My daughter and I cruised on the Jade, with a lot of wonderful people. The first day at sea, the ship felt very crowded. Open areas were full of drinking sunbathers. Our first stop was Cozumel, having visited this island on more of a destination vacation. Cozumel is really a lovely island. A fantastic Tattoo Man named David, at "Mayan Tattoo" just across the street once you work your way out of cruise-ville. We made appointments, and headed out with our snorkel gear to Playa Corona, a very small, quiet private beach where we paid only $5.00 to enjoy this property. My daughter enjoyed the snorkeling, lovely swimming spot and fresh Shrimp Ceviche, a cold Corona of course, and a beautiful day. We were in the Cozumel Center for a couple of hours before heading out, so we were able to hire a cap for $9.00 USD to take us to this Playa Corona. I tipped her well, and asked her to come back for us in 2 hours. After our lunch, she returned for us and we headed back into the center where we were both tattooed at David's Mayan Tattoo. We were safe, as Cozumel has a very low crime rate. Take a chance on your own taxi driver, the white vans are the best and they are always lined up at the "MEGA" store just left as you come out of Cruise-ville, this store has everything you could possibly need. Dollars are very welcome, especially now, with the exchange rate of the Mexican Peso, is in our favor. Stock up on bottled water. If you shop for any sort of alcohol, they will tag it for you, take it from you, and return it to you the last night of the cruise.

BUY the drink package if you expect to drink more than one or two days. We aren't big drinkers, and our first round came to $95.00. So when the drinking package goes on sale, buy it. I believe it was around $189 at one point.

After Cozumel, we landed in a huge new Cruise-ville, located in a newly created Region, known at Costa Maya. The small town located there is warm, welcoming and we ate at Il Primo, as local as you can imagine. My lunch bill was $1.50 for 3 soft chicken tacos. Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, Costa Maya was not a place I would return to. As lovely as the town was, and the native peoples are lovely, and I was shocked a cruise line such as Norwegian would even stop at this place. The beaches were covered with trash, and a seasonal sea weed piled up on all of the beaches we could reach, with our rented Golf Cart, available once you work y our way outside of Cruise-ville. We paid $80.00 between 4 people, to cruise around the island, in a golf cart. It was a perfect way to adventure out and find the local taste along with discovering an American owned beach club, restaurant and dock bar, called SHIPWRECKED. Its at the end of the dirt road along the same coast the ship docks. They stop the golf carts from traveling further because the dirt road was brutal. Glad we ventured out and found some fresh air, SHIPWRECKED is the perfect location to beach it, snorkel it, and hang out at the coolest over the water bar, with amazing dishes! We found the beauty in the rough. Instead of building a huge Cruise-ville, I wish Norwegian had invested in the locale town, the beaches because many people want to experience a true sense of a place, especially on a first visit. This port was difficult to walk out, because of the barrage of Mexican Merchants selling their wares in the Cruise-ville. A fake place created to mimic the local culture. This location is also bouncing back from Hurricane Ernesto, in 2013, evidence of this is everywhere. Read more