Belize Cave Tubing AFTER the incident???

[adakat]

I have read countless reviews about how great the cave tubing experience is in Belize which made me decide to book this excursion. However, I am a little skeptical about booking the non-carnival excursions so I recently tried to book the Belize excursions through Carnival and it appears they yanked the cave tubing excursion off the list! I am assuming this has something to do with the recent death. So now, I have many questions!

 

I believe there are several companies that still give this tour, but which one should I go with and is it safe to go with them? Which company has the best payment policy? I want to be able to get a full refund in case we don't end up at that port or for other unforseen reasons. Has anyone gone on this tour after the incident? Is the river going to be fairly calm in December (hopefully)? How long is this excursion? I don't want this excursion to take up the entire time we are in port (we are supposed to be there from 7am - 4pm).

 

Thanks in advance!

[Cooper333]

I don't know why you are shocked that they pulled it. It has been announced everywhere. Personally, there is NO way I will do this. There are other things I can do in Belize than tube.

 

Carnival pulled it because it was their tour and someone died a miserable death.

 

I know there are other tour companies out there, so best of luck in finding one that meets your requirements!!

[adakat]

Thanks for the helpful response...

 

By no means was I trying to be insensitive and inappropriate by asking about a subject that was recently effected by a tragic incident. My intent was not to offend anyone.

[dbrucern]

Actually we did it last November thru another company and we had a great time. November/December is not their rainy season so the river is more like traveling down a lazy river. With the company you are hooked together with your feet under the arms of the person infront of you and so you all stay together, there are a few mild rapids but not anything too serious and to tell you the truth we were sort of wishing for more rapids. We had a great time. The tubing was cheaper then Carnivals excursion and we went thru more caves. Carnivals excursion was to let everyone go on their own. Where we had 3 guides for our group of 12. This was an unfortunate accident but anything can happen at any given time, on this particular cruise our next stop was Roatan and we went Zip lining the next month someone died during the same excursion.

[Sherrybaby412]

I went on this excursion in June. We loved it but it does take the entire day. You will not have time to do anything else. Not even shop. :eek:

[academic3]

Sherrybaby is right. We went with a non-Carnival company last March and the excursion was wonderful, but was an all day adventure. There wasn't time for anything else. ;)

[airhead22]

We went tubing 3 weeks ago and had a ball. We used Coral Breeze, whom we had also used several years ago. I had no hesitation booking with them as they were very professional in every way. Our guide, Ivar, who was also our guide before ( I made a special request) is wonderful. The guides have to be certified and go through training. He was very open and explained how and why the accident happened and it was the fault of the tour company. It was a carnival sponsored trip, but they use local tour companies. If there is any question of safety, the reputable ones will cancel.

[luvbeagles]

We just had an awesome experience with Major Tom and the Fun Team excursion. Book independently, his safety record goes back 20 years! He is on the board that is now governing the new guidelines which he himself has followed for 20 years! We learned so much about the culture from our guides on the bus ride, and enjoyed genuine cuisine for lunch-not an "Americanized" version. I have a fear of water, closed in places and am a poor swimmer. I would go again today with Major Tom's crew-I felt completely safe and knew that our guide was watching out for me. LOL I was also able to "barter" for one of the crew's tshirt. THAT is a whole other story!!!

[PurrSusan]

We booked with Vitalino Reyes at cavetubing dot bz. His son went tubing before we met with Vitalino to make sure that it would be safe for us. We had 4 people in our group (the bus was divided up) & we had our own guide. Luis (sp?) was fantastic!!! He helped carry some tubes to the river, made sure our life jackets were secure, placed my husband (a non-swimmer) in the middle of the line for more security, assisted each one of us into our tube & was constantly making sure we were not in any danger as we tubed down the river (the water was a little deeper & rougher that day because the caves had flooded the day before---this was 6 days before the Carnival incident). After we finished tubing we went to a local restaurant for lunch. We still had time to look through a few shops at the tender dock before heading back to the ship. I would definitely book this excursion again if I ever get the chance & I highly recommend Vitalino & his well trained guides.

