Our day in Cozumel

Our cruise was June 18th - 26th aboard the Carnival Victory. Cruisers included myself, DW, DS10, DS8, and DS4.

 

We arrived in Cozumel and enjoyed the first day of sunny weather since arriving in Miami on June 17.

 

After checking out a few of the shops near the pier, we made our way to the taxi area and caught a cab to Paradise Beach. Cab fare for the five of us was 15$. The cab was clean and air conditioned. The driver was very friendly and spoke of how Cozumel used to be and how Cozumel is now including the good and the bad along the way. He provided a very good local history lesson for us all.

 

Paradise Beach was everything we hoped it would be! We arrived at Paradise Beach and we were greeted at the entrance by a young lady who explained the wrist bands and what all we could access with the bands as well as the wide variety of food and drink offerings. We paid the $8 per person for use of the water toys and we definately go our moneys worth!

 

My wife and I picked out a set of beach chairs and relaxed as our boys first tried out the snorkeling gear, and then made their way to the trampoline, then on to the iceberg. Without being intrusive, the Paradise Beach staff passed by frequently to see if we needed anything and gave us a menu to keep at our chairs.

 

Later on we saw Paradise Beach Tom making his way around the beach greeting everyone and making sure everyone had everything they needed. Tom apologized for the 'poor' weather though we assured him we were quite pleased given that we hadn't seen the sun for five days. It did rain while we were there, but we had just placed our food order on the upper deck and the staff relocated our food and moved our table to an area where the rain wasn't blowing in. We enjoyed an excellent variety of Mexican food and our hosts were outstanding! Even though it was pouring down the rain, many folks were still out in the water enjoying Paradise Beach.

 

After we ate the sun was back out so my two older boys tried out the ocean Kayaks and my four year old and I also tried them out. We also tried out the hammocks and my boys tried out the chairs outside of the dressing areas.

 

At the end of our day at Paradise Beach we returned our snorkeling gear and chatted some more with the staff and caught a cab back to the pier.

 

The Sensation was docked along side the Victory as we took our boys back on board to participate in Camp Carnival activities for the evening while my wife and I returned to do some shopping. We enjoyed watching the Sensation pulling out from the pier and making it's way back out to sea. We enjoyed a few drinks at the pier area bars and picked up a few items.

 

There's a nice beach chair area near the pier that was also a back drop for Carnival photos later in the week. We also spent a while in the Duty Free shops along the way back to the ship.

 

We had better weather later in the week at Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman, and a great time climbing Dunn's River Falls at Ocho Rios, but our trip to Paradise Beach definately made Cozumel our favorite stop.

 

We're going on our next cruise in April 2006 on the Carnival Liberty and we'll definately be returning to Paradise Beach.

Thanks for the great post! :) We are headed to Paradise Beach on 7-20. This is our first cruise so we have read a lot about what to do and this beach sounds perfect!:D

Count us in. Doing this beach on your own did you ever worry about not getting back in time to the ship? This is my biggest fear. :eek: I know the tour through the ship is more money so if we can do it on our own then I would love to save $$$$! We will be taking our almost 3 and almost 7 year old sons, do we need to buy a wrist band for our 2 year old? He will probably just play in the sand and waters edge. Any thought would be most appreciated.

 

 

Thanks

Great review! How much was the entrance fee to the park? Was the drinks and food included? Thanks!!

Our cruise was June 18th - 26th aboard the Carnival Victory. Cruisers included myself, DW, DS10, DS8, and DS4.

 

We paid the $8 per person for use of the water toys and we definitely got our moneys worth! .

 

I guess you have a buch of questions to answer when you get back to this site. I have a couple more so maybe you can kill 10 birds with one stone, - did the $8 pp cover everything you mention other than the food of course? Did you bring your own snorkel equip. or use theirs? Clean? Did you have to bring your own beach towels or are they provided? Thanks for all the info. We'll be there in December on RCL Radiance with kids and by then may be able to use a relaxing day at the beach especially if the kids don't get hooked on the ship's kids' progam.

I'll just in here at have a try at answering some of your questions

 

Count us in. Doing this beach on your own did you ever worry about not getting back in time to the ship?

I'll bet he didn't worry. You will be able to leave with plenty of time to spare to get back to the ship. If you are worried, just add 30 minutes to the time you think you will need to get back. Maybe even set the alarm on your watch to remind you to leave. You will have no problem as there are plenty of taxis in Cozumel.

 

We will be taking our almost 3 and almost 7 year old sons, do we need to buy a wrist band for our 2 year old?

Only if you think he will want to use the water toys like the Iceberg or Trampoline.

Just going to PB is free. If you use a table/chairs, you will be expected to buy some food/drinks, but you were going to do that anyway :)

..........Doing this beach on your own did you ever worry about not getting back in time to the ship? ..............

We will be taking our almost 3 and almost 7 year old sons, do we need to buy a wrist band for our 2 year old? He will probably just play in the sand and waters edge. Any thought would be most appreciated.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

okiemom:

 

 

I never gave a second thought to missing the ship; Victory is in port until 12:00 Midnight (Ship's time) and we returned the boys to the ship well before then. :) If the ship was leaving earlier, like in Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios, I would have planned to arrive back at the ship an hour prior to sailing and I verified that taxis would be waiting at Paradise beach with our driver on the way in.

 

The main advantage, other than lower prices than ship excursions, is that we arrived at the beach earlier and left at our leisure instead of being herded onto a bus at the pier to wait, and then off the bus at the beach in a herd and then more of the same for the return.

