Ruins in progresso and things

Hey everyone were going on the elation 12/17 cruise pretty soon and i was wondering where the best ruins to visit were. Also, do you know the best way to get there, either taking a cab or going through a certain tour guide thing. Anything is appreciated. Thanks

Check out the Ports of Call Board and also http://www.yucatantoday.com is a great source of information for planning.

Progesso is may favorite port but unfortunately it is not on the list of ports for Glory anymore. I sailed on the Glory last year the week before Christmas specifically to take my wife to see Chichen Itza. I had been years before on a land tour and was greatly impressed. It is the major Mayan "ruins" destination of all of those available. Impressive and Spectacular. Granted you will have to be on a bus for a good period of time but it is well worth it if you want to experience the best and largest of Mayan architecture. I made a point of reserving a place on the Glory again so I could take my wife to visit Merida but unfortunately Carnival omitted Progresso. Now we are going to visit Chacchoben ruins and later take some school supplies to a small village school there. Things worked out for the best and now I get to play "Educational Santa" for the children who have so very little. It will be the highlight of our cruise.

If not Chichenitza I would recommend visiting Merida if you want to experience a true example of a Mexican city and not the typical tourist - drink till you are silly - gamble at the casino - pseudo Disneyesque port stop.

Whatever you choose it will surely be a great adventure. The Mayan civilization was an amazing example of the human spirit.

(This summer I will be taking some folks to learn about the Inca in Peru and then to participate in some scientific research in the Amazon. The Inca could teach us a thing or two as well.)

Have a great cruise! Merry Christmas!:D

Just my opinion, Chichen Itza is too far from the port to go on your own. We did enjoy the cruise-sponsored tour though.

I vote for Chichen Itza, too. We did that excursion from Elation and really enjoyed the 7 hour trip.

I just spent two weeks in the Yucatan. I found Uxmal to be prettier and maybe more impressive than Chichen Itza. The pyramid of the Soothsayer at Uxmal seems bigger than the Great Pyramid at Chichen Itza. I think Uxmal also predates Chichen Itza. Also the map looks as though Uxmal is closer to Progreso.

I can't speak for Uxmal but I had a ball at Chichen Itza. The wife and kids did the Beach Break leaving me all alone to fend for myself on the 7 hour bus tour. The tour, though a little long was very interesting and scenic.

I'm having to make the same kinds of decisions about my cruise coming up and I am leaning toward Uxmal. I understand that Chichen Itza was more of a political center and Uxmal appears to be an artistic center so the structures are more ornate/decorative and maybe a little less "institutional" than Chichen (if that makes sense.) This is just what I read though and I don't present it to be gospel! I've never been to any ruins in Mexico. Just Belize. Of course I may just go over to Dzibilchaltun because it's closer to the ship by a long shot (like 30 minutes or something) and I don't really want to ride for a couple of hours in a bus one way when we only have 8 hours in port anyway. It remains to be seen...

I vote for Uxmal. Less crowded than Chichen Itza and authentic Mayan. I did from a ship's tour from the Elation. Only one bus went and it was half empty.

Not as big as Chichen, but I liked better. More climbing if you want to see all of it, but I think a degree or two cooler, also.

When I do ruins I fill an insulated hydration pack with ice and then some water and have ice water all day long to drink!

I also posted this in the Ports forum-

We really had nothing planned for Progresso-until we got there! Spent a few hours shopping, and then ran into a fellow retired Canadian down there. He recommended Merida, but since we had so little time after shopping, hailed a cab for us and sent us to Dzibilchaltun for 2 hours. Paid $10 entrance fee each plus $40 ($10 pp) for the cab-was still much cheaper than the ship. You can do the guided group tour there for $15 if you want. We didn't though-had more fun walking around by ourselves! And the cab driver drove us all the way back to the ship's port too! Enjoy the $1 Corona's with the lanyards in Progresso.

Bring a bathing suit if you go to Dzibilchaltun-there's a cenote you can swim in! :D

I also did the Chichen Itza tour off the Elation earlier this year and loved it. It's a fantastic site. It's huge as well- we really only toured around a third of it. There were two additional sections from later periods that there was not time to even walk to. The section we did tour was large enough to make it tough to see the entire site.

We thought Chichen Itza was too far so we went to Dzibilchaltun. Its not as large, but its only about 30 minutes from the pier and we enjoyed it.

So I'm back from the cruise now and we decided to go to Uxmal...it was an hour and a half bus ride away. Not too bad! It was beautiful! there was intricate stone freizework (sp??) all over the place. It was warm but not hot. I imagine that during the summer it's living hell!! Maybe I'll get on over to Chichen Itza someday, but I overheard someone saying they had already been to Chichen but if they had gone to Uxmal first they would have been disappointed in Chichen. Really not crowded at all, a nice size site but not so huge you can't see a good bit of it during the tour. We had a guided tour for the first part, then we could strike out on our own to explore. Amazing! I was very pleased with my choice this time. :)