Chacchoben ruins, worth it ?

[briandclement]

Hi guys !!
I have booked the Chacchoben ruins excursion and was wondering if any of you has feedback and tellme if it is worth spending the money for someone interested in History ?
Thank you all !!!

 

[gydell]

We enjoyed it. Bring lots of bug spray! And watch for ants(the big red ones that bite). It is worth doing at least once.

 

[lbgraves]

We loved that excursion. We had two buses full of DISers with 96 people. My kids were 6 & 8 at the time and my 6 yo was quoting facts and dates David told us for weeks, so I'd say it left quite an impression.

 

[Gilland18]

I would also say it's worth doing. We found it interesting and well done.

 

[robhawk]

We did a private excursion. 7 people in a brand new van with a guide that grew up near the site! Awesome. So glad we did it.
We went in February so there were no bugs.
Our first cruise without the kids. Not sure how much children would love it!

 

[Bear3412]

Recent thread; http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3162709

http://www.htp.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3142629

http://www.htp.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3126834

http://www.msn.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=47126219

http://www.htp.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2908246

 

[Greatfalls]

We loved that excursion. We had two buses full of DISers with 96 people. My kids were 6 & 8 at the time and my 6 yo was quoting facts and dates David told us for weeks, so I'd say it left quite an impression.

96 people? We had 800 a couple weeks ago! Still DCL moved everybody fine and it didn't feel too crowded at the site.

 

[3mmm]

Absolutely! Better than I expected

 

[LoveMickey]

96 people? We had 800 a couple weeks ago! Still DCL moved everybody fine and it didn't feel too crowded at the site.

I was there on the 8/17 cruise. There were 12 Disney busses.

We had a very informative guide. Yes, you should bring bug spray and watch where you are standing when the guide talks. Some people had the ants.

I would not do this without being a Disney tour, since we got back just at all ashore time.

We really enjoyed this tour.

 

[lbgraves]

96 people? We had 800 a couple weeks ago! Still DCL moved everybody fine and it didn't feel too crowded at the site.

This wasn't through DCL. I booked our group directly with David, who grew up at the site. I split up the group with families with young kids on one bus and older kids & adults only on the other. David took time to go over things specifically for the kids that they could cover in their reports back to school since they were out and many had to do journals. The best part was stopping at a nearby village and handing out the school supplies that we had brought personally to the children in that village. It was very moving for the adults and the kids experienced something they never would have gotten from a textbook. DS8 was very moved after spending time there and seeing the school playground with a wooden slide. He was struck by how the kids were so grateful for pencils and paper when the kids at his school take that for granted and never thanked him when he went around his classroom with the pencil bucket in the morning.

 

[NancyIL]

I toured the Chacchoben Ruins in 2005 with The Native Choice (http://www.thenativechoice.com/: Ivan grew up at the site), and the tour was wonderful. I would've booked directly with them again for our Fantasy cruise in Dec. 2012, but our port time was quite short. For whatever reason, DCL decided last minute to move the departure time several hours later. Had I known, I would've booked the private tour. However, DCL's adult tour was fine.

 

[owensamo]

We booked through DCL in July. Other than the 800 people trying to sign in for the excursion at the same time (they should stagger arrival times...), it was fine. The kids on our bus were mostly tweens and teens and really enjoyed the tour and the ruins. A lot slept on the bus ride back.

We were glad we booked DCL because we got off the ship shortly after docking, and barely made it back on the ship by all aboard. There were at least 3-4 other buses behind us, too. It's a long excursion and takes up the entire port time (and more). The one thing to consider - there really isn't time to shop at port, so if you want any souvenirs, take the opportunity to shop at Chacchoben - we didn't get all the souvenirs we usually do, but DD did pick up some stuff there.

 

[jrabbit]

We went in January - DCL Excursion. No Bugs. Great Tour Guide!!!! We really enjoyed this tour!! We've now touched a great pyramid of Giza and a Mayan pyramid. Who knows whats next for us

Here's the Main Structure

And one of the two that are on the upper plateau

 

[nixieh]

Just to give a different opinion. To be honest I thought it was not worth the money. We were on the 3rd Aug Dream sailing this summer and as others have said we arrived at the site with the other 800 passengers! It is a about an hour's journey and our guide did tell us some facts on the way but most people seemed to sleep through it. It was brutally hot and humid when we arrived and we were given a 10 minute comfort break which we had to spend queuing for some very unpleasant toilets that did not flush (there were signs saying all toilet paper should be put in the bin!). We didn't have time to line up to buy a drink (I know we should have brought our own with u - definitely lesson learnt!) before setting off for the tour round the ruins. They were interesting but my 11 year old was bored and fractious after about 15 minutes so we headed back to the car park where the stalls and toilets were and we bought some delicious fresh pineapple and a drink while we waited for the others to arrive.
I thought it was a very expensive tour and was the one tour that I took that I really regretted. If you do go make sure and bring lots of water!

 

[Mandersons04]

For whatever reason, DCL decided last minute to move the departure time several hours later. Had I known, I would've booked the private tour. However, DCL's adult tour was fine.

The same thing happened on our Fantasy cruise as well (March 2013). They gave us almost 5 extra hours at Costa Maya. We wanted to The Native Choice with some other DISers but were afraid because of the short window.

But I'd recommend doing the Ruins at least once. We enjoyed and so did my kiddies who were 6 and 5. Also, there were no issues with bugs/insects.

 

[owensamo]

The same thing happened on our Fantasy cruise as well (March 2013). They gave us almost 5 extra hours at Costa Maya. We wanted to The Native Choice with some other DISers but were afraid because of the short window.

Most likely the extra time was a reward for the crew for good feedback from the previous cruise. Since they don't know from cruise to cruise when they will be giving the crew some extra time off in port, it's impossible to pre-plan for that. You can always hope (we hoped we'd get extra time in Costa Maya, but no go for our cruise) but never plan on it.

They do the same thing in Nassau for Bahama cruises (mostly the 4-nights, I think) and I think in St. Martin for the Easterns.

 

[briandclement]

Thank you guys so much for all the feedback ! I am a bit worried about the bugs though, I guess it is going to be a memorable afternoon haha !!

 

[owensamo]

Thank you guys so much for all the feedback ! I am a bit worried about the bugs though, I guess it is going to be a memorable afternoon haha !!

We took bug spray (small pocket-sized sprayers) and didn't have any issues. The paths are well-marked and well-kept - though many are dirt. The only time we got near to being "in" the vegetation was when a spider monkey was spotted in the top of a tree.

It was rather muddy, though - and it rained while we were there - so if you're going in early July, I don't recommend sandals. Sneakers or hiking boots would be best.

 

[trickiwoo]

We did Chacchoben in October and loved it! We didn't see any bugs of any kind at all! We did see spider monkeys though! Which was very cool!

We booked through Disney. Which was good because we were very late getting back! And if we hadn't booked with Disney and had been late, the ship would have left without us!

Although, since we were late getting back, and had first seating for dinner, we were rushed to change for dinner as soon as we got onboard and were late for dinner!

 

[aprilchem]

We were just there two weeks ago - Mosquitos didn't bother us, but I got 6-8 noseeum (sand fly) bites. I live in an area with tons of noseeums so I should have known not to walk in the grass . If you stay on the paths you'll be fine.