Shark Ray Snorkeling/Caye Caulker Exploration

[darjensil]

Has anyone ever done this excursion through Coral breeze tours? Wondering what the experience was like. Thanks.

[travgurl]

We did this in July. We had such a great time, we are repeating it next week with friends. The guides are wonderful, very personable and knowledgeable. Caye Caulker is a very quiet, laid back tropical island. We ordered lunch with our excursion. You pick out what you want before you begin the trip. We ordered the island special. The snorkeling was great. It is a day I will always remember.

[darjensil]

Thanks for the info. When you snorkled were you in and among many sting rays and did you see any sharks- nurse sharks that is?

[pitz0005]

We booked with Coral Breezes in Jan. 2008. After reading some posts I had emailed to verify that they had enough people for the tour to go. I was assured that the trip was a go. When we arrived we were informed that the trip was canceled. After searching around the pier, it was pretty clear that the trip through Coral Breeze is often canceled. There is another operator that also goes to the same area as Coral Breeze and then does lunch at Caye Caulker also. We ended up going with this company instead. I do not recall the name, but it is the same company that shoretrips books through. If I had to do it again I would not book in advance. We arrived at port around 10:00 and the tour did not end up leaving until 11:30. They wait for everyone to come ashore to fill up the boats before leaving. The tour starts with about a 45 min. boat ride to Caye Caulker were you make a stop to put in your lunch order. From there it is about a 3 minute ride to the reef. We snorkeled for about 45 to 1 hour. It was pretty good. Probably equivlant to Grand Cayman. After this you take another short ride to a sand bar where you are only allowed to have a snorkel and mask. There were lots of stingrays, but no sharks. The stingray portion was probably better than Stingray City in Grand Cayman because we were the only boat. The only part better about Grand Cayman was that they give you squid to feed the rays. In Grand Cayman, we booked with Moby Dick Tours. I would say Moby Dick was better, but this was not too bad. It seemed rare for people to see sharks. If yor are booking just for the sharks I would pass or try the one through the ship to San Pedro. Caye Caulker is a very nice laid back island. The restaurant we went to was also very good. Overall I would say this is a very good tour for the money. As I said before, wait until you get ashore to book and go from there. I also think if you book through the ship you will get more time because they pick you up at the ship and you do not have to wait for everyone to go ashore. You will have a great time whatever you do.

[AlanAllyn]

Has anyone ever done this excursion through Coral breeze tours? Wondering what the experience was like. Thanks.

We did this in December. It was a great excursion as described by travgurl. The people on the boat were very helpful. Our ship changed itinerary at the last minute and they knew about it before we did. Because of our dietary restrictions, we didn't pre-order lunch but were able to get it at the same place as the others.

 

Alan

[travgurl]

We saw some sting rays, enough to be entertaining. We also saw some nurse sharks. It was enough for me. I sure it is not like to sting ray city in Grand Cayman.

[SusieQT]

We just returned from this trip.

 

It didn't leave until 10am Belize time, which was 11am our ship's time. Our ship stated that we were in port until 5pm (which was true) but due to the time it takes to tender, the last tender posted time was 3:15 ship time, 2:15 Belize time. So, our tour was only 4 hours, and I felt like we were wasting a lot of daylight waiting to leave.

 

But, I do highly recommend this trip. We booked with Coral Breezes, and Hammerhead water sports was the tour operator. The guides were great, we saw a green morray eel, barracuda, loads of fish, octopus in a shell, etc.

 

But, book the earliest trip you can find, so you have the most time. It's about 45 minutes 1 way to the snorkeling spot.

 

The stingrays were okay, we have done Grand Cayman in the past, Grand Cayman was better. Our guide said that since the last hurricane, they rarely see sharks.

 

Caye Caulker was cool, we would've liked to have more time on the island. The lunch was good.

[sheila77]

We were on this tour on 1/24/08 - We booked through ecotoursbelize when we arrived at the pier. We were originally going to go cave tubing but we (a group of 10) decided we wanted to snorkel instead. We got a great price and had a great time. We would have preferred more time snorkeling at the reef - but we still had fun. Marvin was the person we spoke with at the pier and apparently he was the owner. The guides on the boat were good and we had a great time with the stingrays and then had lunch on our own at Caye Caulker. I do wish we would have had more time snorkeling and more time at Caye Caulker but I do understand that we were with a large group.

[Royal24car]

We did this in May of 2007. The people at Coral Breeze were great and the three guides we had were fantastic. Henni was our main guide while Captain Mark took the wheel. They are such nice people and we would definately do this again. Our 14 year old son was a bit nervous since Steve Irwin had recently been killed by a stingray. Captain Mark nicknamed him "Shark Bait" and put him at ease. It is a time he will never forget and he wants to go back to Belize just to do it all over again. Had it not been for our guides - I don't know how this would've turned out. The island of Caye Caulker is beautiful and very laid back. We shopped a little after lunch and found that the locals were all extremely friendly and glad to have you on their island. Coral Breeze Tours makes this such a special day that you will never want it to end.