Not leaving ship while in port

[jdvmd]

You certainly can stay on the ship and enjoy everything she has to offer without the crowds. Activities will still be going on! Enjoy!

[hladygirl]

Any port that has a tender instead of docking we stay on board. Love sitting by the pool and interacting with the staff while everyone is on shore. Next trip has no tenders and I can't figure out any port I should skip. We stop at Antigua,Aruba,curaçao,Cozumel,st Thomas and Barbados.

[texast518]

Good food & live music @ port if water not too rough, about 15-20 min tender ride.

[RIvacationgirl]

We just sailed the Dawn in Feb. and did the same itinerary.

We only booked the Altun Ha ruins and river safari. The ruins were very interesting, and the river ride was very exciting. We were very surprised as to how much we enjoyed this excursion. The tour guide was very informative about life in Belize.

We enjoyed the ship while others were gone, especially with our spa pass. I think you will enjoy your time on the ship during the ports. We actually enjoyed watching everyone coming and going on and off the ship. One day we watched a security dog working to catch people bringing food off of the ship. He was right every time he sniffed someone going by!

Enjoy your trip!

[GORDONCHICK]

You certainly can stay on the ship, but I'm with the others - I certainly wouldn't in Belize!

 

We did cave tubing and zip lining while in Belize in January with cave-tubing.com and loved it. The water isn't very deep and not only are life jackets provided, it's mandatory for you to wear them. Our 11yo DS did this excursion with us and his favorite part was the zip lining. No long bridges to walk over. The stairs are a little much if you're out of shape, but not horrible. We also had amazing Belizean spicy chicken tamales (and I'm not typically a fan of tamales) included. Belize is a beautiful country - I hope you will go check it out.

[drhry]

We always stay onboard in Belize. It is a very relaxing quiet day. Not impressed with the tendering , which seems to quite often be a bit choppy. Our favorite port to stay onboard.:)

[BritChickBN1]

We haven't gotten off the ship at all on our last 2 Florida/Bahamas cruises. That is until they FORCED us off back in NYC. :mad::p

[Seago2]

Any port that has a tender instead of docking we stay on board. Love sitting by the pool and interacting with the staff while everyone is on shore. Next trip has no tenders and I can't figure out any port I should skip. We stop at Antigua,Aruba,curaçao,Cozumel,st Thomas and Barbados.

 

I vote Curaçao! Not worth it...

[Cruzface]

Go cave tubing. When are you ever going to get a chance to do that again? VIV tours. Enough said.

Edited March 20, 2013 by Cruzface

[itravelalot]

It is fun to stay on the ship when everyone else is off.

No searching for pool chairs, no lines for food, its quiet.. I have done it twice on my last 2 stops in Grand Cayman. Have been there for week long holidays and 5 times on cruises.. so now we just stay on the ship and our son enjoys extra pool time and basketball court time....

 

Its your holiday, do whatever you like...enjoy!:)

[Warm Breezes]

Probably a silly question, but we are booked for our first cruise Feb 2014 on the Dawn and cant seem to find an excursion listed on NCL for while we are in port in Belize.

 

I am thinking maybe it would be a good thing to just skip getting off the boat and spend some time checking out the boat and enjoying the day on board. We do have 3 other ports that we will have activities planned for so thinking it may be nice to have a down day and some extra time on the ship to explore since i am sure the week will fly by.

 

Is it okay to do this? Do others do this? If we change our minds are we able to then get off upon arrival or do you need to have everything booked ahead of time?

 

We have started doing that when we go to Nassau.....You get to enjoy all those things on the Lido that are packed on sea days because everyone is gone. We love it.

[hladygirl]

I vote Curaçao! Not worth it...

 

This port we are there 15 hours. Go figure! We were just going to go to cabana beach in the am an walk around near the ship after and then get back on board. The ship doesn't leave until 11pm. Plenty of quiet time in the afternoon onboard.

St Thomas has the most ships in port and friends who have gone there were not thrilled. Only problem with staying on the ship this port is that this is the first stop after 3 1/2 days at sea.

[Doughboy139]

That may work as they are swimmers, just not confident ones in the middle of the ocean but can snorkel from shore etc. (they worry that the ocean currents will take them away)

 

Would love to be able to do the zip lining for my son, but my fear of heights is so great i am researching everything to pieces as if it involves bridges etc to walk over i am done - just cant do it lol

 

Also scared of booking on our own as afraid of missing the boat...............all these crazy worries trying to plan our first cruise, and being a planning nut does not help matters.

 

I am thinking tendering wont be much of an issue as we are in a suite and from what NCL tells me they arrange that for us and we just get there when they tell us to or am i misunderstanding them?

