Altun Ha excursion time concern

[ama-sam]

I booked the Altun Ha excursion with Island Marketing – per many recommendations on this board. I just received my confirmation and am a bit concerned: I am on the Carnival Legend, our time in port is 8am – 5pm. The excursion information states:

IMPORTANT TIME INFORMATION:

All tour times are stated in LOCAL TIME, NOT SHIP TIME. Tours are specifically scheduled to fit with your Cruise Ships arrival time in Belize. Please note that Belize LOCAL TIME is usually 1-2 hrs earlier then ship time. So if your ship is scheduled to arrive at 8am for example, it will be arriving at 6am or 7am Belize LOCAL TIME. Please insure to take the one of the first available tenders going to shore. Your guides will be awaiting your arrival regardless of time differences.

The listed departure time for our four hour excursion is: 9:30am/Belize time (or 11:30am/ship time). That gets us back at 1:30pm/Belize time (or 3:30pm/ship time). I must admit that I am surprised that the tour begins so much later than our arrival time. The time to sleep in, explore a bit and get to the meeting place sounds great. BUT, will that be enough time to accommodate any “real life” travel issues and tender back to the ship upon our return?

Is this typical and I am simply over thinking this? Am I misunderstanding the time conversion? Or should I be reconsidering this tour?

I'll talk with my DH - but, as I am the cruise planner/researcher, he will tell me to ask the people on Cruise Critic for advice! :D

TIA - Ally

[mamajules]

I don't think you're mistaken about ship time vs. island time. Belize is in the central time zone, and they don't observe daylight savings time, so they are currently two hours behind eastern time, which is the time zone Legend sails out of, so would be ship's time. We did this tour through Island Marketing a couple years ago (and had a wonderful tour), and if i remember correctly we didn't leave right away once arriving in the port area. However, this was in October and the time difference was only one hour. Our van driver put the clock in the van on ship's time for us when we left, so we were always aware. We were back at the port with time to shop a bit before boarding a tender back to the ship. With the two hour difference, you would be cutting it a little close - but these tours depend on word of mouth and good relations for business, so they do everything to make sure passengers are on time. That being said, it is what you feel comfortable doing. The last tenders back to the ship are probably around 4:00 ship's time. I would email the tour company with your concerns about the time differences and limits.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[penetangjudy]

Ally......I am currently trying to book this excursion also....I just got my email back on Friday which told me about the 2 hour time difference and I have the same concerns. I was hoping to be able to do something in Belize either before or after the tour but it looks like that won't happen with us getting there so early. I guess though that there will be about an 1 1/2 or so before the tour after the stores open in town? There really won't be any wiggle room after the tour though will there, it 'should' get back at 3:30 ship time if it is on time. What are you thinking??

[vplsh]

I booked the Altun Ha excursion with Island Marketing – per many recommendations on this board. I just received my confirmation and am a bit concerned: I am on the Carnival Legend, our time in port is 8am – 5pm. The excursion information states:

IMPORTANT TIME INFORMATION:

All tour times are stated in LOCAL TIME, NOT SHIP TIME. Tours are specifically scheduled to fit with your Cruise Ships arrival time in Belize. Please note that Belize LOCAL TIME is usually 1-2 hrs earlier then ship time. So if your ship is scheduled to arrive at 8am for example, it will be arriving at 6am or 7am Belize LOCAL TIME. Please insure to take the one of the first available tenders going to shore. Your guides will be awaiting your arrival regardless of time differences.

The listed departure time for our four hour excursion is: 9:30am/Belize time (or 11:30am/ship time). That gets us back at 1:30pm/Belize time (or 3:30pm/ship time). I must admit that I am surprised that the tour begins so much later than our arrival time. The time to sleep in, explore a bit and get to the meeting place sounds great. BUT, will that be enough time to accommodate any “real life” travel issues and tender back to the ship upon our return?

Is this typical and I am simply over thinking this? Am I misunderstanding the time conversion? Or should I be reconsidering this tour?

I'll talk with my DH - but, as I am the cruise planner/researcher, he will tell me to ask the people on Cruise Critic for advice! :D

TIA - Ally

 

 

Ally, we received the same confirmation for our July 12 tour. I was concerned about making it back in time. I think I'll contact them and make sure!

[vmom]

This would be another option for you:

 

When we were in Belize, we didn't sign up for the Altun Ha tour in advance. We went to the far right hand side and inside the port area there is a booth to sign up for tours. We went to the booth and were immediately assigned a tour guide along with 3 other people. Total in our tour was 5 people in a new minivan.

 

They use cab drives who are licensed tour guides for these tours. It was $35 dollars per person and customized for our time schedule. Since we got off the ship early, we were able to start our tour early and then had more time to get back to the ship.

 

Very much enjoyed this tour and would recommend it.

[ama-sam]

I emailed the company about my concern with the time. Today I got the following response:

Good morning,



The Altun Ha excursion is organized under the same timing as your scheduled tour for every Carnival Legend arrival. The tour is scheduled on a weekly basis without any timing difficulties.



The last tender is scheduled at 4:30pm (ship time) but the return of the tour is well before your last tender.



Thank you,



Mark



Leads me to believe the company is confident in returning us to the tender on time. I lean towards sticking with this tour - it costs less than the tour through Carnival, inludes lunch, and will hopefully be a smaller tour group. Plus, I have seen no reviews of anyone being late - and I am sure that review would be posted along with the good ones!



Ally

[vplsh]

Thanks for the info, Ally. I'm going to stay with them too.

 

Let me know how it goes when you get back- you're 2 weeks ahead of us!

 

Have a great cruise.:D

[RICKAR]

We booked our private excursion with http://www.expiencebelizetours.com and had a wonderful expience with them.

