NCL Swim with Nurse sharks, snorkel and Ambergis Caye or Coral Breeze Caye Caulker

[meliss35]

My family and I are going to Belize on a cruise this month. I booked thru the NCL cruise line an excursion that snorkels at Hol Chan Marine, swim with stingrays and nurse sharks and then lunch and time at Ambergis Caye. It is a expensive excursion. It was the only excursion that I could find that went to Ambergis Caye. I just found a posting on cruise critic saying that he went on this excursion and it wasn't good. He said there was no nurse sharks and the snorkeling was bad. He said he snorkeled at a dead bleached reef. He also said that the boat ride was long. He also said that he was bothered by people selling drugs while eating lunch. I am trying to decide if I should cancel this tour and book Coral Breezze tour that includes swim with stingrays, snorkeling and time at Caye Caulker. Which is nicer Ambergis Caye or Caye Caulker?

[jcjky]

Ambergis Caye is futher and more developed than Caye Caulker. Ambergis Caye will be a all day trip. You will probaby snorkel at the same spots. When I was there last year the sharks were gone but lots of stingrays. Caye Caulker will cost about half of what you are paying.

[meliss35]

Thanks for your response. Which is nicer Ambergis Caye or Caye Caulker? Is the snorkeling good at Hol chan marine?

[ohio_cruiser]

My family and I are going to Belize on a cruise this month. I booked thru the NCL cruise line an excursion that snorkels at Hol Chan Marine, swim with stingrays and nurse sharks and then lunch and time at Ambergis Caye. It is a expensive excursion. It was the only excursion that I could find that went to Ambergis Caye. I just found a posting on cruise critic saying that he went on this excursion and it wasn't good. He said there was no nurse sharks and the snorkeling was bad. He said he snorkeled at a dead bleached reef. He also said that the boat ride was long. He also said that he was bothered by people selling drugs while eating lunch. I am trying to decide if I should cancel this tour and book Coral Breezze tour that includes swim with stingrays, snorkeling and time at Caye Caulker. Which is nicer Ambergis Caye or Caye Caulker?

 

Meliss35,

I am also on the NCL Spirit that leaves New Orleans on Dec 21. We did the Coral Breeze tour last year, and it was very good. Bad news, Coral Breeze will not be operating and tours on Dec 25, the day we are in Belize. So you and us are stuck with very few options to snorkel. Two of them are shore excurions with the ship and I found 2 other private snorkel tours. I think we are going to stick with the NCL shore excurion Shark Ray Alley & Ambergris Caye.

Have a great cruise!

Kevin

[crzycnck]

Meliss35

 

My gf and I are having the same dilemma after reading that member review last night. We are lucky as we don't leave until Feb so there is lots of time to hear the reviews of other travellers. We did read some reviews from last spring that it was amazing, so it could be the time of year as well. As for the actual tour group, I am hoping that they clean up their act or NCL goes with a different group because it has the potential to be a great excursion.

[meliss35]

Ohio Cruiser: We decided that we will stick with the NCL excursion also. I didn't realize that Coral Breeze's tours don't run on Christmas Day. There is a roll call for our cruise if you haven't gone on yet. I assume you are coming from Ohio. We are coming from Pennsylvania. How many people in your party?

[ohio_cruiser]

Ohio Cruiser: We decided that we will stick with the NCL excursion also. I didn't realize that Coral Breeze's tours don't run on Christmas Day. There is a roll call for our cruise if you haven't gone on yet. I assume you are coming from Ohio. We are coming from Pennsylvania. How many people in your party?

 

Melissa35,

We are a party of 5. Brother from Salt Lake City. My wife & I and my parents (from Akron, Ohio area). Snowey junk comming down now. YUCK. Our daughter will be working for 10 weeks on the Spirit in the Kids Crew area. This will be our 8th NCL cruise.

Have a great time!

Kevin

[meliss35]

Ohio Cruiser: We are a party of 4 (My husband , two children (13 & 17)) We are driving down to New Orleans and after the cruise we are going to Texas for a week. I have not been on a NCL cruise before. Does your daughter like working on the ship? What are you doing at the other ports?

[ohio_cruiser]

Meliss35,

We drove down to New Orleans last year to do this same cruise. It's a long drive. Good luck. We will fly this year and arrive in New Orleans On Fri, Dec. 19. My daughter starts next week Sunday (Dec 14) so all for right now, she is excited to leave this cold weather for 10 weeks. She has cruised many of times with us on NCL, so she loves the cruising thing. Now the working thing... ...is going to be a bit different. Work 7 days a week for 10 hours a day. But at least she will be up on deck with the vacationers. I have not been on any other cruise line so I can't compare with others. For the price, we have a very good time.

 

Other ports - Costa Maya (never been there), we are getting away from everything and going to hotel Maya Luna for the day. FYI-did you get info from NCL that say's we will be getting into dock 2 hr later because new engine is not "tuned" up yet?

