Cave Tubing in Belize?

[DEB010]

Help! We will be in Belize on the Carnival Valor in Jan. 2005. Looking for the best place to book a cave tubing tour. Looking into Reggie's and Xtream, but would like more information from someone who has been there recently. Has anyone ever missed returning to their ship from one of these tours? We are scheduled to be in port from 9am - 6pm (ship's time). All information/helpfull hints appreciated. Thanks.

[Denise147]

Just went tubing w/Reggie last wk. I highly recommend him. He's honest, organized & very personable. His son, Jahmal (sp??) was our guide & he was very interesting & nice. We had no problems meeting up w/Reg's tour group & no problems getting back to the ship on time. They are very concientious about making sure you don't miss your ship.

 

Hope that helps!

[DEB010]

Thanks Denise147, that does help. I've also read about Marvin at Wet 'n Wild - so right now it seems to be between Reggie and Marvin. Will have to make up my mind soon ...

[Bobnjoyce]

We booked, short notice, with Reggie's last week. It was wonderful. Jamai (?) was our guide. He was polite, knowledgeable, well-spoken, very much tuned to our having a great time. We saw the herd of excursion people from the ship excursion. They got 25-50% less caves, tube time and assistance and paid 25-50% more. We opted for the local lunch rather than the BBQ. It was great... Jamai took us to the neatest patio restaurant on the way home, a truly unique experience. We were very well-treated and would highlyt recommend Reggies, especially with Jamai.

 

If you have questions, please ask. I'll reply, but only check the boards occasionally, so it may be a couple of days.

[cruisin' scrapper]

Just got back from the Elation 10/03 & had a great time. We used Wet n Wild & were extremely pleased. We also spoke with some people who went with Reggie & they were just as happy with him. I think either company seems to be reliable & dedicated to customer service & would be a good choice. We ate a a roadside restaurant called Amigos & the food was delicious!

Have a great time & think of all of us left at home!

[DEB010]

Thanks for the help.

I wrote and received a very prompt reply from Marvin at Wet and Wild and have booked with him - (it was really a toss up between Reggie and Marvin). Can't wait till January. I'm sure I will get rave reviews from my family for this vacation. Can't believe that it took me so long to find and use these boards they are a fantastic source of great information.

-Deb.

[Backfence]

I'm searching and his website doesn't seem to be around anymore. Yet, I'm seeing people on these forums who have gone cave tubing with him recently. I assume he's still operating. If so, can someone tell me how to reach him? He used to be at http://www.regtours.com. (That would be Reggie & wife Chellee (sp.), & son, etc.) Thanks. Carol B.

[CMHF]

Drop the S at the end. Went with his son in early November, it was a wonderful tour.

Harvey

[freddiebud]

i noticed that no one answered whether they missed the ship. hmmm. is that because those folks don't read and post or because no one ever missed the ship because of cave tubing.

[CMHF]

We didn't miss the ship, we had a longer tour w/ 3 cave systems, had a total of 4 people on our tour. The ship's tour went through 2 caves and had about 50-60 people with only 2 guides. The ships tour cost $34 pp more than ours & got back to the dock about 1/2 hour after us.

Harvey

[kurioskitty]

Just got off the Carnival Miracle Nov21-28 we also went to Belize, I was told to stay on the boat, but we decided to book a tour so I found http://www.actionBelize.com and booked cave tubing with them, we had 11 people and the cost was $49.00us pp. $59.00 4-7 people, and $69.00 1-3 people. They were by far the best price for us. Some people on our boat paid $89.00 for the same excursion and we saw their huge groups of people. We had just our group. I was a little nervous getting off the boat to the tender for they are small speed boats, they did let us off first with other passengers you just need to be persistant with them. We had the best driver told us alot about Belize and the people culture, The ride was about 40 min. or so and the walk thru the rain forest was 35 min. The caves were incredible and would highly recommend this to anyone.. Any ? just ask.. Yvonne

[noedig]

We just got back from cave tubing. We went with X-tream and absolutely loved it. I would not worry whatsoever about missing the boat. All of the outfits that take you there do this for a living. If they started to miss boats, their business would take a huge nose-dive. We had a local guy tell us that the tours always get back on time. There were 13 in our group and one leader, Thomas. Before we left to go tubing Thomas placed our food order and when we were back, it was waiting for us. There were 3 vans from X-Tream and the leaders decided that there was plenty of time to sit down and eat. If there was not, we would have eaten on the drive back.

