Wet and Wild shark ray alley tour?

[kidfanz]

I noticed when checking out cave tubing with wet and wild, that they also offer a shark ray alley tour. I am researching what our family will do in Belize and trying to decide between cave tubing and ray/shark snorkeling. I notice most posts for shark/ray were with coral breeze or belize rays. coral breeze reviews were great and horrible, causing me to hesitate using them. I also notice a few different opperators for cave tubing, most have good reviews. Wet and Wild being a common one. Has anyone done the shark/ray tour with them? I can't seem to find any reviews of that tour. It seems comparable to Coral Breeze. But are they reliable? Do they overload? Wait to fill the boat? Leave early to accomodate some at the expense of others? All info greatly appreciated.

[judyf]

I haven't found many review either a few and all were positive. We're booked for this tour on 3/21 and will post a review.

 

When are you sailing?

[kidfanz]

4/2 on the Sea. Have fun!

[judyf]

4/2 on the Sea. Have fun!

We return on 3/28 maybe a can get a quick review posted but that won't help now with booking.

[lostinplace]

Kidfanz-

 

Here's my review from our 1/15/05 cruise. Note that we opted for the Aerial Sightseeing tour. It was more expensive, but well worth it. You don't spend 45 minutes on a boat to get out there (nice if it's rough seas), and San Pedro is enjoyable to walk around before/after. I believe that the dive/snorkel operations out here all use smaller boats with less people, rather than the cattle boats for most cruise excursions.

 

Belize-We were booked with Marvin from Wet and Wild (www.ecotoursbelize.com) for the snorkeling and aerial sight-seeing. We were supposed to meet Marvin at the pier at 8:50 am. Royal Caribbean had a ‘early bird tender’ that left at 7:30, and did not require a ticket. We took advantage of this and got to the pier by 7:45. We found Marvin and he gave us the option of heading out on an earlier flight to San Pedro. He called the airline, called the scuba place and it was taken care of. Someone drove us to the airport where we got on a 15 passenger plane. We taxied to a runway right on the edge of the water and took off. The view was FANTASTIC from the plane. You could see the reefs, the Cayes, the blue water. Really worth the extra money. We landed about 15 minutes later in San Pedro. We walked over to the dive shop about two (small) blocks away, Aqua Dives. On our boat were 7 snorkelers (including us) and five divers. A little crowded but not bad. We spent about 45 minutes at Hol Chan, which had amazing coral formations. The snorkel leader kept an eye on my daughter (who’s a strong swimmer), and made her hold onto the float in areas where the currents were bad. We then went to Shark-Ray Alley. We did see one shark, and a few rays. The crew provided us with sodas/water. The crew was friendly, the boat not over crowded, and they kept an eye on everyone. We then returned to the docks. We changed and headed up the street to eat at, (I believe) Jamayas. It was about two blocks north of the airport on the easternmost main road, on the NW corner (if that’s not confusing enough). It had seating for fifty or so inside with a nice wood floor and wood ceiling. We had fish and chips and coconut curry shrimp, with Key Lime Pie for dessert. All of it was excellent. We then waddled out to walk along the beach and poked around some shops. There were some walking vendors on the beach, but no one was pushy. We bought a table runner from a woman that had a satchel of about a 100 of them balanced on her head. The return flight was great (after the pilot scared the dog off the runway), the bus was at the airport in Belize to meet us and take us back. Marvin did a great job and everything ran seamlessly. There were some vendors on the street outside, and a market across the street, but we didn’t investigate. We walked back to the tender area and got on with no wait.

[JrMafia90]

We booked Shark/ray alley tour through Carnival, so I'm not sure which company it was. It was the best shore excursion I ever did. I recommend you do it. You will love it.

[cpayne]

Kidfanz-

 

Here's my review from our 1/15/05 cruise. Note that we opted for the Aerial Sightseeing tour. It was more expensive, but well worth it. You don't spend 45 minutes on a boat to get out there (nice if it's rough seas), and San Pedro is enjoyable to walk around before/after. I believe that the dive/snorkel operations out here all use smaller boats with less people, rather than the cattle boats for most cruise excursions.

