Cozumel Cruise Tours — Local services in San Miguel de Cozumel

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS SNORKELING TOUR - condescending, rude family towards employees and also towards costumers!!!!!

We are from Arizona, we read all the posts and decided to give it a try. NOT WORTH IT:

1. when you book you will be asked to pay a deposit in dollars the rest is to be paid once you arrive at the Marina. NOWHERE IN THE WEBSITE SAYS YOU NEED TO PAY THE REMAINING MONEY IN CASH DOLLARS- if you pay with card doña Carla the owner will charge 6% extra to run your card.

2. once you book you will receive an email stating “ You will be meeting your private guide outside of the hotel at 9:15am because we been having issues meeting our guests, this will prevent any delays. I have attached your e-receipt, which has your reservation info, meeting point details which were described above, Carla’s phone number, and an image of Carla, so you know who you are looking for” Let me tell you Doña Carla would not ride in the van with you or pick you up as she only collects the money and ships you off not caring about your safety or well being. The picture they send is worthless as she doesn’t even look like the person in the picture.

3. pick up time by the email stated 9:15am it does not tell you the vehicle color or how to spot their tour car as they don’t have their cars labeled. I called Doña Carla at 9:17am she stated “ someone is going there right now to get you I’ll call back when I know who “ she didn’t call back - I called back at 9:30am she stated in a more posed off voice “yes yes someone is going there first to the hotel then will pick up the ferry people”

4. Old white Toyota Van arrived to pick us up at 9:45am the we stopped by Hooters and then by Ferry stop - at this point we had in the Van 9 people- the driver called Doña Carla asking “should I wait for more ferry people or go?” At this time it was already 10am( for a tour supposed to start by 9:30am) Driver headed to the marina.

5. at the Marina you are dropped off at an old house which is also a convenience store no AC - Doña Carla makes her appearance by wearing pearls, high heels, purse and a elegant dress - mind you we are by the beach lots of boats is warm she is definitely not dressed for island life but clearly to show off her power. The firsts words she says is “I’ll collect the rest of money cash dollars” We had to pay with credit card and a 6% extra was charged.

6. mistreating her Employees- while all groups are paying employees ask her questions and she would reply to them very rude, condescending and definitely not polite as a good boss/ owner she looks down on them- once the employee walks away she would make comments as “ these people don’t have brains they can’t think on their own, everything has to be run by me I’m tired of this” The owner doña Carla and her husband, also the daughter don’t hide the bad attitude and mistreatments towards the employees showcasing an egotistic attitude in front of all tourists.

7. they placed 15 tourists plus 2 captains in the boat. The boats are old. The two guys driving the boats tried to cheer us up and were nice enough despite the bad reception and no welcome attitude of owner Carla.

8. In the boats you visit 3 places palancar reef I barely saw fishes there, Columbia and cielito. You spend 20-30min at each site the rest of time is spent on the boat.

9. when you return there is a high level of disorganization. All tourists from the different tours trying to know which car will be taking them back. Doña Carla and her daughter were trying to count clearly they couldn’t count as they were sending 15 people in a van that fits 12-13 people making it unsafe for tourists.

10. my group was sent with doña Carla’s husband. He cursed in Spanish and threatened a guy in his property in Spanish “ no te quiero ver hijo de P%*A salte dr mi propiedad los que leí ten que se vayan a la ching%^$A” The old man was driving violently tailgating other cars and with a mean facial expression. The he cursed another person at the gas station. Not worth the time and money for this...

A week ago my family and I took the 'famous' snorkel tour from Cozumel cruise tours and I still have the bruise as a result of the poor safety procedures. When we got to our first stop it was incredibly windy, the boat was moving around alot, and the water was very choppy. Despite this we were all told to don our snorkel gear and jump in from the side of the boat. Speed was of the essence as the captain was struggling to hold the boat in position and the motors were of course running. We then proceeded to spend an excessive amount of time in the water, fighting the current and actually seeing very little. Who knew it was possible to get sea sick snorkelling!! I tried to ask one of the staff how long we were going to be in the water for as I was very tired and not feeling well at all, but unfortunately he had little English and I have little Spanish. When we were eventually told we could get back onboard, the chaos began. We were all told to hold onto the rope on the side of the boat, take off our flippers and climb up the ladder. Normally this would be no issue in calm waters. However the boat was moving so much because of the waves and current, it was impossible to do this. This created a panic situation as people, me included (see photo of my bruise one week on) were being hit by the boat as it moved, and the rope was not big enough for all of us to hold onto either. We did all eventually make it onto the boat, but it was very unsafe situation and many of us were feeling seasick (me included). So much so that when we got to the second stop, around 7 or 8 of us stayed on the boat as we all felt so unwell. This was a much calmer stop but my son and I just couldn't face going into the Sea again. Our third stop was shallow by the shore line, which was really enjoyable. The chaos and lack of safety did not stop there as when we returned to the shore we were left standing around for around 30 -40 minutes for the minibus to take us back to the cruise ship. When it did arrive there were not enough seats for everyone, but we were so late there was no other option but for us all to squash in. We met the tour guide at 10.30am and got back on the ship at 3.55pm, despite it being billed as a 4 hour tour. The ship was leaving at 4.30pm. I have been on some amazing snorkelling trips all over the world, and this was the worst by far. It was unsafe and I would not recommend it to anyone. The staff were lovely and they tried so hard to make it a fun experience by providing lots of beer, water and soft drinks but they should have recognised the bad weather and made alternate plans that did not endanger people's safety. The bruise I sustained was painful and an unsightly reminder throughout the rest of my holiday of...

Booked the Private Jeep Tour:

I will start by saying that we actually enjoyed the stops we went to, and the tour guide was nice enough. My issues were with lack of transparency and shady tendencies of this company.

Issue #1: To start, I had been in communication with Cozumel Cruise Tours for a while before our excursion to make sure we could have it scheduled the way we wanted. We were a group of 8 people and when I reserved, I asked for 3 Jeeps for us + 1 for the driver for a total of 4 jeeps. The company confirmed multiple times this was good with them. We arrived and the driver only had 2 jeeps and the tour guide would be driving one of them. This was a big letdown as we had three people really looking forwards to driving their own jeeps and only one person in the group could now do it.

Issue #2: This one really got me.... Its posted all over the website that this is a customizable tour and shows the optional stops we can choose to take. I even confirmed this in the conversations we had before I booked. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! The general stops it shows is the route you will take. Upon arrival we requested to add in only one stop, the Jade Caverns. They wanted us to pay extra money and change the other stops to incorporate this in.

Issue #3: All of the advertisements show open top and window down jeep wranglers, they showed up with on foreign branded jeep wrangler and a jeep patriot. The "Wrangler" had a top and some of the windows wouldn't roll down. The handles were broken so you had to use the exterior handles to open the door, and the radio did not work. The other Patriot is basically a rundown SUV. So do not expect the nice jeep wranglers with tops down and open air while touring.

Issue #4: They were quite late on the pickup. I actually expected this after reading other reviews. But still worth noting.

Worth noting: The lunch is extremely mediocre. You also have to bring cash to pay for drinks. The "ruins" you stop at are extremely small (2 small structures on the side of the road at Punta Sur). Punta Sur light house museum and beach were nice. Tequila Tasting was a great time. (We did not buy anything so we can not speak on the issues with them changing bottles upon purchases) Snorkeling was a great time. We never felt stressed about getting back to the ship on time. We never felt unsafe while on the excursion.

Overall, if we had any suggestions; the company really needs to be clearer about the services they...