FAQ

Not necessarily. Rain showers in Belize tend to pass fairly quickly. In some cases, we may be able to conduct your tour even if your cruise ship cancels its own shore excursions. If you have any doubts, please call our Belize office

The time issue is often a source of confusion for cruise ship passengers. The time in Belize is easy to figure out. Belize is on central time (CST), just like Houston and Chicago. Belize does not observe daylight saving time. (Our web site displays a Belize time clock in the sidebar.) The start times for our tours reflect Belize time.

During daylight saving time season, Florida is two hours ahead of Belize, while Texas and Louisiana are one hour ahead. (In other words, if it’s 10 am in Miami, it’s 8 am in Belize.) During standard time season, Florida is one hour ahead of Belize, while Texas and Louisiana are on the same schedule as Belize. (In the United States, daylight saving time begins the second Sunday of March and ends the first Sunday of November.)

Carnival cruise ships almost always remain on the time of their home ports throughout their travels, even when they cross into a different time zone. During standard time season, ship time aboard the liners based in Florida (including the Carnival Breeze, Conquest, Legend, and Miracle) is one hour ahead of Belize time. During daylight saving time, ship time aboard the Florida-based liners is two hours ahead of Belize time. On liners sailing from central time zone ports (including the Carnival Freedom, Glory, and Vista), ship time is the same as Belize time during standard time season and one hour ahead of Belize during daylight saving time.

In contrast, the cruise lines of Princess and Norwegian generally adjust their ship clocks to reflect the time zone in which they are sailing. The ship clock policies of the Royal Caribbean and Holland America cruise lines vary by ship.

The itinerary that your cruise ship distributes to you and your fellow passengers will generally reflect ship time.

From your perspective, the time issue should not be a source of anxiety. Our business is based almost entirely on serving cruise ship passengers and part of our job is to closely monitor cruise ship schedules. Our departure times are set to fit within the port times of ships calling on Belize.

The meeting location for your tour is at the Belize Tourism Village, the site at which all cruise ship tenders drop off their passengers. We are only steps away from the tender docks.

Our business is based almost entirely on cruise ship passengers. As you might expect, our tours are scheduled to fit the schedules of the cruise ships. Rest assured that we have never failed to return a passenger to his or her cruise ship in time. Our reputation depends on it.

Our online reservation system is designed to enable you to update your reservation as needed. In most cases, you may change the date and/or time of your tour and add or subtract group members almost up to the day of your excursion.

We require advance reservations to adequately address our staffing and equipment needs. If you’re reading this, you’re only a few clicks away from reserving online.

If you wish, you can bring a copy of the email we will send you after you make a reservation. However, it’s really not necessary. When you book your tour online, the details of your reservation are safely stored in our database and will appear on the manifest used by the tour operations staff. When you arrive for your tour, we’ll be ready and waiting to show you the best of Belize.

Infants under three years of age are free. Keep in mind, however, that on several of our tours, such as cave tubing, there is an age minimum to participate. In these cases, safety concerns prevent us from including infants.

You can make a reservation through our online reservation system several months in advance of your tour. By the same token, you can book a tour, if space is available, almost up to the time you board your ship. In general, it’s wise to make your reservations a few weeks ahead of time.

We require customers to make a deposit payment to guarantee their reservation. (The deposit payment is generally 18 percent of the total price of the tour.) If you are charging the deposit on a credit card, the charge is applied immediately.

Your deposit is fully refundable if you cancel your reservation at least 3 days before your tour. In addition, you will receive a full refund if your cruise ship does not stop in Belize for any reason, or if weather conditions or other factors force us to cancel your reservation.

You will receive a full refund if your cruise ship arrives late, does not stop in Belize for any reason, or if weather conditions or other factors force us to cancel your reservation. In short, if events beyond your control prevent you from participating in your tour, you are entitled to a full refund.

Our web site employs industry-standard encryption and is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant to protect your personal information when you make a payment. The information we collect on the checkout form is required by financial institutions to verify your identify. We do not record your credit card number.

You may pay your deposit by credit credit through our secure online reservation system with Mastercard, Visa, or Discover. If you make your reservation well in advance, you may mail a check to our U.S. address.

In Belize, the balance due must be paid in cash with U.S. dollars. We do not have credit card processing facilities available at the Tourism Village in Belize.

If you wish to pay your balance in advance by credit card, a surcharge of 4 percent of the payment amount will be charged to your credit card.

Your deposit is fully refundable if you cancel your reservation at least 4 days before your tour. In addition, you will receive a full refund if your cruise ship arrives late, does not stop in Belize for any reason, or if weather conditions or other factors force us to cancel your reservation. In short, if events beyond your control prevent you from participating in your tour, you are entitled to a full refund.

Our reservation system automatically sends out a confirmation email when you complete your booking online. Unfortunately, overzealous spam filters often misdirect automated emails. If you can’t find our email in your “inbox”, you probably need to check the “spam” folder of your email account.

if you have a Hotmail, MSN, or Live email account, delivery was probably blocked by Microsoft’s SmartScreen. You will need to adjust the options of your email account to add coralbreezetours.com to your list of “safe senders”. Once you have made the change, please email us and we will be happy to resend your confirmation email.

No. We do not charge you so-called “convenience” or “service” fees when you make your reservation. The amount you see on your browser screen is the amount your credit card will be charged.

When you place a reservation through our online booking system, you will automatically be sent a confirmation email. (Please check your “spam” folder if you do not find it in your “inbox”.) In addition, we will email you a reminder notice with meeting instructions about 10 days before your tour. (If you make your reservation within 10 days of your tour date, you’ll receive the “instructions” email that night.) The “instructions” email will also notify you if your tour start time has been changed to accommodate cruise ship schedules.

Unfortunately, using the Internet is not without frustration. If you’re having difficulty making a reservation online, you might want to check the privacy and security settings of your web browser. Your browser must accept “cookies” if you wish to book your tour online. There are other technical reasons, such as firewalls and anti-spyware programs, that may interfere with your ability to use the online reservation system.

Of course, we’d be happy to handle your reservation by telephone. Please call our customer support office in Belize at +501-223-7089.

The tender boats that take passengers from the cruise ships to the Tourism Village generally take 15 to 20 minutes to reach the village. The ride is very scenic as you approach the mainland of Belize.

Cruise ships calling on Belize do not come all the way to shore. To do so would require them to cross the Barrier Reef and cause immense damage to the coral ecosystem. Instead, they anchor just beyond the reef and offload their passengers onto high-speed “tender” boats. The operation is very efficient and the boat trip takes only about 15 minutes. The tender boats dock at the Tourism Village, which serves as the meeting location for our tours.

The cruise ships generally allow passengers who bought the ship tours to tender first. We take the ship policies into account when scheduling the start times of our tours. As a result, you should not have a problem getting from ship to shore in time for our tours. When you board your cruise, please confirm the tendering instructions provided by your cruise ship. Follow the tendering guidelines, and we’ll be at the Tourism Village waiting for your arrival.