The Ruins Tours?

[luvindisneyworld]

Hi, I am curious about the Ruins tours.My Dh wants to go on 1 of the Ruins tours but i have been checking and have seen that the 7 hour tour is really alot of travrling and not alot of time to tour.The other Ruins tour is about 4.5 hours,can someone tell me the diffrence in these 2 tours?I think the shorter one would be better,but is it real Ruins or not?I just cant see spending nearly 100.00PP for traveling time.
Thanks,
Misty

 

[rae519]

Good question. I'd like to know that answer also! Thanks for bringing it up. Hopefully, someone will have done both and can give us some good information!

Rae

 

[luvindisneyworld]

Bumping back up

 

[din]

Yes I would like to know too.

We are trying to find out also. What I have read is that the boat ride to mainland can be a little difficult...

 

[rae519]

Wear seabands or take bonine - from what I have experienced going from St.Thomas to St. John, it's necessary!!!

Rae

 

[jmcross]

I did the long trip to the authentic Tulum Ruins back in 2002. Yes, the boat ride to the mainland was rough. DCL offered meclazine prior to boarding. I took it and had no problems but many, many people were sick. It was like being on a small roller coaster with the ups and downs.

I thought the Ruins were both beautiful and fascinating but was not thrilled with the organization of the tour. We left very early and were forced to waste time stopping at a tourist gift shop on the way. Our tour guide was informative and I enjoyed hearing the history of the Ruins. The tour promised some beach time at the small beach that is there. We only had about 20 minutes at the end.

Lunch is included and provided after the beach time. Keep in mind that we left at around 8:00 and we were not given lunch until around 3:00. There was nowhere to buy food and we were starving! Lunch consisted of 1/2 a Subway sandwich, chips and soda or beer.

I can't say that I would recommend this tour such as it was. If the tourist stop was removed, the beach time extended slightly and the lunch given 2 hours earlier, I would have been much happier with the whole experience.

Hopefully they have changed the setup of this tour since I went.

Joanne

 

[hawkrn]

it was exactly the same at Xmas and that's exactly how I feel too!

 

[Doctor P]

I strongly dissent with the opinions of the above posters. We took the Tulum Ruins tour through DCL in July and it was one of the best run and organized tours I have ever been on. We met in the Walt Disney Theater at 9:40 am and boarded the boat shuttle to the mainland directly from the ship (off the opposite side as the dock at Cozumel, obviously) by about 10:15 am. We took off shortly afterward and had a fast paced 20-30 minute ride to the mainland (yes, it was rough, but most people were feeling jostled rather than really sick, but you do move around pretty good--there is a snack bar, a tourism movie, and a t-shirt shop on board to divert your attention.

After arriving in Playa Del Carmen we were met by guides who escorted us from the dock on a short (5-10 minute) walk to the bus staging area. We waited in the bus for a few minutes and then took off for Tulum. We traveled about 45 minutes and then made a bathroom stop at a Mexican marketplace store--no pressure at all to buy anything and the bathrooms were clean. After about 15 minutes we proceeded on to Tulum and arrived at about 12:30 pm. Our guide got our tram tickets, we took the tram, and we began our tour about 12:45 pm. Our guide gave us nearly a one hour tour and we then had until 3:00 pm to explore the ruins, the beach, the shops, and get back to the bus. Free time at the ruins was effectively 75 minutes AFTER a 45-60 minute tour from our guide. We got back on the bus, were given our lunches and headed back to Playa Del Carmen (i think I have the name of the town right). We got back at about 4:00 pm and waited about 15 minutes in the shade for our boat. We were back in Cozumel shortly after 4:30 pm. The day was fast paced, very interesting, very well organized and Disney sends CM's on the excursion, too as first aid and emergency contacts.

 

[Michelemouse]

We had the same experience as Doctor P and I would definitely recommend the Tulum Tour.

As for the original question...I believe the San Gervasio ruins are replicas and not authentic Mayan structures. The Tulum ruins are the real deal, that is why we chose that tour over the shorter one.

 

[SeaSpray]

I did a LOT of research on both of these ruins excursions and decided to go to Tulum rather than the San Gervasio ruins right on Cozumel. I found various web sites on the internet that showed exactly what the ruins looked like at each site, and the ruins just don't compare. The ones at San Gervasio, while they are authentic, look like a pile of rubble. Also, the ruins at Tulum sit high on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Ocean. Simply breathtaking. While I don't relish the idea of 4 hours of transportation time, Disney seems to have this excursion set up well, and we feel it will be worth it We're looking forward to see the ruins and swimming in the beautiful Caribbean Ocean

 

[MrsPete]

Though I'm very interested in seeing the ruins, we have decided against this particular excursion. The realization that we'd spend more time traveling than "seeing" made up our minds for us! The travel time is just too big a bite out of the cruise.