Independent lamanai tour was GREAT !

[Will in sunny FL]

We arranged for this independent tour thru Island Marketing & the tour was run by X-Stream Tours & we were NOT disappointed.

We were on the Carnival Dream arriving 8 AM on 5/3 & departed at 6PM EDT.

This tour & all employees we came in contact with were all very professional & we had a super time.

The van ride to the boat, & the boat ride on the New river & the Lamanai tour were all first class. Our boat captain & ruins guide was Guadalupe & he was great.

The meal after the boat ride back from Lamanai was excellent ! Local stewed chicken with beans & rice with cooked plantains for desert & fresh Papaya which is unlike super market Papaya. It was great !

No timing problems returning on time to the Tourist Village. Got back there with about 1.5 hours to spare.

We paid $75 PP plus tips.

Any questions, please ask & we will try to answer.

We have seen Myan ruins all over CA & these were like five or six from the top of the best list.

[crewsweeper]

We arranged for this independent tour thru Island Marketing & the tour was run by X-Stream Tours & we were NOT disappointed.

We were on the Carnival Dream arriving 8 AM on 5/3 & departed at 6PM EDT.

This tour & all employees we came in contact with were all very professional & we had a super time.

The van ride to the boat, & the boat ride on the New river & the Lamanai tour were all first class. Our boat captain & ruins guide was Guadalupe & he was great.

The meal after the boat ride back from Lamanai was excellent ! Local stewed chicken with beans & rice with cooked plantains for desert & fresh Papaya which is unlike super market Papaya. It was great !

No timing problems returning on time to the Tourist Village. Got back there with about 1.5 hours to spare.

We paid $75 PP plus tips.

Any questions, please ask & we will try to answer.

We have seen Myan ruins all over CA & these were like five or six from the top of the best list.

 

Hey Will, welcome back. How was tendering off the Dream not being on a ship excursion? What time did you get to the tender ticket line?

 

Glad you enjoyed Lamanai and had a good trip with time to spare. Compare these to Altun Ha or Xunantunich or Chacchoben in Costa Maya for us.

 

Thanks,

 

Crew

[Will in sunny FL]

"Hey Will, welcome back. How was tendering off the Dream not being on a ship excursion? What time did you get to the tender ticket line?

 

Glad you enjoyed Lamanai and had a good trip with time to spare. Compare these to Altun Ha or Xunantunich or Chacchoben in Costa Maya for us."

 

We have cruised enough with Carnival that we have tendering priority & are to be on the first tender to the TV, but that got a bit screwed up & we were on the second tender going to the tourist village. No more tender ticket lines for us ! The Dream was anchored at 8 am & we were on a tender by 8:30 & in the Drug Store in the TV by 9 am ships time or 7 am Belize time.

We then went straight to the meeting spot for the tour, just outside of the TV & across the street, & there were already other passengers from the Dream there & they were wearing "Independent Tour" stickers so it looks like Carnival has improved their view of their passengers doing non Carnival tours. We were there by 7:30 am Belize time. We remember when the soonest you could get off of the ship for a non Carnival tour was when all of the early Carnival tour people were off the ship.

We have been to one other Belize ruin that required a river boat ride which as I recall was not too impressive compared to Lamanai. We also did the tour in Costa Maya with David & those ruins exceeded the Belize ruins & were close to Lamanai. But ruins are viewed by an individual & we do not all see the same things.

The most impressive ruins we have visited were Palenque located in Chiapas & IMHO these ruins are better that Chicken Itza. We have not seen Tikal, which must be the best. In MX we have also seen Coba, Tulum & others in the Merida area.

Hope this helps.

Bill in FL

[bklsmom]

We arranged for this independent tour thru Island Marketing & the tour was run by X-Stream Tours & we were NOT disappointed.

We were on the Carnival Dream arriving 8 AM on 5/3 & departed at 6PM EDT.

This tour & all employees we came in contact with were all very professional & we had a super time.

The van ride to the boat, & the boat ride on the New river & the Lamanai tour were all first class. Our boat captain & ruins guide was Guadalupe & he was great.

The meal after the boat ride back from Lamanai was excellent ! Local stewed chicken with beans & rice with cooked plantains for desert & fresh Papaya which is unlike super market Papaya. It was great !

No timing problems returning on time to the Tourist Village. Got back there with about 1.5 hours to spare.

We paid $75 PP plus tips.

Any questions, please ask & we will try to answer.

We have seen Myan ruins all over CA & these were like five or six from the top of the best list.

 

Thanks for posting this review. We don't sail till Christmas day (NCL Star from Tampa) and were looking into booking this also through Island Marketing. I was a bit nervous about the time it takes to get to the ruins and return, but I'm so glad to hear you had plenty of time to spare. NCL offers this tour, but the price is much more than Island Marketing and I love the smaller private tours. Always much more for your money. I am excited to see the ruins of Lamanai, been to Altun Ha and they are nice but quite small. I will now not worry about booking this with Island Marketing. Thanks for a great review.

[TMLAalum]

Does Island Mktng guarantee transportation to your next port if you miss the ship? We are in port only from 7am-4pm which is an hours shorter than the port time your ship had...

[Will in sunny FL]

Check their site to know for sure. I do not think so.

Keep in mind the time difference from the US to Belize as well as DST which Belize does not do from their central ST. When we arrived in Belize last week it was 8 am EDT which was 6 am local time.

Some cruise lines like NCL do offer this tour for more $$ & with more people along.

Bill in FL

PS - I think the tour operator adjusts the tour time legnth, for the ships time in port

[Will in sunny FL]

PS; to the previous post.

We did this tour thru - http://www.belizecruiseexcursions.com/

 

Bill in FL

[airlink diva]

Thanks for the review and info! I.m sailing on the Dream in Sept and wanted an updated review.