Cozumel on Our Own

[Debonna]

Looking for tips or input on what we would like to do on our port day in Cozumel. (It's been 20 years since I was last there.) We wanted to visit the Cozumel Museum but it's closed on Mondays, which will be our port day. So we've decided to visit the Mayan Cacao Co. instead. We want our teens to get a small taste of history and culture. We are not interested in doing the excursions offered by DCL because they include places that we don't wish to visit (San Gervasio / the beach / honey, etc.).

We're thinking of disembarking, getting a taxi to Mayan Cacao Co., doing their General Admission tour, and then getting a taxi back to town to Pancho's Backyard for lunch and then shopping at Los Cinco Soles. Then we'll probably walk back to the cruise terminal.

Any tips on getting a cab, best time to visit Mayan Cacao Co.... ? Are there usually a lot of cruise excursion groups? Should be buy tickets in advance? Will we have an easy time getting a cab back into town? Should we plan to pay for the taxi with USD cash? Do we need cash to tip the presenters at MCC?

We are also considering a stop at the Plaza de la dos culturas to look at the monuments. Has anyone done this?

Thanks in advance for any helpful info.

 

[DWillowBay]

Our family did the Mayan Cacao Co., but as a Disney excursion. I don't know if you would have exactly the same experience, but we loved it! Like OP said...history and culture...and chocolate. What would be bad? I can't comment on the taxi situation. We feel more secure taking tours through Disney. As I remember, we did not have occasion to tip the presenters at MCCo. Hope your cruise is terrific!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

We didn't do the Mayan Cacao Company but we did grab our own taxi in 2019 when we went to Nachi Cocom on our own. It was completely fine, we just walked through the shopping area, out to the street, and found one. There were a bunch of them waiting. We paid in USD and that works fine there. When we were ready to go back they called us a cab from there, and we had him drop us off at the Mega so we could get our beer allowance to carry back onboard.

More recently we did the reef restoration excursion thru Disney, and there was a lot of waiting at the end for them to pick us up by boat, so we ended up having a taxi called from that area too. I think you'd be able to get a taxi called from any kind of tourist attraction, just ask a staff person.

 

[Calantha]

We've done Cozumel on a Disney excursion and on our own (went to the Iberostar for the day). There were plenty of taxis everywhere and we had no issues getting around when we went on our own.

 

[Debonna]

Bump

 

[Carohs]

We had no trouble getting a taxi and paying in USD. We walked past all the shops but along the way there were plenty of tour operators hawking their excursions. There were also plenty of drivers advertising where they could take you. We knew in advance we wanted to visit Chankanaab. It's a theme park but they had tequila tasting, replica ruins, a small beachy area, and sea lion show. I wanna say they had dolphins too. Anyway, we enjoyed the day on our own and was relatively easy. We also ran into excursion groups from other cruise lines there.