Carnival Glory May 2010 cruise question

[pjm0419]

Hi all, I really enjoy reading all the reviews/forums here. I have gotten a lot of great information on our Western Caribbean cruise!! However, I have a question. One of our ports of call is Cozumel, and we are very interested in going to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. I have read from several members that it is always better to book excursions outside of the cruise due to the price difference, but I haven't seen anything on a recommendation for this tour. I know that it takes about an hour to get there, and you have to catch a ferry, so is the cruise excursion the only one available? Or does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks!!

[Tenga1899]

I booked this through Carnival for my cruise next week. You have to travel there and back and this tour apparently frequently gets a bit delayed from what I read. People on this tour can quickly become "pier runners" in Cozumel and it will have nothing to do with losing track of time shopping or drinking.... So, for the peace of mind, I went through Carnival so I wouldn't have to wave goodbye to the ship. If you did this particular trip privately, you'd hope you wouldn't be as rushed since you aren't part of a larger group so you'd have time to do everything and get back to the ship, but if your private tour got delayed, you very well could be the one waving goodbye to the ship.... I guess this is one of the longer Carnival excursions... :(

[Ilovepj]

HI,

 

Me & dh have been on the glory 2 times, and dh did the ruins in Cozumel, thru the ship, it's a long day, and I would not take the chance doing this one on your own. He had a great time and loved it. I did something different with my daughter in law.

 

Have a great cruise, I love the glory.

[golfadj]

We did it years ago on one of our first cruises and did it thru the cruise line. Long trip to get there.

 

Suggest you go to the port of call pages and see what others have done.

[semichigan]

We did this tour on the Glory in Oct. 2008 - I highly recommend booking through Carnival because it is a long tour - you have to take a ferry across, then a bus for at least an hour - ours was late getting back and the ship had to wait for us. It was awesome - the ruins are beautiful and up on a cliff overlooking the sea....plus the information that the guides give you about the Mayan people is so interesting.

[westernmom]

We have always booked our own tours but decided we better do this one through the ship and wished we would have had a more private tour like we did in Costa Maya. We just didn't get the personal attention that we have had with our other tours. It's a tough call as it's a long day.

 

Make sure you take your swimsuits and go down to the beach. It was awesome!

[pjm0419]

Thanks to everyone for their replies! We are going to book the excursion through Carnival so that we have peace of mind while we are visiting the beautiful ruins :-)

[golfadj]

I would call the "ruins" very interesting and worth seeing but would not exactly call them beautiful.

[cruisee<3]

have fun!! i'll be on the glory shortly after u :) i really wanted to go see the mayan ruins but i also really wanted to do the cozumel bar hop :p .. the bar hop won .. teheh hope u have some pictures to post upon ur return!

[boricua2007]

Thanks to everyone for their replies! We are going to book the excursion through Carnival so that we have peace of mind while we are visiting the beautiful ruins :-)

 

Hey, we'll be traveling the same week and we're doing this tour. I did some research because we have the option to go with another cc member who is going trough an independent contractor, but the price difference wasn't that much and the scheduled is kind of tight. IMHO you make a good choice. It would have been too much stress while on vacation!