Cave tubing...Coral Breeze or Cave-Tubing?

[Jeanne B]

I'm thinking about going cave tubing on our Carnival cruise in March but I'm not sure who to book with. I'm familiar with Coral Breeze from when I was planning our first cruise to Belize a few years ago but I'm not familiar with Cave-Tubing (are they fairly new?). Reviews of Cave-Tubing seem very good and their cave tubing tour is $15 cheaper than Coral Breeze. Is there any difference between these two tours?

[thesawch]

Coral breeze gives you a free T shirt maybe.Book with Major Tom for 45 bucks.

[Jeanne B]

Hmm, I found the website for Major Tom, now I'm torn between him or cave-tubing dot com. Both seem VERY reputable, same price, although I did read a couple of negative reviews about Major Tom by two different cruisers who happened to be on the same tour, seemed to be a rushed tour due to a busy day in port (which we'll have) in which he was taking "walk-ups" so he had almost more passengers than his vehicles would fit. I know it's only two reviews but I haven't yet read anything negative about cave-tubing dot com.

 

I think I'm leading towards cave-tubing dot com at this point but we'll see, I may change my mind.

[thesawch]

Email Major Tom and i bet he gets back to you by the end of the night....and you will be impressed i bet from what he says. Thesawch

[KDRCruisers]

We went cave tubing with cave-tubing dot com in Dec. I guide Evan was outstanding. We went on a longer tour through an extra cave and also didn't exit the river where other groups did. We stayed in our tubes and went down the river further which made a shorter walk back to our tour bus. Also, I would suggest wearing old sneakers as it is a bit of a hike. The caves are beautiful. This was one of the BEST excursions we have ever been on.:)

 

Kathy

[Rami077]

We sailed on Dec 23 on Norwegian Spirit. We had booked with Coral Breeze for cave tubing. We were very satisfied with the excursion. Our guide, Ivar, was very attentive. He jumped into the water to help us when we went astray with current. He shared his knowledge and pride of being from Belize.

We opted for the lunch after the tour and it was great, local food. I would not hesitate to book with them again.

[thesawch]

Email the various guides and see who gets back to you in a reasonable amount of time.Major Tom emailed me back the same day i asked a couple of questions and emailed back to confirm my booking so he is on the ball.I did not hear back from any other guides when i sent out my questions. Dale

[thesawch]

Jeanne.B,What is your email address.Someone from Belize wants to email you.Thesawch

[NewYearsCruizer]

We loved loved loved our cave tubing experience. We booked Vitalino Reyes from http://www.cavetubing.bz We had the experience of a lifetime with Vitalino. We didn’t book this excursion through the cruise line because Carnival’s cave tubing tour is twice as expensive, and is half the trip. Vitalino is the pioneer of cave tubing. He trained the rest of the guides, and all the equiptment the other guides use is his! He knows the river and rainforests better than anyone else. We learned all about the culture of Belize in the van ride there. It was nice to have such a personal experience. It was just the six of us, him, the driver and his two young sons in the van. He got us to the river first, before any of the other tours. He took us through the rainforest, stopping to explain interesting information about the vegetation. The hike was entertaining, and informative. It was about a 30-40 minute hike. Most was flat, but there were a few hills and stairs. He showed us the areas where the other tours started and finished, and it was easy to see that we were getting twice, if not triple the experience of the others. We jumped off a cliff into the refreshing water. We paddled backwards into a cave that nobody else was going into, and Vitalino showed us his “secret room”. Then, we floated down the river, and experience of a lifetime! We then had a delicious lunch before returning to the pier. There is a HUGE difference if you book with Vitalino. I'm so glad we did.

[pla]

I saw that someone said to bring old sneakers. Do you wear them in the water, or how is all your "stuff" transported to where you get out? I have 3 DD who are 12, 10 and 7, and I want to make sure they have what they need. Also, is the tour bus right there when you get out? We are going with cave-tubing.com, if that makes a difference.

