I wanted to book through Carnival, but my husband booked us with cave-tubing.com. Thank heaven. It had rained and the water was rushing. We were taken care of in the caves the entire time, and the guides were always by our side. They were extremely careful taking us across the river, and they carried the ladies' tubes through the trail. Richard would ask the ladies from time to time "Are you doing ok Mama?"
I felt safe, and did not know until the next day that a woman who booked through the ship drowned at the same time we were in the caves. I saw our guides rescue several of the group, including two women. One of our guides gave his tube to a man with the ship's tour group whose tube was deflated. I never saw the other group's guides in the water escorting them along and keeping them together. In fact, the people from the ship's tour group were all over the place in the caves. Their tour was a disaster, while ours was organized.
Richard, Lionel, "Dutch" and Renee really did an amazing job. We were never allowed to go away from our group, and they kept all 32 of us together and out of the eddies and dangerous parts of the cave. A lady in our group had knee problems, and Richard carried her on his back on the return to our bus! We were treated so well by these men, and considering what happened to the other tour group I guess I owe them my life.
