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Cozumel with 7 ships in port


DanielleK

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Happy Friday everyone!

So I'm in the process of planning my 7-night Western Caribbean cruise on Allure of the Seas in early December!

 I was hoping to go to Paradise Beach, but I'm concerned about the crowd levels and seat availability seeing as we're the last ship to arrive in port that day. With 6 other cruise ships in port, would it be unwise to show up at Paradise Beach and expect to have access to two lounge chairs? I looked at the other beach clubs, and although they look great, we're not big drinker (or really big eaters for that matter) so I don't think it would be worth the $$$ for us. 

I checked the planner and see RC offers excursions to Playa Mia for $55.00 Canadian (without food or drink), would this be a better option? Basically, we're looking for a beach day and we'll purchase drinks on a as desired basis.

NOTE: This will be our second time in Cozumel. The first time we took a snorkeling tour through a third party (I enjoyed it, mom didn't) and went downtown to shop. Mom really did not appreciate the aggressive tactics used by the salespeople, and we both left feeling exhausted and worn down. So this time we're in the market for a much more relaxed experience, preferably on a beautiful beach. :)

 

 

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39 minutes ago, DanielleK said:

Happy Friday everyone!

So I'm in the process of planning my 7-night Western Caribbean cruise on Allure of the Seas in early December!

 I was hoping to go to Paradise Beach, but I'm concerned about the crowd levels and seat availability seeing as we're the last ship to arrive in port that day. With 6 other cruise ships in port, would it be unwise to show up at Paradise Beach and expect to have access to two lounge chairs? I looked at the other beach clubs, and although they look great, we're not big drinker (or really big eaters for that matter) so I don't think it would be worth the $$$ for us. 

I checked the planner and see RC offers excursions to Playa Mia for $55.00 Canadian (without food or drink), would this be a better option? Basically, we're looking for a beach day and we'll purchase drinks on a as desired basis.

NOTE: This will be our second time in Cozumel. The first time we took a snorkeling tour through a third party (I enjoyed it, mom didn't) and went downtown to shop. Mom really did not appreciate the aggressive tactics used by the salespeople, and we both left feeling exhausted and worn down. So this time we're in the market for a much more relaxed experience, preferably on a beautiful beach. ?

 

 

You might explore taking a cab to a public/private beach.  I think one of Matt's videos suggests that normal beach excursion transfers are more expensive than local transportation.  When we go there in September, we plan on shopping first and checking out the beach.

 

 

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You could go to Playa Mia on your own for $30 USD (no food or drink) plus transportation.  I am someone who avoids ship tours and have been there without a ship tour.  We literally had an extra hour at the beach after the excursions left and we still returned to the ship 90 minutes prior to all aboard.  Playa Mia is also very crowded with 7 ships in especially during lunch.

IMHO, for $55 USD, go to Nachi Cocum.  That is the only place that limits the number of guests to about 100.  It is about $30 pp more (including a taxi) than the Playa Mia excursion but does include lunch and bottled water.  This would really give you a quiet beach day.

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1 hour ago, melski94 said:

IMHO, for $55 USD, go to Nachi Cocum.  That is the only place that limits the number of guests to about 100.  It is about $30 pp more (including a taxi) than the Playa Mia excursion but does include lunch and bottled water.  This would really give you a quiet beach day

I second this....with the limit on people it is so much less crowded.  7 ships is a ton of people and the late arrival won’t help.  We really liked the service and lack of crowds and it’s a very easy taxi there and back.  I would say to book as soon as you can..it will sell out.  Jane

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2 hours ago, melski94 said:

IMHO, for $55 USD, go to Nachi Cocum.  That is the only place that limits the number of guests to about 100.  It is about $30 pp more (including a taxi) than the Playa Mia excursion but does include lunch and bottled water.  This would really give you a quiet beach day.

I third this, with that many ships in port everything else is going to be swamped.

Google Nachi Cocom, it will come up, put down a small deposit and then pay the remainder when you show up.

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We've booked Mayan Chan for the following day, so I'm wondering whether back-to-back days at all-inclusive resorts would be overkill, particularly as neither one of us  drinks much alcohol nor eats much mid-day.

If we do opt to go to Nachi, do you think we'll have a difficult time (i.e. long wait) for a cab? 

Also, $55.00 US is about $72.00 in my currency. For you Americans, is Nachi worth the $72.00 price tag?  By worth it I mean, plenty of lounge chairs WITH shade, a heated pool and clean bathrooms? I guess a nice lunch would be good too, but with all the food available on the cruise ship, lunch on a shore excursion doesn't matter that much. The resort looks stunning btw, as does Mr. Sanchos.