[Jeanne B]

Jeanne.B,What is your email address.Someone from Belize wants to email you.Thesawch

 

Let me guess, Major Tom?

 

jbonin@fairpoint.net

[KDRCruisers]

I saw that someone said to bring old sneakers. Do you wear them in the water, or how is all your "stuff" transported to where you get out? I have 3 DD who are 12, 10 and 7, and I want to make sure they have what they need. Also, is the tour bus right there when you get out? We are going with cave-tubing.com, if that makes a difference.

I was the one who suggested old sneakers. I wore inexpensive water shoes which slid on my feet. Yes, you will wear them in the water. We left all of our things on the tour bus, which was locked. Anything you take with you will get wet. We wore our suits and took a change of clothes. There is a nice bathroom/changing room that you can use after the tour. Hope this info. helps. Have a great time, it was a fantastic tour with Evan from cave-tubing dot com.

Kathy

[pbbit]

Were any of you concerned about carrying that much cash? We are booked with cave-tubing dot com and you pay at the end with cash. So we'll end up carrying about 200 dollars. :eek:

[thesawch]

Major Tom takes cash or travelers checks i believe.thesawch

[Dem&Mag]

We went cave tubing with cave-tubing dot com in Dec. I guide Evan was outstanding. We went on a longer tour through an extra cave and also didn't exit the river where other groups did. We stayed in our tubes and went down the river further which made a shorter walk back to our tour bus. Also, I would suggest wearing old sneakers as it is a bit of a hike. The caves are beautiful. This was one of the BEST excursions we have ever been on.:)

 

Kathy

 

I am slightly clautraphobic (SP?) but I am very intrersted in cave tubbing, are the caves farily open or do they get very tight as you go through?

[KDRCruisers]

Dem&Mag,

Don't worry, the caves are very large no reason to be claustrophobic. Go and enjoy yourself:) .

 

Kathy

[scah]

I saw that someone said to bring old sneakers. Do you wear them in the water, or how is all your "stuff" transported to where you get out? I have 3 DD who are 12, 10 and 7, and I want to make sure they have what they need. Also, is the tour bus right there when you get out? We are going with cave-tubing.com, if that makes a difference.

 

We just came back from the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Glory New Year cruise. I organized a group from our Cruise Critic site to go cave tubing on Janury 01, 2008. After corresponding with Yhony via e-mail a few times, we ended up being a group of 23, the youngest 10 years of age, and the eldest 71 (I think). The rest of us were anywhere from 14 - 50 someting. When we arrived at port outside the terminal, there was a huge sign with all of our names on it from Cave-Tubing.com. They were waiting for us as promised. Since we were such a large group, they had a (school) bus with very comfortable seats waiting for us. Richard and his boys were very accomodating and assured us they were there for us, to make sure we had a great time, and saftey first. Our bus driver Sunny stayed on the bus with all of our belongings the whole time we went tubing. A beautiful 1/2 hour walk through the rain forest along a lightly stoned path. This is where a good sole is best as some with water shoes could feel the pebbles through the soles. Old runners are good or sandals with velcro also, as you will get wet. Some of us jumped in off of the cliff, while the rest were guided done the small cliff into the river. Then we just laid back and enjoyed the two caves, (both different in character) while our guides guided us in a human chain of tubes. We decided as a group that we would stop for a traditional Belize lunch and our tour guide Richard called ahead to place the order so that it was ready for us shortly after our arrival at the restaurant. We didn't pay for our tour until we were almost back at the port terminal. Just as the internet site said. Everyone in our group had a wonderful time, even though we all had to get up to meet at 8 am on New Years Day to take the tender into Belize port. We wanted to make sure we were together as a group. We had about and hour or so to shop at the cuise terminal before boarding the tender back to the ship. As cave-tubing.com promised, we would be back in plenty of time to get back to the ship. Enjoy your excursion!

