Shore Excursions, Cozumel and Grand Cayman

[PirateWife]

Hi! My DH and I are cruising the Nov. 8 Western, and are trying to decide what shore excursions to do. The ones we are debating between are:

Cozumel: Jeep Ride, Tulum Ruins, Kayaking

Has anyone done either of these? Liked/disliked? Is the trip to the Ruins ridiculously long? If it is, is it worth it? Is the Jeep Ride just a crazed journey at the mercy of an insane driver (like me)?

Also, we are thinking of doing the Aquaboat excursion (fairly newly added, I believe) on Grand Cayman. Any reports here?

Thanks for your help!

 

[xABearx]

Originally posted by PirateWife
Hi! My DH and I are cruising the Nov. 8 Western, and are trying to decide what shore excursions to do. The ones we are debating between are:

Cozumel: Jeep Ride, Tulum Ruins, Kayaking

We did this cruise last September and did the Kayak excursion which we really enjoyed, however, if you do this one, make sure you bring bug spray or Avons Skin-So-Soft as the mosquitos were very bad here.....Andy

 

[ThreeCircles]

We have considered doing the Tulum Ruins excursion on both of our previous Western cruises but opted out each time. The excursion sounds like it would be really great and very interesting, but, as you said, it does seem rather long. I wish they offered just the ruins and skipped the beach trip aspect of the excursion. That would cut the time down somewhat.

Regardless, I think we'll end up doing the Tulum trip on our next Western. (Hopefully the Aug 28th, 2004 cruise!)

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Good morning PirateWife.

My DH and I are cruising the Nov. 8 Western, and are trying to decide what shore excursions to do.

I'd recommend reading some of the postings on the trip reports' board. You'll find a wealth of information on the various shore excursions.

On Cozumel, I suggest the Wild Tours ATV Adventure. This is not a tour offered by DCL. It includes riding an ATV, ocean kayaking, snorkeling around a barrier reef and visiting a very small Mayan ruin...

 

[Doctor P]

I would encourage people to not make judgements about the Tulum Ruins tour without having taken it. It sounds far worse on paper than it really is. Here is a somewhat blow by blow description based on the July 19th Western cruise:

1) Meet at Walt Disney Theater at 9:40 am to get your excursion identification stickers (they give each excursion a different character sticker so that they can herd you to the transportation by carrying signs with your character and to allow the CM's to identify the excursion on which you belong). We were surprised to find that between 100 and 200 guests would be joining us for the Tulum tour.

2) Approximately 10:15 am: Follow a CM down to deck 1 and disembark directly onto a tender boat from the opposite side of the ship as everyone else disembarks to go in to Cozumel. The tender boat is covered, air conditioned and has a bar and a t-shirt stand on board. You watch a safety video and then they play tourism shows for the rest of the cruise.

3) Approximately 10:25 am: Tender leaves for Playa del Carmen on the Mexican mainland. This is a 30-40 minute trip that is pretty rough. That said, I have motion sickness problems and was able to get through the ride just fine and without feeling any queasiness (I used Meclizine and the sea bands throughout the cruise and had no problems).

4) Approximately 11:15 am: Arrive at Playa Del Carmen. At the end of the pier, we are met by a group of tour guides and the guides take small groups and lead them each on a 10 minute walk (primarily in the shade) through Playa Del Carmen to the bus staging area. At the bus staging area, there are approximately 50 buses parked and we are led to our bus and told its number and how to recognize it (first of many times we are told this). The bus is air conditioned and they have put the blinds down to keep the bus cool while waiting for us. The buses each take a comfortable number of people which I would estimate is approximately 60-70% of the capacity of the bus. These are motor coaches, but they do not have bathrooms.

5) Approximately 11:30 am--depart for Tulum.

6) Approximately 12:10 pm--make a rest stop at a Mexican market where you can shop and go to the bathroom. Lots of interesting native pottery, textiles, onyx, and jewelry.

7) Approximately 12:40 pm--arrive at Tulum and receive instructions as to how we will conduct our time at Tulum. Tour guide asks for lunch orders (turkey sandwich or veggie sandwich from Subway at Tulum which will be waiting for us when we return to the bus at 2:45 pm). Guide gets tram tickets for us and, within 5 minutes, we board a tram and head about 1/4-1/2 mile to the ruins.

8) 12:50-1:30 pm: walk 100 yards to the ruins and get a good guided tour of ruins from guide as well as have your picture taken in front of the ruins (available for purchase on the boat on the way back--don't think all the groups got this, though). Guide kept us in the shade for much of the tour.

9) 1:30 pm-2:40 pm: free to explore rest of ruins on your own or to go to beach below ruins and swim.

10) Take tram back to bus area (where there is also a Mexican shopping mall area--much like an open air market with stalls, as well as regular shops). Get on bus and get lunch along with beer, soda, or water. Lunch is sandwich, muffins, a crunchy type of Mexican chip, and fruit as I recall. Leave Tulum at 3:00 pm.

