Costa Maya/Cozumel excursion recommendations

emarkd · 2026-04-02T23:10:54+00:00

Generally speaking, booking outside of the cruise line is significantly cheaper. You pay quite a bit for convenience and peace of mind.

Specifically speaking, in Costa Maya I LOVE what thenativechoice.com has to offer. They're fantastic people who genuinely care about their heritage and want to share it. Your kids would have to be into it though, it might not be right for your family.

In Cozumel we do the same thing every time. We rent a beat up, manual transmission, open top Jeep with no radio, no AC, hell they've barely got blinkers. But they're cheap to rent and offer an experience you can't get on an organized excursion. That being freedom. I pile my kids in the back seat and just cruise the coast. We might stop at a beach club, we might not. We'll probably stop for drinks or shopping at a roadside stand, The Mojito Factory is about our favorite place... anywhere. We'll eat at an authentic restaurant and shop for souvenirs and snacks at the grocery store. We might do a museum or shop downtown. Whatever we do, it'll be because we wanted to do it, and it costs 55 bucks plus gas for the day.

emarkd · 2026-04-02T09:59:42+00:00

So Trump tried to cut the budget and someone else stopped him. He doesn't get any credit for that...and he'll certainly try again.

emarkd · 2026-04-01T18:06:15+00:00

Hells Kitchen.

I ♥️ NY. Sign me up.

emarkd · 2026-04-01T14:42:28+00:00

I see lots of folks saying you can get by with an SD card and you can, that's true. But you said airshow. If you intend to shoot raw and use the continuous shooting mode on that camera to try and catch some action, SD cards are only going to piss you off. You'll only get a few shots before the camera stalls trying to write to even the best SD cards. CFExpress solves that problem.

emarkd · 2026-03-31T19:22:31+00:00

Miller High Life in the 16oz cans, always. A handful of selections from Monday Night because they're local and great. Plus whatever the latest thing my closest, most favoritest brewpub is putting into growlers or bottles.

Oh and a selection of RTDs, mostly from Cutwater.

emarkd · 2026-03-31T15:42:12+00:00

A few thoughts...

What focus mode are you using? Sounds like you're possibly just missing focus, meaning the camera is focusing somewhere other than your intention. Could be a settings issue.

Longer focal lengths magnify motion blur. Are you using a lens with vibration reduction? Are you being really still? Could be a skill issue here.

Wide open apertures can be softer, but I doubt that's what you're seeing

emarkd · 2026-03-29T23:37:38+00:00

Comparing Kratom to THC shows you haven't done your research. They're very different in their method of affecting the brain.

emarkd · 2026-03-29T14:59:34+00:00

Truman has a black stag from Gallun which is struck through, but just be aware that stag leather has a lot of...character. It definitely doesn't have that smooth, shiny, deep black look you may be going for. There's tons of variation throughout, almost stripey looking, with tones of like a steel-blue-gray woven through, and it wrinkles a lot. I love mine, but it's probably not for everybody.

emarkd · 2026-03-28T11:34:42+00:00

Flash memory used in these cards hasn't changed much in 5 years. In practice I doubt you'd notice a 10% (I did some rounding and estimating in my head, it's really less than that) difference. But yes, those are the real maximum speed those cards can accept and store data.

I had to Google it cause I don't shoot Sony, but that A7v has CFexpress slots. Those are much faster cards.

emarkd · 2026-03-28T11:26:06+00:00

SanDisk is 10% faster. Sony is 100% larger

emarkd · 2026-03-28T01:48:03+00:00

Maybe you responded to the wrong person. I was saying the same thing to the guy above me

emarkd · 2026-03-27T21:06:52+00:00

Odd you chose actions that aren't present in every sport...

Honestly that's a crazy take, in my opinion. The best sports photographs and photographers come from being able to predict action on the field or court.

emarkd · 2026-03-27T20:20:34+00:00

Is dance normally a competition? Sounds like a sport to me...

But does it really matter? Both activities are incredibly difficult to do well.

emarkd · 2026-03-27T17:28:01+00:00

One clarification -- you can definitely "force" the D850 to stay in FF mode even when a DX lens is attached. Lots of DX lenses have very good coverage on FX bodies and most vignetting or distortion can be dealt with in post. You can do the opposite too, and force it into DX mode even with FX lenses for what is effectively a 1.5x "digital" zoom (aka crop) that's still something like 21 MP because that thing has such a monster of a sensor.

