Coral Breeze Tours

[whodatgirl]

After reading a few posts on here about Carnival snorkeling excursions, I was thinking about booking one through Coral Breeze tours. Has anyone used them? Were they reliable? Or should we stick with Carnival?

 

Thanks.

[Will in sunny FL]

By all means give Coral Breeze a try ! We use them two times each year for the Cay Caulker snorkel trip & have never been disappointed. We were with them this past November & will be there again this May. The snorkeling is great & the local lunch on Caye Caulker is wonderful.

Look up their site for more info & do a search on this board for many postings about them.

Enjoy Belize !

Bill in FL

[blessedwith12]

Hammerhead Sports - the company Coral Breezes uses in Belize - canceled on us at the port. This left us scrambling for a plan B. You may want to have another plan just in case something happens. On the day we were there, the other ship in port was slow to disembark and so they couldn't wait on their passengers. There weren't enough passengers from our ship to make it worth their while so they canceled.

[kdkinsel]

We have used Coral Breeze several times and were quite pleased with them.

[sunandsnow]

We used Coral Breeze last week. They seemed a little disorganized at the pier. They had two different tours leaving at the same time-one to Bannister Island/manatee watch and the other Snorkeling the reef/stingray alley and Caye Caulker. Our tour was to leave at 8:30. We left 25 minutes late so they cut the snorkeling short - 10 min. with the stingrays. We were traveling on RCCL but others on the trip were on Carnival and their boat left an hour earlier than ours. The tour itself was good. We liked Caye Caulker but were very rushed. Coral Breeze was good but unfortunate that our tour was cut short.

[sunandsnow]

We used Coral Breeze last week. They seemed a little disorganized at the pier. They had two different tours leaving at the same time-one to Bannister Island/manatee watch and the other Snorkeling the reef/stingray alley and Caye Caulker. Our tour was to leave at 8:30. We left 25 minutes late so they cut the snorkeling short - 10 min. with the stingrays. We were traveling on RCCL but others on the trip were on Carnival and their boat left an hour earlier than ours. The tour itself was good. We liked Caye Caulker but were very rushed. Coral Breeze was good but unfortunate that our tour was cut short.

[jdbmga]

I would agree with the previous poster that said that Hammerhead Sports was disorganized, to the point of not putting neccessary equipment on the boat for my son. We used them last July and NOT using them this July.

[FAD]

i would agree with the previous poster that said that hammerhead sports was disorganized, to the point of not putting neccessary equipment on the boat for my son. We used them last july and not using them this july.

 

but who will you use? Ecotours is the only other one i know of and one person said that they cut the snorkeling from 1 1/2 hrs to 45 mins because of overcrowding. Maybe this only happened to that one person but it left me a little hesitate about booking thru them.

[jdbmga]

but who will you use? Ecotours is the only other one i know of and one person said that they cut the snorkeling from 1 1/2 hrs to 45 mins because of overcrowding. Maybe this only happened to that one person but it left me a little hesitate about booking thru them.

 

We used them to scuba dive and will not be scuba diving in Belize this trip b/c of it. We chose to do the cave tubing and zip lining this time.

[Mandypup]

We did the Caye Caulker and Sting Ray snorkel with them last week. The tour departed 45 min late so really cut into our snorkel time (less than an hour total at two sites altho on the tour web site it says 90 min). It felt very rushed. We had an hour on Caye Caulker, which meant we just barely had time to have lunch (some people had to get lunch to go). (On the web site it says 30 min for lunch plus 1 hour exploring - don't count on it!) There were WAY too many people on the tour - 34 snorkelers in two groups. I couldn't figure out who I was supposed to be following and spent most of my time trying to make sure I stayed with the group. For those reasons I wouldn't recommend them.

 

But you should definitely snorkel in Belize as the snorkeling itself was fabulous! We also thoroughly enjoyed our snorkel with Upachaya (much better run) in Roatan, if you are also visiting Honduras on your trip.

[m and m's]

We used Coral Breeze late March. Tour was way overbooked, I had to sit on bump in front of driver, staff rode top of boat. We had to wait while some of our crew checked in another tour, and that boat was loaded and gone in order for our boat to dock. We left 45 min late, which cut down our time everywhere. On Caye Caukler had only one hour, not enough time to get lunch or explore much We did not want the predetermined lunch and thought we would have some time as posted on site. Only had time for a coke.

