Chichen Itza with Auto Progreso

Leaving Galveston Feb 10 on Carnival Triumph. Our first port is Progreso - from there we are taking a tour to Chichen Itza with Auto Progreso. I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this to see what their experience was. Thanks!

Honestly, I don't think Carnival gives you enough time at the port to really enjoy Chicken Itza. The drive alone is 2 hours to and 2 hours from. So that's 4 hours minimum just being on a bus. This only gives you around 2 hours at the site before you have to head back to catch the boat in time. Also, by booking through Auto Progreso (and not through Carnival) the boat will not wait for you if the bus breaks down and doesn't get back to the port on time. I am sure many other people have done that trip and everything turned out great but there is always that possibility of something going wrong.

If the Triumph had more time at the Progreso port only then would I recommend the trip. I've been to Chichen before and it is something everyone should experience at least once but you need adequate time to see everything. Even more so if you are taking a guided tour.

We had a good experience with Auto Progreso to Dzibilchaltun, on that same cruise on the Triumph. If you don't end up with enough time to do Chichen Itza, Dzibilchaltun ruins are great and the cenote there you can swim in was incredible as well!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Leaving Galveston Feb 10 on Carnival Triumph. Our first port is Progreso - from there we are taking a tour to Chichen Itza with Auto Progreso. I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this to see what their experience was. Thanks!

nlktx49 - did you end up doing this excursion and if so, how was it? When I contacted Auto Progreso they said I was unable to book with them unless I had 6 people. I could wait and see if there were enough people at the pier to do it. My son really wants to go here so I'm wondering if we should just book through Carnival and not take the chance of not being able to do it with Auto Progreso.

Noahsark99, yes, we did the tour with Auto Progreso. There were four of us, and two other couples, went in a van that had good airconditioning. It was wonderful to see, but you don't have much time to look around. After Chichen Itza they took us to a nearby hotel by a cenote that was beautiful. No time to get in it, though. On the way back the van started having mechanical problems. We had to stop and wait for a bus to come pick us up. I was sweating bullets. Would we make it back to the ship in time? I was so nervous, I was the one who assured the others that we could pay half the cost of the Carnival excursion and be just fine! We did make it back, at about 10 minutes to 4:00 - ship had its engines going, all but one gangway had been pulled up, people were yelling at us from the balconies, but we made it - and the ship sailed shortly after 4!! All this to tell you if I had it to do again, I would definitely take the Carnival tour, so we would be guaranteed the ship would wait for us. We had our brief view of Chichen Itza, could have been longer if they hadn't taken us to the hotel, but to do the tour justice you really need to be staying nearby with no time restrictions to get back.

Wow, what a story! Ok, I think I'll just book through Carnival and save the worry. Glad you made it back okay. Thanks for your post!!

Last October, we stayed 5 days in Cancun at a resort and did an all-day tour that included Chichen Itza. We left at 8am and got back that night at 8pm. On the way there, we stopped at a Mayan Village for an early lunch, then drove on to a Cenote with a Tequila Museum there (really just a Tequila store) then on to Chichen Itza where we had a tour guide. We were there probably 2 1/2-3 hours. We finished our tour and had a light dinner at the restaurant on site (not part of the tour) and then drove back to Cancun in a little over 2 hours.

I tell you all this because even with a 12-hour tour with probably 5 hours of driving, being on the bus got REALLY old. I've been on multiple cruises where my family always tried to talk me into doing Chichen Itza as an excursion and I always refused because of all the drive time. I would recommend doing the Auto Progreso Dbulzitan (bad spelling) and Cenote tour instead because it's cheap ($35) and close and you get plenty of time at both places.

Uxmal ruins are marginally closer to the port iirc and are just as impressive as CI, with perhaps less tourists, IMO. AutoProgresso does a tour to those ruins, and inquire about the cruise line doing one as well.

Uxmal ruins are marginally closer to the port iirc and are just as impressive as CI, with perhaps less tourists, IMO. AutoProgresso does a tour to those ruins, and inquire about the cruise line doing one as well.

I've been told the vendors can be relentless at CI so we are going to Uxmal this June for the above reasons.