Mayan Mystique Excursion Recommendations ?

[AD607]

We'll be on a Mayan Mystique cruise in Feb. 2013. We'd be interested in hearing about excursion recommendations, (pro or con, ship or DIY) from those who did the cruise this year. Thanks.

[Mura]

If I were you I would go to the roll calls and search out last year's roll call. You should find lots of information there.

 

Bear in mind that the cruise might have been on a different ship, so you may have to check all of the ships to find that roll call.

 

I don't know that you can find a past year's cruise (even if you know the "name" of the cruise) if you don't know the ship and date, so you may need to call Oceania to find out that information. But in your position I'd just search through last year's roll calls.

 

Sorry I can't be of more help! Whenever we've been in Mayan territory, it has been on a land trip.

[Hawaiidan]

I am on the same cruise in December.

Here is what I plan to do:

Belize cave tubing

Cozumel: Diving on Palancar reef

Coata Maya: ship tour -Tulum

Santo Tomas: Stay on the ship due to safety ( one of the top most crime ridden and violent places)

George town: Snorkel and dive

Roattan: snorkel and dive on south of island

Key west: Snorkel and dive

 

This areqa has the most outstanding caves and diving. It too, as 4 of the most violent criminal environs in the world..

 

Pick what you do carefull like

[Wineart]

I'm booked on this cruise for January, 2013, and I'm a little concerned about some of the postings regarding safety in some of these ports. Could someone expand on this a little? I didn't do much research before booking this itinerary, and really booked it because it has some ports we haven't been to. If there are major safety issues, I may want to reconsider.

[chaswill]

We did this cruise back in January and it was a wonderful intinerary. We did a ship's tour in Santo Tomas because we heard that it was so dangerous and we felt perfectly safe on our tour. Email me and I will send you my cruise journal and review of the trip along with some pictures. chaslin@surewest.net

[sticey@aol.com]

We just got back from our 10 day Mayan Mystique cruise on the Marina. Had a wonderful time – here are a few of the things we did--- If you’ve never been to Key West before, a ride on the conch train is informative & fun. The Butterfly Conservatory is also a great place to get away from the heat & hustle & bustle of Duval Street. We did not visit any of the Mayan ruins because we will be going to Riviera Maya in May and plan to visit Chichen Itza, but others on the cruise really enjoyed those excursions. While in Roatan, we took the ship tour to Tabyana Beach. Spent a wonderful 4 hours lounging on this beautiful beach, snorkeling and just wading in the water where lots of fish swam right up to you in knee deep water..my kind of snorkeling. I would definitely recommend this excursion. While in Cozumel, a short cab ride will take you to Chakanaab Park – a fun place to spend the day with a great beach, dolphin show, seal show and a reconstructed Mayan village. Just be sure you don’t go on a Sunday as we did. We found the dolphin show closed, none of the souvenir stands were open, the pool was closed – yet we were charged the full admission fee.

 

We never worried about our safety. However, we were warned not to stray too far from the port while in Belize and, since our snorkeling trip was canceled due to choppy seas we enjoyed the ship for the day. Our snorkeling trip to Grand Cayman, which we had really been looking forward to, was also canceled for the same reason. Interestingly enough, we had been planning to just spend the day onboard while in Santo Tomas..again because of the warnings. However, upon leaving the ship and heading for the terminal just to look around, one of the ship’s destination people suggested that we at least take the water taxi to Livingston, the closest town. Instead we signed up for a Happy Fish tour for only $49.00 per person which took us down the Rio Dulce river, into the town of Livingston and to a school called Ak’Tenamit a non-profit venture started by a wealthy American. Our tour guide, Freddie, was the best and this tour lasted for over 6 hours. The ship offers a similar shore excursion – the only difference being lunch and a performance of music and dancing at the Villa Caribe Hotel and the cost for that tour is $205.00 per person. It turned out to be our favorite port on the cruise. So, you just never know.

 

Also,we attended one of the classes at the culinary center & enjoyed it very much. It’s a great ship and you should have a wonderful time.

[Wineart]

DH & I are not into snorkeling or other water sports, and we don't spend much time in the sun. We've travelled extensively, and enjoy spending time in the various ports, especially touring historical and archaeological sites. Therefore, the safety issues were a concern for me because of our interests.

[findacruise]

We also were on 2/26 cruise and took and excellent all day trip to the Kohumlich Ruins. We were going to do a combo that did it and another and are glad we chose to do just the one because we were able to do it more indepth. We picked the ships excursion and had an outstanding guide. Her name was Lisbeth. If you go, just know that lunch is at the end of the tour before you head back. It is at a lovely location on the water and the food was good - not outstanding but we enjoyed it.

 

We also did the conch train in Key West and went to the ship wreck museum and enjoyed walking around. Other islands we had been to so we went out on our own. Couple of places stayed on the ship when the waves were chppy and it was tender in. Enjoy planning your cruise.