Trip to Costa Maya, Mexico

 Costa Maya, Mexico was never on my travel list for 2026 but here we are!

And look at that pretty blue water! And the random sailboat that is aground on the beach on the right side of the picture!

My mom has been here a million times and there really isn't much to do here if you aren't into or aren't doing adventure sports/visiting Mayan ruins, so I just got off the ship by myself for a little bit today.

Oh, there were FOUR ships parked here at Costa Maya! So ridiculous. We had the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas, the Carnival Miracle, the Norwegian Viva and of course, our Celebrity Constellation.

Which is why I didn't stay long in Costa Maya, but I did want to say that I had been there before.

Welcome to Costa Maya!

The Mexican flag flying over one of the bars reminded me that, oh yes! I'm in Mexico!

You can take your picture (for a fee of course) with some of the people in traditional native costumes.

These guys also go up here and swing around upside down - what a show! NO THANK YOU!

I would definitely fall and crack my noggin.

This fish was so cute but... what? Is that a bobber and a fishing hook???

This "port" is pretty much just a big strip mall with some bars and restaurants. They also have saltwater pools (and swim up bars, who doesn't love those?)

They even have some cute flamingos walking around!

Save water, drink tequila. Ok, no thanks... but maybe I'll have a beer!

This bar let you have a drink while you kept your toes in the sand, and an eye on your cruise ship.

Why yes, I will have a morning Tecate Light. Thank you very much.

Me and my Tecate hanging out in Costa Maya, Mexico.

Toes in the sand. Ok, ok... shoes in the sand!

I walked around, did a little shopping (you know... for my shot glass!) and snapped a pic with these good folks.

And that was about it, so I headed back to the ship! It was a nice couple of hours on land!

Heading back to ol' Connie for a little lunch and to find my mom.

She was at the pool, so I stopped for pizza and a drink. Which is literally what I did for lunch EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  Some guy stopped me and chatted for like 15 minutes because I was wearing my Mizzou Mom t-shirt!

I found my mom and we spent a little time out by the pool before we eventually headed back to the room. I cannot get over how pretty this water is! I'm so happy that we spent so much time out on the balcony because on the last cruise we were on (Royal Caribbean), we were so busy that we didn't really have time to enjoy it. This was much more relaxing!

VERY relaxing.

We really wanted to know the story of this sailboat is! Did it land here in a hurricane?

Finally, it was time to leave our final port.  Adios, Costa Maya!

And of course, we went to Blu for dinner. It really was Blu in there!

I had another glass of this really fantastic cabernet!  Thankfully they had this auto shades that blocked some of that bright sunset for me. It kind of gave me a little PTSD though because we have auto shades at work, and they always startle me when they start moving (they're very loud!)

We had another yummy dinner at Blu! I really liked the portion sizes - mostly because you also got an appetizer, bread, and a dessert with this. You never really left with that "oh I ate way too much" feeling.

Mom and I decided on this particular evening to hit up the casino with our $20. We walked through the Rendezvous Lounge to get there, where they had some live music playing.

Ok, here I go!

Mom had a little bit better luck than I did! We both spent our whole $20 - because really, that is the point. I really liked this casino because it was smoke-free! That made the whole 10 minutes I spent in there much more enjoyable. I am NOT a high roller!

But I do love a good drink at the Martini Bar, and I could always count on Andrew to make me a really good Maker's and Coke Zero. Bonus points (MAJOR bonus points) to Celebrity for having a) Coca Cola products and b) actual Coke Zero at the bars.

The sunset was beautiful on this evening!

There is absolutely nothing like a beautiful sunset over the water. 

Up next, a couple of days at sea!  Until next time, Costa Maya!