Dune Buggy or ATV

[CRUZFOOLS]

Thinking about dune buggy tour or ATV tour. Any reputable company to book thru. We would like to book on our own but want to make it back to the ship that afternoon.:D

[CRUZFOOLS]

Can these tours be booked at the pier?

[Scooter-n-GB]

Can these tours be booked at the pier?

 

What day will you be in Coz? I ask because if there are a lot of ships in port that day, the likelihood that you will have your choice of much of anything, right at the pier, is dependant on how many other vacationers you will be competing with.

 

Here's a link to see who you will be with in port.

 

http://www.cruisecal.com/portal/

 

Both seem to be popular tours, so I would not recommend waiting until you get the pier. :)

[davejohn]

When we were in Coz in Nov. there were 5 ships in port. I didn't see any ATV tours accepting bookings at the pier (International). We did the ATV beach tour and they said they were booked up all day with ship's tours.

[kenf333]

Thinking about dune buggy tour or ATV tour. Any reputable company to book thru. We would like to book on our own but want to make it back to the ship that afternoon.:D

 

Try cozumel insider dot com they have the buggy tour for sure, and may also have an atv tour.

[emjay]

We booked the Dune Buggy from Cozumel Insider but I usually book through the cruise lines. I am getting nervous since our cruise time is getting closer and don't know if I made a mistake or not.

Ken, you sound like you do excursions fromt he individuals rather than from the cruise lines, our tour confirmation says it is from 10:30 to 4:30 which is their time and we are due to depart at 6:00 ships time. Is this cutting it too close?

[kenf333]

We booked the Dune Buggy from Cozumel Insider but I usually book through the cruise lines. I am getting nervous since our cruise time is getting closer and don't know if I made a mistake or not.

Ken, you sound like you do excursions fromt he individuals rather than from the cruise lines, our tour confirmation says it is from 10:30 to 4:30 which is their time and we are due to depart at 6:00 ships time. Is this cutting it too close?

 

You will be fine, beleive it or not most vendors provide for the ships as well as individuals. I would tell your guide what time your ship is leaving, and they can make some adjustments to give you a little more room for error.

Relax and enjoy your day. :)

[bruce-r]

You will be fine, beleive it or not most vendors provide for the ships as well as individuals. I would tell your guide what time your ship is leaving, and they can make some adjustments to give you a little more room for error.

Relax and enjoy your day. :)

 

I agree with Ken (again). To my knowledge, there is only ONE company with dune buggys in Cozumel, so it is the same company whether you book directly with them or go thru the ship.

[emjay]

Thanks, that makes me feel better. I wouldn't want to be doing a posting about missing the ship:eek:

[travgurl]

We did this excursion through Cozumel Insider. We had such a fantastic time, we are repeating it in Feb. with friends. You will have such a great day. You get to do alot of different things and see alot of the island. I would highly recommend it. Enjoy!

[Nebr.cruiser]

We did the dune buggy excursion last year and loved it. We booked with Island Marketing but as someone else mentioned I'm pretty sure that everyone uses the same dune buggy tour company, no matter who you book with.

 

It was a great excursion and we had lots of time afterwards for shopping. Of course, that depends on when your ship sail

[emjay]

Thank you all! We are really getting excited. We are taking a friend who has never cruised so we wanted to do something for the excursion that we thought she would really enjoy. It sounds like we did pick a good one.

We are in port form 7-6 and the tour was supposed to be from 10:30 to 4:30 which would be 5:30 ships time so that is why I was a bit worried. There are only 4 ships in port that day so as long as the weather hangs in there we should have a great day.

I was just nervous since we always book through Carnival. I always have this fear of missing the ship:eek:

We leave on the 23rd for Tampa and the ship leaves on the 24th.

Can't wait!!!

[twofacelady]

Emjay

We always book our excursions independently. Believe me, the vendors do not want you to miss the ship. They want you to have a great time and give out their names to other cruisers. They always ask what time you need to be back at the pier (most already know all of the ship's schedules). On a few occasions, we were with people who booked the same excursion on the ship (for more money). Therefore, we didn't have to worry about the time since we know the ship wouldn't leave without the passengers who booked through them.

P.S. What do you mean by local time versus ship time? If I remember correctly, local time was always the same as ship time. We have always changed our clocks to match time zones?

P.S. Please let us know how you liked it. We will be in Cozumel on 2/16 and are looking for an adventure tour.

[emjay]

Cozumel from what I understand is on Central time and the ship goes by Eastern time so that would make Cozumels time 1 hour earlier than the ship. I know on all of our others cruise's they always tell you not to change your watch!!! Be sure to make it show the same as the ships clocks and keep it there:D

[croozlady]

I was also interested in doing this Dune Buggy adventure. Does anyone know what beach it goes to? The Carnival website doesn't say. I haven't check Cozumel Insider yet.

 

Thanks for the info!:D

[kenf333]

I was also interested in doing this Dune Buggy adventure. Does anyone know what beach it goes to? The Carnival website doesn't say. I haven't check Cozumel Insider yet.

