Valor 1/22-1/29 western review part V - the rest!!!

Continued –

Valor 1/22-1/29 western review part I:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=289441

Valor 1/22-1/29 western review Part II

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=289476

Valor 1/22-1/29 Western review Part III

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=289866

Valor 1/22-1/29 western review Part IV (Roatan)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=294882

Belize:

Combination Canopy tour & Cave tubing w/Nacho & Cynthia

125$ per person cash including Lunch. Thanks, Nacho/Cynthia

Phone: #501-225-2457 or 501-600-0200

Tendering:

First I just want to say a little about how we arranged to get off with the early carnival tours for Belize. As we were a group of 22 Carnival now provides a group coordinator. Anyway I worked it out with the coordinator to allow our group plus the few people we met with cruise critic to all get off the Valor with one of the Carnival tours. This worked out very well and had us on shore asap!

For everyone else you can try the pursers desk and many times they will let you go with the carnival tenders if you can show them a confirmation and the time needed to do the tours. If that doesn’t work you can actually just go with the carnival tours – you would be amazed how few people got checked. IF you don’t feel comfortable doing this just get up early and get the #1 stickers! The 1st tender of “regular” non carnival booked cruisers still gets to shore pretty early.

I do want that because of all the rain in Belize prior to us arriving many of the carnival tours were canceled. I think this helped us get on the early tender!! The group coordinator did not finalize any of the details for me till the night before. It was a scramble to get out all of the information to our crowd. Sadly I wasn’t able to get in touch with everyone…..but more on that later.

Combination tour – Cave Tubing canceled?

When I heard that carnival canceled their cave tubing tours I e-mailed Nacho to find out if ours was canceled too. He was very quick to get back to me! He confirmed that Cave tubing would be canceled for us as well AND that the bridge to get to Jaguar Paw resort had been washed out. He Said that the resort could carry us across but it might be a little rough and that for anyone who didn’t want to try this we could figure out options for them on the pier.

Once we got to the pier We all met up with Nacho – he was holding a sigh with our groups name on it. The group got separated and was on 2 tenders due to the way the line worked out. Anyway we all got on the bus, as people were climbing on I talked to Nacho. It turned out that the bridge was almost repaired and that it would only be a short walk in water about to our ankles to get to the other side. Our gang was cool with this so we all confirmed the Canopy tour. At this point Nacho also let me know that we would be able to do an abbreviated version of the Cave Tubing. The group was VERY excited about this news. It turns out that jaguar Paw resort has a spring fed cave system that we would be able to safely explore.

Canopy Tour (zip lines)

We got to the “washed out” bridge and were happily surprised that a back hoe has just about completed the work needed for our bus to cross. Due to the time restrictions we all had to walk over anyway so that we didn’t loose precious minutes! It was an easy walk and there wasn’t even enough water to get to our ankles. On the other side of the washout the resorts vans picked us up and continued the drive to the resort. Now for those who haven’t been to Belize it is a long drive out of the city to do the cave tubing and Jaguar Paw resorts canopy tour. Roughly 30 miles in which about a third is a rough dirt road. Our bus was pretty decent, a little better than a school bus and had air-conditioning and a great driver. However if you get uncomfortable easily on a rough ride this tour isn’t for you.

Anyway once we got to the resort it was a quick walk to the start of the canopy tour. Then we were geared up by a few very nice gentlemen and over to the first briefing. Here we were told the safety precautions etc. also they double & triple check our gear. Then it was a short hike up some steps to the first platform.

The first platform is really just a test run to make sure you know what you are doing. It is only about 10-15fft from the ground and pretty short. We were all instructed on what to do and we were off. Being the fearless leader, and an adrenaline junky I was first to go. No sweat! I zipped along, figured out how to break and happily yelled “Trogdor comes in the Niiiiiiiiiight” to get the gang going (for those who are not familiar with Trogdor it is a cartoon on homestarrunner.com)

Our whole gang got going then, we were roughly divided up into groups of 5 so that as one group was on the next platform the next group was heading to the same platform. Mostly to keep from having a traffic jam. A few of our gang did manage to get stuck in the middle of some of the longer zipline stretches. SO if they tell you not to break DON’T BREAK! - mostly if you are nervous you put more pressure on the above line behind the device you slide on – this slows you down. Trust me you don’t want to get stuck in the middle of one of these! Because it is more work to hand over hand pull your self to the next platform then it is to swing along 

For those of you that think you might not be able to do this – I just want to state that my mother in law whom was not really sure this was for her had a blast! She doesn’t love heights and had never done anything like this before – she really enjoyed it!

For me this was a cake walk! Honestly I never once felt unsafe and really thought it would be a little more “scary” than it was. This is nothing! Heh – I did ask if I could be hooked any other way to make it a little more exhilarating but they didn’t have enough staff that day to do anything crazy for me – no big deal.

Also if you decide you can’t continue at Jaguar Paw you can abort half way thru if need be. This might give you the confidence you need to start and once you do you will be fine. On the final platform there is a short vertical free-rappel. Basically you go down a rope to get to the ground. You control the speed as well as the staff up on the plat form. This is in case there are any problems.

