The Good: The company offers flexibility if the weather isn't ideal for snorkelling at the underwater museum. The cost was VERY reasonable. The captain and guide were nice. The lunch was delicious.
The Just Okay: We felt rushed a lot of the time. The sculptures were underwhelming viewed from the surface. Communication could be better.
We booked a snorkelling tour of the underwater sculpture museum and the Manchones reef with this company, and chose the optional lunch add-on. On the day our tour was scheduled, we took a taxi from the south end of the island, where we were staying, to the north end where we were to meet our tour at Señor Frog at 10:30 a.m. However, when we met with Captain Lalo, he told us it was too windy for the museum that day and gave us the option to switch to another day. We had other days available and appreciated the option, so we changed our reservation to two days later. We very much appreciated the flexibility offered to us, but it would have been nice to have been notified of the weather issue before we had to taxi back and forth from the other end of the island.
On the rescheduled day, we went to the meeting place. There was some confusion about which captain/boat we'd be going with, and we were told two different names before being matched with a third captain. There were a dozen on our boat, and this seemed to be the same with all the tours. In fact, from what we could tell, it didn’t really matter which company one booked with, as everyone ended up on the same kind of boat going to the same places. Another couple we knew from our accommodation had booked with an entirely different, local provider and we saw them in the same set-up area and, later, at the same lunch spot.
However, we knew from our pre-trip research that Isla Fun Tours was one of the more reasonable options.
After a bit of a false start where we had to return to pick up more passengers, we stopped at the lighthouse to view the fish from the surface, and then moved a little way away to a shallow spot where we got out and snorkelled. There, we saw some fish and a statue of the Virgin Mary on the ocean bottom.
We climbed back on board and went down to the south end of the island to snorkel at the MUSA. There were fish and we also saw a ray on the bottom. There were just four groups of statues. Somehow, we had thought there would be more.
To be honest, I don’t think snorkelling is the best option for this section of the museum. Diving would be better, as the water over the sculptures is about 30 feet deep here. We knew this in advance, but had read that one could still get a good view of the sculptures by snorkelling here.However, I think it would be far better to snorkel at one of the other two museum areas, nearer Cancun, where the water is only 8 feet deep.
This isn't within the control of Isla Fun Tours, however, and it would be the same no matter which company one chooses. But if you are able to dive instead, that would be a better way to see this particular group of sculptures.
The boat took us to the reef next, and we snorkelled there for a few minutes. That was nice.
The boat then took us to Shark Bay for lunch. We had BBQ fish, rice, spaghetti, and salad. It was excellent.
I think this tour was good value for the cost, and Isla Fun Tours was a decent company to book with. They were flexible and reasonable. If this will be your only opportunity to snorkel at Isla Mujeres, it's a solid option. However, be aware that your views of the underwater sculptures will be somewhat limited.