Review of our Spring Break cruise on Carnival Legend

[PaulMedik]

Jimmy;

 

 

 

It is pitch black inside the caves. Headlamps are flashing everywhere and barely illuminating the dark cavern. In the flash of my camera, we saw Jimmy still at the helm;

 

 

The flash also reveals the woman hooked to my ankles for the journey;

 

 

Several times along the way we encountered lost herds of ORANGE;

 

 

Our river convoy was Jimmy's number one priority, but he tended the lines of nearby CaveTubing dot com tandems as needed;

 

[PaulMedik]

Mother Nature provided an occasional glimpse of the world outside as we wound our way through the cave;

 

 

'Behold the wild ORANGE herd' (Jimmy didn't say that, at least not in English, but I think that's what he was indicating to nearby cavetubing dot com convoys so they could avoid the stampedes;

 

 

 

We didn't run over the stumbling, bumbling, bobbing up and down ORANGE herds, but we easily could have rammed through them with our 'joust' like convoy;

 

 

In this part of the cave we were held back while hapless ORANGE herd riders were rescued after falling in;

 

 

The light at the end of the tunnel had grown brighter;

 

[PaulMedik]

I should clarify that the ORANGE herd was not a term used by Jimmy. We were in tandem with another CaveTubing dot com group and the gentleman at the rear and I coined the term as we watched them navigate the river. As far as I know, all of the ORANGE herd survived and made it down the river, but they survived on luck, nothing else;

 

 

 

After exiting the cave, we glided down the river with our 'butts up' when Jimmy instructed. 'Butts up' was what Jimmy would yell when the river was shallow and our backsides and family jewels were in danger. The call of the ORANGE herd was 'we have to walk through this part.' ;

 

 

The rain forest was beautiful as we flowed by with Jimmy's guidance;

 

 

ORANGE herd passing us in the rapids;

 

 

Many of them were hanging on to their tubes by the bottoms instead of riding them. ;

 

[PaulMedik]

I couldn't get a good angle on this hapless ORANGE herd rider as she swam to our floatilla for rescue;

 

 

Old and young ORANGE herd members were left to float the river and survive as best they could;

 

 

I do have to give them credit for snagging pretty orange tubes from some water park. That's all the credit I will give them, because they sure didn't provide any safety or guidance for their customers;

 

 

I imagine their pre tour talk was similar to;

Pick up one of these fancy orange tubes with handles and walk to the head of the river. Dive right in and hold on to the tube because if you make it back here without your tube, you have to pay for it. If you don't make it back, your tour was free.

 

Along the way, many of the ORANGE herd bolted from the river and hit nearby trails. I hope those trails were the ones to exit the area and not the ones to the jaguar preserve.....;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

As we neared our exit point, we were still in line connected like we were at the beginning unlike other tours;

 

 

 

I prefer to speak only of tours I have personal experience, but I can't imagine anyone considering a cave tubing tour not researching the experience and verifying that safety will be preserved. River levels can change quickly especially in tropical climates and not just anything, but the worst things can happen.

 

Our tour was gentle, relaxing, refreshing, safe, and basically uneventful. Exactly what I hoped it would be. Along the way we got to witness experiences of those who booked with other operators and marveled at their ability to generate funds without providing for safety or survival of their customers. What if it had rained? What if the wind picked up and made the river a more treacherous? We did not have any 'what ifs' with Cave Tubing dot com. They planned and were prepared for those what ifs too.

 

We exited the river exactly where we planned and there was a rope along with many cave tubing dot com guides there to assist;

 

 

Our walk from the river was also entertaining as we got to witness wild calls of the ORANGE herd seeking their off spring or their mates;

 

 

It is a primitive jungle environment, but they do have improved areas where frequent guest travel would cause considerable erosion;

 

 

Cave Tubing dot com had a drop off area for our tubes so we didn't have to carry them all the way back. ORANGE herd members weren't so lucky;

 

[sbnuggie]

Ha...someone please toss a hint as to what company the orange is. I tried to zoom on a couple of the photo's of the tubes which possibly showed the website and as fate would have it there was a sunglare. I tried a few common letters in the almighty google but couldn't figure it out. It's a mystery (to me anyway).

