One recent addition to the list of port adventures in Cozumel is Chichen Itza. It was not offered for our last two Western cruises in November '14 and '15 and I was excited to see it listed for our upcoming trip after Thanksgiving. The one huge disclaimer is that the transport takes 3 hours total each way and you, supposedly, only have 70 minutes at the actual site. Clearly, that's not going to work for most families, especially with younger kids. Still, for anyone seriously looking at the Tulum excursion, I would personally much rather go for Chichen Itza. We made the 3 hour drive from Cancun after our Fantasy cruise in '14 and, for adults with an interest in history, I would strongly recommend taking a closer look before writing it off. Chichen Itza is so special that it is a privilege to be able to experience it at all.
We are bringing a 9 year-old ourselves in November, and, because of that, and because we are bringing guests who have not cruised before, we will be going to XCaret again. We very much enjoyed our first visit: the park was beautiful and very well kept, there was lots to see for the whole family, and both the beach and the food were excellent. Last year, we rented a 10-person van in Cozumel for four hours. That was enough to get around the island, see the tequila factory, spend an hour at a really nice beach near the harbor, and be back at the ship by 1 pm.
In Grand Cayman, we will be doing a half day beach trip. We have done the turtle farm (no longer offered by
DCL) and the Native Forest + Hell in the past. Both were fine, but we've concluded that more than two full day port adventures is too much for a week. To be honest, the most memorable experience was the 15 minutes we spent at a beautiful spot along 7 mile beach.
Jamaica is our own favorite port. We've done Dolphin Cove+Dunn's River Falls and Rafting on the Martha Brae. The rafting was beautiful and peaceful and great because some of us had limited mobility. Dolphin Cove/Dunn's River is the best port adventure, we've ever had, and we'll be repeating it again this year. I decided against the bobsled after reading reviews on another site that the lines can get "unbearably" long on days when 4 ships are at port in Falmouth and Ocho Rios.
The photos below are from Chichen Itza. The bottom one shows a field that was used for some sort of ball game where you had to get the ball through circular loops extending from the walls. There was an acoustical echo effect that was pretty cool. Just a lot of really neat stuff to see there.