Tender in Belize

[iknbrgr]

My wife and I will be on the Carnival Glory January 15, 2023 and have a excursion booked in Belize on January 19th. The excursion is a City and Beach Tour through Raindrop Adventures. The tour company would like us to try and get the first tender.  Is there a good way to make sure we get on the first tender boat? 

 

[slavigne5577]

We will also be on Glory in 8 days 2 hours 5 minutes. Not that we are counting down or anything. We have never had a good experience tendering in Belize. For this reason we stay on ship and enjoy the ship. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by slavigne5577

[jsglow]

Let's begin with my assumption that you are NOT Diamond/Platinum such that you have priority.  In that case, arrive as early as possible to pick up your boarding pass for the tender.  They'll announce onboard when and where they will become available.

 

Also don't worry too much.  What your tour operator doesn't want you to do is to 'roll ashore when you darn well feel like it'. So if you are on the 2nd or 3rd tender coming in they won't leave without you. Simply take their request seriously and get ashore as soon as you reasonably can which includes getting as early a pass as is reasonably possible.

 

Enjoy. 

[1025cruise]

Unless you have priority access to tendering, just get to the area specified early.

[jsglow]

6 minutes ago, slavigne5577 said:

We will also be on Glory in 8 days 2 hours 5 minutes. Not that we are counting down or anything. We have never had a good experience tendering in Belize. For this reason we stay on ship and enjoy the ship. 

I'm going to 100% disagree. Belize is a beautiful country. Cave tubing and/or the wonderful Mayan ruins are outstanding excursions. I'm not suggesting that you are in this camp but some folks never want to get past a corporate Margaritaville or Senor Frogs during their international travels. For us, those things can be found locally in 'Cleveland' as JH likes to say..

[kctwinmommy]

Like others said, priority will be off first, and then if I'm not mistaken, it will be all the Carnival excursions next. But I could be wrong, maybe they start allowing any others as well. We were there last April and we were all in theater to be called for our tenders. We were one of the first ones off for our excursion, which we loved!!

[icft]

Tendering is a real hassle as far as timing. That is greatly eased if you are on a Carnival sponsored excursion, so at tender ports we only take Carnival excursions. They make sure you get off the ship at the right time and get back on time.

[jsglow]

I'm really looking forward to Port Coral. I think it's a brilliant way to partially overcome their natural barrier reef situation. Of course it is unthinkable to cut a deep channel through that magnificent natural wonder. But by establishing a dockable Cay that is an attraction unto itself (and employing the locals of Belize City mind you), a certain significant percentage of the sailing population simply won't need or opt for the tender to shore that will operate from that facility. (I believe the longer term plan is to connect it to the mainland via a couple of causeways; we'll see about that.) It should be an overall boost for the Belize economy and many more (and larger) cruise ships will be able to call. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by jsglow

[icft]

2 minutes ago, jsglow said:

I'm really looking forward to Port Coral. I think it's a brilliant way to partially overcome their natural barrier reef situation. Of course it is unthinkable to cut a deep channel through that magnificent natural wonder. But by establishing a dockable Cay that is an attraction unto itself (and employing the locals of Belize City mind you), a certain significant percentage of the sailing population simply won't need or opt for the tender to shore that will operate from that facility. It should be an overall boost for the Belize economy and many more (and larger) cruise ships will be able to call. 

As long as they have a corporate Margaritaville or Senor Frogs I see no need to go further.😇.

[slavigne5577]

3 hours ago, jsglow said:

I'm going to 100% disagree. Belize is a beautiful country. Cave tubing and/or the wonderful Mayan ruins are outstanding excursions. I'm not suggesting that you are in this camp but some folks never want to get past a corporate Margaritaville or Senor Frogs during their international travels. For us, those things can be found locally in 'Cleveland' as JH likes to say..

Yes Belize is beautiful. We have had many scuba diving vacations there. We just don't like the tender hassles. We also don't do the Margaritaville or Senor Frogs thing. 

[slavigne5577]

3 hours ago, jsglow said:

I'm going to 100% disagree. Belize is a beautiful country. Cave tubing and/or the wonderful Mayan ruins are outstanding excursions. I'm not suggesting that you are in this camp but some folks never want to get past a corporate Margaritaville or Senor Frogs during their international travels. For us, those things can be found locally in 'Cleveland' as JH likes to say..

Yes Belize is beautiful. We have had many scuba diving vacations there. We just don't like the tender hassles. We also don't do the Margaritaville or Senor Frogs thing. 

[Prometheus1]

Agreed, love belize, spent several vacations on Caye Caulker as well as several days just outside of Belmopan-

 

Having said that, i no longer get off the ship in Belize, just wait until we do our Belize only vacations.

This mostly due to tendering  and time contraints for the time in port.

