jcleveland

We took a carriage ride last summer, we hadn't pre-booked anything in Belize and just walked out the gates. The hair braiders were after my two daughters so fast I turned around and there was a Guy asking if we wanted to do a carriage ride 20 bucks a piece and Kids ride free, I grabbed it to get away from the hair braiders.

A gentleman named Egbert gave us a ride around the city nice guy lots of history and information he even stopped and picked some flowers for the girls.

told us about more of the history and were everybody gathered to party on the weekends, He was even nice enough to outrun the Hair braiding ladies who were set up back by the gate and drop us off down the road from them!!

We didnt get the lunch so cannot comment on that. As far as the ferrys there were 3 they all showed up at the same time and they left at the about 30 minutes apart, So 2:30 is the one my wife was trying to catch and then the 3:00 is the one we got on and the last ferry was sitting there waiting to pull in when we left.

as far as chairs and umbrellas they were included and already set up in rows on the beach front.

we had 30 (seemed like 30 but time does fly) minutes in the water 15 minutesor so of the "rules" There were 8 or 9 of us lined up shoulder to shoulder and thats how we entered the water straight from the beach, we stayed in that line unless it was your turn to get our dolphin kiss and hug. They said no cameras but i saw a guy in the other group with a go pro camera.

The stingray swim seemed similar but there were more people so there group took longer for all the pictures. You can view your pictures back on the ship.

There is no shopping on the island, i would recomend finding the free junkaroo beach and walk to it, that will take you past alot of knick knack stores.

They had 8 dolphins there, they had 1 per group in the encounter pen 2 total.

we did a shallow water, we have two small girls they may offer some other package with "free swim" but there was definetly no frolicking freely with the dolphins.

Our family actually got bumped to this excursion for the shallow water dolphin experience after we missed the blue lagoon departure. It is a quick 30 minute boat ride to a small island with chairs and umbrellas lining the beach.

The water was super clear nice sandy beach, snorkeling was just ok because there wasnt much cover for any fish to hang out for you to see while snorkeling. we did see a pretty big star fish and a baby sting ray. We thought he may have escaped from the stingray pen since they have dolphins and stingrays in pens on the island for you to swim with for extra costs.

Like everybody has heard about every excursion they line you up outside the ship march you over to the pier, load you on three separate boats depending on what you are doing on the island. The dolphin and stingray excursion people rode over on a catamaran boat and all the kids sat on the netting, one of my daughters napped the whole way on the netting. When we got to the island they took us to the beach and assigned us a waitress for the beach, they served Starbucks (not a full on Starbucks) on the island so my wife immediately made a bee line for that! They then called us over for our dolphin excursion. nice walk in beach and 30 minutes or so with Dixon our 3year old new best friend, (they did not allow cameras but guess what carnival had some one there snapping 14 dollar a piece pictures for you!) after that we were free to go swimming or snorkeling until about 2 when they said you need to get on your boat the 2:00 boat is leaving, well I'm out at the buoys snorkeling my wife is freaking out hollering for me you know typical scene, clueless husband spastic wife,,,,the catamaran is pulling away she's hollering wait wait wait!! I'm hollering they wont leave us on the island, were running to the pier to get on the boat, I told my wife since we got our tour thru carnival they wouldn't leave us, so 2 seconds after the 1st boat left the second boat pulled in and we got on it and waited 30 minutes for it to leave. In the mean time we watched a couple of families walk over to the dolphin pen and walk in the water and sit down and the dolphins swim right up to them and start playing, my kids were super bummed about someone making us run for the 1st boat!. (finally dad was not the bad guy!)

Over all the island was nice the water was nice, the trip felt rushed, that may be normal for cruise excursions like this. They excepted sail and sign cards for you bar tabs and food. It wasn't to crowded for chairs and umbrellas that were included. we didn't try any food but allot of people around us were eating and didn't look disgusted by the food.

If you are just looking for a beach it sounds like the junkanaroo beach is the best bet, less rush bigger area, cheaper food and drinks and you get to see some of the island, If you want to dolphins or stingrays it was a good educational time, with plenty of petting the dolphin "kiss and hug" my 8 and 4 year old daughter were able to do this with no problems, and they loved it.

Any other questions just ask.