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Harvest Caye Excursions


Isla's Mom
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We'll be on Harvest Caye after Thanksgiving. Since we were there last year we want to do something different; the NCL excursions seem expensive and don't appeal to us.

 

What is there to do in Plcencia? I assume it is on the mainland? We weren't that impressed with Harvest Caye. Beautiful, but just another beach day, of which we have several on the cruise.

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I'm pretty sure that you must book on the ship... I cruise in 23 days, and there is no option to pre-book.

 

Please also share if there are tours available for sign up at Placencia ferry.

 

We are interested in cave tubing but time on port may not allow. Info are scarce likely due to the ferry was just made available a few months ago.

 

Thank you for sharing in advance.

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Last week we took the 10 minute ferry ride over to Placencia and did the RiverTubing tour, we booked with www.waytogotoursbelize.com . The booking process was much easier than we thought, we got back with almost 2 hours to spare and did some shopping at different stores along the Placencia SideWalk.
Was there a time limit for the ferry to Placencia? If we decided to go there and book a tour do we have to be concerned about how long we can stay due to the ferry? We want to book a Mayan ruin excursion that NCL does not offer going from Harvest Caye.........the one they offer takes you to a very minimal Mayan site with very limited ruins. We want a better experience thus we want to go to Placencia to book one.
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Was there a time limit for the ferry to Placencia? If we decided to go there and book a tour do we have to be concerned about how long we can stay due to the ferry? We want to book a Mayan ruin excursion that NCL does not offer going from Harvest Caye.........the one they offer takes you to a very minimal Mayan site with very limited ruins. We want a better experience thus we want to go to Placencia to book one.
Hi. I am on thw Escape Oct 28tj sailing. I wanted to snorkle in Placencia. Has anyone done this? Can the ferry only be booked on the ship or on shore? Thanks

 

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We are on the Nov. 26th sailing. I would really appreciate it if anyone who goes to Harvest Caye before this posts on the procedure for the ferry to Palanecia, especially if we can stay longer than 3 hours and would have time to do some kind of tour over there.

 

Went to Harvest Caye last year; just don't want to lay around the beach again this year. Thanks for any help.

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  • 2 weeks later...
When they first started the ferry operation, that is how they were doing it... I will be going back over Halloween week, and plan on going back to Placencia via the ferry. I will report back my findings upon my return.

 

Any word on this, Sid? Sorry to read the of the health issue.

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Any word on this, Sid? Sorry to read the of the health issue.
Hi. I rode over last week. It was 20.00 round trip. We left at 9am to return at 1230. It was hourly departures till 1pm. The last return time was 330pm( which was supposed to be for the 1pm time).

They said if everyone waited for the last tender to return to Harvest Caye, there may not be room. They put a time of 1230 on our paper wrist band. The weather was really bad that day so we just walked around some. We went to ocean point to snorkel on our own but the water was murky from the rain.

I talked to some of the dive/snorkle people and they said we would need to book a special charter if we came back because there wasnt enough time for their regular snorkling tours.

Others on the first tender over had booked their own river rafting etc and were told to get on the first tender over. One group had a snorkle dive tour.

It was nice to see the mainland and we felt safe walking around. There were some cafes etc but the weather was so bad we headed back early and went back on the ship.

 

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Thank you for reporting back. So you didn't test out what would happen if you over-stayed your 3 hour limit? Sorry the weather was so bad.

 

Did you see anyone on the mainland offering tours while you were there? We are leaving the 26th; didn't know if we should at least try to book a tour ahead of time or not.

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I'm also interested in learning more about the ferry scheduling and the rumored three-hour limit. I'm on a cruise where we're scheduled to be docked in Harvest Caye for nine hours, so only three hours in Placencia seems unnecessarily limiting. For those who were allowed only three hours in Placencia, is that because your ship was only in port for a relatively short period of time?

 

The ShoreExcursioneer excursions for Harvest Caye all say they take around four hours. I'm nervous about booking any of them given the information suggesting that the ferry scheduling limits guests to three hours in Placencia.

Edited by LunarDawn
typo
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Kabbpres: thank you for the update!

 

We are also not easy with the ferry time limit. Taking away the round trip ferry time, there is not much time left for excursion from Placencia.

 

Any report in that front is greatly appreciated!

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Please take my information with a grain of salt. I will not be traveling until March 2018.

 

Yet, I have been researching for about a month now as the primary reason I wish to travel is to dive in Palencia. Here is another thread with more insight: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=54534479#post54534479

 

After speaking with several local companies, NCL will be contracting (pending bureaucracy) with these local businesses for Scuba/Snorkel trips. From what I gather, most are 1 month away from starting services. Some may have already started. It is hard to know since I have not traveled yet.

