mexico- how should i approach my trip to ExCaret?

You can go to their website, XCARET.COM. I believe it's open from 8:30am - 9:30pm and you will not have the time see and do all the free activities included with the price. Make sure you get there early, you will need to make good use of your time. It is very big and be prepared to do a lot of walking. I would not recommend for you to do the swimming with the dolphins there as this xtra and takes up a lot of your time. You can do that somewhere else. I have been there several times and have opted with meals included. It is way better if you rent a car and drive there yourself. You cannot get lost, basically there is only one road and there are a lot of signs you will not get lost. Although, we were one of the last ones to leave, I always felt save. At night the parking is a bit dark and jungle looking it can be a little scary if you are the last ones like we were, but we had 3 cars. On another occasion we did a tour group and regreted as we lost so much time. We had to pick up all these people from other hotels and then we had to be back on the bus early. Make sure you attend the night show it's called "XCaret Mexico Espectacular", it is a bit long but you must experience it at least once. You can also look up Xelha.com it is a natural wonder is is not to be missed if you go make sure you do all inclusive your best bet. You will mostly be in the water most of the time and do a lot of snorkling, but it is beautiful! If you have to just pick one make sure you go to XCARET, they have so much more to do. We always go to those 2 places. Have a great time, we will be going in August.

yeah, the answer above pretty much covers everything you need to know...although in my opinion snokeling the caves was a waste of time. They are man made not natural, really long and boring, and there were no fish to see and I felt like the water was nasty dirty with floating human bacteria. There is natural ocean snorkeling there that is AMAZING...just stick to this as far as snorkeling goes. Also if they ask you if you want fresh squeezed juice there then be careful because I swear they just puree an apple- peal and all and expect it to taste good...that was weird and even though I didn't drink it I still had to pay for it. I guess there is a difference between "nectar" and juice "jugo"...specify unless you are happy with soda.