We chose this cruise as it was something that we had always dreamed of doing. We purchased excursions for every day at port and each were better than the last, we had amazing experiences and a wonderful time in Nassau at Blue Lagoon Beach, Cozumel at the Coba Pyramid and Cynote swim (my favourite) and Roatan at the extreme jungle zip line. However Costa Maya was different. We were extremely disappointed with the all inclusive beach day excursion. At $99 per person The water was dirty; we couldn’t get in, We were asked to pay to rent snorkeling equipment dispite the brochure advertising the cost of the excursion as including use of the resort facilities. There were only two kayaks for over 100 people at the resort and I’m quite sure that unless you went up and ordered cocktail drinks from the bar yourself and saw it being made, they were not putting alcohol into them. There was loud music playing all the time which definately was not conducive to a relaxing time. We cut it short, only stayed one hour, and headed back to the port. Here we had a much better time in the shops and by the pool. I would definitely recommend steering clear of the all inclusive beach day in Costa Maya.

We bought the 8pm my dining package and the fine dining experience for three restaurants. Wouldn’t bother with these again. Dinner in the silk restaurant was fabulous and not that much below the quality of the fine dining restaurants. The next time I would opt for the earlier dining time of 6pm as we missed a lot of shows etc as they were on between 8pm and 10pm; if we wanted to go for a “fancier” dinner we will just buy it as a once off. Must say however that the galley champagne brunch on the last full sailing day was really cool!! And at €35 per person it was definately worth the money.

We also prepaid our gratuities and bought the deluxe drinks package. Delighted we did this because we were determined to get the most out of it