21 Feb 2022
Not quite as described, but still a wonderful trip!
Pickup from the hotel was at 6:30am and we got back around 5:30pm, so it was definitely more than 9 hours. Breakfast on board was bananas and cookies in individual packages.
The Chichen Itza tour was wonderful! My teenagers and I learned so much from our guide, Hebi. He was with us for the full 2.5 hours at Chichen Itza. We had to choose between 20 minutes of free time to explore the vendors' offerings or a walk up to see the cenote.
After we left, we were taken for lunch at a restaurant which was included in the price of the tour. We had to buy our own drinks. This was unexpected for us, so I was unprepared with cash in hand for tipping. Lunch was a quarter of a roasted chicken with some veggies and chicken tortilla soup. Not fantastic, but it was food. We were entertained by a mariachi band and Mexican dancers while we ate. They expected tips as well as the waitstaff.
The restaurant was at the back of a gift shop, so we were given plenty of time to eat and then shop. It was obvious that the family's home was on the property and that this was their livelihood. I'm very understanding that the pandemic has taken its toll on the tourist economy of the Yucatan, but for both of the excursions we took, we had unexpected "shopping" pushed our way. If we would have had the boxed lunch that we expected, we wouldn't have been 2 hours longer in this trip than we expected.