 

Paulmedik...1 quick question, did you ever get a handle on the time issue with these ports:

 

1) Does the published arrival time (Carnival Brochure/online et al.) coincide with the ship time or the local time of the Port (i.e. according to brochure Grand Cayman is 7am - 4pm, is that ship time or Grand Cayman Time which would be 6am - 3pm)?

[PaulMedik]

After we returned to the parking area to board our bus, we were met by a parking lot full of buses;

 

 

And a small white car parked where our bus was supposed to be;

 

 

Guides from Cave Tubing dot com came over and explained that our bus had returned to the ATV area with the passengers from our bus that were not doing both tours. We had originally been told that our bus would remain in the parking area guarded by a three hundred pound man named Eddie and that Eddie would protect our personal items that we left on board. Personal items such as cameras, passports, cash, etc. The guides that were with us were obviously perturbed that our bus was not there. They explained that the bus NEVER leaves and they didn't know why it left, but that they had been assured it would return shortly.

 

It was frustrating, but at the same time amusing. We were stranded without money, passports, or ID in a foreign country, but we knew all was well because our guides were mad and began to vent their frustrations to each other just as our bus returned. If our bus had been a few more minutes late, I think our guides would have physically fought each other over our bus not being there. I listened enough to know they weren't concerned that it was stolen or anything, they were just mad to have their people inconvenienced. We were 'their people,' so I was comfortable with the time we spent waiting;

 

 

The worst case scenario would have been for us to take over the white car and drive back to the ship. Hopefully we would have been able to locate the bus along the way to retrieve our personal effects. Regardless, we would have made it back somehow.

 

While at the ATV site earlier, I spoke with friends from CC that were on another bus with CaveTubing dot com. They mentioned that their bus had two flat tires on the trip to the ATV site. When we arrived at the cave tubing site, I saw them removing tires from that bus. My guess is that our bus was used to transport the large damaged tires and retrieve new spares for the other bus. We were never told this, but it made sense to me that they wouldn't want to make the trip without spare tires for the buses.

 

At any rate, our bus returning was a welcome sight;

 

 

Our bus trip back was also interesting as we witnessed the ORANGE herd's converted school buses playing NASCAR on the roads of Belize;

 

[PaulMedik]

On the bus ride back, I mentioned to David, our main tour guide that he had stolen our passports, money and personal items. He didn't understand at first, but I explained that I wasn't happy that our bus wasn't where it was supposed to be and that he had our property in his possession. David apologized and said that he didn't have a choice and that he had to return the bus to the ATV site and then come back to pick us up. He assured me that our possessions were safe all along. I reminded him that I expected they would guarded by Eddie and apparently Eddie failed to stop him from moving our bus.

 

David appeared to understand that I was conveying that something we expected was not as we expected and that it was an issue, and not a condemnation of Cave Tubing dot com. He assured us, just as the river guides had earlier, that it was not a common occurrence and that he had not planned to move the bus. I did not ask if they were transporting tires from the other bus, as I suspect they did not wish to talk about flat tires.

 

David did mention that we had not been asked to pay for the tour yet and that we could talk about it more. I stopped him at that point and let him know that we had enjoyed a great day and had received great service. I guess he thought I was negotiating, but that was not my intent. My intent was to let him know of an issue that could cause huge problems for his companies reputation.

 

Later on in the trip back, as David was collecting the payment for our excursion, he appeared relaxed speaking with and collecting money from everyone else on the bus except me. As I paid him for the five of us, he was visibly tense and appeared to be expecting a problem. I counted out the payment for the five of us ($75 per person for total of $375) and then reached past him to Jimmy and handed him a $50 tip. I remarked to David that Jimmy hadn't stolen anything from us so I would tip him. David then relaxed and realized that all was well. He had explained earlier that all tips given to himself and the guides were pooled and split equally.

