Getting off the ship in Costa Maya, you enter a sanitized port shopping area. It's very nice, with a pool, a giant hut restaurant, lots of nice shops. We didn't stay there. We exited and walked a bit behind this walled area to get to the yellow taxi stand. You pay $2.00 a person for them to take you to Mahahual, a beach strip of restaurants, bars and little shops. Immediately, we were approached by women asking if we wanted a seaside massage - no thanks, although it looked like an idyllic setting for one - beautiful water, nice sand, lovely scene. We went almost to the end to the most commercial of the restaurants, Pez Quadro. These guys had their act together. Very courteous, very service oriented, very eager to please. For $20/per person, a gentleman in a boat took my wife, 9 year old and I out to a coral reef where he proceed to anchor the boat (his partner stayed in the boat) and he dived in and guided us around the reef for an hour). That was amazing. Nice day in Costa Maya. Don't be afraid to take a cab to Mahahual - it's the only place you can really go other than the shops and other than overly eager shop keepers, it was a really mellow, cool place to spend the day. 


Costa Maya

Belize City from the perspective of the port looked unappealing to me - but we had booked independently an excursion with cave-tubing.com to go, well, cave tubing. I had NO idea what to expect but the four of us got on this bus with about 35 other cruisers from different ships and started on an hour trek through initially bad neighborhoods and then countryside and then lush jungle. Hosted by guide Ashton, this journey was extremely fun and interesting. This tour company went above and beyond to make us all feel safe and that they wanted to show us a good time. The hour drive ended up at a National Park which was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen in my life - giant cliffs, lush jungle trees, caves, huge caves! I couldn't believe I was experiencing this (and it wasn't expensive at all). Lots of other cave tubing companies also were doing the same thing we were - some had fancy tubes, ours were just black rubber but that was fine. We started down the river and entered the most amazing cave I've ever imagined. It was an unbelievable experience - now I know what the Disney ride is based on - it totally reminded me of the pirate ride there. A spectacular experience for myself, my wife and my 5 and 9 year old girls. Belize appears to be poor though but the jungle and what it offers is NOT to be missed. You will love it. 


Belize City

Cozumel was the most together established port we went to. They had a proper downtown with LOTS of shops and restaurant and, aside from the overly aggressive shop owners, it was a lot of fun to visit. My girls got their hair braided by a lady - this is a whole bargaining thing - you can get your hair braided seemingly every 10 feet - you can do have your head or the whole thing. My girls got half done - $20/for both - they said it hurt - but they look adorable! I holed up in an outdoor patio of a little restaurant and had a couple of beers ($3/two beers) and chips and salsa which were amazing while the hair thing happened. Then, we reconvened and took a cab to Chankanaab. We weren't really sure what it was - kept hearing it was a national park. What it is is a park you pay to get into - $16/adults, $8/kids. You get a beautiful clean area free from annoying people trying to sell you stuff you don't want, kids snorkel pool, unbelievably beautiful lagoon, big and small iguanas just walking around everywhere (they weren't scary - they just kind of hung out), a beautiful snorkel beach with beach chairs and restaurant service, Scuba shops to take you diving, and of course, most likely the most famous thing is the swim with dolphins opportunity - this was way too expensive for us - we spent the day snorkeling and relaxing in the beautiful water and exploring the grounds. I'm not sure you need to pay $48 to enjoy beauty in Cozumel but for the tranquility alone, it was worth it. I'd go back to Chankanaab again but bring your snorkel and mask - they will nickel and dime you otherwise to rent. 


Cozumel

Wonderful cabin close to aft elevator set - nothing particularly unique about room - OH!  There is no pullman bed in this room - it's a couch that folds into a queen size bed - plenty big.

We opted for My Time Dining - for that, you show up on Deck 5 ONLY and confer with Christine (who is a truly remarkable woman - she had the most charming personality and was so gracious and accomodating EVERY night - our girls loved her - My Time Dining was our only real option with youngsters because the first seating was filled at the time of booking and 8:30pm was too late for us.One thing I didn't like was in the Compass, which is this daily newsletter telling you what's going on the next day on the ship, the referred to the night's shows as "Production Show" but didn't say the name, so you never knew what it was - we would have missed Beatlemania LIVE if it weren't for our table mates at dinner telling us - and I have no idea how they knew who was performing that night.

Liberty of the Seas Review

Fantastic Voyage on the Liberty of the Seas

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