Trip report (Cruise/road trip) Majesty 10/17 (2nd ship back to to Coco Cay)

[PHXscuba]

Thanks BillOh. I had been wanting to confirm that Stuart Cove's was still the dive provider for our trip next spring.

 

We dove CocoCay 9 years ago; didn't know it was such a feat! You probably got a much better dive off New Providence ...

 

Great review and tips. Glad you had a fun time!

 

PHXscuba

[perfect match]

I'll bet that was on Oasis or Allure? Those ships on their recent itineraries spend so little time there and it was a 45 minute drive to their facility. At least Majesty didn't depart until 5pm.

 

Bill, we were on Disney Dream when I dove with Stuart Cove. I don't remember our exact schedule that day, but it was not a particularly short day in port. I think our all aboard time was about 4:30 or so, and we were walking up the gangway at about 4:27! I do not like being that close, even if I am on a ship's excursion. :eek:

 

I hope you are able to find your missing dive video. I would love to see it once you get it all sorted out.

Edited October 29, 2016 by perfect match

[BillOh]

I thought I'd finish with a couple more pics.

 

 

 

 

I'll close with the CD and Activities Director.

 

[BillOh]

 

We hung around the pool deck till 1pm and went to our room 6094. I ended up loving this location. It was behind the elevators mid ship on deck 6, but there are only 3 rooms on that hallway so hallway traffic was non-existent. We could come around the corner and have 4 steps in the Centrum. Very convenient. Once we did hit the Centrum I did see the sign below pushing those over priced arch supports that I first saw on Jewel back in 2012. My wife said I sounded too stern when I replied “absolutely not” when asked if I wanted a foot analysis.

 

 

 

Ha, I just noticed somebody defaced the sign and it says FAT FEET! :D

[Magnetchief]

A great review, thanks.

We will be on her come Dec 18th..

[HotRod3]

Great Review!

I am a fellow Buckeye that doesn't live far from you. My wife and I have been on 18 cruises 17 of which have been with Royal and 3 on Majesty. We live in Zanesville and are Diamond Members as well.

I am glad that "our" lady is still in such great condition.

I look forward to reading more of your reviews!!!

[easyboy]

Thanks for your great review Bill.

[BillOh]

I guess I'll add a few pictures here from my dive. These are from my GOPRO4 I had a red filter on it which is suppose to help the color at 40-50ft deep. You can tell there is a filter by this picture..

 

 

There is still a green tint the photos.

 

 

I changed this photo to increase the contrast. Visibility was good, but I've had better in the Caribbean. This was a week after Hurricane Matthew. Do you see what I am trying to point out?

 

 

Both dives were wall dives.

 

[BillOh]

[BillOh]

Thanks for a great review, Bill! Those beach beds on Coco Cay looked beautiful!

 

I'm glad you were able to dive with Stuart's Cove. I enjoyed my dives with them, but I was glad it was a ship's excursion because we barely made it back to the shipmon time. DH got a call in our cabin from guest services looking for me just before our all aboard time. When he told them I was on the scuba excursion they said they were always late getting baack to the ship. Once we boarded they pulled up the gangway and off we went!

 

I do think I may have to plan a Getaway on Majesty while she is based in Port Canaveral. :D

 

Just in case you use tapatalk and it notifies you I replied, I tried to post something in the Scuba section, but it was against the forum rules there,so I added the pics here.

[BillOh]

Great Review!

I am a fellow Buckeye that doesn't live far from you. My wife and I have been on 18 cruises 17 of which have been with Royal and 3 on Majesty. We live in Zanesville and are Diamond Members as well.

I am glad that "our" lady is still in such great condition.

I look forward to reading more of your reviews!!!

 

It took us a little more than an hour to get to Zanesville from north Columbus, so this would only be about a 900 mile road trip for you.