 

Can anyone verify who has been on the ships that they offer Scuba trips with local guides yet?

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Thank you also Kabbpres. Is it possible to book the return ferry for the latest return if you take the earliest ferry over? I was also looking at the shore excursioneer tours and had been told by the company that they can do the tours during the allotted time but I would love to have independent confirmation of that.

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I too would like to know. Really want to snorkel Belize and not have to deal with being captive on an artificial island. Been looking at other cruise lines to avoid this issue, but nobody seems to have the itinerary I want except NCL. .

 

Hope somebody writes in!

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Keep in mind that Placencia is 20 miles from the reef at caye Caulker and ambergris caye are just a matter of a couple hundred yards. There are no flights of any kind to caye Caulker

Edited by geeko1
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Hello Birdnutty, Splash Dive doesn't have this set up with NCL yet and I just got a very sad reply from Cayquest that their company is no longer doing tours due to the death of it's owners in a tragic accident recently.

 

Oh, that's so awful for them. :( A terrible blow.

 

Does Splash Dive do snorkel trips, or only diving trips? I hope they get set up soon. Still prefer a private excursion over a ship's one, but if that's the only way to do it, so be it.

 

Thanks for the info.

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  • 1 month later...

Does anyone who cruised after Halloween through now have any additional information about the ferry, time allowed on shore, and excursions?

 

We're going to be there mid-February and would like to book some kind of non-NCL excursions and don't want to be left behind!

 

Thanks for any additional information.

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Does anyone who cruised after Halloween through now have any additional information about the ferry, time allowed on shore, and excursions?

 

 

 

We're going to be there mid-February and would like to book some kind of non-NCL excursions and don't want to be left behind!

 

 

 

Thanks for any additional information.

 

 

 

We were there mid December and took the ferry to Placencia. They give you a wrist band with a three hour time span written on it. We were on the first ferry over at 9am. It was about a 20 minute ride. Our return time was 12:30. They asked that people respected the return time they were given to ensure space on the return ferries. However they did say that you could return at a later time if you were taking a private tour. Several people scheduled for our return ferry stayed longer then the allotted time. The only issue would be that you may have to wait a little while for a seat on a return ferry. For instance if our wristband said 12:30 for our return but we didn't get back until 2:20 we may not have a seat on the 2:30 ferry back as those with 2:30 wristbands will be given first priority. We may have to wait for the next ferry and so on until there is space. They did also say that they've never left anyone there yet. And they run an extra unscheduled ferry at the end of the day for the crew and any stragglers left over. With that being said they do prefer that the majority of the people stick to the times given to help things run smoother. Hope this helps.

 

 

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We did the Monkey river tour with Ralph which we booked through Shore excursioneer. We hurried back to catch the return ferry since they made such a big deal out of people possibly not getting a ride back on the last ferry. I regret that rush now knowing it was unnecessary. The monkey river tour was incredible and Ralph is a fantastic guide. I would recommend his tour very much if you want to see wildlife in Belize. His ability to spot things was amazing and we were the only 2 people on the tour. We hung out in the jungle watching a troop of howler monkeys, had manatees and dolphins come right to our boat and learned a great deal about all the rest of the flora and fauna of the jungle.

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We were there mid December and took the ferry to Placencia. They give you a wrist band with a three hour time span written on it. We were on the first ferry over at 9am. It was about a 20 minute ride. Our return time was 12:30. They asked that people respected the return time they were given to ensure space on the return ferries. However they did say that you could return at a later time if you were taking a private tour. Several people scheduled for our return ferry stayed longer then the allotted time. The only issue would be that you may have to wait a little while for a seat on a return ferry. For instance if our wristband said 12:30 for our return but we didn't get back until 2:20 we may not have a seat on the 2:30 ferry back as those with 2:30 wristbands will be given first priority. We may have to wait for the next ferry and so on until there is space. They did also say that they've never left anyone there yet. And they run an extra unscheduled ferry at the end of the day for the crew and any stragglers left over. With that being said they do prefer that the majority of the people stick to the times given to help things run smoother. Hope this helps.

 

 

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Just did the ferry on Thursday and everything mentioned was still true. I got a 9am -12:30 wristband, and I was able to go on the later ferry.

 

I did not book a snorkeling excursion and tried to wing it on the pier. I just missed the other excursions to tag along on. Me and another guy doing the same thing just booked a private boat and we got a dive guide. It was a little more expensive with just us two, but we got all the attention in the water. The guide found us a shark, giant crabs, lobsters, starfish and lots of fish.

 

Next time I would try and book something ahead of time to avoid waiting around trying to see if others wanted to snorkel.

 

But now I don’t mind going to harvest caye with this option.

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