uxmal vs chichen itza

[margincall]

For those who need to rest from time to time when doing a lot of walking we were wondering if there are enough places to sit and rest from time to time along a tour of either of these ruins and which entails more waling

[travel girl23]

We did the Uxmal tour this past June and there are places to sit and rest. It was extremely hot and I sat and waited several times while DH took pictures. I have not been to Chichen Itza so maybe someone else can give you that information. We are thinking of doing that tour in November. If you do go to Uxmal, be sure to wear good walking shoes, hat, and sunscreen. They sell water, drinks, and food plus there are clean restrooms. The sights are awesome so be sure to take your camera. We loved the tour. Travelgirl

[margincall]

Thanks so much--We are undecided between this tour and Izamal and seeing Mayan ruins in Belize

[margincall]

One more question(i sound like colombo)--On the guided tour how quicky do they move from sight to sight or can you go at your own pace on your own

[travel girl23]

We had a guide for the tour and he spent enough time at each location to tell about it. If there were several buildings in one area, he would tell about each one. We didn't spend a great deal of time at any one place. I would recommend staying with the tour as he is a wealth of information about Uxmal. However, if the tour moves on and you are still looking around, you can always catch up. If you wandered off on your own you might miss some very interesting information about the ruins. I sometimes lagged behind to take pictures but always caught up with the group. Travelgirl

[kelz66]

We had a guide for the tour and he spent enough time at each location to tell about it. If there were several buildings in one area, he would tell about each one. We didn't spend a great deal of time at any one place. I would recommend staying with the tour as he is a wealth of information about Uxmal. However, if the tour moves on and you are still looking around, you can always catch up. If you wandered off on your own you might miss some very interesting information about the ruins. I sometimes lagged behind to take pictures but always caught up with the group. Travelgirl

 

Did you take a private tour or one through the ship?

 

How long is the ride to the site from the port?

 

Uxmal ruins look amazing.:cool:

[slynn66]

We will be there in Jan. We plan on going to Uxmul. How long was the drive?

[tnsail]

We took a private excursion thru www.mayanroutes.com .... We found that it was an interesting tour and it was about an hour and a half each way.... The guide was very informative at the Uxmal site and the entrance fee was paid by the tour company.... This is a pricey tour for 4 or less people pp.... If your in a roll call and you can find more folks wishing to go the pp drops to within reason.....

 

Others have done this tour with a company called Auto-Progreso I believe and the tour was arranged right outside the pier. They speak very highly of this company but I can only speak for the tour company above.....:o

 

Joey

[slynn66]

Thank you for the info. We have a big group going. I think there is 10 - 12 of us going to Uxmal. We have done tours outside of Carnival. It just scares us doing a tour outside of Carnival since it is so far out on this one.

Did you do the lunch? How long did you get to stay there?

Stacy

[viciouslysh]

We just got back from Uxmal and it was fantastic. 7 of us booked through Carnival and were very pleased. The guides were great and the bus was comfy for the hour and a half ride. We made a quick stop at the restaurant they have there and had a couple apptizers. They did also supply a sandwich lunch to eat on the way back. I would recommend this tour. I'll attch some pics.

[slynn66]

Thank you for the info. I think this is the one we will do. I have read a lot of good things about it. I wonder why Carnival says it takes 2 1/2 hours to get there. Everyone on CC says 1 1/2 hours.

Stacy

[tnsail]

Thank you for the info. We have a big group going. I think there is 10 - 12 of us going to Uxmal. We have done tours outside of Carnival. It just scares us doing a tour outside of Carnival since it is so far out on this one.

Did you do the lunch? How long did you get to stay there?

Stacy

 

We traveled with a group of 12. There were 5 kids that were in the group... We traveled in an extended van that held us all very easily (of course kids being kids traveling for that lenght of time you can imagine that they got fidgety but we weren't crowded).... The tour operator met us right outside of the ship, just to the outside of the sales area that is set up on the dock. He had a sign with the name of the person that made the reservations...;)

 

As far as lunch, when we arrived at Uxmal there is a resturant on the premises and that is where the lunch was served after we toured the ruins. The website says that it cost $10 but because none of us were very fluent in Spainsh it ended up costing us a bit more than $10. It was good food and the place was clean but if we hadn't had the kids along I believe that we could have grabbed some of the fruit and dry cereal off the ship and made do with that. Having said that it was a good experience to eat at a semi-local establishment...

 

I'm not sure just what your ships port of call list is but one thing that you might want to consider is to convert some dollars to pesos on the ship... While all the vendors will accept dollars as payment everything is priced in pesos at Uxmal. No one was unhappy with what they purchased or the price paid, but you are at the mercy of the exchange rate that each vendor chooses to charge you...

 

While we were there we did notice that there were different groups that weren't from our ship at the site.... Evidently there is a good tourist trade from other areas that also view this site....

 

We spent the better part of 3 hours there. Of course the time we spent in the resturant took it a bit over 3 hours but we all thought that we had seen a great deal of the site and found it to be a enjoyable day.....

 

Joey

[slynn66]

Thanks for the info. I think we have decided to go with Carnival. It is only

$10pp more roughly. We will check on getting pesos. I like the cereal idea just to snack on.

