Bannister Island with Carnival question

[umtigerfan1]

We have booked the Beach Break excursion through Carnival to Bannister Island, does anyone know if we can go into port instead of heading straight back to the ship?

 

Thanks!

[njoyndride]

We have booked the Beach Break excursion through Carnival to Bannister Island, does anyone know if we can go into port instead of heading straight back to the ship?

 

Thanks!

 

We did this excursion last September and they gave us a choice of being dropped at the ship or the port.

[laubster]

What is the name of the excursion and how much was it if you don't mind me asking?

[umtigerfan1]

Thanks, njoyndride.

 

The excursion on Carnival is called Private Island Beach Break, $39.99 per adult.

[Lovefuninthesun]

Do you know anyone personally who has done this (private island beach break) excursion with Carnival? It has received terrible reviews on the Carnival website, under the shore excursions pages.

We'll be there in a few months and that was the excursion i thought would fit the bill for us, but have been scared off by the reviews.:confused:

I guess I need first-person reassusrance!:o

Thanks

[umtigerfan1]

Do you know anyone personally who has done this (private island beach break) excursion with Carnival? It has received terrible reviews on the Carnival website, under the shore excursions pages.

We'll be there in a few months and that was the excursion i thought would fit the bill for us, but have been scared off by the reviews.:confused:

I guess I need first-person reassusrance!:o

Thanks

 

Yes, the reviews are bad. We just wanted some beach time with little effort and this was about the only choice. I'll be there a week from today, I'll come back here and let you know my thoughts on it.

[Lovefuninthesun]

Yes, the reviews are bad. We just wanted some beach time with little effort and this was about the only choice. I'll be there a week from today, I'll come back here and let you know my thoughts on it.

 

Thanks, UMTiger

[mitsugirly]

If you are looking for FULL DETAILED REVIEW....with TONS of pictures. You can go to my signature link below and click on my Bannister Island review. Although we did it with NCL, it's still the same. If you have never seen or held a starfish before...this is your place. Bannisters water is loaded with them. :)

[njoyndride]

Umtigerfan1 I think it will be fine for what you want. The beach is crushed shells dh had water shoes and I had flip flops and we were fine. There was only our ship in port that day those of us that did the beach break were the first there. Waiters brought us drinks, there were plenty of chairs and shade. Being picked up at the ship was great and the ride very pretty to the Caye. If you just want to hang out and swim its a good excursion. There is overlap with the snorkel excursions but even when the arrived it wasn't overly crowded.

[OCruisers]

We just wanted some beach time with little effort and this was about the only choice. I'll be there a week from today, I'll come back here and let you know my thoughts on it.

 

Totally agree with the post by "njoyndride"!

 

For what you want and are realistically expecting you'll have a very good time!

We certainly did! :)

 

