On the Legend - Belize Zoo Tour - Has anyone gone since it re-opened in Dec.?

[Ownzilla]

Has anyone gone to the Belize Zoo since it re-opened a few weeks ago?

 

I'll be on the Legend soon and I'm thinking about doing the Belize Zoo and City Tour.

[rs12065]

I can't talk to the zoo tour, but the city tour of Belize City is a depressing waste of time. We toured the city as part of the Belize City Tour/Altun Ha ruins excursion. Belize City is, unfortunately, a third world city, even being referred to it as such by the tour guide. All you will see are some school buildings, strip malls, a few infirmaries (very small hospitals), and many, many squalid living quarters. Most homes and businesses are surrounded by razor wire or barbed wire.

The few banks we passed were all guarded by security men with submachine guns plainly visible.

 

The tour of the Altun Ha Mayan ruins was very interesting, but the drive to get there was as depressing and uninteresting as the city tour. Poor homes, small farms with goats and chickens and much trash along the roadside.

 

I don't want this reply to sound like a condemnation of the country of Belize. However, in response to your post, this was our experience. My wife and I have decided to pass up any cruises which call on Belize City in the future.

[footballfu45]

We thought the city tour was interesting and a really eye opening experience. The drive to Altun Ha was quite longer than we thought it would be, mainly because the "new" highway is still fairly poor, and then you must turn off on a 14 mile one lane road. Whatever you do, don't book it through Island Marketing. The company itself has it together. We found them easily with their directions and paying for the tour was smooth. However, our tour guide was junk. In Belize City he did an ok job of explaining everything, but once we left the city he was junk. He tried telling us on multiple occasions that we had over 2 hours more than we did, and so he would continue to stop and show us things we had no time to see (he even gave us leaves he said had fire ants living inside...WHY??). Once we finally got to Altun Ha, he just sat down and let us walk around instead of showing us all the ruins and explaining them to us. I wouldn't hesitate to use Island Marketing for another excursion, they're great, but that tour guide was very poor.

[firefly333]

The city tour was the only excursion Iv ever taken, I couldnt wait for it to be over. So depressing, bars on windows, narrow streets... would never do it again .. much less pay for it.

[ldw81]

My husband and I were on the 12/5 sailing of the Legend. When we were in Belize, we took the Xanantunich tour. It was all day long, but very very worth it. We were able to see a large portion of the country and our guides from Bak-A-Bush were excellent. (we did book through carnival since this excursion takes up the entire time the ship is in port)

We drove by the zoo but I dont know anything about it.

If you want to see Belize, I'd do that Xanantunich tour.

[Deon.Newmankgyxc]

I like the city tour.

[crewsweeper]

The zoo has opnly been reopened about 10 days or so. Only about 6 ships have visited Belize City in that time, not including this week. Probably not enough time to get full reviews posted on the REview Boards. But look on this board for Carnival Reviews of the Legend and the Valor sailings Around Dec 5th-12th, like Idw81's sailing. Also look for reviews in the boards for other lines whose sailing would be inclusive of Dec 8th and 9th, or 15th and 16th. Those ships would be Norweigan's Pearl and Spirit, HAL's Ryndham, RCL's Liberty of the Seas.

 

Despite the negative comments from others here (and yes Belize is a poor country and Belize City is not a tourist destination but a working city), if you want to go to the zoo because you love animals and wish to see the efforts on rehabilitation and native habitat, then by all means go on the tour. If you want to go to the zoo because you think this might be similar to the Bronx, Chicago or San Diego zoos, then you might wish to rethink the excursion.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[beachbum789]

I was on the Legend (12/12 to 12/19) and we did the City and Zoo tour. The zoo was damaged in the Hurricane and you can still see a lot of damage. There are some animal and bird enclosures the have not been repaired yet, but I think the will have a lot of it repaired soon. They were working on repairs when we were there.

 

We enjoyed the zoo and would recommend it.