This morning we stopped near
Belize. I say ‘near’ because we
anchored about 5 miles out from the port.
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Belize Map |
This meant that we had to Tender into
the port. Thomas and I had signed up for a shore excursion with Brent, Heather,
Donna and Mark. We were going zip lining and cave tubing. Our tour wasn’t until
9:00am and we ended up being ready by 7:00am. So we headed to the Southern
Lights Restaurant for some breakfast. After eating we headed to the Showtime
Theater (which was the meeting point for our excursion). It was about 8:15am
when we descended the stairs and we encountered some staff members that
directed us to join a line. This line went around a corner, through the lobby,
into the Northern Lights Restaurant and around the entire perimeter, out the
restaurant back into the lobby and then down the hall to some tables at the
entrance to the theater. Here we showed our excursion tickets and then we were
given small, round tags that were colored and had a number on them. We were
then directed into the theater (which was packed with people) where we found
seats. After we sat Thomas noticed Brent, Heather, Donna and Mark. We met with
them and went to sit upstairs in the theater where there were more seats. Then
it was a waiting game. You had to wait until your color tag and number were
called and then you could make your way to the Tender. It was around 11:00am
before we were called. Talk about a huge waste of time – just sitting in the
theater waiting – my idea of a great vacation.Finally we were on the tender
and we took the 15 minute boat ride from the ship to the dock. Then we were
directed into a building into another line and then onto a bus for our
excursion. We were told when we left the ship that the last Tender back to the
ship was at 4:15pm and our excursion was suppose to last 6 hours. Luckily we
booked the excursion through Carnival because the ship would have to wait for
us to return.
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Crystal Cave |
Now for the excursion. We were on a bus that was supposed to
be air conditioned but was pretty warm and it had a rough ride. We drove for an
hour and a half on the Western Highway and reached our destination. We arrived
at the Nohoch Cheen Entrance for the park. The bus parked and then we got off
that bus and took another bus over a hill and then stopped again. Here we got a
key for a locker to store our things during the excursions. First we did the
cave tubing. We met our guide and he gave us life vests and hard hats with
lights. Then we grabbed our tubes and our guide helped us get settled in the
tubes in the water. We were hooked together two people side by side in a line
of four. Our guide pulled us through the water around the caves. Here and there
we had some sunlight poking in but mostly we used our head lamps. We also got
out at one point and walked around the caves and saw some pottery shards from the
Mayas. We also had a chance to swim in a part of the river before getting out
of the water and turning in our tubes, life vests and head lamps.
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Zip Lining |
Next we went to get set up for the zip lining. We got our
harnesses put on then got a hard hat and gloves. Next we walked up some steps
to a demonstration area and got some instructions and safety warnings. Then we
climbed more stairs to get to the first zip line. We went in this order Brent,
Heather, Donna, Mark, Me and then Thomas. Donna and Heather seemed to be a
pretty nervous. And I know Thomas and I were a little nervous but I was ready
to give this a try. I couldn’t really see anyone else except for Mark in front
of me and Thomas behind me. The first two lines we just sat back and held on to
our strap as we traversed the line – we did not brake on the first two lines. I
did pretty good on both of these except on the second one I started turning but
ended up landing just fine. Well, landing isn’t really the right word. I was
going pretty fast and they told us not to brake so I ended up hitting the guy
on the platform that was catching us. I felt bad because with my weight and
speed I hit him and we rammed into the pole that was in the center of the
platform. I felt bad about that but then learned that everyone was doing that
to him. I bet he is really sore after a day of this. After the second one I was
feeling really good and was really enjoying myself. We had three more lines to
go and on these we had to brake at the end. I was a little nervous because I
didn’t want to brake too soon and end up not making it to the platform. But I
worried for nothing I ended up doing just fine and was really wanting to do
more. I loved the feeling of flying through the air. This was really one of my
favorite things I have ever done and would do it again in a heartbeat.
Now that we were done with the zip line we returned our
harnesses, hats and gloves and then picked up our things out of the lockers. We
then went to an area where you could buy some food. They had rice and beans
with chicken cooked in coconut milk at one station and they also had nachos at
another station. It seemed the nachos were more popular than the rice and
beans. They also had some wine you could taste. I think there was pineapple and
cashew wine and I was told that they tasted horrible – I didn’t try any – I
took a break from any alcohol today. There was also Belikan beer that some
people were drinking and there were mixed reviews about it. We had about an
hour to kill while we waited for some of the other people on our bus to finish
their zip lining. There really wasn’t much to do so we sat and ate while
waiting. We then loaded the bus and went back over the hill and then got on the
bus that would take us back to the dock. It was another hour and a half ride to
the dock and then it was straight on to the Tender and back to the ship. We
were back on the ship at about 5:30pm. I had a terrific time with the cave
tubing and zip lining but was really aggravated with Carnival for the way they
handle the debarkation. I would have loved to have that two hours we sat in the
theater to explore Belize City a little.
This had been a long day and Thomas and I were really tired.
We returned to our cabin and put our things down then decided to go to the
buffet for dinner instead of waiting for dinner in the restaurant at 8:15pm. So
as we ate and relaxed we realized we were more tired that we thought. So we
finished our meal and returned to the cabin and take showers. We watched the
movie Hop on tv and then read a little before calling it a night at around
9:00pm. Tomorrow we are in Cozumel and after the fiasco of debarkation today
Thomas and I decided to just do our own thing. We don’t dock until 8:00am and
we have until 3:30pm to explore Cozumel.
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Towel Stingray |
1 comment :
I want to to thank you for this excellent read about Carnival Excursions Belize!! I definitely enjoyed every bit of it.I have you bookmarked to look at new stuff you
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