Cozumel Dufry store(s) we are forced to walk through "coming and going"

[marne001]

Anyone beside myself not happy with having to walk through that looooong Dufry store, where we are not allowed to exit until we walk through the entire stinkin' store"-although crew can happily walk around the big building, and I find that we can only walk slowly as large groups stop and ogle the merchandise?  I am not a hater, but have no desire to waste 15 minutes or so behind gawkers and repeatedly say, "excuse me", "excuse me", just to pass through a store I have NO INTEREST IN.  Again, not a hater, but resent being forced through the store gauntlet when we are eager to get our rent car and hot foot it over to the other side of the island.  Combined with the reduced time port, only 6-7 hours.  We like to rent a car and see some of the sights, snorkel along the reefs on the west side of the island, then visit Chen Rio and Puenta Morena.  If the Park Rangers are cooking fish, we like to say hi and they often share their lunch.  I love the SE side of the island where you can view >180 degree of nothing man made and the only company are Gila Monsters sunning themselves on rocks.  See we have a full day enjoying Coz and a round trip through Dufry's is a waste of the TIME we PAID for in COZUMEL and we resent some of it wasted in a store we have absolutely no interest in.

 

Ahhh, I remember the days of docking at the International Pier at 7am and not sailing until midnight.  Those were long and enjoyable days.

 

Additionally, has anyone used the bycicle operated cabs to/from the ship and end of the walkway?  If so, does that allow us to bypass the Dufry store at the end of the pier?

 

I like the stores ONCE we pass through the congested Dufry store.

 

Thank you

Edited December 16, 2018 by marne001
Add name of Dufry, the loooong store at the end of the pier we are forced to walk through--silly

[Pyrate13]

Gila Monsters???😋 😉 I believe you might mean Iguanas🦎. I do agree that store is annoying. Same thing in Mahogany Bay Roatan but the store is not as big.

[c-leg5]

11 hours ago, marne001 said:

Anyone beside myself not happy with having to walk through that looooong Dufry store, where we are not allowed to exit until we walk through the entire stinkin' store"-although crew can happily walk around the big building, and I find that we can only walk slowly as large groups stop and ogle the merchandise?  I am not a hater, but have no desire to waste 15 minutes or so behind gawkers and repeatedly say, "excuse me", "excuse me", just to pass through a store I have NO INTEREST IN.  Again, not a hater, but resent being forced through the store gauntlet when we are eager to get our rent car and hot foot it over to the other side of the island.  Combined with the reduced time port, only 6-7 hours.  We like to rent a car and see some of the sights, snorkel along the reefs on the west side of the island, then visit Chen Rio and Puenta Morena.  If the Park Rangers are cooking fish, we like to say hi and they often share their lunch.  I love the SE side of the island where you can view >180 degree of nothing man made and the only company are Gila Monsters sunning themselves on rocks.  See we have a full day enjoying Coz and a round trip through Dufry's is a waste of the TIME we PAID for in COZUMEL and we resent some of it wasted in a store we have absolutely no interest in.

 

Ahhh, I remember the days of docking at the International Pier at 7am and not sailing until midnight.  Those were long and enjoyable days.

 

Additionally, has anyone used the bycicle operated cabs to/from the ship and end of the walkway?  If so, does that allow us to bypass the Dufry store at the end of the pier?

 

I like the stores ONCE we pass through the congested Dufry store.

 

Thank you

 

Which pier - we dont walk through Dufry. Is this Puerta Maya?

[tallyho8]

And they stack cheap junk at ridiculous prices teetering on the brink of falling on the narrow aisles the passengers are forced to walk through with signs that "you break it, you pay". My wife walked through there with her backpack as cautiously as possible and barely rubbed something as she ventured down the aisle amidst the crowds. Down came an expensive piece of garbage that no one would buy and they shouted you broke it, pay for it.

 

After several minutes of arguing that it was impossible for her to negotiate the aisle without toppling this piece of precariously perched piece of garbage, we walked out without paying for the booby trap they had set for us.

Edited December 17, 2018 by tallyho8

[robinpow]

Hate this newer terminal!  Like walking through a whole freaking mall of venders!  The trike guys were great, but didn’t bypass the crap.  For decades I’ve enjoyed Cozumel, after last week, no more.  The town might look nicer, but has lost it’s personality.

[crewsweeper]

Agree that having to pass through the Dufry shop in any port  is a hassle.   But it has never ever taken me 15 minutes to walk through the one at Puerta Maya, and that includes stopping once to buy some mescal, and pay for it.

 Maybe your timing was wrong and you got behind a tour group, but even then NY Subway rules apply and you just push on through.

