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Costa Maya Jungle Beach Break Excursion Review!

joetrizeo

By joetrizeo,
in Costa Maya

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joetrizeo

joetrizeo

Posted
Posted

On my Carnival Victory Western Caribbean cruise our first port of call was Costa Maya.

 

Costa Maya is a new-ish port that is not highly developed like other ports.

 

It looks like someone put a dock in the middle of the Mexican jungle and it sprouted an outdoor shopping center with a large pool and swim up bar.

 

The port itself is nice. It’s nice they have that area just for the cruise passengers. You could spend a day there swimming, eating and shopping.

 

We did not go to the Mujahaul town, but other people have commented on that so read up if you like.

 

We did the jungle beach break (Uvero beach) excursion.

 

We meet at the end of the LONG pier and boarded an air conditioned charter bus and rode north about 40 min to the beach.

 

Quite contrary to some reviews knocking this excursion, the bus ride and beach were fine.

You travel along a narrow dirt road from the port area until you get to the main road (about 2 miles). The bus driver goes fast and smacks trees along the way but who cares! There are no other cars on this road and the trees aren’t gunna hurt the bus! I suspect the other poster who complained about the bus driver going TOO FAST despite screams from passengers to SLOW DOWN was probably the type of person you get stuck behind going 25 in a 45 with their left blinker on for the last 5 miles.

 

any who......

The speed bumps made out of rope were interesting. After the dirt road, you get on main road that’s paved and larger. The ride didn’t feel long. When you get there they tell you about the beach, what they have and where everything’s at. Bathrooms are fine. They have showers to rinse off. There are plenty of chairs to use on the beach. They look like used Carnival deck chairs! The beach is long but not deep. It has a lot of palm trees with coconuts on them which makes for a nice atmosphere rather than the completely open boring beach. There are two bars that serve up free drinks. Tip them a buck or so a drink and they'll take care of you. There’s also bottled water and the ice is from bags. The food is extra. We did not eat their food so cannot comment. The beach is nice but there's a lot of bottom growing seaweed. But they're doing a good job of dredging it out to make a nice swim area. They have paddle boats and kayaks which were fun but the paddle boats have no back supports (they're gone!) so about 15 min was all we could take. They have a rather long pier at this beach too with carpet that has been glued down. The pier is nice to walk out on. At the end is where they have the dolphin swim encounter which was cool to watch at a distance. They also have jet skis and power boats to rent. The jet skis were 60$/30 min but I bet you could negotiate with them. They also have massages on the beach. I think approx 30$ for 30min. Again negotiate.

There are also shops on the beach and people trying to sell you stuff but it's not annoying.

They have a volleyball net and we gathered a group and had a couple games. It was much fun.

 

The snorkeling was a LOT better than I thought it would be.

We brought along our own snorkel gear and snorkeled on our own from shore. But I wouldn’t hesitate to rent gear for 10$ and do it on your own. There’s not a lot of coral, more like rocks but there is a lot of sea life!

The starfish are HUGE and you're bound to see some. We saw a lot of fish schools, big ones and small ones. We saw soft shell crab, stingrays and flounder! The flounder were the best because we chased one from the green seaweed area to the sandy area and watched it immediately change from a greenish color to white and blend in with the sand. Along the dock is the best place to snorkel and see sea life. Be careful please.

 

The day went fast and we had to head back. So we dried off and hopped on a bus. The busses leave at the top of every hour. If your ship leaves at 4:30 make sure you get the 3:00 bus! Not the 4!

 

When we got back we did a little shopping and took some pics of the pier because there were now 3 ships docked and it made for some cool pics.

 

Fun times. Next time I’ll have to try the inclusive beach in Mujahaul and compare them.

 

Later all

 

-JoeT

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ugobon

ugobon

Posted
Posted

I just returned last Thursday. We did the Beach break excursion through Carnival. It was $39 p/p. Not even worth it in my opinion. Again, its just my opinion and that God we are allowed to give our thoughts. I thought the beach was fair. In a scale of 1-10, I'd say a 6. The chairs hadn't been cleaned and who knows when and several were covered in bird poop and had some mold on them. Which wasn't a huge deal, we moved to another area but you would think with it being a new port they would certainly clean it up. I didn't see anyone working there maintaining anything. They do not have blenders so frozen drinks are out of the question. The water was mostly sea grass and after stepping on a starfish, I decided to stay on the beach chair. The food was okay. As for shops, I think there was about 3 little beach hut places (one had tattos, one had jewelry, one had hats and knick Knacks). Our wait for a bus was well over 45 minutes. There were so many people trying to leave on the first bus they had to turn folks away, then with all your gear packed up u had to wait almost an hr for the next bus. Back at the area where u go to the pier, there is a large nice pool with a swim up bar and its surrounded by a bunch of shops of all kinds. All of us in our group wished we would have saved our money and just gone to the pool area. That way u can lay out, drink or shop when ever you felt like it.

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june2006

june2006

Posted
Posted
On my Carnival Victory Western Caribbean cruise our first port of call was Costa Maya.

 

Costa Maya is a new-ish port that is not highly developed like other ports.

 

It looks like someone put a dock in the middle of the Mexican jungle and it sprouted an outdoor shopping center with a large pool and swim up bar.

 

The port itself is nice. It’s nice they have that area just for the cruise passengers. You could spend a day there swimming, eating and shopping.