 

Entrance to Paradise Beach is free as are the chairs and umbrellas so your 2 year old would be free; unlike on a ship's excursion where you'd be paying full price for him.

Great review! How much was the entrance fee to the park? Was the drinks and food included? Thanks!!

 

 

 

tonyrobin:

 

 

Entrance and use of the chairs, umbrellas, hammocks and beach was free. Food and drinks were extra but were very reasonably priced.

.........

did the $8 pp cover everything you mention other than the food of course? Did you bring your own snorkel equip. or use theirs? Clean? Did you have to bring your own beach towels or are they provided? Thanks for all the info. We'll be there in December on RCL Radiance with kids and by then may be able to use a relaxing day at the beach especially if the kids don't get hooked on the ship's kids' progam.

 

 

ShamrockFL:

 

 

Yes, the 8 covered all of the water toys; trampoline, iceberg, ocean conoes, life jackets, snorkel gear, sand toys for my youngest, etc. As I recall there was a $20 per snorkel set deposit which was returned when the equipment was returned.

 

Yes, the snorkel gear appeared to have been properly sterilized and I had no concerns with allowing my sons to use the gear. Given that I work in an ER, I figured I had exposed my sons to enough microbes to build up their tolerance considerably higher than average, though if I had a child with allergies or a tendancy to asthma, I would have brought our own snorkel gear and sterilization towelettes.

 

We brought Carnival's beach towels and had to stop at the pier and buy a second beach bag to carrry them; they are huge! I honestly didn't notice whether Paradise Beach provided towels or not; Paradise Beach Tom will likely be along soon to clarify that for us.

 

Another thing I didn't mention is that there was constantly two ocean conoes manned by Paradise Beach staff patroling the ocean area and monitoring the activity for safety. I felt our kids were safer than at any beach with lifeguards on towers that we've ever been to.

I'll just in here at have a try at answering some of your questions

 

I'll bet he didn't worry. You will be able to leave with plenty of time to spare to get back to the ship. If you are worried, just add 30 minutes to the time you think you will need to get back. Maybe even set the alarm on your watch to remind you to leave. You will have no problem as there are plenty of taxis in Cozumel.

 

Only if you think he will want to use the water toys like the Iceberg or Trampoline.

Just going to PB is free. If you use a table/chairs, you will be expected to buy some food/drinks, but you were going to do that anyway :)

 

 

 

bruce-r:

 

 

Whoops! I'm going to have to start reading ahead before answering; you had me covered! :)

 

One thing I'll add is that it would be hard to sit there and not buy food and drinks, because your mouth will be watering at all the tasty treats passing by in front of you. ;) On the deck of the ship there's a constant parade of bar folks walking by and asking if you need anything. At Paradise Beach it seemed like we had our own waiter who I simply advised that I'd let him know and he didn't bother me again; he was simply always nearby and didn't intrude to offer anything like they seem to do on the ship if you know what I mean. It just seemed to me that the staff there knew all about customer service and you can tell by the pictures that we took with the staff that we appreciated their efforts. It was as if they tailored their service type to what the patrons preferred.

Thanks everyone! This is something that is a perfect fit for our little family. Thanks again for the great information!!!!:)

Hi Paul, I'm trying to decide whether to go to Paradise Beach or Chankanaab. Have you been to both or just Paradise Beach? Paradise is edging up betweeen the two. Thanks, Robin

enjoyed your reveiw and pictures I would like to know where in Grand Cay you were looked very nice with water toys and resterant

Hi Paul, I'm trying to decide whether to go to Paradise Beach or Chankanaab. Have you been to both or just Paradise Beach? Paradise is edging up betweeen the two. Thanks, Robin

The 2 are completely different. You have to decide what features are most important to you.

 

Paradise has the nice sandy beach, water toys, and no admission charge. The snorkeling has improved there since the addition of the dock.

 

They both have food available.

 

Chankanaab has an admission charge of $12, the shoreline is rock (but there is a sandy area behind it), and the snorkeling is supposed to be pretty good. Chankanaab doesn't have water toys, but it has a bunch of stuff that PB doesn't have; Dolphin program (extra cost, free to watch) sealion program (extra to participate, free to watch), mini-golf, reproduction mayan ruins, botanical gardens, on-site dive shops, snuba, gift shops, and perhaps some other things I'm forgetting.

Hi Paul, I'm trying to decide whether to go to Paradise Beach or Chankanaab. Have you been to both or just Paradise Beach? Paradise is edging up betweeen the two. Thanks, Robin

 

 

Robin:

 

 

Just Paradise Beach. We considered other locations but Paradise Beach was a perfect fit for us.

enjoyed your reveiw and pictures I would like to know where in Grand Cay you were looked very nice with water toys and resterant

 

 

 

Hyatt Regency Resort on Seven Mile Beach. Admission was $35 per adult which included $15 credit for food and drinks. Admission was free for our three boys. The fee included beach towels, use of the pools, hot tub, beach chairs, umbrellas, pool chairs and hammocks, weight room, and sauna. We caught a cab at the pier and the driver came back to pick us up. Red Sail Sports equipment was also on site with every imaginable water sports rental available.

Paradise Beach sounds great. Now I might change my mind about what to do in Cozumel!!!

PaulMedic...thanx for that amazing review! :) Looks like a lot of time and effort was expended and it is appreciated...hasta la vista!