The cave tubing is still my favorite excursion of all time but that was also when the tubes were not tied together in clusters of 8

[staceyglow]

2 hours ago, icft said:

As long as they have a corporate Margaritaville or Senor Frogs I see no need to go further.😇.

I have both a Margaritaville and a Senor Frogs in the city where I live.  I am all about the local stuff.

[clackey]

2 hours ago, icft said:

As long as they have a corporate Margaritaville or Senor Frogs I see no need to go further.😇.

I think that it is called The Wet Lizard, or some kind of Lizard.  I'm old and don't remember much.

[icft]

6 minutes ago, clackey said:

I think that it is called The Wet Lizard, or some kind of Lizard.  I'm old and don't remember much.

I think visiting the Wet Lizard probably had more impact on your memory than age will someday... But you your memory is correct!

[Essiesmom]

11 minutes ago, clackey said:

I think that it is called The Wet Lizard, or some kind of Lizard.  I'm old and don't remember much.

Yes, the Wet Lizard, sister to the Bearded Clam in Nassau.  Husband Daycare.  EM

[dan4182]

Faster to the funwould help with the tender priority after the Diamonds and Platimums.

[tweak89]

Don't know if it's still available for your sailing but buying FTTF (Fast to the Fun) will get you priority access to the tenders before general boarding and after Platinum/Diamond.  The FTTF is for your entire booking, not per person.

 

[iria64]

11 hours ago, jsglow said:

I'm going to 100% disagree. Belize is a beautiful country. Cave tubing and/or the wonderful Mayan ruins are outstanding excursions. I'm not suggesting that you are in this camp but some folks never want to get past a corporate Margaritaville or Senor Frogs during their international travels. For us, those things can be found locally in 'Cleveland' as JH likes to say..

I would also like to add... we had one of the tastiest meals when we were in Belize.  We did a day trip to the ruins which included lunch on the way back.  It could have been argued that lunch was as tasty as anything we would have eaten on the ship for lunch.

[satxdiver]

Agree with all that if you do not have priority, be the first to show up and get a tender ticket.  We have done the cave tour many times and been to the different Mayan ruins as well as the river tour so we now stay usually on the ship.  If we do get off it will be after everyone else has left and just walk right onto the tender returning before the masses and long lines.  I have also been on several scuba trips and the diving is great but from a liveaboard since it is a long way to the dive sites.  Very beautiful diving including the blue hole.  

Edited January 9, 2023 by satxdiver

[groundloop]

On 1/7/2023 at 10:51 AM, iknbrgr said:

My wife and I will be on the Carnival Glory January 15, 2023 and have a excursion booked in Belize on January 19th. The excursion is a City and Beach Tour through Raindrop Adventures. The tour company would like us to try and get the first tender.  Is there a good way to make sure we get on the first tender boat? 

 

 

You and about a thousand of your new friends will all want on that first water shuttle (for some reason that's the official term now 😁 ).  IF you have priority status you might get one of the early shuttles, otherwise you'll be waiting until after all of the folks with Carnival excursions.  

 

That tour operator should know how this works and that sounds like a somewhat unreasonable (not to mention impossible) request.  

[spleenstomper]

If you didn’t book it through carnival you aren’t going to have priority tender unless someone takes pity on you. I would be waiting on deck 2 before they call for it so you can scurry on down to 1 via the stairs. 
 

I just got back and did the river cruise. DH informed me last night that an LSU student was killed recently in the city. Wrong place wrong time and caugHt in gang crossfire (which has happened on st Thomas years ago) and could definitely happen in New Orleans. Just be aware

[spleenstomper]

7 hours ago, satxdiver said:

Agree with all that if you do not have priority, be the first to show up and get a tender ticket.  We have done the cave tour many times and been to the different Mayan ruins as well as the river tour so we now stay usually on the ship.  If we do get off it will be after everyone else has left and just walk right onto the tender returning before the masses and long lines.  I have also been on several scuba trips and the diving is great but from a liveaboard since it is a long way to the dive sites.  Very beautiful diving including the blue hole.  

There are no tickets for tender. 

[jsglow]

1 hour ago, spleenstomper said:

There are no tickets for tender. 

Kindly expand on that. It's been a year since I was there but I can't recall ANY tender port that didn't have a queuing system arranged by zone where that was established by a 'ticket' that pax picked up beforehand.

[Illbcruzn4life]

On 1/7/2023 at 10:55 AM, slavigne5577 said:

We will also be on Glory in 8 days 2 hours 5 minutes. Not that we are counting down or anything. We have never had a good experience tendering in Belize. For this reason we stay on ship and enjoy the ship. 

We have been to Belize 3 times but have never gotten off the ship. Wife gets sick on tenders if its not a short smooth ride.