Star Tour Co in Belize

[bike1964]

Anyone ever use Star Tours in Belize for diving/snorkeling? We are going in Feb and want to try to book a dive (wife)/Snorkel (me) trip on our own. They have offered to accomodate us and provide transportation, and they want a 50% deposit via Pay Pal? Please advise?

[FlaFan]

Is this outfit run by Ramon, owner of Tropical / Tropicana Hotel on Caulker Caye?

 

If yes, then all is good. Thru paypal, I booked 3 hour cruise passenger snorkel tour in Oct. Ended up being just 3 of us: me, the wife & Leon our capt. Once we got to the hotel after "taxi" ride from pier, the gal at the front desk had to call to find us a capt, but hotel was aware we were coming. The taxi was a golf cart, but we got to where we needed to be after $5 USD for 2 of us going about 1/2 mile. Had a guy give us tickets for water taxi over from Belize City when we arrived at water taxi bldg and Leon covered the cost for the way back.

 

Enjoy,

 

FlaFan

[jntcruise]

We just took the Reef Tour offered to cruisers through Star Tours last week. The skorkeling was great and Cay Caulker is a very quaint, beautiful island - no cars. We were able to swim with stingrays at Shark Ray Bay - totally awsome!

 

As far as Star Tours, the snorkeling aspect was great! The transporation to and from the island was a little dissappointing. Below please find the email i sent to the following our cruise. If you can get DETAILS regarding the Water Taxi times you'll be golden! That was our frustration as you'll see from my message to them below. They offered no discount for our trouble. They did offer 50% off another tour or 50% off a one night stay at one of their resorts (but with it being so remote, the chance of us getting back there anytime soon is slim).

 

=========================================

Email sent to Star Tours after our return

 

We just returned from our cruise on this past Sunday with Carnival Legend. On Thursday we visited Belize and I had booked myself and 5 others for your Barrier Reef Tour. We were excited about visiting Caye Caulker and the snorkeling adventure. We took extra effort to get off the boat as soon as possible and to the water taxi so that we could get to Caye Caulker and on with our adventure. Your site conveyed that there was transportation available from 7:30-10:15. We were at the Terminal at 7:30 (Belize time) and ready to go; only to find that we had to wait on 4 other people from other ships that were on our tour as well.

1-1/2 hours later 2 other people showed up, and it wasn’t until nearly 10am that the final two passengers appeared and we were able to leave. All the while, 6 of us spent 2-1/2 hours waiting in the Belize City Water Taxi Terminal (not the most luxurious of accommodations); 8 of us waiting an hour on two people to arrive. Once we finally arrived at BEAUTIFUL Caye Caulker, the stress somewhat began to melt away. None of the group was impressed by the “Friendly Customer Service” of Celina who was at the office when we expressed our previous displeasure.

Vito (I think that was his name) and the Captain (David I think) helped calm us as the snorkeling and attention they provided was fantastic!

We arrived back at the Dock at 1pm only to find we had leave at 1:30 to get back to the ship by 2:30. By the information you listed on your website we were thinking we would get to the island around 9am and get to spend some time exploring the quaint, beautiful island and then head out for snorkeling. As it turned out we had no time to “relax on any of our resort’s beaches after our tour” or “have lunch at your restaurant. and just explore Caye Caulker or shop” as promised on your website.

I feel that much of this could have been resolved by better communication upfront (email responses were very vague and left me hanging on many details of the Tour), which after to talking to the other groups on our tours, it was the same communication they received.

Although the snorkeling was fantastic, we missed out on much of what we were hoping to experience from our visit to the Caye. Celina made no effort to rectify this, and simply responded to every statement with, “you’re getting all your snorkel spots!”.

The snorkeling was fantastic, but the communication, Customer Service, and wasted time tainted this trip for us. I feel that much of the problem could have been resolved with some simple communication on pick up and drop off times.

[jntcruise]

Is this outfit run by Ramon, owner of Tropical / Tropicana Hotel on Caulker Caye?

 

If yes, then all is good. Thru paypal, I booked 3 hour cruise passenger snorkel tour in Oct. Ended up being just 3 of us: me, the wife & Leon our capt. Once we got to the hotel after "taxi" ride from pier, the gal at the front desk had to call to find us a capt, but hotel was aware we were coming. The taxi was a golf cart, but we got to where we needed to be after $5 USD for 2 of us going about 1/2 mile. Had a guy give us tickets for water taxi over from Belize City when we arrived at water taxi bldg and Leon covered the cost for the way back.

