Xel-Ha: on own or through RCI?

[mwalt2]

We are going to be in Cozumel June 9th, 9AM - 6 PM on our RCI cruise. We are planning on spending the day at Xel-Ha. The excursion booked through Royal Caribbean is $73 and includes transportation and park admission. If we go through Xel-Ha's website, we can book an all inclusive tour from Playa del Carmen (includes all food, drinks, rentals, roundtrip in air-conditioned transportation with guide, etc.) for about $84. Has anyone done the all inclusive tour from Playa del Carmen before? From what I've read, you have to take a ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen. What are the schedules of the ferries, the time of the ferry trip, and the approximate cost? It seems that the all inclusive tour is the better deal since it includes all food/drinks, which would be nice since we will be spending most of the day there. I just want to make sure that the ferry isn't too much and we won't miss the ship:D. Thanks.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Hi MWalt:

 

Never been to either Cozumel or Playa del Carmen, but as I'm doing research for my own cruise, I've found this site with info. There are several other sites you will find if you do an internet search. Apparently the ferry takes about 30-50 minutes (depending on which site you visit), and costs around US $10.50-15.00 per person, again the info varies from site to site. There are 12-15 departures per day in either direction. Hope this helps you.

[cozgal]

The cost of the ferry is 110 pesos or about $10.50 (one way)

This schedule is fairly current as of January. the trip averages about 40 minutes. Haven't done your excursion so can't help you with that. Hope this helps.

From Playa del Carmen to Cozumel

6AM, 8AM, 9AM, 10AM, 11AM, 1PM, 3PM, 5PM, 6PM, 7PM, 9PM and 11PM

 

From Cozumel to Playa del Carmen

5AM, 7AM, 8AM, 9AM, 10AM, 12PM, 2PM, 4PM, 5PM, 6PM, 8PM and 10PM

[richtersl]

Xel Ha is not all that close to Playa del Carmen. It's about 30-45 minutes from there, if my memory serves me correctly. You need to plan on approximately 90+ minutes travel time each way between Cozumel and Xel Ha. If you're going to be in port from only 9-6 then you may be better off with the ship's excursion. At least then you won't have the stress of worrying about missing your ship.

 

Xel Ha is great! You'll have a nice time. Your all-inclusive deal will include beach towels, so you won't need to haul any along from the ship.

 

Also, unless you know for certain that your sunscreen does not contain chemicals harmful to the environment you can also leave that behind too. We brought some along and had to turn it in after we entered the park. They put it in a little pastic bag and gave us a receipt for it, then handed us a packet of environmentally safe sunscreen to use. We did get our sunscreen back, BTW.

 

We did a land-based vacation in Mexico back in March and Xel Ha was the highlight of our trip.

[mwalt2]

If you're going to be in port from only 9-6 then you may be better off with the ship's excursion. At least then you won't have the stress of worrying about missing your ship.

Yeah, we ended up just booking the excurstion through the cruise line. Thanks for the help. It's our first cruise and the last thing we need to do is worry about missing the boat ;). Thanks for the tips about sunscreen, that's good to know.