RCCL Tulum Tour - Express or with Beach Break?

[jldev]

We took the Tulum and Beach Break a couple of years ago. As others have said it is a long excursion. Our lunch was at a beach club a bus ride from the ruins. Lunch was a Mexican buffet. I believe iced tea was available. You could also buy bar drinks.

We chose the beach break so that we didn't have to worry about getting back to the ship. Shopping is not a priority for us.

You should know that the ferry ride can be very rough and they do have bags available for those who need them.

Have a great cruise.

 

Yes, I much prefer the idea of being taken right back to the ship - I just wish it wasn't so late. We will be on 6pm MDR so it might be hard to make that dinner. The ferry right is worrying me as having sick kids is not fun and I sure hope we don't need to use those bags!

[jldev]

Without the kids, I'd say to do the tour alone in order to spend more time exploring the ruins. They are truly fabulous. But since you'll have kids with you, they might get bored looking at a bunch of old crumbly buildings, so make sure you add the beach to your visit. Still, after spending time in O-town, it might be time for a "mom and dad" excursion. We love ruins, and Tulum are some of the best we've seen.

 

Yes, I think you are right to add the beach with the kids. I do hope my DH doesn't feel too rushed at the ruins as it will probably by the trip highlight for him. At least, if it is really hot as I presume it will be, he too will be keen to get to a beach for a swim :)

[firefly333]

It was beastly hot when I was there a couple weeks ago, which I guess surprised me. About 95 degrees I think. Our tour guide had a umbrella but we didnt. Unless you are going in the winter, at least bring hats. It was so hot I wasnt as enthusiastic as I would have been otherwise looking at the ruins. I still have bites from sitting on the one bench under a tree I found.

 

Notice how these people all have umbrellas to shade them from the sun??

 

[jldev]

We did the ruins and Beach Break in March of this year. The ferry across the bay was extremely rough and many got sick. If any of you may suffer from motion sickness, be sure to take something 2 hours before you leave. If your girls enjoy wildlife, they will love the iguana's that are all over the ruins. We didn't go down to the beach at the ruins, but there were several people who did. We wished we had more time to explore the ruins, as we felt we had to rush from building to building to make it back to the bus on time.

The Beach Break was nice in an out of the way beach resort. The food was buffet style and was pretty good. You could go back for more. I really enjoy these buffets as my DH doesn't like Mexican and I do, so it's about the only time I get it (we live in Alberta, Canada and there isn't much to offer in way of good Mexican food here). They also included a soda with the lunch too.

We had time to wander at the beach here, but didn't swim.

Enjoy whichever excursion you decide on.

 

Thanks so much for your help! Yes, the girls will love seeing the iguanas as we sure don't have those here in New Zealand except in zoos! I am really going to have to do some research about sea-sickness prevention options aren't I? I do hope DH will be satisfied in the time he gets at the ruins but he knows we need to balance this with the girls needs and agrees going to a beach is a good idea.

[jldev]

I really dont want to change your plans for you but if you are going to Costa Maya as well , I cannot say enough about David and Ivan at "The Native Choice" ... Chacchoben Mayan ruins tour.

 

Certainly wish we were going to Costa Maya but our cruise doesn't go there.

[jldev]

Tulum Beach Break was a fantastic excursion for us. The ruins were amazing, and the beach at Tulum was beautiful, but the seas that day were a little rough. We went with our 12yo DD, and another couple and their 11yo DD.

 

The Beach Break meal was exactly as others have described, as well as the ferry ride, but overall a fun day. I would warn you that the Beach at the "resort" seemed to be topless :eek:, as we did see a few lovely bathing beauties sans tops. The girls got a big kick out of that, as they did not realize that this is a perfectly acceptable behavior in most areas of the world, and they had not been "exposed" :D to this before.

 

That is great to hear that you enjoyed it with your children! Thanks for the topless warning - it would be funny to see my girls reaction as they have never experienced that before but I'd better warn them in advance :)

[firefly333]

Yes, the girls will love seeing the iguanas as we sure don't have those here in New Zealand except in zoos!

 

I dont know if you are interested in any of my input since I went there from another port and cruiseline .. but I did find this huge ignuanna lazing the the bright sun.

 

[jldev]

It was beastly hot when I was there a couple weeks ago, which I guess surprised me. About 95 degrees I think. Our tour guide had a umbrella but we didnt. Unless you are going in the winter, at least bring hats. It was so hot I wasnt as enthusiastic as I would have been otherwise looking at the ruins. I still have bites from sitting on the one bench under a tree I found.

 

Notice how these people all have umbrellas to shade them from the sun??

 

 

Thanks so much for you input! We will certainly have sunhats (we are drilled to be very sunsmart here in NZ as the hole in the ozone layer is above us!) but I can't imagine packing umbrellas in our luggage.

