Tendering in Belize - cave-tubing.com

I'm doing cave-tubing through cave-tubing.com in Belize next week. The last time I was in Belize, they gathered everybody by the Carnival booked excursions, and those passengers got off first. My email from Yhonny says the earlier off the ship the better. What's the best way to ensure we get off on one of the early tenders to meet up with the cave-tubing.com folks?

we did cave tubing with yhonny in feb.. it was a blast....my link to my review with pics is below if you care to take a peak...

we had no problem getting off, went down when they said ship was clear to go and got right off...no problems at all...we were one of the first ones off...

I'm doing cave-tubing through cave-tubing.com in Belize next week. The last time I was in Belize, they gathered everybody by the Carnival booked excursions, and those passengers got off first. My email from Yhonny says the earlier off the ship the better. What's the best way to ensure we get off on one of the early tenders to meet up with the cave-tubing.com folks?

Hey, girl how ya doing?

We went with Yhony and went down early to tender......Carnival held a few of us off to the side to let other groups go first. I took over a group booking for someone from our group (50 people). He had many vehicles making the run. I watched them load vehicles and send them on their way whil we waited for our 50 to show. We had PLENTY of time. Yhony was our driver and there were no worries.

Our bus wouldn't start after the excrusion and I must say, Yhony was well prepared. While a couple guys worked on the bus he took off in a vehicle he had in waiting. It turns out he has extra busses parked along the way for emergency situations. Within 15 minutes we were on our way and we passed him in a back up bus about 15 minutes later. We still had time to stop for refreshments and shop in port upon our return.

This excursion was one of the highlites of the cruise and it was because of the excursion........the bus issue wasn't a concern or mentioned afterwards because Yhony was prepared for the situation.

IT IS AN AWESOME EXCURSION!!! I can't wait to go back with my kids.

If you follow the instructions for tendering you won't have any problems. Unless you are a platinum cruiser you will have to wait until the Carnival excursions are off before the general tendering begins. It won't cause you a problem and you will still have plenty of time for your tour. The bus to the park won't leave until everyone has tendered off and met up with Yhonny so pushing your way to the front of the tender line will only result in sitting on a bus instead of sitting in a lounge on the ship. If you follow instructions you won't be anywhere near the last ones to show up for the tour...In any bus load of people there will always be some who cannot understand or follow directions so don't sweat the time issue.:)

Once you are ashore in the tourist village, walk through the shops to the street entrance. You should see someone there with a "cavetubing-dot-com" sign. They will direct you to the bus.

Hey, girl how ya doing?

We went with Yhony and went down early to tender......Carnival held a few of us off to the side to let other groups go first. I took over a group booking for someone from our group (50 people). He had many vehicles making the run. I watched them load vehicles and send them on their way whil we waited for our 50 to show. We had PLENTY of time. Yhony was our driver and there were no worries.

 

Our bus wouldn't start after the excrusion and I must say, Yhony was well prepared. While a couple guys worked on the bus he took off in a vehicle he had in waiting. It turns out he has extra busses parked along the way for emergency situations. Within 15 minutes we were on our way and we passed him in a back up bus about 15 minutes later. We still had time to stop for refreshments and shop in port upon our return.

 

This excursion was one of the highlites of the cruise and it was because of the excursion........the bus issue wasn't a concern or mentioned afterwards because Yhony was prepared for the situation.

 

IT IS AN AWESOME EXCURSION!!! I can't wait to go back with my kids.

I'm doing great Craig, how are you?

Awesome to hear he is so prepared. I'm really excited about this excursion.

If you follow the instructions for tendering you won't have any problems. Unless you are a platinum cruiser you will have to wait until the Carnival excursions are off before the general tendering begins. It won't cause you a problem and you will still have plenty of time for your tour. The bus to the park won't leave until everyone has tendered off and met up with Yhonny so pushing your way to the front of the tender line will only result in sitting on a bus instead of sitting in a lounge on the ship. If you follow instructions you won't be anywhere near the last ones to show up for the tour...In any bus load of people there will always be some who cannot understand or follow directions so don't sweat the time issue.:)

 

Once you are ashore in the tourist village, walk through the shops to the street entrance. You should see someone there with a "cavetubing-dot-com" sign. They will direct you to the bus.

No, not platinum (yet), so I'll have to wait. Good advice. Thanks.

I'm doing cave-tubing through cave-tubing.com in Belize next week. The last time I was in Belize, they gathered everybody by the Carnival booked excursions, and those passengers got off first. My email from Yhonny says the earlier off the ship the better. What's the best way to ensure we get off on one of the early tenders to meet up with the cave-tubing.com folks?

We made sure we were first ing line to get off.

Bob

We went with cave-tubing.com in March and I wasn't happy. We didn't get into Belize City until 8:30 despite getting in the tender line at 7:45am. We waited around until 9:30, as we were the last bus to the caves. We only got to cave-tube for 30 minutes (one cave), which was very disappointing.

I'm doing cave-tubing through cave-tubing.com in Belize next week. The last time I was in Belize, they gathered everybody by the Carnival booked excursions, and those passengers got off first. My email from Yhonny says the earlier off the ship the better. What's the best way to ensure we get off on one of the early tenders to meet up with the cave-tubing.com folks?

