Question about Belize

On 3/17/2010 2:56 AM, John Sisker wrote:
"Ray Goldenberg" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:03:21 -0400, Charles
wrote:

However Carnival is not Royal Caribbean and the Carnival
Miracle is not the RCI Navigator. What happens on Miracle does not
necessarily happen on Navigator even though it is the same port.

Hi Charles,

You are correct. Sisker was giving out incorrect information again.
--
Ray Goldenberg



Bagdad Bob has no way of knowing whether Sisker was giving out incorrect
information. Sisker just relayed what his clients told him and draws an
irrelevant conclusion, but that's not giving incorrect information.

How many customers do these so-called travel agents have? Sisker
apparently has only four ("While I had all four of my clients on the
Carnival Miracle, Belize is Belize."). Bagdad Bob spends at least four
hours a day reviewing press releases and correcting Sisker, so he can't
have many more. Zorba Leppla trips over when he tries to reach the
phone; his body volume must stand in the way of getting business volume.



Well then, just what is the right time question for the RCI Navigator?

http://tinyurl.com/yjn4lzl

Charles wrote:
I have been doing some research on Belize since my December cruise on
Valor goes there. Belize is a tender port. I had the thought of booking
a tour to Laminai since I am interested in visiting Mayan ruins. Have
done a bunch. I have read that the Belize tour operators are not good
at keeping to schedule, they are lax, the length of time they state may
not be accurate and that some have missed the ship going on independent
tours. You don't want confusion on the time zone the ship is on with a
long tour.

Charles, I hope you get to see Lamanai. These are my favorite tours of
ruins in Belize, Xunantunich and Lamanai. I would love to do Lamanai
again, the voyage getting there was worth the visit.

We went to the Xunantunich to see Mayan ruins. There is a bus ride, the
tour guide offered information about Belize along the way. After the
bus ride we stood on a ferry to cross a river. There was a short walk
to the Mayan site. Their museum displays a diorama of the
site, as well as depicting the evolution of Maya civilization. You can
climb to the top of "El Castillo" which is 130 feet. You can see a
panoramic view of the jungle canopy, the Mopan and Belize River
valleys, the Guatemalan Peten District, which is only a few miles away.

Our Lamanai tour was a favorite for me. There was a bus ride, a boat
ride, lunch, then there was a walk through the jungle to Lamanai. They
are still excavating these ruins through funds from Canada. The tour
guide was informative. They have a small museum, the pottery is
displayed according to the period in which it was made. As you enter the
museum, you will find the pottery from the Preclassic Period arranged on
the shelves to the left.

I believe this was our tour operator:

http://belizecruiseexcursions.com/la...hip-Tours.html


Becca

On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:35:28 -0400, Bill
wrote:

On 3/16/2010 9:58 PM, Charles wrote:

I have been doing some research on Belize since my December cruise on
Valor goes there. Belize is a tender port. I had the thought of booking
a tour to Laminai since I am interested in visiting Mayan ruins. Have
done a bunch. I have read that the Belize tour operators are not good
at keeping to schedule, they are lax, the length of time they state may
not be accurate and that some have missed the ship going on independent
tours. You don't want confusion on the time zone the ship is on with a
long tour.

That sounds like the time to use the ship's tour. As much as I hate
doing that because of the cost, in situations where there is a
reasonable possibility that you will miss the ship's sailing, it's
better to make it the ship's responsibility to wait for you. Either that
or make sure you have travel insurance that will cover getting you to
the next port.

That would be my feeling also.

We visited Belize by airplane and were there for two weeks. I was
primarily interested in the reef. We started out in Caye Caulker,
visited Ambergris Cay, and then rented a car and went to the zoo and
drove down to Placencia and then up to the Cayo District. We saw
Cahal Peche, and we went over and visited Tikal for two days. It
isn't a place that I would think would be very convenient to visit via
cruise ship, especially since you have to tender. I personally
wouldn't push the times.

In article , Bill
wrote:

That sounds like the time to use the ship's tour. As much as I hate
doing that because of the cost, in situations where there is a
reasonable possibility that you will miss the ship's sailing, it's
better to make it the ship's responsibility to wait for you. Either that
or make sure you have travel insurance that will cover getting you to
the next port.

Carnival does not have a tour to Lamanai though. It does do some other
sites. I have some time to think about it. No hurry. The tour operator
that Becca used has a good reputation and I would use them for Lamsnsi
or do one of the excursions to Xunantunich.

--
Charles

I don't see that local time or ship's time makes much difference. You
know that the ship's in port time is x hours so you allow your excursion
time as y hours and y = (x-2). You have a watch. You look at your
watch when scheduling things an allow y hours for it. The countdown to
y starts when you check off the ship. It really doesn't matter what
time any clock except your watch says then.

In article , Kenn
Smith wrote:

I don't see that local time or ship's time makes much difference. You
know that the ship's in port time is x hours so you allow your excursion
time as y hours and y = (x-2). You have a watch. You look at your
watch when scheduling things an allow y hours for it. The countdown to
y starts when you check off the ship. It really doesn't matter what
time any clock except your watch says then.

