Day of the week for Isla Muejeres Whale Shark trip?

[silvernotch]

We are in talks with BA to do this during our honeymoon but need to pick which day of the week to go. Is there a better day to do this? Are there particular days that may get busier than others? I don't know if the cruise ships come in on a particular day or if cruise shippers would even have enough time to do the trip. We'll be down on Monday July 15th leaving on Thurs the 26th. My fiance's birthday is the 20th but I wonder if the trip would wipe us out for the whole day.

Thanks!

 

[DandyDon]

BA, Blue Angel? I think the cruise barges are there everyday except Sunday, but none of them allow enough time for that kind of trip. They like to get their hostages back onboard as soon as possible to spend more there.

Yeah, by the time you taxi to the ferry, wait for the next one, ferry over, van to the Isla Mujeres ferry, etc. then do a decent whale shark snorkeling trip, then back track - you'll be wasted, unless you are in fantastic shape for endurance. Otherwise, pick any day and enjoy the outing as it is a fantastic experience. I don't think I'd go on a Sunday tho.

 

[DjDiverDan]

I did this trip from Cozumel in July, 2011, and I can tell you that the one-day trip from Coz WILL wipe you completely out. You start by catching a very early Ferry to Playa Del Carmen - 6:00 a.m.. Then, you get on a Van at PDC, which drives around picking up other passengers from surrounding Resorts and heads up to the Port north of Cancun - about an hour and a half sitting in the Van. When we got to the Port, we ended up sitting around for about another hour waiting for everyone on our boat to get there. Finally took off for the Whale Shark feeding grounds, and it was a long and kind of rough boat ride - over an hour, with a lot of bouncing around. Snorkeling with the Whale Sharks was a blast, but it was NOT for the casual or out-of-shape snorkeler - you had to constantly kick and kick hard to keep up with those magnificent beasts. I was physically spent. After a couple of hours of that, we went to Isla Mujeres where we could snorkel in a Lagoon off of a Beach Area, had a lunch with fresh made Ceviche, and generally kicked back. July is HOT, so I spent as much time in the Water as I could. Finally back to the Port, another long Van ride back to PDC, wait for the next Ferry back to Coz. I didn't get back to Coz until close to 7:00 that evening, and I was too tired to even go out to dinner, and was sore and wiped out the next day. I highly recommend the Whale Shark trip, but I would make it at least a two-day trip - either go up to Isla Mujeres the day before, or stay over on Isla Mujeres after the Whale Shark excursion. The other alternative is to use MayaAir to fly from Cozumel to Cancun & back - that really shortens the Ferry-Van ride, but is more expensive.

 

[silvernotch]

I did this trip from Cozumel in July, 2011, and I can tell you that the one-day trip from Coz WILL wipe you completely out. You start by catching a very early Ferry to Playa Del Carmen - 6:00 a.m.. Then, you get on a Van at PDC, which drives around picking up other passengers from surrounding Resorts and heads up to the Port north of Cancun - about an hour and a half sitting in the Van. When we got to the Port, we ended up sitting around for about another hour waiting for everyone on our boat to get there. Finally took off for the Whale Shark feeding grounds, and it was a long and kind of rough boat ride - over an hour, with a lot of bouncing around. Snorkeling with the Whale Sharks was a blast, but it was NOT for the casual or out-of-shape snorkeler - you had to constantly kick and kick hard to keep up with those magnificent beasts. I was physically spent. After a couple of hours of that, we went to Isla Mujeres where we could snorkel in a Lagoon off of a Beach Area, had a lunch with fresh made Ceviche, and generally kicked back. July is HOT, so I spent as much time in the Water as I could. Finally back to the Port, another long Van ride back to PDC, wait for the next Ferry back to Coz. I didn't get back to Coz until close to 7:00 that evening, and I was too tired to even go out to dinner, and was sore and wiped out the next day. I highly recommend the Whale Shark trip, but I would make it at least a two-day trip - either go up to Isla Mujeres the day before, or stay over on Isla Mujeres after the Whale Shark excursion. The other alternative is to use MayaAir to fly from Cozumel to Cancun & back - that really shortens the Ferry-Van ride, but is more expensive.

