Nothing going on here except an overpriced, price-gouging small port area. Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville will tell you the beach is free, but it's not. They will try to charge you for chairs etc, and if you balk they'll basically tell you you can't go in. Quite a few stores in the shopping village are closed. A few, that promised free wifi, won't give you wifi unless you make a $5.00 minimum purchase. And the Margaritaville gift shop doesn't have prices on the merchandise, making it a "let's make a deal" game with employees. When I mentioned that they really should have items marked with a price, I was told "that's what we're here for, to give you the prices."

Really not a pleasant town to walk around. I'd recommend a shore excursion here but there didn't seem to be much to do. Wife and son made the right choice in staying on board.

Cozumel is a fun port. Greatly resent being forced to march through the Dufry duty-free shop in order to get to the port village. You can avoid it by veering to the left through the "crew area." I object to having to go through the shop because your fellow passengers will stop to ogle booze, cigarettes, perfume and souvenirs really creating congestion while all I'm trying to do is get to the beach. Besides, you can shop on the way back. You're prbably NOT going to be buying these items for immediate use.

We spent our day at Paradise Beach. Worth Googling. About a $15 cab ride. Fantastic pool, nice beach and good, reasonably priced food. Admission was $3.00 pp with a promise to each buy $10.00 in food. Staff there seemed really, really concerned about having visitors leave nothing less than exceptional reviews on the comment card you were forced to fill out.

Hint: There are a number of small shops just beyond the port area. My wife made a bee-line for the farmacia in the shopping village area. Everything she bought was substantially cheaper just outside the port gates. There's a 7-11 there, along with numerous smaller souvenir shops offering similar merchandise at better prices.