11) Arrive at Playa Del Carmen at about 3:45 pm and walk back to pier. Wait under shaded cover for tender back to ship. Leave about 4:00 pm on tender.

12) Arrive back at town pier (the dock where the Magic is anchored) at about 4:45 pm.

The ruins are tremendous, and the tour is extremely well organized and there are lots of people watching out for you at every step along the way and directing you where to go (they sent a crew member with first aid kit and first aid training on the tender and on the excursion to Tulum). Was the day tiring? A little bit, but DW and I got back and went walking in Cozumel for an hour to buy some stuff after getting back and were certainly not wiped out and didn't feel the need to take it easy that night either.


3)

 

[ThreeCircles]

Doctor P--

Wow! What a great report! You've really sold me on the tour and I will definitely experience it on our next Western Magic cruise!

BTW, don't forget to send in your info for the Disney Magic September 4th Cruise List! ( www.ThreeCircles.net ) We want as many Dis board members to sign up as possible. That way we'll all have lots of friends once we board!

Thanks again for all of the great info on the tour. One question, on the tenders you mentioned they had a t-shirt stand. What kind of shirts were they selling? Just curious.

Jason

 

[lsmac]

We did this tour in December on our last cruise and we are going again in November...it was that much fun! I had a long and witty review of this typed up and for some reason my computer decided to shut itself down (gotta love windows XP...NOT!) so this time, I will be short and concise, but feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions.

You meet for this excursion at 12:20 in Offbeat (but, I think they moved the time to 10:20 because everyone was getting back so late). You are given a character sticker and escorted off the Magic and across the street to the parking lot. Everyone is given their choice of jeeps and the excursion begins. Four people to a jeep, or in our case...it was just the three of us and one guide..until the first pit stop.

You travel through downtown Cozumel and across to the opposite side of the island. Making one pit stop at the "Pee Pee Station"...might I suggest really thinking seriously about USING the facilities here? LOL It can be quite uncomfortable otherwise...

Traveling another few miles down road, you leave the pavement and begin the real adventure. The "road" looks like a washed out river bed surrounded by lush jungle vegetation. It is incredible and the only crazed driver was actually my dh...LOL Most people were a bit tentative at first to drive too fast or too rough...but after lunch and on the way back, they lost that temerity!

We followed this road for about 45 mins and then the guides stopped us and came back to let us know that from here on out we should put the 4 wheel drive on! My dh and I just looked at each other and said "NOW? they want us to put the 4 wheel on!" From there on out is was very sandy and rough, but I have a bad back and it did not bother me...it was more like an amusement park ride.

You are led to an ancient Mayan ruin and given liquid refreshment (water) and given a brief tale of the Mayan tradition. Our guides had been so humourous up to this point that none of us were taking them very seriously...but in the end it was a neat and serious experience.

From there you travel to a private beach where they offer a delicious lunch of chicken, guacamole and other things...(sorry< i swam and didn't eat) and given the chance to swim in the ocean. The waves are kind of rough there, but we were all "body surfing" it was a blast.

They allow about an hour at the beach and then you all head back, stopping at the Pee Pee Station. We did not arrive back at the Magic until nearly 6:30pm and missed our early seating dinner. Didn't bother us, but the Head Server called wondering where we were. (keep in mind we were on the sailing right after the cancelled sailing last year, so if you didn't show up somewhere, Disney was calling to find out why.)

Anyhow, this still ended up long, but I hope it helps you get an idea of the excursion. Final thoughts are this: This was absolutely the most fun we had on an excursion. My ds who did NOT want to go originally, could not keep the smile off his face all day! He is begging to do this one again. The guides were great, the jeeps were...eh...well let's say you shouldn't feel too bad roughing them up! and the scenery was gorgeous. Part of where you drive through is the "real" Cozumel and the little children will come out and wave at you and yell "Hola"...I liked being able to see the "real" part and not just the "cruise ship" part of Mexico.

Again, pm if you have any ???'s

Lisa

 

[Doctor P]

The T-shirts on the tender were $5.00 each and were a variety of styles that featured Mexico, Cozumel, animals, patterns, etc. The sizes run small (at least one size smaller than they say in our experience). I got a very colorful shirt with a bright pattern that said "Mayan Civilization" on it. Very cool!

 

[CourtasanSatine]

may I ask about the ruins tours for the same area?

 

[PirateWife]

Thank you Doctor P and Lisa for your reports on Tulum and the Jeep Tour! Now we're really confused! They both sound like alot of fun.

Thanks Andy for your mosquito info--we're doing the kayaking in Key West--I'm sure we'll need bug repellent there as well!

Thanks Buckaroo's Dad for the ATV suggestion. We'll probably look into that, too. And I can't believe I didn't think to look at the Trip Reports! *sheepish grin* Silly me!

Lisa