 

 

The view from our bus window on the return trip to Belize City;

 

 

Mayberry NC's counterpart in Belize;

 

 

Belize grocery store;

 

 

Belizean wetlands near the ocean;

 

 

After we returned to the port, David met me as I exited the bus and took me aside while shaking my hand. He apologized again and thanked us for choosing Cave Tubing dot com. I thanked him and told him that we had a great time and also complimented Jimmy for his excellent attention to detail. David asked that we consider posting a review of our experience on one of the travel sights and posting positive if we had a good time. I assured him I planned to post a review of our experiences. David had previously mentioned Cruise Critic several times during the tour and each time he mentioned Cruise Critic, he was looking any where but at me or in my direction. I never gave it much thought the first few times, but after the last time I remembered that I couldn't find my new Carnival Legend hat before going ashore and had worn by Cruise Critic hat. I had kept the hat in our shore bag until returning to the bus from Cave Tubing and had it on when I spoke with him. In hindsight, I wished I had not worn my Cruise Critic hat that day. I am a Cruise Critic member, but I did not intend to use the hat to gain favor.

 

My opinion of CaveTubing dot com is that I would not consider a cave tubing tour in Belize without booking with Cave Tubing dot com. I researched them before the cruise both here on CC and elsewhere. I chose what I considered to be the only option for my family. After experiencing their service first hand, I am comfortable that our choice was the only viable choice.

 

Back on the pier prior to boarding our tender, I found a welcoming sign for our ship;

 

[PaulMedik]

Ha...someone please toss a hint as to what company the orange is. I tried to zoom on a couple of the photo's of the tubes which possibly showed the website and as fate would have it there was a sunglare. I tried a few common letters in the almighty google but couldn't figure it out. It's a mystery (to me anyway).

 

Paulmedik...1 quick question, did you ever get a handle on the time issue with these ports:

 

1) Does the published arrival time (Carnival Brochure/online et al.) coincide with the ship time or the local time of the Port (i.e. according to brochure Grand Cayman is 7am - 4pm, is that ship time or Grand Cayman Time which would be 6am - 3pm)?

 

 

sbnuggie,

 

I am not sure, but I think the ORANGE tubes were used by several other tour operators. They all had the same name on them though I saw several different operators advertising at the port. We booked with Cave Tubing several months ago and had our printed instructions as to where to go in my hand as well as notice that there would be many tour operators at the port offering to undersell. Not to mention the name, but it's initials were TUBEPROINC dot com.

 

The arrival times listed are ship's time in every case. Most ports were one hour behind ships time, but Roatan is two hours behind ships time. We arrived and left on ship's time regardless of port time. Ship's time was never adjusted to coincide with port countries time. I have been on cruises that adjusted ships time, but Legend did not; she stayed and we stayed on ship's time. All of our tour operators also worked on ship's time instead of their local time.

[seafun]

I've seen a few pictures of cave tubing here and there, but the excellent progression of photos you have provided is most helpful. Thanks again Paul.

[PaulMedik]

I've seen a few pictures of cave tubing here and there, but the excellent progression of photos you have provided is most helpful. Thanks again Paul.

 

 

seafun,

 

Thank you.

 

We have white water rafting near home and I had a picture in my mind that I was pleased to find wasn't what we found in Belize. From speaking with the guides as we walked in, they do have times where the river level is higher and the current much faster. They said they have seen pics of white water rafting in West Virginia and wondered how the guides kept everyone safe here. I said they do a good job. I didn't tell him how many rescues and recoveries I've participated in of white water rafters. White water rafting is well regulated and made as safe as can be, but accidents do happen here and will as well in Belize if operators continue to turn people loose on the river on their own.

