Wet and Wild Review..

We arrived into Belize on the Carnival Legend. I sweet talked myself into 2 stickers from a Carnival employee and we were able to get onto the first tender that left the Carnival Legend. This wasnt necessary, as the tour did not leave until after all the tenders had made their trip.

I had paid a deposit to Marvin through their website and the charge appeared on our credit card as exactly as it was suppose to.

We found the booth within minutes and was greeted by the very helpful staff. Within minutes Marvin was at the booth and explained the Credit Card charge deposit that was laready made, and what the balance was. We paid the remaining balance with cash. Price was exactly as advertised.

We had time to kill until the rest of the group came, so we went around to do some shopping.

As you are standing outside of their booth, the locals will HOUND you to come to them.. Recommend not waiting for too long in front of the booth. As we were waiting we were walking around and really was not impressed with the shopping in the port area.

We checked back a couple of times and finally the group was ready. I say group, but honestly, it was my wife and I, a father and son, who also read this board and had booked prior.Than there was a family of 6 (husband, wife and 4 daughters.)

We were introduced to Charlie and walked to the shuttle bus. Bus was in great shape, A/C worked and was very clean. Charlie was VERY informative about the area, their lifestyles (He was very happy, they had just gotten cable tv) and just an all out informative guide.

We got to the cave tubing area and went to the bathroom/changing area and than led to get our tube, lifevest and headlamp. You were not required to wear the vest, just keep it strapped to the tube. The walk is about 35 minutes, but Charlie was very informative as to different plants and trees.

We were shown where the cruise ships put in and offered to walked 10 minutes to another cave. The walk was not bad and it WAS WELL worth it. You can either jump from about 15 feet into the water or lower yourself 3 feet in with a rope. My wife was hesistant, but after some very good encouragement from Charlie, She JUMPED. I have a photo to prove it..LOL

Once in the refreshing water, you do have to paddle some, but it was not tiring at all. You do hit some areas that were very shallow (Quote:"Butts up, I mean Bottoms up!") Charlie made sure that everyone stayed together and made sure that everyone say the different formations in the caves.

On the trip was a very inquisitive 14yr old girl. She asked everything and Charlie answered everything. It was very refreshing to see such a inquisitive person taking up everything and in turn watching someone that loved to help a person and answer their questions. This same girl also was having problems keeping up in the water. Charlie hooked onto her tube and proceeded to carry her along the whole way down the river. All the while answering every question that her imagination could think up. Charlie never wavered in being of help and answering our questions. We would definatley recommend Charlie and Marvins to EVERYONE.

After the tubing we stopped at Amigo's for Stewed Chicken, rice and beans, coleslaw, rolls and soda. The food was included in the tour. We were not required to and nothing was asked about leaving a tip, but we all did.

At the end of the tour, we got back to the port with about 15-20 minutes to spare. During the whole tour and up to the very end, Charlie NEVER EVER mentioned about a tip. Which I wish I could say this for the other excursions that we have taken. It was the lack of asking for the tip that led us to tip even more.

Wet and Wild is definatley worth it, we could not have asked for a better excursion. This was definately one of the highlights of our total cruise.

For value, you are taken for 30 minutes extra tube ride in a cave, you get lunch included, and you are not 1 of 250 or more taking the same excursion. Try to learn something when you are 1 of 250..

I hope this helps other make a informed choice on Cave Tubing in Belize. Feel free to ask if I failed to answer a question that you may have...

Great review! Looking forward to cave tubing 4/24!!

I couldn't agree more about the tipping. We went cave tubing with Charlie and Junior (the driver) on 3/14 and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was definitely a highlight of our cruise. Tipping was never mentioned, which prompted me to tip them even more. I even got a hug and a kiss from Charlie. What a nice man, and a great tour guide!

It's so great to hear of your wonderful experiences! We were in Belize in September and used Wet n Wild as well. It was our favorite thing about our cruise. Reading your reviews make me want to go back sooooooo bad! When we left, I honestly felt as though I had made a new friend (Charlie).

