Cozumel & Belize: HELP! what to do?!!?!

Hello!

My boyfriend and I are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise (Liberty of the seas) to Belize and Cozumel and leaving THIS FRIDAY (3/2/12)!

We have NO idea what to do at our ports of call, or really how to book them (through the ship, or through another method?)

We were thinking about deep sea fishing, snorkel/scuba (he has his scuba license, but I don't), and swimming with dolphins....but we're really open to anything (we love eating and drinking:))

Does anyone have any suggestions of good places to go (or NOT go), or maybe some excursions we hadn't thought of? We're really down for anything! We're just first time cruisers and not sure how all this works....please help!

Normally I recommend booking with an outside company, but based on it being your first cruise, and the limited time you have to research, I'd stick with a ship's tour- especially in Belize, which is a tender port (meaning there is no dock, so you take small ferries or tender boats to shore) with mostly distant excursions. They make it really easy and stress-free, deliver your tickets to your stateroom wiht clear instructions on where/when to meet, and let you go along for the ride. I've done a trip to Altun Ha and the Zoo, and another ziplining and cave tubing in Belize- but just look at what the offerings are and pick what fits your interest and budget.

Cozumel is much easier to do on your own. I don't know if you're interested in diving along with your boyfriend, but my friend and I took a cab to Playa Palancar (a beach toward the south of the island). I did a "discover scuba" dive, which includes some classwork and a very supervized, less than 40' dive, and my certified friend got to do the dive part along with me. I also did the dolphin swim on my own (booked directly with Dolphin Discovery), which was an easy cab ride away from the ship- saved some money and was able to do it on my own schedule. You can snorkel in the park before or after your swim, if you want to.

Your post will soon be moved to the ports of call board. Please go over and check out the specific ports for suggestions and ideas for independent tours.

On the Royal caribbean website under your reservation, if you made it direct with the cruiseline, you can visit the ports of call area and make reservations on line or you can do it once on board. If you used a travel agent you will probably have to go through them, I'm not sure about that.

But check www.royalcaribbean.com and look up your reservation number and see if you can add extras there.

Have a wonderful cruise. We did the jungle bicycle tour in Belize and a cooking lesson in cozumel.

Never been to Belize, but highly recommend Paradise Beach in Cozumel. Short taxi ride from the dock. Brand new beautiful pool. Nice beach. Clean facilities. Reasonable drinks and food/snacks. Lots of taxis waiting to take you back.

If you want something different, try the Jungle Buggy tour (RCCL has it in Cozumel). You ride in a 4 wheel drive ATV and the ride is pretty fast and bouncy. we've done it twice, and my wife loves it - especially when she drives!

I recommend a ship excursion in Belize simply because you have a long tender ride into town and if you miss the last tender you are screwed.

My boyfriend and I recently went on the same cruise (Liberty of the Seas to Belize and Cozumel). Cave tubing with VIV Tours was the highlight of our trip for sure. They pick up right outside the port and those of us on private tours returned well before the ship tour (the ship tour was three large buses full of people who all had to go tubing in a huge group). We ended up being a group of six so it was a peaceful, fun time.

In Cozumel, we walked downtown from the pier to go drug shopping (legal drugs, people!). Then we took a taxi to Paradise Beach, which was great. No one ever seems to mention on these boards that there is free WiFi at Paradise Beach, so if you need to check in this is the place to do it.

In Cozumel we just did a wee bit of sightseeing and went to Margaritaville. In Belize though, our recommendation would be to go online to Major Toms Tours. He is fabulous!!!!! They take you cave tubing and zip lining then there is a lunch. Just the tour guides are worth the entire trip. If you are a drinker of wine, the tour bus stops at a rest area and you can run in and buy some cashew wine (made right there in Belize). Yep, Major Tom has my vote!

If you want a nice beach day, in Cozumel I highly recommend Nachi Cocum Beach Club. Been there 3x - for $49 pp you get unlimited beverages (alchoholic and non), lunch, a waiter who will serve you at your palapa, a pool with swim up bar, hammacks, and access to snorkling and other water activities. It's always been nice and quiet (they limit the amount of guests to 100 per day) and they don't allow the spring break party behavior. You can book them directly here:

http://www.cozumelnachicocom.com/default.cfm

It's a $15, 10 min taxi ride from the pier.

Enjoy your cruise!!