 

Enjoy,

 

FlaFan

 

Yes this is the one run by Ramon, although you never see him if you take the Tour offered to cruisers. You will get to deal with Celina, which is fine as long as everything goes well (her way). :)

 

You deal with Ramon via email, but that is it.

[yuki5900]

just read the above 2 posts...hi jeremy! it's kari and thom from sarasota. we were the first 2 of 4 people that the above group had to wait for. I agree that the tour itself was fabulous, no complaints there. but......while our wait at the water taxi was only (!!!) about an hour and 15 minutes, we, too were very upset with the (lack of) specific arrangements. I sent ramon an email today expressing our unhappiness, and will report back if/when he replies. One of the things I wrote was that I had booked with Star Tours largely based on the recommendation of my friend (jennifer.c21 on these boards), who also had time confusion/ issues but was happy with the way everything was handled. I mentioned cruisecritic.com and that I was sure he had received lots of business based on her rave reviews. Hopefully he will recognize the amount of good or bad publicity you can get through this website and he will do something (what? I'm not sure...) that will make the 8 of us who spent valuable vacation time waiting around unnecessarily and unsure of what was going on feel better about our Star Tours experience.

[cooperhs]

Regarding Star tours, are you saying that if you get there on your own (pay the extra $15 usd to the water taxi instead of paying for the "cruise passenger tour") that everything will be ok?

[jntcruise]

just read the above 2 posts...hi jeremy! it's kari and thom from sarasota. we were the first 2 of 4 people that the above group had to wait for. I agree that the tour itself was fabulous, no complaints there. but......while our wait at the water taxi was only (!!!) about an hour and 15 minutes, we, too were very upset with the (lack of) specific arrangements. I sent ramon an email today expressing our unhappiness, and will report back if/when he replies. One of the things I wrote was that I had booked with Star Tours largely based on the recommendation of my friend (jennifer.c21 on these boards), who also had time confusion/ issues but was happy with the way everything was handled. I mentioned cruisecritic.com and that I was sure he had received lots of business based on her rave reviews. Hopefully he will recognize the amount of good or bad publicity you can get through this website and he will do something (what? I'm not sure...) that will make the 8 of us who spent valuable vacation time waiting around unnecessarily and unsure of what was going on feel better about our Star Tours experience.

 

Hey Kari! I was hoping to see a post on here from you and Thom. Hear anything from Ramon yet? My email address is here if you want to send me an email. Take care!

[jntcruise]

Regarding Star tours, are you saying that if you get there on your own (pay the extra $15 usd to the water taxi instead of paying for the "cruise passenger tour") that everything will be ok?

 

I believe they will still wait for the entire group to be there and ready before leaving for the snorkeling tour. However you can hang out and explore the island while you wait as opposed to spending your time in the wonderful Water Taxi Terminal.

[shamrock1972]

It's a 45 minute water ride, so they can only make one trip in the morning for their cruise passengers. You can pay less and provide your own transportation to Caye Caulker, but their tour leaves at 10:30 reagardless how you get there. They won't take you out simply because you get their earlier than their transportation. Regarding getting back, you have to follow the water taxi schedule which star tours does not dictate and take back which ever one will get you back in time to make your last tender to your own ship. We took star tours a few weeks ago, and yes the communication is vague, but overall we had a good experience. You have to pay attention to ship time and Belize time also. Our ship was on Belize time, so it made things much easier. We had time after the snorkel trip to walk around and have lunch right on the beach.

[yuki5900]

After sending Star Tours a detailed email about our terrible experience, I got no reply for a week. Finally sent another email asking if the original was received. Ramon replied, "yes and sorry for your troubles." That was it.

 

I neglected to mention a few other complaints in my earlier post (didn't want to seem like I was complaining about everything, but now all bets are off!)

1) I asked repeatedly before booking to have Leon as my guide, since that's who my friend used and loved. My request was never addressed and when I kept pushing it I was told, sure, I'd get Leon.....of course that never happened.

2) I booked one week before we left for our cruise and emailed asking for specifics about times, etc. Got a reply from Ramon saying he was out of the country but would get back to me by Friday (we were leaving the house Sunday morning to drive to Miami). Friday night......nothing.....

Saturday........nothing.....sent a frantic email Saturday night asking for details.........finally got something early Sunday before we left with NO details about times, just who to ask for at the water taxi place. Stressful!

 

My advice: even though the tour itself was great, save yourself lots of anxiety and time and go with someone else. It is clear to me that these guys do not care about your experience, as evidenced by their poor communication before you leave and their lack of concern after the fact.

[travelgirlie]

Thanks to everyone for your honesty! ;) I am making arrangements for a party of 12 and would not consider Star tours due to your comments. Thanks again for helping me in my decision making.