redgym
Registered
My wife and I made it back from Belize yesterday. We stayed at TIR for a week and then went to Cayo for a few days (primarily visiting Tikal and the ATM cave).
Arrival: TIR picks its guests up from the airport with the driver standing outside holding a TIR sign. The process is very easy. That's the good news. The bad news is the next 3 or so hours will be the worst of your trip. TIR docks its boat at the Princess Hotel/Casino, which is a complete dump and not in the nicest area of town. If you are on an early flight, they drop you off at the Princess and you get to burn a few hours waiting for the later arriving guests. If you are arriving in Belize City the day before your depature to the island, don't stay at the Princess. A couple on our trip made this mistake. The Radisson is about 1.5 miles away.
It take about 1.5 hours on the boat to reach the island. Rum punch is served by George the bartender on the way to the island. The boat was crowded with just 21 guests. It's really crowded if an older couple decides to lean against you, make out, and rub your arm on the trip. Not a pleasant experience. Once reaching the island the staff will lead you to your cabanas/room. Approximatly 1/2 hour later everyone meets in the bar area to go through the check-in process where you get to fill in the information you already gave them.
Accomodations: Doesn't seem to be much difference between the cabanas and the rooms, except, of course, the cabanas being free standing. The rooms mostly are in buildings that have two upstairs and two downstairs rooms. There appears to be a few buildings that don't have the upstairs by the main dock/dive center. Cabana #8 is the farthest from the main building. TIR received docking stations for MP3 players the week we were there, so you should be able to play your MP3 players now. Otherwise, there are no TVs/radios etc in your room. We stayed in a room and it was very nice. Note: guests are not "supposed" to bring alcohol. Take it for what its worth.
Food: Overall, the food is above average. A couple of the meals were lacking in quality, but most of the others were good. Its served family style with more than enough food. All meals are served at a designated time. Sweet and savory snacks are available all day.
Drinks: Are expensive. George the bartender is awesome and has numerous card and other tricks to keep you entertained.
Diving: 15 dives are included in the package. We didn't have the best visibility as it rained before we got there and the current wasn't strong. We dove the Elbow twice, and it was my favorite dive. We dove the Blue Hole, but didn't go all the way down to 130 ft (only 4 of the 15 divers went to 130 ft). I'm a newbie, and wasn't comfortable that my wife and I could help one another if we became narked. I know that it isn't the DM's responsibility, but talking with him didn't give me comfort that he would be there if the stuff hit the fan. So, no go. We went down to about 60 ft and saw numerous sharks. The dive could have been over after the first 5 minutes of looking at the sharks. The other dives that day were good.
Because we had 15 divers, two dive boats were used. The dive sites were about 5 to 10 minutes from the island and the surface intervals were on the island. This worked out well as it allowed you to grab refreshments, use the facilities etc. Our night dive was poor at best. It may have been a coincidence, but the other DM's (Brad) group had significantly better dives. I don't know if he had a better sense of where to dive, or what. Also, his boat stopped a couple of times to swim with dolphins, while our boat went straight back to the island. Most of our dives lasted 50 to 60 minutes. The coral was excellent, but we didn't see a lot of large fish, etc. No sharks other than in the Blue Hole. This was much different than my previous dive experience in Bora Bora/Moorea where we saw sharks and other large fish on every dive.
For those renting gear, TIR just received a shipment of new rental gear.
Beach: The beach is hard sand and has sea grass. The snorkeling around the docks was good with numerous lobsters.
Lion Fish: We saw one large lion fish. The other dive boat saw a small one and there was one near one of the docks. The DMs marked the lion fish to go back and kill them.
Weather: We had little rain for the week. It rained during our check out dive and the first two nights on the island. Otherwise it was sunny/partly sunny for the week.
Tips: TIR recommends very large tips for its staff (except for the DMs where I thought the recommended tip was low (at least compared to the recommendations for the other staff)).
No-see-ums: Didn't see 'em. No issues what so ever. TIR rakes the sand 2x per day to control the no-see-ums and it seems to work. We didn't have mosquito issues either.
