:

We may just wait to book on the ship. DH will be 62 at that time.

On the Royal Caribbean Shore Excursion site it only states that one must sign a waiver before going to the Water Caye Beach Break.

DW and I are just 4 weeks from the Navigator sailing and yes we plan on going to Water Caye. I will post about everything concerning this excursion!

Thank you--please do let us know as we are going in November and are still deciding what to do. My DH and I will be seriously put out if they don't let people older than 60 snorkel!

Blondie, please post about your experience since this is the excursion we are considering. As many others have posted, we are trying to avoid evil tender lines too but want to do something here. We normally do private excursions but not chancing it in Belize. Thanks - have fun.

On the Royal Caribbean Shore Excursion site it only states that one must sign a waiver before going to the Water Caye Beach Break.

DW and I are just 4 weeks from the Navigator sailing and yes we plan on going to Water Caye. I will post about everything concerning this excursion!

We are also considering this excursion, looking forward to reading about your experience.

I don't know if this will make a difference to anyone, but I was looking at the Celebrity excursions website for the snorkeling tour they offer. It's also Water Caye. I noticed that the Maximum age is 60 years old! :eek: This does not make a bit of sense, since the other snorkeling tours offered have a limit of age 80. :rolleyes:

I've been looking at this excursion through Celebrity for our Nov cruise and never noticed the maximum age limit so I went on their website and you're correct, no one over 60 which would eliminate DH and myself even though we're good swimmers. This doesn't make sense at all especially since 60 is the new 40! :p

I would also appreciate a detailed post of this excursion from whomever goes on it. :)

I have emailed Celebrity's Excusions to find out if we can sign a waiver or if the vendor will change the age limit for this excursion. If anyone else over 60 would like to do this, please contact them at shorex at celebrity dot com. If we have enough requests, maybe we can make a change. I believe this excursion is also offered by RCCL.

On the Royal Caribbean Shore Excursion site it only states that one must sign a waiver before going to the Water Caye Beach Break.

DW and I are just 4 weeks from the Navigator sailing and yes we plan on going to Water Caye. I will post about everything concerning this excursion!

Was on Navigator last week, and this is the excursion we took. Did sign a waiver while on boat to island. Looks like they are just starting to develop it. The water was murky, probably because the beach area is facing the sea and the boat dock is right in the middle of the beach, and each time the boat went out, it kicked up a lot of sand from the bottom. We saw one person snorkeling in the roped off area that you were allowed to be in and that person said he did not see anything. I know there was a different excursion that rode on the boat with us to Water Caye, and then were taken by another boat to go snorkeling somewhere nearby, and then came back to Water Caye. Heard one guy say the snorkeling was nice. The beach was very spread out so it did not appear that crowded, and there was a very nice breeze blowing in to keep things cool. The food we had was good (jerk chicken-just be aware it is spicy- and the beans and rice), and they had waiters that would bring your drinks and food while you were sitting at the beach. Not much to do (they had a water trampoline and volleyball net in the water, and also saw a group of people rent kayaks and went what appeared to be on a guided tour down this little river next to the beach), but it was quite relaxing.

Thanks for posting a review of this.

We are thinking about booking it through Celebrity for our cruise in January.

I would like to snorkel since the last time we did Lamanai Ruins..which was excellent, but we want a more relaxed day for this one.

DH is a land lubber but enjoys napping on the beach while I swim and snorkel.

This may have to do I was hoping for good snorkeling off the beach, but it's not the end of the world.

Like everyone else..we normally do independent tours but in Belize do not want to deal with tenders etc.

NCL has bought an Island in Belize and will start having tours to it like with their private Island in Bahamas. Once that is open it will be a no brainer when sailing with them.

A quick question...do you remember what else was on the menu and apx costs (range of prices)

Thank you