We just got off the Spirit 03/30/08. We went with Yhony, caaave Tubing. COM ! They were GREAT!! Never had so much fun ! I kept thinking "I bet all the other groups wish they were in our group" No one else even acted like they were having fun ! What was so cool was that we didn't even plan on going 4 wheeling but with so much $$ we saved by going with cave tubing. com we had extra $$ to go 4 wheeling and Yhony fit us right in, no problem! In fact they say "no problems, only solutions !" They are the very best ! Check this out, you don't pay'em until you are done and then you decide if it was worth it or not ! These guys work very hard to make you happy! they really work for your business and then you show'em the love!

Hey Yhony, I know your reading this ! Peace and love to ya brother ! You keep doing what your doing ! It's all good ! Make sure you do whatever it takes to keep your help( Bernard,keith,and those guys) Your 4 wheelers were Great ! good machines, fun trails, your doing it right my man ! send people my way if they have questions. Thanks for the great time! and all the fun and laughter ! Patrick & Trina Nevers p_nevers@yahoo.com

Any comment on what I hear about Yhony's guides embarrassing people at the end of the tour on the bus back about tipping with payment:confused:

Any comment on what I hear about Yhony's guides embarrassing people at the end of the tour on the bus back about tipping with payment:confused:

Yes, there was a couple of posts about a guide not handling the tipping properly. Making people feel uncomfortable (like they were being put on the spot). However, as I understand it, Yhony has been made aware of this and has it handled!

Yes, there was a couple of posts about a guide not handling the tipping properly. Making people feel uncomfortable (like they were being put on the spot). However, as I understand it, Yhony has been made aware of this and has it handled!

I hope so.

The posting that I read on it the family just got off the Legend this weekend:eek:

you watch the time chance and you going said that you are doing cave tubing with the ship

are you doing it private or you think your that is tour private

:confused:

I had Yhony stop me at the end of the tour and asked me if everything was as we had expected. I kid you not, He said " I want to make sure you had a great experience when you report back to cruise critic". He is very concerned about his reputation and will make sure problems are taken care of.

What is the typical tip that you leave for a trip like this? We are booked with Yhonny in two weeks and based on the reviews so far I don't want to under tip.

Keith

New to Cruise Critic and love all the advice. Cruising with family in June for my daughters high school graduation. My question is are Yhonny and Major Tom with the same operation? We are booked with Major Tom at cavetubing.com-because of all the reviews here--but this board keeps talking about Yhonny--Who's Yhonny?

Just found out the answer to my own dumb question!

It's not cavetubing .com we are booked with--its Major Tom at Cavetubing.net. Makes perfect sense now.

Quick question here, wife and I are looking at the atv/cavetubing. She is diabetic and needs to stash her medical supplies somewhere during the water part (cave tubing). I assumbe we can leave them on the bus or something? Is it at least semisecure?

Thanks!

I hope so.

The posting that I read on it the family just got off the Legend this weekend:eek:

Yes, I just got an email from Yhony and the "tipping" issue has been "handled"!!

As long as I have been cruising and on Cruise Critic, Yhony is the operator who has been cave tubing with cruisers the longest. He has a great reputation.

Hubby and oldest son will be tubing with him in May!

It is my understanding that Yhonny got his operator's license in 2004, which kind of puts him pretty far down the list of tubers, well after the common potato AND the sweet potato. Run your thesis past Major Tom--who got his license in 1986, by the way--or the Luisitos and Rudy Barrera. Too many eggs flying: make custard! Even Yhonny could inform you better.

But nice to get your 10,000+ speculation on board. Whatta ride we are in for! :D

One operator being said here to be the oldest cave tubing entity in the cruise industry actually started in October 2004, when they received their license to operate from the Belize Tourism authorities. Other operators have been working the cruise circuits from as early as 1992, among them Major Tom, then a little later on, Vitalino Reyes, "Luisito" and his father, "Fernando", "Damasio", "Rudy", "Fryjack" and a few very popular and highly experinced others - who can all be found at the cave tubing site on cruise days. For those of you going cave tubing, when you get to the cave site, seek out these others and ask them for yourselves. From all the facts available, the latest additions to the cruise circuit are ".com" and a couple other individuals. The Belize Tourism authorities can actually show these facts. It's always nice to know guests have the correct facts on guides and their operations anywhere, to make your experience better and make it worth your time and money, I say.

do i un derstand you correctly, you booked cave-tubing .com, on your own right? not through the ship? right?

how long was the bus ride, is there a bathroom on the big bus??

thanks

michele

--you book them "independently," online, and NOT through the cruiseline-- which creates and offers its own package with a cruiseline-related tour company, for a somewhat higher price per passenger.

Major Tom is NOT related to Yhonny or Yhonny's operation in any way. Major Tom's websites are reached by way of ".net" addresses on the Web--"cave-tubing" or "belizecavetubing." Major Tom does not have any website that is NOT "-.net", so if you write to another kind of website, you will get a very different provider. Q.E.D. Caveat emptor of greenhorn imitations of Major Tom.

There is a very clean bathroom at the Cruiseship Terminal and another very clean bathroom at the cave tubing site. The ride takes about 45 minutes to an hour, I think, after you leave the Cruiseship Terminal. I have seen no bus or vehicle with a bathroom in Belize.