 

 

 

____________________________________________________

We were all tired and hungry from our excursion in Belize so we headed for our tender;

 

 

I snapped a quick pic as our line was moving quickly to board the tender;

 

 

I didn't get a pic of the ships anchored in the distance because I planned to get some from the tender on the way back in. Our return tender turned out to be a bit pic prohibitive;

 

 

About the only thing I had to look at other than other passengers was my own shoes. I've worn these shoes up Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica, all over Old San Juan and the Forts on two different trips, and to numerous beaches all over the caribbean and again on that day while riding ATVs in the jungles of Belize and down a river in Belize cave tubing and they still feel as good as new on my feet. I was thinking at the time I took this pic that I would be looking down at my feet a little over a week later while working triage at the ER. I knew I would be able to look down at my shoes at work and remember all the places those shoes had taken me. I had to clean them up a little, but I enjoyed looking down at them a few times over the past week and returning to our cruises.

 

 

I have several pairs of NIKE shox running shoes to choose from, but I always choose those for cruising. I don't always wear them to work, but when I do I enjoy the memories they invoke.

 

I did stand up a time or two and get some pics out of the door of the tender;

 

[PaulMedik]

I didn't get any good pics of Legend on the way back in. I did get a pic of tenders unloading, but not a real good one;

 

 

Getting off the tender was equally unappealing from a pic standpoint;

 

 

When we returned to our room, we did have a welcoming site waiting for us;

 

 

I swear those aft wraps are like having the ship to yourself;

 

 

After showering and changing clothes, we headed out for food;

 

[PaulMedik]

I opted for Oriental on Lido;

 

 

 

After getting ready to eat my Oriental, Karen presented me with food from the grill. It's a good thing we got a lot of exercise earlier in the day or that evening's meal would packed ten pounds on me;

 

 

After we ate and returned to the room, we found that we were sailing full speed away from Belize;

 

 

I got some more reflection pics of Valor and one of those ships that obviously visits some dangerous ports; hoodlums painted graffiti on the side of the ships! They really do need to watch their ships better. Every time I see one of those ships, I wonder why, what, or if they were thinking when they painted them like that.

 

 

[PaulMedik]

Sunset reflection;

 

 

 

Karen's perch for watching the sunset was soon to become her perch for taking a nap;

 

 

After spending the evening relaxing on our balcony, we discovered Carlos had delivered the next days capers and another animal;

 

 

Britt and Spencer spent the evening at CC again until midnight. While walking the ship before picking them up, we got a few pics;

 

 

We also stopped by the midnight buffet on Lido for some sweets and some Mexican fare;

 

[PaulMedik]

I waited at the end of the Enchanted Forest for Karen and the campers;

 

 

They were ready for bed after a full day of activity;

 

 

I think the speed was accurate because we were going very slow. I'm not so sure the position is anything other than a guess though;

 

 

 

Our rooms at the end of the hall. It's a pretty good stroll from CC at the front of the ship to our rooms at the back;

 

 

Karen and I were up bright and early the next morning for our arrival in Roatan;

 

[PaulMedik]

Roatan was our fourth port stop in four days so keeping our stamina up with a hearty breakfast was top priority;

 

 

 

After breakfast we headed down to the gangway and met the Carnival photogs for our port pic;

 

 

And we posed for a photo op with a Roatan Mascaro;

 

 

We were on port early again and the Carnival tours were lined up on the pier waiting to head off to their excursion sites. Luckily we were in port instead of anchored so we didn't have to wait for the masses;

 

 

Roatan has a very small port shopping area;

 

[PaulMedik]

We didn't spend any time at the port, we were on a mission again and our mission led us to the port exit. As we approached the exit we were bombarded by offers of tours and trips by locals outside of the fence. It was similar to the environment in Jamaica as you walk by and have vendors yelling from the street;

 

 

Competing tour vendors were about to come to blows when one thought they had our attention and another butted in. I dismissed the sales pitch with a simple statement 'We have a tour booked with Victor Bodden.' Those simple words were all that was needed to quiet the throng and have them all direct us to a man holding a sign;

 

 

After meeting the man and introducing ourselves, we were led by another man to a parking area where we met Ann, our tour guide for the day. Ann welcomed us to her island home and got us settled in her tour van;

 