Stacy

[tnsail]

slynn66, I know that you will have a great time.... Uxmal is a really impressive ruin.... Carry plenty of film...:)

 

Good luck and good cruising....;)

 

Joey

 

By the way its pronounced Uus-mile.... Go figure....:D

 

If you decide to change your mind and want to use this tour company I wanted to tell you that at no time did we feel that we were in any danger of missing the ship. Having said that I can understand your wanting to do the Carnival Tour also....

[slynn66]

I am looking forward to it. We have a few weeks to decide if we want to change to the tour company. I will check with the other couples.

I will let them know what you said.

Thanks,

Stacy

[viciouslysh]

I tried again to post some pics of Uxmal but they aren't going through here. If you want to look, I have a few posted on my myspace through my pics. Its www.myspace.com/viciouslysh

 

The restaurant there is good if you ask the tour guide what he recommends. Some of us ate what he told us too and it was much better

than the other plates. My sister and I shared a plate with marinated pork,

black beans, white rice and tortillas. Six of us ate for $27. Mostly appitzers.

[tnsail]

Wow Alysha, you did good... I can't speak for everyones bill but for my DW and myself the tab was over $27 plus tip.... :confused: I believe what caused us the problem is that the menus we were handed didn't have a price listed by each item.... We were told that we could select an item in each grouping on the menu and this would add up to be below the $10 pp price range.... We must have picked out the pricey items...:o

 

But it was good food and it didn't break the bank....:)

 

Joey

[jmcdon7230]

viciouslysh

 

Did you book your Carnival excursion last month to Uxmal after boarding the ship or did you book online? It's not being listed online for the Dec 8th sailing of the Holiday. Were you on the Holiday?

[tnsail]

viciouslysh

 

Did you book your Carnival excursion last month to Uxmal after boarding the ship or did you book online? It's not being listed online for the Dec 8th sailing of the Holiday. Were you on the Holiday?

 

I can help you a bit on your question... We sailed the Holiday and it was listed for about 4 weeks as a tour excursion then it up and disappeared... I spoke with some of the folks at the desk on the ship about this and it seems that Carnival holds back several of the seats on some excursions so that the people who don't have use of the web or are not familiar with the Carnival site will be able to book once they board the ship...

 

This must be one of the popular excursions that fills up on the ship...:confused: ... The only bad thing about it is that some people book these types of excursions and then change their minds an cancel a couple of weeks later, after Carnival has already taken it down on the website....:(

 

Joey

[jmcdon7230]

I can help you a bit on your question... We sailed the Holiday and it was listed for about 4 weeks as a tour excursion then it up and disappeared... I spoke with some of the folks at the desk on the ship about this and it seems that Carnival holds back several of the seats on some excursions so that the people who don't have use of the web or are not familiar with the Carnival site will be able to book once they board the ship...

 

This must be one of the popular excursions that fills up on the ship...:confused: ... The only bad thing about it is that some people book these types of excursions and then change their minds an cancel a couple of weeks later, after Carnival has already taken it down on the website....:(

 

Joey

 

Thanks for the info. It just seems odd that they would do this with Uxmal but the Chichen Itza excursion (which is further away from Progreso) remains available as an online booking option. Kind of frustrating because we booked this cruise for the sole purpose of going to Uxmal and can't lock in the excursion online.

Do I understand you correctly that you booked once on board the ship?

[tnsail]

My take on what was relayed to me at the tour desk was that some slots were saved.... Having said that, the more that we have thought about it, what would Carnival do if there were a group of 45 that booked online and there were only 48 places with the tour that Carnival has a contract with?

 

I can not say for sure that there will be slots to book on the ship...:o ... If the situation above occured I don't know wheather Carnival would ask the tour operator to provide another bus or that they would just consider the tour sold out....

 

I wish that we could be more certain, but, if the places were reversed there would be some serious consideration to using Auto-progreso as a back-up. Just in case that I couldn't do the ships tour and really had my heart set on Uxmal.... Mayanroutes requires a deposit and does not try to create tours at the pier... From what I have read Auto-progreso creates tours at the head of the pier. Though when we past thru the area,going and returning, I didn't notice their office on the main drag. Of course I wasn't really looking for it and our guide didn't point it out...

[viciouslysh]

viciouslysh

 

Did you book your Carnival excursion last month to Uxmal after boarding the ship or did you book online? It's not being listed online for the Dec 8th sailing of the Holiday. Were you on the Holiday?

 

 

I was on the Ecstasy. I tried to book online too, but by time I made up my mind for sure it was gone. After seeing pics of the water there I changed my mind on going to the the beach - quick! But I just went up to the desk onboard early one morning and they gave me my tickets within seconds. It was easy.

[kelz66]

I was on the Ecstasy. I tried to book online too, but by time I made up my mind for sure it was gone. After seeing pics of the water there I changed my mind on going to the the beach - quick! But I just went up to the desk onboard early one morning and they gave me my tickets within seconds. It was easy.

 

I'll keep that in mind as it is no longer listed on carnivals site for my sailing.

 

If they don't have spot available on ship, I guess I will find one at the pier, since I am definitely going to see Uxmal.:cool: