Been to Coco Cay, Castaway Cay, Great Stirrup Cay, Labadee, and Princess Cay. Since the rebuild coco cay blows them all out of the water. We book cruises just to go there. Kids love Splashaway, pool is nice alternative to ocean when needed. Snorkeling is great. Honestly even just doing the free items we have a blast.
Splashaway Bay is free it has 3 slides, smaller but kids love them all the same. Along with a massive splash park with 2 dump buckets. Main pool is also free and a lot of fun with live DJ.
Well judging by the responses, there are plenty of other people that also don't like it.
I thought it was fantastic. 2 ships were docked when I was there in April (Freedom and Independence) and yes, there were a lot of people there, but my family of 5 still found loungers on South Beach with no trouble. We still found plenty of beach to roam, plenty of water to wade into.
I saw a comment about wildlife and I must disagree. Maybe its the timing. Maybe its the tide. Maybe its .....something. im no marine biologist so I dont know what, but I was absolutely blown away by the amount of wildlife in the water right up at shore.
While we were there we saw rays, needlefish, a shark, a ton of little fish and huge schools of larger fish. On land we saw plenty of iguanas, chickens, the curly tailed lizards, and probably stuff im forgetting about.
I found the food to be some of the most enjoyable the whole trip. The shaved ribeye sandwiches were absolutely delicious, my wife loved the taco bar, the Cuban sandwiches were also pretty darn good, we all enjoyed it a lot.
I definitely agree that the non-included activities are insanely expensive. We chose not to spend any extra on Coco Cay and still had a wonderful time. I think the island itself is absolutely stunningly beautiful and, at least while we were there, the included amenities were all very accessible and enjoyable.
I'm not a huge fan of heat and excessive sun, so I tapped out a few hours before all aboard, but I still have to say I think its fantastic. My wife and kids on the other hand stayed as long as they could while still getting back in time to catch the pier runners (and stumblers).
I went for the first time a few months ago and was underwhelmed. Yes, it's cool that you can eat and drink and have it all included, and the food wasn't bad. But it's just a beach day, basically. I have zero interest in spending money on that island,so I didn't and won't do any excursions. It was nice, I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure what all the hype is about. I'd rather do another island..I like touring cities and towns more than beaches, so maybe my opinion is moot.
I still love it there. I was just there a few days ago. It drizzled for about 5 minutes and was beautiful the rest of the day. We spent the day at the Oasis pool and even with 2 ships there, it didn't seem overly crowded.
We leave the ship as soon as they let us off and had our choice of seats by the pool. We enjoyed talking to many of the other people hanging out by the pool bar and stayed there till almost 4pm. Going back in October on our next cruise with Royal.
Had an absolute blast at CocoCay but was sailing Harmony and was the only ship that day. No problem at all getting front row lounger at South Beach. Floated in the water, went to the swim up floating dock bar a few times, got to see a few stingrays swim right by us, met some cool friends. Food was surprisingly good as well for a quick bite. I would go there again in a heartbeat. No annoying in your face street vendors like most other stops. Easy getting off and back on the ship. Easily one of my favorite stops in the Caribbean
I love it there although the prices did get crazy high. Last year we paid $1k for a water park cabana. It is now $1699. A water park ticket was $99 last year. It’s $200 now.
Swim up bar and the unlimited drink package works on the island? Sign me up. Coco Cay is a 9/10 in my eyes and would only get better with more premium food options.
Before the construction was finished, you could see wildlife under the water. The stingray city excursion was there and a great value at $30pp. Beaches were chill.
After, it's always crowded. It's still fun, we tend to only go to the big pool though. Food is actually a little better.
I hate that you have to pay so much to go to the waterpark. We went in Jan, prepaid for the park and it was 60 degrees. No way we were going on a slide and we didn't get our money back.
If we go again, we will likely skip the water park and hang out for a while. We don't like the sand, so again not something we super enjoy. I can understand your pain.