 

Thanks for the warning on the toilets at Tulum - yuck! I will strongly encourage the girls to go on the official toilet stop before we get there and hope they can hold on. The trouble is that in that heat, at the same time, I am encourging them to drink lots of water to avoid dehydration!

 

So for your Tulum with Beach Break tour, was the beach break at the lovely Tulum beach? On the RCCL Beach Break tour, you are driven to a separate beach resort for the beach break part.

[jldev]

I dont know if you are interested in any of my input since I went there from another port and cruiseline .. but I did find this huge ignuanna lazing the the bright sun.

 

 

WOW!!! That is really fantastic to know about the iguanas because I suspect they will actually be the highlight of the visit to the ruins for my 6 and 10 year olds - maybe even my 13 year old too!

[firefly333]

I heard before I went that Xcaret was better and so much to do and see that it was a much better tour .. Im dissapointed that I choose Tulum to be honest. Xcaret has caves and swimming too and animals they are preserving and people said it was so much better than Tulum.

 

Our only beach was the one at Tulum. there is almost no ac there. I went inside to a restaurant to get a frozen margarita and chips and guacomole and the place inside was nice but really not cool.

 

I went on elation because its the only ship that stops at Calica which is only 36 miles from Tulum. We had a good 3 hours to play around and swim and eat. There were plenty of eating and drinking places and they sold hats there.

 

We had a actual Mayan cruise guide, as it was not a cheap tour, though you would think it would be since we docked so close.

 

Here is our guide mugging for my camera

 

 

You can see quite a few of the ruins in this picture.

 

[firefly333]

WOW!!! That is really fantastic to know about the iguanas because I suspect they will actually be the highlight of the visit to the ruins for my 6 and 10 year olds - maybe even my 13 year old too!

 

I almost missed the ignuanna, over on the rocks where I was walking a little away from the way down to the beach to take a picture looking back .. and there he was. He did finally move a bit. We were afraid for a while he was dead, as he did not move a inch and we were standing almost on top of him. I wasnt but a couple of feet away from this big ignuanna.

[jldev]

I almost missed the ignuanna, over on the rocks where I was walking a little away from the way down to the beach to take a picture looking back .. and there he was. He did finally move a bit. We were afraid for a while he was dead, as he did not move a inch and we were standing almost on top of him. I wasnt but a couple of feet away from this big ignuanna.

 

Well I will tell my 13 year old to have her camera ready and she will much prefer photographing iguanas than ruins I expect.

 

I would have preferred to cruise into Calico for the ease of visiting the ruins but, once I saw that Freedom of the Seas did a Western itineray out of Port Canaveral (we will have been at Orlando for two weeks prior), I was dazzled by the size of it and my DH's desire to see ruins slipped down my priorty list!

[bus man]

Yes, I much prefer the idea of being taken right back to the ship - I just wish it wasn't so late. We will be on 6pm MDR so it might be hard to make that dinner. The ferry right is worrying me as having sick kids is not fun and I sure hope we don't need to use those bags!

 

Don't worry about missing dinner; you can always eat in the Windjammer buffet if you miss your assigned time in the MDR. As for the ferry, when I went to Tulum a year ago, the ferry ride was very smooth in both directions. I know that this is not necessarily the norm, but it can happen. My friend was worried about getting seasick and he loaded up on seasickness medicine, but he came through just fine.

 

Yes, I think you are right to add the beach with the kids. I do hope my DH doesn't feel too rushed at the ruins as it will probably by the trip highlight for him. At least, if it is really hot as I presume it will be, he too will be keen to get to a beach for a swim :)

 

I never felt rushed at the ruins; I felt we had plenty of time to see it all.

 

Tulum is an amazing place; I'm very happy for you that you'll get to go see it.

[jldev]

Wow Busman, you have really put my mind at ease. Thanks so much :)

[bus man]

Wow Busman, you have really put my mind at ease. Thanks so much :)

 

My pleasure!

 

Thanks for the warning on the toilets at Tulum - yuck! I will strongly encourage the girls to go on the official toilet stop before we get there and hope they can hold on. The trouble is that in that heat, at the same time, I am encourging them to drink lots of water to avoid dehydration!

 

Regarding the bathrooms, I believe the poster to whom you were responding was speaking of the ones at the beach. There are bathrooms at the shopping complex at the Tulum entrance, and while they're not luxurious, they're acceptable. To the best of my recollection, you can flush the toilet paper. I'm pretty sure that there was an attendant there, though I might be confusing this one with another place. If there is an attendant there, he or she will expect a tip.

 

I recommend bringing at least a couple of bottles of water for each person. If you're anything like me, you'll find that you sweat a lot of it out, so you won't need to go to the bathroom excessively.