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 the lobby of our Azul Beach hotel. 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, and we arrived 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 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 didn't have any. The water shoes proved 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 lawn mowers) and seriously underpowered (with only one forward gear and one reverse gear).
Here is my GoPro 4 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 seemed like forever) through never-ending caverns of stalactites and stalagmites to an underground river where small single- or double-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 fitted with life jackets and swam in a cold underground river with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Despite the cold, it was fun to swim around and explore the underground caves.
We were unaware that there was a heavy rain shower above ground. Alex hurt his knee on one of the rocks and stumbled a bit afterward. The last cavern on our swim was a giant Cenote, with water cascading from 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 nearby El Troglodyte restaurant had freshly prepared entrees, and we enjoyed trying 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 were a bit shorter. The very last zip line is unique: it crosses a falling stream of water and ends 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 didn't complete all the attractions in the park, but we'll 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 by the time 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 it off, the safe in my hotel room, where I kept my ATM card, stopped working, so I needed the hotel's help to open it. It took a while to open the safe, and I was finally able to 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 the lobby of our Azul Beach hotel. 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, and we arrived 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 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 didn't have any. The water shoes proved 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 lawn mowers) and seriously underpowered (with only one forward gear and one reverse gear).
Here is my GoPro 4 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 seemed like forever) through never-ending caverns of stalactites and stalagmites to an underground river where small single- or double-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 fitted with life jackets and swam in a cold underground river with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Despite the cold, it was fun to swim around and explore the underground caves.
We were unaware that there was a heavy rain shower above ground. Alex hurt his knee on one of the rocks and stumbled a bit afterward. The last cavern on our swim was a giant Cenote, with water cascading from 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 nearby El Troglodyte restaurant had freshly prepared entrees, and we enjoyed trying 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 were a bit shorter. The very last zip line is unique: it crosses a falling stream of water and ends 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 didn't complete all the attractions in the park, but we'll 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 by the time 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 it off, the safe in my hotel room, where I kept my ATM card, stopped working, so I needed the hotel's help to open it. It took a while to open the safe, and I was finally able to 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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