This was a great cruise and a good value even though we lost money by waiting to buy it. Our itinerary took us from New Orleans to Costa may to Cozumel and back . The onboard experience was nice we had great service people. I would have created it higher if I didn't think we were being scammed by one of the stateroom cleaners. My wife forgot her shoes for formal night so we rented a pair from the formalities shop. she wore them and put them away just in case we needed them again. We didn't use them again and one of them strangely disappeared from our stateroom. my wife is anal about where she puts things so she noticed immediately. We asked our stateroom guy about the shoe and he recovered it and returned it within 5 minutes. His explanation was maybe it was picked up with the beach towels. Well the towels were never near the shoes, and when we asked for more beach towels he asked where were the ones we were given. DUH! you took them! It wasn't a major issue, he got us some towels. The only reason we wanted the towels were to insure we wouldn't get the $22 charge for each lost beach towel. We weren't charged for anything other than what we bought onboard. Besides that the cruise was great.
Costa Maya: My wife thought we were unlucky to book a cruise to Costa maya. this is a little fishing town in the early stages of becoming a tourist spot. we absolutely loved it. we chose to take a chance and decide what we'd do once we were on shore. We booked a day at tequila beach with a local outfit. We paid $30 each and we were taken to a beach just a few hundred yards away from the amin beach everyone was going to anyway. We had unlimited drinks and less people to deal with. there's a local man that lives in the middle of the beaches. I got a hand carved monkey made form a coconut for $2. a good gift for my younger brother. he also threw a few oranges on a rock when we finally realized he was getting iguanas to come out for us to see. the people are very nice. Do understand that on the main beach there's a small market and people will try to sell you their items. On out beach there aren't any vendors and we actually walked to the other when we decided to shop. My advice is to shop with the locals first and stop by the dock vendors on the way back to the ship. there's some great little shops at both Costa Maya and Cozumel.
I snorkeled right off the beach. It wasn't extravagant but I did see some fish, including 2 barracuda. there's snorkeling tours, horseback riding, jet skis, and parasailing right on the beach for great rates. I got my wife a 30 minute message for $15. she loved it. Jet skis can be rented for $40 per 1/2 our and it's $50 on the larger beach. Given there's more at the other beach , but in my opinion we got our day relaxing in the sun for a far better price. I loved this place and the fact that it is so new led me to believe I saw a diamond in the rough. It will never be the same a year from now. By the way if you like pina coladas, we had the best I've ever tasted. they use real Coconut milk. My friend says he was told coconut milk is natures laxative. I told him it is definitely natures' Relaxative. I want to go back before all the building are complete. this will definitely become a resort town.