Chankanaab vs. Money Bar

[Bibble]

I just found this thread when looking for info on Chananaab, and I'm very happy I did!!!

We are doing the manatee swim there at 2pm. I just realized that to ship time, that's 3pm, after docking at 11am. That gives us a lot of time to chill before the manatees, so I was trying to figure out what to do.

I had NO idea Chankanaab had all this!!!!!

I think we'll just head over there and hang and snorkel until it's Manatee time!!

 

Thank you so much for all the terrific pictures!

[mom_n_mi]

Mitsugirly -

 

You did reviews on both Playa Mia and Chankanaab. I have 2 boys - 11 and 5. Can I do both in one day? Is it easier/better snorkeling at one place over the other? If you had to pick 1, which 1? Both of my boys are part fish, so as long as there is water and sand we are good :)

 

Thanks - our first cruise is scheduled for Dec 2014.

[JohninDC]

Mitsugirly -

 

You did reviews on both Playa Mia and Chankanaab. I have 2 boys - 11 and 5. Can I do both in one day? Is it easier/better snorkeling at one place over the other? If you had to pick 1, which 1? Both of my boys are part fish, so as long as there is water and sand we are good :)

 

Thanks - our first cruise is scheduled for Dec 2014.

 

I'd focus on one - especially since Chank has an admission fee of about $20 per adult. Great swimming and snorkeling, food, drink, etc at Chank -- and if you need a break from the water you can head over to see the dolphins, manatees, etc.

 

Playa Mia is better for an all-day beach and water toy experience; no good snorkeling there (or anywhere with a nice sandy bottom and wave action). Good luck! :)

[mitsugirly]

Mitsugirly -

 

You did reviews on both Playa Mia and Chankanaab. I have 2 boys - 11 and 5. Can I do both in one day? Is it easier/better snorkeling at one place over the other? If you had to pick 1, which 1? Both of my boys are part fish, so as long as there is water and sand we are good :)

 

Thanks - our first cruise is scheduled for Dec 2014.

 

I wouldn't try to do both especially since there's an admission fee to get in to Chankanaab and then Playa Mia is a little more expensive (kind of like an AI but different packages). There's no snorkeling at Playa Mia. If you read the reviews on both places I did, you can get a better feel of what both places have to offer you.

[WisCruiser2]

Is it Chankanaab that supposedly won't admit you if you're on a cruise and you didn't buy as a ship's excursion? Seems I've heard that somewhere.

 

Unless that's changed in the past 5 years, no. Check the website for the park http://www.cozumelparks.com/eng/chankanaab.cfm -- there is a coupon for $2 off the admission price of $21. Snorkeling was great (although I admit the underwater statue of Christ was a little creepy), a little tricky getting in & out of the water. There's enough to do there for non-snorkelers, too.

[polySeraph]

Unless that's changed in the past 5 years, no. Check the website for the park http://www.cozumelparks.com/eng/chankanaab.cfm -- there is a coupon for $2 off the admission price of $21. Snorkeling was great (although I admit the underwater statue of Christ was a little creepy), a little tricky getting in & out of the water. There's enough to do there for non-snorkelers, too.

 

Do they have underwater statues at Chankanaab? If so, cool! Is it just the one statue of Christ mentioned in your post or are there others?

 

I've seen the statue of Christ of the Abyss submerged off Key Largo and I'll have to agree with you; at first it was a little unsettling seeing a human figure like that under water. After a while, I decided that it was mysterious and beautiful and I liked it.

[mitsugirly]

Do they have underwater statues at Chankanaab? If so, cool! Is it just the one statue of Christ mentioned in your post or are there others?

 

I've seen the statue of Christ of the Abyss submerged off Key Largo and I'll have to agree with you; at first it was a little unsettling seeing a human figure like that under water. After a while, I decided that it was mysterious and beautiful and I liked it.

 

I posted pictures above in this thread of the ones that we took of them. I think there are more, but those are the ones that my DH took while he was out there.

[polySeraph]

I posted pictures above in this thread of the ones that we took of them. I think there are more, but those are the ones that my DH took while he was out there.

 

That is so cool! I don't know how I could have missed those photos.

 

I'll have to make sure my daughter sees them. A couple of years ago she sent me a link to an article about underwater statues in Mexico. We are treating her (and her husband) to a well-earned vacation (from grad school) next January aboard the Dawn.

[polySeraph]

....There's so much to do there. It's an actual National Park and it's HUGE. They have really nice palapas to sit under while they serve you drinks and food along the beach. This area is directly in front of the snorkeling area.

 

Mitsugirly, Where did you stash your stuff while you were snorkeling? DH and I have a small dry-pouch that holds important stuff like our IDs, money, credit cards, et cetera, but I was wondering if it would be safe to leave a few items like a cover-up, change of clothes, and towels unattended in the palapa while we were snorkeling.

 

Sure don't want to pay $25 to the ship because someone "fell in love" with one of those threadbare NCL towels.

[mitsugirly]

Mitsugirly, Where did you stash your stuff while you were snorkeling? DH and I have a small dry-pouch that holds important stuff like our IDs, money, credit cards, et cetera, but I was wondering if it would be safe to leave a few items like a cover-up, change of clothes, and towels unattended in the palapa while we were snorkeling.

 

Sure don't want to pay $25 to the ship because someone fell in love with one of those threadbare NCL towels.

 

You see the last picture? That's were we left our stuff. :D We have never had anyone mess with our things at any port we have been to. (Knocking on wood right now). I have a dry pouch too (that doesn't seem to want to stay too dry most of the time :rolleyes:) that I put our money, cc, copies of ID/passport, and room card in and we just leave the towels and change of clothes back at the hut where ever we stay.

 

If you are worried about your items, Chankanaab does have free lockers, the only draw back is they are all the way over by the dolphin swim in the building. It's quite the walk if you are hanging out at the snorkel area.

 

 

To me, it's not worth it to walk that far just to secure items. Yes, the towels are expensive at $25 each if someone was to take one, but as long as I have my valuables, I'm ok. I have also only witnessed them really keeping track of the towels on the Epic when it was new. They have the awesome really big and thick towels that actually say NCL on them. The rest of the NCL fleet have the older, thin green and white striped towels that aren't worth $5 if you ask me, but yet they still say they will charge you if lost. I always wonder how they keep track of them since I have walked down the hall plenty of times before and ask a room steward for an extra one and they just handed it to me not even knowing what room I was in or writing anything down saying we had "extra" beach towels. I was on one cruise that before you boarded the ship, you could drop off your wet, heavy towels in this bin as you were picking up your cold drink before boarding. So how did those people get new fresh dry towels? I have also had room stewards leave new beach towels in our room when we were out at the pool with our towels to begin with and we ended up with 6 towels that time.

 

I just think they don't want people walking off with their nice new plush towels on the newer ships. :)