How much fun is the new Xplor adventure in Cancun? We were about to find out.
At 8:40 a.m., the Xplor van picked us up from our Azul Beach hotel lobby. From there, we drove to another hotel, waiting twenty minutes for other passengers to arrive. The driver almost left, but a Spanish-speaking couple showed up, and after a lot of negotiation and phone calls, they boarded the Xplor Park shuttle.
The drive to Xplor took another hour, with us arriving there around 10:10 a.m. Getting in an hour earlier would have worked much better. We were dropped off, given a wristband, and told to meet the van at 4:45 p.m. (right before park closing). In retrospect, this time was too early for us, as we only finished at 5:30 p.m.
We got in line for the park to get our helmets and locker keys. Helmets were required to be worn due to the hanging stalactites and stalagmites.
Checking in took us almost half an hour, as the entrance was crowded with long lines. We also pre-ordered our photographs and purchased a pair of water shoes for Alex, who lacked them. The water shoes turned out to be very important, as walking on the rocks barefoot would have been painful.
Once we changed and stowed all our gear in the assigned locker, we decided to try out the Amphibious vehicles since the lines to the famous zip lines were long. (There was a sign showing wait times for all of the attractions. Zip lines stayed perpetually RED).
The designated amphibious vehicles are John Deere mini-Jeeps. They were extremely loud (they could use better engine muffling as they sounded like bad lawnmowers) and seriously underpowered (with only one forward gear and one rear gear).
Here is my GoPro4 Silver video of our ride:
Nevertheless, I enjoyed driving these Jeeps, splashing through mud holes and dark caverns. Driving ATVs was much more fun at our previous Mystic River adventure, but these Jeeps were safer. Unfortunately, Alex was not allowed to go since he was underage (18 minimum). He probably enjoyed splashing through the creeks.
Our next activity was river rafting. We walked (it seems forever) through never-ending caverns of stalactites and stalagmites to an underground river on which small single or two-person rafts floated. Inna chose a single raft, and Alex and I shared a double raft.
We were given small hand paddles to propel the raft forward or backward, and we chose the 30-minute route to explore.
The passages were relatively narrow, and we had to watch our heads to avoid hitting hanging stalagmites. It was a bit boring, and we quickly grew bored with it. The paddle through the many caverns took a really long time.
After returning, we decided to skip the raft #1 route and switch to the river swim. Here, we were put on life jackets and swam in a cold, underground river with stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. Despite being cold, it was fun to swim around and explore all of the underground caves.
We were unaware that there was a heavy rain shower above ground. Alex hurt his knee on one of the rocks, stumbling a bit afterward. The last cavern on our swim was a giant Cenote, with water coming down on all sides.
It was a truly spectacular sight! We were completely wet and cold, so we stopped by the lockers for towels.
We decided to get lunch as we were cold and hungry (and it was past lunchtime). The El Troglodyte restaurant nearby had freshly prepared entrees, and we enjoyed trying out ceviche, salads, pizza, pasta, and countless other well-prepared dishes.
The freshness and quality of the prepared food were much better than in most American theme parks (including Disneyland).
After warming up with a hot mocha and hot chocolate, we tried the famous ziplines. We walked toward the entrance and stepped into a long line. Eventually, we put on harnesses and waited in another line to start the first zip line from Tower 1.
From there, we zipped to the next tower, sometimes singly and sometimes paired up. On some zip runs, Alex and I dashed in tandem; on other runs, Inna and Alex zipped together.
Some zip lines were very long, and others a bit shorter. The very last zip line is unique, as the lines cross a falling stream of water and end up in the underground river, right in the water. We got totally soaked on our last zip line run.
Since zip lines were very slow, we finished at 5:00 p.m. - right when the park closed and 15 minutes past our shuttle time. We could not complete all of the attractions in the park despite trying to be very efficient, but we hope to do better next time.
Here is a GoPro Hero4 Silver video of our ziplining adventure:
If we had to do it repeatedly, we could have skipped the river rafting and the amphibious vehicles and done more zip lines.
Our hotel shuttle was long gone when we finally returned to the park's exit. We had to scramble to find a taxi that takes credit cards. We finally secured one, but his credit card machine did not work. We went to our Azul Beach hotel and used the ATM there, which dispenses dollars - but the taxi driver wanted 700 pesos for the ride.
To top off the problems, my hotel room's safe, where I kept my ATM card, stopped working, so I needed the hotel's help to open it. It took a while to finally open the safe, and I could eventually withdraw cash to pay the taxi driver. It was all very vexing.
The lesson learned is to be prepared to take a taxi back and stay in hotels closer to the main attractions, such as Xel-Ha, Xcaret, and Xplor.
Positives
At 8:40 a.m., the Xplor van picked us up from our Azul Beach hotel lobby. From there, we drove to another hotel, waiting twenty minutes for other passengers to arrive. The driver almost left, but a Spanish-speaking couple showed up, and after a lot of negotiation and phone calls, they boarded the Xplor Park shuttle.
