Cozumel Shore Excusion ?'s

[felixdacat]

Advantages for booking the shore excursion through the ship – Piece of mind.
Advantages for booking the shore excursion yourself – Cost

Other then those two major advantages, does anyone have any other factors in choosing between booking on board or yourself?

Any tips on Cozumel shore excursions? My criteria are:
• Beach
• Food
• Adult Beverages
• Enough time left for 1-3 hours of shopping/bar hopping

If you do book yourself, can someone forward some websites?
Any advantages/ disadvantages to booking an excursion as soon as you get off the ship?
Is it similar to Nassau, where there are booths and tour groups that setup at the dock?
Anything to avoid?
Appreciate your comments.

 

[yamahaboy]

We did the beach, snorkel and catamaran excursion on Cozumel. It was a GREAT time. The crew on the boat was wonderful. On the way back from the beach they played music and gave "shots" of margaritas (a squirt from the bottle) for the adults and sprite for the kids!! The snorkeling was fun, too. I'm not much of a beach person so that wasn't my favorite part but the beach was nice. There was not much shade on the beach so if you like the sun it would be ok. I would definitely recommend it. It was a nice mix of activities and the crew was a lot of fun!! There was food for purchase at the beach but it wasn't included in the excursion price. You would have to buy it separately. Looked like they had hamburgers and other hot food.

 

[mark & sandra]

We spent most of the day at Chankanaab Park. We did the dolphin royal swim and booked it directly through www.dolphindiscovery.com .You could just as easily take a cab from the pier to the park for 10.00 per group of 4. The park charges 12.00 per person to get in and you can do alot without even doing the excursions. They have a snorkle beach and a quiet protected cove beach for small children, there is a bar and beachside restaurant. Since the ship doesn't leave until about 11:00pm, you'll have plenty of time to grab a taxi back to the pier, go back onboard and clean up and head back out to the strip for some shopping and partying. Don't miss Carlos and Charly's...Mark

 

[Hollyster2]

We took an excursion to Passion Island and it was nice! Went by really fast. I don't know if Disney offers that excursion. We also did the ruins and beach combo tour. The ruins were hot and full of bugs...and the beach time was too short. Now we concentrate on beach time when we go to Cozumel, especially if it is in the summer.

 

[TheWog]

some advantages to doing your own thing is DCL may not offer all excursions that could be had. We are looking to do the dune buggies. It appears to offer everything you are looking for, beach (w/snorkeling if you want), lunch and an endless supply of adult beverages right on your buggie. It is a long day, but you get back in plenty of time to do some shopping or hit the bars before the ship leaves at 11:00. I have read it is back by 4-5 p.m.

cozumelhomes.com is the website and I learned about it hear on these boards. I will be probably be doing it in Jan 06 when we go.

cozumelinsider.com is another website and shoretrips.com can help as well. Good luck.

 

[Lynda Silk]

I would recommend going to Paradise Beach! It's only a $12 taxi ride from the pier (up to 4 people), beautiful sand and water, lots of comfortable lounge chairs and tables, great and inexpensive food and friendly and efficient service. There's no entrance fee; they depend on food, drink and souvenir sales to make money. It's only a 10 minute cab ride so you could go for a few hours in the morning and there would still be lots of time for shopping later in the day. However, I warn you, most people who go to Paradise Beach end up spending a lot more time at the beach than they planned because they are having such a great time there. I don't drink so I can't tell you about that but there is a bar just as you enter and I have seen other posts that have said that the drinks are very good and reasonable. I calculated that I saved $84 by choosing to go to Paradise Beach for 3 adults rather than going on a ship excursion (it was RCI, not Disney).

You can check out the beaches of Cozumel at www.cozumel-beach.com.

Have fun whatever you decide!

 

[markey]

Just be careful with the dune buggy tour. Read the fine print, you will lose your deposit $20 per person if the ship does not stop there. I knew this but booked and paid the full amount before we cruised, tour date was 8/18 to end at 4:30. Well I was on the 8/14 Magic which did not go to GC. All would have been fine if we would have stuck to the original time frame for Cozumel, but the Captain changed. Arrived 8/16 and spent the night, so the CM could party in Couzmel, and left 8/17 at 3:30 so we could rush to "lovely" Nassua. I called Veronica from the ship, cost me about $20, left message because no one was there. Went to the place on Monday night in Cozumel, no one there. Called again, cost me another $20, left message. Got home and after 3 attempts did get an answer from Veronica, who is very nice. Got the balance, minus the $80 refunded. Said she could have arranged for our tour to be cut short on Tuesday, if there was room. Told her I tried but no one answered. This is the first time this has happened, also the first (and last) time I will book a tour pre paid not thru Disney. All other times we just took taxis and went where we wanted, this works out fine.