Icon - closed slides

[alpineapa]

We had purposely decided to stay on boat and not go out on Cozumel to take advantage of slides with no lineups.

 

we got there and several of the slides were closed to do film crew. I understand there is no good time to do this but maybe instead of 10 am they could have done super early in the day? Just thought I’d mention in case others plan a day like us.

 

also, our last 2 cruises we did not stop in costa maya. It is a super hard port to dock, staff said they almost never stop so something to keep in mind re managing kids expectations.

[PhillyFan33579]

I never plan on something being open on a port day. Experience has told me this is when they close slides, close flowriders, close various pools and hot tubs, etc. for maintenance or other activities like you are experiencing. I have been to Costa Maya at least a dozen times and have never been on a ship that wasn’t able to dock there. On the other hand, on a handful of cruises we weren’t able to dock at Coco Cay due to the weather/choppy water. 

[c-leg5]

It is regularly reported on Costa Maya forum that ships are unable to dock. 
 

It appears to have been worse since they extended the dock. Purely speculation, but I wonder if it appears more don’t dock because more ships are now scheduled, so increased chance of not docking.
 

I also wonder if it is due to the layout of the piers and if one orientation is more difficult than the other under certain weather conditions. It would be interesting to know if those scheduled at one pier get cancelled more often than others because certainly on a given day one ship will dock and another abort.

 

That said, we have been to Costa Maya many times and have only been unable to dock once on a smaller, older ship without aziPods. We have watched other ships come and go without docking while we were sat at the beach.

Edited March 6 by c-leg5

[BecciBoo]

25 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 I have been to Costa Maya at least a dozen times and have never been on a ship that wasn’t able to dock there. On the other hand, on a handful of cruises we weren’t able to dock at Coco Cay due to the weather/choppy water. 

Same here, at least a dozen Costa Maya and at least 8 times to CoCo and we docked or tendered and had great days at all of them.  In fact in 27 years of cruising we NEVER had any port cancelled even in Hurricane Ivan which diverted our fight to Fl.

[alpineapa]

1 hour ago, BecciBoo said:

Same here, at least a dozen Costa Maya and at least 8 times to CoCo and we docked or tendered and had great days at all of them.  In fact in 27 years of cruising we NEVER had any port cancelled even in Hurricane Ivan which diverted our fight to Fl.

Oh wow that is super lucky!!! We’ve been on 10 or so cruises and so far 1/2 of them we had a missed port. We didn’t care too much re costa maya but fingers crossed for

coco cay that would be a tough one to miss

[leaveitallbehind]

2 hours ago, alpineapa said:

....our last 2 cruises we did not stop in costa maya. It is a super hard port to dock, staff said they almost never stop so something to keep in mind re managing kids expectations.

Interesting comment by the staff as we have been there 4 or 5 times and have always been able to dock without any issues.  It can be affected by wind conditions, but depending on number of ships there at once, there are two docking direction options.

 

As others have mentioned we have not had any issues at CocoCay in the past 4-5 times there as well since the pier was built.  (Missed one time about 25 years ago due to rough conditions, but that was a tendering issue)

Edited March 6 by leaveitallbehind

[Charles4515]

6 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

I also wonder if it is due to the layout of the piers and if one orientation is more difficult than the other under certain weather conditions. It would be interesting to know if those scheduled at one pier get cancelled more often than others because certainly on a given day one ship will dock and another abort.

 

 

The day we were there we were able to dock at the pier that is parallel to Costa but we watched an NCL ship try to dock at the perpendicular pier. After 3 tries they aborted. 

[Charles4515]

6 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

Same here, at least a dozen Costa Maya and at least 8 times to CoCo and we docked or tendered and had great days at all of them.  In fact in 27 years of cruising we NEVER had any port cancelled even in Hurricane Ivan which diverted our fight to Fl.

You were lucky with Coco Cay. Before the dock was built we missed all three times. 

[BecciBoo]

We did the first Coco way back in 2008  clear as a bell and mermaid still there

 

Second pic 2009  third trip 2011 can't find the pic but all 3 tender trips were gorgeous.

Edited March 6 by BecciBoo

[Tree_skier]

7 hours ago, alpineapa said:

It is a super hard port to dock, staff said they almost never stop

I have never missed a Costa Maya port and have never heard any indication it is a super hard port to dock.  I have had excursions canceled due to weather but never missed the port.

 

I'm not doubting that that is what was said to you but whoever said it was spouting complete nonsense.  

