NEWS: Age/height limits for cave tubing

[The Mister]

I just received an email from Vitalino that says, "Please note there is a new regulation enforced by the government that No children are allowed to go in to the caves unless they are 48" in height."

 

Unfortunately, this means that our DD4 will not be able to go cave tubing, which means a change in plans. Thankfully I thought to contact Vitalino (cavetubing.bz) ahead of time with an unrelated question, and he let me know, or we might have had a surprise on shore and had to rearrange our plans.

 

I don't know if there have been actual incidents or if this is just a preemptive over-reaction by the Belizian government. (I was under the impression that the water in the caves is usually standing depth, and everyone gets a life jacket no matter how young, lap children included, but whatever.)

 

Vitalino also said he is "trying to work this out with the law but will see what happens".

 

So, just so you know, if you have young kids and are interested in cave tubing. My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere (I didn't see anything, but I'm far from all-seeing).

[mitsugirly]

They have been trying to push for this law for several years yet. I know that Vitalino has been trying to fight it (or so I was told).

 

Yes, "most" places in the water you are able to stand in it. However, IN the caves it gets VERY deep...as in there are places that are deeper than 50' we were told. :eek:

 

Yes, everyone is required to wear a life jacket, but obviously sometimes this doesn't always work. There was a lady that fell off the tube on a Carnival excursion (back in 2008) and they were in a section and the people on the tubes were being forced up against her and somehow she drown. I know that the last time we did the cave tubing, our guide said he was one of the guys that tried to help save her. Unfortunate situation and could happen at any age. :(

 

 

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/woman-says-she-warned-cruise-line-2-years-before-t/nFCG4/

[The Mister]

Huh...

 

Reading through the details of the incident, I can see several issues that have nothing to do with age or height, and everything to do with how that particular tour was run.

 

1. A group of 100 with only two guides. The only company that does that now is the one that contracts with the cruise lines (Chukka), and if you look at reviews on TripAdvisor, you'll see they are still accident-prone for this very reason.

 

2. Raging rapids. The cave tubing companies now shut down / cancel cave tubing whenever the water level is too high. The youtube vids of cave tubing that i've seen are all very leisurely.

 

3. The woman who drowned was not a minor.

[The Mister]

For our purposes it's now irrelevant anyway. It turns out DW was nervous about taking DD4 regardless, so we'll just do the zip and a trip to the zoo with one of Vitalino's wildlife guides. (It also renders my other thread about leaving kids on the ship moot, but I'll leave it there for other families who might want to know.)

Edited November 2, 2014 by The Mister

[The Mister]

Three posts in a row!

 

Also, apparently it's perfectly OK to send a small child hurtling across the jungle canopy 100+ feet in the air, but not to float down a river in an innertube.

[mitsugirly]

Huh...

 

Reading through the details of the incident, I can see several issues that have nothing to do with age or height, and everything to do with how that particular tour was run.

 

1. A group of 100 with only two guides. The only company that does that now is the one that contracts with the cruise lines (Chukka), and if you look at reviews on TripAdvisor, you'll see they are still accident-prone for this very reason.

 

2. Raging rapids. The cave tubing companies now shut down / cancel cave tubing whenever the water level is too high. The youtube vids of cave tubing that i've seen are all very leisurely.

 

3. The woman who drowned was not a minor.

 

Excactly. It had nothing to do with the height or age of someone, but that's what prompted them to set up the rules and take a better look at the tourism regarding cave tubing.

 

Back in 2011, I inquired about the "new rules" being set up and one of the companies told me the following in an email:

 

The private tourism sector, put together a new set of rules to be

implemented at the cave park, OVER A PERIOD OF TIME, to allow the

private sector to catch up, due to cost factors.

1. Instantly, lifevests and the eight guests to one guide ratio

became mandatory and have remained in place, closely supervised by

tourism authorities.

2. Next to be implemented will be the helmet and footwear rules

(water shoes of some sort that will protect feet), and height restrictions.

3. The authorities are looking at November 2011 as the starting

date of implementation of all the regulations agreed upon by all entities

involved.

All this is in order to conform with internationally established

standards for risk and high risk tourism activities.

The private sector, with a large representation from FECTAB, will

be putting forward its recommendations at the consultation meetings,

especially with regards to the height requirement of 48 inches, which our

organization will object to, as it will drastically cut down the numbers of guests at the site, who consider it a highly requested family activity, and

will NOT book this tour if they cannot involved their children of all ages.

 

I'm surprized that it has taken this long.

 

For our purposes it's now irrelevant anyway. It turns out DW was nervous about taking DD4 regardless, so we'll just do the zip and a trip to the zoo with one of Vitalino's wildlife guides. (It also renders my other thread about leaving kids on the ship moot, but I'll leave it there for other families who might want to know.)