[vplsh]

Hoping to hear back from anyone who has recently taken the Altun Ha tour with Island Marketing. We are booked and am interested to hear about it.

TIA

[ama-sam]

We really enjoyed our excursion to Altun Ha with Belize Cruise Excursions (same as Island Marketing). The timing details that I was concerned about were not an issue – we were back in plenty of time to tender back to the ship and in fact there was no line waiting for us! There was some time for shopping before the tour – but we do not tend to buy much on our vacations. Afterwards, it would be tight to schedule in shopping time.

I will also say it was hot – I knew it would be, but wow! I was saddened that our bus was NOT well air conditioned. It was an old school bus and more like a light, coolish breeze, than actual air conditioning – and we were sitting in the front road (not necessarily a good idea given the VERY narrow roads of Belize – much like playing chicken!).

Our driver and guide were very friendly; they stopped along the way to get us mangoes – refreshing! I mention the roads, because they are not like our highways, they are narrow, with many potholes, etc; my husband noticed that our driver would chuckle out his passengers white knuckled ride, but he was very capable! The tour of the city on the way to the ruins was informative and relaxing.

The ruins themselves were beautiful – it is great to be able to walk on them – not roped off like so many historical sites. The lunch that followed was also very good – chicken w/rice & beans, and cold lemonade. The grounds were nice – a butterfly hours, some birds, etc. I walked under a mango tree and was swarmed by mosquitoes – despite my bug spray – but was unaffected by bugs at the ruins with my bug repellant.

Would be happy to answer any questions…

Ally

[vplsh]

We really enjoyed our excursion to Altun Ha with Belize Cruise Excursions (same as Island Marketing). The timing details that I was concerned about were not an issue – we were back in plenty of time to tender back to the ship and in fact there was no line waiting for us! There was some time for shopping before the tour – but we do not tend to buy much on our vacations. Afterwards, it would be tight to schedule in shopping time.

 

I will also say it was hot – I knew it would be, but wow! I was saddened that our bus was NOT well air conditioned. It was an old school bus and more like a light, coolish breeze, than actual air conditioning – and we were sitting in the front road (not necessarily a good idea given the VERY narrow roads of Belize – much like playing chicken!).

 

Our driver and guide were very friendly; they stopped along the way to get us mangoes – refreshing! I mention the roads, because they are not like our highways, they are narrow, with many potholes, etc; my husband noticed that our driver would chuckle out his passengers white knuckled ride, but he was very capable! The tour of the city on the way to the ruins was informative and relaxing.

 

The ruins themselves were beautiful – it is great to be able to walk on them – not roped off like so many historical sites. The lunch that followed was also very good – chicken w/rice & beans, and cold lemonade. The grounds were nice – a butterfly hours, some birds, etc. I walked under a mango tree and was swarmed by mosquitoes – despite my bug spray – but was unaffected by bugs at the ruins with my bug repellant.

 

Would be happy to answer any questions…

Ally

 

Hi Ally,

 

Thanks for coming back and posting your review. I'm concerned about the bus, however. The website specifically states that you will be in a modern, A/C van. This doesn't sound fair to me. Did you mention it to the people at the dock?

 

Glad you mentioned the poor condition of the roads- I'll have to remember to take an extra motion-sickness pill!

 

Good to hear that timing wasn't an issue and that you enjoyed the trip. We're looking forward to it next week!

 

Lisa

[harpst]

My husband I just got back. We booked with Experience Belize Tours and loved it. We were the only two on the tour. Our guide was unbelievably knowledgeable about everything. We visited Altun Ha, ate at a local restaurant, and lastly had a tour of the city. We still had plenty of time to walk around. I feel like we learned alot about Belize. I would strongly encourage this company. Very professional.

[MDSue]

There is indeed a two hour time difference. It is important to know both, but go by the ship time. I am not at all familar with Island Marketing, but I have been to Belize recently on the Legend. It is hard to catch an early tender because they reserve them for people doing ship tours. However, I have read that if you go down early and tell them you have an excursion they will let you get on an early tender. We were told that those without ship excursions had to wait until 09:30 [07:30 Belize time] to get a ticket.

I am sure that the different tour companies are quite aware of the ship times and will make sure that you get back on time. The reason they probably start later is to make sure everyone has an opportunity to get ashore before they start out.

Altun Ha is nice and is not too far away, so you should have time. Bring bug spray.

[vplsh]

We just returned from our cruise on the Carnival Valor. As I mentioned above, we booked the Altun Ha tour through Belize Cruise Excursions. We had planned to get on an early tender, but the seas were rough and they shut down all tendering for close to a half hour. That said, we got on a 10:45 tender and were at the dock by 11:10. Jenny, our tour guide, was waiting for us with a very easy to see sign, walked us to the company's booth where we paid the balance of our fee, and we left on our tour. There were a total of 10 of us on the tour and the van was air conditioned. Honestly, though, not much would have cooled us off as it was incredibly hot and humid in Belize!

Jenny was a wonderful tour guide, pointing out sites along the road to Altun Ha. She escorted us throughout the ruins, sharing personal anecdotes from her family. Be sure to have bug spray- I'm still scratching the many bites I got even with it!

After the ruins, we stopped at Mayan Wells restaurant for a delicious Belizean lunch consisting of rice and beans, steamed (absolutely wonderful!) chicken, mango, avocado and plantains. We had yummy, cold lemonade, walked around to see the butterflies and toucan, and returned to Belize City with about 45 minutes to spare before the last tender.

 

I would highly recommend this tour!! Ask for Jenny and tell her Lisa and Jennie say hi!!