Shore excursions questions for first time cruiser

[gatour]

Some excursions have finite capacity, things like catamarans etc, so can sell out.  Others like scenic island tours that take place using a bus, has very large capacity as they can always add another bus (within reason).  So the one that have finite capacity I would recommend making reservations sooner than later.

 

You also might want to look at the Ports of Call forums here on Cruise Critic.  They are not cruise line specific but can give some great information.  Esp. since you mentioned wanting to do a beach sometime during cruise.

[LUVINMYHUBS]

16 hours ago, coevan said:

I do understand. We always read reviews and use reputable companies who have good cancellation polices and some have return to ship guarantee. Fortunately we have never been close to late for a trip. 15 cruises never did a Carnival excursion. FYI, snorkel trip to Turtle Cove is $75, book it online for $55

Same! After our 1st cruise, we learned to use 3rd party and have only always had a wonderful time! These tours or excursions are their jobs, and cruisers are their "bread and butter" and they bend over backwards to take care of you. We will probably never book through cruise lines again...

[LUVINMYHUBS]

14 hours ago, coevan said:

yeah, you can tell by the color of the towels

 

lol! Truth!

[jlynchtx]

On 7/12/2019 at 7:11 AM, RWolver672 said:

 

We did the submarine in Cozumel.  It was as you said different and exciting.  We were suppose to go to the bottom but the current was too strong so we only went down 64 feet.  It was amazing how far you can see underwater.  We could still  see the bottom and all of the corals and fish down there.   I must admit, it was a little spooky at first but we got use to it.

 

I also went ahead and booked the Submarine in Cozumel. Do you remember how much time it took or about how much time you had left after it was over? We show to arrive at 7am and our sub excursion starts at 8:30am. It says it is two hours long, so we should done by 10:30am and the depart port time is 3:00pm. It seems I will have at least 3 hours extra and I was thinking about taking a taxi to a beach and eating lunch somewhere. But since this is my first cruise I wanted to make sure that would be feasible from somebody that has been on the submarine excursion or something similar...

 

Also, if the depart port time shows 3pm on the website, how much sooner would we need to be back on the ship?

[RWolver672]

If your excursion says it starts at 8:30, that means that you should be at the end of the pier where all of the bars are.  Look for a sign that says Submarine Excursion.  Give the person your name and they will check you off.  Then they herd everyone down to a pier where they take your photo.  They then board you on a boat and take you out to where the submarine will surface.  

 

They unload the submarine (Probably not in your case because you may be the first excursion of the day.)  Then you board the sub.  There will be a worker on the sub who will explain hot to get out of the sub in an emergency.  At the opposite end from where you entered, you can see the driver sitting in front of a glass wall.  The sub has windows all along both sides.  There are two benches that run the full length of the sub.  There are pictures of fish identifying them so that you can tell what fish you see.  

 

Because we didn't go down all the way, we did just stay at 64 feet for probably ten minutes while the worker pointed out different coral and explained how much it grew per year.  He also pointed out a huge black grouper.  I seem to remember that full submersion was 100 feet down.  Then we surfaced.  The boat was waiting on the surface with new passengers.  We got off and they got on.  Then we headed back to the pier where we got on.  On the way back, they handed out orange juice and went around with a bottle of vodka and spiked all of our drinks.  They were very generous with the vodka too.  😃  They dropped us off at the pier and the whole excursion took probably less than two hours because we didn't go down all the way.  

 

If your ship is leaving port at 3 PM, I would get in line to get back on the ship no later than 2 PM.  Everybody waits until the last minute to get back on to take full advantage of the port.  Then they all have to stand in line and wait in the hot sun.  The line will stretch almost the full length of the pier which is quite long.  As long as you're in line, the ship will wait until all have boarded but no longer so make sure you're at least in line.

 

I hope this helped and didn't scare you away from having a ball on the island.