WARNING – Don’t miss out on this in Belize

[Dannzzigg]

I have to admit, when I first read this review, I thought it might have been 'a plant' by someone associated with Coral Breeze. It just made the whole thing sound simply too good to be true. Now that I have been on their excursion, though, I can only say:

 

WOW!

 

Everything the OP posted is true. This was easily the most fabulous vacation experience I have had - ever. Major kudos to Coral Breeze for everything they do to make this an awesome experience!

[MERED1TH]

I agree with most of what the OP wrote. We enjoyed this excursion very much! I originally only booked the water taxi to CC and converted on the day of the trip. I had my 2 kids ages 6 and 10 and they were reluctant at first to swim with sharks, but when they saw the other kids they agreed to try it (what can I say monkey see monkey do). Boy am I glad we did the full tour, I would have lost my mind hanging out on CC for 4 hours. If you book the water taxi through coral Breeze than you return with them at the end of the full tour. My only negative comment would have have to be with regards to the boat itself, its not a typical snorkel tour boat. The ladder to get back on was quite difficult for some people and all though its nice to have a fully covered boat from a sun standpoint this boat is to closed in. (You can have sun cover without being enclosed). So Paul its time to get out that check book and buy a new boat (lol). BTW How’s the weather in Baltimore?

[scubacruiser2]

alot like advertising.

 

Probably came fron Coral Breeze.

[Coral Breeze]

scubacruiser2, I take offense to your one and only post on CC. You can read many posts about our operation in Belize. But I do appreciate you bouncing this nice testimonial to the top for us.

[heidigrims]

After all the wonderful reviews of Coral Breeze we booked the shark ray/ sting ray alley tour in Mid-October. However our experience was anything but wonderful for the most part. First we waited at the dock for about 1/2 hour for the boat to arive...it was late. Second the comfortable, nice boat was anything but it. Literally there were not enough seats for all of the 75+ people on the boat. There were at least 10 of us standing for a 45 minute boat ride. Besides, they did not have enough snorkel gear, life jackets, seats, and one of the out board engines was not working. We stopped to get more snorkel gear and waited for about another 1/2 hour. It was miserably hot and we (all 75+ people) were not allowed to get off the boat. There was no water provided as stated, and we did not get to pick out lunch options. Eventually we headed out to the reef, and many people still never got any snorkel gear... I shared with my husband. The only thing that was somewhat good was the snorkling and the food they provided in the end. It was one of the most unorganized tours I have ever been on. This is saying a lot because I travel very frequently and this was my 9th cruise. In the end because of all the time they wasted, we were hurried through our lunch and didn't get to spend any time at all on the island as promised. In our group we had several repeat customers with Coral Breeze (2-3 times) and they said it was awful, awful, awful. I would strongly suggest looking into other tour groups!!! They knew they overbooked and didn't plan for as many as they had....disorganization!!

[Coral Breeze]

I posted this same reply in another thread to address the information anc concerns raised by "heidigrims"

 

Hi Everyone,

This is Paul from Coral Breeze. Someone else from this same tour from back in October posted about their experience on this same day. I responded to that post but for some reason can't seem to find it. In any case, I will respond to this one as well.

 

On this day back in October we did operate with a lot of people. I think the term that was used is "oversold". The fact is we can't really over sell this tour because we use additional boats. But on this day the owner of the boat we leased called 1 hour before the tour started to say they had engine problems and could not operate. There were no other suitable boats at that last minute. The tour had 61 total people on it and the boat is licensed to carry 65. Still, we like to keep the tour size on the boat under 45 and the average size is 25.

 

Operating with all of our guests on this day was a bad decision. Having no time to make any adjustments probably caused the bad call. We have since corrected this by working with other operators. IF this would happen again, we could send a portion of the group on the tour with another operator while using our Tour Guide Staff to provide the tour. It would still be a Coral Breeze quality tour.

 

Anyone who has used Coral Breeze knows how committed we are customer service. While knowing that things can't be perfect all of the time, our goal is to make things perfect. I drive our crew crazy to make sure that customer service is priority number one.

 

I fully understand when people have a bad experience they will let others know about it. Whether it is on a web board (like CC), their Travel Agent, or friend and family, they will tell people about it. This is the reason we strive for perfection. When things don't go as planned, I can only apologize for it and make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

I always appreciate feedback...good or bad. Any service company that sits back and thinks they don't have to adjust to their customers will not be in business very long. When our guests return home from their cruise, we send an email asking for feedback. We want to know!!

 

So, this is the explanation to the situation back in October that started this thread. Please be assured, we know it is your vacation and most likely the only time you will visit Belize. Our goal is to make it the best experience possible and hope you plan another visit to Belize because of it.

[carbon]

I am concerned with all the negative reviews lately. Can I take the chance and book Coral Breeze?

[WishIWereCruzin]

Thanks for some refreshingly good news!!!!!

I felt like I was there by your description. I will chenc into this tour operator!

[runner1909]

For what is worth, here is our experience with Coral Breeze. We booked with them online and had good correspondence prior to getting to Belize. We were quite pleased. We met at the designated spot and things went downhill from there. Also booked was a large family group. Perhaps smelling a large tip from this large group, as opposed to just the 2 of us, we were virtually ignored. I noticed everyone else was filling out some sort of paper, but we were never handed one, so I just thought it was some sort of registration that we had already done. The snorkeling was awesome and we did have a great time doing that. Once we arrived at our lunch destination, we went in to the restaurant and seated ourselves like the rest of our group. We could never get the attention of a server. Soon we noticed everyone else was being served their lunch. Still couldn't flag down a server. By this time, everyone else was eating. To make a long story short, the form everyone was filling out earlier was their lunch preferences. Yes, we did check-in with the employee when we first got to the meeting place, so she did know who we were and that we were there. She was so busy fawning over this other group, we were just put on the back burner. Back to lunch, we had paid for it, I wanted it. I pointed out to the employee we had not been served and she was irritated with me for not filling out a lunch request! Can't fill out a form you were never given. We got lunch at the very last minute, had to gobble it down fast, and off we went. I am glad others have had a good experience with them, but we did not. In fairness, the guys on the boat were great and that was a very good experience. On our next trip to Belize in March, we will book with another company.