 

By the way, the private tours are much better than the ship-booked tours. The ship tours are HUGE, noisy and disorganized. There is no way to keep the large numbers of people around their guide, and it becomes a mess. We saw a couple of ship tours while there. In fact our guide let one pass by us while in the caves, just to get the noise away from us. There is no way they could have heard and learned much from their guide unless they were connected to his hip. Also we were told that the ship tours do not do the dry cave where we saw the fruit and insect bats, and that some ship lines, like Carnival, do not do both of the wet caves, but just one of them.

 

But, do not worry about missing your boat. My wife is a worrier, but once we talked to some people on shore, and saw the process, she didn't worry a bit about missing the boat, and it is one of her greatest fears on a cruise.

[mattyboy]

Great review. We booked X-streme for Jan and happy to see you had great experience. Question - Time wise, how early did you get off ship and when did you actually leave, did you have to wait for others? and finally - did you have time to shop at pier when you got back? Thanks.

[gowithpooh]

:) I would highly recommed Reggie, actually his son "J" a very bright young man who answered all of your questions and took very good care of us! Take a change of clothes there is a place to change. :) :)

[noedig]

To answer Mattyboy's questions:

 

First of all the tendering process in Belize is "unique" the ships anchor WAY OFF SHORE and local boat owners do the tendering. You could be in a boat that holds 200, or you could be in a boat that holds 15. Some go very fast, some not so. We had a fairly fast boat and the tender still took at least 20 minutes. It's a long hike. There were 4 cruise ships in that day and the water was filled with boats zipping back and forth.

 

Our confirmation paper from X-Stream told us to meet inside the port at 7:50am but we still hadn't start tendering until about 8:10am, and with the long tendering, it was about 8:30 when we arrived. No problem finding the X-Stream guys, and they immediately began to confirm pre-booked people and book new people. We waited for about 15 minutes and then they took 13 of us who were already paid/confirmed to a van to go as they waited for others to arrive. There were people from 3 different ships in our group. There were 3 van loads that eventually left from X-Stream.

 

They said the drive would be about an hour. I didn't time it going, but it took about 80 minutes coming back. Probably the same time going as well as nothing unusually different took place. The first 55 minutes of the drive is on paved road. The last 25 minutes were on a brutal dirt/rocky road. YOW! Lots of traffic, tour buses, etc. . . (the butterfly farm and another tourist attraction are up this road as well)

 

The hike took about 45 minutes, but then we ended up waiting in line at the spot where you enter the water. There was a bit of a back up of groups and they want to make sure there is a separation between groups. Because X-Stream does an additional dry cave walk, some large boat tour groups had gotten in front of us. Also Thomas and another X-Stream group guide agreed to let a group go in front of us so that both X-Stream groups could be together.

 

The tubing took about 2 hours. You finish up where the jungle hike began, a two minute walk from the BBQ/vehicles/showers/changing rooms. Because our guides felt we had enough time, we stayed and ate on site. Thomas, our guide, seemed a bit more pokey than the other groups which meant we were one of the last groups to leave and get back to the ship. We arrived back in port at 3:30pm and the last tender was supposed to leave at 4:30pm. So, you would have a bit of time to check out the shops in the tourist city part of the port. We didn't because we were tired and there was a large tender boat just getting ready to leave for our ship.

 

In all reality you probably will get back before our group did because we were one of the very last ones back, which would then give you more time to shop.

 

One other thing. You might want to take a bit of a snack as well. It will be at least 1:00pm before you get to the end of the tubing and before you eat. You've done a jungle hike and 2 hours of tubing (which does require some physical effort) you will be hungry. Our entire group were quite hungry. If I were to do it again I would take some snack either to eat at the end of the hike, or put it in a zip-lock back and eat while tubing. Not a roast turkey with gravy and stuffing, but some cookies or a bar or something just to hold you over.

 

I hope this wasn't too wordy for you.

