In Costa Maya since my wife and I are not beach bums and don't drink much we chose not to stay at the beach area in Costa Maya.  I am a certified diver and wanted to scuba dive.  My wife who does not dive wanted to snorkel.  After research on Cruise Critic we chose to make a reservation at Maya Palms resort (www.mayapalms.com) which is a private resort.  To go there you have to make your reservation online before the trip.  It is run by Doug from St Louis.  To get there you have to walk out the back of the dock shopping area down the street about 100 yards to the yellow cabs.  Tell them you want to go to Maya Palms and agree on the price of $20.00.  It was a very easy thing to do.  The 30 min drive to the resort took you through town and the countryside.  You get to see the real Costa Maya.  Doug met us at the gate and advised the taxi cab driver when to come back to pick us up.  (We chose 4:00 pm so we would have some time to shop in port)  We did not pay the driver when he dropped us off (as advised) but paid him after he came back at 4:00 pm and took us back to the port.  We paid him $40 plus a tip at the port.    
The two dives were very good and my wife said that the snorkeling was the best that she had ever done.  We both had lunch which was very good.  The white sand beach was also very nice.       
You can read other information about Maya Palms at their website and on Cruise Critic boards at the ports of call - Costa Maya  

Costa Maya

At Santo Thomas De Castilla, Guatemala we chose to book the humanitarian tour with Gus.  You can check out their website at www.gowithgustours.com.  They had recieved several good reviews on the cruise critic boards and we found the trip to be one of our best.  I e-mailed some questions to Gus and he call me at home that night and answered all my questions.  I made my reservation on-line but did not have to pay till after lunch at his motel.  

At 9:30 we got on the boat with Gus at the port that would take us on the tour.  On the ride to Livingston Gus was very informative about the country and area.  We stopped in Livingston at his motel for a bathroom break.  We got back onto the boat for a tour up the river.  We saw fishermen and stopped to talk to them.  We continued on to a small store where the lady cooked us tortillias on an open fire.  On up the river to the school we went.  It is a very pretty country.  

Since I am on the school board where we live we wanted to take school supplies to the school kids.  We took two bags of items (crayons, construction paper, pens, etc.)  We visited one of the schools on the river that has two classrooms.  We distributed the school supplies to the kids who were very appreciative.  

After leaving the school we went down the river to a small cave you could tour and then back to the motel for lunch.  It was a good lunch and then we went on a walking tour of Livingston.  Gus bought us ice cream at one of the shops.  We walked back to the motel and boarded the boat for the ride back to the port.  

At the port we shopped in the terminal building for some gifts.  The prices were very reasonable and many of the items handmade.  

The weather was nice and it was a very Good day.

I would recommend that you Go With Gus on the humanitarian tour.

St. Thomas

Since this is a tender port we chose to book through the ship.  We chose the zip line and cave tubing.  It was a good choice.    
We met in the theater and when they called our excursion we got on the tender to ride over to the port.  At the port we got onto a bus (with AC) for the ride.  It was about a 1 hour ride throughout the town and countryside.  We walked to the zip line.  The operation was a very nice well run & safe zip-line.  After the zip-line they served us a good lunch.  We then went back to the main area where there was a bathroom for you to change clothes.  You then pick up the tube, waterjacket and light for the cave tubing.  The tubing was nice and it was then back on the bus after changing clothes for the ride back.      
In belize we did shop some before getting back on the tender but did not buy much.    
Another good day.  

Belize City

We have been to Cozumel several times and decided to do something different.  We booked the Segway adventure & snorkel through the boat.  We met at the end of the dock and took a short taxi ride to their office.  They gave us instructions and a short try on the Segway in the office then about a 15 min practice in the parking lot.  We then rode the segways in single file (10 of us) to a beach resort about a mile or two away.  Most of the time we were on a wide sidewalk and some of it was on the road.  There was very little traffic.     
At the resort you could stay on their beach or go down the street to snorkel.  They took the 5 of us who wanted to snorkel in a jeep down the road to a snorkel area.  Because of the strong current we did not make it out to the reef and only snorkeled for about 15 min.  Although we did see some fish it was not very good.  They had us walk barefoot back to the resort (about 1/4 mile) on the hot asphalt road. Not a very pleasurable experience.  My wife got blisters on both of her feet about the size of a quarter.     
Back on the segways we rode back to their office and then a taxi ride to the port.  We did some shopping downtown before getting back on the boat.    
If I had to do it over again I would do the segways but not the snorkel.  

Cozumel

We were in room 10065 which was clean and nice.  The inside room was not large but seemed about the same size and those on Carnival.  Room size is not a big concern to us because the only time we spend in the room is to get cleaned up, prepare for meals and sleep.  The bathroom was big enough and had a glass shower door instead of curtain.  There was plenty of closet space and 4 dresser drawers.  The safe allowed you to set your own 4 digit code.  There were about 5 one foot square cubby holes in the closet.
The room and hallway were quite.  The location was good because it was in the middle of the theater and main areas on decks 7 & 8 and the pool / Raffels on 12.

After about 15 min we made it to where they logged us off the ship using our room key (as usual) and it was off to the terminal building.She waited on one of the benches for me to drive the car back to the hotel (free parking) and walk back to the terminal.

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