Time for Cave Tubing AND Snorkeling?

[JDK01269]

Hi guys and gals.  After 10+ years we are finally cruising again in about 130 days. 😍 We are in Belize from 8-5 one day.  My mom wants to cave tube.  I want to snorkel.  Is there time to do both???  Thanks for your time and input.

[crewsweeper]

Unfortunately, NO.   Cave tubing is on the mainland an hour plus away from cruise port/tender pier  4-5 hour excursion.  Snorkeling is 30-45 minutes the other way off one of the cayes, again 4-5 hour excursion.  You need to catch a tender back to the ship 30-45 minutes before departure time.

The earliest you'll get to the tender pier is 8:30/8:45, depending on tenders, customs clearance and how far out you have to moor.

 

[JDK01269]

Bummer.  Thank you for the clarification.  Guess we will cave tube this time. 😁

[aknguyen]

I agree that you'll have to choose. We just did the cave tubing through Carnival and only had time for a few minutes of shopping at port before we had to catch a water shuttle. It is truly an all day excursion.

[briternik]

Agree.  We did cave tubing through an independent vendor.  I don't think we are allowed to say a name, but I would choose someone besides the vendor who uses yellow tubes. We feared we wouldn't make it back in time with just the tubing.

[sj25]

On 6/16/2019 at 12:53 PM, aknguyen said:

I agree that you'll have to choose. We just did the cave tubing through Carnival and only had time for a few minutes of shopping at port before we had to catch a water shuttle. It is truly an all day excursion.

Did you have a good time did you enjoy the tour and feel it was worth the money.  Traveling to the tour did you feel you got to see some of the area to see what Belize was like also?

[aknguyen]

It's hard to recommend, to be honest. The cave tubing itself was very enjoyable and I would love to do something like that again. Getting there, however, wasn't.

 

Our bus was advertised as air conditioned. In reality there was a fan that circulated the hot air that was on board. And the windows didn't open. Once you get close to the cave area, the terrain turns very steep and you have to get off the highway bus and get onto an old school bus to up up and over a VERY steep hill. When I say a steep hill, I mean that the bus was in the lowest gear and was very obviously struggling to make progress. I can't believe that POS bus goes over that thing multiple times a day. Truly amazing.

 

You don't see much of the beauty of the country because you're driving down a highway and there's only a few homes along the way once you're out of the city. The ride is very long. The time in the cave is short. Again, I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

Once we got back to the port, we were so hot and tired that we didn't want to do anything but go back to the ship. We did purchase 1 single souvenir and a round of bottled waters as we walked to the tender pier. That was all we could muster. 

 

I know there are private cave tubing tours and maybe they offer a better experience. If the bus hadn't been so hot it would have made all the difference. Everyone on board looked a little pale and nauseous. Edit: And we're from Houston so we're pretty experienced at the heat and humidity. This was even more intense.

Edited July 3, 2019 by aknguyen
add info

[sj25]

10 hours ago, aknguyen said:

It's hard to recommend, to be honest. The cave tubing itself was very enjoyable and I would love to do something like that again. Getting there, however, wasn't.

 

Our bus was advertised as air conditioned. In reality there was a fan that circulated the hot air that was on board. And the windows didn't open. Once you get close to the cave area, the terrain turns very steep and you have to get off the highway bus and get onto an old school bus to up up and over a VERY steep hill. When I say a steep hill, I mean that the bus was in the lowest gear and was very obviously struggling to make progress. I can't believe that POS bus goes over that thing multiple times a day. Truly amazing.

 

You don't see much of the beauty of the country because you're driving down a highway and there's only a few homes along the way once you're out of the city. The ride is very long. The time in the cave is short. Again, I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

Once we got back to the port, we were so hot and tired that we didn't want to do anything but go back to the ship. We did purchase 1 single souvenir and a round of bottled waters as we walked to the tender pier. That was all we could muster. 

 

I know there are private cave tubing tours and maybe they offer a better experience. If the bus hadn't been so hot it would have made all the difference. Everyone on board looked a little pale and nauseous. Edit: And we're from Houston so we're pretty experienced at the heat and humidity. This was even more intense.

Thank you for the honest view that is what I was wondering that the drive you at least got to see the country side.  I am not sure what we are going to end up doing.

 

[aknguyen]

Let me add that I think it could be a better experience overall had we been prepared. We only brought 1 small bottle of water with us (for 3 people) because we thought it would be air conditioned and that we would have the opportunity to purchase more for the ride back. That wasn't the case. If we were properly hydrated it would have been much better. So if you go, bring plenty of water for each person. That will help tremendously. It's still a very fun experience to tube through the caves!