Mitsugirly BREAKAWAYs for a summer cruise: Review/Pictorial
Day 6: Costa Maya, Mexico
DAY 5 on the ship: 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.
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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...
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Outside of the port is a turn around area for taxi's/shuttles and so on.
It didn't seem like the shuttles were running yet (was $3 pp to use but I'm not sure if that's still the same or not) but our tickets said that included transportation (using this shuttle I'm sure) but it wasn't until 9:45am. I wasn't about to wait that long to get there. That meant an arrival time of around 10am. No thank you.
So my plans were to just walk there. We've done it before and it's a fairly easy walk...only it was very hot and humid out.
If you cross over, into the middle of the street, you'll find a sidewalk to walk on. There's several places that are covered and will keep you out of the sun.
When you get to the end of the street, you will see this...
Traffic goes around this and heads off either right or left. Once we got there, I looked around like...Hmmm, where do we go now? It's different when you are on the ship and can see the park towering over everything, but on land, I thought you would still see it and you couldn't so I wasn't sure.
We stopped to ask a local and he pointed ------> So right we went down the street. I figured that way but it was just too hot to be guessing at that point.
This is what you see when you look right....can't see the towering zip lines or water slides.
Walking along the street...
We have arrived...
Of course as soon as we arrived, a huge bus of people pulled up and jumped out (we are talking huge bus like a Greyhound) and that stuck us close to the end. We waited out in the hot sun and waited and waited. We seen some people with Royal Caribbean tickets and assumed that's who got off the bus. They started having us fill out the waiver form while we stood in line. Then they started taking people from BEHIND us around and into the line right by the windows where you check in. Um...ok.
Then before long, another bus pulls up (smaller) and I assume that might have been the NCL bus or Carnival. I did see a few people with NCL tickets, but they were a totally different color than ours and I have no idea what the difference was. I also seen them pull some people up in line and when I turned around and looked behind us, there was no longer a line and we were last. Now wait a minute. I flagged down a worker and showed her we already had tickets and didn't need to buy any. She said we were in the right line and everyone had to check in at the ticket office for wrist bands. Grrr
Finally we got checked in and entered the park. I know it seemed like forever when we were standing in the sun and heat, but honestly it was probably maybe a 15 minute wait. We just happened to be the ones stuck behind a family of 13...go figure.
Iguana's were everywhere...I guess this was their park.
Well this is an interesting flower
One of the pools
We decided not to stop at the first pool and head on back. It wasn't very crowded yet...thank goodness.
There are several pools in the back and we decided we wanted to be back that way.
We found a row of chairs with no one in that section yet. We decided this is where we would claim our stake for the day.
Later in the day people around us would come and go but it never felt too crowded for some reason. Maybe they were all off doing the water park and zip lining.
This was our view from the chairs.
It took less than 30 minutes for Sakari to start jumping up and down wanting to head to the zip lines. I had already jumped in the pool to cool down from the walk here and standing in line. So, since I had cooled down, I figured why not. More and more people would be coming in and we might as well start now before it got crowded.
We headed to the pyramid and knew that had to be the place to go for all the fun since everything seemed to be protruding out of every orifice of it from above.
Inside this place was really cool and so many things to see. It was just really neat.
The lazy river comes inside this huge pyramid as well.
There were so many things to do...different water slides, different paths to go on the zip lines. We knew we wanted to start with the zip lines and then had to decide which zip line to do first. We decided to go all out and just started with the highest and longest. I mean why not? It was time to test Sakari and see if she was really a "big girl now" that had conquered her fears.
Now they did say that if you want to do them all, you could do one and go right back up and do the rest. No need to wait in line again. They said it's best to do it that way and get it out of the way.
They also have a roller coaster zip line...interesting.
Now they did say that if you want to do them all, you could do one and go right back up and do the rest. No need to wait in line again. They said it's best to do it that way and get it out of the way.
They also have a roller coaster zip line...interesting.