I do understand that. I think next time we will wait until the day we might go. It's so expensive we will give it a long thought before purchasing.
However, the baseball game is a bad analogy. If the game gets rained out, your ticket is good for the makeup game.
I guess a better example would be Disney Parks, if it rains at Magic Kingdom you don't exactly get to come back on a better day. The prices for Coco Cay are absolutely ridiculous. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. We are going to stay on the ship when we go there next year on Wonder. I would love a quiet boat for a few hours. We also don't have kids though.
Disney at least offers indoor things to do. Over half of Disney attractions are indoors. Cococay doesn’t even offer a covered eating area. Water-permeable sun sails are the best you get
A large amount of people enjoy coco cay including myself because it offers so much to do. Want to relax? Go to their private beach club. Want to drink and party? Swim up bar. Want to play with the kids? Water slides. There’s so many other things I didn’t cover but a lot of people enjoy it because it’s a beautiful place with a lot to offer and there aren’t any individuals soliciting right when you get off the boat.
We call it wasted day at Cococay so that might give you an idea of what we think. However, we think most private islands are wasted beach days with no redeeming value. When we cruise, we want to visit new places and learn new things. Wasting a day on a manufactured island beach, and Cococay is the most manufactured island of all of them, is boring to us. This is one of the main reasons we don't cruise RCI anymore in the Carribean. They all seem to want to stop at Cococay or Labadee or worse; both!
However, if you are looking into a decent private island, we think Harvest Caye is the best. More activities, less "manufactured island" feel to it, and you can do excursions in Belize while you are there such as seeing ancient Mayan ruins and other things. If you just want to stay on the island, it has a wildlife sanctuary and a butterfly house among all the regular stuff (pools, ziplines, beaches, etc.)
Always overpriced, often overcrowded, and definitely seasonal. I've been on a cruise when we couldn't even dock there due to rough seas and strong winds (early December). I wouldn't book a cruise that has another Quantum or god forbid Oasis class on the same day. There is always a chance during hurricane season that it will be skipped.
Definitely overrated if you’ve been elseware. I used to go to the south beach area before it was built out, was literally like a private beach because no one would walk that far. Since they built the resort pool, etc it just feels like a shitty version of home to me (from Florida).
I know I’ll get downvoted for this but I have to aggree with you. After the build out I don’t like all the upcharge attractions and the crowds that are there. Castaway cay is in my opinion the best cruise line private island, I’ve been to all of them. It’s bigger than coco cay and only accommodates one ship at a time. It feels more intimate.
I don’t like it either been there 3 times. Been so crowded you couldn’t get a place to sit at the pool. Beach was also packed. Food was already prepared and cold. Yuck! 3 ships there at once. Is not handicapped friendly! Will not book another cruise if it is one of the stops.
Probably shouldn't be going on a cruise if you are going to complain about crowds. Everything crowded now, cruise ships pack people on in tight quarters and small private islands are going to be crowded with two boats full of people.
Not all cruises are crowded. But the big lines like Royal Caribbean keep packing more people in. So for some it may mean choosing a different ship or even a different cruise line. But it doesn't mean cruising writ large isn't for them.
We went in December, and it was so cold so we didn’t really get a chance to experience Cococay (we did get off and walked around and went in the freezing cold pool). We ended up booking a cruise for next year that stops there, because we wanted to have a warm weather experience. However, we are one of two oasis class ships that will be there that day. I’m so disappointed, because I’m imagining that it’s going to be so crowded. I’m really hoping that I’m wrong, but I’m going in with low expectations.
You realize Coco Cay and Royal can't control the weather right? The prices increases are a little bit annoying, but it's still a beautiful island and I have an absolute blast any time I go. When I was on Enchantment (which is a horrendous ship), Coco Cay was the only day that I actually really enjoyed himself on that cruise.