The drive to Xplor took another hour, with us arriving there around 10:10 a.m. Getting in an hour earlier would have worked much better. We were dropped off, given a wristband, and told to meet the van at 4:45 p.m. (right before park closing). In retrospect, this time was too early for us, as we only finished at 5:30 p.m.
We got in line for the park to get our helmets and locker keys. Helmets were required to be worn due to the hanging stalactites and stalagmites.
Checking in took us almost half an hour, as the entrance was crowded with long lines. We also pre-ordered our photographs and purchased a pair of water shoes for Alex, who lacked them. The water shoes turned out to be very important, as walking on the rocks barefoot would have been painful.
Once we changed and stowed all our gear in the assigned locker, we decided to try out the Amphibious vehicles since the lines to the famous zip lines were long. (There was a sign showing wait times for all of the attractions. Zip lines stayed perpetually RED).
The designated amphibious vehicles are John Deere mini-Jeeps. They were extremely loud (they could use better engine muffling as they sounded like bad lawnmowers) and seriously underpowered (with only one forward gear and one rear gear).
Here is my GoPro4 Silver video of our ride:
Nevertheless, I enjoyed driving these Jeeps, splashing through mud holes and dark caverns. Driving ATVs was much more fun at our previous Mystic River adventure, but these Jeeps were safer. Unfortunately, Alex was not allowed to go since he was underage (18 minimum). He probably enjoyed splashing through the creeks.
Our next activity was river rafting. We walked (it seems forever) through never-ending caverns of stalactites and stalagmites to an underground river on which small single or two-person rafts floated. Inna chose a single raft, and Alex and I shared a double raft.
We were given small hand paddles to propel the raft forward or backward, and we chose the 30-minute route to explore.
The passages were relatively narrow, and we had to watch our heads to avoid hitting hanging stalagmites. It was a bit boring, and we quickly grew bored with it. The paddle through the many caverns took a really long time.
After returning, we decided to skip the raft #1 route and switch to the river swim. Here, we were put on life jackets and swam in a cold, underground river with stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. Despite being cold, it was fun to swim around and explore all of the underground caves.
We were unaware that there was a heavy rain shower above ground. Alex hurt his knee on one of the rocks, stumbling a bit afterward. The last cavern on our swim was a giant Cenote, with water coming down on all sides.
It was a truly spectacular sight! We were completely wet and cold, so we stopped by the lockers for towels.
We decided to get lunch as we were cold and hungry (and it was past lunchtime). The El Troglodyte restaurant nearby had freshly prepared entrees, and we enjoyed trying out ceviche, salads, pizza, pasta, and countless other well-prepared dishes.
The freshness and quality of the prepared food were much better than in most American theme parks (including Disneyland).
After warming up with a hot mocha and hot chocolate, we tried the famous ziplines. We walked toward the entrance and stepped into a long line. Eventually, we put on harnesses and waited in another line to start the first zip line from Tower 1.
From there, we zipped to the next tower, sometimes singly and sometimes paired up. On some zip runs, Alex and I dashed in tandem; on other runs, Inna and Alex zipped together.
Some zip lines were very long, and others a bit shorter. The very last zip line is unique, as the lines cross a falling stream of water and end up in the underground river, right in the water. We got totally soaked on our last zip line run.
Since zip lines were very slow, we finished at 5:00 p.m. - right when the park closed and 15 minutes past our shuttle time. We could not complete all of the attractions in the park despite trying to be very efficient, but we hope to do better next time.
Here is a GoPro Hero4 Silver video of our ziplining adventure:
If we had to do it repeatedly, we could have skipped the river rafting and the amphibious vehicles and done more zip lines.
Our hotel shuttle was long gone when we finally returned to the park's exit. We had to scramble to find a taxi that takes credit cards. We finally secured one, but his credit card machine did not work. We went to our Azul Beach hotel and used the ATM there, which dispenses dollars - but the taxi driver wanted 700 pesos for the ride.
To top off the problems, my hotel room's safe, where I kept my ATM card, stopped working, so I needed the hotel's help to open it. It took a while to finally open the safe, and I could eventually withdraw cash to pay the taxi driver. It was all very vexing.
The lesson learned is to be prepared to take a taxi back and stay in hotels closer to the main attractions, such as Xel-Ha, Xcaret, and Xplor.
Xplor Report Card
Positives
- Fantastic ziplines (but with a very long wait)
- Amazing underground caverns with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere
- Swimming in the underground caverns (exiting in the large Cenote) is quite fun
- Excellent lunch buffet
- Most of the activities are underground (so Xplor can be fun even when it's raining outside)
- Amphibious vehicle driving is quite dull (and they are extremely slow and LOUD)
- Rafting in the little hand paddle rafts is not very exciting
- The photo package is expensive and takes photos randomly in places (many wrong photos)
- Long wait times for some activities (especially ziplines)
- Hotel Shuttle pick-up at 4:45 p.m. is too early when Xplor closes at 5:30 p.m. (we missed ours)
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