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​So let the fun begin....
Now just a few things...
The "rules" that are posted everywhere say no camera's allowed and to lock things up in the lockers while riding. However, the hubby...is a rule breaker, and he said "it'll be alright, we are taking it". They seen us with the camera and didn't say a word. So, it's my understanding that it has to have a way to be secured. Mine is secured with a strap that WILL NOT come off. So, I guess that's allowed. The workers made comments about if we lost it, they were retrieve it and keep it and they needed a new camera anyhow. LOL
Another thing is...I was all excited about taking an elevator up to start the zip lines, however...I would find that with each zip line, you are walking a winding circular staircase back up at each platform. LOL I got my workout that day for sure!
Next, they made us go tandem with Sakari on several of the zip lines. I'm not sure why. They seem to think she would be too light and not make it to the end. I believe she's almost, if not, 100 pounds now. There's probably lighter and shorter adults than her. Do they tandem with others if that's the case? But, she didn't put up too much of a fight about it. Eventually she got to go on her own.
Great view from above...
So here we are.... 8 years later....
From 3 years old on her first zip line in the rain forest of Belize
To 11 years old in Costa Maya and concurring her fears of doing it again.
Oh that staircase....whew
No hands!!!
So here is a compiled video of our zip lining. It's about 7 minutes long and has various clips of us on different zip lines. Toward the end, you'll see how you end the zip line....in water. It's a lot of fun. But they take the lines and pull you up....then down and BAM, you get soaked. At the very end of the video is the "roller coaster" zip line. It's pretty cool and I hadn't even heard of this until now. It also ends in the water. The only thing is....you get turned around at the landing in the water, then dipped, which makes your bottoms come down for us girls. 😲 Also, at the very end of the roller coaster "dunk" in the water, my fish eye decided to pop off in the water. The worker retrieved it for me and nothing was harmed thank goodness.
After completing that first round of zip lines, I decided that I had had enough of it. I told Sakari and daddy if they wanted to continue they could, but I was going to sit the rest out. I was tired from climbing and just wanted to get in the pool and relax a bit. The zip lines really did take a lot of time to complete. My guess is maybe 1 - 1 1/2 hours to do all of them in the longest zip line and the roller coaster. I'm not sure how long the other was but I knew at this point, I didn't want to dedicate another hour long to it.
There's one other thing I want to mention...we ran all over this place with bare feet. There are walkways everywhere, some are hot and you needed to get off into the sand or dip your feet into water along the way, but the texture of the walkways seem to bother my feet throughout the day. By the end of the day, the bottom of my feet were hurting and felt funny...almost like you are walking on stones or rough pavement all day...and my feet felt like they were going to end up with blisters. The only time that I have ever had this "feeling" is when swimming in a pool that is concrete all day and they feel like they will blister up. Now mind you, I have grown up running barefooted as a child...I can walk or run on gravel with no issues. I do not have a tender foot. My feet are not even ticklish. But this place bothered me...which is strange for me.
After returning home (and still to this day) the bottom of my feet are peeling. They don't hurt or anything...they are just peeling...just like my arms and back. LOL I didn't get a chance to use the pumice stone on them to remove most of the dead skin after returning because of my accident. You talk about some itchy feet (foot) in my cast now. Sigh!
So, my offerings of suggestion to you...if you have water shoes, wear them. LOL If not, you've been warned.
Back at our prime pool location we had our server bringing us drinks over and over. It was SO GOOD and ice cold. During the day, they got a little warmer so he would bring cups with ice. He kept us going all day long and was great.
Daddy decided to go somewhere and for the life of me I don't remember where, but Sakari and I took off to the lazy river because lazy is exactly what I needed at this point.
When we entered, they let us know it was about a 20 minute ride. Ahhhh
I just love lazy rivers and this one was nicely landscaped and had different things to look at. There were iguanas baking in the sun all around too. They had props here and there, places that shot out water, waterfalls you go under, bubbles under your bottom and so on.