 

Santo Tomas De Castilla (never been there), you have to becarefull here. We typically like to wander towns by ourselves and blend into the culture but not this time. The U.S. has issued a travel advisory for this area saying "Traditionally, Guatemala experiences increases in crime before and during the Christmas and Easter holiday seasons." Perfect timing on our part... We will stick to a NCL shore excursion but have not picked one out yet.

 

Belize (this will be our 3rd time here), First trip we toured the Mayan Ruins. It was okay if you want to look at rocks. The second time we snorkeled with the sting rays and went to the reef. Loved it. Some of the best snorkeling we have seen so far. We are going to to another snorkel trip this year. Probably Shark Ray Alley & Ambergris Caye. If you love water, you have to stick your face under to see the beauty of the reefs here. I highly recommend doing a beach/snorkel adventure here. We have also heard that Cave Tubing is fun here. Purchase a bottle of Cashew Wine to bring home.

 

Cozumel (3rd time here), First time we just walked around the town. Lots of shops and most places give you free samples of tequila. Last year we rested a car and did some of our own snorkeling and island touring. This year we have a van rented and will probably be doing just about the same thing.

 

Look out for the crazy Ohioans.

Kevin

[meliss35]

Ohio cruiser: As far as Guatamala, I booked the go with gus tour. I was alittle worried about this tour when I read your message I then contracted Gus. He wrote me the following which made me feel alot better on doing this tour:

Our eco system is the most peaceful in Guatemala. The Humanitarian tour goes places where people are humble and hospitality is the best for the tourist industry. I started this tour three and half years ago and the Mayan Kekchi indians love Americans. I am the Secretary of Security for this area and I am in charge of organizing the security of all our visitors, we been having every week two Humanitarian tours and people feel very safe. I will be your tour guide in your group. Please post what I just communicated to you, on cruisecritic so everybody knows that our eco system is safe and secure to visit and for other people who had visit us already, to comment. The crime area is about 10 hours away from us in the border between Mexico and Guatemla where the drug cartels are fighting for territory.

 

Your daughter will have a great time working on Norwegian. Look forward to meeting you on our belize tour.

[Southernbelle73]

I read the exact same review that you all are talking about and have to say one thing I was on the very same cruise and tour with the poster of that review. Now having said that I need to say that I totally disagree with what the poster wrote... In my opinion, my family and I had a wonderful time snorkling, he is correct in saying that there were no nurse sharks to be seen, but let me tell you - the stingrays are some of the most majestic underwater creatures I have ever seen. And yes, we had in the neighborhood of about 35 with us. It was really neat. I don't want to bash the poster of the review, but I think that we both went on the tour with very different expectations. He was a very experienced diver/snorkler (this I know from speaking to them while on the tour) and was very disappointed in the length of time that they were actually out on the reef and also was upset because that had a guide that would not let them get out of there site for safety reasons. The tour divides the group into two groups, beginner and advanced. I went with the beginner group and was treated great - had the time of my life. Not sure exactly what happened with the advanced group but somehow they ended up back on the boat before all of us.

 

As far as lunch and drugs being sold openly. I was at that same resturant and never saw a thing. We have even discussed going back to this very area to vacation. The area is incredibly beautiful and we found a little rum/coffee shop down one of the streets that has great pinapple rum and coconut rum.

 

FYI - If you are a coffee drinker make sure to pick up some coffee while in Guatemala - best I have ever had.

 

PS - I was on the Spirit the week of Thanksgiving......

[crzycnck]

I read the exact same review that you all are talking about and have to say one thing I was on the very same cruise and tour with the poster of that review. Now having said that I need to say that I totally disagree with what the poster wrote... In my opinion, my family and I had a wonderful time snorkling, he is correct in saying that there were no nurse sharks to be seen, but let me tell you - the stingrays are some of the most majestic underwater creatures I have ever seen. And yes, we had in the neighborhood of about 35 with us. It was really neat. I don't want to bash the poster of the review, but I think that we both went on the tour with very different expectations. He was a very experienced diver/snorkler (this I know from speaking to them while on the tour) and was very disappointed in the length of time that they were actually out on the reef and also was upset because that had a guide that would not let them get out of there site for safety reasons. The tour divides the group into two groups, beginner and advanced. I went with the beginner group and was treated great - had the time of my life. Not sure exactly what happened with the advanced group but somehow they ended up back on the boat before all of us.

 

As far as lunch and drugs being sold openly. I was at that same resturant and never saw a thing. We have even discussed going back to this very area to vacation. The area is incredibly beautiful and we found a little rum/coffee shop down one of the streets that has great pinapple rum and coconut rum.

 

FYI - If you are a coffee drinker make sure to pick up some coffee while in Guatemala - best I have ever had.

 

PS - I was on the Spirit the week of Thanksgiving......

 

Thank you so much for posting another side to that review. I know myself I am not an advanced snorkeler at all so even just seeing fish would make me happy haha. My gf and I have already booked that excursion for this Feb and we were very concerned about it after that posting but you have definitely eased our concerns. It just points out that you have to take everything with a grain of salt! Thank you!