Excursion Questions

[vfb2girls]

We are currently booked on the Legend for the Western Caribbean itinerary. For those who are familiar with this cruise which port of call is the best for exploring the ruins? Are some ruins better then others? Also is it better to book independently or through Carnival? Thank you

[Gingee]

Where are you going? I like to book on our own. Small crowds and cheaper.

[vfb2girls]

We will be going to Belize, GC, Costa Maya and Cozumel. We plan on doing tubing in Belize and thought about doing a trip to the turtle farm and hell in Cozumel with a snorkeling trip in there. Even though we are going to places that are suppose to have wonderful beaches we are not the laying around on the beach type of people. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

[big_duck]

Costa Maya is probably a better choice for doing any ruins.

 

Pick a trip with the shortest travel time, it is a long haul to Chitzen Iza.

 

You may also be more happy with the stingray swim in GC. Hell, ain't all it is cracked up to be.

[Travel Angel]

We will be going to Belize, GC, Costa Maya and Cozumel. We plan on doing tubing in Belize and thought about doing a trip to the turtle farm and hell in Cozumel with a snorkeling trip in there. Even though we are going to places that are suppose to have wonderful beaches we are not the laying around on the beach type of people. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Great itinerary and I am happy to make suggestions to you if you like, email me at fun2cruiz@aol.com

[big_duck]

Great itinerary and I am happy to make suggestions to you if you like, email me at fun2cruiz@aol.com

 

From board guidelines:

 

"Answer Postings on the Boards, Not in E-mail Please try to answer message board posts on the boards instead of E-mail when appropriate. There is a lot of great information that we're all missing because it is passing through private E-mail. There are of course times when private E-mail is more appropriate but if you have information that would be helpful to many people, please try to come back to the boards and post it rather than replying to a posting through E-mail."

[Travel Angel]

From board guidelines:

 

"Answer Postings on the Boards, Not in E-mail Please try to answer message board posts on the boards instead of E-mail when appropriate. There is a lot of great information that we're all missing because it is passing through private E-mail. There are of course times when private E-mail is more appropriate but if you have information that would be helpful to many people, please try to come back to the boards and post it rather than replying to a posting through E-mail."

 

Sorry if I violated a "Guideline"..... I have helped many CC members via email in the past as they have felt it was more personal.

[vfb2girls]

Thank you for the quick reply. So is hell not worth bothering with? I understand it is some rock formation and most people just want to visit there so they can mail a postcard, is there nothing else there? Also could you be more specific on what ruins to choose. I have read through some of the explanations about them but would like to hear from others who have actually gone through them. And thank you for the e-mail link, I will keep it handy and certainly will e-mail you if I have many more questions.

[honeydog714]

In costa maya there are some great ruins called chacconaub or something like that, we booked through a private guide and he was wonderful, he grew up at the base of the ruins back when they just looked like a mountain. The mens names are dave and ivan if you look on the costa maya board you will a lot of reference to them, it was excellent!

[Travel Angel]

Thank you for the quick reply. So is hell not worth bothering with? I understand it is some rock formation and most people just want to visit there so they can mail a postcard, is there nothing else there? Also could you be more specific on what ruins to choose. I have read through some of the explanations about them but would like to hear from others who have actually gone through them. And thank you for the e-mail link, I will keep it handy and certainly will e-mail you if I have many more questions.

 

Glad to help out.....and to appease Big Ducks request to follow guidelines : ) I have found that ruins are much better in Cozumel than Costa Maya, Grand Caymen, Nativeway does a great stingray city/rum point excurion including lunch, Belize, grab a Water Taxi and go over to Ambergris Cay or Cay Caulker for some great snorkelling sights, deep sea fishing, scuba, etc....The boat ride to the Cays is wonderful and very affordable ($15.00US round trip).

 

Hope this helps you and OTHER CC members as well.

[vacruizer]

There really aren't many ruins on Cozumel. You could take the excursion to the mainland and visit Tulum there, though. We went to the ruins at Chacchoben in Costa Maya and had a wonderful day - David and Ivan with The Native Choice were awesome.

 

cave-tubing.com is great for tubing in Belize and have read great things about a few other independent tours. Stay away from the ship cave tubing tour in Belize - we saw a bunch of absolutely unsafe things going on with the ship tour while having a ball with our group.

 

The Nativeway Rays/reef/rumpoint tour is a great one for Grand Cayman - just make sure you keep an eye on time and that your guides do so as well - we almost missed the ship with them (made it on the third to last tender - ship was pulling out by the time we put our stuff away in our room and went up on deck.) Plenty of others have had no problem, though. We were with a group from another ship that had 2 more hours in port than we did and in spite of assuring us everything was fine -our guides as well as the owner seemed very confused about what time we actually needed to be back.

 

We shopped in Cozumel and didn't have the best time there. Would probably do the beach next time we go.