Thanks for all the info. Do you think it would be worth it to take off the next from doing boat diving and maybe just sleep in and do some shore diving? And yes we are staying at Blue Angel

 

[Christi]

There is no better day of the week to go. It definitely is an ALL DAY trip - you'll go over on the 6am ferry and most likely come back on 6pm or later ferry. As far as taking the next day off - totally up to you - or maybe schedule yourself on the later boat that Blue Angel sends put - they have an 11:00am boat each day - so that's a good option. You can still sleep in AND get some great dives in!

 

[silvernotch]

There is no better day of the week to go. It definitely is an ALL DAY trip - you'll go over on the 6am ferry and most likely come back on 6pm or later ferry. As far as taking the next day off - totally up to you - or maybe schedule yourself on the later boat that Blue Angel sends put - they have an 11:00am boat each day - so that's a good option. You can still sleep in AND get some great dives in!

Completely forgot about the later boat. Thanks for reminding me!

 

[marcus8]

Yeah, by the time you taxi to the ferry, wait for the next one, ferry over, van to the Isla Mujeres ferry, etc. then do a decent whale shark snorkeling trip, then back track - you'll be wasted, unless you are in fantastic shape for endurance. Otherwise, pick any day and enjoy the outing as it is a fantastic experience. I don't think I'd go on a Sunday tho.

Why not Sunday Don? I'm doing something similar in early August and seriously considering a Sunday since there will be no cruise ships and the East side is swamped. Plus we'd be back just in time for the music in the square. Just curious....

 

[Christi]

Cruise ships really have no effect on the whale shark tours - they don't have enough time in port to do them - if they do them, they are scheduling them when they are in port on the mainland and they have their own private tours - has no effect. Summer is slow for ships anyway - so don't understand why people are so concerned about them.

 

[DandyDon]

Why not Sunday Don? I'm doing something similar in early August and seriously considering a Sunday since there will be no cruise ships and the East side is swamped. Plus we'd be back just in time for the music in the square. Just curious....

East side swamped...??

I don't think the cruise barges have anything to do with a choice since pod people aren't likely to be on the ferry and certainly not on the 12+ hour trip.

I am under the impression that a few things are not as available on Sundays, but I could be mistaken. Still, as described above, it is an exhausting day for most. If you eat supper in PDC, you'll want to go straight from the ferry to your shower, then bed. If not, the cafe across the street from the ferry dock on Coz is nice, but after supper, I doubt you'll feel up to doing anything but shower and bed.

I know people do these day trips ever summer, but they are demanding. When asked how I would do whale sharks, I encourage friends to make the ferry a one-way trip, stay close to the pickup dock, do two days of snorkeling with the dominoes, then fly back from Cancun.

 

[DjDiverDan]

I don't know if this even needs mentioning, but many people get a very misleading mental image when they first hear about snorkeling with the Whale Sharks. To them, snorkeling is that relaxing pastime of paddling about on top of the calm water over a reef, with virtually unlimited visibility (at least on Cozumel). Snorkeling with the Whale Sharks is VERY different. First, the very reason that the Whale Sharks congregate in such great numbers is to feed, and since they feed on very small creatures in the water, their feeding grounds have a LOT of such creatures. Meaning that the water is a lot murkier, and visibility a lot more limited, than what you see on the reefs at Cozumel. This means that you can't just watch the Whale Sharks from 20 or 30 or 50 feet away - when visibility is only 6-8 feet, that's how close you have to get to get a good look. Second, you are out in open water, meaning more wave action and choppiness than you'd ever see on a reef (unless you like to snorkel through tropical storms!). Third, the Whale Sharks are constantly moving - they are not going to come up to you and let you casually swim around them. If you want to get up close to see them, you are going to have to swim, and swim hard. It's a real athletic endurance event, and 15 or 20 minutes in the water with them is more of an aerobic workout than most folks get in a week (in my case, more than I get in 6 months!). Do that 3 times in the course of 2-3 hours, and you'll know that you had some hard exercise. Whether or not you are going to be completely wiped out the next day depends a lot on your age and conditioning, and whether or not you swim hard all the time or just float after a while, hoping that a Whale shark will come to you. If you are young, in good physical condition, and regularly engage in endurance training, you'll be fine. If, like me, you are old, fat and sedentary, count on needing the whole next day to recover.