20260115 Celebrity Constellation Western Caribbean Day 5 - Costa Maya, Mexico

Celebrity Constellation Western Caribbean Day 5 – Costa Maya, Mexico - Apparently, "Costa" means "Crowded"

Before we get into today, I had some time and did another edit on the underwater footage I shot yesterday. If you're interested, there is lots of really cool footage in the video, but it is 11:41 long. Baracuda, nurse sharks, rays, lobster, and more. I'll add it here so you don't have to go back to yesterday's entry.

We docked this morning in Costa Maya, Mexico. After two extremely long excursion days, we didn't book anything for today. Instead, we planned to just walk into the port and wander. That was also the plan for about 12,000 of our closest friends.

We were docked across the walkway from the Carnival Miracle. As we walked down the walkway, we were looking at Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas directly in front of us.

Walking the ship tunnel

At the end of our ship, we could see our Celebrity Constellation on the left, the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas right behind, Harmony of the Seas next to it, and the Carnival Miracle on the right.

A lot of seagoing tonnage in one photo

Why is this important? Contellation, Miracle, and Rhapsody are all roughly 2,100-passenger ships, give or take. Harmony is closer to 6,000, or more, depending on whether the rooms that can support three or four passengers are full. In any event, it meant that 12,000 people all descended on Costa Maya all at once.

Turning to make the long walk down the pier into port - they did offer a free shuttle every few minutes, especially for the mobility-impaired

The main port area is on the left with eateries, bars, and shops

Approaching the port

Just inside the port, passengers who booked excursions were meeting their tour groups. The bulk of the people were just walking into the port. There are a lot of folks who cruise the Caribbean extensively and often. It means that they have been to most or all of the ports multiple times. They typically don't do excursions and head into port. That seemed to be the case today.

They were demonstrating a Mayan ritual in the port. Four climbers scale the pole and attach themselves to it with long ropes. The ropes are wound around the pole. 

The pole was quite tall

All at once, the four drop from the top, hanging prone or upside down. They swing around the pole, completing 13 revolutions as the rope lowers them to the ground.

One of them was playing a flute and drum as he was suspended upside down

Four performers times 13 revolutions equals 52 - the same number of weeks in the Mayan solar calendar - a significant number in Mayan culture

We browsed the shops with our 12,000 buddies

They had a pond for flamingos in the port

There is also a large pool available for swimming, complete with bars all around it

There is a beach available, but the "launge" chairs are only for those willing to pay for food and drink

We were briefly captured by Mayan warriors, but they took pity and allowed us to leave with our heads

Walking back along the pier, we could really see the difference in Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody (left) and Harmony (right) of the Seas - Harmony holds three times the passengers as Rhapsody

All four ships, sort of - our Constellation is hidden behind the Carnival Miracle

There it is

We headed to the buffet for a light lunch. While there, we got the opportunity to chat with the Captain (left) and the Staff Captain (right).

Both of them were very gracious and welcoming

The Captain confirmed that we are sailing with 2,130 passengers, only 40 shy of the full double-occupancy capacity of 2,170, or essentially full capacity. That certainly explains the crowds in the buffet at breakfast and sometimes lunch. It also explains what I have begun to call the slowest elevators at sea. There are times when you can stand for several minutes waiting for elevators on this ship. 

The rest of the afternoon was lazy, with Arlona reading on the balcony, staring across the way at the Miracle, and me getting a jumpstart on this blog.

Speaking of the Miracle, as we walked past it, we asked one of their disembarking passengers if the dining room was still ugly. She laughed and said that yes, it still has the ugly purple grape-like lights all over the ceiling. Nice to see that some things never change.

We tried our hand at trivia again this afternoon, partnered with a very nice U.K. couple. We scored 14/20, just missing the win at 16/20. Our misses are below.

• How many anchors did the Titanic have?
• We thought it might be a trick question and guessed zero - it was three
• When was the first Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade?
• We had no idea - it was 1924
• Who was the first U.S. President featured on the cover of People Magazine
• We guessed Nixon - the answer was Ford, but subsequent research showed that it was Nixon, but he wasn't president at the time, so a technicality
• Who starred as Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me?
• We guessed Sean Connery, but it was Roger Moore
• In what 1955 musical did Marlon Brando sing?
• We had no idea - it was Guys and Dolls
• What country borders Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, and Ukraine?
• We thought Romania, but it was Poland

We still had fun and learned something.

From there, we enjoyed time at the Martini Bar and talked with several interesting folks. We headed to Blu for a quick dinner before heading to the theater for Shaun Jay's headliner magic show.

It was another entertaining show, and we enjoyed it.

One of the benefits that we get with our status on Celebrity is a free scoop of gelato at the gelato bar. We opted to take advantage of that tonight. We took the sweet treat back to the room and enjoyed it.

Tomorrow and the next day are sea days, so we'll be taking it easy with shipboard activities. We did have some oddities that we dealt with today. Mysteriously, a random shore excursion charge of $114.75 showed up on our account, as well as $5 non-resident tax charges from Mexico. We questioned them. The shore excursion team investigated and figured out that we were somehow incorrectly charged for a shore excursion. They reversed the charge for that. The Mexican tax is new, since July 2025. Mexico now imposes a $5 non-resident tax for all non-residents visiting Mexico. We were only charged once, even though we visited Mexico on two different days. Weird, but it's free money for Mexico.

That ended day #5 for us.