We took the Chichen Itza Clasico tour from Play del Carmen to Chichen Itza. We booked it through cancun-discounts.com ($59 per adult). They did not say it was a Gray Line tour, but it was. We were picked up at the Gray Line stand in Playacar near our hotel, not directly form our hotel. We enjoyed it, but felt there was not enough time at the ruins. We were picked up near our hotel at 8:30 am (on time) and returned at 7:30 pm. We stopped at a few other hotels on the way. The bus was not full at all - around 20 people total. We went on a Thursday. The bus was air conditioned - not too hot or cold.

The ride was mostly through jungle area, but we got to view a couple small Mexican villages on the way.

The tour guide was on the bus with us. He was nice and funny. He spoke a lot on the bus about what we would see and do, though the volume wasn't loud enough for me to hear much.

Our first stop was at at Cenote Suytun for about an hour total. This was not listed on the itinerary online, but a pleasant surprise. It is an underground cave and pool. It was nice, the kids swam in it. They provided innertubes. It was 3-4 ft. deep at the deepest. No snorkelling gear needed - there were some catfish you could see in there. The water was too cold for me.

The next stop was at a way-overpriced tourist shopping area for about 30 minutes.

Then we stopped for lunch at some hotel (not the Mayaland). It was regional food and was good. Drinks were not provided free except if you bought the Plus tour. In fact, the only difference I saw with the Plus tour people on our bus is that they got free drinks at lunch, so I would not recommend the Plus tour.

Then we went to the ruins entrance at the Mayaland hotel. We hung out for about a half hour waiting to get our tour started. We were at the ruins site a total of about 2.5 hours, from 2 pm to 4:30 pm (not 4 hours as advertised) - .5 hours waiting, 1 hour tour, and 1 hour free time. The tour was good, but again hard to hear and moved very fast. He only toured a fraction of the grounds, and there was not enough free time to see the rest. We were steaming hot and used our free time to swim at the Mayaland pool. There was a lot of flea market type shopping within the ruins. Do your purchases there, not at the shops along the way or at the hotel. The prices are better and they negotiate.

The ruins were ok. It was probably too hot, with whiney kids, and a tight schedle to fully appreciate. We felt compelled to go since it is now one of the 7 Wonders of the World. I am not sure I fully recommend going. We had an enjoyable day - didn't mind the bus ride, as we talked and relaxed. We just didn't feel we fully experienced the ruins.

You can leave stuff on the bus through the day. If you plan to swim at the Mayaland hotel, you have to carry your stuff through the ruins, so pack lightly.

While in Cancun, we used Gray line to see Chichen Itza. They were timely in pick up and gave us some useful info but the light show at night is not for people with little kids.
Also, the tour guide was unfriendly to the english speaking tourists and often acted as if he was a professor with a very condescending attitude especially towards Americans. He says he is the only one for this tour from cancun for
the past one year, too bad. Also, the info about Chichen Itza was
mostly in Spanish with a few scattered english. I would not repeat this experience.