Dont stress over it! :D

If you have waited this long, you probably dont love planning, and any super popular tours are filled already anyway.

Plan to go to the Explorations excursions desk as soon as you board the ship. Talk to the staff there. They will help you pick an excurion for each port that will meet your needs ( for instance Paradise Beach is great, but there are a boatload of kids (2 or 3 boatloads, usually) and if its just you and BF, you might not be looking for that! The staff will help you pick something that you'll love (all inclusive beach break, or adventure). They will know what is still open vs you spending hours investigating the port boards only to learn the one you like is sold out any way.

I definately agree that first time, you should take a ships tour, they will make it so easy, all you do is show up ontime and you are finished planning, worrying or thinking!

Have a great trip!!!:D

Okay I'm going with the eating and drinking in Cozumel

We highly recommend Wet Wendys. It is downtown Cozumel on a back street. Owners are great people. Here is their website

http://www.wetwendys.com/

Go to Paradise Beach in Cozumel or if you want dolphins go to Chakanaub Park. In Belize google Goff's Caye (called Belize Cruise Excursions) and take the excursion on your own. We did it, loved it. They have you back for the ship for sure. It was awesome. Still had time to shop before taking the tender back to the ship. It's $40 per person and has free rum punch. The island was gorgeous and snorkeling on the reef was outstanding.

In Belize, we did a cave tubing and zip line tour with cavetubing.bz, which I highly recommend as it is cheaper than booking with the cruise line and a better value since you get to ride longer than the people who booked with the cruise line and the tour guide can give a more personal tour. They will get you back to the tender terminal way before your ship departs.

In Cozumel, we have gone shopping at los cinco soles and ate at pancho's backyard, but this time we are planing to go to Tulum.

You mean the Sat. 3/3/12 . Sailing of the Liberty of the Seas.Dont get there Friday the ship won't be there.lol

My kids (in thier early 20's) did this trip recently. They did the Cozumel Bar hop and loved it. You don't have to drink a lot to enjoy it, the East side of Cozumel is beautiful. they did the Coral Breeze trip to Caye Caulker in Belize. They did the snorkeling and lunch version. Really enjoyed snorkeling with the sharks and thought the lunch was very good.

If you want a nice beach day, in Cozumel I highly recommend Nachi Cocum Beach Club. Been there 3x - for $49 pp you get unlimited beverages (alchoholic and non), lunch, a waiter who will serve you at your palapa, a pool with swim up bar, hammacks, and access to snorkling and other water activities. It's always been nice and quiet (they limit the amount of guests to 100 per day) and they don't allow the spring break party behavior. You can book them directly here:

 

http://www.cozumelnachicocom.com/default.cfm

 

It's a $15, 10 min taxi ride from the pier.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!

We also did Nachi on our Liberty cruise. Loved it!!

In Belize we went to the private island (can't remember the name). We chose to save money and went with a private company located in port as opposed to doing the ship's excursion. The caveat was that we had to tender to port and then take another boat to the island, while the ship's excursion went directly from the ship to the island (via ship tender). I can't remember how much the difference in price was and I didn't mind the inconvenience going out, but coming back I wished I could ride directly back to the ship :)

From the private island, my husband and daughter were able to book a scuba excursion.

Hello!

My boyfriend and I are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise (Liberty of the seas) to Belize and Cozumel and leaving THIS FRIDAY (3/2/12)!

We have NO idea what to do at our ports of call, or really how to book them (through the ship, or through another method?)

 

We were thinking about deep sea fishing, snorkel/scuba (he has his scuba license, but I don't), and swimming with dolphins....but we're really open to anything (we love eating and drinking:))

 

Does anyone have any suggestions of good places to go (or NOT go), or maybe some excursions we hadn't thought of? We're really down for anything! We're just first time cruisers and not sure how all this works....please help!

Hi,

Belize...I always do a Mayan Ruins tour because we can dive, beach and

tube in Florida. I have done several ruins in Belize.

Xunantunich...if you like to climb to the top, 125 feet or so, you'll

see for miles. Fun climb...some walking uphill at first. Nice Belize

style lunch.

Lamanai...very interesting high speed boat ride and then tour

the ruins located near the river. Lunch provided. Several pyramids

available to climb.

Cahal Pech...easy climbing, smaller site.

Cozumel. RCI has a Coba Ruins Tour now...I climbed it last month.

