Renting A Car in Cozumel: Not Enough Time

The first step in renting a car from a cruise that stops in Cozumel is
figuring out which of three ports your ship will be at. There's the
International Cruise Ship Pier, Punta Langosta, and Punta Maya, VERY
many miles apart.

I called NCL before my April cruise on the Majesty and after a lot of
back and forths, they said it was the International dock, and that we
would not require the use of tenders (ie we would be docked).

I had reserved a car with Executive Car Rental (I think that was the
name). The web site didn't require me to give a credit card, so there
was not much to risk. But their site said I had to pick the car up at
their downtown office. So I sent an email asking if I could pick it
up at this cruise ship location. They never replied, so I didn't hold
out much hope of having a car idling for me with the trunk open ;-)

When we got to Cozumel, guess what? We had to tender. So by the time
we finally got ashore at Punta Langosta, by the way, it was something
like 11:30am. And we needed to be back in line to get on board by
4pm. So we were looking at something like 4 hours (that, as opposed
to the 8 hours suggested by the itinerary supplied by NCL). I would
never have even considered a car unless 1) we are docked, and 2) the
rental car counter is within a mile of the port. I rented cars
everywhere in Hawaii and it worked out very well.

Anyway, we went through the mall (can't avoid it) and happened to see
an Executive car office. The $35 rate I had on the reservation for
the air conditioned car was dismissed with a wave of the hand and the
$79 Jeep was suggested (who knows what the real price would have been
once they got done). I didn't even want a car at that point (4 hours
isn't enough time), but if they were eager to honor my reservation, I
might have gone for it.

I got back on the ship without doing anything while the family took
the shuttle to the beach.

--Dale--

On 5/11/2008 2:03 PM sengsational plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger
and said:
The first step in renting a car from a cruise that stops in Cozumel is
figuring out which of three ports your ship will be at. There's the
International Cruise Ship Pier, Punta Langosta, and Punta Maya, VERY
many miles apart.

I called NCL before my April cruise on the Majesty and after a lot of
back and forths, they said it was the International dock, and that we
would not require the use of tenders (ie we would be docked).

I had reserved a car with Executive Car Rental (I think that was the
name). The web site didn't require me to give a credit card, so there
was not much to risk. But their site said I had to pick the car up at
their downtown office. So I sent an email asking if I could pick it
up at this cruise ship location. They never replied, so I didn't hold
out much hope of having a car idling for me with the trunk open ;-)

When we got to Cozumel, guess what? We had to tender. So by the time
we finally got ashore at Punta Langosta, by the way, it was something
like 11:30am. And we needed to be back in line to get on board by
4pm. So we were looking at something like 4 hours (that, as opposed
to the 8 hours suggested by the itinerary supplied by NCL). I would
never have even considered a car unless 1) we are docked, and 2) the
rental car counter is within a mile of the port. I rented cars
everywhere in Hawaii and it worked out very well.

Anyway, we went through the mall (can't avoid it) and happened to see
an Executive car office. The $35 rate I had on the reservation for
the air conditioned car was dismissed with a wave of the hand and the
$79 Jeep was suggested (who knows what the real price would have been
once they got done). I didn't even want a car at that point (4 hours
isn't enough time), but if they were eager to honor my reservation, I
might have gone for it.

I got back on the ship without doing anything while the family took
the shuttle to the beach.

--Dale--

I don't understand why you would want to rent a car on Cozumel. Taxi
cabs are very reasonable if you are good at arriving at a price before
you get into the cab.

At car rental agencies in Mexico, "We did not get the paperwork" is
classic. What you have to do is stand your ground. Insist that they
call the agency where you made the reservation or the home office where
there should be a record. If they are resistant to call, insist that
you have the use of their phone and YOU make the call. Sometimes that's
all it takes for the paperwork to suddenly materialize. If you are lucky
they'll be so flustered you'll get a free upgrade to a Jeep with A/C!

--
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Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951