Mayan ruin excursions.. so many ones, which one to choose?

[Froufie]

Froufie, We have not yet done this excursion but are planning to. It was recommended by some roll call friends on our last cruise. They raved about their day and said the beach club was really nice. They got beach chairs and enjoyed the water and had a nice lunch. I wish I could tell you the name of the beach club. They told us, but it has been so long that I do not remember. We snorkeled off of Sunset Beach last cruise and the shore line there was rocky as well, so not sure if this is commen in Cozumel or not but I would bring some water shoes nevertheless. The Carnival site used to have pictures of this excursion but they now have a notation that they are in the process of adding more, so keep your eyes out for this as the pictures were really nice. On the same note, the Mayan Riuin in Cozumel is San Gervasio which is a tribute to the Fertility god. It is said that if you place your hands in a certain area in the ruin that you will be blessed with fertility. :D

 

Wishing you a great time. Cari :)

 

Thanks for the info (and no thanks to any more 'fertility' ha ha ha).....will keep my eyes out and read more reviews - dh like the 'ruins' thing and I of course love the beach so trying to find something that satisfies both of us (and yes I always keep a pair of water shoes in my beach bag just in case!).

[Froufie]

We are is Belize for 8 hours on the Legend and would really like to do Lamanai Temple. I know it is a long trip and a great site. has anyone done it sucessfully? :)

 

Barely made it back to the ship in time - which cause me to book a tour thru the cruiseline next time we visited Belize (altun ha/river wallace) - even so we were back very late - and the 2nd bus travelling with us ended up with a flat tire and had to be 'rescued' - bet they were thrilled to be on a cruise-sponsored excursion!!!:eek:

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

chetza titza is the best location

[bingo3]

We did the Tulum ruins in an early December and were miserable because of the heat and humidity. We could not really enjoy because we were so hot and there is no where to cool off. There was a lot of walking but that is about all I remember, I just remember the heat and sweat!

debbie

[CRUISING71]

We are is Belize for 8 hours on the Legend and would really like to do Lamanai Temple. I know it is a long trip and a great site. has anyone done it sucessfully? :)

 

we were looking for this excursion as well. Because Belize is tender port, plus the Lamanai is kinda far, we were afraid to book, since the ship did not offer this excursion. But an another person on the Belize forum said they did it through private tour. This private tour offer to get them to the next port if they missed the ship. Check it out on the Belize forum.

[Islandbear]

Thanks I found on the Belize forum that it is "do able" with time to spare.

[Froufie]

we were looking for this excursion as well. Because Belize is tender port, plus the Lamanai is kinda far, we were afraid to book, since the ship did not offer this excursion. But an another person on the Belize forum said they did it through private tour. This private tour offer to get them to the next port if they missed the ship. Check it out on the Belize forum.

 

I wouldn't count on it! Do the research (as I did) - I actually did the Lamanai excursion thru Island marketing. This is the one time I actually brought my passport off the ship with me - and I did the research on how to get to the next port if required - not easy!!! and guess what! The ship never actually docked at that port so should something have happened and we missed the ship we would not have been able to catch it in Roatan even if we made it there (took like 2 days via ferry and flights only on wednesdays).

 

Anyways if they are saying they will get you to the next port I would ask questions on how? how long? what if the ship doesn't dock there!

 

P.S> for those interested here is my old Lamanai 'review':

 

Firstly let me say that the tour to Lamanai was wonderful, the tour guide

knowledgeable and the ride quite 'exhilarating'. The problem of course

lies with the timing of the tour and the fact that Elio the 'experienced'

tour guide was unable to get us back in time for the last tender

(scheduled for 4:15 pm) nor was he able to properly manage the group to

ensure we left Lamanai with ample time to get to the last tender (and a

little shopping time would have been nice as well)

 

We were a group of 13 - Ray and myself, along with a family of 11 - all

adults. We gathered at the Belize cruise excursions/x-stream office at

approx 8:30 am and met the rest of the group. About 30 mins later we were

walked off the port area to our van parked a few blocks away. By 9:30 am

we were on our way however it was slow getting out of Belize City due to

the recent end of the rainy season and the potholes, puddles and flooding

we encountered on our way to the New River.

