Today we get to visit Royal Caribbean’s newly renovated private island, CocoCay. We’ve never visited here before but previously it was mainly just a standard relaxing beach resort kind of setup. Now it has several nicely laid out beaches, large pool, several complementary dining areas, and that extravagant water park. We booked the whole day water park passes early on and kept repurchasing them at a cheaper price up until a few months before our trip. Our final cost per person was $28.99. That is a lot cheaper than our next cruise on Anthem next year where it’s selling for $75!
We woke up around 7am and got dressed for the water park then headed up to eat breakfast at the Windjammer. Seats at the very aft of the ship had a great view of the island’s new features. We made a quick trip up to the sports deck to snap some pics before we went back to our cabins to put on sunscreen and gather supplies. The picture I took looked very much like the advertised image from Royal Caribbean so props to them at living up to the expectations.
We were ready to leave the ship around 9:30am and went straight to the water park. You scan your SeaPass card at a kiosk to get into the water park side of the island. If you have passes for the park you get lockers to use for free. Just put in a code on a locker and it’s yours. Just like the safe in the room.
Thinking it would be a good idea to do it early, we climbed the tower to try the really tall slide. When we neared the top half there was a lifeguard there informing us that the wait time is already an hour. We turned around and went to another slide in the tower that didn’t have a wait (Manta Raycers). What I find odd is that we were told to remove our swim shirts and hold them to go down the slide. Since I didn’t sunscreen where my shirt is I quickly put it back on when I got to the bottom. The next things we tried were the 4 person tube ride (Slingshot), the mat racing slides (Splash Speedway), the Adventure pool, then the wave pool. We planned to go eat after the wave session was finished. I don’t know what the on/off interval is for the wave pool but I would estimate 10min off 30min on (fog horn signals the start). It just kept going. Since it’s much easier to get the kids to leave the pool when the waves are off, I just waited it out.
We made sure to stop off at our locker to grab our SeaPass cards since we will need to rescan to get back into the water park. With the remodel of the island, they did a wonderful job of putting food options all over the island (only a snack/drink station in the water park). They also include a hand washing station at each food location. We picked the closest large buffet location to the entrance/water park (Skippers Grill). Since our ship was the only one there today, most of the island was not crowded (some slide lines were an exception). This was also true to eating. No lines at the buffet and no problem for us getting a shaded picnic table. Just a word of warning though, do NOT leave your food unattended. The seagulls are just sitting and waiting to grab your food when you get up but they are not an issue while you eat. The food (and setup) was much better than Royal Caribbean’s other private island, Labadee. We enjoyed our soft tacos (chicken, steak, or pork), burgers, salad, fruit, BBQ chicken, and fries. For free drinks there’s the water, lemon lime, strawberry kiwi, and tropical mango machine along with an ice machine. For dessert we had a caramel brownie, chocolate chip cookies, and soft serve ice cream.
Since we were outside of the water park already, we decided to walk over to one of the beaches to play for a while. Like I mentioned before, it was great that it wasn’t crowded. The water was really calm. We bought an inflatable “chair” on Amazon to use on this trip right before we left. It worked great. You can sit or recline on it. Then when we were done just let the air out and put it away.
Right near the beach we visited was the jet ski rentals and the Snack Shack. Even though I wasn’t real hungry yet I still visited the Snack Shack because it served food not available other places (even on the ship) like mozzarella sticks and funnel cakes. We all snacked a little on some funnel cakes.
I then reminded my kids that we will not be getting the water park passes on our next visit to the island (currently scheduled for March) due to the large increase in cost for that trip so we should go back and enjoy it. After repurchasing the passes for this trip multiple time due to sales, I was able to get our tickets for $28.99. The most expensive on my first purchase was ~$45. Our next trip here will be on the Anthem of the Seas and right now those same park passes are selling for $79.
On the way back we passed Harbor Beach and the kids Splashaway Bay.
Then we spent another few hours at the water park doing more of the same (lots of mat races and wave pool action). We returned back to the ship a little after 4pm. It’s great that they have the dock there now unlike the tenders passengers used to have to take back to the ship.
Despite our best efforts with sunscreen, we ended up very red and also worn out. It was painful showers, aloe treatments, and some resting. We planned on doing the family Gaga Ball tournament before dinner but the consensus was we’re better off resting. Ethan rested so well he fell asleep and needed to be awoken for dinner.
Our last dinner in the main dining room had choices such as lobster bisque, calamari, and duck that I ordered. Ethan also had the calamari and duck. But my other entree (don’t judge) was the beef tenderloin and it was better than the duck in my opinion.
We had a few extras at dinner tonight. First they had another precession of the waiters. Then the “talent contest winning” waiters performed a dance to Gangnam Style with one of them being our waiter. He was a good waiter for us and also a decent dancer. He seems to really enjoy what he is doing which helps a lot. Our assistant waiter wasn’t anything like that.
Before we finished our desserts, they brought out the Royal Caribbean 50th Anniversary cake to the table. It has a chocolate coin and a hard candy stick in the middle.
Because it was our last night on the ship, we had to pack our whole room up to be ready to leave first thing in the morning. We plan on walking off and not checking our luggage so we can leave sooner (as early as 7:30 if we wished). But interrupting our packing was a movie out by the pool at 9pm. They were showing Captain Marvel which we hadn’t seen yet. After how loud the pool kids were, deck hands putting loungers away, and the PA system muting the sound to tell us about other activities going on, we probably will need to watch it again. Especially since Hannah said she fell asleep a couple of times since she was exhausted.
Then it was back to the room for a little more packing until our bodies said that the rest will wait until tomorrow.