[CruiseFan24]

We went cave tubing in Belize in early October thru cave-tubing.com. I researched this extensively due to the accident. From everything I've read the cruise line is NOT the way to book this tour. Not only are the cruise line tours way over priced it was on a cruise line tour that the accident occurred which is why Carnival canceled the excursion. From what I understand, the cruise line cave tubing tours did not follow the rules...they had tons of people and very few guides and just let everyone go down the river on their own and did not even make people wear life jackets. Cave-tubing.com was VERY concerned about everyone's safety. As another post said, you are hooked in groups by your legs and feet. We had four people and one guide guiding us down the river. I highly recommend cave-tubing.com. You do not pay in advance and if you get all the way to the river and don't feel safe you are not charged one cent. There were even young children on our tour. I'm not sure I would take little ones but that's just my opinion.

 

I almost cancelled after I read about the drowning but I"m so glad we didn't. It was one of the highlights of the trip but it will take most of the day. We had a little time for shopping when we got back but that was it (plus you will feel gross from being in the river and just want a shower asap!)

[Jeanne B]

People tend to feel safer because they're on a ship-sponsored excursion but the person who died in this incident was on a shop-sponsored excursion, the woman who died in the zip-lining accident in Roatan in March was on a ship-sponsored excursion. I think people often have a false sense of security just because they're booking a ship-sponsored so they maybe do little or no research.

 

Before we went cave tubing last Dec I did a lot of research on here and finally decided on cave-tubing.com and we had a fantastic day. They link the tubes which can take a bit of the fun out of it but I was honestly glad we were linked in certain areas when seeing all the guests on the Carnival excursion running into trees, etc.. I only recently read about this fatal tubing incident but it honestly doesn't surprise me that it happened on the ship-sponsored excursion. Our guides we're VERY professional, clearly knew what they were doing, they kept everyone linked the entire time and it appeared to be the opposite experience with the ship excursion.

[Tracyisme]

We did the cave tubing last January, was an amazing experience! We went with Tom...he had us all in life jackets, and had two guides with us the entire time. The bus ride there was more scary then the caves. I am so glad we did this excursion! Safety was a major concern for these folks, and never did we feel unsafe. Iguess like anything else, there is risk. Life jackets are a good thing. Unfortunately someone died during this experience, and that is sad, but wearing a life jacket, staying with the guides, and using good judgement might have changed that. It truly is an amazing experience!

[wuggylee]

hello, my family/friends and i are booked for the 12/7/08 cruise on the valor and we also were looking to book the cave tubing. however when our travel agent sat down to book it, it was no longer available. I had no idea why until i read all these post about someone dying???? How awful. Not sure the reason/fault of the persons death, however even after hearing about i believe we are still interested in booking this tour. Does anybody know any other private companies that offer it?? And has anyone experienced it themselves?? Did it seem safe, or would you recommend against it???

[jere1mt]

wuggylee looks like we are on the same cruise. we did the cave tubing last year about this time and it was great. I am a non-swimmer but wore my life jacket and it was no problem at all, river was very mild, low and slow had to do the butts up drill a couple of times in the shallows. Pick one of the recommended guides that are talked about all the time on here and you will not have a problem.

[Oilspot]

We selected Major Tom for our adventure. They have various payment options, seem very safe, and they also offer lunch for $6.

 

We spent a week in Belize a few years ago and their chicken with rice and beans was a nice down home touch during our many adventures. We are really looking forward to our trip and the lunch!

[Flyguy35]

hello, my family/friends and i are booked for the 12/7/08 cruise on the valor and we also were looking to book the cave tubing. however when our travel agent sat down to book it, it was no longer available. I had no idea why until i read all these post about someone dying???? How awful. Not sure the reason/fault of the persons death, however even after hearing about i believe we are still interested in booking this tour. Does anybody know any other private companies that offer it?? And has anyone experienced it themselves?? Did it seem safe, or would you recommend against it???

