Just back from Legend - longest review ever!

[Virga]

Sorry, life has been busy interfering these past few weeks! It's supposed to ease up on Tuesday, so hopefully soon!

 

And yes, the hotel let us park there for the whole week for free - the shuttles in both directions were also free. They were prompt, too! We didn't wait fifteen minutes for it to pick us up on the way home.

[crusing48/51]

Great review! Thanks for posting! Can't wait to hear more and see more pictures!

[DEERINH2O]

I will be booking the Legend next week for a trip in May. I love reading this review. Good Job.

 

Kathy

[Virga]

I woke up (somehow) before the phone alarm went off, and couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed. Actually, I got out of bed to answer and hang up the phone, and got back in bed. I felt a little badly, because the BF was looking forward to cave tubing like crazy, but I was beat! We finally drug our butts out of bed at about eight, rushed through the shower, got dressed, and fairly ran down to get off the ship. We actually had about the most amazing timing ever, because we were on the first ‘open boarding’ tender – where you don’t have to wait in the lounge to be assigned a number to get onto a tender. We were still a little nervous we wouldn’t find a cave tubing tour that hadn’t left yet, but we were in luck – there were many people waiting to book us the second we got off the ship.

 

We talked them down from the something crazy – like $70pp? that they were asking – I don’t remember what we talked them down to, though. I had some shopping I needed to do in Belize, so I made sure we’d be back with plenty of time to spare. I also made them promise that the vans would provide us all with seatbelts, because the taxi ride the day before (as well as a recent trip to Puerto Rico) made me a little wary. They had us wait around a little bit for them to pick up a few more passengers – I got to check out the pharmacy, which was one of my shopping destinations.

 

I went into the pharmacy to check out their prices on antibiotics, and was promptly greeted. I was then offered my choice of a bunch of pain medications – codeine, oxycodone, and several more I don’t remember. They allowed me to take photos of the price signs outside, but not the ones inside. Their prices on antibiotics weren’t great, but they weren’t terrible, and since I have no insurance (as well as a male cat prone to bladder infections) I planned on picking some up on the way back in.

 

[Virga]

It seemed like forever before they had the ten people they said they were looking for, and we started walking as a group to where the van pick up was. Our driver told us he was going to go get his van and to watch for him. He disappeared and at some point another gaggle of people joined our group, saying our driver had gone back out front, collected them, led them there and went for the van. Again. This meant we had 15 people in a van that had seatbelts for 11. I was *pissed* because not only did I not get a seatbelt, but my boyfriend and I had to trade off taking the very tiny edge of the seat – not fun on the roads they take to the cave tubing place. I tried not to let it bother me, but the driving was just as bad here, and we spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the road, playing chicken. Gah.

 

When we got there, they announced we weren’t allowed to wear flip flops (not even mine which strap around my feet) so we had to rent boat shoes. We got our headlamps and tubes, and followed our guide and his helper down to some little park booth. There we found out that our ‘helper’ hadn’t renewed his license to help people cave tube (that’s what it sounded like, anyway) and we had to wait about ten minutes while he found a replacement. Then we began the hike – first across the river (SO COLD!) and then through the rainforest. This is when I started liking our guide, despite the couple of issues. Apparently, he’s a survival guy, and he pointed out each and every useful rainforest plant, cooking spice, and nifty tree we passed. It really did seem like a long walk, but that could have been related to the extreme lack of sleep from the night before.

 

Rented boat shoes - apparently owned by the great JC =P

 

Nifty rope tree along the walk

 

Cave ceiling. They say there were bats up there.

 

First sight of the starting point

 

Some folks jumping into the cave pool. I was relieved my BF didn't make it over.

[Virga]

We got to the launching point, and had to get in again. Boy, was that water cold! My boyfriend had our camera in a ziplock bag (well, it worked, don’t laugh!) so we could attempt to take pictures. The guides let us choose to either link together or paddle ourselves, and because I hatehatehate feet, I chose (along with most of the others) to stay separate. We set off, and it was awesome. There are lots of descriptions, but basically it’s a lazy river ride with caves and the occasional shallow area with a few mild whitewater sections. The guides were not terribly good about telling us which side of the river to stay on until it was past my ability to get to the correct side. The water could be fast! I figured out that as long as I kept my feet towards the rocks instead of my head, I could keep myself from slamming up against the rocks when I ended up going the wrong way.

