Recent Tubing reviews?

[swimgirl1]

Anyone been just recently on the river tubing tours? Read that they were closed due to flooding last month?

[Bobalou]

We went on the river tubing tour a couple of weeks ago (end of February) and we had a great time. There was no signs of any flooding, in fact most of the time the river was very shallow. I know that the day we were there they had 3 tours going and the next day they were planning on doing 4 tour, the max for a day. With that many people going through you shouldn't have any problems.

[trabeler]

We were just in Dominica last week and were considering a tubing excursion but due to the lack of recent info here we opted with a land tour with Bumpiing instead. We had a great tour and would gladly book with them again.

 

During the tour, I asked the guide about tubing. He explained that 4-5 years ago the tubing used to be excellent. Then there was some type of a landslide or something that created a natural dam in the river, which really slowed the river. Then about a year ago the natural dam burst, the river course changed, and a lot of silt was carried downstream, causing the river to be quite shallow.

 

So he said that sometimes the river now gets so shallow that the tubes hit bottom and the tubing isn't as outstanding as it used to be.

[pippen11]

We just got off the Serenade yesterday & were on the tubing excursion 3/14, it was the highlight of the whole cruise for my kids (ages 12 & 8). The water is shallow in some areas, and I can't speak to what the river may have been like years ago, but there were definitely rapids in some parts and very fast moving currents in others. You are given very big tubes with handles, a life vest and a helmet. There are 10-15 tour staff in the river along the way to make sure you're going the right way and to help if you get stuck. The view is beautiful and the only thing you really have to worry about is making sure you keep your rear up enough so it doesn't hit any rocks you may go over.

 

I almost didn't book this excursion because of the lack of info on this site--but am so glad we did. Our bus driver & tour guide were great as well--we got a little educational tour of Dominica on the way there & back and we found all the people friendly, helpful and very grateful to have cruise passengers contributing to their economy.

[rileygsp]

I also went tubing last week in Dominica. We used a company called Antours which is not associated with the ship and we had a great time. Our tour guide was a local guy named Henryford. He was very knowledgeable and made the trip very personalized and informative. At one point during the drive up the mountain an 8 year old boy asked a question about the Banana trees. Henryford stopped the van and took the boy into the field of trees to show him the answer to his question! A great learning experience that the boy will never forget. As for the tubing, it was a little shallow but still a blast. The guides are there to steer you down the right part of the river and get you unstuck. Very cool way to spend the day in Dominica!

[earnied]

We took a Princess river tubing tour on 3/11/2012. The bus ride was 1.5 hours each way with about 1/2 of the trip being over a road that was under construction and quite bumpy with pretty much one-lane traffic. On a positive note the ride was quite scenic. The tubing was just okay as the river was quite low and you bumped your bottom over rocks in some spots. There was one section of rapids that was fast and shallow. At least 3 people in our group flipped over in the rapids and got banged up a little. There were lots of slow spots where the guides had to pull a train of tubes along to keep them moving. If you tried to paddle your tube with your hands you ended up with a rash under your upper arms from rubbing on the tube surface. All in all we found the ride too long for the quality of the tubing.

 

earnied

[swimgirl1]

Hi Earnied, we signed up for the shortest of the tubing tours 3.5 hrs, hoping to get 2 tours in on Dominica. How long was your tours scheduled for? That seems like a lot of travel time, I agree...:(

 

Yikes sounds pretty shallow in some areas too.

[earnied]

Hi Earnied, we signed up for the shortest of the tubing tours 3.5 hrs, hoping to get 2 tours in on Dominica. How long was your tours scheduled for? That seems like a lot of travel time, I agree...:(

 

Yikes sounds pretty shallow in some areas too.

 

We also signed up for the shorter excursion. I believe it was scheduled for 9:20 AM and we ended up leaving around 10:00 AM. The round trip bus ride was 3 hours and the time spent at the tubing area was over an hour. We were back at the ship around 2:45 PM. Based on our experience you may want to switch your river tubing excursion to Grenada. Although I don't have any personal experience relating to the Grenada excursion the person at the excursion desk said it was great.

 

earnied

[swimgirl1]

Wow, usually the ship tours leave right on time with no delays and have an accurate description on the length of the tour?? I'm confused what was the reasons they gave you?

[earnied]

Wow, usually the ship tours leave right on time with no delays and have an accurate description on the length of the tour?? I'm confused what was the reasons they gave you?

 

We weren't given any reason, we sat on the bus for quite a while before leaving, probably waiting for everyone to show up for the tour and I don't think they accounted for the road being under construction which added half an hour each way to the trip.

 

earnied

[bobpell]

Went with Holland america's Maasdam shore excursion for 3 hours

the drive in an air conditioned van was approx 45 minutes with Lambert our driver giving a running commentary on Dominica. that was worth the money

the tubing was terrific too

You do brush over a few rocks especially if you ate as many desserts as I did!!

The drive back to the ship was into the rain forests while the drive to the river was mostly along the coast.

We stopped at an inn on the way back for a free libation to celebrate our success

Would have gone down the river further or the same section again if the tour mentioned that

[Lsimon]

We did the ship's tour with mixed results. See my review here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=33609401#post33609401