Port Adventures Advice Pls: Cozumel & Costa Maya — the good, the bad, and the ugly

[texaskristi]

Having a hard time deciding on port adventures and would love to hear about what you’ve done! What did you love? What would you skip? Any and all info will be helpful!

Btw, We are a family of four: 48, 48, 20, and 16
Thank you!!

 

[Marc D]

I know this advice will result in limited options, but I would skip any excursion that involves taking the shuttle to main land. We took it twice, both times to go Xcaret. It is a wonderful full day visit. The river swim is one of our fondest memory. I would go back every time BUT…

It was really windy on our second visit. They had difficulty getting us onboard the shuttle. Once seated inside, we saw the attendants hand out trash bags while we were still docked. We soon understood why. It was moving so much out at sea that half the passengers got sick and started vomiting all around us after 2 minutes. Kids were crying. I NEVER get sea sick and even I had to focus on not throwing up. It was probably the longest 45 minutes of my entire life. The first time, only one kid was sick on the way there and was crying on the bus back to the shuttle because he knew he would be sick again. The second time, it was all people talked about during lunch and on the bus. We vowed that day never to take the shuttle again.

 

[dcassetta]

We have not been to Costa Maya. Our favorite thing to do in Cozumel is go to one of the beach clubs.

Nachi Cocum ( my favorite) Very quiet and relaxed. Nice beach and pool with plenty of loungers and shade, food and all drinks (alcohol too) included. Okay off-beach snorkeling (fee if you do not have your own). No water park. About $60 per person http://www.cozumelnachicocom.com/

Mr. Sanchos (my second favorite) Fun and active. Nice beach and pool area, not as shady near the beach as Nachi Cocum. Food and all drinks included. Ocean floating park for an additional fee per person. Add-ons like jet skis, parasailing and horseback riding are available. Okay off-beach snorkeling (fee if you do not have your own) About $55 per person http://www.mrsanchos.com/

Playa Mia (excellent reviews from friends) Fun and active, not as shady near beach as Nachi Cocum. Food and all drinks included. Pools, fresh-water water park and slides and an ocean floating park included. Also, non-motorized boats like kayaks and water bikes. Add-ons like jet skis and parasailing. Okay off-beach snorkeling (fee if you do not have your own) About $60 person https://www.playamia.com/

 

[roselj]

On Costa Maya, we did one of the ruins excursions with a 45-ish minute bus ride. The ruins themselves were interesting to see. That said, I would not recommend it. The total bus time ended up being longer than the actual sight seeing, and it was very boring. Usually there are all sorts of things to look at outside on a drive but in Costa Maya the road is flat with a fairly solid wall of brush growing up in both sides and not much else. The air conditioning was also not really working so it was pretty uncomfortable. In Costa Maya I’d pick something closer to the port. The area there looked beautiful.
In Cozumel we did a Dolphinaris encounter. It was supposed to include paddle boarding, kayaking, and other water activities but didn’t. That said, our day there was cut short due to a medical emergency that had our ship arriving 5 hours late, so they may have had to cut things out in order to to the excursion at all. The lunch they provided was rushed but good. Where they get you is pictures - you cannot take your own, and those they take are very expensive.

 

[ScrapHappy]

In Costa Maya a few months ago we did the excursion to the Chacchoben Mayan ruins. Like a previous poster said, the ride there isn't very interesting scenery-wise, however we did the small group excursion option so we were on a mini-bus (only 8 of us in the bus plus the driver and guide.) The guide we had was excellent - he spoke a lot about Mayan history and different facts about the area. Once there, we spent around 2 hours touring the ruins, and again our guide was excellent. If you opt for a tour to the ruins I would recommend a small-group tour to get the most out of the experience.

 

[kathi]

We are currently sitting on the beach at Nachi Cocom on Cozumel. Paradise.

 

[texaskristi]

I know this advice will result in limited options, but I would skip any excursion that involves taking the shuttle to main land. We took it twice, both times to go Xcaret. It is a wonderful full day visit. The river swim is one of our fondest memory. I would go back every time BUT…

It was really windy on our second visit. They had difficulty getting us onboard the shuttle. Once seated inside, we saw the attendants hand out trash bags while we were still docked. We soon understood why. It was moving so much out at sea that half the passengers got sick and started vomiting all around us after 2 minutes. Kids were crying. I NEVER get sea sick and even I had to focus on not throwing up. It was probably the longest 45 minutes of my entire life. The first time, only one kid was sick on the way there and was crying on the bus back to the shuttle because he knew he would be sick again. The second time, it was all people talked about during lunch and on the bus. We vowed that day never to take the shuttle again.

