Ambergris Caye On Your Own

[theampres]

I wouldn't worry about the weather in Belize. You can never go by what the forecast for the country says outside of the country. I am in San Pedro right now and while it is cooler than we are used to this time of year, it is only really cool at night 78 degrees or at 7 AM. The water is always warm and our humidity is under 65% right now and everyone is wondering why it is so nice. So hopefully you will have great weather because the sea was like glass today. Hope you enjoy Ambergris Caye, it is a wonderful little town.

 

sounds delightful - and very encouraging! was begin. to get a little concerned about weather for next week, spec. Wed. Dec 7 as we're there only for day and have planned private charter Blue Hole fly-over - NEED clear skies! are you there next week/through the weekend? if you could post again re: current conditions and 3-5 day forecast, would appreciate it. a few showers won't keep us from flying (unless thunderstorms, I suppose...) hope that 'low' humidity holds, too - would be great! just don't want all-day rain or thunderstorm, at least not in afternoon.

 

thanks for the info and updates - will watch this thread and 'try' to ignore weather.com and other internet forecasts...esp. if they show rain!

[Pssunshinegal]

I leave to go to Belize City to fly back to the states Monday afternoon, so I will post Monday about a weather forecast. I doubt that your flight would be canceled. Even though it is quite chilly to us this morning, it is blue skies and will get warm by 11. The locals doubt that there will be anything but sprinkles for the next couple of months and they usually know more than the weather forecasters. So relax about the weather. I will give you the 3-5 day forecast for Ambergris Caye on Monday. Please report back in on how your fly over goes and with whom you went as that is something in all my trips down that I have never done and may consider for a future trip. Make sure you wife goes to Belizean Arts and Ambar's located at Fido's on the beach for unusual silver jewelry. I promise to leave something there. Janice

[theampres]

I leave to go to Belize City to fly back to the states Monday afternoon, so I will post Monday about a weather forecast. I doubt that your flight would be canceled. Even though it is quite chilly to us this morning, it is blue skies and will get warm by 11. The locals doubt that there will be anything but sprinkles for the next couple of months and they usually know more than the weather forecasters. So relax about the weather. I will give you the 3-5 day forecast for Ambergris Caye on Monday. Please report back in on how your fly over goes and with whom you went as that is something in all my trips down that I have never done and may consider for a future trip. Make sure you wife goes to Belizean Arts and Ambar's located at Fido's on the beach for unusual silver jewelry. I promise to leave something there. Janice

 

Hi Janice - fantastic! thank you!! will DEFINITELY go to Belizean Arts and Ambars - 2 different places or 1? - assume in Ambergris - correct? - you absolutely told the right person about the jewelry shop, i.e., ME ( may not even tell 'husband'...;)) love unusual, different stuff - and rarely pass by ANY jewelry shop without at last a peek! any other such recommendations, pls. let me know.

 

will absolutely report back to you about our Blue Hole adventure! my email address is lap3333 at hotmail. best if u would, please, send 'weather report' to that address, as I will check email onboard the ship. cruise departs NOLA sunday, dec. 4.

 

safe travels to you - and thanks again! can't wait to hear more recommendations - we'll have only about 3hrs to explore Ambergris prior charter to Blue Hole.

lynn

[paradiselivin1]

Lynn~

 

Wondering how you guys made out. Our flight was ok but weather was not so good and the snorkeling was ok but not great. Would recommend it to anyone except that the vendor needs to find another boat. We had to jump off the side up by the bow and I ended up ripping a huge hole in my "nettle" suit

[theampres]

Lynn~

 

Wondering how you guys made out. Our flight was ok but weather was not so good and the snorkeling was ok but not great. Would recommend it to anyone except that the vendor needs to find another boat. We had to jump off the side up by the bow and I ended up ripping a huge hole in my "nettle" suit

 

everything went perfectly! we were off ship on first tender. spent a few mins. looking around TV, grabbed a cab, had a great driver who gave us a little 'guided route' to TZA airstrip, where we were on TropicAir's 0930 flight to San Pedro. rented a golf cart and toured around San Pedro for about 3hrs. made it to Fido's, Lilys on water for lunch, had coconut ice cream on Front Street (or maybe it was middle street-?), shopped, back to SPR and took off on private charter plane to Blue Hole at 1pm. absolutely amazing scenery all the way out! 30-40mins we were over the Blue Hole - spectacular! pilot circled the BH about 3-4 times, a few sprinkles right there, then just when I thought it couldn't get any better, a rainbow appeared!! full-spectrum - all colors - in absolute awe! still am, as I write this, a week later...!! we returned to TZA around 3pm, and our great taxi driver was waiting; took us back to TV, stopped at the Wet Lizard for drinks, and even had time for shopping at TV before boarding 4-4:30pm tender back to ship. BEST DAY of entire cruise!! and we had a great time in every other port-of-call, too. only day we had less-than-perfect weather was final sea day. very windy and a little rough seas.

 

our day in Belize did not disappoint, and very easy to get to ambergris on your own. we had no problems at all, and I would highly recommend the trip!

 

many thanks to Vern at Javier's Flying Service for a truly spectacular adventure! and to Janice for all her great tips and advice on where to go/what to do in our 3hrs in san pedro, and Wade, too, whom we met at SPR quite by chance, as we were boarding plane for BH - thanks, Wade, for your great posts and answering my questions. now planning a return land-based trip for 7-10 days. can't wait to go back!! so much to do there...maybe will be 10-14 day trip!!

[Diana68]

... and took off on private charter plane to Blue Hole at 1pm. absolutely amazing scenery all the way out! 30-40mins we were over the Blue Hole - spectacular!

It sounds like you had a perfect day! I would love to do this, but I'm afraid to ask how expensive the private charter would be. Do you mind me asking about how much your transportation for the day came to? :o

[theampres]

It sounds like you had a perfect day! I would love to do this, but I'm afraid to ask how expensive the private charter would be. Do you mind me asking about how much your transportation for the day came to? :o

 

really quite 'reasonable' - not much more than some of the ship's or private excursions actually. when are you going? take a look at javiers flying service website. if he doesn't have prices listed there (can't remember...), email him at reservations at javiersflying service. Both Vern and his wife Alissa were always very responsive to my questions and very helpful. we were in touch right up to day of arrival, as friends along almost had to cancel the entire cruise for health reasons the week of sailing, and, if weather had not been clear, we would not have taken the flight.

 

When I first inquired about getting out to the Blue Hole, we were offered a 3-seater or 5-seater plane. We were 4 in the 5-seater, which helped a lot in sharing cost. we flew commercial TropicAir flight, TZA-SPR (belize city TINY airstrip to San Pedro, Ambergris, and that was great fun in itself - beautiful scenery coming into Ambergris. one-way flight was $40-$45/pp. taxi to/from TZA was something like $20-25 each way, which incl a nice tip. as mentioned, we had a GREAT driver-guide, whom we just 'snagged' outside TV, and he was more than willing to meet us for return. he was actually waiting for us when we landed back at TZA. (he had Lord in his name, first/last/nickname? but he was great..and we were bombarded w/offers as soon as we exited TV, but 'somehow' quick assesment, chose him. ask for him if you do this..or even if you just take the comm. flight to San Pedro, which I would highly recommend spending the day there, even if you don't go out to BH. (that was our back-up plan..)

 

getting too long/TMI, if seriously interested, pls. feel free to email me at lap 3333 no spaces at hotmail. will send photos, too - you can even see the rainbow!! still sooo excited about that trip!!!! happy to share the experience! Lynn

[Diana68]

really quite 'reasonable' - not much more than some of the ship's or private excursions actually. when are you going? take a look at javiers flying service website. if he doesn't have prices listed there (can't remember...), email him at reservations at javiersflying service.

Thank you so much for the information! I would love to see your pictures, so I will send you an email. I had looked at Javiers website before I asked you, but he doesn't have prices listed. We are sailing 1/1/12, and will be in Belize on 1/4/12. This will be our fifth time to Belize, and I had hoped to go out to the Cay's this time. We've done cave tubing twice, Lamanai, and Xunantunich Ruins on our other sailings. We looked at taking a water taxi to Ambergris, but it wouldn't give us much time on the island, and our ship doesn't offer an excursion there, so we thought that we would probably do the Shark/Ray tour with Coral Breezes. Your day sounds much nicer though! There are only the two of us, so it may be too late for me to try to find someone on our roll call who would like to join us,..and with Christmas...not sure if I have the time to organize a trip like yours. This might have to wait for our next trip to Belize! :(

[mntravler]

We are planning this also for february 9 2012. Im glad to hear that you all had a good time. We have friends on the caye and we are going to visit them. We got our own air through maya air $66 round trip , cash at the airport. Thanks for posting that it can be done, it sets my mind at ease a little.

[mntravler]

Just a note saying that we took the trip to Ambergries on our own. We meet our friends and walked the beach had lunch shopped a little and got back to the ship in plenty of time. It was a great trip, the little puddle jumpers were lots of fun. It was great to see our friends he is a dentist and volunteers at the free clinic for the children. The dental clinic is really nice. Anyways if anyone has any questions just ask i will try to answer.

[kessdarln]

Just a note saying that we took the trip to Ambergries on our own. We meet our friends and walked the beach had lunch shopped a little and got back to the ship in plenty of time. It was a great trip, the little puddle jumpers were lots of fun. It was great to see our friends he is a dentist and volunteers at the free clinic for the children. The dental clinic is really nice. Anyways if anyone has any questions just ask i will try to answer.

 

I got scared last year and didn't go over but I'm looking at it again for next year. We're in port from 8-5. Was there a lot of people on the plane?

[mntravler]

I got scared last year and didn't go over but I'm looking at it again for next year. We're in port from 8-5. Was there a lot of people on the plane?

 

No, on the way over it was a 8 seat plane and on they back it was a 12 seater and they were both full.