Zip Line and Cave Tubing?!?!? HELP!!

[HoLLz]

I am in major need of some serious help! Sept 4th Im cruising on the Carnival Dream with my boyfriend and his family (All 1st time cruisers, besides me, this will be my 6th cruise)... so i cant screw this up. Everyone wants to do the Zip Line and Cave Tubing in Belize. Well, I have read so many good things, and so many bad things... I'm at a loss. In the past, if I did a side trip, i always booked through the ship. Well, carnival doesnt offer cave tubing and Cave Tubing as an excursion in belize. So, I have to book through a private company..... this is new ground that im treading.... so i'm at a total loss. I have looked through quite a few threads on here but most of them that have to do with this subject are a little old. I just want to know what company everyone would suggest using, or any tips you have to offer. I'm worried about either A: it not being want we paid for B: Us being part of a huge group and no one having fun C: Missing the boat or D: ALL OF THE ABOVE

 

Please help me!! I open to any help your willing to give!!! :confused::confused::confused::eek::eek:

[lillulu]

I am in major need of some serious help! Sept 4th Im cruising on the Carnival Dream with my boyfriend and his family (All 1st time cruisers, besides me, this will be my 6th cruise)... so i cant screw this up. Everyone wants to do the Zip Line and Cave Tubing in Belize. Well, I have read so many good things, and so many bad things... I'm at a loss. In the past, if I did a side trip, i always booked through the ship. Well, carnival doesnt offer cave tubing and Cave Tubing as an excursion in belize. So, I have to book through a private company..... this is new ground that im treading.... so i'm at a total loss. I have looked through quite a few threads on here but most of them that have to do with this subject are a little old. I just want to know what company everyone would suggest using, or any tips you have to offer. I'm worried about either A: it not being want we paid for B: Us being part of a huge group and no one having fun C: Missing the boat or D: ALL OF THE ABOVE

 

Please help me!! I open to any help your willing to give!!! :confused::confused::confused::eek::eek:

 

 

Just a thought, have you thought about cave tubing in Belize and ziplining in Rotan?

[Fourseventeen]

im with the poster above. while in Belize you wont have much time to zip line. people offer a combo tour but personally I wouldnt do the zip line in Belize. The Cave Branch River system is amazing to float down. Spend your day doing that. Driving to the location from the boat is about an hour each way. Your day will be pretty filled up without the zip line and for you to zip line they will cut your tubing trip down. I used X-stream cave tubing in Belize and couldnt have been happier. We are going back again this year and are booked with the same company again.

http://belizecruiseexcursions.com/XstreamCaveTubing.htm

 

Do zip line in Roatan. Roatan there isnt a ton to do there so maybe grab a island tour with Victor Bodden Tours and have them take you zip lining. Thats what we did and we all had a real good time.

[SingingPixie]

I could have written your post a couple months ago- I was arranging a group cruise for myself (the only one who'd been on a cruise before) and my family, plus my brother's girlfriend and a friend of mine. We did the ziplining/cave tubing combo through Jaguar Paw and we had a great time. Although we loved the tubing, we actually all liked the ziplining a bit more- so I wouldn't recommend skipping that!

 

If I had it to do again, I would have booked with NCQ Adventures rather than Jaguar Paw. Jaguar Paw has started working with an operator called Backabush and has raised their prices since I booked, and the operation was much less organized than reviews I had read before the transition. We ended up having a whole busload of people, and did a lot of waiting around (an hour before leaving Belize City, and another hour or so in chunks at various points waiting for people to catch up). This resulted in us cutting it pretty close getting back for the last tender. NCQ takes only your party, and for me this would be worth the slight extra charge. Just a thought!

[HoLLz]

Thanks for the help. Has anyone used NCQ Adventures before?

[maruchan25]

Yes, we have and we have to say that they were awesome. We were just us, a small family of 5 and we got the personalized touch. They pick you up, right outside the docks, with your name on a paper. The information going to the site, was very informative about Belize. Cynthia took us for the cave tubing and she was great. Then the lunch was fantastic. We got back to the docks with plenty of time to shop.

Hope this helps.;)

[Darcy8]

I also would recommend NCQ, we used them for zip line / cave tubing and had a great time. We had plenty of time, got back early enough to shop a little and have a drink.

[Fourseventeen]

while im sure NCQ is great they are also about 25.00 more per person then x-stream. x0stream limits their group sizes to 14 max, we didnt even have 14 on our tour.