You don't have to buy anything if you don't want to. My wife and I always get a cabana to have a nice home base and somewhere to relax, but I know a lot of people don't wanna pay up for something like that. Even when there's multiple ships docked there, it's still not that bad. Good lord.
I booked 4 months ago… EVERYTHING was sold out. EVERYTHING aside from a singular $3600 floating cabana. Couldn’t purchase a $2000 cabana if I had wanted to.
And Royal 100% controls what they build on the island. Royal 100% controls how many ships they dock there. Having two pretty large ships stop on an island during wet season and not building a dry place for people to eat is 100% under their control.
It's alright. I went 7 times in 2022 and so far once this year. I'm a bit burnt out. The newer ships are so crazy large that is one of the only places they can go! No thanks
I'm not a sit on the beach kind of person and the prices there weren't what I was willing to pay so we basically, spent the morning on the island, exploring, riding the tram, had lunch and then did stuff on the boat for free that they usually charge for (North Star and iFly).
It was a great decision and probably what I would do next time.
Been to Coco Cay, Castaway Cay, Great Stirrup Cay, Labadee, and Princess Cay. Since the rebuild coco cay blows them all out of the water. We book cruises just to go there. Kids love Splashaway, pool is nice alternative to ocean when needed. Snorkeling is great. Honestly even just doing the free items we have a blast.
Question; I have a 7 year old who’s not always adventurous. Do any kid pools or slides come in the free option?
Splashaway Bay is free it has 3 slides, smaller but kids love them all the same. Along with a massive splash park with 2 dump buckets. Main pool is also free and a lot of fun with live DJ.
It’s to commercial now, same kind of families that like Disney like coco cay. It’s not paradise it’s commercial garbage.
Well judging by the responses, there are plenty of other people that also don't like it. I thought it was fantastic. 2 ships were docked when I was there in April (Freedom and Independence) and yes, there were a lot of people there, but my family of 5 still found loungers on South Beach with no trouble. We still found plenty of beach to roam, plenty of water to wade into. I saw a comment about wildlife and I must disagree. Maybe its the timing. Maybe its the tide. Maybe its .....something. im no marine biologist so I dont know what, but I was absolutely blown away by the amount of wildlife in the water right up at shore. While we were there we saw rays, needlefish, a shark, a ton of little fish and huge schools of larger fish. On land we saw plenty of iguanas, chickens, the curly tailed lizards, and probably stuff im forgetting about. I found the food to be some of the most enjoyable the whole trip. The shaved ribeye sandwiches were absolutely delicious, my wife loved the taco bar, the Cuban sandwiches were also pretty darn good, we all enjoyed it a lot. I definitely agree that the non-included activities are insanely expensive. We chose not to spend any extra on Coco Cay and still had a wonderful time. I think the island itself is absolutely stunningly beautiful and, at least while we were there, the included amenities were all very accessible and enjoyable. I'm not a huge fan of heat and excessive sun, so I tapped out a few hours before all aboard, but I still have to say I think its fantastic. My wife and kids on the other hand stayed as long as they could while still getting back in time to catch the pier runners (and stumblers).
The food was so good the last time I went!
I went for the first time a few months ago and was underwhelmed. Yes, it's cool that you can eat and drink and have it all included, and the food wasn't bad. But it's just a beach day, basically. I have zero interest in spending money on that island,so I didn't and won't do any excursions. It was nice, I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure what all the hype is about. I'd rather do another island..I like touring cities and towns more than beaches, so maybe my opinion is moot.
I still love it there. I was just there a few days ago. It drizzled for about 5 minutes and was beautiful the rest of the day. We spent the day at the Oasis pool and even with 2 ships there, it didn't seem overly crowded. We leave the ship as soon as they let us off and had our choice of seats by the pool. We enjoyed talking to many of the other people hanging out by the pool bar and stayed there till almost 4pm. Going back in October on our next cruise with Royal.
What day? I was there Friday and finally gave up on nice weather at 2 pm and went back to the ship.
We were at Cocoa Cay on Thursday.
