Full day tour to El Cielo in Cozumel Snorkeling Lunch and Drinks

Posted By : gavino630
I booked this trip for my family because we love snorkeling. We have a 13 year old and a 16 year old and this trip was perfect for all of us. I want to start by expressing my how much we enjoyed the snorkeling and hanging out with sting rays. The snorkeling was spectacular and we had plenty of time to see everything in the area on each reef and destination which was really beautiful . We had time to explore and didn’t feel rushed.
Now I want to give you insight to the finer details of this trip that we did not know about and wished we had. We were picked up at our resort in Cancun at 7:05 am by a couple of gentleman that spoke very little English. We loaded into the van that already had passengers in it and there was just enough room for us. Our first stop was in Playa Del Carmen at a kind of sketchy side street convenience store. The two guys driving our van informed us (my family) that we had to get out there because we had to meet with our tour guide. We get out and they leave us there on the side of street in a not very comfortable environment. We stood at this spot for about a half an hour and a big tour bus pulled up. Seeing the tour bus pull up was a relief. A bunch of people get off the bus and it was clear that there was a tour guide organizing everyone that had got off the bus. They were all put into groups for different excursions and started to load into smaller vans. The tour guide then realized that he was missing a group (us). He called us over to him and he handed us a paper bag and said this is your lunch and you owe me 3400 pesos. I confirmed with him that the 3400 pesos was for the reef conservation fee. We had planned to pay for this with a credit card but he told me he wanted cash which seemed very sketchy to me. I told him I would pay cash but we needed an ATM. He expressed to me that we could get cash from an ATM at the Ferry terminal which is what I did. He loaded us into a van that wasn’t very nice and my red flag alarm had hit its max! We get to the ferry terminal and I pulled the 3400 pesos front the ATM and hand it to our guide and he said that I shorted him 200 pesos supposedly for taxes. At this point it is 10 o’clock and our experience was far from ok and I was starting to get a bit worked up. We got on the ferry for Cozumel at about 10:30. Arrived at Cozumel at about 11:05. Now we had to find our tour guide under a Mexican flag that had two gold eagles under it. When we got off the ferry there was no Mexican flag flying anywhere in the sky and we luckily spotted our tour guide in a crowd of literally hundreds of people. He then handed us over to another tour guide that spoke very little English. This new tour guide took us and a bunch of other travelers to a Bar/Restaurant where we would then be reorganized and sent out with our excursion guides. All the people that went with us to the Bar/Restaurant were connected with their guides and left within minutes of arriving. We were there for about 45 minutes before we were connected with our excursion guide. From the time we left our hotel to the time we got on our snorkeling boat was just over 5 hours. Once we got on our snorkeling boat everything was excellent. The guide from San Pablo snorkeling excursions spoke good English and they were all very nice and helpful. The snorkeling was amazing! This part of the trip was definitely worth the horrible morning we had had. We saw starfish, sting rays, and all sorts of beautiful colorful tropical fish. Once we were done snorkeling at the reefs we went to El Cielo which was a shallow beach were there were sting rays that would swim right up to you. It was absolutely amazing! The water was crystal clear. They had alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, Ceviches, and fresh fruit. We spent about an hour and a half at this amazing place. We got back to Cozumel at around 4 were we could go to a restaurant and get our lunch that we had ordered earlier in the day. The fajitas and tacos were delicious. We had to catch the 7:00 Ferry back to Playa Del Carmen so we rented a buggy and drove to the other side of the Island and watched the beach to find beautiful shells, coral and rocks along the shore. We were told to be at the ferry terminal no later than 6:20 for the 7:00 ferry and we showed up at 6:30 and just made it in time. Another family that our tour guide was responsible for didn’t make it onto the 7:00 ferry so when we got to Playa Del Carmen we had to wait for about another 30-45 minutes for the other family. Our ride back to the hotel was in a very nice tour bus and we got back to our hotel around 10:00pm. For your information if you are on the far end of Cancuns hotel zone you are going to get back to your resort even later because you have to stop and drop off all the other people on the bus that went on excursions. It was a long day but definitely worth the experience.
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Posted On : 2024-04-07 10:29:11

Posted By : veritohc
Very nice experience. The best thing was being able to have a few beers on El Cielito beach. The guides were very patient in taking those of us who didn't know how to swim snorkeling. The only bad thing was that the photos they took of us snorkeling were very expensive.
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Posted On : 2024-03-17 13:26:02

Posted By : kjeckhardt
It was a nice but long day. Be prepared if you are leaving from the Playa Del Carmen area you will not get to your actual boat to be on the water until around 1045. If you do t speak Spanish then be prepared for less details. They were concise and helpful but not what I expected. We have much experience in snorkeling and diving but I was not impressed with the boat or the equipment. It was a standard dive boat which was fine but again not what I expected. The guides were very nice though. Be prepared for maybe 2.5 hours on the water and 4 in Cozumel. We did have fun but I would not do this again. Should have booked a catamaran.
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Posted On : 2024-03-13 11:27:17