 

We are huge beach folk so trying to find all the best beaches on our stops, but would be nice to do something different one day and from my understanding there are not many great beaches near the port in belize

 

Take your son Zip-lining, It is fantastic and a good memory. I don't like heights either, but I went on a Zip-line as part of my ships excursion aboard the Dawn up in Cornerbrook New Foundland this past fall and i was like a little kid again.......In Fact I'm looking to doing it again in the future hopefully in Belize.......I have attached a video from you-tube on the Belize Zip-line.

 

[johnsak123]

I dont get off the ship at every port. Especially if it is a place i have been already

However, if you never been there you might as well get off for a little while and explore. Come back early and then explore the ship

Enjoy!!

[MommaBear55]

We just havent found something that everyone will enjoy.

 

Son would love to zipline - but i am terrified of heights and bridges so there is no way that is happening.......

 

Some of us would like to try cave tubing, but the non swimmers of fearful of doing that...............

 

We really are beach people, but the island excursion seems to be so short and far away for the price............

 

Some of the other excursions dont really have great reviews so hesitant over them.

 

Maybe i can get the not so great swimmers more confident and they will get off a boat to snorkel in the ocean (didnt happen in Grand Cayman over the Christmas holidays - they stayed on the boat, so wasnt really all that great with 2 of us in the water and 2 of us on the boat)

 

We have split up our group when we want to do things in different ports. It gives us more to talk about at dinner. Granted, my kids are grown, but if yours are young, no reason not to do one parent/one child on a tour.

 

Having said that, I love the days on the ship and think spending an extra day onboard to be an excellent idea. Belize port is not interesting, the tendering adds significant time to any excursion and there is no reason to do exactly as you please.

 

I am actually going on a cruise next month that has 6 ports the first 6 days out and I am trying very hard not to overplan the ports, so we can laze some afternoons away on board. The problem is that all 6 ports are new to us and so it is really tempting to do everything.... It is tough to have all these decsions. :D

[MrsNancyG]

I went on the NCL site for you and found the pages of Belize excursions. Perhaps you just couldn't navigate the site well enough. Here is the link and good luck.

 

http://www.ncl.com/cruise-destination/caribbean/excursions?N=4294934686+4294966728&Ne=8057&Ns=p_Shorex_Search_Weight%7C0%7C%7Cp_Shorex_Title%7C0&Nu=p_Shorex_Package_Id#tab_detail

 

Hmmmm....that cut and copy doesn't look right during the typing, lets hope it looks better when it's posted. Anyway, if it doesn't work for you, go to NCL, click on learn about cruises, click shore excursions, click port city, and highlight Belize. Two pages of shore excursions will show up.

 

If you check out the excursions and nothing floats your boat, then staying onboard is a great alternative. Many people stay on the ship during ports so they can enjoy the ship without crowds. No matter what you decide, this vacation is yours and you should just do whatever you want.

[canadianjovigirl]

Seems like some wouldnt miss Belize and others wouldnt take the time to get off the boat. Guess we have lots to think about - good thing we have lots of time. I guess if we are still undecided i can wait until we are on board and then book something if we decide on something.

 

With this being our first cruise we have not yet been to any of the ports as we have generally land vacationed in Mexico, Dominican, Cuba, Grand Cayman and Florida as we love the sand, sun and surf. Since we are planning on beach days at the other ports i am seriously thinking of throwing caution to the wind and trying zip lining or cave tubing in belieze, but terrified that my fears will ruin the day as there is no way i can walk over a bridge etc so not sure if they would ever get me on a zip line :D and not sure what the feasibility is if i change my mind and decide not to partake.

 

I guess i may have a chance of overcoming it as well as i have avoided crusing as the thought of being in the middle of the ocean and having something go wrong terrifies me, but so many people enjoy it that i finally caved and decided we had to try it at least once..............and almost have myself we will love it as i am already scoping out future cruises just in case ;)

 

Also does anyone know why for the zip lining cave tubing excursion the participants must be at least 95lbs? My daughter is 12 so she would meet the age requirement, but is barely 60lbs so looks like that is out anyway.................

Edited March 20, 2013 by canadianjovigirl

[luddite]

Go cave-tubing or do the river trek to Lamanai.

[chiefs11]

We did the Lamanai Ruins and River safari excursion when we were in Belize last year (on RCI, but the NCL version is probably exactly the same). It was incredible. Climbing up the pyramids was an awesome experience, though you really need to be in at least half-decent shape to make it all the way up. You can zip-line anywhere, but where else can you climb a pyramid? (If I'm not mistaken, climbing isn't allowed at a lot of the other Mayan ruins sites any more)

 

That excursion gets my vote....!