We also did the tubing on 3/25/05 with wet and wild. This was by far the BEST tour we took on the cruise.

Our Guide was Carlos with Blinky for the Driver. He was GREAT very informative and laid back!!

We had a group of 9 and the total # in the group was about 25.

No problem getting back in time for the tenders we had about 1 hour to spare!!

Lunch was GREAT and we would do this tour again without thinking twice!!!:D

We took the Cave Tubing tour with Marvin's Wet-n-Wild on 3/29. Our day didn't start off well as the Carnival Glory was about 45 minutes late getting into port. Unfortunately, we weren't able to tender off the ship until about 8:30, right before our scheduled meeting time as they put total priority on taking Carnival tours off first. We made it to the port on time and the representatives from Wet-n-Wild were waiting as we got off the tender boat to take us to Marvin's booth.

When we got to the booth, Marvin came out and welcomed us all individually. Very professional. Since we were running a bit late, he immediately took us in to complete payment (no problems there) and get us on our way as quickly as possible. I noticed in his booth they had records of when each ship was leaving the port that day. It was obvious right from the start Marvin put a high priority on making sure everyone is back in plenty of time to make the tenders back to their ship.

We had a group of 10, and met up with another group of 4 (also from the Glory), and Charlie our driver and guide (as I had requested after reading about him on this board). The van we rode in was comfortable and air-conditioned, and along the way Charlie shared alot about the country, people, and culture. The last few miles of the ride over rocky terrain was a bit rough, but well worth it once we got there.

We quickly grabbed our tubes and jackets and were on our way into the rain forest. There were several large tours arriving all at the same time so we had to keep a fairly brisk pace through the forest to stay ahead of the other groups. The rain forest itself is extremely beautiful. Charlie pointed out lots of interesting sights along the way. To address concerns others have posted, we saw NO SNAKES in the forest or river and the only bug I saw was one small gnat. We did see some beautiful birds and some bats.

We reached the point where we could enter the river or go on ahead and do the extra cave. We all agreed after discussion with Charlie that we should go ahead and get in the river due to time constraints (now I'll have to go back again just to do the big jump into the river!). After the walk through the rain forest, the water was very refreshing, nice and cool, but not cold.

The caves themselves were beautiful, if a bit crowded due to all the other tour groups both ahead and behind us that all converged on us as we made our way through. As everyone has been saying, the river is pretty low right now and there are several spots that are very shallow and sometimes the current is almost non-existent. A couple people in our group thought it was a bit strenuous to paddle through, but I thought it was great.

The best part of the tour is when you exit the cave and make your way through the rain forest the rest of the way down the river. There was a nice slow current and the scenery was incredible. Charlie told me he had come out the previous day to take the tour on his day off he enjoyed it so much (and he has alot of fun on his "work" days as well as he said).

After reluctantly getting out of the river and changing back at the rest area (nice clean restrooms and changing areas), we were on our way to lunch. Our included lunch at Amigos was incredible. The chicken, rice, and beans made for the perfect meal after a day in the caves (Charlie said he had come out for the same meal the day before too... can't blame him there either!). The $1.50 Belikins hit the spot as well.

The only snag of the day happened on the way back when there was a huge traffic jam on the way back into Belize City. Charlie was on the phone immediately to make sure we got back in time. I was pleased to see that the police made it a priority to get the tour groups through the jam as quickly as possible as well. They obviously recognize the importance of these tours to the local economy.

We made it back with about half an hour to spare before the last tender back to the Glory and said our goodbyes to Charlie. I hoped to see Marvin to thank him as well, but he was not in his booth. After we had done some shopping and were heading back to the boat, I heard a call from behind. It was Marvin, checking to make sure we had had a great tour. I told him it was absolutely perfect and that we would recommend it to everyone (as I'm doing right now). On a scale of 1 to 10, Wet-n-Wild rates somewhere around a 60 :cool: . If you are at all considering the Cave Tubing tour, book with them with confidence! Thanks again Charlie and Marvin for an unforgettable day!