Royal excursions- Cozumel

[Mommy oooo]

I can’t get any information on port of call thread.  Has anyone done the Fury Catamaran snorkel trip since Adventure has been back?  We are all vaccinated so we have the freedom to go off on our own but we have had this booked and I can’t find any feed back on how it’s been. 

[SillySpac390]

I did it last week and didn't enjoy it.

[Mommy oooo]

3 minutes ago, SillySpac390 said:

I did it last week and didn't enjoy it.

Can you tell me specifically what you didn’t enjoy?  We are so torn as to do this or not. We have been to paradise beach several times in the past and may just opt to do that. 
 

We are all vaccinated so we don’t have to even do a ship excursion.  The thought of having to wear a mask while on the catamaran isn’t appealing.  In a cab we have no problem with 

[brillohead]

If you're looking for something smaller to do, I have been doing snorkeling trips with Tiger out of Marina Fonatur for years.  Highly recommend.

[Mommy oooo]

1 minute ago, brillohead said:

If you're looking for something smaller to do, I have been doing snorkeling trips with Tiger out of Marina Fonatur for years.  Highly recommend.

Thank you.  I will look into it.

[brillohead]

4 minutes ago, Mommy oooo said:

Thank you.  I will look into it.

You can find him on Zuck's site -- search for TIGER Cozumel and you'll see him.

 

[Jasukkie]

I did this in June. The snorkeling was a joke. Dropped us in a wake zone, saw a total of three fish and spent a lot of energy fighting the current. I've been on a lot of snorkeling excursions and this was the worst I've ever been on. The boat ride was pleasant but it's not the kind of catamaran with the net you can sit in. The beach was lovely, and empty. Fortunately that meant we could get the limited seating in the shade. All of the crew and beach staff were friendly. I wouldn't do it again, but the beach part was nice at least.

[LoriLoriLori]

I have Fury booked in August and might cancel after reading this thread. The beach and catamaran might satisfy us even if the snorkeling isn't great.  Not sure what to do.

3 hours ago, SillySpac390 said:

I did it last week and didn't enjoy it.

 

I would like to hear your thoughts/review.    

[jean87510]

11 hours ago, Mommy oooo said:

I can’t get any information on port of call thread.  Has anyone done the Fury Catamaran snorkel trip since Adventure has been back?  We are all vaccinated so we have the freedom to go off on our own but we have had this booked and I can’t find any feed back on how it’s been. 

mommy oooo if you want to use a good snorkeling company in cozumel and you are allowed to go off on your own, consider Mystic snorkel.  I used him in March and he doesn't take a lot of people.  He goes to the palancar and Columbia reefs and stingrays also.  Not expensive.  It isn't a catamaran and there is no beach time but if you want to see the good stuff, I highly recommend.  

 

all of these pictures were from that day.  As you can see, there was a lot to see.

Edited July 23, 2021 by jean87510

[WeatherFx]

12 hours ago, SillySpac390 said:

I did it last week and didn't enjoy it.

We also have Fury booked and would like to hear from recent experiences. Specifics on dislikes would be helpful.

[mavo68]

We are trying Playa Mia. We have never done an excursion on Cozumel. They did have a 50% off all inclusive deal. We will give it a try.

[SMMRLUVN]

How many other ships will be in Cozumel on the day you will be there….that’s the real question. There were about five ships the day we were there, one of them being Celebrity Edge. We waited forever to get to our excursion….they just kept herding us to different waiting areas. Our excursion was Playa Mia, and honestly, we didn’t need to get off the boat to do the things we did there. My entire family agreed, to quote Apocalypse Now, Never get off the boat (in Cozumel). 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

22 minutes ago, SMMRLUVN said:

My entire family agreed, to quote Apocalypse Now, Never get off the boat (in Cozumel). 

we thought the same, until we found a beach that we actually liked (Playa Palancar). We needed a low key, non-all inclusive, kid friendly beach with good sand and facilities like a bathroom/changing room.

[Mommy oooo]

Thank you everyone for the feedback!   I think we will pass and just go to Paradise Beach which was what we usually do in Cozumel.    We had booked this when we had to do an excursion through the cruise line.   It’s a lot of money for 4 people.  And since we can get off might as well just do what we know and what has gotten good reviews during this time.

[Jasukkie]

We've always done our own thing in Cozumel but booked through the ship because of convenience and not being sure of how things were on the island. As I said, horrible snorkeling but the beach was fine. If I were to go back I would just mask up in the cab and pick my own beach place to go. 

 

 

[jean87510]

One more place to try to snorkel is the money bar or the little area to the right of it facing the ocean.  When we stayed at fiesta americana back in March we would walk down here and drift snorkel back.  Saw amazing stuff.  Cozumel has great snorkeling.  But big rule of thumb with snorkeling is if the beach is sandy with waves, the snorkeling is probably not that great from shore.  My advice to anyone snorkeling in Cozumel is to invest in diver/snorkel socks because if you want to walk out to see the good stuff, its usually rocky.

