Isla Mujeres Plus by Albatros Catamarans

This trip was absolutely amazing! Gorgeous views, friendly, helpful and fun crew on the Marathon. Took us to several non tourist locations and gave us wonderful insight to the area. The food at the beach club was awesome and the staff was wonderful! I would recommend this trip to everyone!

It is a total scam and not worth the money that we spent. The snorkel was barely 20 minutes and they did not have enough equipment for every one on board. The boat was almost overloaded with people. And the ride was not comfortable. Before we boarded the boat they told us we would be back by six but then it turned to not be true. In Isla mujeres we only had 30 minutes and it was a tourist trap shop. Stay away.

We got aboard "Mar y Tierra" for their Plus tour. We contemplated an upgrade but are happy we saved our money and made the best of the ride. As many other reviews have noted, there is a big push to sell you everything from "ecological" sunblock, which isn't required or regulated along the beaches that share the same water , to towels "because this Caribbean water is so much more salty and can be damaging to your skin if it stays on you too long". Ya don't say... I found it comical as well as irritating that they'd insult our intelligence with their ploys. The sails weren't open on any of the boats we saw on the water. Instead, on our boat, there was a tattered, dingy white tarp haphazardly hung over the front of the vessel, which offered little shade. Speaking of dingy, the plastic cups and pitchers they used to serve you weak drinks (go for the beer instead) made the drinks even less appealing. While the personally were mostly friendly, the "MC's" audacious nature to put the tipping jar in your face as you exited the boat, was in poor taste and tacky. Only one in our group of four did the snorkeling where you're dropped off at point A and are using your every breath and strength to keep up with the one guide who is herding everyone over the statues to get to point B as soon as possible. The "MC" made a big effort to underscore how strong of a swimmer you needed to be. The push to have you swim across as fast as possible is why, not because it's particularly choppy nor dangerous. I think their warning deterred a lot of the people no our boat as only a small group got in the water. As they got back on the boat there was a notable concern to get their snorkeling equipment back and not so much on the safety of the people as they got back to their seat. The island... the first stop was SO MUCH BETTER than the last where you spend 2 hours deciding if you should wade in the NASTY, MUDDY, STINKY water along the shore or just sit outside and wait around for 2 hours to get back on the boat and back to the comforts of your resort/hotel. Needless to say, I DO NOT RECOMMEND this excursion to anyone. The "luxury" boats appeared packed to the brim and those passengers didn't look any happier than the ones on our boat.

After reading other reviews I would start by saying that Albatros needs to work closer with the tour companies selling their product to be sure guests are receiving all the right info. There were quite a few surprises when we arrived on the boat. (No 60 year olds allowed to snorkel!, you have to buy the golf cart from them, you can’t use your own sunscreen, ) There were a lot of rules to follow and a very strict itinerary. I don’t recommend this tour if anyone needs any shade or relief from the sun at any part of the day. Checkin was long and drawn out in the scorching heat. They tried to sell you a ton of crap while you waited in this line up. There were a lot of tickets and arm bands to organize. We actually left a ticket in our pocket and it got wet. When we tried to get on the bus at the end of the day they were actually not going to let us on even though we had the arm bands on. The boat ride was nice and we enjoyed the staff on Atlantis 1. They were very organized and knew how to move people quickly and efficiently. The snorkelling was pretty disappointing. We didn’t get to enjoy it as we were constantly being yelled at to stay together as there were many other boats around us. It was actually kind of scary. They should really consider their own snorkelling area. They really pushed the golf cart tour and we didn’t bite. They said things like “why do you want to stay on the beach for two hours? And if anyone tried to sell you a cart for less than $50, give me their name and I will report them for being dishonest”. When we got to town we priced them out and we would have been able to have one cheaper and not have to follow them around. The people who did do the tour did not have good things to say about it. The beach club was pretty bad. The food and drinks were fine and staff was nice. They were certainly fast with getting us drinks. But The beach beds were hard to get and shade was not great. We were forced to swim in murky gross water with a mushy bottom to cool Off a bit. We spent way too much time on this beach. It wasn’t fun. We were told that kayaking and paddle boarding would be included in the package from this beach club. It wasn’t. We were pretty bored here. We did get some cute pictures. The boat ride over to the town was fantastic. We certainly didn’t have enough time at this spot. We were rushing to walk around l, shop and chat. Our trip back on the catamaran was so much fun, probably because we had a lot more alcohol in our system by then. They had a good party going and stopped to let us jump off the boat. I’d say this was the highlight of the trip. There was a photographer selling photo packages of our day and his work was fantastic. He was a lot of fun. We didn’t buy it as it was pricey but we really liked what he did. Getting back to our resort was a nightmare. Huge lineups of busses with no way to know which one to get on. It really wasn’t safe to have a few hundred people (a few drunk) wandering around the parking lot and street. We had to just go to every single bus to ask if it was going to our resort. The trip back was long and tiring. We won’t do this again. We will definitely catch the ferry over and have our own time to enjoy the island and do what we want on our own time. I don’t feel like we got a good idea of what Isla Mujeres is all about because we spent too much time at the beach club and the snorkelling certainly wasn’t worth buying this package. We were told that if we wanted to leave the beach club earlier we would have to get a taxi on our own.

Most horrible experience with this agency. They totally ruined our trip. If you are 60 or older do not use them. We purchased our tour through an agency at the hotel. After checking in and spending a ridiculous $30 on sunblock because they would not let you use anything else that may contaminate the environment and literally Minutes before departure to Isla Mujeres the guide came to tell us that my husband and sister could not get in the water to snorkel because of their age. We had brought our own equipment and have been snorkeling extensively at other resorts. My husband was a competitive swimmer and neither have health issues. They said to get in the sailboat and they would talk to the captain; of course he was told not to let them get off the boat to snorkel. I snorkeled and it was pathetic at best, you have to swim for 20 minutes “against” the ocean current and follow the guide back to the boat (as he has repositioned himself. There are no colorful fish anywhere and the water is murky. The few reefs I saw looked like someone had carved them into shapes of hands. Really a waste of 20 minutes. Remember the save the environment comment? Well, they take you on a golf ride around the Island but they charge you for rental (didn’t tell you that up front) the carts are diesel driven. What happened to saving the environment? What a rip off the entire trip! I do not and will not ever recommend them to anyone