[barbeyg]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

You were lucky with Coco Cay. Before the dock was built we missed all three times. 

Before the dock, we missed 3 of 4 stops there due to weather. After the dock, we’ve not missed one stop there.

 

And we’ve missed 3 stops at Labadee as well.  Still haven’t made it to Labadee.  🤷🏻‍♀️

[leaveitallbehind]

11 minutes ago, barbeyg said:

Before the dock, we missed 3 of 4 stops there due to weather. After the dock, we’ve not missed one stop there.

 

And we’ve missed 3 stops at Labadee as well.  Still haven’t made it to Labadee.  🤷🏻‍♀️

Also unusual since they built the pier in 2009.  Must have been some pretty bad sea conditions!

Edited March 6 by leaveitallbehind

[barbeyg]

31 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Also unusual since they built the pier in 2009.  Must have been some pretty bad sea conditions!

I just assumed it was just our luck with CocoCay. 😂 They said it was high winds each time.  Labadee, once was weather, the other two times were changes to the itinerary to remove Labadee after we had the cruise booked, if I remember correctly (long time ago). And we haven’t had an itinerary with Labadee included since. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Edited March 7 by barbeyg

[BirdTravels]

9 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

It is regularly reported on Costa Maya forum that ships are unable to dock. 
 

It appears to have been worse since they extended the dock. Purely speculation, but I wonder if it appears more don’t dock because more ships are now scheduled, so increased chance of not docking.
 

I also wonder if it is due to the layout of the piers and if one orientation is more difficult than the other under certain weather conditions. It would be interesting to know if those scheduled at one pier get cancelled more often than others because certainly on a given day one ship will dock and another abort.

 

That said, we have been to Costa Maya many times and have only been unable to dock once on a smaller, older ship without aziPods. We have watched other ships come and go without docking while we were sat at the beach.

Like most ports, it depends on the weather. Wind. Seas. Ships with out azipods normally have thrusters to move them into/away from the dock. 

 

And docking does not mean that it is really good for the passengers. We docked at Costa Maya. In our case, the swell was coming and breaking against the ship. With every wave, water enveloped the gangway. Ship's security officers signaled passengers when it was "safe" to run down the wet, slippery gangway. If you were too slow, you got whacked up side the head by an incoming wave. The ship kept her bow thrusters and azipods running to hold the ship against the dock. 

 

 

Edited March 7 by BirdTravels

[BecciBoo]

13 hours ago, barbeyg said:

 Labadee, once was weather

We've been to Labadee 4 times, before the pier and after and never missed it...when are you folks booking your cruises? Our fave month to book is Sept. cheaper fares because of Hurricane season and kids back in school.  Never had any weather problems at all and that includes Alaska where we usually book the last cruise of the season before they leave for Hawaii, hardly any rain there either.  Actually the worst month we've experienced is March and April because it's so cold...and here we are cruising in 2 weeks LOL, never learn.  But we plan on staying aboard for both cruises.

[barbeyg]

1 hour ago, BecciBoo said:

We've been to Labadee 4 times, before the pier and after and never missed it...when are you folks booking your cruises? Our fave month to book is Sept. cheaper fares because of Hurricane season and kids back in school.  Never had any weather problems at all and that includes Alaska where we usually book the last cruise of the season before they leave for Hawaii, hardly any rain there either.  Actually the worst month we've experienced is March and April because it's so cold...and here we are cruising in 2 weeks LOL, never learn.  But we plan on staying aboard for both cruises.

Back then, we were booking in December mostly.  And I can’t remember what the reason was for RCI dropping Labadee from our two cruises that were booked.  Some kind of issue there.  We will make it one day! 🙂  And since we are retiring, there won’t be a work schedule we have to adhere to. 😁

[PTC DAWG]

16 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

The day we were there we were able to dock at the pier that is parallel to Costa but we watched an NCL ship try to dock at the perpendicular pier. After 3 tries they aborted. 

The winds there can be brutal...I have been told that perpendicular pier is by far the trickiest.  

[wampuscat7]

On 3/6/2024 at 8:28 AM, alpineapa said:

We had purposely decided to stay on boat and not go out on Cozumel to take advantage of slides with no lineups.

 

we got there and several of the slides were closed to do film crew. I understand there is no good time to do this but maybe instead of 10 am they could have done super early in the day? Just thought I’d mention in case others plan a day like us.

What time were the slides listed as open in the cruise compass/app? Just curious as to whether it was planned prior to the cruise or if that was a schedule change once on board.