 

We are also on the Valor on Dec 7 and are looking at the cave tubing. Major Tom seems to be the way to go if doing it. Join us on the Valor Roll Call, great bunch of people on the board:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=727563&page=43

 

Duane

[adakat]

Thanks everyone, for your helpful feedback! We decided to join a group on my roll call to do the cave-tubing.com tour with Yhony. I'm VERY excited!

[SharonCruise]

We cave tubed last week with Yhoni and his crew. I was pleasently surprised to see we were traveling in a motor coach while the other companies offering tubing were in vans. It was a very comfortable ride to the caves with the guides providing information about Belize the entire way.

 

The tubing was fantastic. We never felt un-safe at any time. We had 3 guides for our group of 12 and they never left us for even a second. Your safety is very important to them. They explained how and showed us where the Carnival passenger died. Those people were allowed to just float down the river on their own and that is where she got into trouble. We were linked together all the time.

 

After tubing we made a stop for homemade tamales free of charge. DO NOT miss these. I wish I know how to make them here.:)

 

You will not regret your decision, I'm sure. Yhoni and his team are very professional and provide a wonderful excursion at a great price.

 

Sharon

[seabreezelady]

Dear adakat,

We just returned from our 1st cruise last Sat. (11/8/08).

We were aboard the Carnival Ship-Glory. We chose to go on an independent Cave-Tubing excursion in Belize with "Major Tom and the Fun Team". It was wonderful!!!! I was very afraid and apprehensive to go on this trip down the river. I talked with Major Tom before we boarded the bus for the rain forest, and he reassured me that everything would be fine. We were teamed with Major Tom's most experienced (longest employed) guide "Mike". He was GREAT!!! He kept his eye on me, checked to make sure I was doing OK and I must say our group of 5 was well taken care of at all times. We had a wonderful day. The only thing that I wasn't prepared for was how extremely cold the water was. It takes your breath away, but once you are in for a few minutes you (kind of) get used to it. I would highly recommend Major Tom and the Fun Team, they were professional and very concerned about everyone's safety and well being. What a great day.

We are already planning our next cruise. Seabreezelady

[jetstorm]

Seabreezelady,

We will be going on this tour with Major Tom and crew in Dec. and I was wondering what most people wore (or perhaps said they'd wished they wore) in the cold water? How much time were you given to change into dry clothes at the end? Are regular water shoes ok to walk in or what would you suggest? Anything else you can think of to make this experience more enjoyable is greatly appreciated.

[adakat]

GREAT questions, jetstorm!

 

I hear that synthetic fabrics are best in cold water. Keep the cotton and other natural fabrics to a minimum because they take longer to dry and they absorb the cold water.

[jetstorm]

Thanks! I would have never thought of the type of fabric as even mattering in the cold water.

[Darkwolfe]

Take a change of clothes on this tour!

 

Tom locks up his customers posessions in one of the vans when you reach the site. We hauled a change of clothes with us and changed after the tour.

 

The water can be cool, but you're so far south that it doesn't change all that much during the year.

 

While you're on the tour just remember two words.. "Butt's Up!!" :D

[cruisings8z]

Good info

Edited May 18, 2014 by cruisings8z

[cruisings8z]

I don't know why you are shocked that they pulled it. It has been announced everywhere. Personally, there is NO way I will do this. There are other things I can do in Belize than tube.

 

Carnival pulled it because it was their tour and someone died a miserable death.

 

I know there are other tour companies out there, so best of luck in finding one that meets your requirements!!

 

People can't live in fear. I drive every day and that is a risk too. Her question was valid. Just because there was a death doesnt mean automatically that it the reason it is canceled. Think about the number of deaths on cruise ships alone. Doesnt mean we stop cruising.