Be Careful time wise on Cave Tubing excursions

[lyndaedris]

I just got back from a Carnival Cruise on the Miracle. A port was Belize. My husband and I(just married on the ship)booked Extreme Cave Tubing for 16 people. There were 5 others in our excursion. I have to say it was wonderful! Thomas our guide was great!....BUT.... a BIG word of caution!

On the way back to the port..........

 

The "rear end" of his small mini bus(which he owned) decided to stop working(don't know the proper language) on the dirt road going out to the main road. We left at 1:30(it was almost 1 1/2 hour drive)which would have been fine with no mishaps. No Cell Phone connections!!!! The first bus passed us by, then 2 vans passed us by. Finally, some of my family members stood in the middle of the road and stopped the next bus! They could only take 5 people(it was a Carnival Miracle excursion bus)and we had to convince them to do that. We sent the 5 people not connected to our family asking them to please inform Carnival of our problem. That wouldn't have made the ship wait for us I realize. Then another bus came and squeezed on the rest of us and were very obliging.(Another Carnival Miracle Bus, and the last one!). There was no way Extreme Tubing could have sent a bus, even with cell phone connection, out to us and gotten us back by the time the last tender left for the ship. We would have all missed the cruise. Buying airfare for 16 people to get us to the next port would have been astronomical!!!. I have never booked excursions through the ship and have never had a problem. I have been on 10 cruises. However, this mishap is all it took to teach me to rethink my strategy. I will continue to book as I usually do UNLESS...we are going to be more than 45 minutes away from the port. I will always ask if there is cell phone service where we are going.

 

When we finally got to the port, Extreme was there making sure we were all there and on the tender to the ship. Again, it was an awesome excursion and I would do it again BUT I would only book thru the ship!

[OCruisers]

Thanks for the review! Glad you made it back to the ship ON TIME!

[OCruisers]

lyndaedris .... Thanks again for your review! At least the river was "runnin' good" :D and there was not bad weather the day you went!

 

Here's a review of Reggie's Cave Tubing where this person ALMOST DROWN! :eek:

 

Review of Glory including Belize (Reggie's Cave Tubing (click here)

 

Glad you had fun doing your river tubing and that you make it back on time!