Belated, Coral Breeze almost experience

[zydecocruiser]

I know, I know. It is late. I have debated with myself off and on, but decided to just get it out and be done with it.

 

I was booked on Coral Breeze last September, but it did not happen. Here is/was my review of the experience:

 

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I would like to be able to post a review of the Coral Breeze Shark Ray tour, but cannot because they cancelled the trip with no advance notice. I was on the Carnival Elation September 5, 2004 sailing that put me in Belize September 8th. I had no problem finding the bandstand or the flagpole.

 

I have no reason to doubt the explanation given which was there was not enough people for the Coral Breeze to go out and that I was being transferred to another operator, but not to worry, because it was the same tour. There were at least two other passengers from a different cruise ship that were put in this same position, so there were at least 3 of us that were expecting to go out on the Coral Breeze.

 

This was a time when there were active hurricanes, but none in the immediate area. Perhaps some cruise ships couldn't get to Belize, but there were at least 3 ships in port that day. My opinion is that if there are not enough passengers for a tour, that is a risk that needs to be absorbed by Coral Breeze and NOT by customers trying to enjoy a well deserved vacation.

 

In any event, after paying the Coral Breeze price for the tour, I noticed on my receipt with the "new" tour company the price was somewhat less that what I had just paid Coral Breeze. I also noticed that the other company did accept credit cards. The three of us, and too many others - were then packed like sardines onto a boat much smaller than the Coral Breeze. If I had to guess, I would think there might have been 25-30 people crammed onto this boat. The iced water on board was neither iced nor in sufficient quantity for the number of people since they ran out of it.

 

The new trip was suppose to leave at 10am local time, but did not. We waited for half an hour or more for more victims to be stuffed onto the boat.

 

Luckily, after about a 45-50 minute ride to Caye Caulker, maybe half of the passengers on the boat exited to spend some time on the beach. The downside is that this wasted another half hour or so of the tour off-loading people. It was also when snorkel gear was fitted. More time wasted. If the boat had not been overstuffed, snorkel gear could have (and SHOULD have) been issued on the boat ride out. Lunch orders can always be radioed or telephoned in. A 10 minute bathroom break it was not.

 

When we got to shark/ray alley, there were a few sharks in the area, but there was no way everyone could fit in the cockpit of the boat to see and yes, they did disappear as soon as the human depth charges entered the water.

 

I was able to find some sharks by swimming away from the crowd kicking up an underwater sandstorm and get a few photos. There were some rays there that seemed to tolerate the cloud well, but for stingrays, the Cayman Islands are better.

 

We were supposed to spend 45 minutes at the second snorkel stop, but couldn't because so much time was wasted earlier. The second snorkel was very hurried.

 

The lunch was very good at the Rainbow Restaurant, but the substitute tour did not offer the same meal choices as are listed on the Coral Breeze website. I'm not sure if the substitute tour meal included a beverage. I purchased a couple of beers which I needed by that time and would have been optional with either tour. There was no time left after lunch to do any exploring of the island.

 

 

The ride back, much like the ride out, may have been scenic, but being in the cramped cabin, I'll never know. We did get back to the Village about 3pm local time - plenty of time for everyone to get a tender back to whatever ship they were from.

 

 

I think the shark/ray thing is worth doing, but am not sure I would do it again in the same fashion. Putting the overstuffed boat and too much time wasted aside, I had a decent experience in the water. I think I am better off than those whose trips were cancelled and that didn't at least get a chance to do the Sardine shark/ray tour. I am envious of those who have gotten to try the Coral Breeze - assuming it wasn't overstuffed, too, and I would like to try the Coral Breeze in the future, but have little reason to believe that under the same or similar circumstances, they wouldn't cancel again.

 

Some pics:

zydecocruiser's Album:Elation - 2005

Click on the link above to view the 46 pictures in this album. As the recipient, you can download, re-share and order prints and merchandise containing these pictures. Please do not use the owner's pictures in an unexpected way.

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[cruisinhs]

Sorry to hear about your experience! I find it hard to believe that they would have to cancel with three boats in port. We were on the Elation at the same time you were and we went cave tubing with Wet n Wild. It seemed as if everything was going along as usual from what we could see. Did you do anything crazy on the ship that we might recognize you from?

[zydecocruiser]

That cruise I kept a pretty low profile. Don't remember doing anything too crazy. On others...

 

I know Ivan caused some ships to reroute. One of the ships in port had already skipped one stop and was going to skip another on the way back to Baltimore, or somewhere like that. Maybe they were expecting a ship that cancelled first. Who knows?

 

Haven't quite figured out how they work all the tours. At the dock, there were all the usual suspects walking around with signs hawking the trip that I think I ended up on.

 

Once I got in the water, I was happy. After a couple of beers I was better. As mentioned, it was better than no tour at all, but just wasn't what I thought I was going to get.

[cruisinhs]

Did you attend any of the game show stuff? My husband was crowned Miss Elation at the beauty pageant and I was the runner for the red team in the Scavenger Hunt. We had such a blast on this cruise!

[zydecocruiser]

Did you attend any of the game show stuff? My husband was crowned Miss Elation at the beauty pageant and I was the runner for the red team in the Scavenger Hunt. We had such a blast on this cruise!

Nah, but it sounds like I should have. I was mostly in the casino or eating when not ashore. Since I had 5 females keeping me company at the dinner table I was always hungry.

 

Booooo Red team - I think I was white team on that cruise. I think we finished last.

 

I did like the cruise and the itinerary. May have to do that one again.

 

Maybe next time I'll glue some dreadlocks on my chest and enter the hairy chest contest.