Overall: The week was a great experience. Better visibility would have been nice.
Arrival: TIR picks its guests up from the airport with the driver standing outside holding a TIR sign. The process is very easy. That's the good news. The bad news is the next 3 or so hours will be the worst of your trip. TIR docks its boat at the Princess Hotel/Casino, which is a complete dump and not in the nicest area of town. If you are on an early flight, they drop you off at the Princess and you get to burn a few hours waiting for the later arriving guests. If you are arriving in Belize City the day before your depature to the island, don't stay at the Princess. A couple on our trip made this mistake. The Radisson is about 1.5 miles away.
It take about 1.5 hours on the boat to reach the island. Rum punch is served by George the bartender on the way to the island. The boat was crowded with just 21 guests. It's really crowded if an older couple decides to lean against you, make out, and rub your arm on the trip. Not a pleasant experience. Once reaching the island the staff will lead you to your cabanas/room. Approximatly 1/2 hour later everyone meets in the bar area to go through the check-in process where you get to fill in the information you already gave them.
Accomodations: Doesn't seem to be much difference between the cabanas and the rooms, except, of course, the cabanas being free standing. The rooms mostly are in buildings that have two upstairs and two downstairs rooms. There appears to be a few buildings that don't have the upstairs by the main dock/dive center. Cabana #8 is the farthest from the main building. TIR received docking stations for MP3 players the week we were there, so you should be able to play your MP3 players now. Otherwise, there are no TVs/radios etc in your room. We stayed in a room and it was very nice. Note: guests are not "supposed" to bring alcohol. Take it for what its worth.
Food: Overall, the food is above average. A couple of the meals were lacking in quality, but most of the others were good. Its served family style with more than enough food. All meals are served at a designated time. Sweet and savory snacks are available all day.
Drinks: Are expensive. George the bartender is awesome and has numerous card and other tricks to keep you entertained.
Diving: 15 dives are included in the package. We didn't have the best visibility as it rained before we got there and the current wasn't strong. We dove the Elbow twice, and it was my favorite dive. We dove the Blue Hole, but didn't go all the way down to 130 ft (only 4 of the 15 divers went to 130 ft). I'm a newbie, and wasn't comfortable that my wife and I could help one another if we became narked. I know that it isn't the DM's responsibility, but talking with him didn't give me comfort that he would be there if the stuff hit the fan. So, no go. We went down to about 60 ft and saw numerous sharks. The dive could have been over after the first 5 minutes of looking at the sharks. The other dives that day were good.
Because we had 15 divers, two dive boats were used. The dive sites were about 5 to 10 minutes from the island and the surface intervals were on the island. This worked out well as it allowed you to grab refreshments, use the facilities etc. Our night dive was poor at best. It may have been a coincidence, but the other DM's (Brad) group had significantly better dives. I don't know if he had a better sense of where to dive, or what. Also, his boat stopped a couple of times to swim with dolphins, while our boat went straight back to the island. Most of our dives lasted 50 to 60 minutes. The coral was excellent, but we didn't see a lot of large fish, etc. No sharks other than in the Blue Hole. This was much different than my previous dive experience in Bora Bora/Moorea where we saw sharks and other large fish on every dive.
For those renting gear, TIR just received a shipment of new rental gear.
Beach: The beach is hard sand and has sea grass. The snorkeling around the docks was good with numerous lobsters.
Lion Fish: We saw one large lion fish. The other dive boat saw a small one and there was one near one of the docks. The DMs marked the lion fish to go back and kill them.
Weather: We had little rain for the week. It rained during our check out dive and the first two nights on the island. Otherwise it was sunny/partly sunny for the week.
Tips: TIR recommends very large tips for its staff (except for the DMs where I thought the recommended tip was low (at least compared to the recommendations for the other staff)).
No-see-ums: Didn't see 'em. No issues what so ever. TIR rakes the sand 2x per day to control the no-see-ums and it seems to work. We didn't have mosquito issues either.
Overall: The week was a great experience. Better visibility would have been nice.