Carnival Ecstasy Cruise - September 6, 2022 - Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico

My morning started about 4:30 a.m. with someone pounding on the door of one of the cabins near us that went on for over 10 minutes but that wasn't going to deter me from enjoy our day in port.  Today had finally arrived.  This was the whole purpose of this trip - to visit Chichén Itzá.  We were scheduled to dock around 9:00 a.m. and were supposed to meet our tour on the pier by 9:15 a.m. so we headed up to breakfast shortly after 7:00 a.m.

On our way to breakfast, we discovered that towel animals had taken over the pool area!

They had an omelet station and small breakfast buffet on the pool deck between Guy's Burger and Blue Iguana.

We then checked out the area above the bridge to see our progress on arriving and a male magnificent frigatebird flew right past me - it was such an amazing experience to see him up close!

We wanted to be ready to go so we didn't stay to watch docking but had a great view of it from our porthole windows!

Having a cabin located on deck 5 and being in the forward where the first gangway would open, was a huge advantage.  We were one of the first ones off the ship and quickly found our group which turned out to be a group of only 24.

We boarded an air conditioned Mercedes bus and had about a 2.25 hour ride to the site.  Shortly before we arrived there, we stopped at a tourist stop for bathroom breaks, souvenir shopping, and to pick up bag lunches to eat on the bus quickly before arriving at the site.

It was hot and humid but that is expected.  As our guide said, they really have only two weather scenarios - hot and very hot!  Here is a video of our time on the site followed by some photos.

El Castillo or the Pyramid of Kukulkan (it's 30 meters tall)

Temple of the Warriors

Platform of Venus

Temple of the Jaguars

Ball Court

We had over 1.5 hours at the site which was really a great amount of time and then it was back on the bus for another 2.5 hour ride back to the port.  Our excursion was scheduled for essentially the time in port and we were running a few minutes late so as we rushed through the cruise port, all the shops were closing, and people were up on deck watching for the pier runners (just as we had done the day before).  The benefit though to booking an excursion through the cruise line is that they wait for you and you won't have the captain blowing the horn impatiently!

After a shower, we headed to dinner and were lucky to be seated at a private table again in the same section as the great servers we had the day before.  They remembered me and my special order and were quick to bring me olive oil and balsamic vinegar for my tasty warm bread.

After dinner we watched the sunset from the Serenity area in the aft.