Book Through Carnival or Autoprogreso?

Looking at Carnival's excursion ..Merida City Highlights and Shopping. Autoprogreso has a similar one which is less expensive, but the 45 minute bus ride makes me a little leery to book a private company. That's a long time for something to happen and try to make it back to the ship. Not like we'd we just down the road and able to grab a cab back to the pier.

Any thoughts????

I've never used either to visit Merida. I've spent 3 port calls visiting Merida, using the Autoprogreso public bus. Runs every 15 minutes or so ea way. Three bucks round trip. Just booked my air for the fourth, two week vacation there.

Remember, Autoprogreso is the company that provides the busses that Carnival uses into town plus several tours. I'm sure you will be perfectly fine using Autoprogreso for a tour. They know their responsibility to get you back from your tour in time.

We were there in November and took a private cab right by the ship to Merida for $70 for all 4 of us . Our driver Fernando was a blast. I speak pretty good spanish , and we just had fun all the way there and back. He stayed with us while we were in Progreso , and there was just no problem whatsoever. We went to the main square and had lunch in a wonderful little restaurant. You can drink beer if you like in the cab , which you will not do on the ship sponsored tour for $49 PP..We stopped at a convenience store on the way and 4 beers , one water, and a coke for Fernando was $5 total. I promise you will have a much better time this way , and it costs about half..We gave Fernando a $20 tip , and you would have thought he was in heaven. I will attach a couple of photos of Merida.

Looking at Carnival's excursion ..Merida City Highlights and Shopping. Autoprogreso has a similar one which is less expensive, but the 45 minute bus ride makes me a little leery to book a private company. That's a long time for something to happen and try to make it back to the ship. Not like we'd we just down the road and able to grab a cab back to the pier.

 

Any thoughts????

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We were there in November and took a private cab right by the ship to Merida for $70 for all 4 of us . Our driver Fernando was a blast. I speak pretty good spanish , and we just had fun all the way there and back. He stayed with us while we were in Progreso , and there was just no problem whatsoever. We went to the main square and had lunch in a wonderful little restaurant. You can drink beer if you like in the cab , which you will not do on the ship sponsored tour for $49 PP..We stopped at a convenience store on the way and 4 beers , one water, and a coke for Fernando was $5 total. I promise you will have a much better time this way , and it costs about half..We gave Fernando a $20 tip , and you would have thought he was in heaven. I will attach a couple of photos of Merida.

 

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This sounds like something we might like to do. Do the cab drivers usually speak any english? We know basically no spanish so would hate to not be able to communicate at all.

Looking at Carnival's excursion ..Merida City Highlights and Shopping. Autoprogreso has a similar one which is less expensive, but the 45 minute bus ride makes me a little leery to book a private company. That's a long time for something to happen and try to make it back to the ship. Not like we'd we just down the road and able to grab a cab back to the pier.

 

Any thoughts????

We have used Autoprogreso several times and are doing so again next month. They are very reliable and we have never had a problem. They are the people who run the shuttle between the pier and Progreso.