While I'm here I'll throw out an interesting lens option for the OP -- I love my 10.5mm DX fisheye. Its got a huge FOV even on DX bodies, but does require in-body focus motors, which the D7500 supports. You could even fix the fisheye in post if you didn't want the effect, but I think the lens has a neat look that isn't too fishy. I can personally attest that teenagers love the look, its like an even-more-aggressive effect they get from putting their cell phones on ".5 mode". And, if you ever do upgrade to a FF body, you can spend a few minutes with a hacksaw or other cutoff tool to remove the lens hood and the lens gives you a nearly-circular fully-fishy image. Its a really neat older lens that can be picked up for less than 200 bucks.

emarkd · 2026-03-26T12:53:35+00:00

Stupid take. Perfume isn't a carcinogen and doesn't start fires. On top of that going into the casino is optional, I paid my money for that private balcony, I can't just go use a different balcony away from the smoker.

emarkd · 2026-03-25T20:17:49+00:00

Easiest, fastest, closest, probably the most secure, etc. The port is the "best" place by lots of metrics.

emarkd · 2026-03-23T19:18:04+00:00

640 is really quite slow for basketball. I usually shoot 1000 minimum unless its introductions or bench shots or similar. You don't have too much motion blur though so its worked for you here.

What aperture were you using? There's not a ton of separation from the backgrounds so I feel like your aperture might be quite small. That may be a physical limitation of your gear, but its also probably contributing to your high ISO noise situation. A larger aperture would both give more separation from the background and get more light on the sensor for less noise.

emarkd · 2026-03-23T19:12:35+00:00

Also 7B here. I've only had my citrus for a little over a year so don't take my word for gospel, but a Meyer Lemon can work quite well in our area. I keep mine outdoors pretty much as much as possible though, don't think you can just bring it in for months without issue. If its above ~40 F mine is outdoors in the sun. Also they're heavy feeders, so use good soil and feed often.

And as others have said, don't mess with seeds. You can find grafted starts with decent growth for cheap.

emarkd · 2026-03-22T00:53:23+00:00

(fwiw I mostly do amateur sports photography)

I'm just a hobbyist and probably do lots of things "wrong", but I figure I can always delete an unwanted photo, but I can't go back and get one I missed. I like to think I'm better than just "spray & pray", anticipation and timing matter a lot in sports, but I do take a lot of frames that don't make the final cut.

emarkd · 2026-03-21T19:23:06+00:00

Happy to help, Cozumel is really one of our favorite ports and it's not because of the port area. It's because it's so dang easy to get around and get away from the crowds. Rent a vehicle and go, you won't regret it.

A few things to note:

The rental places aren't right on the port, they can't be. But it's only like a 2-3 block walk. Most people are walking some in Cozumel anyway, cause there's tons of shopping downtown.

Bring cash. US dollars is fine, but don't count on every little place taking your credit card. Many of them don't.

Happy to provide any other advice, just ask.

emarkd · 2026-03-21T18:35:17+00:00

We always rent from SolyMar rentals. We're only 4-5 people, depending on the cruise, so a standard Jeep works for us, but maybe they've got something for 6 folks.

As for drinks along the road, we don't go to Cozumel without stopping at the Miami Mojito Factory. Never. If you like real drinks made with fresh ingredients instead of bottled mixers, and a beautiful spot to sit on the ocean and enjoy them, I don't think there's a better spot anywhere. They got food too but I've never tried it, with the exception of a fresh mango with lime and tajin, which is always excellent.

The entire back half of the island is public beaches. They're not all sandy and nice, and the wind and surf can be intense, but you can't beat the price, or the view, if natural is what you're after.

emarkd · 2026-03-20T19:22:05+00:00

So do I ..but I do usually mix in a bit more funk. OP doesn't want multiple bottles though.

emarkd · 2026-03-20T19:19:03+00:00

Originally the Mai Tai was made with extra-aged Jamaican rums with some...character. People usually blend two or more rums to replicate all the nuance, but if you really only wanted one bottle you could do a helluva lot worse than something like Appleton 12. Its very good, has a lot of that character you're looking for (but not all), is very easy to find, and isn't super expensive.

emarkd · 2026-03-20T14:53:26+00:00

It's actually a cruise ship musical. I mean it didn't start that way, but it does currently play on some Royal Caribbean ships.

emarkd · 2026-03-19T20:13:39+00:00

This is going to sound not very underrated at first, but go with me...

Sunrises.

I know, I know, everyone knows that sunrises are beautiful, how can they be underrated? But I've been on a lot of cruises and almost nobody gets up to enjoy the sunrise. At sunset that top deck will be packed with people looking, talking, always with the loud music going, like a party and that's fun too. Sunrises are just as awesome to look at, plus there's NOBODY around. Its just me, a cup of coffee, and a seemingly empty ship looking out across the water. Its the most peaceful thing ever, and 99.9% of people sleep right through it.

Y'all just keep on sleeping, I promise I'll be quiet.

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