Excursion suggestions for travel with elder passenger with bad knees

[iwannagocruisin]

Looking for excursion suggestions - I'm taking my 82 year old mother on her first cruise (Caribbean Princess over Thanksgiving). She has weak knees and will be using her walker off the ship as a precaution. Needless to say I'm looking for suggestions for excursions with not too much walking, climbing etc. I want her to enjoy as much of each location as possible and not just go sit on a beach!

 

I see there are some boat/bus tours but I wonder how much actual walking there is and the true difficulty of these. And with the boats, like the catamaran or the air boat, how difficult is it to climb on/off these?

 

Any information is MUCH appreciated!!! Thanks!

[crewsweeper]

Probably your best bet in Belize is doing a city tour via bus. There will be some walking at the stops, but it isn't that long of a tour. And you can arrange one with a taxi vendor or horse carriage vendor outside the Tourist Village gates. Remember though that Belize is a tender port and she will have to climb aboard tender craft. Usually these are fairly large, holding a couple of hundred people, and while there's a couple of steps on and off, the tender crews lend a hand. Beyond that, there isn't a lot. Maya ruin tours and cavetubing envolve a lot of walking. Snorkeling boats and boats used to head to the small cayes for "beach breaks" are smaller than the tender boats and could be more difficult to access or move around. Likewise ferries to Caye Caulker. You need to walk out of the Tourist Village and up several blocks to the ferry dock. It's about a 45 minute ride to the caye. However, once on Caye caulker, you can rent a golf cart to travel up and down the streets. Some interesting small shops and galleries, a couple of decent restaurants, and a good bakery can be visited there.

[iwannagocruisin]

Thank you crewsweeper! Silly me didn't bother to notice Belize was a tender port until I was reading more posts here on CC! She might be slow to get on/off the tender but my plan is to save her knees and wheel her around the ship so the couple of on/off the tender should be ok I think.

 

Thank you also for the info on the walking at the Ruins and about Caye Caulker. I hadn't looked into that much. Might be worth making a call for more info about the distance to the ferry - if she could make it, that might be nice!

 

Thanks again!!