Chicen Itza Chance?

It is your own choice.

However, as several of our very experienced members have mentioned, Taking a non-cruise line sponsored excursion is risky at best.

IF the trip is a ship excursion, the ship will wait. its a nine hour excursion., which is coach & ferry. I wouldn't recommend doing privately unless your flying there and back Too Risky.

Good advice re booking outside the cruise line to save a few bucks on your otherwise big ticket cruise. What could go wrong?? One wonders what percentage of cruisers could even explain what a "port agent" is, and how to reach him...after all, standing around in your skivvies,no $$ to speak of, your wife and assorted rugrats VERY upset, etc etc...no ship, mebbe no speeek eeeenglish.....everything you brought is somewhere over the rainbow...errr...horizon....

Gotta ask. Since your cruise is completed, what did you decide to do regarding the excursion?? Hopefully, you are NOT still swimming

Be wary wary careful when you try to save money on those Excursions that are not thru the cruise line. I have done some over the years but usually I leave as soon as we dock and they are planning on returning at least 4 hrs before the ship leaves. This gives the excursion operator sometime to get us back should something happen.

I did a Excursion once on the other side of Curaco Island from the Port, the bus broke down literally on the highway (two lane) and we were almost to the other side of the Island. The Operator sent another tour bus and a tow truck, the bus arrived first and we traveled on to our destination...the backup on the highway was over 3 miles long getting around our broken bus. I also went from Cozumel to some Aztec ruins once and the tour bus took almost 2 hrs one way through Mexico... I think it makes more sense to pay extra in these situations.

I recently was in Uruguay and took an early morning excursion that got back 3 hrs early, so i headed into the city of Montevideo on seach for souvenirs and photos...I made one mistake as we hurried off the ship early in the morning since we docked 1/2 hr late.. I returned at 4pm but was unaware that the ship all aboard was 330pm...the ship waited for me but was within minutes of pulling the ropes...luckily I was not left behind...will never know if my earlier excursion might have delayed the ship leaving me while they attempted to determine that the excursion returned me to the port?

Always take a photo of the Port Information in the daily planner before you debark and note the all aboard time posted at the security station as you debark and maybe put an alert on your phone 30 minutes before that time. If for any reason your not able to return in time you have the contact information of the port agent and could contact them and tell them your situation. They may be able to accomodate your situation, but you will never know if you unable to contact the ship...this is the only person you can reach to get word to the Ship. See you at Sea!!!

I did the excursion on Carnival Freedom a couple years ago. It was a Carnival booked excursion. It takes you all day as it is a long drive. Coming back we encountered a storm, yes a storm in Progresso (where we were docked). Lightning was dancing all around the ship, so ship told our bus to lay low for a while. We were an hour and a half late to the ship, but the ship waited for us as it was a Carnival excursion. No pier running for us

My thoughts exactly!

Each to their own, but I know I could not chance something like that. It would worry me the entire excursion and a vacation is to relax and enjoy ... not worry about making the ship. To me, some excursions are good through a third party but any excursion that would have tight timelines would have to be booked through the cruise line.