We sailed out of New Orleans July 6-11, 2009 on the Carnival Fantasy.  Soon as you get off the ship in Progreso and get through the shopping area there you board the free bus ride to the town.  When you get off the bus walk 1/2 block-turn left and walk one block.  Ta Da!  The beach.  We rented a plastic beach lay down chair.  $2 each.  The first place has padded lay downs for $8.  We took the next place for $2.00 as we were only staying 3-4 hours.  Shopped for a massage. . .or should I say they shopped me.  Got a 30 min (she said 45 min) for $10.  It was good.  We opted not to do the Corona Beach Party for $39.00 per person.  Did not want to drink at 10:30am. 

Went for a swim in the water.  Refreshing.  Read other posts about the beach saying . .dirty. . .brown water.  No so.  The water is shallow and sand is light brown on the bottom.  Do go to the beach in Progreso.  Very nice time.

 Thanks for the review. We are not planning to do an excursion at Progresso as we plan to spend the first part of the day exploring the ship without our toddler (yay babysitting!!), but we are planning to get off the ship around noon and just go check out the beach and the shops and probably get massages as well. 

So the beaches at Progresso are free?  Just pay for chairs, etc.

If we snorkel off the beach and just take a beach blanket . . .  there would be no cost??

I ask this because I was reading another thread where folks were complaining about a $10.00 entrance fee to a beach in Cozemel.

 Correct.  Take a towel and walk to the beach from the bus stop.  If you see beach chairs, tables, palapa's that is a pay area.  Just walk to an open sand area and you can lay on the beach at no cost.  The sand bar from the beach runs about 59-60 yards out and then the water gets very blue and deeper.  Saw a few cruisers snorkeling out there. 

sounds great

Thanks for the info.  We are sailing out of Galveston 10/31 & NOLA 11/28 so we will do this beach at least on one of the trips, maybe both the price is right.

We 2 were on the same Cruise ! We love Progresso the shopping is much cheaper and the people and great ! We always get Massages But we get them at Corona . We dont do the Beach Party we tell all we want is a Massage . I always Bargain with them, this time we got 1hr Full body for 30.00 and we got the whole hr. it was great didnt want to leave . We also always take the 2.00 Bus Tour of the town just to see how things are changing it cool. Hope you have a Fun and relaxing Cruise . Back to Counting them days down !! 124. Then Looking at July 13, 2010 Alaskan Cruise  any IDEAS ya'll want to share !!

                                                            The Moffetts

Nov 29,2009 Conquest 7 Days  124 days left !

July 11,2009 Fantsay, Western Carr. 5 day

Jan  2,2009 RCCl Monarch of the Seas  4 day Bahamas

July 26,2008 Fantsay  , 5 day West carr.

Jan 27,2007 Granduer of the Sea 7 day Jamacia,

Dec 6,2007  Fantsay 4day West. Carr

Feb ,2006 Elation 5 day West. carr. Mardi Gras cruise

Sept , 2004 Conquest West carr. 7 days cut short because of Hurricane IKE !!!