[famplan28]

I went with Major Tom in December with a family group of 10. We had a great time...plenty of time for tubing, eating and shopping. Major Tom aims to please and answers all questions very quickly by email. I highly recomend going cave tubing with his group.

[Balisomeday]

My family of five also went cave tubing with Vatalino Reyes in early Dec. My kids thought it was the highlight of our trip and he is a fantastic guide. We were a little apprehensive as it was our first time not booking through the cruiseline - but it was absolutely wonderful and at least half the cost. We were all by ourselves with "Vitamin" as our guide and we got to relax through some of the caves while he did all the work. We definitely spent more time than any of the cruise tours and we were conveniently met just off the pier exit. He was waiting with a sign and all the email correspondance was well planned. We could have spent the whole day doing whatever we wanted and Vitale would have accommodated us. He even bought us soft drinks on the way to the cave tubing site. There are facilities to change at the national park - so you can wear your clothes and change into swim suits, then change back again when you are finished. His son stayed by the locked van and helped repair tubes. You carry your inner tube on the hike which is easy climbing or hiking for the average person. Vitale showed us many things in the jungle that we would have missed without a guide. We ate termites, sucked on sugar cane and rubbed mahogany berries on our arms for bug spray. Water sox are a good idea. You may also want to bring extra bug spray since the mosquitoes can be very annoying. We brought towels from the cruise ship and used them to dry off when we changed later. Lunch at a small ethnic restaurant was also included and everyone enjoyed that also! All in all I am now sold on prebooking our tours!

[Gator22]

My wife & I will be there the last week in Feb. on the Navigator. Can u suggest a camera for the caves? Disposable , Waterproof , Flash ??

[TallyRockChick]

Cave-tubing.com! I love those guys! So great! They made my Belize trip experience. Dont count them out because they were amazing!

[zSolarStar]

Gator - my boyfriend and I are going to be there I think the same week you are, on the Navigator (Feb 25-Mar 1). If you are looking into booking a cave tubing thing, let me know. We want to do that too. It seems like a few of the companies offer free lunch or something if you book in groups of at least 4.

 

Others - does Vitalino's excursion offer life jackets? My SO is not the greatest of swimmers, so it'd be nice to have a little piece of mind.

 

Thanks!

[gemsm]

Can anyone give me a clue as to how long it took Yhonny to get back to them?

 

I e-mailed on Monday and have not heard back yet

[DEL67]

Gator22:

 

You definitely need a waterproof camera with a flash if you want to take pictures while cave tubing. Both Kodak and Fuji make disposable ones.

[Seminole Mom]

Just got back from our 2nd cruise to Belize. We were on the New Years cruise on NOS. Both times, we chose the aerial trek/cave tubing excursion. This trip was even better since we used a local tour guide (booked with Nacho & Cynthia). The first time, we booked through the ship. This time, there were only 6 of us in our group and the personalized attention from our guide was great.

 

We got to the zip lines first before the larger groups from the ship, and then went cave tubing. There were some notable improvements with the cave tubing from our first visit a couple of years ago (a rope is now suspended across the river to help with entry, there were people from the resort positioned inside the caves to help you negotiate through, life jackets are now required, and our guide stayed with us the entire time).

 

If you're not interested in the zipline, Nacho does just cave tubing tours as well: http://www.ncqadventuretours.com/tours.html

 

Bring those water shoes (or old sneakers), change of clothes, hat, sunscreen, and bug spray. The water is a little cool this time of year. Lunch was included with the tour (chicken, cole slaw, rice and beans) -- very good. No problems getting off the ship on the tender. We were back in plenty of time, too. This is a great trip for the family. One last thing, my niece went with us and even though she is 11, she is very small and petite -- she had no problems on the zipline or in the caves. (One of the reasons we booked with Nacho is because the ship tour has a minimum age limit of 12 for this excursion).

 

Have fun! :)

Cindy