Help/info re Tulum tour and Beach Break excursion on a RCI cruise

Hi there. I've booked a cruise on Oasis of the Seas with Royal Caribbean Cruiselines and one of the ports is Cozumel. I've already booked through Royal Caribbean an excursion called Tulum Tour and Beach Break.

I was wondering if anyone could chime in either with their experience specifically with this excursion (as booked through RCI) or your own experience touring Tulum.

If you have done this specific excursion I believe the Beach Break is not at the beach right under the cliffs at Tulum but another beach. Is this correct? What is the beach like? There is a lunch served, what was your experience with the food? Were there any drinks included? About how long were you at that beach?

How was the tour of Tulum and how was your tour guide? What was the going rate (roughly) of the tip for him/her? How long was the tour? Was there any time you could explore on your own?

I plan on wearing my bathing suit for the beach stop after the tour; will this be fine for attire when touring Tulum?

How long was the bus ride from the Ferry to Tulum?

Do you have any tips for the tour, beach stop with lunch or ferry?

Did you have to take a taxi from the port dock to the Ferry dock in Cozumel?

Was it difficult meeting up with the proper Tour Bus once off the ferry in Playa Del Carmen to get to Tulum? (any real confusion?)

Sorry about all the questions, just want to be clear about things.

Thanks in advance.

All excellent questions as this is a full-day excursion and definitely a great choice! We haven't been on the ship excursion so cannot answer those specific questions. But we visit the ruins of Tulum while staying in the Riviera Maya near Playa Del Carmen and we would recommend this tour.

It's an interesting site because it is on the ocean, and you can go through the ship or through an independent tour operator from Coz. You can wear swimwear, no problem there. There is a beach that is accessible by a long stairway and the beach is gorgeous. But you are probably stopping at another beach and I'm sure someone else can help there. The ferry to Playa is about 1/2 hr as is the bus to Tulum.

Enjoy!

This tour is awesome, the adventure getting to the mainland and the bus ride to Tulum is a trip within itself. Our guide was named Angel. He was very professional and a great guide with a lot of knowledge. Highly recommended. The only downside is you are a captive audience for the mandatory stop at the gift shop for 45 min on the way down.

The Tulum ruins are very neat, with the history that surrounds the place. They were a very sophisticated society. The beach area is very neat, unbelievable waters.

* warning, be mindful of the venders on the walk down to the ruins. if any pictures are taken with the native dancers, birds, snakes etc. you will be charged a fee. Pictures are free to take of the ruins and surrounding areas.

You have to try the fish tacos at the restaurant at the beginning of the tour, best I ever had.

We want to see Tulum, but not sure if we should do it independently or with RCCL excursion (Allure). I am reading very mixed review...

On the other hand there will be 6 large ships in Cozumel ports that day... so I wonder if we will have trouble getting tickets for the ferry to mainland. :confused:

We are cruising on Royal to Cozumel in June and are very interested in this tour as well.

Is the beach visited the one directly below the ruins or at a beach club? Is this really a 8 hour tour as advertised?

Thanks in advance.

From what I hear it is a different beach. This is one of the reasons we are thinking about going independently. Not to be rushed and visit that great beach.

I am a bit worried bout getting transportation from Playa del Carmen to Tulum and back.

Hi there. I've booked a cruise on Oasis of the Seas with Royal Caribbean Cruiselines and one of the ports is Cozumel. I've already booked through Royal Caribbean an excursion called Tulum Tour and Beach Break.

 

I was wondering if anyone could chime in either with their experience specifically with this excursion (as booked through RCI) or your own experience touring Tulum.

 

If you have done this specific excursion I believe the Beach Break is not at the beach right under the cliffs at Tulum but another beach. Is this correct? What is the beach like? There is a lunch served, what was your experience with the food? Were there any drinks included? About how long were you at that beach?

 

How was the tour of Tulum and how was your tour guide? What was the going rate (roughly) of the tip for him/her? How long was the tour? Was there any time you could explore on your own?

 

I plan on wearing my bathing suit for the beach stop after the tour; will this be fine for attire when touring Tulum?

 

How long was the bus ride from the Ferry to Tulum?

 

Do you have any tips for the tour, beach stop with lunch or ferry?

 

Did you have to take a taxi from the port dock to the Ferry dock in Cozumel?

 

Was it difficult meeting up with the proper Tour Bus once off the ferry in Playa Del Carmen to get to Tulum? (any real confusion?)

 

Sorry about all the questions, just want to be clear about things.

Thanks in advance.

We did this excursion when we were on the Brilliance of the Seas a few years ago and loved it. We would love to do it again with our children on our upcoming NCL cruise, but they do not offer it.

The beach break is located at another hotel in Tulum that was beautiful because it was a thatched roof 3-4 story building that looked very authentic. We actually saw it in an episode of the Bachelor in Paradise. The buffet style meal was amazing. All items were fresh and brought out for our tour group. My favorite was the white fish Mexican dish. The meal was served with a non-alcoholic beverage (only one) but you could purchase other drinks. The beach was beautiful with spectacular waves. Not too big but fun to play in. Beach chairs were included. We were there for about 2 hours I believe.