It matters if you are depending on a tour operator to get you back on
time. My watch could say anything but I am not driving the bus, boat or
van. You are at the mercy of the tour operator. People have missed
ships because of misunderstanding that the local time and the ship were
not on the same time. But it is not just a matter of missing the ship.
For a long tour one might not want to book it if most of the time is
getting to the place and back with little time actually at the place.
For example with Lamanai it takes a while to get there and while I
understand that the trip itself is interesting I would want to spend
some time at Lamanai before returning to the ship.

--
Charles

On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:50:44 -0400, Charles
wrote:

In article , Kenn
Smith wrote:

I don't see that local time or ship's time makes much difference. You
know that the ship's in port time is x hours so you allow your excursion
time as y hours and y = (x-2). You have a watch. You look at your
watch when scheduling things an allow y hours for it. The countdown to
y starts when you check off the ship. It really doesn't matter what
time any clock except your watch says then.

It matters if you are depending on a tour operator to get you back on
time. My watch could say anything but I am not driving the bus, boat or
van. You are at the mercy of the tour operator. People have missed
ships because of misunderstanding that the local time and the ship were
not on the same time. But it is not just a matter of missing the ship.
For a long tour one might not want to book it if most of the time is
getting to the place and back with little time actually at the place.
For example with Lamanai it takes a while to get there and while I
understand that the trip itself is interesting I would want to spend
some time at Lamanai before returning to the ship.

In terms of scheduling though, it really doesn't matter whether the
ship is on Miami time or Belize time. The ship will be in port the
same number of hours each way.

The problem with a tour operator not picking you up or getting you
back in a timely manner is a different question. Just like the
problem with getting off the ship via tender in a timely manner if you
don't have a ship tour is also a different question. Either of those
considerations will play a part in what you do in terms of booking a
tour, but neither one has anything to do with the number of hours that
you have in port.

The fact the people miss the ship because of misunderstanding of the
time is mostly due to their not having their watches set appropriately
and/or not understanding what the ship's departure time in relation to
what they had on their watch was.

For instance - we had a ship daily one night (for the next day) which
said "set your clocks back tonight". One of the ladies at our table
thought she should set her clock back THAT night when it was really
the NEXT night. So she came out of a casino (which had no clocks) at
3 pm thinking that the ship was leaving at 4, and it really was 4 pm
and she saw the ship sail away. That was due to what she did with her
watch and nothing to do with the length of time in port.

The other possibility for lateness is that the tour operator has car
trouble or something like that. But if you take an independent tour
or go off on your own you need to figure out before you start what
time you have to be back, and make it clear to any other persons
involved what that time is. Personally, I tell them an hour before we
have to be back just in case. So if I take a taxi to Red Hook and the
ferry to St. John, I figure out what is the last ferry that will get
me back in time, and I take the one before that.

In article ,
wrote:

The other possibility for lateness is that the tour operator has car
trouble or something like that. But if you take an independent tour
or go off on your own you need to figure out before you start what
time you have to be back, and make it clear to any other persons
involved what that time is. Personally, I tell them an hour before we
have to be back just in case. So if I take a taxi to Red Hook and the
ferry to St. John, I figure out what is the last ferry that will get
me back in time, and I take the one before that.

With the ferry from Red Hook you have control. You pick one before to
get back in time You go with a tour operator and you can tell them what
time you want to get back and you can be clear about it but they are
going to do what they want to do.

--
Charles

On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:09:48 -0400, Charles
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

The other possibility for lateness is that the tour operator has car
trouble or something like that. But if you take an independent tour
or go off on your own you need to figure out before you start what
time you have to be back, and make it clear to any other persons
involved what that time is. Personally, I tell them an hour before we
have to be back just in case. So if I take a taxi to Red Hook and the
ferry to St. John, I figure out what is the last ferry that will get
me back in time, and I take the one before that.

With the ferry from Red Hook you have control. You pick one before to
get back in time You go with a tour operator and you can tell them what
time you want to get back and you can be clear about it but they are
going to do what they want to do.

All I can say about THAT is that you (or the person that happened to)
must not have made it clear to them what you would do to them if they
didn't get you back. I have hired a private car and driver, and told
him what I wanted to see and when I wanted to be back. I can tell you
that they did what I said I wanted them to do.

Also some ships tours are the same - the tour operator is going to
stop at X number of shopping opportunities regardless of the fact that
the tour is supposed to be only 3 hours (8 to 11). That you have
another tour scheduled at 12 is of no importance to them.

We've also been on a ship's tour where the driver got lost a number of
times, and made us VERY late getting back to the ship. He even got
lost ON the dock. Fortunately it was a day that we were in port
overnight.

In article ,
wrote:

All I can say about THAT is that you (or the person that happened to)
must not have made it clear to them what you would do to them if they
didn't get you back. I have hired a private car and driver, and told
him what I wanted to see and when I wanted to be back. I can tell you
that they did what I said I wanted them to do.

That is nice. I can see this is going over your head. But then you say:

We've also been on a ship's tour where the driver got lost a number of
times, and made us VERY late getting back to the ship. He even got
lost ON the dock. Fortunately it was a day that we were in port
overnight.

Very fortunate but it could happen on a private tour and make someone
miss the ship. How come you let him get lost? Didn't you tell him you
did not want to get lost?

--
Charles