Coral Breeze lost snorkler?

[jetskier]

Libertycall,

Different snorkler. There were two incidents around the same time frame with different tour companies. With one, a snorkler was lost and his body never found. With Coral Breeze, it was a gentleman who had trouble in the water, was taken to the hospital, and passed away due to a possible heart attack.

Dave

[libertycall]

Thanks for the clarification jetskier. I visit Ambergriscaye.com regularly and had only heard of the one missing snorkler in that area.

[bchbms]

Got an email from Paul today telling me the excursion we scheduled to see the Manatees, snorkel and go to the beach has been cancelled. Offered us the Sting ray/shark ray alley/beach thing instead. Guess that is acceptable, but not really what we wanted. But I am glad he is communicating with us...when hubby gets home tonite we will decide. We still have our two backup options.

[willydoit]

bchbms,,,that's the Coral Breeze excursion I was interested in. If you decide to go ahead, let me know how it goes. Either way, have a great trip!!:cool:

[bchbms]

Hi all. We are back from our Enchantment cruise and had a great time! The ship is beautiful, but we have decided that we like the Radiance class better. Anyway, I am sorry to report that our day with Coral Breeze did not turn out so well. When we finally found the representative through the throngs of other people hustling tours, we were told our tour would start at 10:30, which was in about an hour an a half. They were willing to take us wherever we wanted to go. The rep was very nice. We paid him the balance of the fare, and went walking through the town for awhile. I was shocked by how devastatingly poor the people are, and we soon got tired of being hustled by the drivers hustling us just about every 5 feet to take us on 'tours' of the city in their beat-up old Chevy's. It smelled very bad there also, and was very hot even so early in the day. I felt very bad for the people. We walked back to the pier and did a little shopping then went back to meet the rep. We were still early so we stood by the side in the blazing sun until 10:30. At 10:45 he walked over and apologized, but unfortunately, he had to cancel the tour as no one else had shown up but us. He said that because of all the negative publicity and bad mouthing by other drivers (we had heard some of this when we were asking where to find them), that no one is booking anymore. I felt bad for him as he was very nice and the boat looked like it was well equipped and safe. He gave us a refund, so we went up to the Wet Lizard for a beer and to discuss plan B. About a half hour later, he came up looking for us, said he had found 4 other people to go and asked if we still wanted to. By this time, it was 11:30, it was a half hour ride out, and the tour would still be back by 2. Not worth the money to us, so we declined and just went back to the ship to spend the afternoon.

 

Our tablemates did take one of the local guy's city tours and had quite an adventure and learned alot about Belize. They said they felt safe. Our other tablemates took the RCCL cave tubing and zip lining excursion and really enjoyed it.

 

I hope things work out for Coral Breeze as they seemed very nice, but I think you should definitely have a back up plan if you book with them.

[willydoit]

Welcome back inspector bchbms. Thank you very much for a job well done. Sure glad your cruise went well. ;)

 

I feel really bad, and also angry, that things didn't work out for you and Coral Breeze. When we were there two years ago, they seemed to have the nicest folks and boats for snorkeling trips. We had already signed up for cave tubing on that cruise, but I had made a mental note to use them next time in Belize.

 

I still have not heard back from them. With your report and their lack of response to me, I will be looking elsewhere for a shark/ray alley snorkeling excursion. If they want to end their bad publicity they should start providing answers to e-mails, update their website with current conditions, and obviously, not leave scheduled excursions hanging out at the pier. As cruise passengers, you only have a limited time there and you want to make the most of it. Apparently they don't seem to care, I'll find someone who will make the effort!

 

Thanks again for your help.;)

[sb cruiser]

Did you ever go on your trip with Coral Breeze?

[willydoit]

sb cruiser,,,if your asking me whether i went or not,,,I don't leave till 3/25.

 

I did sign up with Ecotoursbelize.com instead of Coral Breeze. They answered my inquiries very quickly via e-mail. I understand that Coral Breeze tours are now being handled by a place called Hammerhead tours, or something similar.