Is this like a boat shuttle? That sounds MISERABLE.

 

[Marc D]

Is this like a boat shuttle? That sounds MISERABLE.

Yes. Any Cozumel excursion that goes to Playa Del Carmen, like Tulum ruins, Xcaret, Xel-Ha and many more uses it. I will always stay on Cozumel Island when we dock there in the future.

 

[KashasMom]

We did the Chacchoben Ruins Tour with Native Choice and loved it!

On Cozumel we've gone to Paradise Beach a few times and loved it. Awesome pool/beach and great food. Not overwhelmingly crowded. One of the best excursions we've ever done (anywhere) is the Baby Sea Turtle Hatching Rescue and Release.

 

[Take The Stairs]

Having a hard time deciding on port adventures and would love to hear about what you’ve done! What did you love? What would you skip? Any and all info will be helpful!

Btw, We are a family of four: 48, 48, 20, and 16
Thank you!!

We had a fantastic time at Maya Chan Beach Resort.

best tacos of our life and fantastic service. The entire area has varying conditions as far as sea grass so just be aware.

 

[Take The Stairs]

Our best luck in Cozumel was a cab ride over to a local dive and snorkel hotel..We checked in to the Coral Princess Hotel and got a room for $100 got a lunch buffet $25. They have a full bar. We explored the large reef right off their dock. They have several dive/ snorkel trips out to reefs as well. Go early for best conditions. We used the room to shower and clean up before shopping a bit in town...

Having a hard time deciding on port adventures and would love to hear about what you’ve done! What did you love? What would you skip? Any and all info will be helpful!

Btw, We are a family of four: 48, 48, 20, and 16
Thank you!!

 

[2goofykiddos]

We did the ruins in Costa Maya. The bus ride was long but comfortable and we all took a nap. The ruins were gorgeous. The most upsetting thing to me was that some people wouldn’t/ didn’t wear their mask on the bus and, low and behold, I came home sick.

 

[Intr3pid]

A few threads on this topic. Here are my recommendations for Cozumel:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/cozumel-port-adventure-recommendations.3825166/post-62663048

 

[Keyser]

We've done two things in Cozumel. A while back we did the Dolphin Encounter at Chanakanaab. Two of us did it through Disney, two others took a cab there and did it on our own (much cheaper in the end). The groups were separate, but ran at basically the same time, and we were on our own there after the Dolphin time. It was easy to get back to the ship on our own (the two of us on the Disney excursion opted not to use the Disney transport back). Note that this would NOT be allowed under the current Covid protocols, though.

Last week we did the ruins/chocolate/beach break tour. We enjoyed it, and had picked it since it gave a wide variety of things that we had interest in. The ruins were interesting to see, and for those who haven't seen Mayan ruins, it's a pretty basic introduction to them. The beach break part (we were there 1.5 hours) was kind of short. The beach break was at Playa Mia (which was attached to the chocolate tour place, so if you went there, and really wanted the chocolate tour, you could do it). Note that during the current times, Disney mostly keeps your group together, so there was a section that was just for Disney people, and we couldn't use the water park area (since another group had used it). We were in the same beach area in the end as people who did the all-day excursion to Playa Mia.

 

[Lady_S]

Hi! Not sure if the PP @Keyser is still lurking, but we have a full-day excursion to Playa Mia planned for a February cruise. Are you saying the entire park won't be accessible to us during the excursion? From your description, it sounds like the park was segmented off for the Disney cruise with only a portion accessible. If that's the case, we might reconsider. TIA!

 

[Colo17]

Over Christmas our group did the Dolphinaris swim and the drive-youself speedboats in Cozumel even though all of us are vaccinated (we had a ton of onboard credit to spend). Both lots of fun. HOWEVER, any cruise line excursion is a "bubble." You meet in the theater, are escorted off the ship, through your tour and then back onto the ship. You CANNOT leave the group for shopping even if everyone is vaccinated. If you don't mind the time and annoyance of the bubble, book it. But you can get many tours in both ports through places like shoreexcursioneer or shoreexcursionsgroup cheaper, smaller groups, and avoid the hassle of the bubble. And you get to spend more time on excursions rather than wasting it being herded with a group.

In Coz you do dock downtown, so it is pretty easy to get back off the ship. Costa Maya has a longer pier but does have a tractor-driven shuttle.

Last time we went to Playa Mia (August, RCI) each group had their own area of the beach but nobody enforced where you went. They did want you to wear a mask in the dining pavilion.

