Trip log, day six. Costa Maya, Mexico (7:30 AM – 2:30 PM).
7-Night Western Caribbean Royal Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida
March 15, 2024
Cruise Compass – Day 6 | The Social Feed – Day 6
Wonder of the Seas Deck Plan
Up early with pretty much an empty schedule for the day. No plans onboard, and no plans ashore other than a casual walk around the port. I haven’t been taking regular photos around the ship and decided this morning would be a great opportunity to walk around. I started at the Boardwalk and checked out the Aqua Theatre. I caught a glimpse of a show earlier in the cruise, but didn’t spend anytime in this area.
Flanking the Aqua Theater and Abyss slide are rock walls which our daughter’s friend climbed later in the day while we were ashore. I heard it was challenging, but fun. Our daughter wanted to do it, but even with 7-nights, we ran out of time.
I think the Abyss slide looks the best in darkness, it just looks so cool when viewed from different vantage points.
I didn’t have a decent photo of the exterior of Playmakers to go along with our dinner pictures the other day, so here is a look at Playmakers from the Boardwalk with tables outside with open windows looking inside. I wasn’t kidding about this being a great place to watch sports, even early in the morning, they were running replays, as well as some live events from around the world.
My photo walk consisted mostly of the Boardwalk as I soon made my way back to Vitality Café for my morning caffeine craving while Emily was working out. While Startlink was still connecting to a data center in Mexico, my VPN was working allowing me to do some work!
For the most part, the boring was chill. We headed to Central Park for a coffee refill at the Park Cafe (you can get the complimentary drip coffee here, but they do not serve any specialty coffees) and a light breakfast. On our way, we saw a lovely table with chess pieces setup waiting for guests to play. There was also a medallion in the pavers with the ship name and build year.
Park Cafe offers a selection of breakfast items in a quick service fashion, or made to order while you wait.
Yes, the plants in Central Park are real!!! There are horticulturists tending to the plants and there is even a built in irrigation system. I really don’t know why I am so fascinated by this, but I am. I know big resorts have live plants indoors, but I guess I am stunned a cruise line is willing to spend the resources necessary for the staff and upkeep when they could easily go the cheap route and use fake plants. I guess real plants is some consolation for not being able to see the ocean from most places onboard, at least you can see some nature. We really loved this area and all of the details.
Just before 9:30 AM, we made our way to the gangway.
To say it was windy would be an understatement. We felt the ship moving while onboard (Emily remarked that she was rocking and rolling in the gym), and didn’t think much of it until we were ashore and felt the wind coming ashore and saw the ship rocking.
The video below includes some speed up footage that exaggerates the rocking, but it does provide an interesting look at the motion while tied up to the dock.
We haven’t been to Costa Maya since December 11, 2012. So I just had a vague idea what the port had to offer. Essentially, I knew it was a compound with shops, food and beverage locations, and a pool along with meeting areas for port adventures. I dug into the into my archives to share the following gallery of images from that 2012 cruise on the Disney Fantasy.
As you can see, right off the bat, there have been some changes to the color palate as well as some physical changes and additions.
Below is a look at the site map posted at the Costa Maya Port.
We began our time ashore walking around looking for souvenirs for the good folks back home. This was the place for NCAA and NFL merchandise.
Minutes after purchase, my new hat was stolen by my kid even though she is a Buccaneers fan.
We continued to walk around the port shops. I mostly stayed outside in the walkways, and occasionally walked off here and there to take photos or look out at the water while the girls wandered in the shops. Thankfully, the port area isn’t that big so even though we lost line of sight contact with each other, we still managed to reconnect.
One of the new features since my last visit was a bird aviary that you could explore for a small fee. I was hooked by the flamingos, especially one that was napping. This was outside the aviary which anyone can enjoy for free.
I just placed my camera on the fence post and let it record while I was waiting for the family. This one flamingo was not interested in entertaining the crowd like the others in the exhibit.
Not sure how often the Costa Maya port’s wifi password changes, but it was easy to guess. All caps, COSTAMAYA.
There are a number of options for food and beverage around the port if you so choose to eat and drink ashore. The pools have swim up bars which will be pictured later.
We made our way around the port shops and ended at a bar without a line. We ordered a beer and a margarita on the rocks served in a souvenir palm tree cup.
By this point, we covered the port property and moved near the main pool area finding a few chairs. Although we wore swim suits ashore, we did NOT bring any towels. The weather was fantastic so it would be a shame to skip out on the pool experience.
The pool rules mention for use only by patrons of the bars and restaurants, but even as busy as it was, I did not see any enforcement of this policy.
As much as I wanted to join in the swimming, I didn’t really want to air dry, so I just relaxed on the loungers while the family enjoyed the dip in the water.