[john kaz]

do all these companies want money ahead of time. I have heard of companies not showing up. John

[obsessedwithcruising]

Hi Hollz actually Carnival does offer the cave tubing at the price of $80.00 for adults and $ 60.00 for children. You can get it much cheaper through cave-tubing.com or **************** for I believe $45. I am now very scared about booking with someone besides Carnival after all the bad things I have been reading here about both businesses.

[obsessedwithcruising]

do all these companies want money ahead of time. I have heard of companies not showing up. John

 

 

I know cave-tubing.com does not require money until the event is over with.

[Kim.cc]

We also have been on the xstream canopy zipline and cave tubing excursion with Belize Cruise Excursions and they get my vote. Really professional and they are right in the port area, not outside the gates which is really nice.

 

BTW, they were turning people away that were trying to walk up and get on the tour when we were there. They were full. I"m glad we booked ahead of time and knew we had our spaces held for our family. I would hate to be scrambling for a tour in the port, who knows what kind of tour you'd end up on or with whom!

[HoLLz]

Ok, so now i'm stuck between xstream and ncq. My main concern bcus my boyfriend and I are cruising with just our birth cert. we cannot be late getting back to the boat. So, has anyone had any problems with these two companys?

[lillulu]

Ok, so now i'm stuck between xstream and ncq. My main concern bcus my boyfriend and I are cruising with just our birth cert. we cannot be late getting back to the boat. So, has anyone had any problems with these two companys?

 

 

um you better check, I thought you could not cruise with just birth certificates anymore?

I might be wrong.

[HoLLz]

When i booked with carnival they had it listed as an option. so i assumed it was fine. but i'll call to double check

[Lovestotravel07]

I too have been looking for a trustful company to plan zip lining and cave tubing with, after reading your post I researched NCQ Adventures, I had not heard of them like I had Jaguar Paw. I have not read a single bad review about NCQ. I just emailed them for details, I think I am booking with them. As for I had read a few bad reviews about Jaguar Paw.

[Moorish Idol]

We went cave tubing/ziplining in Belize in 12/09 while cruising on CC Glory. We booked through shoreexcursions.com, prepaid but it sounds like you have some really good recomendations on companies so go with them. Our next stop was Roatan and my daughter liked ziplining so much she went again. Much better ziplining there, gorgeous foliage with monkeys!

 

Although I liked the cave tubing, she didn't at all. Too slow for her, and other groups from other companies were also there so you may want to ask when your booking how private or heavily used the spot they take you is. Its a pretty good distance in car/van.

 

She was traveling on birth certificate then, but I too thought it had to be passport now.

[nm lobos]

Here's my review on Tripadvisor for Vitalino Reyes at cavetubing.bz

 

Just back from our NCL Jewel cruise, and on Wednesday we went cave tubing with cavetubing.bz. Vitalino Reyes Jr. was our tour guide, he was great, very personable! There were 8 of us, 4 adults and 4 kids, ages 13, 11, 9 and 6. He sent us directions on where to find him when we entered the port and he was right where he said he would be. We didn't have to wait for anyone else even though there was some miscommunication and he thought there were going to be 14 of us.

 

As we drove to the cave tubing location, he told us all about what we were driving passed and interesting facts about Belize. We got to ride in a comfortable van with plenty of room for the 8 of us.

 

The actual cave tubing was very interesting, but a bit cold, can you believe it rained in the rain forest, all Belize's fault!!! ha ha!

 

30-40 min walk through the jungle, very pretty. The 2 younger girls suckered their dads to carry their tubes, didn't work so well for us wives. River was low, lots of butts up, WAY UP!! Vitalino Jr took really good care of the kids, let us free float when it was safe, and had us link up if he had to guide us through some rougher spots. It started raining on us toward the end of the river, it was beautiful! but still a little cold.

 

After cave tubing we changed and drove to an outdoor eating area where the rum punch was waiting and Vitalino Jr's aunt fixed us some lunch, sooooo good! On our next sea day, we were saying "some of that beans and rice would be good right now" and that was on the ship!!! where there's an abundance of food and we were actually getting tired of eating so much.

 

Drove back to the port and had about an hour and a half to shop before tendering back to our ship. Highly recommend Cavetubing.bz!!!

[GamecockAl]

When i booked with carnival they had it listed as an option. so i assumed it was fine. but i'll call to double check

 

You can still cruise with just a birth certificate along with government issued photo ID (like driver's license). Passport is definitely prefered (we got them for our 6 and 11 year old kids for this cruise) and since you aren't cruising until sept I'd recommend getting one for you and your boyfriend. Reasons are (a) it speeds up check in, (b) accepted in all ports if you have any problem and © is definitely required for air travel so if you both have one you could take a weekend to Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, etc with no problem.

