Considering Shark Ray Alley & Ambergris Caye Tour

[dkmccarthy]

We are traveling on NCL and are considering taking the Shark Ray Alley & Ambergiris Caye Tour in Belize. Has anyone had any experience with it? Would the cave tubing be recommended over it?

[ohio_cruiser]

We are traveling on NCL and are considering taking the Shark Ray Alley & Ambergiris Caye Tour in Belize. Has anyone had any experience with it? Would the cave tubing be recommended over it?

 

dkmccarthy,

We had a poor experience on this NCL excursion on Dec. 25, 2008. We boarded the tour boat right from the main ship. So far, so good. Traveled about 10-15 minutes away then the transmission on this boat broke. We were stranded for about 30 minutes until 2 smaller boats came and off loaded us in 2 separate groups. Our second boat also broke down as we were approaching the snorkeling site. Lucky for us this boat had 2 engines and we limped along. No problem, we were on vacation. We snorkeled at the reef had a pleasant time even though the guides were not that good. Lunch on Ambergris Caye was okay. On the trip back to the cruise ship, we all (probably 76 guests and crew members totaling about 85 people) were all on a small boat. There wasn’t even enough seats. We felt like refuges escaping to the United States. This boat ran out of gas. OMG! I’m sure this was a once in the year bad luck experience that this excursion see’s. But why us? NCL did refund all our money but it sure was a very stressful day.

You still need to see the wonderful underwater sights that the reef in Belize has to offer! You might want to look at another snorkel tour adventure offered by another company. Back in Dec. 2007, we did the Stingray Alley Snorkeling & Caye Caulker Exploration with the lunch offered by Coral Breeze and ran with the fine people from Hammerhead. Would have done this again this year but they did not operate this tour on Dec. 25th.

Kevin

[meliss35]

I was also on that trip and it was horrible. Everything that Ohiocruiser said is correct. I ended up giving the shore excursion manager pictures and video of all of us on that small boat. I wouldnt recommend doing that and go with someone else. Thankfully we got a full refund.

[dkmccarthy]

Thanks for the heads up. Sorry to hear about your event. As far as other vendors, our only concern is time. The distance to get to the barrier reef from Belize City, I've read, is a problem when you are subject to the cruise ship departing without you if your not back on time. I scuba dive and I'm passing on it here because of this and that the best places to dive are even farther away. Thanks again.

[ggraphix]

We just took this tour with Coral Breeze last week. We went to Caye Caulker for an authentic lunch and a few hours free time. The guides were wonderful and the snorkling was amazing. I was going back and forth weather to book the NCL tour or to use them, and after reading another recommendation on this board, we booked with Coral Breeze. I'm so glad we did!! NCL uses tenders at this port, and they let the people off first that have booked excursions through the ship. Coral Breeze knows this and will wait for you.

[cheap_geek]

I too couldn't decide between the NCL tour & the coral breeze tour. I finally decided on coral breeze...a thread on CC said that Ambergris Caye is much further away than Caye Caulker (from the snorkel sites)...which is why the NCL tour is 7 1/2 hours. The coral breeze one is only about 5 (with about 90 minutes alloted for snorkeling). I'm hoping that we should get back to the boat in plenty of time.

 

I'm leaving on my cruise on 1/25....if you're heading down after me, I can report back my experience on coral breeze. (Though it sounds like others in this thread have been pleased with coral breeze.)

[dkmccarthy]

Thanks! We are sailing on March 8th, 2009.

[cheap_geek]

DKM - We're back... Unfortunately, the tender on the NCL Spirt took too long, and they left without us! That was a huge downer...though what was really irritating was that when we did get there (10 minutes late)...there was NO ONE at the port from Hammerheads (who actually runs the tour). Thankfully, one of the other tour companies and the owner of The Wet Lizard helped us out. We ended up going on a 1 stop snorkel + beach break tour through FAB tours. It was a great time, Bernie and his crew were so nice! They helped my sister out a lot, as it was her first time snorkeling. Bernie even pointed out an octopus to her!

 

The day turned out to be very nice...but only after a very frustrating and disappointing morning.

 

When we did get back, we emailed Coralbreezes and they did refund our deposit with no problem.

[darjensil]

I am curious as to what time you got to the port?

[kmc09]

I am the OP wife and wanted to let you know about our trip last week. We did book through NCL for the Shark Ray Alley and Ambergis Cay trip

We caught the tender at around 8:15 - not too bad getting off the ship. Got on a speed boat right away and we are off with about 35-30 other people. Stop first at Caulker’s Cay for everyone to get fins (we had our own) and then 10 more minutes over to the reef at Shark Ray Alley. Snorkeled for about 45 minutes or so. Saw 5-6 rays around the boat and one large one farther out, but no sharks. Bummer but you cant blame them for not showing up. Coral and fish were awesome though.

Headed over to Ambergis Cay for plate lunch at Coconuts. Then we walked down to San Pedro town for some shopping. Bought a bracelet and a wooden stingray from some locals and stopped for a refreshing drink with a pretty view. Back to the boat at 2:30 – it was hot day. Had a 45 minute fun speedboat ride back to the port.

Little bit more shopping at the dock and catch one of the last tenders back to the ship.

It was a great day and wouldnt hesitate to reccomend it to others.

[threeolives]

kmc09 -

 

Did you tender over to Belize City and then head out on the excursion? How long did you actually have on Ambergris? Sounds like you did a lot!

 

Thanks,

 

Three Olives

[dkmccarthy]

Yes we tendered to Belize City and then caught the boat for the excursion from there. We probably had about 2-2/12 hours on Ambergis and that included a lunch for everyone. It was about a 10-15 minute walk from the restaurant to San Pedro town.

[MobileMystic]

The tour was run by Cruise Solutions. We enjoyed the day. Keeping in mind that this is open water and not a walk in snorkel, the current was pretty strong and caught me a little off guard. It is a long was to the reef, with one snorkeling stop for approx 1 1/2. Then lunch at Coconuts and an hour in San Pedro for Shopping. We has just enough time to catch the last tender back to the boat.

 

Next time I would probably opt for something a little closer than Ambergris....