 

Belize-We were booked with Marvin from Wet and Wild (www.ecotoursbelize.com) for the snorkeling and aerial sight-seeing. We were supposed to meet Marvin at the pier at 8:50 am. Royal Caribbean had a ‘early bird tender’ that left at 7:30, and did not require a ticket. We took advantage of this and got to the pier by 7:45. We found Marvin and he gave us the option of heading out on an earlier flight to San Pedro. He called the airline, called the scuba place and it was taken care of. Someone drove us to the airport where we got on a 15 passenger plane. We taxied to a runway right on the edge of the water and took off. The view was FANTASTIC from the plane. You could see the reefs, the Cayes, the blue water. Really worth the extra money. We landed about 15 minutes later in San Pedro. We walked over to the dive shop about two (small) blocks away, Aqua Dives. On our boat were 7 snorkelers (including us) and five divers. A little crowded but not bad. We spent about 45 minutes at Hol Chan, which had amazing coral formations. The snorkel leader kept an eye on my daughter (who’s a strong swimmer), and made her hold onto the float in areas where the currents were bad. We then went to Shark-Ray Alley. We did see one shark, and a few rays. The crew provided us with sodas/water. The crew was friendly, the boat not over crowded, and they kept an eye on everyone. We then returned to the docks. We changed and headed up the street to eat at, (I believe) Jamayas. It was about two blocks north of the airport on the easternmost main road, on the NW corner (if that’s not confusing enough). It had seating for fifty or so inside with a nice wood floor and wood ceiling. We had fish and chips and coconut curry shrimp, with Key Lime Pie for dessert. All of it was excellent. We then waddled out to walk along the beach and poked around some shops. There were some walking vendors on the beach, but no one was pushy. We bought a table runner from a woman that had a satchel of about a 100 of them balanced on her head. The return flight was great (after the pilot scared the dog off the runway), the bus was at the airport in Belize to meet us and take us back. Marvin did a great job and everything ran seamlessly. There were some vendors on the street outside, and a market across the street, but we didn’t investigate. We walked back to the tender area and got on with no wait.

 

We are VERY interested in doing this tour. However, I'm concerned with what happens if the aircraft has a mechanical causing a delay in returning to the ship? My husband is a commercial airline Cpt so know full well that maintenance issues happen regularly causing delays and cancellations. I don't want to get over there and not be able to get back in time since the excursion is not booked through the ship. We always book our excursions independently and don't typically worry about this, but being an airplane is involved I guess it makes me more nervous regarding delays.

 

I have emailed the tour operator and am waiting for their reponse re: this issue as well. Any insight from anyone else?

[Pssunshinegal]

We are VERY interested in doing this tour. However, I'm concerned with what happens if the aircraft has a mechanical causing a delay in returning to the ship? My husband is a commercial airline Cpt so know full well that maintenance issues happen regularly causing delays and cancellations.

 

I don't think that you are talking about only one plane and mechanical issues. I am sure that this tour operator uses Tropic or Maya Air. They fly this route every hour on the half hour every single day. You make reservations for this flight not knowing if you are #1 making the reservation or #50. They just keep adding planes until everyone is sent for that time slot. I fly it all the time. If you really want to take this tour, the worst case scenario that I could see would be that the tour operator was not there when your plane landed (not due to technical problems, who knows why) and you would need to pay less than 25 US to take a taxi back to the tourist village. There are always taxis at Municipal which is where this tour will fly from. I don't know the time from the airport to the tourist village because I have never cruised into Belize, but I doubt that it could be more than 20 minutes. Hopefully Wade the Gringo will weigh in on this as he works for Tropic. With your husband being a commercial pilot, I would think that he would definitely want to be out over the sea. It is also quite pretty to see the cruise ships anchored at sea to your right as you are leaving Muni to fly to San Pedro. The little planes are a big part of life in Belize and they run like clockwork.

 

Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

Janice