 

We did not go to the Mujahaul town, but other people have commented on that so read up if you like.

 

We did the jungle beach break (Uvero beach) excursion.

 

We meet at the end of the LONG pier and boarded an air conditioned charter bus and rode north about 40 min to the beach.

 

Quite contrary to some reviews knocking this excursion, the bus ride and beach were fine.

You travel along a narrow dirt road from the port area until you get to the main road (about 2 miles). The bus driver goes fast and smacks trees along the way but who cares! There are no other cars on this road and the trees aren’t gunna hurt the bus! I suspect the other poster who complained about the bus driver going TOO FAST despite screams from passengers to SLOW DOWN was probably the type of person you get stuck behind going 25 in a 45 with their left blinker on for the last 5 miles.

 

any who......

The speed bumps made out of rope were interesting. After the dirt road, you get on main road that’s paved and larger. The ride didn’t feel long. When you get there they tell you about the beach, what they have and where everything’s at. Bathrooms are fine. They have showers to rinse off. There are plenty of chairs to use on the beach. They look like used Carnival deck chairs! The beach is long but not deep. It has a lot of palm trees with coconuts on them which makes for a nice atmosphere rather than the completely open boring beach. There are two bars that serve up free drinks. Tip them a buck or so a drink and they'll take care of you. There’s also bottled water and the ice is from bags. The food is extra. We did not eat their food so cannot comment. The beach is nice but there's a lot of bottom growing seaweed. But they're doing a good job of dredging it out to make a nice swim area. They have paddle boats and kayaks which were fun but the paddle boats have no back supports (they're gone!) so about 15 min was all we could take. They have a rather long pier at this beach too with carpet that has been glued down. The pier is nice to walk out on. At the end is where they have the dolphin swim encounter which was cool to watch at a distance. They also have jet skis and power boats to rent. The jet skis were 60$/30 min but I bet you could negotiate with them. They also have massages on the beach. I think approx 30$ for 30min. Again negotiate.

There are also shops on the beach and people trying to sell you stuff but it's not annoying.

They have a volleyball net and we gathered a group and had a couple games. It was much fun.

 

The snorkeling was a LOT better than I thought it would be.

We brought along our own snorkel gear and snorkeled on our own from shore. But I wouldn’t hesitate to rent gear for 10$ and do it on your own. There’s not a lot of coral, more like rocks but there is a lot of sea life!

The starfish are HUGE and you're bound to see some. We saw a lot of fish schools, big ones and small ones. We saw soft shell crab, stingrays and flounder! The flounder were the best because we chased one from the green seaweed area to the sandy area and watched it immediately change from a greenish color to white and blend in with the sand. Along the dock is the best place to snorkel and see sea life. Be careful please.

 

The day went fast and we had to head back. So we dried off and hopped on a bus. The busses leave at the top of every hour. If your ship leaves at 4:30 make sure you get the 3:00 bus! Not the 4!

 

When we got back we did a little shopping and took some pics of the pier because there were now 3 ships docked and it made for some cool pics.

 

Fun times. Next time I’ll have to try the inclusive beach in Mujahaul and compare them.

 

Later all

 

-JoeT

 

there painting his tiles with his fingernail? it was quite interesting ... I bought a tile and took picutres of him painting my friends tile!

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martym112

martym112

Posted
Posted

We found the Jungle Beach Excursion to be a nightmare! The bus ride was long but not uncomfortable. It would have been nice to have the bus driver pointing out some of the local points of interest along the way ( the way they have at other excursions we've gone on). The only thing the bus driver did say was to hound us for tips.

 

The beach & bathrooms were filthy! There was more toilet paper floating in the sea than in the restroom. The drinks were watered down & when we requested vodka & ice, they refused to give it to us without some flavored water dumped in. Guess they didn't want us to find out that the alcohol was heavily watered down.

 

It was a 1 hour wait in a huge mob of people, for the bus to take us back to the dock. Probaly everyone had the same idea...get the heck out of there.

 

We booked this thru Carnival for $39. If you didn't book it thru them & wanted to go, it was only $25. Shame on Carnival not researching this excursion better!

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JRA382

JRA382

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Posted

We took this excursion through Royal Caribbean, (3/20/07) and really enjoyed it. We took the bus (about 40 minutes—loading included) to the beach. The beach area was very nice. There were plenty of chairs and umbrellas. The drinks we included (not very strong, but still very good and refreshing especially “Carlos’s special”). Ordered Nachos and Quesadilla to eat—very good. It was windy so there were some small waves. The water was clearer walking out on the pier, but I saw a few people snorkeling. We were there from around 9am until 12:00 (island time). Had no problem loading on the bus back (left promptly at noon, like the staff said… there were people line upped behind us who did not make it on the first bus- (we were at the very front of the line and probably got in line about 15-20 minutes before it was to arrive-hung out in the resturant area by the pool table), and was able to walk around the port area for a few hours. Overall, like I said very much enjoyed it, thought the beach and water was beautiful, a very relaxing day. Would definitely consider doing it again.

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CalifCruiser1

CalifCruiser1

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Posted

:) We actually booked our cruise on going back to costa maya because of Uvero Beach it was awesome we did the little boats and snorkle we stayed there all day and had no problems it was super clean the drinks were very good when in doubt order beer we had nothing wrong at all even the bus, we never had any waiting. Even our teens want to go back there - we leave the 8th of april 2007 Karon

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