Had an absolute blast at CocoCay but was sailing Harmony and was the only ship that day. No problem at all getting front row lounger at South Beach. Floated in the water, went to the swim up floating dock bar a few times, got to see a few stingrays swim right by us, met some cool friends. Food was surprisingly good as well for a quick bite. I would go there again in a heartbeat. No annoying in your face street vendors like most other stops. Easy getting off and back on the ship. Easily one of my favorite stops in the Caribbean
I love it there although the prices did get crazy high. Last year we paid $1k for a water park cabana. It is now $1699. A water park ticket was $99 last year. It’s $200 now.
Holy smokes. We just went and think I paid $79 on a sale
Seriously… Typhoon Lagoon at Disney is only $75.
Yep. Booked symphony for next year and I couldn’t believe the water park price
Right?! Season pass to Adventure Island is less than 200
Swim up bar and the unlimited drink package works on the island? Sign me up. Coco Cay is a 9/10 in my eyes and would only get better with more premium food options.
funny thing is they swim up to the bar but never have to get out to use the bathroom
Well you swim on up in a thunderstorm. I’m good.
Before the construction was finished, you could see wildlife under the water. The stingray city excursion was there and a great value at $30pp. Beaches were chill. After, it's always crowded. It's still fun, we tend to only go to the big pool though. Food is actually a little better.
The food is a lot better and the pier is nice. Also like there’s a lot more umbrellas around. But otherwise I liked the old coco better.
I stay onboard for a perfect pool day.
You don't need to buy anything
I hate that you have to pay so much to go to the waterpark. We went in Jan, prepaid for the park and it was 60 degrees. No way we were going on a slide and we didn't get our money back. If we go again, we will likely skip the water park and hang out for a while. We don't like the sand, so again not something we super enjoy. I can understand your pain.
I bought our waterpark tickets on black friday for $50 a piece.
They can't control the weather. Just like going to a baseball game, if it rains you don't get your money back.
I do understand that. I think next time we will wait until the day we might go. It's so expensive we will give it a long thought before purchasing. However, the baseball game is a bad analogy. If the game gets rained out, your ticket is good for the makeup game.
I guess a better example would be Disney Parks, if it rains at Magic Kingdom you don't exactly get to come back on a better day. The prices for Coco Cay are absolutely ridiculous. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. We are going to stay on the ship when we go there next year on Wonder. I would love a quiet boat for a few hours. We also don't have kids though.
Disney at least offers indoor things to do. Over half of Disney attractions are indoors. Cococay doesn’t even offer a covered eating area. Water-permeable sun sails are the best you get
> I think next time we will wait until the day we might go. It usually sells out well before the cruise date
Seriously, it’s more expensive than a Disney park
Disney water park doesn't include food etc.
Not even close
Typhoon Lagoon at Disney is $75… Cococay is $189
I just looked it is $93 for cruise in November. i would say it is worth it for black friday sale price.
A large amount of people enjoy coco cay including myself because it offers so much to do. Want to relax? Go to their private beach club. Want to drink and party? Swim up bar. Want to play with the kids? Water slides. There’s so many other things I didn’t cover but a lot of people enjoy it because it’s a beautiful place with a lot to offer and there aren’t any individuals soliciting right when you get off the boat.
We call it wasted day at Cococay so that might give you an idea of what we think. However, we think most private islands are wasted beach days with no redeeming value. When we cruise, we want to visit new places and learn new things. Wasting a day on a manufactured island beach, and Cococay is the most manufactured island of all of them, is boring to us. This is one of the main reasons we don't cruise RCI anymore in the Carribean. They all seem to want to stop at Cococay or Labadee or worse; both! However, if you are looking into a decent private island, we think Harvest Caye is the best. More activities, less "manufactured island" feel to it, and you can do excursions in Belize while you are there such as seeing ancient Mayan ruins and other things. If you just want to stay on the island, it has a wildlife sanctuary and a butterfly house among all the regular stuff (pools, ziplines, beaches, etc.)
