Dune Buggy or Jeep Excursion

[travgurl]

Traveling to Cozumel in mid July on Carnival. Has anyone booked the dune buggy or jeep tour through Carnival? Are they stick shift? Would you recommend this excursion? Since we are first time cruisers I am not sure booking wiith a private company. Any other excursion would you recommend?

[Corn Fed]

I don't know why no one will comment on these excursions. I will tell you mine....

We booked ours thru the ship ( not Carnival ).

Reasons enough for us was we were guarenteed the ship would "take care of us" IF the excursion had a problem in getting us back in time. Paying the lil extra was what we called insurance. Especially since we were traveling all the way around the island...anything could happen.

Our Dune buggy excursion was a blast. We had two awesome guides, to which I really think added flare to our trip. We snorkeled ( not the best but still had fun) shopped in a primitive shopping store, stopped at a private beach area and ate, played vollyball, swam, got Henna tattoos and relaxed. The water and view on the other side of the island is beautiful!! Coming back into town there was some road construction but still experiencing the trip in a Dune Buggy was a blast for us 30 something year olds!

I do have to say that ..IF.. you wanted to go on your own...Cozumel would prolly be the best stop to do it at.

I am trying to get comments on the same type excursion in Progreso... no replies:(

[Nebr.cruiser]

We're 60 year-olds and had a great time on our dune buggy tour in December. We used Island Marketing. Yes, the dune buggies are stick shift, and a little tricky to drive. Some were pretty new-looking, some older. One broke down in our group and the couple had to finish the trip in the back seat of another dune buggy.

 

Since we'd been to Cozumel several times before, we wanted something different. We enjoyed the drive around the island in our little buggy and seeing the scenery on the 'wilder' side of the island. The snorkel stop we took was not great; rocky, hard to get into water, no nice coral and few fish; I think most snorkeling in Coz is poor since hurricane Wilma, but they could have chosen a much nicer spot.

 

No off-roading, which we wanted to do. We stopped at a tiny Mayan ruin (and I mean tiny!) which was in a village with a small shopping area--I presume the guides get a kick-back there--but I appreciated the bathroom break. We also stopped at a couple of scenic areas with natural bridges and rock formations and waves spraying high into the air.

 

We also had lunch on a very pretty, not commercialized at all, beach, did a little body surfing (until we realized there were rocks in the water near shore) and had a nice lunch. Then on around the island, stopping at a tequila farm, and back to the city. It did rain pretty hard for awhile, and there isn't much cover in a dune buggy.

 

One caveat; this probably isn't the safest tour in the world--check out a couple of posts, including mine, farther down on this forum. Not all the buggies were in great condition, inexperienced drivers in the buggies, and little if any instruction. Also, our two guides weren't that great, not much attempt at being personable, though they did the basics competently.

 

Hey, we'd do it again; it was an adventure and we loved getting away from all the commercialization at the pier area. I can't comment on the jeep tours, but I bet they are similar.

[kenf333]

Traveling to Cozumel in mid July on Carnival. Has anyone booked the dune buggy or jeep tour through Carnival? Are they stick shift? Would you recommend this excursion? Since we are first time cruisers I am not sure booking wiith a private company. Any other excursion would you recommend?

 

Cozumel is a small island,i would not hesitate to book a non ship tour. Although I have not done business with cozumel insider they have a great web site and offer this tour.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I wouldn't worry about not taking a ship tour either, in fact we rarely do anymore. We've had some very poor, overcrowded and over-priced ship's tours and prefer to book independently; we use these boards for recommendations and have usually been very pleased. We've never had a problem getting back to the ship on time, and Cozumel, being quite small, is especially safe to take a non-ship excursion.

 

However, I'd never want to advise anyone to go outside their comfort zone when booking a tour. If you are really concerned about missing the ship, the ships normally will wait if one of their tours is late. It may be worth the extra money to you, especially as you aren't experienced cruisers. We used to do this too!

 

We've never even come close to missing the ship, but we choose tours that are run by reliable companies and also choose a tour based on the time it takes. We like to be back to the pier at least one hour, preferably two, (or more) before the ship leaves and book tours accordingly. On our dune buggy tour we got back with more than two hours to spare and had time for plenty of shopping. Have fun!

[travgurl]

What company did you use for your excursion?

[Nebr.cruiser]

We used Island Marketing. Sorry, I don't know how to post links, but you can google them. They run tours on several islands throughout the Caribbean. Here's a couple of photos to whet your interest. The first was just after snorkeling, the second at the beach where we ate lunch.

[swiftmodel]

Just got back from Carnival Inspiration and we took the Beach Buggy and Snorkel Tour. It was great! They are stick shift. Our tour guys(Danny and Antony) were awesome. I booked through Carnival since we were first time cruisers and we had a fear of being left behind. We got back from our tour with about a hour and half or so to shop before we had to get back in line for the tender. I would recommend this excursion to anyone. I have a 7 year old and he had a blast the whole time. If you do not want to snorkel you can swim at the pool while everyone snorkels.

[jacksmom09]

We are interested in the Island Jeep Tour. Has anyone done this one???:D Would love some reviews!;)

[Rodeomomof2]

My husband and I booked a jungle jeep tour through this company: http://www.aventurasnaturalascozumel.com/ a few years ago. We had a really good time, since hurricane Wilma, it became an island tour and not a jungle jeep tour; but we are going back to Cozumel in August with the kids and I can not wait to take them on this. Our tour guide from 2005 now owns the company and it was a lot of fun, Heather brings a cooler full of drinks: water, cokes, beer etc...and snacks and then you get this really good chicken lunch. It was just fun to get away from the crowds for a while, the day that we went, she drove us to the other side of the island, we had the beach spot all to ourselves, no one else was around, it was FUN!:D

[travgurl]

Thanks for all of the great ideas and information. I will have to research the companies and make a final decision.

[Jasminedog]

We did our 2007 spring break cruise on the Star Princess and booked this tour through the ship. It was expensive, but a lot of fun. As others have posted, the buggies seat 4 and they are stick shift.

 

The negatives: having to drive through the town and drive just as aggressively as the locals do. If one is not comfortable with this, then this would be a problem. Also, the buggies travel on paved roads nearly 98% of the trip (not off road dirt or sand which we thought we were going to do).

 

The positives: snorkeling was nice from a beach just outside of town, but did not see huge numbers of fish. The beaches on Coz are breathtaking once you get outside of the town. The beach buffet they included (about 2/3 of the way around our circle drive of the island) was very good and the beach locale was outstanding.

 

Now that we have done this, I am not sure I would be inclined to do it again, but I am certainly glad we did it and would highly recommend.

[Jan_In_Maine]

RodeoMom - we met Heather back in 2003 and like you I have nothing except wonderful things to say about her - I sent her an e-mail about our next trip (we are going to spend the day at Paradise Beach) - Heather very kindly gave me her cell phone number to get in touch with her.

 

There is still a review of our day in Cozumel with Heather on the RCCL Voyager review section - I am so glad that I had the opportunity to meet Heather. Jan