 

[Colo17]

Figured I would add info about Costa Maya. Port was built by cruise lines in fairly sleepy town Mahahual. Now the town area is beach club after beach club. Surf and seaweeds can be bad, you won't know until you get there. If you don't want the wall to wall clubs, try Maya Chan. About 3 miles south of town and they provide taxi service both ways (you must walk out of the port to meet them). Quiet, with a reserved palapa for your group with loungers, chairs and often a hammock. Tiny pool. Great food and nonstop drinks. They can have the same problem with seaweed. They will call a return cab for you when you want to leave (and they pay for it). We were there in September right after they opened again (18 months without customers).

There is a small water park just west of port (within walking distance). Beyond that, there are the Bacalar 7 Colors Lagoon and several major ruins "nearby." That is defined as 1 hour each way by bus. First 45 minutes has one turn in the road, the rest dead straight. Chacchoben ruins are spectacular and can be done with a ship tour or independent. We went independent and had 6 people, a guide and a driver in our van. Mayan guide had worked on restoring the ruins and was excellent. Float trip in Lagoon area was also great, but it is 1/2 hour farther each way, mostly same road. After a few trips you get really tired of that road.

 

[nostkim8805]

We hit both of these ports during our Christmas cruise two weeks ago. For Cozumel, we booked outside of Port Adventures and booked at The Cabana Beach in Chankanaab. It used to be a Port Adventure option but wasn't available for our cruise. We had an incredible time there. We took a taxi for a short ride (15 minutes) to the beach. We had our own private cabana, and the club had it's own private beach area away from the rest of Chankanaab. It was $80 total for the cabana (plus $30 for wristbands for access to the rest of Chankanaab) and included towels, snorkel gear, and wifi. Food and drink are sold separately but we had someone who would take our order from the cabana and bring it to us and was very reasonably priced. We stayed as long as we could and if/when we go back to Cozumel, we would definitely book again. It was all of our family's (myself, my wife and 13 year old daughter) favorite day of the cruise.

 

[Keyser]

Hi! Not sure if the PP @Keyser is still lurking, but we have a full-day excursion to Playa Mia planned for a February cruise. Are you saying the entire park won't be accessible to us during the excursion? From your description, it sounds like the park was segmented off for the Disney cruise with only a portion accessible. If that's the case, we might reconsider. TIA!

That's basically correct, but as @Colo17 said, they're not really "guarding" the division lines.

I'll attach the picture from their website here to describe it (the club is bigger than this image makes it look):

So, the bus dropoff is at the top of that image. The upper right part of the image (with all the trees) is where the "Mayan Cacao Company" tour is. So, when we went, you walk down the area in the middle (with the small white canopies, and the main pavilion is on your left (large white canopy - middle right in image), and the waterpark area is on the right (middle left in image). We were told not to go to the water park since another cruise line was using it that day. Within the pavilion, they served food from the end farthest from the beach (the red-roofed building). The pavilion was divided into 3 sections by ropes (running vertically in the image) when we were there, and we were assigned to the one on the far right in the image - you could get drinks (our excursion gave us one ticket each, and you could buy more) and food (our excursion did not include food, but there was a buffet-style setup out that we could have bought). The other two sections of the pavilion were basically the same, and there wasn't any reason you'd want to go to another one. Our section was for more than just our excursion: it also included other Disney Wonder excursions (like the all day ones), and I don't know if it included ones from the Magic (which was in port with us that day!). Our section did not include the pool you see in the image.

The beach itself was also divided, and the roped off area in the water was divided - there was a clear section for "us". You could probably easily get around the ropes from one section of the beach to the next, but there wasn't really any reason you'd want to. Our section had a large floating play area/slide (probably half of what you see in the image) that you could swim to (beyond a certain point you were required to wear a life vest, and there was someone on a jet ski who was monitoring swimmers). There were also kayaks and large water tricycles you could use. The beach was not over-crowded - we were able to easily get loungers for all of us, and there was no trouble getting anything we needed.

So... long version is that I don't think you're missing much with the divided up club except the water park area/pool. For our excursion, we only had 90 minutes there and didn't miss it. If you were going there for the whole day, though, that would be a loss. Hope that helps!

 

[Lady_S]

@Keyser - you're amazing! Thanks for the detailed description. We are traveling with children so the water parks are the draw unfortunately. Our original cruise itinerary was supposed to stop at Castaway Cay. When they changed it to Cozumel, while disappointed, I was ok with it specifically because of the water parks/pool at Playa Mia for the kids. This is a lot to consider. Thank you again!