Mexican Riviera Excursions

[FattyGwynn]

Unfortunately, the excursions offered for this Summers West Coast trips to the Mexican Riviera are extremely limited and those that are worthwhile will be gone before the vast majority of passengers have the chance to sign up. I'm sailing on the first trip (5/25) and, as a Castaway Club member, I thought I would have the ability to get whatever excursions I wanted. I was logged on at precisely midnight when the booking window opened and, much to my disappointment, several of the excursions and numerous Palo seatings were already fully booked. The excursions were anything too overwhelming to start with, so to not even have a chance to get the one or two that actually looked really good (especially the Pirate Ship in Puerto Vallerta) was terribly disappointing.

So, as a word of caution, don't tell your kids that they will be able to play with dolphins or go on a Pirate Ship during the cruise, because the chances of that happening are probably zero, unless you have premiere status.

Bummer.:(

[lvsatman]

I agree, the excursions they are offering are nothing to get to excited about. The one that interest's me the most is the deep sea fishing in Cabo, that was until I saw the price. It is something like $400. Everyone I have talked to that has been to Cabo said that I can book a charter myself once there, for about $150-$200. I was overly disappointed with the options offered. It seemed like there are a couple of different things in each port, but otherwise, they are offering basically the same thing in each port. We will wait until we get into the ports to see what, if anything, interest's us, and then book them. If you do this, just be sure to make sure you are back a 1/2 hour before the ship leaves, because they won't wait for you. One minor drawback to the large amount of money you can save doing it yourself.

[Earkid]

We are on the Westbound repo. For those who could book at the 90 day mark there were a lot of excursions that appeared to be sold out as soon as the booking window opened. But a friend was able to book a tour that was originally closed at about the 80 day mark. This is our first cruise so we weren't able to book until 75 days out. We couldn't get into the site until the next day but most of the excursions were open and we had no problem booking most of what we wanted. We will be doing some snorkel trips as well as a dolphin swim in one of the mexican ports. The only thing we didn't get was the zip line canopy tour. We looked into booking it ourselves but decided to do something else instead. Don't be too discouraged, it seems they are staggering the opening of some of the excursions.

 

Just FYI, I read that the Pirate ship excursion is not available for all the cruises because it is undergoing a refurb.

[FattyGwynn]

Several weeks before the booking window opened for Castaway Club members, I figured out which excursions I wanted to do and I contacted the vendors directly. For each and every one of them, I was told the same thing: Disney Cruise Line had already booked all of the available spaces for the entire day. The dolphin excursions were almost half price if you booked through the vendors website, same thing for the pirate ship. In fact, I confirmed with the Pirate Ship company AGAIN after I got shut out through the Disney site that they did not have any spots available and the manager informed me that Disney had pre-reserved every possible spot for the day we were in port.

So Disney has effectively made it impossible to book these excursions through any one other than themselves and only at their inflated prices.

Kind of disappointing.

[MC-AZ-07]

Maybe DCL booked all the excursions because other cruise ships will be in port that day, and they didn't want you to have to compete with them?

 

That's too bad you can't get on that one. I was in PV in Dec. and that one looked fun. BUT if you need a day on a beautiful beach that's an easy walk from the ship, PV is it. There is a public beach that is, of course, free, but if you want to use resort facilities you can just buy drinks or food and you'll be fine. Also, there's a great massage place there in beach cabanas, that's like $45 for 75 minutes. You need to make reservations. milleniummassage@hotmail.com. I can vouch for it. It's at the Crystal resort.

[cruiserbryce]

unfortunatly the excursions that are offered on the Riviera cruises arent nearly as exztensive as those offered on the western Carib Mex ports, but there are some really good ones...we did a horseback ride in PV in October that was great...if that one is offered on Disney I would go for it

[poohs4me]

Don't dismay. We booked very late for the 2005 West Coast cruise and wanted to take DD to the dolphin swim thing, but it was booked solid. There were three of us and I got put on a waiting list. I don't remember if there was a waiting list before we got on the cruise or if I headed to guest services right away when we got onboard. Anyway, we did get on the excursion and it was worth it. So if there is really something you want you can always check with them once onboard.

