DAY 5: COSTA MAYA, MEXICO   8-5PM

We've been here many times and was looking for something new to do. At first I booked an excursion going to Blue Lagoon. It looked like such a beautiful place and had kayaking and so on. It's also called 7 color lagoon because of the various beautiful colors you will find there. However, I decided to let Sakari pick what she wanted to do. After all, it's all about the kids and their enjoyment while on vacation and I want her to have wonderful memories to look back on when I'm gone.

So, she decided she wanted to go to Maya Lost Maya Kingdom right there close to the port...the water park they built a few years ago. Since she has turned into this daredevil lately, she wanted to go for the zip lines and water slides. She promised that she would "do them all". Yea...we'll see about that once she see's just how big and tall they are in person. It's pretty expensive there but hey...whatever makes her happy and has a memorable time I guess.

I booked the excursion using NCL. It's the same price as if you pay at the doors so I figured why not. The cost is $99 per adult and $89 for a child. So, a total of $287 worth of fun was thrown out of my pocket for the day. Since it was so close to the port, I knew we would have very little time lost in getting there and back from the port (unlike the Blue Lagoon, which was over an hour drive each way). So, we'd at least get to make the most of our time there and get our monies worth...even if it involved her chickening out and just using it as a pool and lazy river day. Now for some reason when I booked with NCL, the total cost ended up being $267.20. Loving a discount, even if it's only $19.80.

We scoured the internet looking at pictures and videos of the place (and their official website) and the more I looked, the more I was glad we booked this place. It looked really cool and I knew we were going to have a good time. As the months went by, it was all Sakari could talk about. She asked every day on the cruise "is this the day we get to go to the water park and zip lining?" Well...the day was finally here that I could tell her "YES!"

I know a lot of people on these boards don't like the place because it's not your "true authentic" idea of visiting a port and what Costa Maya is like. It's a commercialized place and not the "real deal". But, that's ok. It's our vacation and it's what would make our daughter happy, then I'm going to do it. We've been to plenty of places in Costa Maya including Blue Kay several times (my favorite but has been changing over the years), Nohoch Kay (which I honestly didn't care for even though many enjoy it here on the boards), Maya Chan (popular with the boards and the food and place is amazing...but I don't care for the brown murky looking water) and Almaplena (gorgeous beach and water but didn't care for the food we had). To me, the Malecon is the Malecon no matter where you go...and I honestly don't care for the Malecon other than Blue Kay and I feel that it has run it's course with us now. So....off to do something new and exciting...even if it's commercialized. 🙂

Even though there wasn't really a "set time" to get up and get there, we got up as early as we could and hit the breakfast line.

Pulling into port... 

We were in port with Liberty OTS and Carnival Breeze (my favorite of Carnival but Horizon is too). It would be the first time we have ever been in port with other ships (that I can remember, but I may be wrong) and we got the closest parking spot this time around too. Woo hoo! LOL

The port at Costa Maya is a beautiful port. They have done so many changes since we first start going there and the entire port has been revamped several years ago. I just love this port and the decor. It's probably my favorite as far as the way it looks.

This was new since last time...it would be cool if they did that all the way down the pier.

The beach at the port. Everyone is always asking about it and I've never really taken a good look at it. I know it's not much and very little space for anyone and it's also not a "beach" exactly nor can you go into the water. But here's a picture of the area (I have more on the way back to port that day).

Now this port is very aggravating when it comes to trying to get out of it. You used to just walk down, in front of the buildings, all the way to the end and go out. Now you are twisting and turning and it goes back and forth and along the waterfront and every building in the port before being able to get out. I hate it. They really want you to go by everything and buy "stuff". You have every person asking you to come in and buy things and every restaurant trying to guide you in to be seated to eat. I just kept saying "Do you realize we all just ate breakfast?????" Geesh!

But we finally made it out...

Click the following tab to see our day in Costa Maya

On our way back to the port...

Sakari says "Look...it's smiling at us" 

(Do you see it?)

I guess you can rent bikes at the port...it would be easy to ride over to the malecon I would think...

Pictures at the port...(if you want more, you can always look at previous reviews of Costa Maya. I took a lot of pictures previously so didn't this time).

Here is the dolphin area. I feel so bad that these dolphins are kept in such a small place. I can't believe with their skills and instincts that they don't just jump the wall for freedom. 🤷‍♀️

The small beach area at the port

And then outside the port

The moon was out already

Once we got back on board...I bet you can't guess what we did...

Sakari just can't get enough of the water. Her and her friend Daniel playing in the pool.

We did run into Daniel once at the water park but never seen him again. I was shocked that they didn't meet up and go on the water slides and zip lining together. These 2 were pretty much inseparable during the entire cruise.

After awhile, we all (me, Sakari and Daniel) decided to take on the water slides. I figured there wasn't too much of a chance for me to get hurt on those and if I did, it wouldn't last too long because these are baby slides compared to the ones at the water park. LOL

We went on them over and over until I finally decided I had climbed enough stairs for the day and it was back to the pool.

The hubby and I made sure we met our vegetable, fruit and herb requirements for the day.

This became the hubby's favorite drink on the cruise and he would drink them one after another...until he just couldn't drink anymore. LOL

Mai Tai

It was finally time to give up the swimming for the day and get some dinner. We decided to head to O'Sheehans because I just love their food.

The only place they had to seat us would be at the bar area dining and that was ok with us. We were seated and waited....and waited...and waited. I finally had to stop a waiter and ask for a menu.

At the time of ordering, I told him everything we wanted and the dessert. He said "You don't order dessert yet. That comes after the meal".   "So you mean I can't just tell you what I want now?" He responded "no, after meal". Ugh.

We placed our order and waited and waited and finally the food came.

The hubby ordered something on the menu (I can't remember now what it was) and it didn't come out. We questioned the waiter about it...and the communication was so bad and he didn't understand and finally we just said "never mind".  I felt like he understood but was playing it off.

After we were finished, the waiter never came back to clear our dishes or anything and we were sitting for a good 30-40 minutes. He would pass by us quickly and not look our way and go into the back to grab food and head out a different way. Then we'd see him somewhere else. It was getting ridiculous. If we could have just placed our order WITH our dessert we would have already ate that and been done and gone. 

Finally I had to flag him down and I made sure to let him know we had been done with our food for over a half an hour and we needed our desserts. We already knew what we wanted, don't bring us the menu so that you can take more time to come back to us while we look over the menu and then take even longer to bring out our food. We told him what we wanted and we waited and waited. This was worse than going to any MDR.

Sakari wasted time playing some pool. But with only the white ball. LOL

Finally our dessert came... 

The cheesecake for me, but I really didn't care for it with the marshmallows and some type of syrup on top. I dug around it to get to the inside.

The fruit plate and banana bread for the hubby and Sakari. They enjoyed it and what the hubby didn't eat, Sakari and I gobbled up when he wasn't looking. Hubby looks down-boom you cleaned your plate and didn't even know it.

It was a very long experience at O'Sheehans that night. I chalk it up to this unbelievable crowd on this ship.

There was a show going on downstairs in the atrium and they were dressing up and doing small skits that pertained to music. It was interesting to watch but very hard to see due to the amount of people both upstairs and down.

Finally I had had enough of the crowds and decided it was time to head back to the room where it was quiet and peaceful. Less chance of running into someone in that small interior room than there was in this entire ship. LOL

We packed for our excursion for the next day and headed to bed.