Theme Park Alternative to Disney

When people envision theme-park vacations, Disney is usually the first thought. It’s a rite of passage for countless families. But between the sky-high ticket prices, insanely long lines, and endless planning, it can be overwhelming, stressful, and flat-out cost-prohibitive for many. Time to consider theme park alternatives to Disney.

As someone who would rather visit a national park than a theme park, I was never excited about the idea of trying to figure out Fast Lanes, Genie Passes, and all the other insane ride-by-ride planning I heard other families discussing. But it still felt like something I should do with my 12-year-old son. I was thrilled when he thought the X-parks at Playa del Carmen sounded like a better vacation.

After our second day there, he declared, “These parks are so much better than Disney.” And he’s never been to Disney.

I couldn’t agree more.

Why Playa del Carmen Outshines Disney

Besides Besides being a more adventurous alternative to traditional theme parks, the Xcaret parks are a far better value. While the cost of Disney tickets varies based on the number of days, packages, and add-ons, it tends to average £120-£180 per person per day. We averaged under £100 per person per day, usually with food included. And that doesn’t account for kids’ discounts. Children under 5 are free, and prices for kids 5-11 are about a third less.  Hotels, food, and transportation are also significantly less expensive.

We went the week after Christmas, and the lines were minimal. There are tips and tricks to avoid lines, but we never waited for more than 20 minutes. And there was no need to schedule exactly what you are doing when or stress about running across the park to make your ride time.

The X-parks are much more than rides. They blend nature, culture, animal adventures, thrill rides, and entertainment in a way Disney can’t.

Overview of the Parks

Xplor

This park was hands-down our favorite. If you are remotely into outdoor adventure, this is the park for you. Forget spinning teacups and dancing bears, at Xplor, you can zip line into crystal-blue water in a cave, drive off-road amphibious vehicles over rocks and through mud puddles, paddle on rafts through caves filled with stalagmites and stalactites, swim under stalagmites in another cave, ride a hammock swing into the water, and more. If you are looking for a more traditional theme park ride, they also have one of the biggest water slides I have ever seen. 

The buffet lunch (included in your ticket) is huge, surprisingly good for buffet food, and has something for everyone (pizza, burgers, traditional Mexican, and more). There’s also a little snack bar with cookies and smoothies available all day (also included). Need a locker when you are bouncing between water and land activities? They are included too. No overpriced add-ons here like Disney.  

And if that doesn’t sound adventurous enough, there’s an Xplor Fuego option, where you can go to the park at night and everything is lit by fire.

Pro tips: Get there when the park opens and do the zip lines first. This ultimately becomes one of the longest lines in the park. There are two circuits, but they let you do both circuits and even do them more than once without having to stand in line to get gear again. The waterslide also had a long line, and we opted to wait and do that at the very end of the day.

Xcenotes

This one is not actually a park, but it is a tour offered through Xcaret. Cenotes are sinkholes created by underground rivers and are a must-see while in the Mayan Riviera. I researched renting a car to explore cenotes on our own for a day. Between rental car fees, extra insurance, and cenote admission fees, the tour was ultimately a better value and far better experience. We rappelled into a cenote, ziplined across another, kayaked in an above-ground cenote, and jumped, swam, and floated in them.

It’s an adventure we could have never replicated on our own. I was expecting a basic boxed sandwich lunch, but was pleasantly surprised to have a huge, delicious buffet, and snacks throughout. Xcaret did an amazing job building trails, dining, and bathroom facilities into the natural setting of each cenote.

And because it’s a well-managed tour, there was never more than a 5-10 minute wait for any of the adventures.

Xsenses

I have to admit, I probably would have skipped a park about optical illusions if the reviews weren’t so universally fabulous. Xsenses was a surprise hit. From the pueblo, where walking “up” a huge hill feels like you are walking downhill to the Xensatorium (which is meant to be a surprise, so I won’t spoil it), this park was so unique and fun. They also had a very well thought-out circuit that was mostly in an underground cave, which included a water slide, a Bird Flight zip-line, a mud river, a cave tunnel with showers to clean off the mud, and a section of cave converted into a sauna to dry off.   

This is pitched as a half-day park, so food is not included, but the snack bar had full meals for about £10. The seating area had cool optical illusions to fit with the park, the portions were huge, and food was surprisingly delicious (highly recommend the steak quesadilla).

Pro-Tip: You can easily do all the major attractions in a half-day, but they were so fun, we spent the whole day there and did most things twice. By late afternoon, all the half-day visitors were gone, so there were no lines. We went on the Bird-Flight zip-line three times in a row with zero line!