Then there were the ropes hanging. Oh how Sakari loved these things. She'd stop herself and start swinging around until she'd be going in a circle real fast and then let go.
A waterfall going into the pyramid....save the eyelashes....aaaaahhhhhhh. There was no going around it.
An unsuspected water spout that shoots out at you as you are going by...
Perfect shot!
I'm hearing some type of tribal music...I'm starting to get worried...oh no
Why am I hearing the roar of a very big kitty now? I'm scared....Sakari....save me!
Oh mom...it's just a jaguar.
There's an area that splits off, you go right or left...I went right and Sakari's water took her left. Oops. I guess I had the more "interesting route" according to Sakari.
We met back up in the middle...
She was just having the time of her life. I knew from all the smiles I was getting that day that we had made the absolute best choice to come here during port day in Costa Maya.
All good things must come to an end....and the "ride" was over. We had a blast and it was relaxing.
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Here's a short (less than a minute) video of our lazy river time...
After Sakari and I finished the lazy river, we went back to check on daddy. He had been wondering where we went and we told him we yelled for him as we went by on the lazy river but he was on his phone (yes, they have wifi here).
He said he wanted to do the lazy river, but we decided that we were hungry first. We flagged down our waiter and ask for a menu. He said something to the hubby, which he did not understand. We waited and waited and he never returned. Hmmm, that was weird for him.
I decided to go to the nearest restaurant, because I was seeing everyone gather in an area with food, and see if I could get a menu. I found a menu sitting on the table and started to walk away with it...going back to our chairs. Half way back to the chairs, someone stopped me and said that "This menu is no good for today. We have buffet" So wait, the only option is the buffet today? We can't just order what we wanted?
The buffet is EXPENSIVE! $25 per person. YIKES! But everyone was hungry and what can you do? We all gathered and went to the buffet. We did find that Sakari was cheaper since she was a child. Thank goodness!
I do have to say they have A LOT of food...like A LOT! I didn't even take pictures of everything either. There was an entire other row behind all these with breads and goodies and so on. But a person can only eat so much too. I guess the good thing is if you buy it early on, you can eat there all day. We were pretty late to the game, so only ate once.
They did have free drinks: Habiscus Flower Water and Rice water. Now this was interesting....
We thought the Rice Water was pretty good but after drinking it for awhile, it started tasting like sugar. LOL The Hibiscus...not so good in our opinion. Of course you can opt to not drink either and go right next door and get pop.
Everything we ate was pretty good and at least our bellies were satisfied and we had the strength to go on....to other activities.
Now located directly behind where we were sitting I found some trails. You really didn't find many people back there but the employees would come back there to gather additional supplies for food and such. Every once in awhile you would see people visiting the park walk down that way. I did ask our server where it went and I (think) he said it went over to the other side...which is where the kiddie water park is located.
There looked to be a huge termite tree up there. I wonder if they are the same termites that you'll find in Belize that you can eat and they taste like mint. Of course I wasn't about to try to climb up there and figure it out...I mean you could fall out of the tree and break a leg or something.
Plenty of iguana's back there as well.
Odd flower with the leaves above and the actual flowers draping down below them.
The hubby decided he wanted us all to go on the lazy river since we were rude and went without him. We all went and had a blast but I did not take my camera this time around (imagine that) because my battery was starting to die and I knew I was going to have to switch to another camera soon. I figured I already had pictures of it so why bother.
Then when we were done Sakari jumped up and down and said "Let's go do the water slides!!!" Well, for some reason I decided I didn't want to. I know previously on water slides, they have a tendency to bang the heck out of your back and end up with marks. Plus I'd probably lose a few eyelashes and also for some reason I was being extra careful on this trip not to get hurt. (Imagine that).
I motioned for the hubs and Sakari to go on and I was going to go back to our chairs and hang out, use the wifi to post some pics to those back home and also swim. Off they went....