Beach day- ship or private excursion? Pros/Cons

[kadey]

I was looking at our ship excursion for a simple beach day in Belize. We will be there from 8am to 6pm. I know this is a tender port so I thought it easiest to do this through the ship and skip having to tender to meet the private tour company. Then I saw the ship excursion didn't even leave till 10:30 was only 4 hours. After transportation to the care, that would leave around 3 hours beach time. We'd be back on the boat by 2:30! Not a great beach day! When I looked at private excursions they were also listed as 4 hours in duration. At this point I'm wondering if the ship tour is the way to go since I won[t have to tender to the port to get on a boat out to their Caye. I believe the ships group leaves from the ship. Lastly, does anyone know of a private group that does a beach "day" longer than 4 hours?? Belize is one of the few places that DH and I are not comfortable heading out on my own and definitely would like to join a planned excursion. Thank you for any advice you can offer!

[crewsweeper]

I believe most private vendors have a 4 hour time on beach excursions. You might look into a snorkeling excursion to Shark Ray Alley that would be longer. But it's the distances that that to be traveled to and from the cayes that dictate the time. And remember, if the private excursion picks up at the tender pier, you'll most likely have to wait on other from your ship and other ships in port that day to arrive, so the start time might be later. Most ship's have last tenders at 4PM (assuming a 5PM departure) so getting back at 2:30-3P isn't as short of a day as you may think. From a sun perspective, 4 hours at any beach is probably about as long as you need. Want more sun? there's always the ship's pool and loungers.

[kadey]

Thank you for the response! We are in port from 8am to 6pm. The private tour leaves at 9:30 and returns at 1:30 and the ship tour gets us back at 2:30.We would like to enjoy the beach longer since we really have the time! We really were looking to just have a beach day.If these are are only choices it seems going with the ship excursion may be best!

[mitsugirly]

Just beware that when you take a "ship excursion" and they give you a time like "4 hours long" that means 4 hours from start to finish...which INCLUDES your travel time back and forth to the place. ;) Since Belize is a tender port, you will still factor in your tender over to Belize (if it doesn't pick you up from the ship to do the tour) and then on to whatever you are doing.

 

I have done a ship tour that involved being picked up from the ship and taken straight to where we were going. Then I have also done a ship tour where we were picked up at the ship, tendered to the port, then turned around and got on another boat for our tour. So...just because you book an excursion with the ship, it doesn't always mean that you will be taken straight to where you are going directly from the ship and not have to tender. Keep this in mind. :)

[OCruisers]

Belize is a port where we only book through the ship! ;)

LuLu