Cave Tubing NOT through Carnival question

[becks81]

I would like to book this cave tubing excursion through a different company to save some money but I hear that it is very difficult to get off the boat in a timely manner if you don't have an excursion booked through Carnival. If you don't have an excursion sticker they don't let you off first. Is this true?

[deecer8]

yes this is true. but we went with cave-tubing.com and they knew that carnival did this so they waited for us. On the morning you arrive in belize get to the lounge where they give out tender tickets asap! Cruised the carnival legend on 12/3/05...if you have questions, send me an email

[becks81]

yes this is true. but we went with cave-tubing.com and they knew that carnival did this so they waited for us. On the morning you arrive in belize get to the lounge where they give out tender tickets asap! Cruised the carnival legend on 12/3/05...if you have questions, send me an email

 

you need a "tender ticket" in Belize to get off the boat? I don't remember this from the Glory a couple years ago. If you have a "tender ticket" are you good or will they still give you trouble for not havig a carnival excursion sticker?

[becks81]

yes this is true. but we went with cave-tubing.com and they knew that carnival did this so they waited for us. On the morning you arrive in belize get to the lounge where they give out tender tickets asap! Cruised the carnival legend on 12/3/05...if you have questions, send me an email

 

you need a "tender ticket" in Belize to get off the boat? I don't remember this from the Glory a couple years ago. If you have a "tender ticket" are you good or will they still give you trouble for not havig a carnival excursion sticker?

[allen1aj]

We went through cave-tubing.com and when we got to the tender line and got our stickers I started freaking out that we would not be able to make it in time. I then went and showed our "independent excursion company" reservation confirmation to a carnival staff and they ushered us off the ship with the very next tender. This may not work for everyone, but it worked very well for us. We heard that other people had been waiting in the lounge for two hours and they were on the same tender and tour as us. I know. I know. It's people like me.......Oh well, I was happy they let us off the ship nice and early and we made the excursion with no problems.

Amanda

[FirstTimeCruiserDec05]

I would like to book this cave tubing excursion through a different company to save some money but I hear that it is very difficult to get off the boat in a timely manner if you don't have an excursion booked through Carnival. If you don't have an excursion sticker they don't let you off first. Is this true?

 

I just posted a long review of my cave tubing experience with X-Stream while on a Carnival Glory cruise last week.

 

In short, while I don't (in retrospect -- see my review) recommend going with a private company, you probably don't need to worry about having trouble with the morning tenders, as long as you plan ahead. Just go to the Information Desk the night before and explain your need to get off the ship quickly to make a private tour. We did this, and the pursers told us it would be no problem. They said just go down to Deck 0 as soon as the ship stops in the morning (don't wait for the announcements) and wait with the Carnival tour groups. If anyone asks why you don't have a sticker, just explain that you're going on a private tour, and the pursers told you it was okay. Nobody even stopped us to ask.

 

Good luck & have fun!

[deecer8]

I have read through all of these posts, and just wanted to let you know that we did everything the last couple of people said about the pursar's office and we were told there was no way for us to get a tender ticket in advance unless we booked through carnival. I was on the legend, maybe it will be different on your boat. but either way we were off the boat by 9:30 am and we arrived in the lounge at about 8:15ish. Yhoni and his crew for cave-tubing.com did wait for us to get off the boat.

[becks81]

Im still confused about this tender ticket thing. Some people don't mention needing one to get off the boat.

[FirstTimeCruiserDec05]

Im still confused about this tender ticket thing. Some people don't mention needing one to get off the boat.

 

In my experience on The Glory, you didn't need a ticket. The people on the Carnival tours were wearning numbered stickers. I don't know what process they went through to get them, but NO ONE CHECKED for stickers or tickets when the tender boats were loading. Also, even if they had checked, the Carnival purser's desk had told us that we would be let through as we explained that we needed to get ashore ASAP for a private tour. I've read many posts where people got on early tenders on Carnival ships just by going down early (as soon as the boat anchors) and blending in with the the crowd, so I think it's a pretty safe bet that you'll be able to do the same if you try.

[becks81]

Awesome info...thanks. I am going to try my hardest to get down there ASAP and if anyone gives me trouble....watch out! Do you remember what the time difference was there? Was the ship time an hour behind Belize or ahead an hour?

[FirstTimeCruiserDec05]

Awesome info...thanks. I am going to try my hardest to get down there ASAP and if anyone gives me trouble....watch out! Do you remember what the time difference was there? Was the ship time an hour behind Belize or ahead an hour?

 

We left from Cape Canaveral (Eastern time zone), so our ship's time was an hour ahead of Belize City (Central time zone). Our boat anchored at 8:00 AM ship time, which was 7:00 AM in Belize.