LuLu

~~~

[umtigerfan1]

Thanks, UMTiger

 

The excursion fit the bill. Only ship in port so no crowds, I would say maybe 75 folks on the island. I think it would be crowded if more ships in port. Not the best beach, but it worked. Only needed shoes while walking. Plenty of starfish and if you go out along the wooden breaker that lines the swim area you will find some fish. The chairs and such do need some work, many were broken.

[Lovefuninthesun]

The excursion fit the bill. Only ship in port so no crowds, I would say maybe 75 folks on the island. I think it would be crowded if more ships in port. Not the best beach, but it worked. Only needed shoes while walking. Plenty of starfish and if you go out along the wooden breaker that lines the swim area you will find some fish. The chairs and such do need some work, many were broken.

 

Thanks for the "eyewitness"!

[NLuvWthCruisn]

I have booked this excursion as well. Just wondering if we wanted to leave earlier would we be able to or is this stay until the cut off time? I am thinking the latter part but hoping there would be a option.

 

TIA

[OCruisers]

Tia .... We didn't have an option to go back sooner.

Fortunately, we didn't want to! :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

[mitsugirly]

I have booked this excursion as well. Just wondering if we wanted to leave earlier would we be able to or is this stay until the cut off time? I am thinking the latter part but hoping there would be a option.

 

TIA

 

There is no option to leave when you want. They will tell everyone what time to meet back at the boat that brought you over and everyone from that group leaves at the same time. :)

[2manyBagsLady]

There is no option to leave when you want. They will tell everyone what time to meet back at the boat that brought you over and everyone from that group leaves at the same time. :)

 

Hi! I've read all your trip reviews. Thank you for taking the time to do them! I have a question for you, you've been to Belize several times (and I know you now want to cruise to different ports) but if you were to return to Belize and wanted to snorkel (and have some beach time) with teen kids what excursion and or Caye would you pick - either ship tour (I'll be on Carnival Conquest in July) or independent tour.

I know you do a lot of research on the cruise stops, and I have done a lot of reading on CC and tripadvisor, but Belize is really challenging for me to decide an excursion because of the tendering and then another long trip to reach a good site. I'd love to hear what you would do the next time you visited Belize. (non-ruins and not cavetubing). Thanks!

[#1TravelMom]

We just did this excursion a few days ago. Bannister island is a very small island with sand beaches. There is about a 6-8 foot wide strip of crushed shells and coral at water's edge extending into the ocean. For those with very tender feet - you may want to pack the water shoes. I actually packed them, but forgot to take them on the excursion. We did the OOO-EEE-OOO-OWW tip-toe dance into the water several times and survived just fine.

 

Unlike mistugirly, we didn't see lots of starfish. I snorkeled the whole swimming area for over an hour and saw three. It was nice for our little girl to hold one. The lifeguard said there was coral out in the corner to the left(facing the ocean). I swam against the current to explore this area - very, very little coral and just a few snappers to see - that's it. This is definitely NOT a snorkeling destination.

 

We did get a bonus - dolphins in the channel very close to shore. I wish we had used the free kayaks. The kayakers were right next to them. The girl doing hairbraiding said they mate in the channel in the summer months and can be seen every day. So, if you visit June-August look for them in the waterway directly behind you if you stand facing the swimming area.

 

Also, if you want to see a starfish and conch without snorkeling - they have a few in a little square area in the water to the left as you get off the ferry.

 

If you like collecting shells and coral - this is the place to go. Tons of shells of all shapes and sizes(lots of tiny spiral ones) right along the swimming area. If you want coral go to the far right(facing the swimming area) - along the waterway to this side is a long strip of coral. By the way - I have no clue if you are technically allowed to remove shells and coral - so you may want to check. I will not confirm or deny if my 8 year old removed any such items without checking the "rules".

 

I think Carnival needs to have the chairs replaced - many were broken. Not sure why all the horrible reviews. We had a nice day - but we didn't go with inflated expectations. Nice option to "staying on the ship". But - $40 a little pricey for a ferry ride IMHO.

[mitsugirly]

Hi! I've read all your trip reviews. Thank you for taking the time to do them! I have a question for you, you've been to Belize several times (and I know you now want to cruise to different ports) but if you were to return to Belize and wanted to snorkel (and have some beach time) with teen kids what excursion and or Caye would you pick - either ship tour (I'll be on Carnival Conquest in July) or independent tour.

I know you do a lot of research on the cruise stops, and I have done a lot of reading on CC and tripadvisor, but Belize is really challenging for me to decide an excursion because of the tendering and then another long trip to reach a good site. I'd love to hear what you would do the next time you visited Belize. (non-ruins and not cavetubing). Thanks!

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read the reviews. I know it takes a lot of time from you to read them as well (they can get lengthy). :D

 

Honestly, Belize is not a place that I have researched for snorkeling. The times that we have went we went cave tubing a few times and then to Bannister Island. Bannister is not your "good" snorkeling place if that's what you are looking for. It's just an island and has star fish (with a few fish here and there...some big, some small, different types, but not a lot) and as the poster above me mentioned, you can spot a dolphin some times. I was told that prior to going to Bannister, but we did not venture off on the canoe over to the area that I was told to go to see them. We were perfectly happy with the day we were having there. It was just a unique place for us because of all of the star fish that were there that day (which I knew ahead of time we would find and that influence my decision to go there with my daughter, I knew she would enjoy that). :) So that was our main reason for going (along with the fact that it's a tender port and we knew ahead of time that they would be picking us up directly from the ship and taking us...an added plus for the day).

 

The only other places I had considered going to was Goffs Cay or Rendezvous Cay. I honestly can not remember everything I had read about the snorkeling other than they do a snorkeling "tour" from the island on Goffs Cay and from what I remember it was ok according to everyone. Just remember that Goffs Cay is a VERY small island (it looks pretty neat in pictures where some places almost come together with the water from each side of the island and there's just a small walk way on sand in areas). But it is very primitive according to everyone. If I was to return to Belize, I would probably be checking that place out. I don't remember much of my research of Rendezvous Cay, but for some reason I had saved a folder for that on my computer. It did have pictures of people with snorkeling gear on, so there must have been some type of snorkeling there.

 

You could search for either one of those places and see if you come up with anything.

 

Other than that, you could probably find a snorkeling tour from a boat. They are supposed to have wonderful snorkeling out at the reefs from a boat. I just don't normally research the "boat" snorkeling tours since we have a (now 5 year old) with us...which enjoys her beach time and I feel more comfortable snorkeling with her from shore instead of out in the wide open water. :)

 

Sorry I couldn't help more.