Costa Maya Chaos

[Stitch1027]

We just got off of a 6 night western Caribbean on the Fantasy. While we had a fantastic time and felt very comfortable, there was one huge exception: Costa Maya. We had a cold front behind us which made for rainy weather and poor conditions and kept pushing back our estimated time of arrival. We FINALLY docked in Costa maya at 12:30 pm and our excursion to the Mayan Ruins got pushed back to 1:15. They for some reason thought it was a good idea to put all of the Mayan ruins excursions in the Walt Disney theater (about 600 people) and we all waited very close to each other in the hallway by the stores for over an hour. This would be fine if they had given us communication, which there was none. We finally got off the boat at 2:30 and with an hour drive each way to the ruins along with a 5:45 all aboard time, our experience at the ruins was about 1/3 of what we paid for. After some discussions with guest services, we were able to get a 50% refund. Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

[MomOTwins]

We just got off of a 6 night western Caribbean on the Fantasy. While we had a fantastic time and felt very comfortable, there was one huge exception: Costa Maya. We had a cold front behind us which made for rainy weather and poor conditions and kept pushing back our estimated time of arrival. We FINALLY docked in Costa maya at 12:30 pm and our excursion to the Mayan Ruins got pushed back to 1:15. They for some reason thought it was a good idea to put all of the Mayan ruins excursions in the Walt Disney theater (about 600 people) and we all waited very close to each other in the hallway by the stores for over an hour. This would be fine if they had given us communication, which there was none. We finally got off the boat at 2:30 and with an hour drive each way to the ruins along with a 5:45 all aboard time, our experience at the ruins was about 1/3 of what we paid for. After some discussions with guest services, we were able to get a 50% refund. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Sounds like they were doing their best to give people an excursion despite weather delays, which happen on cruise ships, just like flight delays due to weather can cut short your vacation plans for your arrival day on a land vacation. January is notorious for bad weather--it is the month of the year when Castaway Cay is most often missed or arrival is delayed due to unsafe docking conditions. It's part of why January is one of the cheapest months to cruise.

Even on regular on-time excursions, there is always a lot of waiting and transportation built in. Pre-Covid, we usually waited about 30 mins to an hour at the meet up point (usually the theaters or one of the lounges, usually with a large number of other people from other excursions) before leaving the ship on excursions, and had about an hour of transportation time each way. That's one of the reasons we no longer do excursions at every port--it is a lot of waiting around and wasting precious vacation time.

I am not at all surprised they would still use the theater as a meet up point post-Covid, after all, they are doing shows in the theater nightly and the shows are well attended so reasonable for Disney would think guests would not object to being sat in a theater with other guests, especially since everyone is wearing masks indoors.

I do think the compensation you received makes sense because you did not get anywhere close to the amount of time to explore the ruins as you had bargained for.

 

[soniam]

Those long day excursions in Mexico are always at risk of being delayed, canceled, or cut short. They tend to the be ones to the ruins, temples, or jungle parks. In Cozumel, they often have problems with the ferries to get people to the mainland, which causes delays. Costa Maya seemed messed up and delayed the only time we did it, not DCL, and we were late by an hour for our beach day that was only 15 minutes from the port. Not a huge deal, but seems to be the norm.

 

[Stitch1027]

Sounds like they were doing their best to give people an excursion despite weather delays, which happen on cruise ships, just like flight delays due to weather can cut short your vacation plans for your arrival day on a land vacation. January is notorious for bad weather--it is the month of the year when Castaway Cay is most often missed or arrival is delayed due to unsafe docking conditions. It's part of why January is one of the cheapest months to cruise.

Even on regular on-time excursions, there is always a lot of waiting and transportation built in. Pre-Covid, we usually waited about 30 mins to an hour at the meet up point (usually the theaters or one of the lounges, usually with a large number of other people from other excursions) before leaving the ship on excursions, and had about an hour of transportation time each way. That's one of the reasons we no longer do excursions at every port--it is a lot of waiting around and wasting precious vacation time.

I am not at all surprised they would still use the theater as a meet up point post-Covid, after all, they are doing shows in the theater nightly and the shows are well attended so reasonable for Disney would think guests would not object to being sat in a theater with other guests, especially since everyone is wearing masks indoors.

I do think the compensation you received makes sense because you did not get anywhere close to the amount of time to explore the ruins as you had bargained for.

Yes, castaway cay ended up being beautiful so it made up for it. We just felt like they made the entertainment team the escape goats to deal with all of the guest complaints at Costa Maya when they didn’t have much information the share and we’re just doing their jobs.