Also, one in our party had mask trouble. A crew member thought it was a fog problem, and when his fix for that didn't work, he left her and her partners at the boat to fend for themselves. That meant 3 people did not see the coral reef snorkel at all. They were supposed to provide equip. but did not carry extra on board to help with problems. I was following tour and when I didn't see my family I felt I was too far from the boat to go back and continued tour wondering where they were. Also with so many on the boat it took awhile for everyone to get in the water and we all went off as one big group. Those in front or sitting in middle of boat had to wait for others to get in. Disorganized and rushed, plus no help if you had difficulties. Coral Breeze sent an email, and in response to above returned $50, but we had paid $280 for the trip, and 3 people didn't see most of it.

[ChucktownSteve]

We just got back from a cruise where we used Coral Breeze for their City/Belikin Brewery Tour on 4/14/10. I will never use them again.

 

I had convinced 6 other people on my cruise to join my DW and I. Coral Breeze really made me look bad to them.

 

From the beginning we feared the guide was standing us up. We had to rush to take an early tender because our tour was scheduled for 8:30am.

 

When the first guide finally showed up at 9am he had a 1999 Ford Excursion. It would seat the 8 of us comfortably if one of our party drove instead of the guide. Then we had to wait for another guide who finally showed up at 9:30. His vehicle was considerably older and very undesirable. Besides the three or four very long cracks throughout the entire windshield and the air conditioning which needed recharging because it couldn't put out cold air, the guide knew nothing about history. Although he was cordial. All he kept saying is thats so and so, or there's the such and such without sharing any other knowledge.

 

My wife is a Museum Manager. She was looking forward to learning something about Belize's culture and history.

 

The highlight of the tour was the Belikin Brewery. They've obviously done tours before. The beer is very good and the 45 minute free tasting didn't hurt either.

 

The rest of the tour was just as bad as the first part.

 

Lunch was very good at The Wet Lizard. The first guide's wife was very accommodating. She manages the restaurant.

 

While I had been expecting Belize to be the highlight of all of our ports, I'm sorry to tell you we had far superior vehicles, guides and tours in Costa Maya and Nassau. There we actually learned something about their area and it's culture.

 

When I sent David feedback, he replied, "Thank you for the feedback, and I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed in your tour. We'll need to follow up with your guide. I hope the rest of your cruise went well."

 

The rest of the cruise did go very well. Coral Breeze was the lowest point of our 10 night cruise. If you get stuck with the guide we had, you've been warned. :p

 

It appears that Coral Breeze does the contact and sales from the US but he sub contracts with different individuals in Belize for the various tours. I suspect the deposit is what he keeps for sales and the person he contracts with keeps the balance due. That may explain why their tours are hit and miss. Or that he can't make someone whole because the bulk of the funds were taken by the tour guide. So roll the dice. I hope you come up with a 7 or 11 and not the craps we hit. :p

 

If I visit Belize again, I am definately going with my cruise ship's tour because they are more responsible.

[JDWilson01]

yikes hate to hear this because we are really thinking of booking with them for the brewery tour.....CCL cancelled our belize excursion and never told us why. They added bannister beach break but with no details.....so been looking outside excursions.....

[MamaParrotHead]

Well, I tell you this as a "Cautionary Tale"...not to say anything bad about Coral Breezes themselves (now Hammerhead Sports, on the other hand...:rolleyes::eek:).

 

I emailed before, telling them that we had some kids with us that weren't real swimmers, and wanted to make sure that the snorkeling portion was safe for them. I was assured it was. Fine, awesome, sold.

 

So we arrive in Belize City (and as big of a fan of independant tours as I am, it was a REAL pain in the butt to tender ALL the way in from the ship, meet our tour, then head all the way back PAST the ship towards Bannister).

 

The ride out to Bannister was a wild one...our crew stunk. Literally, those of us under the covered portion of the boat were hitting our heads, the ride was so rough and the crew obviously weren't concerned about our comfort or well being.