As Ann drove us out of the port area, she asked what we expected to see in Belize and reminded us that we could deviate from our planned route at any time we chose. As we listened to Ann talk about various land marks we were passing by, we soon found ourselves looking at a shipwreck! Not exactly what we expected, but quite interesting nonetheless;

 

 

Our tour was billed as the 'Best of Belize, Zipline, beach break.' We didn't were soon pulled over beside the road taking another picture;

 

 

The boys knew one thing; we were planning to zipline and that was all they had on their minds;

 

[PaulMedik]

Because the boys could only talk about zip lining, we opted to cut the tour short and head for the zipline location. Before we turned to head for the opposite end of the island, we passed another ship wreck;

 

 

The ride to the zipline location took us back past the port area and past some beautiful scenery. Ann kept us enthralled with details about things we were seeing and with stories about changes over time on the island and before we knew it, we were at Victor Bodden's home;

 

 

We all completed required forms for the zip line tour;

 

 

After completing the forms, the boys were entertained by some new friends;

 

 

Spencer's friend was determined to steal his hat or lanyard;

 

[Livin4Real]

Can't wait to hear the rest on Roatan. I plan on booking with Victor as well.

[PaulMedik]

 

 

Spencer's friend were very persistent and stole his hat and tried to remove his lanyard many times;

 

 

 

Every time he would pry one monkey loose, another would dive on him and go for his hat;

 

 

Soon it was time to gear up for our zipline tour. Our zipline guide was Kelvin. He's 17 years old and has three brothers of his own so he was ready for our three boys;

 

[PaulMedik]

Can't wait to hear the rest on Roatan. I plan on booking with Victor as well.

 

 

Livin4Real,

 

Excellent choice. Be sure and do the Zipline too.

 

 

_____________________________________________

 

Kelvin fitted the boys for their gear;

 

 

 

Karen geared up for rescue work........err, zip lining I mean;

 

 

After we were all geared up, we began our hike up the mountain;

 

 

We worked our breakfast off pretty well;

 

[jessemon]

_____________________________________________

 

Kelvin fitted the boys for their gear;

 

 

Ouch.....:eek:

 

Great review and pix so far.....;)

[PaulMedik]

When we arrived at our first platform, Kelvin explained the safety rules and how each of us would be situated on each platform. We had twelve zip lines ahead of us and would be accompanied the entire time by Kelvin;

 

 

Kelvin explained how the connections would be made and what the purpose of each piece of equipment was;

 

 

I assumed the boys would do well zip lining. Each of them inherited my lack of fear of heights, but they hadn't been zip lining before so I wasn't sure they would jump. My first ever zip line experience was from the New River Gorge Bridge in WV to the rim of the gorge. At 976 feet above the valley, the New River Gorge Bridge is an impressive sight to zip line from. (The company I worked for did rescue coverage for the gorge and had authorization to practice there from the National Park Service.) Even with my zip line background, I was apprehensive about the first few jumps so I'm sure my boys were. You could not tell it from how they dove right in;

 

 

Kelvin zipped over first then called us over one by one. Spencer was a little stiff on his first zip;

 

 

 

I fully expected that Britt would end up having to go with me, but when his turn came, he stepped off and zipped across like a champ;

 

[snc421]

Paul,

 

I just came across this thread and have read all 14 pages. Add me to your fan club, as I love your pictures and review style and based my own off yours.

 

I too LOVE Allegiant Air. I have just had my 5th and 6th flights with them. Also I love the Clearwater/St. Pete Beach strip. I was just on SPB for a long weekend, then a week in Orlando. I mention this because I drove on the interstate past the Port in Tampa. I saw the Legend in port, happens to be the day you were getting off the ship!

 

Hopefully 52 weeks from now I will be spending the first of 4 nights pre-cruise on SPB once again before boarding the Legend, again. What isn't to love about that whole experience, IMO. The Port, the ship, the stops... the Skyway. Glad you got to see that for yourself!

 

Looking forward to more!

[Livin4Real]

How much was it for the 5 of you for the tour and ziplining?