When I Ditched the Official Tour and Found Cozumel on My Own

I'll be honest: I almost made the mistake that costs cruisers thousands of dollars every year. Standing in the Destination Services office on the Celebrity Constellation, I watched the screen flash images of the "Cozumel Premium Snorkel Adventure" package—$89 per person, departing at 11 a.m., returning by 2 p.m. My husband Mike was already reaching for his wallet when I grabbed his arm and said, "Wait. Let me think about this for a second." We were on day three of our seven-day Caribbean cruise, and I'd already started noticing a pattern. The official shore excursions offered by Celebrity were convenient—I'll give them that—but they were also expensive and, from what I'd read online, rushed. People were spending $300-400 per family just to snorkel at the same reefs everyone else on the ship would see, herded along like cattle on a timeline that left no room for actually enjoying anything. That's when I had my "aha" moment. The Constellation had docked in Cozumel, one of the most tourist-friendly ports in the Caribbean, and I'd done my homework months before boarding. I knew the island had direct taxi access from the cruise terminal, English was widely spoken, and independent snork…