I went online this morning to reserve two tickets for the San Pedro Express Water Taxi out of Belize City. When getting ready to pay I noticed the tickets would be shipped to me and this creates a problem. My wife and I fly in Tuesday June 14th. Will the tickets arrive in time if I go through with the order or would I be better off buying tickets in person when I arrive?

Get them when you arrive. I doubt they will get to you in time. Is there an option to print the tickets yourself?

I did not see an option to print them myself. I was hoping since we were coming in on a Tuesday the water taxi might be less likely to fill up as fast. Our flight arrives at about 10:30 am with the water taxi leaving for San Pedro at 12 pm. I was hoping this would give us time to get a cab and buy tickets at the water taxi place.

No the tickets will not reach you by mail in time for your trip. The boat is not a reservation-seating kind of thing anyway - just show up and get a ticket and go.

Most of us recommend the local airline instead if you are arriving from out of country. Much easier. The boat can be very crowded and may not be very comfortable - you see more from the air.

If you do take the boat, please note that there are no bathrooms on it - don't drink anything for a while before you get on board - 1 hour 45 minutes of possibly bumpy boat-ride with nothing to be done about it if nature calls. There is a good public toilet at the water taxi terminal.

That is quite a tight schedule to catch the 12pm boat and you might miss it. Typically it's an hour from landing to walking out of the door of the airport and a taxi is then a half hour drive to the Water Taxi Terminal. This only allows a half hour comfort zone for flight delays, baggage reclaim delays, customs delays, traffic problems etc. Just buy your ticket on arrival at the Water Taxi.

Further to Dianes point the Water Taxi can add four or five hours to an already long day if you are unlucky with boat departure times and arrive just as one has left. Are potentially five hours of extra travel worth the savings of flying to you? Many of our guests who are looking at this option do so not for budget reasons but as until reassured they wrongly assume the safety of the local airlines is questionable in a third World Country.

I figured the water taxi ride would be the more comfortable way to go since I am 300+ lb guy. I have done a little research and heard the island hoppers can be very crowded and tight.

Simply print the confirmation email and show it at the counter to get the tickets. This works ... I already did it this way.

True, the flights will be full as they're thirteen seat aircraft shifting a 200 seat Intl. Jet passenger list. Water Taxi can be, but less likely, just as packed if not worse, with little regard for max passenger numbers. I'm 6'4" and 200lb and it can be a little tight but I've seen much larger people regularly do it and it's twenty minutes of discomfort with the worst of it just getting into and out of your seat. At least you now know a bit more info to make your choice.

Phil,

Do they have a maximum weight that you can be to get on Tropic air plane to san pedro? I am considering flying in if they will take a guy that weighs about 390.

If you weigh 390 it's better to take the boat.
They need the heaviest people up front to stabilize the plane and it's really hard for super-sized folks to get up front.

My son-in-law is 6"4" and every bit of a similar weight. Tropic flew him over for a wedding 6 years ago no problem. A member of Tropic's management team who shall remain nameless but he knows who I'm talking about, said if "worst comes to worst we'll yank out a couple seats and go into air freight mode".

Our oldest son is 6'3" and in the neighborhood of 375. He's flown on Tropic Air 8 times and, while it's not the most comfortable 20 minutes of his day, he's never even been looked at sideways when boarding.