Excursions or Party?

[cruizintexas]

We don't cruise until early October. I am addicted to the boards....I need to know if we should book a excursion in each port of call or what? What excursions would you recommend in Progresso? HELP!!!! Thanks! This is my DH's first cruise and I haven't cruised in 18 years!

10/03 Carnival Elation!! Can't wait.....
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800080&cdt=2004;10;04;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0600[/img]

[hdawson]

CruizinTexas. Progreso has a very nice beach within walking distance to where the courtesy bus drops you in town. Plenty of good restaurants and bars accross the street from the beach. Touring Chichen Itza is very interesting and educational but it's about 4 hours on a bus RT. Progreso is an interesting small Mexican town, unspoiled so far from tourism. My favorite is the city of Merida which is a 30-45 min bus ride. A beautiful, large city of spanish colonial influence. Very safe and clean. An opportunity to experience a real Mexican city at it's finest. If you would like more info and pics, email me at
[email]hdawson228@aol.com[/email].

[verab]

cruizintexas, Just got back from Progesso, we went to the beach and hated it. The vendors are harrassing you every 2 to 3 minutes to buy something and the beach is not nice. The kids kept getting eaten by something called Sea Lice. Some of our group rented a car and drove to some ruins that were close, about 30 minutes. They enjoyed it, although she was nervous driving around Mexico. I highly recommend you find something to do and stay away from the beach. We would have been happier on the boat.

[Zeno]

On this stop I would go to see Mayan ruins:
My first choice would be Uxmal but there may not be an easily available excursion. My next choice would be Chichen Itza (long drive). There will defintely be excursions available. My third choice would be Dzbilchaltun (nearby but the ruins are defintely not comparable to Uxmal or Chichen Itza). It does have a nice cenote that you can swim in.
If ruins are not to your taste - go to Merida (an attractive colonial city).

[Rdytocruise]

Zeno,

How far from Progresso is Uxmal?

[hdawson]

I think Uxmal is too far to travel on a port call.

[url]http://www.yucatantoday.com/[/url]

[Zeno]

Rdytocruise: If memory serves me correctly - it actually takes about as long to get to Uxmal as it does to Chichen Itza - so about 2 or 2.5 hours one way (note I am relying on 4 year old memories here). The problem with Uxmal is that while I am very sure it would be easy to get an excursion to Chichen itza, getting one to Uxmal would probably be harder. If your ship offers one to Uxmal (even though it won't be cheap) for once I would go with a ship excursion - just because of the time factor. Like I said personally, I think Uxmal is the more fascinating ruin but Chichen Itza will be a lot easier to get to and it is also interesting

[hdawson]

Zeno. I may visit Uxmal next year when I visit Merida for 2 wks.