Airboat Adv & Belize city tour (CCL)

[SFNC cruising]

Has anyone done the Airboat Adv and Belize City tour from Carnival Cruise Line ( or another provider). Very interested BUT also want to do some snorkling or may beginner scuba too.

[cruisingforsix]

We were going to do this through Ecotours, their price was reasonable. if you read some of the other posts you will find mdrobtx has done this trip and has posted pictures and information. we had gotten a price from another company that was 600 for the tour and another 600 for the flight. ecotours is around 109 plus the park fee for 10.

[alexandra cruiser]

and no pics...can you give me the link,,,saw and read a few reviews...but anything new,,since 2006 one??:confused:

[Singer4Him]

Here's the link to the post including pics of the airboat tour. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1268936

[407dm]

I have this tour planned in about 2 weeks, I will try to post a review and possibly some pics if I can get them to load.

 

the post from above was one of the better reviews that I had found and I searched for several nights.

[alexandra cruiser]

very informative,,,but,,,sadly looks very similar to airboat tours near were I live in FL....even to manatees,,,and gators,,,,so may have to find another while hubby goes ziplining....have free exc.with Regent,,but most too strenuous,,,for me at least....may try for zoo and city tour ??:confused:

[MacSmooth]

Has anyone done the Airboat Adv and Belize City tour from Carnival Cruise Line ( or another provider). Very interested BUT also want to do some snorkling or may beginner scuba too.

 

Hey, I'm the one who mentioned the Airboat Adventure and Belize City Tour on this board a little while ago. My wife and I did it through Carnvial and had a great time. That was our first time on an airboat, so we loved it. Since you mentioned it's similar to what you've done in Florida, I would say to try something new, but I'll post what I previously mentioned on the board for the benefit of others that may be interested.

 

Here are some excerpts. I talk primarily about the airboat portion of the excursion.

 

How much did it cost?

 

My wife and I booked the excursion through Carnival. It ran about $85 for adults and $73 for children. Here's the link to Carnival's page talking about the excursion: Carnvial's Airboat Adventure & Belize City Tour

 

The name of the tour operator that Carnival worked with is Bak-A-Bush Adventure Tours. If my wife and I would've booked directly with them, the price for adults would be $79 and children would be $44. So not really a huge difference unless you have kids. Plus this was our first cruise and our first visit to the Caribbean, so we did all our excursions through the cruise. But here's the link to the exact same excursion if you book directly through Bak-A-Bush: Bak-A-Bush Adventure Tours - Airboat

 

How was the City Tour?

The City Tour was cool, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. You get on a bus (an older bus) and get a narrated tour of Belize City. You see the historical landmarks, the monuments, the government building, the market, the rich areas, the poor areas and so on. Our guide was very knowledgeable and everyone enjoyed themselves, but you could tell most people were primarily interested in the Airboat part of the excursions.

 

How long are you actually on the airboat?

To answer your question, we were actually on the airboat for about an hour. The entire excursion which includes the Belize City Tour and then the Airboat Adventure is 2.5 hours total. So if I remember it correctly, the Belize City Tour was an hour, the trip to the Airboat Outpost and the Airboat Orientation was 15 minutes, the Airboat ride was an hour and then it took 15 minutes to get back to the cruise.

 

How was the airboat and how was the ride?

The airboat is pretty large (ours seated 12-15 people), sturdy and has a flat bottom (there aren't any moving parts below the water). Also, the tour was around a lagoon, marshes and swamps (all enclosed bodies of water), so the water wasn't rough at all. Plus your not going full speed for the whole tour. A good portion of the tour was spent going at low speeds, so we could appreciate all of the exotic plants, birds, crocodiles that we saw. Lastly, the benches and seats on the airboats are padded. I wasn't sore at all and neither was my wife (I can't say the same for the ATV ride we did the next daythough...) However, when we went to book the tour, the website did say the following: "This excursion is not suitable for pregnant women or guests with back or neck injuries."

 

Is there anything you didn't like about the tour?

It was loud. That's why everybody was required to wear those sound blocking headphones. Also for a part of the tour, it didn't smell all that great because the large number of mangroves we passed by (they put out a sulfur smell). But those two things were minor and didn't prevent anyone from having a great time.

 

Were there life vest available?

Yes, there were definitely life vests available for anyone that wanted them (adults or children). As you can tell from the pics though, no one really wore them since they were OPTIONAL. But they were located under everyone's bench. They even had rain ponchos available on the airboat in case it rained while you were out (we got caught in a light 3 minute shower). We loved it.

 

Can kids go on the tour?