Fun day. You can always just eat and drink in Coz...but for the sake

of the Indiana Jones in you...go climb Coba....swim later.

OH...I always use ship's tours...just because they are always in phone

contact with the ship...any problems like a flat tire etc..they

will do whatever it takes to get you back on the ship.

Just my 2 cents (1/4 peso).

Enjoy whatever you decide on.

:cool:

If you love eating and drinking....we loved RCI ship's tour "Mexican cuisine cooking class".

Loved it so much in December, that we did it again in January! :)

They pick you up at the end of the pier and off you go on a 20 minute bus or taxi ride to Playa Mia Beach resort.

There you enjoy unlimited Margaritas, beer, and rum drinks while you cook a 3 course meal, that you get to enjoy for lunch.

Google this on the travel sites and see a lot of reviews.

Luis, the multi talented chef is a hoot and makes the whole thing a bunch of fun.

Afterwards, you are welcome to use the beach facilities, (along with more free drinks ;) )

In Belize though, our recommendation would be to go online to Major Toms Tours. He is fabulous!!!!! They take you cave tubing and zip lining then there is a lunch. Just the tour guides are worth the entire trip. If you are a drinker of wine, the tour bus stops at a rest area and you can run in and buy some cashew wine (made right there in Belize). Yep, Major Tom has my vote!

Second this. We had a great time with Major Tom and staff.

Hello!

My boyfriend and I are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise (Liberty of the seas) to Belize and Cozumel and leaving THIS FRIDAY (3/2/12)!

We have NO idea what to do at our ports of call, or really how to book them (through the ship, or through another method?)

 

We were thinking about deep sea fishing, snorkel/scuba (he has his scuba license, but I don't), and swimming with dolphins....but we're really open to anything (we love eating and drinking:))

 

Does anyone have any suggestions of good places to go (or NOT go), or maybe some excursions we hadn't thought of? We're really down for anything! We're just first time cruisers and not sure how all this works....please help!

The Cozumel Dolphin Encounter or Swim are very professionally run and in a nice setting. I just did the basic one there last week. I recommend it without hesitation.

In Belize there is an awesome excursion that brings you inland on a bus to the Belize Zoo where you visit the Zoo. After that they take you a place for a very nice lunch. This is followed by a boat ride back down the Belize river to the port. It is very informative with beautiful scenery.

Both of these can be booked as ship's excursions. I'd recommend this, even though you pay a little more than if you booked it independently, the extra you pay is sort of like "excursion insurance" if anything goes wrong, Royal will make it right.

If you want to dive or snorkel, I would do that in cozumel as the water is beautiful there! We always zip-line & cave tube in Belize. SOOOO much fun! But you really can't go wrong with any choice. I would however book through RCCL as other posters have said you don't want to get left in Belize! Or maybe you do:rolleyes::D!

Our favorite excursion to date was last November in Belize. We went cave tubing with VIV tours. It was much cheaper than booking through the cruise line, with a small group and wonderful tour guide. We left a review on tripadvisor if you want more info. I LOVED this excursion and would do it again in a heartbeat! Belize was a great stop. In Cozumel, we've been to Paradise beach which everyone raves about, but we found it to be rocky and just okay. We've also done the excursion through the ship to Tulum, which we loved, and it was worth taking just to swim at the beach there. They've filmed Corona commercials there, and it is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen, plus we were the only ones swimming. I also recommend walking over to the Puerto Maya pier. Just leave the pier area off the ship and turn right. It's maybe a two block walk, and the shops are so much nicer and the vendors much less aggressive than at the International pier. Enjoy!

Thanks so much for all of your suggestions! They're REALLY helpful!!! Keep em comin....I really appreciate it!:)

We did Shark and ray alley snorkel through Coral Breezes. Its a wonderful company located on the pier that caters to cruise passengers

http://www.coralbreezetours.com/

they also have day trips to Banister Island which is beautiful and also Caye Caulker. Belize is beautiful but Id venture out to the Cayes or do the shark swim....its amazing. Ive also cave tubed and drove the atv through the jungle (booked through rccl) another time but its not as good as my tour through coral breezes was.

I love Paradise Beach in Cozumel. Its beautiful there and the chairs are free as long as you buy 10 dollars worth of food and beer...which u will ;) No need to go into the dirty town either. Everything you want to buy is for sale on the pier at the same price