Xcaret Park: Honest Opinion - Is It Worth It ?

[jdybnsn]

I currently have this excursion booked for our up & coming trip.

......but after reading mixed reviews on Trip Advisor, I thought I'd ask all you fellow Disers is it really worth the money

and more to the point , is there a better excursion ...bearing in mind we have children of 6 and 10 ??

.......please feel free to give me the good, the bad and the ugly on this one.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I had always wanted to see Xcaret, and did go there on a shore excursion while on a different cruise line. The underground river was wonderful (cold!), but the snorkeling wasn't nearly as good as I hoped it would be. I went away wondering if their ban on sunscreens isn't perhaps a bit too late to save the coral. Maybe it's just the type of coral they have. I wouldn't go again. We were there 5 years ago.

We are empty nesters, and I do want my DGC to experience things, but I wouldn't recommend this excursion to them.

Bobbi

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

So far we are going to do Paradise Beach but Xcaret is also an option, I will be curious what others say

 

[imlazar]

Check out the reviews on Tripadvisor.com, they are mixed.

 

[mommywa]

I don't know if it's too late, but we loved Xcaret and are going again. The first time we went our children were 17mo., 10, 6. When we go in March they will be doing the dolphin swim.

 

[Sabor]

Been there and Loved it

Wouldnt do it as a cruise excursion though

 

[imheather]

CHeck out reviews at cruisecritic. We are doing dolphin adventure instead.

Heather

 

[Wachsdds]

My family loved it. We were really let down on our last Western DCL cruise because we couldn't get to Xcaret and ended up in Costa Maya because the hurricane had taken out Cozumel two weeks before our cruise. The underground river was fun. The shows were entertaining and the lunch at the restaurant near the beach had a pretty good burger. Snorkeling was no the best but you also have to know where to look. I did find a very cute baby Octopus in their lagoon which my sons got a real kick out of.

I definitely would return to Xcaret!!

 

[tinkerone]

we stayed at the hotel right next to it one year. the hotel and the park are part and parcel. we loved the park. it really is a good teaching park for kids as well. there is to much to do in a day. they have a bat sanctuary (not everyones cup of tea), a butterfly sanctuary, a turtle sanctuary, the underground snorkling spring that has been mentioned (it takes you from one end of the park to the other). look it up on the internet . i'm sure you can find a park map and it will show you all it has to offer. imho its a great excurion.
the only thing i want to add is that we did not go from the ship so i'm not sure about the travel time to get there. i now its not to far from the dock but how long it takes to ferry across is unknown to me . maybe someone else will know.

 

[tinkerone]

heres the link to the park website.

http://www.xcaret.com/

 

[Pennyguy23]

We did it last month while we were at Tulum for a wedding. It was great. I agree though I wouldn't do it as an excursion . Unless you can spent about 4 or 5 hours there.

 

[yargrnhoj]

I currently have this excursion booked for our up & coming trip.

......but after reading mixed reviews on Trip Advisor, I thought I'd ask all you fellow Disers is it really worth the money

and more to the point , is there a better excursion ...bearing in mind we have children of 6 and 10 ??

.......please feel free to give me the good, the bad and the ugly on this one.

We did it a few years ago and enjoyed it, but after having to take a ferry, then a bus, then go through the guided tour and lunch, we had very little time to explore on our own before it was time to go back to the bus then the ferry. It wasn't worth the money for the limited time we had, but it would have been if we had more time, if that makes any sense at all.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

We are members of the resort next door. We loved it. I'm wondering however if you would have enough time on a ship excursion to enjoy it. Paradise Beach is a great alternative. We just got back from an AI stay at Cozumel and Paradise Beach was just down the road from us. The further south you go on Cozumel the better the beaches.

 

[inkkognito]

We did it on another cruise line and had a blast, but it took sooo long to get there and back that we felt we missed a lot. They have many activities at night that you miss out on when on a cruise excursion.

Also, we had lunch there and I drank two glasses of something called "rice water" that taught me the meaning of Montezuma's Revenge.