Jaguar Paw Resort:

After the zip lines we headed over to the Jaguar Paw resort. This place is gorgeous! It was a little strange to walk thru the jungle after a 30 minute ride down a dirt road to then come across this gorgeous resort, with a pretty inground pool. *smile* they also have a butterfly enclosure which was full of really cool butterflies and a rabbit pen. The main build is air-conditioned and very nice. We had lunch here which was excellent and also change for the cave tubing portion of our tour. Although lunch was after cave tubing (in case we were short on time it was arranged this way) I will cover it now. We were served chicken and rice and beans and FABULOUS coleslaw!! YUM we also have coke or sprite in glass bottles – Belize recycles their glass. The lunch was YUMMY

Cave Tubing – the abbreviated version.

Now I have done cave tubing in the past in Belize, and this is not the same place as where you normally go! In fact it is a spring fed cave specifically on Jaguar Paw’s grounds. This part of our trip was very short because we only explored one cave and it was not on the main river where everyone is always taken.

From the resort we had a short walk through the jungle and past the butterflies to the entrance to the cave. The walk isn’t tough but you do need to pay attention to where you put your feet as it can be slippery in parts.

Then into the Cave we went carrying our head lamps and tubes. You need to becareful climbing into the cave because not only is it slippery it also has some low overhangs. We got down to the water and then in to the tubes we went. For the first half we were going against the current and this was kind of comical because you aren’t really streamlines in a tube so you need to work fairly hard at this. Anyway the cave we explored was magnificent!!! Definitely more stalactites and stalagmites to see! We paddled around in our tubes for a little bit and then we got out of them and the guide walked us around in the cave! This was really pretty cool you definitely do not get to do this on the normal cave tubing tour! We have some impressive pictures!.

Anyway then we paddled back to where we started from and made our way back to the resort. This is the point we had lunch. and did anymore changing etc. for the ride back. Then back in to the bus for us where Nacho shared a bottle of cashew wine with us and back to the terminal. We did end up with a little time to go shopping once we got back.

Really Belize has come a long way since the last time I was there!!! Pretty much has all the shopping you would see in most cruise ports. The prices weren’t bad either. And they had a decent selection of Cuban cigars and jewelry etc. However I think the last time I was there they had more of the local craftsman items. But I hear there is a craft market in walking distance from the pier and that is where you would find that type of item.

Costa Maya

Dreamtime Resort Beach Party, Snorkeling and diving

Two Tank Diving w/Dream Time:

75$ 2 tank, 25$ gear rental

Ok for those o fyou who read my review on the Roatan dive shop you can imagine that we were a little leary of what we would find in Costa maya! Well of the the ship we went – we had arranged to be picked up earlier than the rest of the group doing the beach party and snorkel. We were supposed to meet up with Dreamtime for 9am Ships time( 8am central time) well when we got to the appointed place we couldn’t find anyone. So we started asking the people who were running the taxi stands and they let us know that Chris from Dreamtime was there. It took us a little while to find him and it turned out we walked right past him. This was the only mishap of the entire day  It turned out chris was waiting for us at the flags right as you get from the pier to the shopping portion. He only had a sign that said dive excursion and we thought he was just someone trying to sell excursions and kept walking. So my only piece of advice would be for them to carry signs with the pre-arranged groups names or with thei own name.

Anyway we got that all sorted out – and since we were late we were able to introduce Chris to some of the rest of the group he was meeting for 10am ship time. This worked out well. Then it was off in a taxi to Dreamtime resort which is just down the road form the little village Mahalua. We arrived at the shop which was just a little house but seemed to have a lot of gear hanign in racks, and were greated by our dive master. As it turned out we had left behind one of our members and we also let them know that the said member might be making his own way to the shop. They said that wouldn’t be a problem.

Anyway as none of needed any gear – they checked our C cards, asked how much weight we needed in in which ways (belts or integrated) and then it was on the boat to dive.

The boat was very nice with side sections for tanks and two spots to do back entrys from. We each set up our gear and were happy to find full tanks and not hissing  Then Ricardo our dive master did the first dive briefing. Happily he also warned us that they were trying to preserve their reef and that if he felt you were too close or he saw you touch or hit the reef he would give you one warning. Then if it happened againg the whole group had to abort the dive. Hoenstly this might seem a little harsh but it made me feel that they were really paying attention to both their environment and their divers. We also had another nice couple on board but since they hadn’t logged any dives recently they went out with their own instructor. The only other person in our party was Fabia the dive photographer/videographer.

We did backrolls in to the water and met at the front of the boat and all descended together. As you can imagine I was a little hesitant at first but everything went well and after sucking thru 500psi pretty quickly I calmed down  Ricardo was GREAT! Paid a lot of atnetion to us with out getting in the way (that was my problem lol) and pointed our some great things for us. We say a HUGE lobster!!! And then we got to see two porcupine fish swimming together bigger than I have ever seen!!! We got them on the video that Fabia shot with us.