Xcaret

This is the “OG” of the Xcaret parks. It’s part adventure with underground rivers, part safari and aquarium, part history and culture with archaeological and cultural zones, and part pure entertainment with the “Xcaret México Espectacular”—a Broadway-caliber show highlighting Mexican culture.

While most parks are all-inclusive, Xcaret has multipe add-on adventure and animal interaction options, including a swim with the dolphins, stingrays, or sharks. These add-ons have the potential to push you up to Disney-level pricing, but you can have a fabulous, fun-filled day without them.If you are combining multiple parks in a package, most include Xcaret Plus with lunch and lockers. There are numerous buffet restaurants featuring cuisines from different parts of Mexico, but all have plenty of variety. We had a wonderful lunch watching jaguars roam in their habitat across from the restaurant.

Pro-tips: 

• If your kids really want to swim with animals, do the Royal Swim Plus tour before you go to Xcaret. £82 for kids to swim with dolphins, including a dorsal fin tow and foot push, plus a manatee and sea lion experience and lunch. This is the best deal I’ve seen anywhere for this kind of experience.
• Go to the underground river at Xcaret first. No lines in the morning.
• The food near the theatre for the evening show is more expensive than elsewhere in the park. Dinner is not included, so grab sandwiches or snacks before you head over there.
• The beginning of the show was the best part—amazing costumes, trapeze-like stunts, hockey with fireballs. Once they get to the Spanish singing from different regions of Mexico, it’s a bit less spectacular if you don’t speak Spanish. If the kids are tired, I wouldn’t feel bad about leaving a bit early, as you’ve already seen the best parts.

Xel-Ha

Xel-Ha is a natural water park with tons of snorkeling opportunities, water slides, zip lines. It looks amazing, but it’s farther from Playa del Carmen. There were so many water activities in the other parks, we opted to skip this one. You can’t do everything!

Where to Stay

The Maya Riviera encompasses the coastal area from Cancun to Tulum. There are all-inclusive beach resorts up and down the beach at various price points. Playa del Carmen is a very affordable, tourist-friendly town within the Mayan Riviera. I felt very safe in Playa del Carmen with my 12-year-old son, and I liked the idea of getting to choose where we ate and not feeling “stuck” at a resort. Plus, we were spending most of our time at the parks, where food was generally included, so the all-inclusive really didn’t make sense.You can save significantly and have a more authentic experience by staying at a small hotel or apartment in town. Depending on the time of year, well-rated boutique hotels within walking distance of the beach and downtown Playa del Carmen are as little as £40 per night, many with rooftop pools such as the Green Village Eco Boutique Hotel or Meliora by Bunik.

Transportation

If you are not doing an all-inclusive, you need to get to Playa del Carmen from the Cancun airport. Caribe Shuttle was £95 round-trip for two people.

Xcaret offers transportation to the parks as an add-on, but I’d strongly recommend against it. It’s more expensive than taxis, takes longer, and provides less flexibility on when you arrive and leave the parks. We wouldn’t have spent the full day at Xsenses with the transportation add-on, and likely would have spent an extra 30-45 minutes in a van dropping people off at their hotels.

Taxis were incredibly safe and easy to get. Hailing a taxi on the street (again, very safe) is much cheaper than going to an official taxi stand. We typically paid 150-200 pesos (£8-10USD) to get to the parks and 400 pesos to get back to town. Xcaret, Xplor, and Xsenses are all very close to each other, and there are always cabs available. The only option returning is an official taxi stand.

The Thrifty Gist

The X-Parks are an amazing alternative to a traditional Disney theme park vacation. The trip will be significantly less expensive with fewer lines and no need to plan out your day hour by hour. 

Top tips:

• Xcaret is always running promotions, especially for multi-park packages. Watch for promotions around Black Friday and other holidays.
• If you are staying in Playa del Carmen, taxis to the main parks are easy, safe, and cheap. 
• Boutique hotels in Playa del Carmen are very affordable relative to all-inclusive resorts.
• Best overall time to go taking into account prices, crowds and weather go late November–mid-December or late January–March.
• Avoid Christmas, New Year’s, Easter (Semana Santa), Spring Break (March–April), and July–August: as it is very busy, higher prices, long lines. Weather is still fine, but the experience is less relaxed.

If your family is thrifty and adventurous, go ahead and swap the Magic Kingdom for Mayan kingdoms. My son says it was the best trip we ever took.