Paradise Beach for a family of 4?

[MickeyG]

I have a question that some of you may be able to help me with. We are a family of four w/2 kids ages 11 (daughter) and 13 (son). We are taking our first cruise this Christmas via Carnival's Miracle. One of our ports of call is Cozumel. I heard that there are two great beaches/parks in Cozumel...Paradise Beach and Chanakaab Park.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions as far as which venue might be better for our group, with respect to activites, fun and food? We probably will not do the dolphin swim if that makes a difference. I appreciate any and all help you might be able to give me. Thanks!

[MyDusty]

Carnival offers a Shore Trip to Playa Sol Beach Club in Cozumel. My family and I have done this twice now. We all enjoy it. It is very reasonable, as well. You can stay all day too. They have a website. By the way, we are also going on the Miracle in December (the 12-19th.) When are you booked? While in Cozumel this time we are doing the dolphin swim and then going to Playa Sol after.

[MickeyG]

Catherine...thanks for responding. We are going on our cruise December 19-26. Looks like you will beat us by one week. I will check out the website you provided. Thanks again and enjoy your cruise!!

 

 

Mick:)

[MyDusty]

Mick,

Change in plans. Now that I am reading more about Paradise Beach and Tom, I think we may go there instead......... Where are you from in Michigan? I grew up in Warren and now live in Windsor, Ontario. We are driving down to Tampa before the cruise.

[nycny]

We have been to both PB and Chanakaab Park. Our first trip to Cozumel we went to CP with two girls -- 4 and 7. We had a great time. We did not do the Dolphins. Admission was about $10 per person. Once we arrived we went down to the lagoon area and played in the water for a few hours, had lunch and paid to see the sealion show. It was a nice morning. When we were finished in the early afternoon, we went shopping. It was a very nice day. The sealion show was ok, nothing fabulous. (I had seen the sealion show at SeaWorld about two months before and the CP show was not in the same league). We had no interest in spending the entire day there -- not enough to do.

 

On our second visit in March 2004, I did some research and we went to Paradise Beach. This time it was just my daughter, now 5 and my husband. We arrived at about 10 and stayed until 4. No shopping. Nothing but a beach day. All of us agree it was the most perfect day. We played at the beach all day and just relaxed. DD got a tattoo and a hairwrap. I had a message. We played in the sand, swam out to the iceberg. My husband tried to climb it -- couldn't do it -- lamented his lost youth and commented that the little kids had no problem. Ate a fabulous lunch. Met PB Tom. The day was perfect in everyway. Very mellow, relaxing etc. The food was fantastic, there were lots of other kids, the water is beautiful. I cannot say enough about PB. We had no regrets about doing nothing but PB.

 

We are on the Explorer 8/29 and will be stopping back at PB for the day.

 

My recommendation would be PB for you and your family. Save CP until you want to do the dolphins. If you haven't been to Cozumel before, I would suggest hitting the beach and shopping if you are interested in the late afternoon before you leave.

 

I hope I answered your questions. Elise

[MickeyG]

...for the great info. Elise, I am happy to hear that you enjoyed both CP and PB. From what I have read, PB is probably the way to go for us, too. My only concern was the age appropriateness for our 11 and 13 year old kids. Sometimes a beach can be for the early 20's crowd. But from everything I've read here and elsewhere, there should be enough to keep everyone happy and entertained for the day. Do you know if reservations are needed for PB or is this something that can be done once we arrive in port? My guess is that we simply hail a taxi and tell him to head to PB.

 

Catherine.....we are from Okemos, MI, which is about a 2 mile drive to MSU. I think your family will enjoy PB. What other shore trips do you have planned? We are doing a Sotos stingray city tour in Grand Cayman. We are planning to do cave tubing in Belize. Not sure if we should book this excursion ourselves and do the X-treme cave tubing, or if we should go with the ships cave tubing excursion. My daughter loves horseback riding, so we may try to set something up for Costa Maya. Do you have your cabin assigned yet? I think you will like the Miracle. The positive reviews far outweigh anything negative I have read. I know it will be a little different for us this year at Christmas, being on the ship and all. We plan on hitting Disney for 4 days after our cruise. Like yourselves, we will be driving to Tampa for our cruise.

 

Thanks again, Elise and Catherine!!:)

 

Mick

[MyDusty]

Mick- We have booked extreme cave tubing in Belize. As I mentioned, we have booked the dolphin adventure in Cozumel and then plan on going to P.B. In Costa Maya we are just going to take a cab to the fishing village (Majuhal) and find a spot on the beach near a bar and activities. In Grand Cayman we are going to do the Beach Break shore tour from the boat and then walk to Tree House bar which I believe is right on 7 mile beach. Some friends of ours just moved down there and work at the bar. We have a 8A Guarantee. I am waiting to get my travel docs to see the room assignment. (I learned from this site how to tell from the codes on the docs what your room is before you get to the check in) I believe our reservation is a obstructed view balcony. But, we are hoping for an upgrade!!! We are starting to drive down 2 days before the cruise so hubby can go to a Lightning game and then afterward we are staying in Tampa so he can go to a Bucs game, then on to Miami for the Monday night Dolphins game, and then on to Orlando for Universal Studios for 2 days and then to Jacksonville to my sister in laws for Christmas and a Jaguars game on the 26th. Whew what a month. Can you tell my DH is a sports nut????????????????

[MickeyG]

Catherine....I can certainly understand your husband's love of sports. I am a big Lions and Spartans fan. We have season tickets to the MSU football games. We try to get away to one or two away games, too. So I can appreciate your husband's desire to see games in person.

 

From what I've heard, I think getting upgraded from an 8-A to an 8-C is a good bet for you. That is one advantage with not booking a specific cabin from the onset. You pay less and will most likey get a great cabin. We did it the other way (at the advice of our Carnival agent). We booked a specific cabin (8-C). Our agent found us a good deal (cabin) at the time of booking and grabbed it.

 

It will be nice to kick back at the beach and be able to enjoy food/drink and relax. Paradise Beach sounds great. The food is supposed to be very good and so are the drinks. We'll probably let the kids play in the water while we kick back. I think your posts stated that you have kids, too. How many and their ages?

 

Mick :)

[nycny]

Mick -- I think you are doing the right thing with PB. Your kids will spent all day climbing up the Iceberg if past experience is any indication. Then, when they are bored with that, they will bounce on the trampoline. When we were in Cozumel in March the price list for taxis included Paradise Beach. $12 is my best memory. We will be there on our cruise leaving Miami on 8/29. Enjoy, Elise

[MickeyG]

Elise...I see your cruise is coming up very quickly. I know you will have a great time. Thanks for the encouragement about PB. Being first-timers, we can only go on the recommendations of others. Let me know how everything goes. We'll keep a good thought for you. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;)

[MyDusty]

Mick-On all my past cruises we have booked for Guarantee rooms and been pleasantly surprised by the upgrades. My agent tells me that it has alot to do with how many cruises you have been on and how much business the agent does with Carnival. Don't know if that is true. But it seems to work for us. My son is 13 and my daughter is 9.