Speaking of the Video Fabie did a great job of getting our entire group preserved on disk  I was more interested in diving then playing for her (plus I was still a little more tense than normal on the first dive) BUT the rest of the guys in the gang had a blast hamming it up for the camera! We had a great shot of Augie (CC member) impersonating a ray for the camera and two of the gang p-laying Knockem’ sockem’ – pretty much just having a great time. She also got all the cool creatures we say and in general great footage. As this was my firt underwater video I was all about getting it. Well the group decided to get it – it was 30$ a piece for the master. Fabia did the editing while we were all on our 2nd dive and then finished it when we were over at the resort having food with the rest of the gang.

The 2nd dive was just as good! We did our surface interval on land and found out that our missing buddy had caught up with us. He ended up doing two dives with only a dive master! Talk about service! Anyway then it was back in the water with Ricardo. The other couple decided not dive again – so it was just us, Ricardo and the captain. I guess we passed the test  and were decent enough divers to only have Ricardo with us lol.

This dive was just as good and we had a great time! Ricardo on the 2nd dive was a little more “trusting” of our skills but still was very attentive. We all dove a shallow area and then stayed down until almost all of our tanks were at 500 or just a little less. Then it was up to the boat.

Overall we had a GREAT experience with Dreamtime Diving! Our Dive master Ricardo was GREAT!!!! And he was lots of fun too! Our video shot by Fabia is definitely a treasure!.

Beach party at Dreamtime Resort:

22$ cash, includes lunch and transportation to Dreamtime resort

Additional snorkeling w/gear 35$

The Beach party gang all met Chris at 10am Ship time (9am central time) and made their way over to the Dreamtime resort which is just down from the village and just up from the dive shop. When they got to the resort they had full use of the facilities indoors and outdoors, the beach and the staff. Dreamtime already had food waiting for them! It turns out the chef at Dreamtime was very excited to have such a huge group to cook for (38 in total) and spent the last few days making fabulous food for all of us. Sadly I missed his name but he was great! I met him while chowing down after our dives on his homemade pizzas and guacamole!! YUM then he was grilling shiskabobs for all of us right on the beach!. Also they had a drink area where bear and soda was in a cooler and they had some mixed drinks plus water and juice.

The Beach at Dreamtime has both sun and shade so this was great for the group! Also in the water just off the shore was small coral formations that the gang said had some decent snorkeling but better yet were great to explore on foot. Some of the group had a great time poking around the beach and seeing all the different creatures they could find.

The additional snorkel was great according to the gang! They took one of the same boats they use for diving out to the shallow reef and had two lead snorkels. On of the girls who went was thrilled that they got a guide to go with them because he pointed out loads of fish etc. People had a fabulous time and one of the women didn’t want to get back on the boat when it was time to leave – heh, in fact she ignored them for a few minutes while she continud to swim and dive around the reef. One of the things people were happy about was that the area was pretty shallow so you could dive down and see lots of things. BUT it wasn’t so shallow you had to worry about hitting the coral!

Dreamtime resort itself – I just want to mention a little about the actual resort which I am hoping to go back and stay at! Beyond really treating everyone like family my husband – the chemical engineer – noticed they had wind turbines on their roof. As Ken is just enamored with self sustaining energy production he was thrilled. Well he asked Chris for a tour and pumped him for information on all the wind turbines and batteries etc. and Chris was happy to oblige him! Ken discovered that Dreamtime Resort, at least the main building, can be completely off the grid and generate their own power! This just thrilled my husband who is already planning on how to do this when we finaly build our own house. LOL. But it is also nice to know that in a developing area there are already some forerunners!

Dreamtime! THUMBS UP! Fabulous experience can’t wait to go back!!

Disembarkation:

Ok the last portion of my long winded review  leaving the Ship! The Carnival Valor has Self assist disembarkation – and after some discussion a good portion of our group decided tho take this option. We all had fairly early flights and wanted to get off the hsip at a good time. We are also all in our late 20’s early 30’s and figured we could carry our luggage. Ok so this is what happens

Self assist passangers are called first after the ship clears customs and before anyone else. You keep all your luggage with you over night and then when they call your deck for self assist you make your way off the ship. Sounds easy enough right? Well let me tell you this although being great for time was the funnies thing I have seen in a while. First they called our deck 30 minutes before the time they said they would be starting self assist – so Ken and I rush out of our room (6:45am) and started making our way to the gangway with 4 suitcases, albeit rolling, in hand. Now there are NO elevators to be herd of so don’t even bother! Everyone takes the stairs……this was just so funny and we were all struggling with our suit case trying to get them down 5 flights of stairs and not hurt ourslef or anyone trying to the do the same thing

Then once you hit the gang way they want your passports and custom forms in hand –fine. Except you are carrying your luggage and you really don’t have any hands! LOL anyway it was an experience *grin* we made it off the ship and thru customs in no time flat. We even declared that we bought more than our allowed liquor and no one blinked – we didn’t get charged the duty and before we knew it we were outside and getting in the van I had arranged to pick us up.

We arrived at Miami airport in RECORD time! We were checked in at 8am!!! So self assist might be a pain but if you are in a time crunch this is the way to go!!!

Hope you all enjoyed my long crazy review! My fingers hurt I am going to get more coffee 