cozumel ruins with a 9 month old

mickeyschickie

Disney Commando in Laid-back Mom disguise...heh he
Joined
Aug 1, 2000
Hello All!
Our first cruise will be in 119 days!!!!:cheer2: This is the first cruise we have ever taken and really want our 6 and 10 year olds to see some ruins instead of just hanging out on the beach in Cozumel. But we will also need to accomodate our 9 month old. I understand if we cannot have a stroller, but are there any excursions that will allow us to take him?

Thanks,
Nicki
 
I have never been to the ruins so I cannot advise you on strollers. But the tours (I saw three different kinds to the ruins) through DCL (according to the website) are for all ages so you can bring your 9 month old. If there isn't a price listed for his age it means he is free. You will also not receieve an excursion ticket for him on board so don't freak out (like we did lol).
 
Do note that the ruins are on mainland Mexico, so you will be taking the highspeed water shuttle to & from Playa del Carmen (it's about a 35-45 minute ride). Then get to/from the ruins, which I *think* is about an hour away from where the water shuttle drops off/picks up on PdC. Definitely makes for a lot of travel time for this excursion. Also the water shuttle can be extremely rough, causing sea sickness, so definitely plan accordingly & medicate, even if sea sickness isn't a normal issue. We've been on this water shuttle before & have witnessed a lot of ppl. getting sick; big & small. The crew hand out barf bags, if that tells you anything. ;)

Not telling you all this to ward you off, rather so you'll be able to make a more informed decision.

HTHs! :thumbsup2
 
When we went to Tulum, the jet boat ride was very rough. LOTS of people were using the "barf bags". Luckily DS and I always take Bonine for the entire cruise, so we were ok. The bus ride was LONG and boring. I'm not sure a stroller would work at the ruins, it's very rocky and uneven ground.
 


:cool1:
Do note that the ruins are on mainland Mexico, so you will be taking the highspeed water shuttle to & from Playa del Carmen (it's about a 35-45 minute ride). Then get to/from the ruins, which I *think* is about an hour away from where the water shuttle drops off/picks up on PdC. Definitely makes for a lot of travel time for this excursion. Also the water shuttle can be extremely rough, causing sea sickness, so definitely plan accordingly & medicate, even if sea sickness isn't a normal issue. We've been on this water shuttle before & have witnessed a lot of ppl. getting sick; big & small. The crew hand out barf bags, if that tells you anything. ;)

Not telling you all this to ward you off, rather so you'll be able to make a more informed decision.

HTHs! :thumbsup2

There is also a Mayan Ruins tour on Cozumel. We went on this tour 2 cruises ago. They take you from port on a rickety old bus out into the boondocks. When you get of the bus they give you a backpack, a banana, a nutrition bar & a bottle of water. They take your picture which they want you to purchase when you get back from the hike. I had trouble keeping up with the group because I can't walk very fast. I am tall, but have a long body & short legs. I was not only exhausted til the end of the hike, but there were a lot of puddles from rain the days before we were there & mosquitos were everywhere. Til we got done I was sooooo bitten up that I looked like I had the chicken pox. They had given us bug spray to use before the hike, but I swear it acted like mosquito attractant on me. They bit me through socks, jeans (which I had tucked into socks) and through my T-shirt.

I don't know if the ruins on the mainland are in the same kind of area with possibility of mosquitos, but if they are I wouldn't want to have a 9 month old on the hike. JMHO from my experience.

Is it possible to leave a young child on the ship in the nursery while you go? I have never been on a cruise with children, so I am not sure if this is possible. Maybe someone who knows will come along with the answer.
 
If you want to take your baby with you when you go to see ruins, Cozumel is probably not the place to do it. We've traveled a lot with a baby (both recently with DD, and years ago when DS was young), so we've got a fair amount of personal experience. What other ports are you going to?

As others have mentioned, there is a long, often rough, boat ride to and from the mainland, plus a long bus ride to get to any ruins you would see. (We've done Tulum, as well as a couple of lesser known sites.) Yes, Tulum is gorgeous and worth seeing, but don't inflict the journey to it on a baby. Even in February it might get hot, although that is generally a pretty good time of year. Getting there (ferry ride, hike to buses, close to an hour and a half bus ride, tram or hike to site, then reverse to get back to the ship) is pretty strenuous even for adults. Just because they'll allow you to bring a baby doesn't mean it is easy or pleasant to do.

Some years ago, we were signed up to do the ruins excursion on Cozumel that disneyholic did. They take you to San Gervasio. DS was really cranky that morning, so I sent DH on to the excursion and stayed with DS on the ship. DH reported the same issues with the mosquitos, and said that it was quite a hike, and he was so so glad that he hadn't brought DS. It was a very fast paced hike, and while DH kept up, he didn't think he could have while wearing DS.

If you're really wanting to see the most impressive ruins around Cozumel, that is definitely Tulum. But consider leaving your baby in the nursery for the day, if you can bear it. Or modify your plans to include the baby in something less strenuous.

Have you considered going to Chankanaab, and maybe doing the dolphin discovery interaction? It isn't ruins, but it is a national park and it is a great spot for kids in Cozumel. Even if you don't do a dolphin interaction, it is beautiful, interesting, and fun, with gardens, iguanas, a sea lion show, a shallow sort of tidal pool/cove where you can see a number of fish even if you aren't a good snorkeler, a good snorkeling beach, and a pretty good restaurant. This is pretty much the only place in Cozumel we've found that we're really happy bringing our toddler for the day. (She's been once before, and we're taking her again next month.)

