stancohee

My wife and family are going on the Carnival Fascination cruise from Miami to Key West and Cozumel. Our children are 15, 19, 21. We like to snorkel and enjoy adventures. We are looking for advice or recommendations for excurisions, and any comments on this cruise? Thank you!!

LLindaC

If you like to snorkel, I suggest going on your own to Chankanaab Park in Cozumel. You can rent equipment there. The fish are awesome there! Some people took the shop's snorkeling excursion and they didn't like the reef.

Theresa

Hi,

I also recommend Chankanaab Park in Cozumel. It is about a $10 cab ride to the park and a $10 admission into the park. I have some pictures of the park here but unfortunately I didn't get many of the beach. There were some jelly fish in the water (first I have seen in Cozumel when they were so bad that people were not swimming) and people were not swimming/snorkeling that day so I took few pictures of the beach:

http://homepage.mac.com/tlassek/PhotoAlbum12.html

Chankanaab Park has a little bit for everyone - it has the dolphin swim (about $100 pp), sea lion exhibit, park area with ruin type artafacts, beach, etc. . We really enjoyed our day there (except the jelly fish).

Chankanaab Park was very beautiful and clean - sort of a hidden treasure in Mexico. Will definitely go there again.

cruisin_tigger

Sailed the Fascination last August. We had a great time. Ship is older, but someone was always cleaning, polishing, etc.

24 hour pizza is really good.

Agree with previous posters - don't bother with ship's excursion, just grab a cab to Chankanaab Park yourself. You can easily spend a whole day there. If you shop in Cozumel, make sure you bargain! The shops right at the dock don't bargain, but along the main street in town we were able to always get the price lowered.

Key West is a fun place. You dock at the Navy base, and have to get bussed into town, actually its a trolley, because you are not allowed to walk through the base. Trolley drops you off right at Mallory Square and everything is within walking distance - tons of shopping and eating places. Key West is a really fun place.

Enjoy!

triathlete

This trip is a great deal--inexpensive, and usually a very fun crowd. I like the Fantasy class ships a lot. (Don't miss the 5-head showers in the gym!).

I was unimpressed with the snorkeling at Chanknaab, but I have been spoiled by Aruba and Hawaii. It is easy to get to, and I think they have a dolphin swim there too (though you would want to sign-up in advance).

I wouldn't discourage you from taking the catamaran snorkel charters (Fury)--just hanging out on the boat can be a lot of fun.

You can do the ruins at Tulum on this trip, though it's a real all-day event. This is one excursion I would recommend that you book through the line if you go--with the ferry schedules, it would be easy to miss the boat.

Key West is nice, though you're not there for all that long. Hemingway's house was neat, especially if you like cats.

If Sonny is still playing at the piano bar, he's a lot of fun.

Cheers!