[northernpike]

NCQ Adventures (Nacho and Cynthia) will take great care of your group. I was also concerned about trying to do both activities, but ended up having plenty of time. The ziplining was adjacent to the cave tubing and I would have been very disappointed if I had only done one and not the other. After all, When is the next time you're going to be in Belize? It was my first zipline, so I can't compare to others, but my brother-in-law had done it in 3 other places and felt this one was best. I know the pressure of planning for others, but after working with Nacho last week, I was the hero to my group. The day in Belize was the highlight of the entire cruise.

[leslieart]

We went cave tubing and zip lining with Major Tom in Belize and it was great. We had a tour with Victor Bodden the next day in Roatan. I saw his zipline and you couldn't pay me a million dollars to get on that! I enjoyed my Bodden tour, but the zipline looked unsafe and under maintained.

[blsander]

We just got back from our cruise and wanted to write you a quick note of thanks for the terrific day spent cave tubing and zip-lining.

Before our cruise, I spent time on the internet blogs looking for remarks for guides in Belize. My wife and I have been on many cruises and usually found the ships excursions rather unorganized. At the same time, finding quality, private tour guides is sometimes risky as well. Your adventure tours came up in the blogs with all very good reviews – couldn’t find a negative one. We are very pleased to say that you certainly met our expectations. You may be one of the smaller tour operators there, but we are grateful for the personal service.

We had only five hours or so to get in the zip-lines and cave tubing, then to get back to the docks in time for a little shopping. It was important for us to get off the boat on one of the first tenders (just like Nacho told us in his email to us before we left), and after a brief guide of the city on the way to the rainforest, Nacho got us on to the zip-lines first – before any of the cruise ship excursions arrived. I think that was the highlight of the day and really enjoyed flying thru the jungle, hanging by a tether. We then changed into our bathing suits, and spent over an hour and a half tubing thru magnificent caves and the rainforest, followed up by a good buffet lunch.

Nacho kept us entertained with information and fun facts about Belize, the culture, and your economy. Too bad we couldn’t answer any of his riddles.

Truly a terrific day – especially when I got back to the ship and spoke to other passengers who took the ships excursions to the same places. Most only had time to do either the zip-lines or the tubing, and were not happy with being crowded into large buses, taking two hours to get from the ship to the zip-lines, and then waiting at many of the stations. If someone is reading this and is considering an excursion in Belize, they shouldn’t hesitate to make it with you.

We do hope to get back to Belize again, probably for some diving next time. If we do, we will call you for a quick city tour also.

Bob & Linda Sander

[blakeamy]

I was worried about having enough time to zipline and do cavetubing in Belize, but we had a great experience. They started running tender boats at 8am. We were in group #9 for the tender boats. We arrived in Belize about 9:30. We met our tour guide Ivar just outside of the terminal at the Wet Lizard. I had to pay for the trip at that time. From there, (we had a group of 10) we followed him out of the terminal to his van. I was glad I was with him outside of the terminal gates. I really wouldn't want to venture around there alone. So, we had an hour ride to the Caves River. He talked the entire time, giving us lots of information. He was so enthusiastic about everything he showed and told us. I could tell he was very proud of where he came from. We did the zipline 1st, which was AMAZING!! I felt very comfortable with all of the safety features that they had. The view was beautiful! After that, we changed into swimsuits and hiked through the rainforest with our tubes. The water was pretty chilly! The cave tubing was very interesting, something you would never be able to experience again. I'm so glad we did both. I was worried about missing the ship, but there were Carnival sponsored tours there, so Ivar kept us ahead of them at all times. He knew that the ship would surely wait for them!! He got us back to the dock at 3:45, which was 45 min before the last tender boat. Ivar was a wonderful tour guide! I highly recommend doing both tours if you can!!

[conniejb]

Just a thought, have you thought about cave tubing in Belize and ziplining in Rotan?

 

That is what my family is going to do but I am having the same problem deciding with who.

[love2cruise204]

so, i am going to jump in on this forum and ask for help also. we want to zipline and do the cave tubing. we are open to doing zipline in roatan, but i haven't heard any suggestions on who to go through for that? so...any help would be GREATLY appreciated! oh yeah, we leave 9/25, so we gotta figure something out quick!