Edited November 29, 2016 by BillOh

[NC Mountain Cruiser]

Tuesday morning I woke up before we arrived a Coco Cay and did a couple of quick miles on deck 12. I absolutely love a morning run on the top deck of a ship. When I woke my wife up we went to the Diamond breakfast on deck 4. It was great, or after 2 cruises with those imitation scrambled eggs on Freedom and Oasis, a simple thing like real scrambled eggs was a real thrill. :rolleyes:. I would confirm the next day the common folk did get real scrambled eggs in the Windjammer too! The Diamond Breakfast they let you order from a menu from which I ordered an Omelette and my wife ordered a friend egg with potatoes. You could also walk over to the small but well stocked buffet and find the usual things like bacon, and those real scrambled eggs! I got some extra fruit and bacon there. It was a good start to the day.

 

Having a dive scheduled at Coco Cay would have gotten us on the first tender, but it turns out the tenders were quick anyway. In our cabin I could look down and see the first tender arrive. We walked down and arrived as that first tender left and we got right on the 2nd one and sat for about 15 minutes till it left. The water was calm and getting on the tender was easy. I was now officially 4 for 4 at making it to Coco Cay.

 

The first thing I noticed when we stepped ashore was the Dive shack. I guess they are probably using it for storage, or an employee lounge now as I haven't seen it used for diving since 2010. ;)

 

After enjoying a Cabana at Labadee in 2015 when it was ONLY $250 I decided to try the beach bed here at Coco Cay for $150. The website is confusing, so cruise critic is helpful here as well. The website will allow you to pay $150 each for the bed rental, but only one person needs to make the reservation. They let you bring up to 4 people. We were shown where to wait for a tram to go to "South Beach" area. It goes past the Waverunner area and then by other beach area that I think is on the NE corner of the island and then turns south into an area I hadn't been to before. They have made a nice beach area here.

 

When we arrived 2 of the beach beds on the north edge were already occupied so below is my wife Gina picking out the one she wanted.

 

 

Given that a Cat 2 or 3? Hurricane had hit this island directly about a week before this area looked good. I could see a few shingles missing from the beach bar and the swim up bar was no where to be found. I did see a place where they dumped a bunch of broken branches, but the area looked really good. Gina picked bed 12 out of 13, so we were pretty much by ourselves most of the day. Below is the beach view looking north.

 

 

Above you can see the water play area and the "public" beaches. Here is the view looking south. During the day we did walk all the way down exploring the coast.

 

 

As you can probably see it was high tide when we arrived so we only had to step about 3 feet from our bed to be in the ocean. By 4pm that would be about 30 feet away. The beds were king sized with a heavy dense foam wrapped in a weatherproof plastic type of material. It was more comfortable than it sounds and you could wipe the sand off fairly easily. Two comfortable loungers and floating mats were provided. We brought towels from the ship, but they offered more if needed. The water was shallow for at least 100 yards, you could walk out in waste deep water for about 100 yards. Early in the day we could see local lobster fisherman working just about 100 yards off shore.

 

PICTURE OF FISHERMAN ON NEXT POST.

 

I did see some spearfishing going on, but later the day when the tide was low other people walked out and talked to these fisherman and saw their lobsters.

 

We were given 4 bottles of water and we used two of them all day, taking the other two back with us for our drive back to Ohio. On Labadee you get to go to the "enhanced lunch" area which is a minor step up from what every one else gets, but here you get to order from a limited menu and they deliver it to you. My wife chose the chicken tacos and I ordered a Jamacian burger of some sort. The food was good and we probably could have ordered more, but it was enough for us. We are both weight loss surgery people and can't eat that much, so this was well enough for us. Sorry no pictures of the food, I just didn't think of it.

Bill, I wanted to take a minute to thank you. We booked the beach bed excursion because of your review and we had a fantastic time. We traveled without our kids for our 10th anniversary and the day we spent at CoCo Cay just really made the trip for us. Thanks again for your input. I hope you have a Merry Christmas.

[BillOh]

Bill, I wanted to take a minute to thank you. We booked the beach bed excursion because of your review and we had a fantastic time. We traveled without our kids for our 10th anniversary and the day we spent at CoCo Cay just really made the trip for us. Thanks again for your input. I hope you have a Merry Christmas.

 

Thanks for taking the time to come back and tell me. Expecting 1-3" of snow today and single digits F tomorrow, so a good time to look back. Did you see the swim up bar?

Edited December 13, 2016 by BillOh