The Carnival Ecstasy docked here in Puerta Maya.
This is a very nice port with an impressive number of shops including touristy restaurants, souvenir shops, jewelry stores, and places to purchase alcohol, cigarettes and hand-made items. Like most places, you will have to hunt for the deals and, in the smaller shops, negotiate for the items that you want to buy.
The first thing that you see when exiting the ship is the impressive and expansive DUFY shop that you must pass through when entering and exiting the port. Once on the other side of the DUFY, you will immediately find Fat Tuesdays, Diamonds International and Tres Amigos. After that, if you get caught up in the excitement everything becomes a blur.
Near the front entrance of Puerta Maya (out by the main road) is where you will find taxis to take you to either a beach or downtown San Miguel (about 5 miles). A trip to Paradise Beach (about 4-5 miles away) for up to 4 persons is $14, be sure that you don't pay more. Also, there are horse and buggy tours available. Directly across from the port are a few more shops. And again, like most places, if you truly want a more authentic Cozumel experience, you need to get away from the touristy port.
If you are feeling more adventurous, there are rental places that offer scooters and cars for rent. I didn't feel that my stay was long enough to warrant renting a vehicle but a few cruisers did so. To me, it sounded like they had a good time driving around the island -- from looking at the map, it seems like it would be hard to get lost.
Puerta Maya itself is a beautiful and serene port. I noticed that even though it was busy with tourists it was still a very quiet and laid back place -- well except for the music streaming from Tres Amigos.
Although I don't think that it is a place that I long to become a regular at (there is only so much souvenir shopping and over-priced food and drinks that I can handle), my experience here was good. I can't complain. read more