 

At some points, they’d announce that the ‘people with big butts’ needed to ‘BUTTS UP!’ and I discovered that it was safer if I pulled up my little butt too. Somewhere along the line, my boyfriend hit a log pretty hard, and it toppled his tube. Thank goodness for that ziplock bag! He actually had a little trouble getting back on the tube, and I tried very, very hard not to laugh. Too much, at least. It was an amazing ride, and I know my BF was very sorry when it was over. We waited around afterwards for a while – I think they were trying to give us time to buy lots of stuff and overpriced beer – and got back in the car. I was trying not to look at the time, as the guide had promised me we’d be back at the docks before we even left the caves.

 

Luckily, the couple that shared our three person seat on the way up took pity on us on the way back, so we took the squished side and they took the hanging off the seat side. Despite our running very, very late compared to the timetable the guide promised me, he stopped at a supermarket to let everyone buy snacks and local beers. I was getting rather anxious, because I’d already realized I wasn’t getting any local food, was coming to terms with the fact I wasn’t going to get to stop by the pharmacy, and was now worrying about missing the darned boat. This wasn’t idle worry, we actually got back to the drop off point about five minutes after the last tender was due to depart. Fortunately, we were about a two minute sprint to the (empty! AUGH!) tender location, where they assured us two more tenders would be coming. I was a bad girl – told them I had to use the restroom – and took off to the pharmacy for a bunch of antibiotics. We made it back just as the second to last tender was arriving, got onboard, and congratulated ourselves on not having to hire a speedboat to take us to the ship. At this point we were legitimately starving, because we’d gotten off the boat without eating a thing, walked a long way, and paddled our butts down the darn river. Dinnertime indeed!

 

 

The pictures in the caves turned out poorly, but I'll see if I can't find a few decent ones to post.

[ciship]

What company did you use for the Cave Tubing?

[Michael Scott]

What company did you use for the Cave Tubing?

I'll throw in my 2 cents here- I did the caves in July with www.cave-tubing.com and can't say enough good things about them. I used them b/c of the comments and good experiences from people on the CC boards.

 

The guy who runs it is named Yhony and he and his crew were fabulous. He's made them understand the importance of what they do and all the ones I met were great. Afterwards, we had a lunch of stewed Belizean chicken and it tasted so good.

 

I think it was 45- pp for the trip and lunch and it was well worth it.

 

Michael

[Elationismyship]

Quick question on cave tubing. If someone were slighly disabled but able to walk a 18 hole golf course, would you say they could make the hike to the tubes?

[ciship]

I'll throw in my 2 cents here- I did the caves in July with www.cave-tubing.com and can't say enough good things about them. I used them b/c of the comments and good experiences from people on the CC boards.

 

The guy who runs it is named Yhony and he and his crew were fabulous. He's made them understand the importance of what they do and all the ones I met were great. Afterwards, we had a lunch of stewed Belizean chicken and it tasted so good.

 

I think it was 45- pp for the trip and lunch and it was well worth it.

 

Michael

 

How did they transport 45 people from the ship? Were the vehicles current and air conditioned? That sounds like a LOT of people for one tour. Did they hook all 45 of you up together on the water? What kind of tubes and life jackets did they use?

[Michael Scott]

Quick question on cave tubing. If someone were slighly disabled but able to walk a 18 hole golf course, would you say they could make the hike to the tubes?

I'm going to say yes here. The distance was no further than walking 18 holes and I don't recall it being that difficult. I think I've walked golf courses more difficult.

 

There is one consideration: you do have to cross the river on foot near the outset of the hike. There is a rope strung across the river and you hold onto that as you cross. We did it in knee deep water and it wasn't hard at all.

 

At this point you are wearing your PFD and carrying your tube so that's a little cumbersome but if you can't or don't want to manage it, one of the guides will gladly do it for you- this is why I recommend Yhony's, the guides were so cooperative. They get it.

 

Let me throw in an edit here: you want to keep your PFD on while you are crossing the river- I didn't mean to imply that you give that to a guide...give up the tube, not the PFD (Personal Floatation Device, aka life preserver)! Be safe.

 

Michael

[Michael Scott]

How did they transport 45 people from the ship? Were the vehicles current and air conditioned? That sounds like a LOT of people for one tour. Did they hook all 45 of you up together on the water? What kind of tubes and life jackets did they use?

Let's see:

 

1. By bus. We had maybe 25 in our group but saw another 100 or so here and there. The river capacity is probably enormous. Bus was OK, not uncomfortable at all and this was in late July.

 

2. We were hooked up in groups of maybe 5-6. They had plenty of guides so groups were smaller. We were our own group of 2 with our own guide. Lucky, I guess.

 

3. Tubes- they were more like toys than inner tubes if that makes sense. Oversized yellow ones with orange trim. PFD's were standard, over-the-head ones that clip and adjust in the front. Each device did its job.

 

You also wear a headlamp to light up the caves. The whole thing was fun.

 

Michael