Is Xcaret practical fron Cozumel?

[tripkat]

Will be sailing week of Aug. 15th and loved Xcaret back 8 years ago when we ported at Playa del Carmen. I would love for my DH to experience

Xcaret too but not sure it makes sense to travel there from Cozumel. What would we be looking at re: time in travel, what it entails (e.g., water and taxi transport), cost.

Thanks in advance,

Kathy

[dna1990]

My opinion is no. Too much time involved in the commute. I would 'guess' 3+ hours in just travel time. Maybe more, to be safe. There is a ferry to/from, a faded memory says about 45 mins to cross...but getting to ferry, waiting, taxis, schedules, bad weather delay, yuk.

 

Save Xcaret, Tulum, XelHa, etc for a mainland stop, IMO.

[CarltonFamily5]

Hi Kathy,

 

Just back from a trip on the Carnival Dream and our family of 5 did XCaret from Cozumel. It was our first cruise and if we had it to do over again, we'd probably do something on Cozumel to make the most of our time in port because after all of the traveling was done, we really only had about 4.5 hours to visit XCaret.

 

It's an amazing place, but 4.5 hours just isn't enough, and we felt really really rushed and all we did was the underground river and a little time at the beach. There really wasn't much time for anything else.

 

When you take the excursion on the dream, you need to be off the ship by 10am, walk down the pier to the mainland ferry, the ferry takes 45 mins or so to cross to the mainland, once there, you line up in the various tours (xcaret, amazing secret river, tulum, etc) so waiting around to group up, then you proceed to buses which take about 20 mins to get to XCaret. Once you enter the park, your guide gives you time at the restroom, time to check in your sunscreen (can't take in non-biodegradable sunscreen), and then time explaining the park map. You don't truly get to start exploring the park til around 12-12:30 and you have to be back on the bus at 4:30pm sharp to do the whole transportation thing again.

 

You have the option to stay in a guided tour of XCaret which supposedly sees a LOT of the park, but honestly, I don't know how fast they must have been moving to do what they said they were going to do, but we were happier taking our time and enjoying what little we did, tho it wasn't nearly enough and it was stressful to make sure we stayed on time, etc.

 

It's certainly a worthwhile place to visit, I just felt like it might have been better saved for another trip where we had more time to explore and enjoy all it had to offer. Likewise, I feel like our time in Cozumel might have been more enjoyable and relaxing if we had cut out all that travel time and just settled in to a nice spot to swim and sun somewhere on the island.

 

Here's a few pics from our trip last week...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, wrote a novel here, but hope it helps ya decide :)

R

[dna1990]

Carlton reminds me of another reason to skip - arrival time. The ~4 hours of park time is dependent on the ship arriving on time at the Coz dock, and being cleared on time by officials.

 

Either one of those could cut further into your time left to enjoy the park.

[tripkat]

I think we'll skip Xcaret this cruise.....that's a lot of travel time...I kind of had a feeling that's what I was going to hear.:(

Carlton family...enjoyed your photos.

Back to the boards for alternate ideas.