RCI Excursion: Tulum Express or Tulum Beach Break?

[larkie25]

Help! We are first time cruisers and we'll port in Cozumel on Saturday March 26th. We were picking through our excursion choices and read a bunch on everything and have narrowed our choices down to two- either the Tulum Mayan Ruins Express or the Tulum Ruins & Beach Break with Royal Caribbean.

 

We love sightseeing and historical things so Tulum is a must do bucket list of items for us. I'm newly pregnant so we won't be doing any drinking or adventure type things. And we didn't really want to see the smaller ruins on Cozumel once we saw photos of the Tulum ruins.

 

We'll book through RCI instead of privately since both are long excursions, but I'm trying to figure out which one is best. Anyone go on either of these two that can help me decide?

 

We are super excited about our first cruise (10th anniversary) and would love help :)

[larkie25]

Okay, so no one knows? I'll make sure to post back when I am done. We decided to go with the Tulum and Beach break.

 

From what I could find lunch on the beach is served at around 2:30 and is included in the extra $10 cost. The upside for me is that from what I researched it seems that this excursion doesn't stop at the sovenier shop on the bus ride over. I could be wrong, but I will post later with full details.

[larkie25]

Well we chose the Royal Carribean Excursion: Tulum Ruins and Beach Break, the extra $10 from the Ruins Express was worth it for us as it included lunch and we didn't have to think about that or travel back to the port. Here was our itinerary:

 

8:30 Got off the boat and onto the ferry with all the other people going to the mainland.

 

8:50 Ferry starts it's way to the mainland. We got a seat up in the open air on the second floor. No motion sickness for that portion because the wind was blowing on me the whole time.

 

9:25 Arrived in Playa de Carmen and found our tour guide. Walked a little bit, took an optional souviner photo and walked to our bus. Got on the bus and the tour guide (Nacho) talked for most of the time over, but we didn't make any stops along the way and no snacks were available. He talked with the group (about 25, he said normally it's about 40 people) about taking the trolley instead of walking to the ruins and everyone decided that was a good idea and it was $2 per person round trip (it cost $2 whether you wanted to ride it there and back or just back, so it made sense to ride it there to save time since we were pressed for time).

 

10:20 Arrived at Tulum. There is a large shopping area where we were able to use the restroom and look around for about 5 minutes, not enough to purchase anything. We got in line for the trolley and it took us to the main ruins entrance.

 

10:50 Arrived in the Ruins. Nacho gave a walking tour.

 

11:35 Tour guide finished, we were allowed to walk around on our own, we just had to be back at the bus by 12:40. That meant that we had to be on the trolley (came every 10 minutes) by 12:15. We did just that and just had time to use the bathroom and get on the bus.

 

12:40 Bus departs, we are given cold water for refreshment.

 

1:10 Arrive at beach club. Buffet lunch was good and we got choice of sodas or bottled water included, but you could purchase from the bar if you wanted. After lunch we had free time down by the beach to lounge on the large canopied beds or lounge chairs. There was a small little shop at the beach club that had a few trinkets to look at. We purchased two hacky sacks for the kids back home. I didn't even have to bargin with him. I just didn't say anything and he kept going lower and lower as I stalled.

 

2:40 Meet back at the bus. Bus ride was an hour back to the ferry. We walked back to the ferry. One couple stopped to look in a shop along the way and we left them behind. They later caught up, but we were worried about them for a while. We got in the line for a private ferrry. The public ferry had lots of lines of people waiting to get back on it.

 

4:00 Board ferry. This time the ferry was not open air on the top. Not good. I popped a dramamine but had to fan myself the entire time. Lady was selling the photos from earlier and jewlery but I told her I'd throw up if I looked at anything. I just kept my eyes on the TV which was playing commercials for things in Cozumel and funny youtube type videos.

 

5:00 We got off the ferry and were glad to be back on land. Our cruise boat was scheduled to leave at 5:30 so we only had a few minutes to look in the few shops close to the boat. We could have done a little bit more if we'd wanted but we were ready to get some food on the boat.

 

I heard later from people who went on the express tour that they had a little bit more time at the ruins, which we would have liked. It ended up working out good for us though because I was ready to eat by the time we got to the beach club and I don't know what they got to eat or when.

 

If you have questions you can leave me a post here and I'll try to respond as I'm subscribed to this thread. Hope this helps someone!

[goodmud]

Thank you for your review. I just booked a trip for August and was kind of tossing up which of these two to do. It will be my daughter and myself, so the details will give us something to discuss. Thanks again!

[tropiclvrs]

Thanks for reporting back! It sounds like a very busy and "on the go" kind of day. I will have to wait for this excursion for when we are there without our kids. I can't see them having fun on this type of excursion just yet (they're 4 & 6).

[bajathree]

Either tour is a long day with a good 2hrs travel time each way....also a very hot day depending on the time of year....if you are good with that then you should enjoy....BTW....there is a great beach right at Tulum....it's not the one they use for the beach stop.