How in the world do you choose excursions? Progreso & Cozumel

[scrapulous]

There are SO many to choose from, and several are similar, making it harder to choose! We're going to Progreso and Cozumel. I need to spend a whole week at each place so I can do everything, lol.

 

What have you done at those places that you would recommend? We'll have our 8 and 10 year old kids with us. We want to book through Carnival, since it's our first cruise.

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Scott_F]

There's a section on this forum for destinations where there will probably be more info for you.

 

In Cozumel recently, we did the Twister Isla Passion thing. Great fun. Your kids will love it. But, it's a beach day with a great boat ride to get there. Best beach I've ever stepped on. Where they film the Corona commercials. 'nuff said.

 

In Progreso, we did the mayan ruins thing. It's the place that starts with the D. We had originally signed up for Chitzen itza but got into port late and they cancelled. So we went to the other place and had a great time. Very hot and they ran out of water at their little gift shop area. So, bring two big bottles of water for each person minimum if you do this. I called it the educational day to my grown kids. They enjoyed it.

 

My son did the Atlantis submarine with his uncle and family three years ago. Had a great time, but he said they packed them into that sub like sardines. Appropriate, no? But they had fun and still had time to party in Cozumel when they got done.

 

I honestly didnt' see much more to do in Progreso than the ruins. I was not very impressed by the place in general. The beach right by the dock pier was beautiful, but not as nice as Isla Passion by any stretch.

[BlueJacketsFan1]

When my wife and I were in Cozumel we did the Punta Sur Eco Park Tour and Snorkel. It was a lot of fun. You got a little education about turtles and how some plants are used as medicine on the island. A little history of Myan ruins. Some nice snorkeling over a reef and a little time at the beach. Along with a light house and some crocs and other wild life. The guides were a whole lot of fun, we still remember each of their names. They truly made the tour very special for everybody.

[T. Advisor King]

No doubt you'll get two types of replies. One will ask you to provide some additional information. The other will be from people telling you what they did and how great it was. You probably won't get anyone telling you why their last excursion sucked. It is pretty rare (that they say so -- not sure how rare it is that the excursions suck). Unfortunately, that probably won't help you much. Just because someone else enjoyed an excursion doesn't mean you will.

 

I suggest providing more details. Do you have a budget? Are you looking for a beach or ocean or similar water activity or not? Do you want to be gone all day, or just for 2-3 hours, leaving you half a day unplanned?

 

There are specific port discussion boards, so you might want to check there. In my experience, while that type of input is good, it mostly comes down to what you want to do.

 

We stopped at Cozumel on the Conquest in March. As soon as we had booked the cruise I was looking forward to the Tulum / Mayan ruins excursion. It was good and came as advertized. It didn't fail to meet my expectations. However, it did end up being a long day with a lot of travel and, because of the obvious time constraints, not nearly enough time on site.

 

I'm guessing that your smaller kids might be less interested in taking a long bus ride to some old ruins.

[scrapulous]

Thanks for your response! I'll look for the other forum, too. I'm still pretty new here, sorry! I really want to go to the ruins, but my husband is leaning toward a tour of the mangroves. We've already done that in Puerto Rico, though, so we'll see.

[Scott_F]

My only bad excursion was the Dolphin Trainer excursion in Cozumel. This was the more expensive one that was to have some behind the scenes stuff and more time with the fish. It was absolutely horrible the way they had us just sitting around all day with little to do. The people leading us were not knowledgable and were gone most of the time anyway. Some of our party had items stolen, etc.

 

The folks on the other dolphin swim things looked like they were treated better, but they were herded in and out pretty quickly.

 

Figured I'd put that out there. I also did the Tulum/Xel-Ha thing years ago out of Cozumel and found it to be excessive travel and minimal time at the destinations. The ruins out of Progreso were more impressive.

[bguppies]

Thanks for your response! I'll look for the other forum, too. I'm still pretty new here, sorry! I really want to go to the ruins, but my husband is leaning toward a tour of the mangroves. We've already done that in Puerto Rico, though, so we'll see.

 

The one time we stopped in Progresso we did Mayan ruins.

 

We chose the Uxmal ruins over the more popular Chitzen Itza ruins.

Both are a decent drive, but Uxmal was 30 minutes closer to the pier.

 

Chitzen Itza is completely excavated, but also, it is now completely roped off, so you never really get too close to anything there.

 

Uxmal is partially excavated (they had just started excavating a 2nd large pyramid when we were there 2 years ago), but the many things that are excavated, you can actually go up, through and in and touch most of it.

(the only two things that are roped off are the large pyramid and a ball court hoop, which I'm sure some moron would try to hang from and break off, if they didn't)

They actually let you walk through most of the structures and up and down all of the staircases to the various temples.

 

As for the crowds.

Our excursion was in a van with 9 of us and our guide.

Other than us at the site, was maybe 20 other people total while we were there.

 

The Chitzen Itza loaded up 4 full busloads, before we started loading and they had started loading a fifth bus while we started to get in our van.

Everybody that we talked to that night who went to Chitzen Itza, said it was packed and basically you just stood in lines behind ropes, moving between the various sites.

 

If you must go to Chitzen Itza, since it is more famous or you want that behind the ropes, museum type tour, then Chitzen Itza and its crowds are for you.

 

If you actually want to explore the ruins and actually get to touch some fo the ruins, with no crowds compared to Chitzen Itza, then Uxmal is a great choice.

 

 

Bill