 

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15 hours ago, DanielleK said:

We've booked Mayan Chan for the following day, so I'm wondering whether back-to-back days at all-inclusive resorts would be overkill, particularly as neither one of us  drinks much alcohol nor eats much mid-day.

If we do opt to go to Nachi, do you think we'll have a difficult time (i.e. long wait) for a cab? 

Also, $55.00 US is about $72.00 in my currency. For you Americans, is Nachi worth the $72.00 price tag?  By worth it I mean, plenty of lounge chairs WITH shade, a heated pool and clean bathrooms? I guess a nice lunch would be good too, but with all the food available on the cruise ship, lunch on a shore excursion doesn't matter that much. The resort looks stunning btw, as does Mr. Sanchos.

 

There are palapas right on the beach with lounge service and a nice pool area with a swim up bar and deck chairs (I don't remember shade available on the pool deck but I could be wrong).  The service was amazing and everything felt clean to me.  It was very easy to grab a taxi there with little wait and when you are ready to leave you tell your server and they hail the taxi for you. Easy peasy.  

I haven't been to Maya Chan but it is also supposed to be amazing in terms of service and experience.  Keep in mind that the seaweed can be very bad and smelly in Costa Maya and they might offer to refund you.  They now have what looks like a very nice pool area.

In terms of 2 all-inclusives in a row, I personally would not pay for both with the drink pkg on the ship.  It's a lot of money you might not get value for.  However, in Cozumel you are totally paying for the fewer people because I think the public areas will get very crowded and stressful (for me).  I would either go for it and figure the money is a "entertainment fee" for keeping people away or I would stay on the ship and enjoy the less crowded pool deck!   Jane

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4 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

There are palapas right on the beach with lounge service and a nice pool area with a swim up bar and deck chairs (I don't remember shade available on the pool deck but I could be wrong).  The service was amazing and everything felt clean to me.  It was very easy to grab a taxi there with little wait and when you are ready to leave you tell your server and they hail the taxi for you. Easy peasy.  

I haven't been to Maya Chan but it is also supposed to be amazing in terms of service and experience.  Keep in mind that the seaweed can be very bad and smelly in Costa Maya and they might offer to refund you.  They now have what looks like a very nice pool area.

In terms of 2 all-inclusives in a row, I personally would not pay for both with the drink pkg on the ship.  It's a lot of money you might not get value for.  However, in Cozumel you are totally paying for the fewer people because I think the public areas will get very crowded and stressful (for me).  I would either go for it and figure the money is a "entertainment fee" for keeping people away or I would stay on the ship and enjoy the less crowded pool deck!   Jane

 

Now I really don't know what to do, which is really a great problem to have!  :) 

We're in Cozumel on Dec 4 from 8 am to 7 pm and are only in Costa Maya from 8 am to 5 pm. Perhaps the better plan would be to cancel our reservation at Mayan Chan and take the tram to one of the other beach clubs, like we did last time, or simply stay on the ship as we'll be in Roatan the following day and have booked an excursion to Big French Key.

It's a pretty port-intensive sailing, with only two sea days, and with three  ports days in a row it may be good to sit out one port...which isn't so terrible as we've been to both Cozumel and Costa Maya previously. It'll be our first time at CocoCay and Roatan!

Our itinerary is as follows:

Dec 1 - leaving Ft. Lauderdale (We've booked The Key, mostly for the embarkation/ debarkation and show seating benefits)

Dec 2 - CocoCay 8 am to 5 pm - nothing planned

Dec 3 - at sea

Dec 4 - Cozumel 8am to 7pm

Dec 5 - Costa Maya 8 am to 5pm, currently booked at Mayan Chan

Dec 6 - Roatan 7 am to 3 pm - Big French Key booked through RC

Dec 7 - at sea; however, booked Mama Mia for 1 pm 

Dec 8 - home. 

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I am displeased. RC has dropped Roatan from our itinerary and have replaced it with Nassau. Nassau will be our last stop on the cruise and we'll be there from noon to 6 pm.  They have also shortened our time in Costa Maya from 8 to 5 to 8 to 2:30. Based on these revisions, I now think we'll cancel Maya Chan as we're losing 2.5 hours in that port which leaves us with not a whole lot of time to enjoy the beach club. 

Roatan was one of the main reasons for booking the cruise and I was also looking forward to Maya Chan .

I would cancel the cruise, but we would pay such a hefty fine in airfare penalties (two round-trip tickets cost to Ft Lauderdale were $1500.00), so we'll go and still enjoy ourselves. 

Still though, colour me disappointed. ? 

☹️

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