At Tulum our tour guide gave us a private tour with head sets so that we could hear. We did have time to explore on our own, but we didn't go down to the beach while we were there. I don't think there was enough time. It was the only regret of our trip. If we went again, I would make sure to do this. I would wear a comfortable bathing suit for this excursion to keep from having to waste time changing at the beach stop. I probably would not go into the ocean at Tulum because I hate to travel in wet clothes. I would change after the beach stop since there would not be enough time to dry before the lengthy ride back to the ship.

In all, the trip took about 1:30 minutes. (aprox. 30 min ferry and 1 hr bus ride)

Once we got off of the ferry, we took a short walk with our guide who was waiting for us with a sign to the small bus we were on for our entire trip. We had no trouble finding the tour group.

We probably would have had more time at the beach stop, but we had a mom and son duo who was late getting back to the bus at every stop for no good reason. When you travel on a group tour, you are at the mercy of those with you. Unfortunately we kept bumping into them for the rest of the cruise.

This is one tour that I am planning on booking with the cruise line. There are too many ways this could go wrong and not make it back to the ship on time. Since NCL doesn't book a Tulum / beach break excursion, we are planning on taking full advantage of the beach at Tulum!

We are doing this excursion in June on the Harmony, we are in Cozumel until 7 pm, will there be any time when we return to Cozumel for a little shopping? Where do they return you to at the end of the tour?

Thanks!

Wednesday, if you are doing the excursion through RCI, then you will be among the first off the ship. You will get on the ferry next to your ship along with a couple hundred fellow guests. The excursion surprisingly lasted 10 hours instead of the 8 I thought it would. Obviously if you are not docked for as long as Oasis was that day, then you will spend less time on the mainland.

Oasis docked at 7am, we boarded the ferry between 7:30-7:45. It was very rough on the way to the mainland. It seems it is better to sit towards the back of the ferry. The ride lasts 45 minutes. We spent about 2 hours at Tulum. Half with our guide and then we had the rest to wander on our own in the site and make our way back to the bus/vehicle area. Then we went to Los Lirios restaurant and cabanas in the Tulum zona hotelera. We had a meal and beach time for longer than I had thought we would have. About 1 hour and 45 minutes to eat and swim/relax. We arrived back in Playa del Carmen at 4:30 and at 4:45 took a ferry with all the other RCI groups to return to Cozumel. I sat near the back and the ride was not so bad. We got off the ferry a few minutes after 5:30 and immediately went through security and boarded our ship, which then departed Cozumel at 6pm. So there was no time for shopping at Cozumel. The only shopping time was at a washroom stop on the way to Tulum which had a fairly wide variety of things available to buy. That stop was for about 30 minutes and also had tequila samples. The only other potential shopping spot was at the stores at the Tulum parking lot. So if you did not explore the site for as long as I did, you would have some minutes to look and shop before boarding the bus to go to lunch.

Wow, thanks for all the helpful info! Yes, we are doing the Royal excursion, I tend to stay away from ship tours but with this involving an extensive amount of time getting there and back I felt it would be better to be safe than sorry. One of our group gets seasick so we will take your advice and sit in the back. I guess I will have to look for a cheap western cruise and go back for my shopping. Thanks again!:)

Wednesday, if you are doing the excursion through RCI, then you will be among the first off the ship. You will get on the ferry next to your ship along with a couple hundred fellow guests. The excursion surprisingly lasted 10 hours instead of the 8 I thought it would. Obviously if you are not docked for as long as Oasis was that day, then you will spend less time on the mainland.

 

Oasis docked at 7am, we boarded the ferry between 7:30-7:45. It was very rough on the way to the mainland. It seems it is better to sit towards the back of the ferry. The ride lasts 45 minutes. We spent about 2 hours at Tulum. Half with our guide and then we had the rest to wander on our own in the site and make our way back to the bus/vehicle area. Then we went to Los Lirios restaurant and cabanas in the Tulum zona hotelera. We had a meal and beach time for longer than I had thought we would have. About 1 hour and 45 minutes to eat and swim/relax. We arrived back in Playa del Carmen at 4:30 and at 4:45 took a ferry with all the other RCI groups to return to Cozumel. I sat near the back and the ride was not so bad. We got off the ferry a few minutes after 5:30 and immediately went through security and boarded our ship, which then departed Cozumel at 6pm. So there was no time for shopping at Cozumel. The only shopping time was at a washroom stop on the way to Tulum which had a fairly wide variety of things available to buy. That stop was for about 30 minutes and also had tequila samples. The only other potential shopping spot was at the stores at the Tulum parking lot. So if you did not explore the site for as long as I did, you would have some minutes to look and shop before boarding the bus to go to lunch.

We're considering this tour during our June 18 Liberty of the Seas week. Any other recent cruisers have anything to report?

We did this tour last week on Liberty OTS. I'm planning to post a full review on the main RCCL page later this evening, including info on this excursion.

We are planning this take this tour on the Celebrity Equinox in August, I'm assuming it's the same tour RCCL offers. I don't think I would book something like this without doing it thru the cruiseline, too long and that ferry ride scares me being late back.

We are planning this take this tour on the Celebrity Equinox in August, I'm assuming it's the same tour RCCL offers. I don't think I would book something like this without doing it thru the cruiseline, too long and that ferry ride scares me being late back.

Yes everyone is different and the cruise line excursion makes sense for you.