been there...done that...
been there...done that...
The wife and I are celebrating our 1st anniv. July 17th with going on a 7 day Cruise with Norweigan Cruise Lines. Ports of call are Belize City, Cozmuel, Roatan and Costa Maya. We have already booked shore excursions with Belize City being my favorite as it is suppose to have awesome snorkeling. I can snorkel in all 4 ports but Belize City is what I am looking forward to the most. Any suggestions on how any of the ports are snorkeling wise or anything I should look out for or not miss? I have a HD underwater camcorder to catch some of the reef. I took some video last year when we went on another cruise as well and it looks awesome.
You will have a very short window in Belize for activities. The best way to see Belize is with a private tour guide who will meet you at the dock and whisk you away from the masses of people. What the cruise ship is trying to sell you is a "cattle drive". Not any fun being crowded into a bus with 75 other cruisers ans standing in huge lines to do your activities.
I would suggest Donald Ramerize, a licensed tour guide and ex Dragon Force member "DEA" of the Belize Defense Force. I have used his services many times when in Belize. If you make the first tender 'very important" off the ship you will beat the masses of people, Donald will be waiting for you with his air conditioned private vehicle, and off you go!
We hit all the major attractions in the six hour window of time you have before the last tender back to the boat. We did the zip line, cave tubing, Belize zoo, Alta un the Mayan ruins, tour of Belize city and local lunch on the river of home cooked Belize food and stopped at a friends of his that does local wood carvings and got a really neat head carved from mahogany.
We were the first people at the zip line was only us, and just as we were rappelling down the last tree stand, four of the Cruise ship buses pulled up and out poured hundreds of people a real mess. We we the ONLY ones at the Mayan ruins, made it there before the masses, as we did at every stop.
Trying to get some snorkeling in is tough, as you must travel to Turneff atol about 25 miles offshore to get to clean water with nice reefs, and you end up doing all travel time, and 30 minutes in the water, and if the seas are rough that day, is a pretty miserable trip by boat. You will be better off doing the land attractions in Belize, and snorkeling all the other ports as it is easily assessable , especially Costa Maya, walk through the tourist rip off village, turn right and walk a few hundred yards to where you can access the beach, and snorkel there.....very nice, no charge, and nice inshore patch reefs. Roatan is the same way, walk through the tourist village out to the main road, turn left walk over the hill...and you will find all the locals ready to show you the island, beach, and great restaurant for a lobster and conch lunch at less than 1/2 what the cruise ship charges for the same activities.
Richard TBS
