Something for 2 small children

[CruzinKatz]

I'm looking for something suitable for a family of 4 with 2 small children ages 4 and 1.5. I'm concerned about beach time because of sunburn but I haven't been to Costa Maya so I may be totally off base about 2 children being in the sun after noon. (the ship gets to port about noon). Are there any wildlife areas that have tours available. I had thought about a possible glass bottom boat excursion but my son is worried about the baby getting restless and bothering other guests.

 

Thank you

[EviesCruisin]

We took my 15 month old to Maya Chan Beach Resort. We had a shaded palapa (party of 8 passengers). Smaller parties had a palapa or at a minimum an umbrella. There is also a shaded area around the bar for lunch. Each palapa has a beach "bed" which was nice for napping. I was actually really sunburned from the day before in Grand Cayman and I too enjoyed the full shade of the palapa.

 

The pool at Costa Maya port doesn't have shade that I can recall.

 

At 15 months my daughter was very agreeable and the fast paced cruising lifestyle left her napping a lot more than she normally would. We took her along on a snorkel boat excursion and several beach days no problem. Have a good carrier or stroller for naptime.

[cbaker444]

We just returned from a cruise that stopped in Costa Maya and it was our first time too. We had our 3-year-old daughter with us, who like me, has fair skin and burns easily.

 

We went to the Nohoch Kay beach resort in the Mahahual area. There were plenty of palapas and palm trees for shade and that day they weren't too crowded. My daughter LOVED playing in the sand and in the water. The ocean was very warm - almost like bath water warm!

 

To prevent burns, could you buy your kiddos some "rash guard" swim shirts? They make long sleeved ones and they're very comfortable to wear in and out of the water (not too hot).

 

To get there, you need to get a taxi, so the walk through the port town to the taxi area is kinda long -- at least when you have young kids in tow that need to be carried or they walk slow :)

 

The taxi ride itself is about 5-10 minutes.

 

The service at the beach was really great... they had kid-friendly food and lots of drinks for kiddos like bottled water and juice. For kids under a certain age it's free (with paying adult).

[kal72]

Just returned from Costa Maya with our twin 4 year old boys. We had been there before but previously just stayed at the port shopping/pool/bar area. This time we left the pier and found plenty of shade at the beach in the boardwalk area ("malecon") five minutes away in only nearby little resort town of Majahual.

 

I can highly recommend going into Majahual. Its a $5, five minute taxi ride and even if you only do it for an hour, it's worth it. At the all inclusives (which sound lovely and kid-friendly) you'd pay full price no matter how long you stay. That's why we elected to go to Majahual to a non-all inclusive beach side restaurant.

 

Its not neccessary to pre-book or pre-pay (so you can make a last minute decision). We knew its what we wanted so we pre-booked our spot at the Tropicante restaurant and found it to be great. It is a restaurant on the beach / boardwalk, amongst many others. It's not all inclusive because we aren't big drinkers. We ended up drinking more beer than expected (8-9) but our bar/food bill was $30 bucks with a $25 1 hour massage on the beach on top of that.

 

When are you going? if you are the only ship in port, and its low season, your 12 noon arrival will work fine and you can get a great spot under a palm tree or umbrella. That's the nice thing about Tropicante...with no pre-payment, the owner reserved two loungers for us under a tree with an umbrella and literally saw us walking down the boardwalk and knew us!

 

We were worried about sun exposure for our kids too. it is a sunny beach, but lots of shady spots. The boardwalk is paved so its good for a stroller-stroll, if you have a sun shade, the boardwalk might take you 10 minutes end-to-end, but there are lots of colorful merchants who are more than happy to sell you their stuff. You will have to say no thank you a bunch, but who cares!

 

The best part, when you are ready to leave...you have a 1 minute walk to a taxi stand and you can be back at the pier shopping area for a few minutes by the pool before you board the ship.

 

You can get a cab right at the gates to the pier shopping area....that's still a 12-15 minute walk from the ship because that pier is so long. Its cheaper if you walk another 4 or 5 minutes past the gate, there's a nice, partially shaded walkway that will save you a few bucks on the taxi. No matter where you get the taxi, he will drop you back off right at the gate, so that extra 4-5 minute walk is only to get the initial cab into town.

[kal72]

..by the way..We looked at the Maya Chan and Nohoch Cay options too. They are on the same stretch of beach (maya chan being 10 minutes further away)...and both look like exceptional options!

 

Again, the only reason we didn't do either of the above all inclusive resorts was because we wanted the flexibility of not pre-paying, and we didn't know how long we'd stay at any beach. Next time we might try one of those AI's simply because we KNOW we'd stay longer and eat and drink our money's worth. At any of the boardwalk restaurants its a little more bustling / entertaining, a few vendors trying to sell you stuff (although I didn't really notice as much as the some other reviewers did). The AI's would be a little more peaceful, I am sure.

[rjm11]

we took our 4 and 6 year olds to Maya Chan this past April, and it was fantastic. Our own private palapa with a bed and hammock, and they had tons of sand toys and floats for the kids. The bar/restaurant area was very nice, and very accomodating for the kids. They even made them quesadillas (with just cheese and tortillas) as an alternative to the fajitas they were serving. They had lots of kid-drinks included, such as chocolate milkshake things. We booked it again for next year.