Carnival Lamanai tour in Belize?

[Brenkel]

We are going on our first cruise March 5th. We will be on the Carnival Valor and our group includes my parents, myself, my husband, and our two kids who are 6 and 8. While doing research on the ports for our cruise I found a few tour companies that offer the Lamanai Ruins tour. So far Carnival is not offering it as an excursion. Will they offer it closer to our sail date? It is a long tour and I would rather go with Carnival to make sure the ship does not leave without us. I posted this on the Belize board and nobody answered whether or not Carnival offers this tour.

[salty dingo]

Be careful, if you are traveling far from the ship, and the tour vehicle breaks down, you could be in trouble. Better make sure there are taxis available to come get you. If you are two hours' ride from port, this may be tough.

 

Ships do not offer some tours because of logistics and the length of the stay. For example, I wanted to hike to the boiling lake in Dominica but there was barely enough time in port. I researched it well, found a guide I had used before on an earlier trip, and we did the hike fine, and made it back to the ship in time to do a little shopping afterward.

 

I felt OK because there were enough vehicles between the trailhead and the ship to get us down the mountain if our van broke down. The guide knew everybody, it was his home village. And it was maybe 10 miles back to port.

 

The ship would not do the hike, even though it was a popular one, because it would be cutting it too close for a lot of people, especially kids or inexperienced hikers.

 

Best advice is to talk to other cruisers who have done the tour and size up the risks.

 

I can tell you that if you miss the ship, there are plenty of flights from Belize City to the US! Be sure and take your passports and credit cards with you when you get off the ship!

[Umbarger]

Just got home from the Valor.

 

We did this tour thru Island Marketing and it was awsome!! It was a long drive (one hour) to the boat and then an hour on the boat to the ruins. Wonderful sightseeing along the way. Saw Howler monkeys and Toucans.

It was a long day 8:30am to 4pm. The ruins were fantastic and the tour included a wonderful authentic Belize lunch. Wonderful walk thru the rain forest. People on our tour were on the Miracle which left at 4pm and they made the ship fine. In fact they had to wait in line for the Tender. I talked to our driver about missing the ship and he said he has been doing this for years and no one had ever missed the ship yet. I was worried about missing the ship too, but these guys were very concerned about getting us back to the ship on time. They really took care of us. If you need any more info I would be happy to help. :D

 

Linda

[Umbarger]

opps!

[I&MsMom]

Question for those of you who have taken this tour: how are the roads? Lots of twists and turns and hills? DS has issues with motion sickness on occasion, and an hour could be a very long time! Thanks for any input.

[Umbarger]

The roads were fine no turns or hills. The roads were bumby and narrow though. Now the boat ride was very twisty turny but in my opinion it made it fun. :D He stops the boat along the way to point out birds, crocks the Mennonite post etc. Also, there were only 10 people in our tour. Very personal.

 

Linda

[cruise pup]

I went to the Island Marketing website and they state that there is a 4 person minimum per reservation for this tour. Was that the case when you booked?

[Umbarger]

I went to the Island Marketing website and they state that there is a 4 person minimum per reservation for this tour. Was that the case when you booked?

 

Probably means there has to be a total of 4 on the whole tour for it to operate or it might be cancelled for lack of participation. Go to the Island Marketing web site during the day and click on live help. The live help is great and will answer all your questions. Linda

[cruise pup]

Probably means there has to be a total of 4 on the whole tour for it to operate or it might be cancelled for lack of participation. Go to the Island Marketing web site during the day and click on live help. The live help is great and will answer all your questions. Linda

 

Thanks, Linda. I already did this and they've answered me. I didn't think it made sense that they want 4 persons for each reservation if the max. is 10 for a group.