 

Once we got to the boat dock we had a short 5 min bathroom break then we

all boarded the boat with Captain Edgar at the wheel. We literally flew

down the river only making 2 very short stops - one to see an air cactus

and some insect bats on a tree and the other to see the Mennonite village

near Lamanai.

 

At around 11:30 (2 hours in transit) we reached the boat dock at Lamanai

and began our tour. The tour was great - we got to see the temples, some

howler monkeys in the trees, marching ants, a jaguar footrprint, the ball

court and of course a challenging but fun climb up the Lag Temple. I

believe that it was nice to see all of these things however if we are

running out of time is it not the tour guide's responsibility to take

control of the group and ensure we move along and don't waste time?

 

In our case the family of 11 was of course thrilled to be visiting Lamanai

and we don't blame them for taking pictures (we did too) but a great deal

of time was taken up at each 'site' to take pictures with everyone's

cameras and with different combinations of family members in each.

 

Now logic would dictate that if it took us 2 hours to get from the ship

pier to Lamanai that it would take AT LEAST 2 hours to get back barring

any unforeseen circumstances - and in fact - in order to ensure we got

back for the last 4:15 tender we should have left even earlier to allow

perhaps an extra 15-20 mins for shopping or whatever? This was not the

case on November 4th and I hold our tour guide Elio completely responsible

for not managing the tour schedule.

 

At 1:45 pm we were making it back to the Lamanai boat dock/picnic area

where lunch was to be served. While some followed Elio and began eating

others in the family group did not....some wandered off to the washroom,

others to the gift shop.......eventually they showed up at the picnic area

(after being called by other family members) and then sat down to eat at

approx 2 pm!!!! At no point did Elio seem alarmed, nervous or in any rush

for them to eat and get back on the boat - his attitude was quite

relaxed.....I was hoping he knew something I didn't - a shortcut back

perhaps?

 

At 2:15 we began to help Elio and Edgar load up the coolers and leftover

food and made our way back to the dock area. The boat had drifted away

and Edgar had to go into the water to retrieve it. By the time we were on

the boat and on our way it was after 2:30 pm - giving us only 1 hr and 45

mins to get back to the ship!!! (remember it took us 2 hrs to get there).

 

The boat ride back was quite a thrill and we flew down that river back to

the van. At the dock we quickly boarded the van and off we went. While

Elio drove quickly I guess he did not want to speed. I did note that Elio

was on the phone with "Richard" (his supervisor at X-stream?) who seemed

to be getting concerned about the fact that we had not yet arrived back at

the pier. These calls took place between 3:30 and 4:15 pm......at all

times we were assured by Elio that we would make it.

 

I soon realized this was not too be - especially sitting in the front of

the van I could see the big construction work now going on to fix the

flooding and potholes. The construction team tried to stop the van -

however Elio was able to convince them to let us go by as we needed to get

to the shipl

 

At 4:04 pm Elio told us we were 3 minutes from the port - this was

completely untrue. At 4:08 pm we had gone maybe 100 yards as there was a

stream of traffic ahead of us - everyone going very slowly thru or around

the potholes/water on the road.

 

Once we got into the city Elio seemed to speed up, told us to gather our

things and get our ship ID cards out! We pulled up to the port area

around 4:30 pm and literally jumped out of the van and ran thru the

building to the pier where the tenders were - there was no lineup - just a

Carnival security guard frantically waving to us......asking us if we were

the private tour that was late? Told us that they were loading up the

last boat to bring back Carnival equipment/property back to the ship and

were waiting for us - also told us that if we were less than 7 people they

would have already left however they decided to wait for us because we

were a larger group.

