Celebration Day 4: Costa Maybe

Have you heard of Costa Maybe? We hadn't until we docked on our 4th day in Costa Maya. The waves and rocking were easily the worst that we have ever experienced on a cruise ship. When we woke up late, we thought we were still out at sea based on the movement of the ship. To our surprise, we were actually docked and the waves we were hearing were actually waves bouncing off the boat and onto the pier!

After a late wake up, I decided to head to Shaq’s again for breakfast. I decided early on in this vacation that I would consume all the gluten I wanted since typically I eat completely gluten free. SO crispy chicken and a biscuit for breakfast was a true treat as a southern favorite prior to going gluten free. Cory woke up slightly hung over and feeling off- so he enjoyed a simple breakfast from the buffet. We tend to stay away from the buffet on Carnival cruises to enjoy the other dining spots since there are so many other delicious options.

After breakfast, we decided to head off ship to port. Really I wanted to check out the massive waves against the piers. Costa Maya has a great resort area for cruisers that includes a beach area (with no ocean access), a pool and swim up bar area (more to come on that), a dolphin pool for swimming with the dolphins, flamingos and a bird sanctuary, and a restaurant. Basically you can get off the ship and be in your own little city.

We really went off port to wander around and grab a few t-shirts. We did just that! We wandered some sketchy shops with random trinkets, found some expensive t-shirts, then found the cheap ones- the best vacation shirts are always the cheapest ones! We found a 5 for $20 deal. That’s hard to beat!

We came across the flamingos and watched them venture around for a bit. They are truly fascinating animals. The flamingo area is right under the bird sanctuary so I was less than thrilled to be standing under a bunch of large birds with large beaks. So we quickly moved on to check out the dolphins and watch the dolphins swim with fellow cruisers. Although this sounds like such a fun excursion, I have very little desire to swim with dolphins or be in the same water as them so I enjoyed watching them from a distance.

After the dolphins we explored the rest of the port. We checked out the pool with a swim up bar and let me tell you, I love water and even more love that I don’t have to get out of the pool to grab a drink BUT you could not have paid me to get into that water. It was very cloudy and just looked like someone poured in a few bottles of sunscreen. That may not bother you but the cloudy water made it an easy decision to head back to the ship for a cold drink and a clean pool!

We got back on ship before lunch time so most places were not open yet but we were hungry. Lucky for us, pizza was open almost 24 hours straight. So pizza for a mid morning lunch was exactly what we did! We hung out in the seating area by the pizza place and enjoyed the hot pizza and people watched as the ship swayed back and forth in the waves. After pizza it was time for pool time and a cold drink! We ended up heading to deck 16 at the back of the boat for a few hours.

While reading and enjoying the sun we watched at least 3 other cruise ships come closer to port to dock and have to turn away due to the massive waves and dangers of docking. We learned while sitting up there that our ship actually had a small hole in it from its morning docking (luckily it was a small hole and was putting us in no danger of being the next Titanic). We also learned through talking to other guests that since we were on a brand new ship, our ship had stabilizers that gave our boat the ability to dock safely.

After a few hours of sun, a few cold beverages and Cory taking a nap in his chair. It was time for lunch. Today we chose Shaq’s strictly out of convenience since we were sitting on the pool deck right by it and it smelled DELICIOUS! If you ask us what our main food group is, we're probably going to have to admit we eat way too many chicken nuggets so we had to enjoy a few while on vacation!

The time between lunch and dinner was more pool, more books and probably a few more beverages around the ship. Nothing significant, nothing exciting and not worth wasting your time reading about. Naturally we got ready for dinner, and headed down to the main dining room.

We were really lucky with the staff that served us on our cruise. I Made and Ketut were the best servers and made plenty of jokes with us each evening when we sat down. They greeted us by name, and always were attentive. This is not always the case on the bigger ships so we were thrilled to have the best experience. Dining on a cruise is always interesting because you never know who will be seated around you. We have been fairly lucky with the people we have sat with in the past and have even stayed in contact with several of them. On this cruise, we kept more to ourselves since there were families with younger children around.

It was finally Family Feud night and we were excited for the shows ahead! We got to the theater early enough to snatch some decent seats. Doors typically open about 30-45 minutes early for these shows so we have learned it's best to get there and just relax while you wait versus possibly missing the show due to over capacity. Family Feud Live is hosted by the cruise director and we had a fantastic cruise director leading the way. There were ridiculous answers, serious plays and lots of laughs from the audience. Family Feud Live is played by three different groups in three different time slots, one being the afterhours version… being in the sun all day, day drinking and being on vacation we did not make this show which was a bummer.

Between the two shows, there is a break where they have to clean the theater so we decided to hit the casino and play some slots. As much as I love to shop, I hate losing money on slots so I typically don’t play much. I was shocked to play Wheel of Fortune and win $40! Immediately, I cashed out and watched Cory play and lose just as much money as I had just won.

Next was time for a nightcap after a fun day of sun, lots of rocking and a few shows. The theme of the cruise for Cory was smoking drinks. Tonight he wanted to venture to Latitudes for a smoking Martini just to watch the show with a smoke bubble! And of course, a few songs in the piano bar before calling it a night to do it again the next day at our FAVORITE port.

Although Costa Maya gave us crazy sea legs we had a blast and were so excited for Roatan, Honduras! Come back for our next post to hear why this is our favorite port, and let us talk you into cruising with more fun and details on our adventures!