We'd not sailed to Costa Maya before so the substitution in place of hurricane devastated Princess Cays was a welcome one.    Our ship docked early and we met friends we'd met through CruiseCritic.com and come to know on this cruise to go to the beach.  

If we'd wanted to we could have stayed right there and made a day of it.  In a setup somewhat reminiscent of St Maarten, there's  a substantial shopping area at the end of the pier. 

But that's about as much in common as the two places have.

We were met with the typically aggressive sales force while walking through a maze of shops designed to parade us right past many merchants on our way to the ground transportation we needed to get to Majahaual which is spelled totally wrong, a different beach/shopping area not too far from there.

The cost was reasonable to transfer ($3 there, $2 back), and the system was well organized.  

There we found a "friend" or shall I say a "friend" found us who helped find a good place to park for the day and shops that had what we wanted.   Manalo was his name and if I can get a picture up here he's be a good one to look up if you travel here.   We felt right at home all day and somewhat protected.   I think the way it works is that one if one of these guys has you as "theirs" then nobody else is supposed to bug you.  It kind of reminded me of a similar situation we'd experienced before in Jamaica.   Those cab drivers there are kind of possessive too.   It was cool.

The beach there was nothing to write home about but we had one of he nicest days ever in port sitting Oceanside, being served Corona's and relaxing.  And all for a grand total of about $30 for the two of us.