The tour we went on did have an age restriction. Kids were allowed, but they had to be 6 or older. Not really too sure how hard they enforce that rule though.

 

Pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

[SFNC cruising]

Thanks for the info. 407dm please post your reply when you return. Be interested to see another perspecitve. My wife loves manatees. I hope we see some.

 

Last question - would you have time to do a snorkle excursion after this tour?

[kml2000]

I want to do this excursion but didn't see much excitement when I mentioned it to my DD - 17. This is supposed to be a relaxing cruise for us and she wants to just do beach days everyday. I enjoy reading these reviews, may have to pull the Mom card on this one. I think she will enjoy it for something different, once she got there.

[MacSmooth]

Thanks for the info. 407dm please post your reply when you return. Be interested to see another perspecitve. My wife loves manatees. I hope we see some.

 

Last question - would you have time to do a snorkle excursion after this tour?

 

I went back and looked at the time stamps on the photos I took during the excursion and from start to finish it was roughly 2.5 hours, definitely no more than 3 hours. I believe we arrived in Belize was at 8 am and our tour was at 9:30 am. So we finished a little after 12 pm. And the ship wasn't scheduled to leave Belize until 5 pm, so there would've been plenty of time to do another activity. The only thing to keep in mind is that Belize is a tender port, so it takes 15-20 minutes to get from the ship to the actual port (and vice versa).

[MacSmooth]

I want to do this excursion but didn't see much excitement when I mentioned it to my DD - 17. This is supposed to be a relaxing cruise for us and she wants to just do beach days everyday. I enjoy reading these reviews, may have to pull the Mom card on this one. I think she will enjoy it for something different, once she got there.

 

lol, I would say pull the Mom Card. Back when I was a kid and a teenager as well my parents did this quite a few times. And the majority of the time, they ended up being right. Plus I'm not sure how long your cruise is or how many ports you're stopping at, but there will be plenty of beach time. Out of our 9 hours in Belize, the City Tour & Airboat Adventure only took about 3 of those hours, leaving 5 hours to do anything else like the beach, shopping, etc (you lost about an hour total getting off the boat to the tender and coming back). Good luck!

[407dm]

mac, thanks for your great info and pictures, I will be doing this tour in 10 days

 

SFNC, yes I wil post a review when I get back

[SFNC cruising]

Have a great time! My trip is not until Thanksgiving.

[sanders]

Thinking about this excursion... could someone who uses a manual wheelchair but can get out of it and walk for short distances do this excursion? :)

[407dm]

sanders, yes, if they can walk 25 steps, they should be able to do this tour.

 

I did this tour through Carnival the end of sept 2010. Bak-a-bush was the tour operator. We rode a very nice bus through town while the tour gal told us a little about Belize.

 

When we got to the airboat site, we got a short restroom break and then a bottle of juice or water and then we were divided into groups of 18 to 20 and loaded the airboats. Hearing protection is provided and they will point out birds and points of interest.

 

We saw a huge iguana sunning in a mangrove tree. Then you load back on the bus for the ride back to town. It was a safe tour and we got to see areas that you would not see on your own. Total time about 3 hours, about 45 minutes on the airboat.

[westview1]

Thanks for all the good information. I will be in Belize in February and we're not sure what to do there. This will help make a decision.

[sanders]

Thanks.

[Cindy]

We took this tour through Carnival last month, and didn't really enjoy it at all. Although the airboat ride was fun, we didn't see any wildlife other than birds, and that part of the tour was short relative to the time spent on the bus!

We thought the city tour part of the excursion was long and repetitive. There really aren't many interesting historical sights in Belize City...most of what we saw was street after street of local housing.:(

Although the tour was advertised as 2.5 hours, our day lasted much longer when you calculate in all the time on the tenders. We had to meet in the theater at 11:15 for our 11:30 tour. By the time the tender was loaded and we reached the port to board our bus it was 12:30. At the end of the tour, we returned to the port about 3:30, and by the time we caught a tender and made it back on board it was 4:15.

I think I was a little misled by the Carnival description and the posted length. I interpreted the tour as we would see a little bit of Belize City as we were in transit to the airboat, but the city tour lasted at least an hour before we headed to the "Airboat Depot." Since I usually try to avoid excursions with lengthy bus rides in the Caribbean, I was a bit surprised and annoyed to find myself stuck on a bus for so long!:eek::rolleyes:

[SFNC cruising]

We did this excursion from the Dream the week after Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed the city tour and the airboat ride was GREAT. We saw several crocodiles and the guide feed them. Pretty cool to watch. both the airboat guide and city guide provided us with good info about the trips. Miny history lesson of Belize along with a jr Crocodile hunter.:)