 

Once you post, you can't remove it. You can "edit" a post for up to 20 minutes or so, but never remove it. ;) :)

[camping queen]

Hmmmm... Wonder if this is why I'm got getting my e ticket from butts up tubing. On the 27th I was told yes and that I would get e tickets. I still have no tickets as the email said and they as of yet haven't responded to my email inquiry as to why... We had shared our dd was 42" short.

[The Mister]

Hmmmm... Wonder if this is why I'm got getting my e ticket from butts up tubing. On the 27th I was told yes and that I would get e tickets. I still have no tickets as the email said and they as of yet haven't responded to my email inquiry as to why... We had shared our dd was 42" short.

Yes, it should be interesting (and possibly frustrating) to see how the various tour companies respond to these new regulations.

 

I can imagine some companies just saying, forget it, reservations have been made, just try to stop us. Don't know how the Belizean authorities would react to such an act of civil disobedience by a relatively small demographic.

 

I doubt FECTAB as an organization would openly promote such actions, though.

[mom_n_mi]

I just received an email from Vitalino that says, "Please note there is a new regulation enforced by the government that No children are allowed to go in to the caves unless they are 48" in height."

 

Thank you for posting this. We had also planned on using .bz and never received an e-mail (our trip is not until Dec, so hopefully that is the reason why). Our group organizer did e-mail him and he also confirmed and provided other options.

 

She also contacted Charlie from Charlie's Cave Tubing and he stated:

 

we will know if the National Institute of Culture and History will work with us by changing that rule they want to implement, by next week. We had a meeting today and hopefully all works in our favor. I will keep you posted. Charlie

My 5 year old was really looking forward to this. We are holding for now hoping they will change it; but also looking at other options.

 

Thanks again for updating everyone.

Jackie

[The Mister]

You are quite welcome. :)

[Showtune]

Thank you for posting this. We had also planned on using .bz and never received an e-mail (our trip is not until Dec, so hopefully that is the reason why). Our group organizer did e-mail him and he also confirmed and provided other options.

 

She also contacted Charlie from Charlie's Cave Tubing and he stated:

 

we will know if the National Institute of Culture and History will work with us by changing that rule they want to implement, by next week. We had a meeting today and hopefully all works in our favor. I will keep you posted. Charlie

 

My 5 year old was really looking forward to this. We are holding for now hoping they will change it; but also looking at other options.

 

Thanks again for updating everyone.

Jackie

 

So, the tour operators should know by November 21, hopefully? Goodness, that's cutting it close for us, our ship leaves on Nov 23 and we are supposed to do the .bz cave tubing excursion with our 5 year old. I will need to scramble to rearrange excursions if we can't do the cave tubing.

[mom_n_mi]

So, the tour operators should know by November 21, hopefully? Goodness, that's cutting it close for us, our ship leaves on Nov 23 and we are supposed to do the .bz cave tubing excursion with our 5 year old. I will need to scramble to rearrange excursions if we can't do the cave tubing.

 

I don't know...I am just passing along the info I was given by someone else. I would definitely have a back-up plan.

[Showtune]

I do have a back up plan, and the woman on my roll call that is in touch with the tour operator is keeping us up to date as she hears from him.

[mom_n_mi]

I do have a back up plan, and the woman on my roll call that is in touch with the tour operator is keeping us up to date as she hears from him.

 

Can I ask what your back-up plan is? There is so much information out there that I am slowly weeding my way through it.

 

Thanks!

[Showtune]

Can I ask what your back-up plan is? There is so much information out there that I am slowly weeding my way through it.

 

Thanks!

 

My back up plan is to switch to the ship excursion to the Mayan ruins in Belize, instead of the one from Costa Maya. There seems to be other feasible options in Costa Maya that we can do on our own. Belize, not so much.

[mom_n_mi]

We have received confirmation from both .bz and VIV tours that the 48" rule won't take place until Jan 1st, 2015. Until then, anyone 2 years old and up are able to come. VIV Tours did state that the person has to be able to walk the entire 30 minutes in the jungle to go. If you are going to book with him, I would confirm this before scheduling.

[Showtune]

We have received confirmation from both .bz and VIV tours that the 48" rule won't take place until Jan 1st, 2015. Until then, anyone 2 years old and up are able to come. VIV Tours did state that the person has to be able to walk the entire 30 minutes in the jungle to go. If you are going to book with him, I would confirm this before scheduling.

 

That is excellent news for us! Thank you!

[Boschmann]

Just for anyone searching this topic, the height minimum is now 40" January, 2015.