Easy Choice for Cave Tubing

[rustyztwo]

I just returned from the Oct 9th sailing of Explorer of the Seas and wanted to sing the praises of Tom ***** and his Cave Tubing tour (www.*****). I did my research before we left home and selected this tour for my girlfriend and myself because of their web site and the informative nature of the information there. Boy, did I choose wisely.

 

Tom ***** met us steps from the tender with a well marked sign and and warm greeting. We lucked out in having only one other couple signed up for the tour that caught the same first tender as instructed. Another group of three were no where to be found but Tom just arranged for some other tour operator to look for them if they came on a later tender so we could leave immediately. (Please note that getting on the first tender on Explorer of the Seas was not as easy as mentioned by RCCL, I had to get Guest Relations to pull an extra ticket for me after I got shutout even after arriving on time for the tender ticket distribution. The other couple was able to get the tickets the night before which I'll do next time).

 

The drive to the site was quite informative. Tom is very involved in Belize, he's in the army reserve (major) and had run for office. He seems to know everyone and everything Belize and is more than happy to tell you about it. We clearly were in great hands with him providing the information and his son carefully driving the comfortable van.

 

Once we arrived at the site, we had a bathroom stop at the facilities there, grabbed our tubes and flash lights, and started off on the 30 minute trek down the trail to the tubing site. The walk was not difficult and included a number of interesting sites along the way.

 

The tubing with Tom includes two caves, each taking about 20 minutes to float through. Tom had us link up with him while the other couple linked up with his son so we were always in the right place to see all the sites including getting out of the tubes for a quick walk inside one of the caves. Tom's tour also includes an extra 15-20 minutes of "open floating" which included to my delight about four small rapids (think Jacuzzi bubbles). The float ended a short walk away from the van/restaurant/facilities.

 

After freshing up, lunch was served and was as good as a $5 lunch gets. Tom gave us an extra half hour to digest our food since the ride from the park back to the main highway is a bumpy 15 minutes. We got back to the dock with an hour to spare before the last tender, something Tom prides himself in not missing for his passengers.

 

All told, the $53 plus the tip we gave them was money very well spent. This was the best tour for your money hands down.

 

Thanks again Tom Sr. and Jr.

 

Rusty Zarrell