 

Before that, all of our party was booked (and paid for) to go snorkeling. After the boat ride, my sister had had enough and opted just to stay at Bannister and kept my oldest (10), another child in the group (15) and her son (4). Turns out she had the best day of all of us (the brief time we were there, basically just enough time to hit the restrooms and have ONE drink).

 

The rest of us loaded back on to the boat (which was kind of junky, to be honest) and headed out to the snorkel spot.

 

We got to the spot, and I was informed that the only flotation device they had for my 6 year old was an adult life jacket that was to be twisted around his tiny waist. That made me really uncomfortable, but the guide assured me she'd keep him safe, and I figured between the rest of the adults in our party, he'd be OK. If I'd have known then the actual conditions in the water, there's no way I would have done that and I would have stayed with him on the boat.

 

Well, the waves were ROUGH. I mean, on top of not being able to see a THING (which annoyed me, because they obviously knew this before dragging us out there for nothing), the level of physical activity was EXHAUSTING, trying to swim against the waves. They were rough to the point of them crashing over you and water going down your snorkel.

 

We swam out maybe 150 yards...and after 30 minutes of not seeing LITERALLY even ONE fish, we all decided to head back to the boat. Which took us probably a good 45 minutes to an hour. We were all struggling. The guide literally had to TOW most of us back to the boat...while the other crew members were jacking around on the boat, rather than noticing that we were having difficulties and bringing the boat around. So we finally make it back on the boat, and wait for a few minutes. And then they decide to go get the other half of the group, the problem with that being that they couldn't get the crappy boat started, EITHER of the two engines.

 

Once they finally managed that, we went over to the other half of the group, and they had to actually get on the boat with the engine running, sucking in the exhaust fumes from that. Then the LARGE snorkel guide attempts to get in the boat, and the back end of the boat is literally IN the water, and taking on water. That was great (not).

 

So we're puttering along on one engine, limping back to Bannister, and they finally get the other engine started. We arrive at Bannister, as I said, almost sick from physical exhaustion (my dad, who's in good shape, but is in his 60's) literally was throwing up, THAT'S how exhausting it was.

 

In all fairness, I reported back to Mark at Coral Breeze (who contracts Hammerhead Sports to conduct the tours locally) and he was very apologetic and made it right with us. He said that the they had more tours than crew, and hired a less experienced crew and had to rent a boat, which is what we got stuck with.

 

I'm not blaming them for the water conditions, or visibility, but those are things that are easily checked (especially when I'm shelling out $70 pp for the tour) and they should have just been upfront that we shouldn't waste our time because we wouldn't have been able to see anything. My other gripes are the condition of the boat, the professionalism/expertise of the crew and the fact that my child was given substandard safety devices for the snorkeling. And the fact that they could have slowed the boat down, have the trip to Bannister taken an extra 5-10 minutes, and not had all of us slamming our heads on the roof of the boat.

 

As I said, it wasn't the greatest way to see Belize, didn't leave the best taste in our mouths in general. I spent I'd say 75-80% of my time there on a crappy boat or a tender boat.

 

As for the manatee portion of the tour, we didn't see a thing after about 30 minutes of looking. And although they suggest they had another spot to see them, those of us who were kind of peeved about the slamming-of-the-heads portion of the tour, those of us who were peeved about the crappy snorkeling portion of the tour, and the rest of them who were peeved about having to enter the boat with a moving prop and sucking in boat exhaust, we ALL just wanted to head back to the city rather than trying another spot to look for them.

[eggybear54]

We are thinking of using Coral Breeze, but only plan to do Bannister Island. I think Fab Tours also goes to Bannister Island. Has anyone had experience with them? If so, better or worse?:confused:

[wanderer34]

I can't believe that nobody has metioned the best tour in Belize...Coral Breeze/Hammerhead Water Sports "Captain your own boat" tour. It's great getting away from the crowds and exploring the mangrove swamps then cruising up the New River seeing the Monkeys and Iguanas in the trees above. It was also fun jumping the wakes made by the cattle boats zooming by at 40 mph packed like sardines. Our guide took us to the best areas for viewing the wildlife and between cattle boats we would cut the outboard and drift listening to the sounds of the wild. If you google "Hammerhead water sports" the first hit is usually the videos I posted on Youtube.

[pinkmaija]

I think we're going to book with them - I really want to visit Stingray Alley!