 

It really was alot of fun. Make sure you have an underwater camera that has a flash if you want to take pictures.

[mattyboy]

Thanks so much for your answers to my questions. You really took the time to reply and I am very grateful.

 

We are the only ship in the day we are there, so I imagine it will go somewhat smoother.

 

Were the times you mentioned Belize or ship time?

 

Thanks so much for the tip on snacks. My college kids will definitely be less cranky, especially since I'll bring and carry them. How do you carry them when walking in the jungle. I thought they don't let you take anything with you?

[DEB010]

Thanks Noedig,

that was a wonderful review, answered a lot of questions. appreciate all the information and helpful hints.

-Deb010

[DEB010]

Mattyboy,

is the Valor really the only ship in on the 11th? how did you find that out?

Deb010

[Scout and Jeff]

I am considering booking this with Reggie. I have a 5 and a 7 year old and he said he could bring along another guide just for the kids ($25 extra). She would help carry DD5 tube and help steer their tubes.

 

Even with the extra adult, do you think this would be too strenuous for my kids? Are you continuously paddling your hands to move the tube or does the current take you slowly?

[mattyboy]

Cruisecal.com for where ships are on what days. Give it a try.

[noedig]

Some more answers to questions:

 

All the times i mentioned were Belize time, which, when you are in Belize is also the ship's time.

 

As for carrying snacks with you, it's not a problem as long as you have the pockets or bag for them. Our guide actually had a knapsack he carried for the trip. In it were the headlamps that we wore in the caves. He also carried a large powerful flashlight to better illuminate interesting rock formations while in the cave. As a side note, our guide also wore a red LED headlamp so we could easily pick him out of a crowd or from a distance, while we were in the caves. But, back to the snacks. If I had to do it over again, I would have just packed several granola/chocolate bars that we could easily pull out of a pocket, eat and put the garbage back in a pocket.

 

About the paddling/kids thing. I would take Reggie up on the extra guide, if for nothing else, your peace of mind, and ability to enjoy the trip yourself. I don't think it would be a huge problem you taking care of the kids yourself, but it would mean you are focusing on that all the time, and, hey, I'm sure that's not why you want to go cave tubing in Belize. The paddling thing: my wife is not a huge fan of constantly paddling, and her ability to steer those tubes was absolutely ZERO! So our guide told me to hook my feet under the back of her tube, and I paddle/steered and led her throughout the caves. A bit more work for me, but my wife enjoyed herself. I could easier see a person hooking one foot under each of the two children you mentioned, and dragging them along. Also, when you go through the caves, you sit in the tube, face backwards and paddle with a backstroke. This is the most effective and you don't get chaff marks on your arms by paddling frontward. The first cave is slower and if you didn't paddle you would be most of the day going through it. The second cave was a fair bit faster. It was not strenuous at all. When we came to what they called rapids, you turned around so that your feet pointed down stream, hauled up your butt so it didn't bump into the rocks, and went down. They really weren't rapids at all, but faster moving areas of the cave. The water was faster only because the water was much shallower, so you could actually stand up and walk if you wanted to in those areas. The rocks are smooth and rounded, and your rearend would bump over them if you didn't haul it up enough.

 

You will no doubt notice a big difference in the numbers of groups if there is only one ship in port. My guess is that you will get back to the port a fair bit sooner. Good on ya!

 

Hope this helps

[Scout and Jeff]

Thanks noedig,

 

That does help. Actually that is what Reggie said is that the guide would hook her legs under the kids tubes to help them steer.

 

Any bugs? Would we need bug spray?

[ISKI4FN]

Here is my review of our cave tubing experience. Yes, I recommend the bug spray.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=97496

[CMHF]

Scout & Jeff,

We went last month with our 7 YO son with Reggies, He had a wonderful time, he is a good swimmer but still had him wear a lifevest. Jamai, Reggie's son was our guide, there were a total of four people on our tour. With 2 children and especially with a 5 YO I would take the extra guide. My son loved the walk in the jungle, however is your kids don't like to walk (Mine does), it might be boring for them, it was very exciting for my son because he was doing a project in school about rain forests. Have fun!

Harvey

[Nan-L]

has anyone gone with coral breeze?