 

Thanks for the info!:D

 

 

It goes to xhul-ha beach, xhul-ha is between hotel presidente and fiesta americana.:)

[travgurl]

Actually, you see both sides of the island. You spend most of your time on the opposite side of the island from where the cruise ships dock. It is was the most beautiful and breath taking view of the the ocean. The water was so blue and the sand was so soft. You will absolutely love it. We are repeating this excursion through Cozumel Insider in Feb. I can hardly wait!

[croozlady]

Thanks so much for the info!! Sounds perfect!

[cwnhokie]

We are thinking of doing the Dune Buggy or ATV excursion on our next trip to Cozumel. Can someone who has done either describe more about what you did and what you saw? Thanks!

[bruce-r]

We are thinking of doing the Dune Buggy or ATV excursion on our next trip to Cozumel. Can someone who has done either describe more about what you did and what you saw? Thanks!

 

I've seen both excursions. They go to similar places and you do about the same things; stop for shopping, snorkeling, and lunch.

 

The biggest difference between the two is your potential exposure to dirt. In the dune buggy, you are likely to stay cleaner. I'd recommend wearing long pants riding the ATV.

[tracey980]

Should I prepare to get dirty on this excursion? What did you wear? Older clothes, sneakers of flip flops?

[MrsPete]

We did the ATV tour, and it was absolutley incredible! In fact, my husband is looking for places here near home that we can ride ATVs.

 

Quick facts:

 

We booked with Wild Tours (I think that was the name), a private company. I would recommend them!

We're a family of four and the kids are too young to drive, so we reserved two double-riders. My husband and our oldest daughter (age 13) were a little crowded on one bike, so we switched kids at the first stop and were fine. The total cost was $220 for our family -- plus we tipped well.

We docked at the International Pier, so we had to take a taxi to the downtown area, where we met the Wild Tours guy in front of Carlos and Charlie's. We were a group of 13 -- just us from our ship, but several passengers from other ships and a family who was there on a land-vacation.

The Wild Tours folks took us waaaay out into the jungle via taxi, where we met our tour guides. We started with safety and driving instructions (very easy, even for beginners like me).

We rode for about two hours, stopping at three spots with ties to Mayan history. Our guides were funny and quick to help with anything we needed.

Halfway through we stopped for bottled water, which was very welcome.

Bugs were a problem -- bring bug spray. Sunscreen too because you'll be in the sun about 50% of the time.

After the ride, the vans reappeared to take us back. The people who'd paid for the ride PLUS the beach experience were taken to the Beach Club, where they were met by Beach Club people and told they'd have a free drink and a chance to snorkle. Those of us who had paid for JUST the ride were given the choice of being dropped off back at the port or at one of the beach clubs along the way home (we had to pass them all to get back to the port anyway). Of course, if we'd been dropped at a beach club, it would've been on our own dime to get back to the port.

Yes, we were FILTHY when we finished, but we were grinning ear to ear; people were staring at us and asking what'd happened to us, but we thought it was funny. We stopped in a couple shops near the port, and one shop owner offered to hose my husband off; he didn't want such a dirty person loitering by his shop!

 

If -- no, WHEN -- we do this again, I'll reserve just the 2-hour trip again. That leaves us free to do what we want after the ride. This time, for example, we'd wanted to go to Paradise Beach after our ride, but it was starting to rain hard, and we opted to head back to the ship. Also, our shoes looked horrible! I had to tie them up in shopping bags and store them on the balcony for the rest of the cruise. Next time I'll save up some ratty old tennis shoes for the ride and throw them away after the excursion.

 

I would love to try the Dune Buggies next time, but I suspect my family will DEMAND a repeat of this excursion!

[MrsPete]

Should I prepare to get dirty on this excursion? What did you wear? Older clothes, sneakers of flip flops?

I wore a bathing suit under jean shorts and a tee-shirt; we'd intended to go to Paradise Beach after the ride. You're required to wear tennis shoes or something similar (for protection). They offered to rent us diving shoes for $4.50 each -- that's what the guides were wearing -- I assume they're easy to wash up.

 

As I said in my previous post, when we go again, I'll bring last year's ratty old tennis shoes, then throw them away as we re-board the ship.

[emjay]

Was it the ATV's that caused everyone to get dirty? I wouldn't think the Dune Buggy tour would be too messy.

We are leaving this Wednesday so can someone let me know if I should pack some old stuff for the Dune Buggy tour?

[Nebr.cruiser]

For the dune buggy tour I wore a bathing suit under shorts and a tank top and sandals (tevas, because they can get wet). We did not really get dirty on this tour, except for sand at the beach for lunch. There was no off-roading or driving on dirt.

 

It did rain quite hard for a while. We kind of ducked under the wind shield of the dune buggy and didn't get too soaked as we stopped at the Tequila Factory during the worst of the rain.

 

Enjoy--we had a great time.