Getting to Caye Caulker

[Mango Mike]

We will be in Belize on Feb. 16 (Mariner of the Seas) and were hoping to spend the day in Caye Caulker.

Our plan was to do the Island Escape tour through Coral Breeze but when I went to book the reservation, the following message appears:

 

Mariner of the Seas Passengers: Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate the port schedule of the Mariner of the Seas on February 16, 2012, for our tours to Caye Caulker.

 

So far, the only other option I've found is to take the water taxi, BUT, reading through other threads/posts, I read the following.

 

WARNING…… WARNING to people going to Caye Caulker on Water Taxis.

The San Pedros Express and Cayee Caulkers boats are now owned by San Pedro Express (same company now).

The 45 minute trip now takes 60-75 minute on the taxi. They no longer run every hour. They no longer have any competition, and run the boats slower to save fuel. The schedule is no longer enforced either. Once boat is full, they leave. You could miss your ship…

 

Now what do we do - any suggestions?

 

Thanks

[Milhouse]

I think in that same thread that quotes the "Warning, warning" message, there are people that dispute the accuracy of the information.

 

We are by no means experts as we've only done the trip once in December. (Wadethegringo on this board likely can provide the most accurate info.) However our experience with the water taxis was reasonable. It did leave Belize City about 10 minutes late but trip length-wise, it took 45-50mins (vs the 60-75mins indicated in the warning). On the way back, it was right on time. I'm not sure what the "standard" trip time is as I've seen 30mins to 45mins. The taxi we took was fairly full though; around 80% full in both directions.

 

If you want to take a water taxi, my suggestions would be:

- Get familiar with the water taxi schedules

- Get familiar with the directions to both water taxis (we couldn't find one, missed the taxi we wanted to go out on, and had to go to the other one which we found but had to wait an hour for the next water taxi because of a break in the schedules)

- Tender off the ship asap to get an early water taxi and maximize time at Caye Caulker. (We dilly dallied which contributed to us missing the water taxi we wanted to take.)

- Target to leave 2 hours before the last tender back to the ship so if you miss it, you still have one more chance to get back. In addition, the two water taxis companies leave from different, relatively nearby piers. If you miss or can't get on the earlier one, you can still run over to the other one.

 

Anyways, those are my thoughts. Would appreciate it if someone would validate/critique my suggestions though.

[PreciousCruiser]

If it were me, I would email Coral Breezes via their website and see if you get the same response. I emailed them with a question about a couple of their tours and they responded promptly. Hope it works out for you... :)

[1948buddy]

We are going on the Mariner in March , same luck with Coral Breeze. I talked to them and it looks like they do pretty much Carnival with the Caye Caulkner tour. I am a little afraid of the water taxi, so I booked Bannister Island directly through the ship. They pick you up directly from the ship. I do want to go to Calkner, but will wait till we go there on the Magic

[littlelovely21]

We are going on the Mariner in March , same luck with Coral Breeze. I talked to them and it looks like they do pretty much Carnival with the Caye Caulkner tour. I am a little afraid of the water taxi, so I booked Bannister Island directly through the ship. They pick you up directly from the ship. I do want to go to Calkner, but will wait till we go there on the Magic

 

I'm bummed to hear this because my husband, son and I were planning on using them when we go (same cruise as you). Thank you for posting this info, now I really have to find something for us to do.

 

I haven't heard the best reviews of Bannister Island lately, so we decided not to go there. We may have end up just going on the water taxi on our own and pray everything goes okay :o

[Mango Mike]

Thanks Milhouse - checked the water taxi's schedule and there are about 5 runs each way per day.

Will run this past the rest of the people in our group to see if they want to take a chance.

[littlelovely21]

Thanks Milhouse - checked the water taxi's schedule and there are about 5 runs each way per day.

 

Will run this past the rest of the people in our group to see if they want to take a chance.

 

Is this the info you used? http://belizewatertaxi.com/rates-schedule I'm trying to get my husband the info to see if we should take the chance as well. Since we are in CSTime and our cruise is March 11, when we get there we'll be an hour ahead of their schedule, right? This is one of the things making me crazy I want to be sure we're on the right schedule with their taxis as well as the ship. Any help from anyone would be appreciated.

[Mango Mike]

Is this the info you used? http://belizewatertaxi.com/rates-schedule I'm trying to get my husband the info to see if we should take the chance as well. Since we are in CSTime and our cruise is March 11, when we get there we'll be an hour ahead of their schedule, right? This is one of the things making me crazy I want to be sure we're on the right schedule with their taxis as well as the ship. Any help from anyone would be appreciated.

 

Yup - same info (but looks like I was off a bit on the number of runs per day - getting old - memory fails me :()

[Milhouse]

Just some more tips (blind leading the blind here a bit so don't take my info as gospel :) )...

 

There are two water taxi services. However, the discussion is that they've are now both owned by the same company but still operate independently.

 

There's this one:

http://belizewatertaxi.com/rates-schedule

Located at 111 North Front Street inside the Brown Sugar Terminal.

This is the one we wanted to take outbound at 9am but missed it because we couldn't find it (next taxi at 11am).

 

We then ended up taking this one: http://www.cayecaulkerwatertaxi.com/

Located at 10 North Front Street.

We walked outside of the terminal and down a few blocks. (The neighbourhood kind of looked in rough shape in areas but never felt unsafe.)

Their next trip outbound was at 10:30am so we wasted an hour (from just after 9am) waiting for the next taxi.

 

Not knowing what was going to be ship time vs local time was messing up our planning too.

In the end, our ship (X Equinox) adjusted ship time to local time of the next port of call the night before. Hopefully, your ship does the same so it makes for easier planning.

 

We were a bit on edge wanting to make sure we made it back to the ship but we gave ourselves enough leeway even if we messed up a bit.

Our time in port was relatively short and we had to tender so a number of people on our roll call decided they'd do a ship excursion to better maximize time and ensure getting back on the ship, which I don't think is a bad idea if you're in a similar situation.

[1948buddy]

I'm bummed to hear this because my husband, son and I were planning on using them when we go (same cruise as you). Thank you for posting this info, now I really have to find something for us to do.

 

I haven't heard the best reviews of Bannister Island lately, so we decided not to go there. We may have end up just going on the water taxi on our own and pray everything goes okay :o

 

I looked around and actually found some really good reviews of Bannister, so we decided to stick with it in March...Do want to go to Caulkner one day though.

[Mango Mike]

. . . . Not knowing what was going to be ship time vs local time was messing up our planning too.

In the end, our ship (X Equinox) adjusted ship time to local time of the next port of call the night before. Hopefully, your ship does the same so it makes for easier planning. . . . .

 

I'm guessing this won't be a problem since the Mariner takes out of Galveston (Central Time) and all of the ports we are docking at are also on Central Time).