Re: Cozumel & Calica Shore Excursions - Recommended?

Dan asked:

>
>Hi everyone!
>
>I will be in Cozumel and Calica for my first time on the week of July 4th on
>a Carnival Cruise with a group and I received the information on the shore
>excursions today and I have briefly shortened and listed most of them below.
>My question is, has anyone done any of these excursions at Cozumel or Calica
>below, and If so... What can you recommend? Which ones are worth doing?....

Dan,

Especially in Cozumel, unless you're getting in at an unusual time (i.e., 3PM),
there's no reason to take the ship's excursion for diving, and every reason NOT
to. There are just too many good dive operations on the island who will work
with you to customize dives with you and give you a much better experience
(fewer people, better sites). Dive Paradise and Eagle Ray Divers are extremely
good about working with cruise ship divers. There are other excellent
operations as well to try.

If you're at all interested in doing a dolphin swim or even dolphin dive,
contact Dolphin Discovery directly. www.dolphindiscovery.com. You can arrange
this on your own.

Actually, almost all of what is listed for Cozumel you can do on your own,
often at significant savings and improved quality/time. The only ones I
recommend for first timers to do with the cruise ship are those which take you
over to the mainland due to logistics. Tours such as Tulum or X-Caret for
example.

Calica is a bit more difficult to do on your own. I recommend heading over to
the Cruise Critic boards (www.cruisecritic.com) and going to their ports of
call boards to ask about the best potentials there. The logistics here are
that there isn't a lot right near the port, so you'd need to arrange anything
privately in advance. The longer tours, such as to Chizen Itza, should
definitely be done with the ship's excursions to ensure they'll wait for you if
the tour is delayed.

Have fun!

Amber