 

We quickly boarded this tender and while it took 20 mins to tender in the

morning this fast and bouncy ride took only 5 mins as we flew back to the

ship - we could see them pulling up the anchor as we boarded the ship!!!

 

When I booked this excursion I did realize there was a risk due to timing

- and being an avid Cruise Critic member I watched the information

provided by others who took recently took this tour and reported getting

back with very little time to spare.

 

To be very honest while I loved the tour I cannot recommend this tour or

company given the lack of control the tour guide showed with this

group and his lack of good judgement and timing in ensuring we were back

on time. I shudder to think what would have happened should we have

missed this last Carnival tender and had to somehow find our way to Roatan

- in fact we never were allowed to disembark in Roatan due to the civil

unrest and road blockages going on so in fact we would not have made it

back to the ship then either.

 

I advise those those planning to take this trip that yes the tour

itself and Lamanai are amazing however wherever you are at 1:45 pm go to

your guide and tell him it's time to leave - even if you have to miss a

temple, even if you have to miss the gift shop and even if you have to

miss your lunch! It is obviously most important to get back to the ship

on time regardless of having missed some parts of the tour.

 

Timing of the tour would be especially important during or after rainy season

when the roads may be affected and therefore extra time should be allotted

to deal with road/water issues.

[racelvis]

We went to Tulum in April. From the time we left the ship to when we arrived at Tulum, it was 3 hours. We then had 45 minutes to be there and had to be back on the bus. We were livid. We knew it would take time to get there, but no where did it say 3 hours travel. :mad:

[ToadStar]

I did the lamanai tour in May and we had plenty of time getting back. The ride there was about 45min and the speed boat to Lamanai was about an additional 45 min and we ate lunch as soon as we got there. I didn't go all the way to the top of the ruins (though my husband did) - my knees just weren't going to take it, but it was still a gorgeous site! I would not be afraid to take this tour. The walking itself was not bad at all and there is shade readily available.

[GlendaleCruiser]

Xcaret and maybe Chichen Itza are the only ones left on my list of the ruins I really want to see. Everyone I ran into raved about Xcaret and Chichen Itza is one of the 7 wonders of the world. I saw Tulum last time and I was so so about the excursion.

 

 

I totally agree with you on Tulum. I was disappointed in that we docked in Coz, got on a ferry to Costa Maya for one hour and then rode the bus one hour to get to Tulum. It was TREMENDOUSLY hot and we couldn't get enough water. It was on the seaside and I wish I had just walked down to the beach instead of walking around the ruins. So-so in my book.

 

When we left we got a SO-SO box lunch and an hour ride back to Costa Maya and an hour ride back to Coz. Ran onto the ship as it was leaving in 20 minutes.

 

THING THAT REALLY FROSTED ME WAS THAT WE STOPPED AT A LITTLE TOURIST TRAP FOR OVER AN HOUR ON THE BUS GOING THERE TO BUY TRINKETS, WHICH I DON'T WANT.

 

With a tight schedule like that, we could have spent a part of it back at Coz shopping instead of that roadside shack.

 

Would try another ruins next time. Not impressed with Tulum.

[GlendaleCruiser]

We went to Tulum in April. From the time we left the ship to when we arrived at Tulum, it was 3 hours. We then had 45 minutes to be there and had to be back on the bus. We were livid. We knew it would take time to get there, but no where did it say 3 hours travel. :mad:

 

 

YEP. Just like our experience. Never again. Would NOT recommend.:(

[tnincy]

chichen itza is awesome. we were there the last year they were allowing people to climb the big pyramid. however with that said, we were on a land vacation and had several hours that we could roam by ourselves, after the guided tour. not sure going on a cruise excursion will allow you enough time to really explore. we have also done xcaret on this same vacation. loved the park, and plenty of things to do, but the best thing about the park, imo, is the evening show they put on. covers mayan history from start to modern day. the dances, costumes and show were spectacular.