Questions about cave tubing in general

[Conanc]

Hi,

 

We are thinking about cave tubing in Belize. I've read through some postings for information and now have a few questions.

 

How long is this excursion? I'll be on the Explorer and I am a little nervous about getting back to the ship on time due to tendering and the length of the excursion. I know that the private excursions are small groups of 14 or so but going with the ship we could have as many as 40 people. I usually prefer to book my own excursions, but in this case is it a safer bet to go with the ship?

 

Has anyone done a comparison of the different choices for these excursions....Extreme, Wet & Wild, etc. Which do you recommend and why?

 

Thank you so much for any advice you can provide! I am usually a chicken about this sort of thing but swam with the stingrays in Grand Cayman and loved it so now want to try this!

[Cheryl in Zionsville]

We just got back from the Western Caribbean on the Explorer of the Seas. I booked our family of 4 through Wet and Wild Cave Tubing through the internet before we left. I would HIGHLY recommend booking through this tour or one of the other independent tours. Marvin was our guide and the same one who e-mailed me before the trip. When we got off the ship (Belize is 2 hour earlier than ship time), we hooked up with Marvin. There were lots of independent operators right off the ship, but somehow we found him very quickly. We had to wait about an hour or so before we left since the independent guys do try to drum up more business to make the most out of their trip. Therefore, you probably could just wait to book your tour until you get there, but there was a lot of satisfaction in knowing someone was waiting for us!! Here's a comparison of Wet and Wild versus the ship's tour.

 

We had: 10 people +1 guide (including our 2 children-ages 10&7). Ship tour had approximately 50 people and 1-2 guides. No wonder they exclude children under 12--there was no way to keep them safe--ship excursion folks were all over the cave by themselves!!

 

Marvin did have age/size appropriate gear so no need to go on the "Family Friendly version through X-stream Tubing" which costs $15 more per person.

 

Marvin pointed out tarantula, termites (he ate one!!), trees, etc. I believe they did this through the ship's excursion, but the group was so large that if you weren't in the front, I doubt you could hear.

 

Marvin helped my 7 year old carry her tube towards the end and kept the children with him and gave them extra special attention.

 

When we got to the river (after about a 45 minute walk)--wasn't bad and surprisingly wasn't horribly hot, we had to wait about 30 minutes for the large ship excursion groups to get into the water.

 

Then we could either climb into the river or jump off a cliff--got to do this if you're not scared.

 

Went through 2 caves along with the ship excursion folks, but we went through differently. Marvin held onto the tubes of my children (they got a free ride and didn't have to paddle) while the 8 adults got into 2 groups of 4 and hooked our feet into each other's tubes so we didn't get disconnected. The ship folks were all over the place with their guide way in the front. Our guide kept an eye on us and told us about hazards before we got to them--tree limbs sticking out, low tide, etc.

 

The biggest difference was at the end of the 2 caves, the ship excursion folks got out and walked up stairs to the bus. We floated for another 20 minutes in the rainforest to walk back for about 5 minutes. We then ate a delicious meal of BBQ chicken, etc that you can read about in other boards. As we ate our delightful meal, the cruise ship folks passed us in their bus!! We were all thinking we got the better deal by far!!

 

Our tour cost $60/person where the ship tour cost approximately $89. We were a bit delayed having to wait for the ship people to jump into the river so we got back to the port with approximately 30 minutes to spare, but Marvin was very on the ball and made sure this wasn't a problem.

 

Highly recommend Marvin--you'll get so much more for your money. Of all our 4 stops, this was my favorite tour/day!!

[spfar]

I completely agree with Cheryl! We did Wet & Wild with Marvin in April and had a fantastic time. I suggest you e-mail him with your concerns and he will reassure you. We booked with him on-line before our trip and had no trouble meeting up with him once we got into port. One of his staff was our guide, but when we got back from the float Marvin had made arragements for a couple who was in our group and who had an earlier ship departure to take their lunches to go and ride back with another independent guide. He is very careful about people getting back in time to the ship! Cheryl's experience as discribed was pretty much ours except that we had a dog paddle through the first cave with us!

[belle42118]

I was on the Explorer in May and did the tubing through X-treme. Everything with us was pretty much the same as Cheryl described. However, our meal wasn't included, but Richard, our guide gave you the option of purchasing it for $5. or $6. US dollars. They did provide fresh fruit ( the best tiny little bannanas I ever ate in my life! ) and bottled water. Our trip to Belize was the first for the Explorer and tendering took quite a while. They passed out the #1 & #2 tendering tickets to the people who booked excursions through the ship. We had #3 and were an hour late meeting Richard. This put us a little behind and we had to kinda move along during the trip to the caves. While on the stroll through the rainforest, we passed the ships excursion ( who by the way had about 60 people ~ we had 12 ) once we were ahead of them, Richard said we were in good shape as far as making it back to the port in time and things became much more leisurely. He had us back about 45 min. before the last tender. The entire excursion is about 5 1/2 hrs. Any of the independent guides I've read about on these boards seem very dependable. I would definately book through one of them and not through the ship. Not only will you pay more through them, you will be in a very large group and not get all the individual attention a private company will give you! Good Luck and have a great cruise!