We have cruised several times with Carnival and we have not been disappointed. It is always a fun and pleasant experience doing Carnival Cruises, for me and my husband.
Galveston, Texas is our homeport- with only 5 hours of driving. We decided to do a short (6-day) cruise from Galveston after a somewhat long 2022 Carnival Mediterranean Cruise and several days of pre-post cruise stay in Rome and Lisbon.
We are happy we did. It was a relaxing and fun cruise with 2 sea days and ports of call in Costa Maya, Belize, and Cozumel.
Cozumel is always fun and nice to visit. There are many shops, port singers/performers, and various attractions.
This is our second visit and this time, we took a ship/shore excursion "Open Top Touristic Bus with Beach Club" which lasted for over 5 hours. All the shore excursion participants met at the port--with a designated number and name (easy to find). Marco- out tour guide is very jolly and full of information. We went to a Mayan Village with tequila tasting-which was very flavorful, and did some shopping. Then, we went to Cozumel downtown-where Marco explained and pointed out some Cozumel landmarks, including a visit to a beautiful Catholic Church (which we went to in 2017)--but at this time the altar is under renovation/improvement.
Then we went to Tequila Beach Restaurant for lunch--the food is good/fresh and yummy, and service was fast in our table. Be sure to get a breakdown however of your bill, just to be sure! The promised beach time was short, and not really appealing/doable.
Over-all, the tour is good as a way to see more of Cozumel outside of the port. The price of the tour is also reasonable.
We did not join a ship excursion in Costa Maya and just visited the port. There are many shops and activities that can be done at the Costa Maya Port, however, it was so hot and humid so we did not stay much longer.
We arrived at 1:00 pm- and went to the pier at about 2:00 pm which was at the "hottest" time. We did browse at the shops a little--but the items were a bit pricey (compared to Cozumel).
There were several attractions like the Mayan traditional artistic flying show
(somewhat dangerous)— and have seen similar one in Tulum, MX; the flamingoes, the aviary with the hanging bridges, swimming with dolphins, kakaw museum, fish spa, and others (some of these are with additional fee).
There is also a Mayan replica, which can be reached by walking-outside of the port area.