Anyway, I totally get wanting your 6 and 9 year olds to see ruins. We've been dragging our now 7 year old to ruins and historic sites for several years now. We also have already taken our DD, who is just 1. (DS climbed a Mayan Temple/Pyramid in Belize on our last cruise, and since DH was wearing DD in a baby bjorn, I had to climb the temple with him. I hurt for days afterwards!) DD was walking when we did our ruins trip, so we let her walk a little, and ride in the bjorn for much of the trip. (Ours was in February, too.) It was much harder with her along, but we managed, and I'm not sorry we did.

The ruins excursion in Belize was a little easier than Tulum would be, but not too much. We had to tender into port, then wait for them to divide us into our groups, then walk to the boats that would take us up a river, take a river cruise, have lunch, bus to the ruins, do the ruins, take a bus back from the ruins, and then take a tender back to the ship. 8+ hour excursion, and we managed it with a baby. She was worn out after walking around the hot ruins, and slept the bus ride back. We were grateful. Everyone around us was nervous when they saw we brought a baby, and we were a little tense worrying that she would get cranky, but she turned out to be great and we all had a good time. The real difference between this excursion and the one out of Cozumel is the ferry ride to the mainland. It can be a real nightmare. We've done that ferry ride several times, and it's been miserable pretty much every time except once. (The last time was so bad that we said we'd never do it again, and we haven't.)

We are doing ruins again next month, but we are leaving DD in the nursery. We'll be cruising with DCL this time, and we're so glad we have the option to leave her. (We did not have that option on our last cruise.) Yes, she was good last time, but we can't count on it, and from everything I've heard, she'll have a much better time in the nursery than she would out with us. (If she turns out to hate the nursery, we'll re-evaluate, but that's our current plan.) Obviously, what works for us might not work for you, but that's what we've decided to do.

Hope some of this is useful!
 
We're doing the Mayan Ruins & Discover Mexico Park excursion with Disney. We wanted to see some ruins, but we have a 2 year old. I think this one is going to be a good compromise and hopefully we'll get to see the larger ruins on a future trip.
 


Just this past summer in Cozumel, we went to the San Gervasio Ruins on Cozumel.
We got off the ship and walked out of the terminal and there were tons of taxi vans, in great condition with air conditioning, to take you there, or anywhere else you want to go. The price included having the driver wait for us. They don't have car seats, so you'd need to bring your own.
The tour IS accessible for a stroller and there were a lot of small children there.
NOTE: USE A LOT OF BUG SPRAY!!! There were a ton of mosquitos because it had rained the night before.

This was a really good ruin site with easy walking, for the kids to get a good idea of what it was like way back then. And we felt perfectly safe the whole time. The streets going from the port to the ruins are very nicely paved, like you'd see here in America.

I highly recommend it.
 
We did this with our 9 month old and it was an experience we'll never forget. We figured she'd nap on the bus ride to the ruins, it was the perfect time that she needed to sleep. The person on the tour bus talked about nothing the entire bus ride, on that loud, god awful microphone, and our little babe cried the entire time because she was so tired but he was so dang loud she couldn't sleep. It was horrrrrrrible.

When we got there it was hot, and she just could not get comfortable. We had a stroller and I walked and walked and walked her to try and get her to sleep. She slept a couple of times, but only fitfully. I saw almost none of the ruins I was so stressed out.

We ended up paying for a taxi back to the dock/water taxi, because she needed to be able to sleep for the afternoon nap and I knew that guy on the tour bus would talk all the way home too. It was a long hour in that taxi. :(

Soooo obviously, your mileage may vary, but our experience was it was way too far for us.
 
Does your cruise go to Costa Maya? If so, then I would recommend doing the tour there. There is about an hour drive to the ruins, but that sounds mild after reading some of the other experiences. Not sure about the ages with DCL but Nativeway is the company they use. David led our group, or our half of the group of 96 I arranged in 2006, and we had the children on our bus. I asked him to present things that they could enjoy as well and he was great with the kids!
 
We did this with our 9 month old and it was an experience we'll never forget. We figured she'd nap on the bus ride to the ruins, it was the perfect time that she needed to sleep. The person on the tour bus talked about nothing the entire bus ride, on that loud, god awful microphone, and our little babe cried the entire time because she was so tired but he was so dang loud she couldn't sleep. It was horrrrrrrible.

When we got there it was hot, and she just could not get comfortable. We had a stroller and I walked and walked and walked her to try and get her to sleep. She slept a couple of times, but only fitfully. I saw almost none of the ruins I was so stressed out.

We ended up paying for a taxi back to the dock/water taxi, because she needed to be able to sleep for the afternoon nap and I knew that guy on the tour bus would talk all the way home too. It was a long hour in that taxi. :(

Soooo obviously, your mileage may vary, but our experience was it was way too far for us.



One good reason to NOT take a group excursion on a bus!

It didn't take anywhere near an hour to get to the San Gervasio Ruins on Cozumel. Maybe a half hour, tops. Again, we went on our own, grabbing a taxi at the port.
 

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