Port Rating:

There is a nice little exit/taxi station setup when you come to the end which has a board that actually lists prices for destinations in USD, nachi cocom is listed at $15 for 1-4people. English speaking guy asked us where we were going and pointed us to a van with a driver standing next to it and told the driver Nachi Cocom. The driver was very nice, opened doors and put down a wooden step for us to get into the van (which really wasn't needed but he did anyway) - he held a conversation most of the way there and was pretty fluent in English.

It was about a 10-15 minute ride down the road which was big wide main type road with higher speeds, about 60mph I'd guess. Pulled up to a gated entrance with little guard shack where the driver and guard exchanged words and then down a narrow dirt road to the parking lot/entrance.

He went around the parking lot and pulled up right in front of the entrance where he came around and opened the doors and put down the wooden step again. I was the last one out and I slipped him a $20 and told him to have a great day.

Before we were even out of the van a younger lady greeted us and lined us up for the (what seemed non-optional) sombrero photo which was kind of fun. She snapped two photos and walked us up to the check in desk where we were asked for our reservation and remaining balance which I had. I made it a point to have the exact amount that was owed when we went to avoid any issue with change, not that there would have been but just in case. Everything checked out and we were awarded our purple wristbands.

Carlos was our waiter and showed us to our chairs making sure they were cleaned off with no sand before we sat down. Instantly took our orders for drinks and was back within a couple minutes. We all had multiple bottles of water, local beers, "miami vices", and "dirty monkeys" all of which were great.

Note about the drinks, the "miami vice" is a strawberry drink with rum in it. The dirty monkey as already mentioned in this thread has banana taste too it. I had tasted some of the fruity drinks on the ship and could always tell instantly there was rum in them. Here you could tell but i don't think they put quite as much alcohol in their drinks. It was only about 10:30am so maybe the bartender was just warming up..? lol

About 30 minutes after arriving Jaime came around offering their on-site excursion type things, snorkeling, massage, and parasailing from what I remember. We were interested in the snorkeling because we missed out on water in the caymans and jamaica so we told him we wanted to do the snorkeling but not until the afternoon since they were going out at 11 and we just got there. He said ok, he would come back and get us around 1.

Right after that the young lady that took our picture came around with a pretty decent photo of the 4 of us. We actually all looked normal and were smiling, so we bought two of them. $12 for 1, or $20 for 2.

Carlos brought us the food menu around 1130-12 i guess, we ordered the following: nachos, guacamole, cheese sticks, fresh grouper, mexican quesadillas, beef and chicken fajitas. Everything was awesome! nicely and neatly prepared. Clean plates and silverware too.

The reason I say there wasn't much alcohol in the drinks is because at the point we ate lunch and decided we were going snorkeling at 1pm I had already downed 4 miami vices and half of my GF's who didn't want to drink anymore before going snorkeling. I wasn't really "feeling it" one bit but whatever, they were good. We finished eating lunch and waited for Jaime to come back around, he did right about 1 and asked if we were ready. We paid $38/ea which really wasn't too bad considering the ships excursions were twice the price.

We made our way to the pier where there were already 3 other people on the boat waiting. We had the boat driver and a "certified" diver with us, i'm not sure if he was actually certified but he seemed like he knew what he was doing. We spent about 20 minutes on the boat and about an hour in the water. It was beautiful out there, 25-30ft crystal clear water. We stopped in two places and saw: about a dozen or more barracuda, some rays, lots of other fish that were close enough to touch, and near the end a 3-5ft nurse shark. Was one of my highlights of the entire trip was just that snorkeling trip.

Came back to the shore, thanked the guys and went back to get more water and drinks. I would say we were ready to leave about 430, asked Carlos how we could get a taxi and he said he would take care of it. Less than 5 minutes later he said the taxi was here and ready for us. Another $15 + $5 tip for the taxi back to port, flash your seapass card for the security by the taxi station/entrance to port and you're back in the gates. Just follow the gauntlet back the way you came and make your way back to the ship. It was about 5pm as we were going through there so most of the vendors were pretty much done and keeping to themselves at that point so it wasn't too bad at all. We actually got on the ship and dropped off our snorkeling gear, towels etc and got back off about 5:30 to shop around and see what was being offered. GF picked up a nice photo frame for about $10 then we called it a day and got back on the ship.

Other notes.. about Nachi Cocom, there may have been 100 people there the day we went but you would have never known - everything is pretty spread out.

I would say there was never more than 10-15 people in the water at one time so you didn't have to worry about being around people if you wanted to relax in the water.

I saw two kids, probably around age 4-6 but never heard a peep out of them.

The bathrooms were surprisingly clean with nice counters and stalls with doors in the mens. -Only down side is that they are right next to the gift shop (which is just a walk up window) and the excursion place so if you walk in front of there they will surely ask if you're interested. However once you've said no thanks to everyone working there they get the picture.

The pool with swim up bar was very clean and I never saw more than a few people in it. The hot tub is marked for adults only which was kind of nice but it was too hot to be sitting in 100+deg water.

They offer internet/wifi for $5 for the entire day which is great considering what the ships cost. If you had a laptop or tablet you could probably sit by the bar and check mail or whatever. I doubt they had AP's way out by the beach though.

As far as tipping goes.. I made the mistake of not bringing enough cash with me because I didn't anticipate doing the snorkeling thing. I did not tip the snorkel instructor which I felt terrible about considering there was only 5 of us and he kept going down to the bottom to pull up conch's and show us rays. I only had $40 left, and had already decided I was leaving Carlos $20 for myself and the GF because he was awesome. The other $20 I needed to get back to the port so I was kind of stuck. The $20 tip was well received and appreciated, I'm not sure what the going rate for a tip was but he kept our glasses full and always was friendly.

Getting back on the ship here was easy enough, security was on the ship.