 

As for options, I have to agree with what you have said the options are very limited especially for young children. In Mazatlan we did not even get off the ship. There was just nothing that we were that interested in doing there. In Cabo, we just walked around on a quest to find certain things - like the color changing shirt store and Cabo Wabo.

[FattyGwynn]

I called Customer Service and asked them if there was a "waiting list" and they told me there was NOT. The only suggestion that they had was to check the website "daily" to see if something opens up.

[slowly]

As suggested earlier, booking directly may be the better option anyway. The prices are a lot less and they will get you back to the ship on time which is the fear most people may have. Make sure you do research or look at other blogs that suggest companys that do excursions in the area. These companys rely on repeat business and many have websites where you can book reservations. Having cruised the past 13 years we have had great experiences doing just that.

 

We are scheduled for the June 1 cruise and plan on doing at least one activity at each stop. Unfortunately a lot of the excursions are for adults with the exception of the dolphins and tours. The zip lines look interesting.

 

Good luck everyone!

[FattyGwynn]

I tried to book directly with several of the excursion vendors but in each instance, I was told the exact same thing: "All available spots for that day have been reserved by Disney Cruise Line". Thus, you can NOT book directly and if you want to do that excursion, you will have to pay DCL basically TWICE the cost of what the vendors charge if you could book it directly with them. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[vossjemi]

What exactly are you wanting to do? Maybe we can help you find it cheaper elsewhere with different vendors that haven't contracted w/Disney. I'm supposed to be able to book for my 8/3 cruise on 5/5. Right now I'm not even sure I want to book any ship excursions.

 

I'm thinking of Stone Island for the day on our own in Mazatlan. There are threads on this board how to get over there by water taxi. And you can eat,drink, swim, boogie board, ride horses, atv's there.

 

On Puerto Vallarta I'm thinking of doing a dolphin eco-excursion w/a conservation group. I don't have the website on me right now, but I know I've posted it before here somewhere. If you don't find it, let me know, and I'll look it up when I get home. Basically, the conservationists are supposed to take you out to see dolphins in the wild (hopefully;) ) and snorkel at Los Arcos.

 

Not sure yet what we'll do in Cabo, but frankly I like doing things on my own much much better than crowded ship excursions that are overpriced anyway! Let us know if we can help you find alternative options of what you want to do.:rolleyes:

[vossjemi]

Oh, I found the website from my thread over on the Mexican Riveria forum: http://www.vallartainfo.com/tours/dolphins.html I'd recommend you check that forum out as well to find fun, affordable activities to do on your own.:D

[FattyGwynn]

Thanks for the information, Vosjemi, but the main problem that I am having with the excursions is that (1) It's a DISNEY Cruise so you would expect there will be alot of kids on the ship; and (2) There really are NOT many good excursions for kids. I'm totally intrigued with your suggestion about Stone Island. I did a search of this board, but didn't come up with any information on it, so if you have any links or other information, please pass it along. I was also interested in your suggestion about the dolphins in the wild, unfortunately (again), since my daughters are only 5, that probably isn't going to work for them. Thanks for your help.

[vossjemi]

Fatty Gwyn, have you found the Mexican Riveria forum on this board? Go there. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=203 Tons of info about tours at all the Mexican Riveria ports. Lots of people have recommended Randi's Happy Horses on Stone Island for Mazatlan. I'm considering doing that with our kids. Our kids are 6 and 8.

 

Oh, and I found out the email contact info on the dolphins in the wild excursion is out of date. Here is the new info. http://www.vallartawhales.com/delfins.html I think a 5 year old could go on this excursion, but since there is also some snorkeling, that may be difficult. My kids both snorkeled in our subdivision pool and at the lake alot last summer. With more practice this summer, I'm hopeful they'll be ok to do that on this excursion. We'll all have lifejackets on, so I can help them if they need it. We are thinking of doing this in Puerto Vallarta.

 

As for Cabo, we are undecided. Lots of people have recommended just going to Medano Beach for the day. I did see some sort of pirate excursion on Disney which I may look into more for our kids as that kind of sounds fun.