 

[robinpow]

6 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

Agree that having to pass through the Dufry shop in any port  is a hassle.   But it has never ever taken me 15 minutes to walk through the one at Puerta Maya, and that includes stopping once to buy some mescal, and pay for it.

 Maybe your timing was wrong and you got behind a tour group, but even then NY Subway rules apply and you just push on through.

 

The one I had to deal with last week, was a round two story mall of shops! You enter, and have to walk almost 360 degrees left, to get to the escalator to go down. The walk almost 360 degrees right to exit the building!  Shops on the right, stalls on the left all trying to pull you in, and other passengers in the middle also trying to escape. Then reverse the whole process to get back to the ship.

 

[crewsweeper]

1 hour ago, robinpow said:

The one I had to deal with last week, was a round two story mall of shops! You enter, and have to walk almost 360 degrees left, to get to the escalator to go down. The walk almost 360 degrees right to exit the building!  Shops on the right, stalls on the left all trying to pull you in, and other passengers in the middle also trying to escape. Then reverse the whole process to get back to the ship.

 

Sounds like you were docked at Punta Langosta downtown.  And yes that can be a nightmare as you have to go throught he mall to get to the street. Haven't been from street side to ship at the new International Pier shopping area.  Last time we docked there we went from excursion pier to ship and back through security without having to go inside a dufry store.

[c-leg5]

23 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

Sounds like you were docked at Punta Langosta downtown.  And yes that can be a nightmare as you have to go throught he mall to get to the street. Haven't been from street side to ship at the new International Pier shopping area.  Last time we docked there we went from excursion pier to ship and back through security without having to go inside a dufry store.

 

No need to go through Dufry at International.

[Ralphinsc]

On 12/19/2018 at 1:57 PM, robinpow said:

The one I had to deal with last week, was a round two story mall of shops! You enter, and have to walk almost 360 degrees left, to get to the escalator to go down. The walk almost 360 degrees right to exit the building!  Shops on the right, stalls on the left all trying to pull you in, and other passengers in the middle also trying to escape. Then reverse the whole process to get back to the ship.

 

 

LOL! I remember that one. Have seriously though of jumping over the side of the walkway over the road to land atop a cab rather than go through that. Do you think they would take my fare if I landed on them? 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 12/19/2018 at 3:13 PM, crewsweeper said:

Sounds like you were docked at Punta Langosta downtown.  And yes that can be a nightmare as you have to go throught he mall to get to the street. Haven't been from street side to ship at the new International Pier shopping area.  Last time we docked there we went from excursion pier to ship and back through security without having to go inside a dufry store.

we were there in mid-December, and I don't think it was a nightmare or even a major inconvenience. We simply walked through a small mall, asked where the taxi stand was and were pointed to the escalator. Same thing back. 4 minutes tops.

No duty free shops to walk through for sure.

[c-leg5]

54 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

we were there in mid-December, and I don't think it was a nightmare or even a major inconvenience. We simply walked through a small mall, asked where the taxi stand was and were pointed to the escalator. Same thing back. 4 minutes tops.

No duty free shops to walk through for sure.

 

Deleted -Wrong post.

Edited January 11, 2019 by c-leg5

[marne001]

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 11:49 AM, Pyrate13 said:

Gila Monsters???😋 😉 I believe you might mean Iguanas🦎. I do agree that store is annoying. Same thing in Mahogany Bay Roatan but the store is not as big.

There are gila monsters on Cozumel, nothing like an iguana, on the southeast (near lighthouse) side of the island.  They are on the rocks along the southernmost portion of the wild side of the island.  They are poisonous, but are not interested in humans.  I have seen them from the rent car sunning themselves on the rock formations east of the lighthouse.  I would not walk up to one and they are set back > 50 feet from the road.

At least in Roatan, you can maneuver around folks and the store is smaller.

[maldenmusic]

There has been a time or two where we actually were able to walk around the Dunfrey shops like the crew does. We just put our heads down and kept going. There may not have been anyone really watching or we just got lucky. 

[marne001]

On December 16, 2018 at 12:45 PM, c-leg5 said:

 

Which pier - we dont walk through Dufry. Is this Puerta Maya?

 

On January 11, 2019 at 4:32 PM, c-leg5 said:

 

Deleted -Wrong post.

 Carnival pier. It is one of the longest piers I've ever seen, followed by a long store full of slow-moving people and a lot of boxed merchandise with vendors trying to stop you talk to you and ultimately sell you some of their products. I have no interest, we don't have enough time in Cozumel to do half the stuff we want to do. I resent forcing us to walk through a carnival  owned set of vendors taking time away from me. Once through the store you have to walk through the open air area but I don't mind that because I can walk fast.