There is another pool area that is a little more on the quiet side, but not technically quiet.
When the pool time was over, we started to make our way back to the ship stopping at a few shops to buy a few souvenirs we spotted earlier.
Once again, I wondered off and climbed up the stairs where folks were taking group photos. There is a nice view of the port area at the top.
Another popular photo op was the Costa Maya sign near security checkpoint at the pier.
I encourage you to take a minute on your walk back to the ship to enjoy the view of your ship from pier.
We made it back onboard a little after 1PM, roughly 90 minutes or so before all aboard time.
This next part goes against my typical recommendation of eating lunch ashore at a local restaurant. There was a great looking spot along the water that was calling our names, but for the sake of research, we had other plans. We were trying to fit in lunch at El Loco Fresh, the quick service location on the ship. As great as Donald’s Cantina is on the Disney Wish and BlueIguana Cantina on the Mardi Gras, El Loco Fresh was a disappointment & we should’ve opted to eat ashore.
The balance of the afternoon was spent on the pool deck where I finally found a pool with warm water, and even discovered an actual hot tub! To be fair, I wasn’t out searching each day, so this isn’t a ‘woe is me’ statement on day 6.
It was “Wear Your Best” night, and since we already had Formal night earlier in the cruise, we treated this as semi-formal (which just meant it was another opportunity to bring out the tux).
The main dining room was serving the Royal Night Menu.
The cod just as disappointing as my lunch burrito, others at the table said the tortellini was tasty with others enjoying the lobster. Our server brought a second lobster tail to those at our table who ordered lobster without anyone asking.
The desserts were solid and its required that someone must order the Baked Alaska when served on a cruise ship. Overall, the pies were great in the main dining rooms. It was also great to be out of the dining room in about 45 minutes every night, leaving time to do other things around the ship (especially for those of us that are not out late and are early-to-bed and early-to-risers).
After dinner, the adults and the teens went in different directions. The adults headed up to deck 12 to one of the themed restaurants called Wonderland for some after dinner drinks at the bar. It is not difficult to find since the theming spills out into the hallway and even to the elevator doors.
The entrance to Wonderland is an archway with whimsical flowers and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland inspired elements.
According to Royal Caribbean’s description, Wonderland Imaginative Cuisine is all about pushing the culinary envelope. Dishes are designed to tantalize your taste buds and present a visual feast. Find crispy crab cones topped with fluffy avocado mousse, gazpacho served with pepper spheres and bread foam, and dreamy desserts that will take your breath away. Pair your meal with cocktails described as “magical” elixirs crafted to deliver full-sensory experiences.
I found the ceiling lights to be quite wonderful, so much I started taking random pictures of the lights while others at the bar looked on wondering if I consumed the wrong magical elixir. By others I mean my wife and our friend.
The special cocktail menu was very concise with 4 themed offerings.
Actually, there are technically 5 drinks, Down the Rabbit Hole is available with either the red or blue pill.
There was a big group of folks at the bar which were also from Central Florida. They requested blue eyed blonde shots from the bartender who made them in flutes. At some point, they added us in to the order which was cool, and all until we realized they were all on the drink package and they assumed were are as well… there went another punch on my drink card.
While we didn’t go to any of the evening shows during the cruise, we did reserve spots for an adult comedy show in the Attic, which is just where you’d think you find a venue named after the space under the roof of a house, on deck 4.
The show was fun; there were two comics that performed and both were great. While we had reservations, we casually showed up and found seats. Once a certain time hit, they start allowing guests in from the standby line (which we realized was available for most of the reservation required experiences).
Since The Attic was on a lower deck, obviously, we were near the casino which managed to take back $20 in just under a minute. The multipliers and bets on the slot machines are too complicated for this noob. Basically, I learned the hard way to reset the bet amounts when sitting down to a slot machine. The old one arm bandits are more my speed.
As our night wound down, we temporarily forgot on demand movies were not included when we decided to watch Disney’s Wish. At this point in time, the Disney+ streaming date for Wish was still a few weeks away, so we streamed Hangover 2 to close out the night.
This was a much needed day of not doing much after nearly a full day ashore touring Roatan. It’s vacation after all, and doing nothing at times is something I like to fit into my vacations.
With tonight’s room cleaning, we received some documents on the bed including a tip envelopes and tips for an easy departure along with luggage tags.
Remember that time I said to enjoy the view from the pier as you walk back to your cruise ship? Well, I found this gem of the Disney Fantasy in Costa Maya from our December 2012 Western Caribbean Cruise. Looking back, our all aboard time was 1:00AM on the 13th. While not that late, I did head back out around 10PM to take some pictures of the ship, including this gem which has been sitting unseen on a hard drive for well over a decade.