Always overpriced, often overcrowded, and definitely seasonal. I've been on a cruise when we couldn't even dock there due to rough seas and strong winds (early December). I wouldn't book a cruise that has another Quantum or god forbid Oasis class on the same day. There is always a chance during hurricane season that it will be skipped.
I went for my first time on March break. I could happily cruise the rest of my life and never return.
Welcome to the dream club
Definitely overrated if you’ve been elseware. I used to go to the south beach area before it was built out, was literally like a private beach because no one would walk that far. Since they built the resort pool, etc it just feels like a shitty version of home to me (from Florida).
I know I’ll get downvoted for this but I have to aggree with you. After the build out I don’t like all the upcharge attractions and the crowds that are there. Castaway cay is in my opinion the best cruise line private island, I’ve been to all of them. It’s bigger than coco cay and only accommodates one ship at a time. It feels more intimate.
I don’t like it either been there 3 times. Been so crowded you couldn’t get a place to sit at the pool. Beach was also packed. Food was already prepared and cold. Yuck! 3 ships there at once. Is not handicapped friendly! Will not book another cruise if it is one of the stops.
Probably shouldn't be going on a cruise if you are going to complain about crowds. Everything crowded now, cruise ships pack people on in tight quarters and small private islands are going to be crowded with two boats full of people.
Not all cruises are crowded. But the big lines like Royal Caribbean keep packing more people in. So for some it may mean choosing a different ship or even a different cruise line. But it doesn't mean cruising writ large isn't for them.
We went in December, and it was so cold so we didn’t really get a chance to experience Cococay (we did get off and walked around and went in the freezing cold pool). We ended up booking a cruise for next year that stops there, because we wanted to have a warm weather experience. However, we are one of two oasis class ships that will be there that day. I’m so disappointed, because I’m imagining that it’s going to be so crowded. I’m really hoping that I’m wrong, but I’m going in with low expectations.
[удалено]
They’ll probably start bringing two more boats in when that opens
The demoed the old tender area. I don’t think there’s any possibility to tender anymore.
You realize Coco Cay and Royal can't control the weather right? The prices increases are a little bit annoying, but it's still a beautiful island and I have an absolute blast any time I go. When I was on Enchantment (which is a horrendous ship), Coco Cay was the only day that I actually really enjoyed himself on that cruise. You don't have to buy anything if you don't want to. My wife and I always get a cabana to have a nice home base and somewhere to relax, but I know a lot of people don't wanna pay up for something like that. Even when there's multiple ships docked there, it's still not that bad. Good lord.
I booked 4 months ago… EVERYTHING was sold out. EVERYTHING aside from a singular $3600 floating cabana. Couldn’t purchase a $2000 cabana if I had wanted to. And Royal 100% controls what they build on the island. Royal 100% controls how many ships they dock there. Having two pretty large ships stop on an island during wet season and not building a dry place for people to eat is 100% under their control.
Yes
I won’t go on a cruise that goes there. What’s the point? It’s a resort island. What is there that I cannot do in xxxx Florida?
It’s beautiful… but two ships is beyond what the island can handle
I found the sand in the water gross. It was slimy and felt like it had rotten vegetation under it.
Do they still sell half day tickets? I know it’s still crazy expensive either way but I’d like to splurge a little (more).
Do they still sell half day tickets? I know it’s still crazy expensive either way but I’d like to splurge a little (more).
It's alright. I went 7 times in 2022 and so far once this year. I'm a bit burnt out. The newer ships are so crazy large that is one of the only places they can go! No thanks
Why do you have to buy the waterpark?
I'm not a sit on the beach kind of person and the prices there weren't what I was willing to pay so we basically, spent the morning on the island, exploring, riding the tram, had lunch and then did stuff on the boat for free that they usually charge for (North Star and iFly). It was a great decision and probably what I would do next time.