Lamanai ruins not thru ship

[nstar11]

Going on dawn in few days. Has anyone taken lamanai ruins thru private tour company, not ncl. Ncl price now very high, much cheaper booking own. But with tenders, getting a tender ticket, etc. not to mention bus breakdown wondering ig anyone has done it. Looking at lamanaibelizetours. Any thoughts would be appreciated

[Homosassa]

Just a note about Lamanai. The ruins are a long distance away over poor roads or if on the excursion with the boat ride to Lamanai, poor roads and a half hour (45 minute? can't remember) boat ride away.

 

We were on a ship's tour, had no problems except for a torrential downpour on the way back from the ruins (pouring rain on an open boat and flooded roads).

 

We were very late getting back to Belize City and was past the last tender time. There was a special tender waiting for us and we were back on board an hour after the planned sailing time.

 

We also had a chance to do cave tubing on another cruise. Once again, a NCL ship's tour and part of the bus ride was over a dirt road. On the way back to the ship, we past a group of fellow cruisers who had booked a private tour and was standing next to their broken down van. As we past, we asked the tour guide if he could pick them up to return to the ship. He said no, the cruise line had very specific guidelines and he was not allowed to give rides to non-tour participants.

 

The group was left behind in Belize. And yes, as some of us knew the cruiser's names, we notified security on board about the breakdown.

 

It is worth booking a ship's tour in Belize for peace of mind.

 

Now, some people will come on here and "blah, blah blah, had no problems with private tours," but you decide on if a cheaper tour will actually be cheaper in the long run if left behind in the port.

[trish99]

Agreed. There are plenty of ports and excursions that I would have no problems doing on our own. This is not one of them. We did the excursion that you take a bus ride, then pick up the boat. Roads were muddy and rough, boat ride was fun, but long and like the above poster, we had a torrential downpour on the way back. It's a long day, but totally worth it.

[Rou-Dyliq]

I would not do this except through NCL excursions - on our tour we had three boat breakdowns and had to pick up passengers from another boat that had broken down in the middle of the river. Literally. They were passing people from one boat to ours over the water. We were very late back, I think an hour past the time the ship was supposed to leave port. Way too much that can go wrong on that tour. It was an awesome excursion though, I think my favorite of the whole cruise.

[nstar11]

Thanks to all who replied. Yikes, guess I will either have to "bite the bullet" or not go and do something else. Again thanks.

[Homosassa]

If you do the Lamani tour, bring pool towels and leave them on the bus. If you get an afternoon shower like we and another poster had, you will be happy to have the dry towel.

[WCAS74]

I would also encourage you to do a ship's tour. Our ncl shore excursion in February had 2 boat breakdowns & 2 bus breakdowns. They sent another bus & we did make the last scheduled tender, but we would have been freaking out if we were on a private excursion. The ruins were wonderful to see, though.

[Godiva830]

I did that excursion also through ncl and even though there was no hiccups during our tour and the weather was perfect, it is a very long day and the bus ride to/from the port is long. I really liked the excursion and recommend it.

[biker@sea]

Going on dawn in few days. Has anyone taken lamanai ruins thru private tour company, not ncl. Ncl price now very high, much cheaper booking own. But with tenders, getting a tender ticket, etc. not to mention bus breakdown wondering ig anyone has done it. Looking at lamanaibelizetours. Any thoughts would be appreciated

 

Don't even think about it !!!

 

Go with NCL on this one . ;)

[karjake]

We JUST got back from the NCL Dawn, cruised March 15-22. We did the Lamanai tour privately with the Island Marketing Ltd group. $75/pp and they were very conscious of our ship's departure. We signed up as a family of 4, but everyone on our excursion (probably 12-16 people) were all from NCL Dawn. It is an hour bus ride (air conditioned) to a great lunch, then a super interesting and fast hr long boat ride to get to the ruins. We had a 13 yr old and 17 yr old and they liked this excursion. I would recommend this tour group because they were very professional and conscious of getting us to see everything, not feeling rushed but also they were conscious of our need to make it back to the boat. We were NOT on the last tender back to the cruise...made it in plenty of time!