[cruiserking]

@Mommy oooo,

 

If you're still looking for something different to do in Cozumel, we did a wonderful chocolate factory tour that included making our own chocolate disc. I booked it independently after reading about it from another poster on Cruise Critic. 

 

It's a lovely little place off the beaten track, whimsical, very friendly and the chocolate is really delicious. It took about 15 minutes to get there by cab and the KaoKao Chocolate Factory called a cab for our return to the ship. I think kids would get a kick out of it, we certainly did. 

 

They are currently doing private tours. 

 

https://chocolateskaokao.com/

 

Jonathan

[barb in ga]

Jean87510--your pictures are great! What camera did you use?

 

Barb

[jean87510]

4 minutes ago, barb in ga said:

Jean87510--your pictures are great! What camera did you use?

 

Barb

hi barb.

 

We got it in 2018 off of Amazon.  A go pro knock off but has served its purpose on our snorkeling trips.  

 

Campark ACT74 Action Camera 16MP 4K WiFi Waterproof Sports Cam 170 Degree Ultra Wide-Angle Len with 2 Pcs Rechargeable Batteries and Mounting Accessor https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXXP4EC/ref=cm_sw_r_apanp_ot4NGDMmjPiRo

[CruisingHogFan]

We did this on our July 10th sailing due to the rules of only using a Royal Excursion to get off the ship with kids. We actually really enjoyed it! The boat was clean and the staff did a great job. Yes, the  snorkeling isn’t the best compared to small private tours but we did see a lot of small fish and made the best of it. Probably spent about 1.5 hours at their private beach which is also really nice.

If the rules stay in place and you have to use a royal excursion I would do it. I would recommend the morning one vs. the later ones. We booked the combo with this excursion and the beach break in Freeport and it ended up being less than $225 for all 3 of us total for both excursions.

The only really disappointing thing was all the people not tipping when getting off at the end. I just didn’t expect that as we were one of the last to get off. I felt bad for the crew as they worked really hard and have been struggling due to no tourism. 

[Mommy oooo]

Major turn of events!  We ended up canceling the snorkel trip and will do Paradise Beach on our own.  This saves us $300

 

Soooo the price of our Cabana at thrill water park went down $300.  We had day passes booked for coco cay.  We canceled that. Instead we booked a floating cabana!  The price for those went down to $999 for our sailing next week!   Between canceling the snorkeling, saving on the thrill cabana, canceling coco club day pass, we got the floating cabana for $5 more!!

 

So excited.  Our daughters will freak when they find out. 

 

 

 

 

[CruisingHogFan]

1 hour ago, Mommy oooo said:

Major turn of events!  We ended up canceling the snorkel trip and will do Paradise Beach on our own.  This saves us $300

 

Soooo the price of our Cabana at thrill water park went down $300.  We had day passes booked for coco cay.  We canceled that. Instead we booked a floating cabana!  The price for those went down to $999 for our sailing next week!   Between canceling the snorkeling, saving on the thrill cabana, canceling coco club day pass, we got the floating cabana for $5 more!!

 

So excited.  Our daughters will freak when they find out. 

 

 

 

 

If you are going anytime soon I would consider saving money at CoCo Cay. We took the advice from people on sailings before us. The island is designed to hold over 10,000 people. We had 1,075 on our adventure sailing so we could go and sit anywhere we wanted. No lines anywhere and a lot of places you wouldn’t see anyone around. Most people went to the water park or the oasis pool.  I didn’t see a single daybed being used and only a couple of the cabanas had anyone in them and those were free upgrades.
 

We had beach chairs with umbrellas on the front row of the beach and only one other couple was within 50 yards of us with hundreds of empty chairs/umbrellas on each beach. Waiter came around every 15 min for drinks.

 

We will do a cabana or beach club next summer when it’s back to full capacity but glad I held out for the limited capacity. Saved a lot of unnecessary expenses!

[Mommy oooo]

2 minutes ago, CruisingHogFan said:

If you are going anytime soon I would consider saving money at CoCo Cay. We took the advice from people on sailings before us. The island is designed to hold over 10,000 people. We had 1,075 on our adventure sailing so we could go and sit anywhere we wanted. No lines anywhere and a lot of places you wouldn’t see anyone around. Most people went to the water park or the oasis pool.  I didn’t see a single daybed being used and only a couple of the cabanas had anyone in them and those were free upgrades.
 

We had beach chairs with umbrellas on the front row of the beach and only one other couple was within 50 yards of us with hundreds of empty chairs/umbrellas on each beach. Waiter came around every 15 min for drinks.

 

We will do a cabana or beach club next summer when it’s back to full capacity but glad I held out for the limited capacity. Saved a lot of unnecessary expenses!

We have been to coco cay before.  Wanted something different.  Plus we are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and wanted to go big 

[shellunderwater]

For those looking... look at Cozumel Bar Hop.

 

Love it, been 6 times.

[WeatherFx]

12 hours ago, CruisingHogFan said:

We did this on our July 10th sailing due to the rules of only using a Royal Excursion to get off the ship with kids.

Did you have to wear masks while on the excursion... catamaran and beach?