How best to get tender off ship in Belize?

[DEB010]

hi, we're going to be on the Carnival Valor's Jan. 9th sailing. I am told the ship is near to full (ony 2 cabins left). with a ship this full I am worried about getting the tender into port in time for our tour (NOT a Carnival booking). Does anyone have any hints or suggestions on how best to get off the ship? Do they really check to see who has Carnival's tour bookings as opposed to direct tour bookings?

all help appreciated.

thanks.

DEB010

[transit5495]

Tell the information desk about your tour and they will let you leave early.

[Donnask8pro]

Belize a tender port?

[transit5495]

Belize is very much a tender port.The docks are small compared to the Cruise Ship Docks. It makes for a quaint small village feeling. It's about a 20 minute tender to Belize.

[zydecocruiser]

I belize Carnival is building a real cruise ship pier there, so someday...

[DEB010]

Thanks Transit5495

I believe that is the way to go, I figure if we go down early and state our case firmly but nicely, they may let us on one of the first tenders off. just that I heard that they reserve the first tenders for their groups that booked tours with them. we'll see....

[Lori&Tony]

This is a hit and miss propositon. I have seen times where they don't check anything but some times they do.

[mbisson]

Not sure about this but I believe that Belize is on Central Time and the ship might be on Eastern time. If so you might have an hour more than you thought to get to your excursion.

 

Can anyone verify this or let me know if I've taken leave of my senses?

 

-Monte

[mattyboy]

Deb - We are also on Valor - Jan 9th. Scheduled for X-treme cave tubing. Which are you doing?

[NeedstoCruise]

Belize will be an hour earlier than ship time. As for getting the tender. I do not know how the Valor will do this but just off the Glory and I had the same concern. We were instructed to go to one of the club rooms and get a number for the tender, the ship's excursions did not need to do this, they used their tickets. We were then instructed to wait for our number to be called, we did NOT do this, we went down to the level where they were leaving the ship (0) and just got off. It worked for us, I hope you have no problems. ENJOY

 

May I also reccommend bug spray, I was to believe the mosquitos were not much of an issue, well....THEY WERE. Other than that, BUTTS UP!

[DEB010]

Mattyboy-

considered xtream and almost booked with them but went with Wet-n-wild after reading some of their reviews. think they will be about the same quality. They both got great reviews from past guests.

 

Needstocruise-

thanks for the advice, think we will go down early and see if we can just get off on one of the first tenders - how many people does a tender hold?

I've been told that wet-n-wild will wait for booked guests, but we don't want to be the ones holding up the tour. Also thanks for the hint about the bug spray - will add that to my list.

 

-Deb.

[NeedstoCruise]

The tenders hold alot of people, think of a small ferry but they are SPEEEEED boats. I also used Wet n Wild, but we were lucky as our group were all from the same ship and arrived about the same time. ENJOY

[DEB010]

The tenders hold alot of people, think of a small ferry but they are SPEEEEED boats. I also used Wet n Wild, but we were lucky as our group were all from the same ship and arrived about the same time. ENJOY

 

How was Wet n Wild? how many on your tour? was a tough decision between all the talk about Reggie's, X-Tream, and Wet n Wild. guess I just want to be reassured that I made a good choice.

[NeedstoCruise]

Debbie

 

There were 13 of us. This was an excellent size group, not too big. The day we we went tho, the tours were very full, it was Thanksgiving week, and unlike anything I had read here, the caves did get congested. Our guide, Junior, was fine. Very informative as we walked the path. Hard to hear him in the caves if you weren't close, tho I'm not sure that was really his fault.

 

The caves are harder to manuver than I expected. When they said "stay left" I often ended up going right, right into the side of the cave. No Problem, kicked off and got back in line.

 

Trust them when they say BUTTS UP, you don't want souveneirs or tatoos.

And yes, it was hard to decide with whom to go with. They are probably all good, at least the ones you mentioned. Just go, be well and ENJOY.

 

Elaine

[Guest Time2gocruzn]

Hey needs to cruise, I have a question for you. I know some of the ships Belize tours sau you go to a caye directly from the ship. So how do you know which tender to go on, so you don't get mixed up in an excursion group. I am guessing the excursion boats are different than the tender boats, but thought I'd ask so I can get a game plan, lol.

[cruisinhs]

First of all, rest assured that Wet n Wild will wait for you! We were on the first tender available after the Carnival ship tours and still ended up arriving after the others in our tour. Because other ships originate from different time zones, even the ships are on different times from each other and Belize. They will give you a time to come to a lounge where they will hand out tender numbers. As soon as the last group that booked a ship excursion has left, they will start tendering everyone else. We were the first ones in the lounge, they gave us our tender ticket that said #1 and we immediately went down, got on the tender and headed for Belize. Honestly, I don't think you are going to get off any faster than that. There will be many others in the same situation as you and I would be incredibly suprised if they let you off with the ship tours. Just make sure you are in the lounge ready for your ticket about 30 minutes before your Carnival Capers say they will start handing out tickets.

[Clay Clayton]

Ok, it looks like the big three are x-stream, reggies and wetnwild.....i found x-stream but none of the links I can find to reggies will connect.....and I can't find wetnwild at all....anybody have any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

Clay

[NeedstoCruise]

djklove, If you are taking the ship's excursion, they will tell you exactly what you need to do, pay attention. If you are going with a private tour, don't be afraid to email and ask any question you may have. As for taking a tender to the dock, cruisinhs and I had similar experiences, the only thing was I didn't wait for the call, just went right down, I think they were still boarding some of their own tours still, but no one said anything.

 

As far as other tour companies, do your research. Just because there is a post

saying that this was a good tour doesn't mean it's for real. Always check out the other posts by the member. If all they do is promote a company, and they have on 2 or 4 posts, all saying that, I don't take them seriously, I assume they

are advertising, or knocking the competition.

 

It seems there are several companies with happy customers. Research, email, then go and enjoy the experience.

 

Elaine

[cruisinhs]

Clay,

the link to wet n wild is www.ecotoursbelize.com. You can email Marvin directly from this site if you have any questions.

Holly

[trishnbaby]

The link for Reggie's cave tubing is http://www.regtour.com/

 

I HIGHLY recommend Reggie's, by the way...especially if Timmy and Jahmai are the guides! And don't miss the chicken lunch, it was mighty tasty! :p