[Mrs. Squirrel]

This port we are there 15 hours. Go figure! We were just going to go to cabana beach in the am an walk around near the ship after and then get back on board. The ship doesn't leave until 11pm. Plenty of quiet time in the afternoon onboard.

 

We loved Curacao! Don't know why the other poster didn't. 15 hours would be awesome! Willemstad is a beautiful port city to explore. In the morning we took a taxi to a fishing village beach, Playa Lagun. Cost was $40 each way for 3, as it was pretty far from port. Fantastic snorkeling on both sides of this quiet cove. Perfect for kids, and both novice and experienced snorkelers. Saw about 3 couples shore diving while we were there, there's that much to see. Way better than the $200 snorkeling excursion we did in St. Thomas. Afternoon was spent exploring the town and crossing the pontoon bridge and watching it swing open for boats.

 

See for yourself. Sorry the pics are so small.

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b53/mrssquirrel2000/NCL%20Sun%20Family%20Cruise%202013-Curacao/P1020836_zpscc0b2b6f.jpg:original

[Mrs. Squirrel]

We did the Lamanai Ruins and River safari excursion when we were in Belize last year (on RCI, but the NCL version is probably exactly the same). It was incredible. Climbing up the pyramids was an awesome experience, though you really need to be in at least half-decent shape to make it all the way up. You can zip-line anywhere, but where else can you climb a pyramid? (If I'm not mistaken, climbing isn't allowed at a lot of the other Mayan ruins sites any more)

 

That excursion gets my vote....!

 

We did ours on a Carnival cruise. Loved it just as much as you did. Great day and wonderful memories.

[shark with a laser]

Seems like some wouldnt miss Belize and others wouldnt take the time to get off the boat. Guess we have lots to think about - good thing we have lots of time. I guess if we are still undecided i can wait until we are on board and then book something if we decide on something.

 

With this being our first cruise we have not yet been to any of the ports as we have generally land vacationed in Mexico, Dominican, Cuba, Grand Cayman and Florida as we love the sand, sun and surf. Since we are planning on beach days at the other ports i am seriously thinking of throwing caution to the wind and trying zip lining or cave tubing in belieze, but terrified that my fears will ruin the day as there is no way i can walk over a bridge etc so not sure if they would ever get me on a zip line :D and not sure what the feasibility is if i change my mind and decide not to partake.

 

I guess i may have a chance of overcoming it as well as i have avoided crusing as the thought of being in the middle of the ocean and having something go wrong terrifies me, but so many people enjoy it that i finally caved and decided we had to try it at least once..............and almost have myself we will love it as i am already scoping out future cruises just in case ;)

 

Also does anyone know why for the zip lining cave tubing excursion the participants must be at least 95lbs? My daughter is 12 so she would meet the age requirement, but is barely 60lbs so looks like that is out anyway.................

 

I'm not by any means saying you shouldn't do Belize, just that it's not a place you want to go without some sort of excursion planned, whether it's through the ship or a private company.

[canadianjovigirl]

We did the Lamanai Ruins and River safari excursion when we were in Belize last year (on RCI, but the NCL version is probably exactly the same). It was incredible. Climbing up the pyramids was an awesome experience, though you really need to be in at least half-decent shape to make it all the way up. You can zip-line anywhere, but where else can you climb a pyramid? (If I'm not mistaken, climbing isn't allowed at a lot of the other Mayan ruins sites any more)

 

That excursion gets my vote....!

 

 

We have seen lots of ruins and the family has even climbed them (not me, too high) during our Mexico vacations. Does this excursion include walking over any bridges??

[chiefs11]

We have seen lots of ruins and the family has even climbed them (not me, too high) during our Mexico vacations. Does this excursion include walking over any bridges??

 

I don't recall any bridges. The excursion consisted of a bus ride (which seemed a lot longer going back, lol), a trip up the river in a large speed boat (which stopped to point out any interesting wildlife), a walk through the jungle to the pyramids, plenty of time to climb and explore the ruins, trip back down the river, lunch at the visitor center (which I thought was pretty good), then the bus ride back to the port and tendering back to the ship. It was a pretty long day, but well worth it.

 

However, if you've done Mayan ruins elsewhere, then you might be best doing the cave tubing or experiencing something else... :)

[Warmer Climes]

I understand that you have some water fears, but the cave tubing goes through very shallow water. Here is a video. My kids loved it (age 8-16 at the time).

 

http://www.cave-tubing.com/belize-cave-tubing-video.html

 

Have a great vacation whatever you decide.