Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Coco Cay news - waterpark and ability to stay overnight

Canadian Tyler
 Share

Recommended Posts

gatour

gatour

Posted
Posted

I agree with you. I just did a quick lookup on attendance at Typhoon Lagoon at WDW. In 2015 the attendance was approximately 2,294,000 which breaks down to over 6000+ people/day. However the people/day is actually higher. I divided the yearly attendance by 365 day, whereas Typhoon Lagoon closes down for about a month each year for maintenance.

 

 

I question the best water park in the planet. Not enough patrons to justify the expense of even matching some of the great water parks

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nelblu

nelblu

Posted
Posted

I think you are correct. [not trying to take this off topic, related to tendering and Coco Cay and GC]

We recently sailed on the Celebrity Equinox and stopped in Grand Cayman. It was a nice and sunny day until around 3-ish when rain moved in. That was just about the time the last tenders came back. The storm kicked up some swells that we could not even feel on the ship. But played havoc with the tenders. DH and I watched the tendering process for several ships from our balcony.

This is a description I got from a fellow passenger [from a review I posted]:

One of the women at my scarpbooking class had been on the last tender out of Grand Cayman. [remember the tenders are owned by a company in Grand Cayman and contracted by Celebrity]

 

She had quite a story to tell.

She said there were 95 passengers on the tender. It was one of the smaller one-level tenders. It was a rough ride getting from the shore to the ship. She said as the tender operator tried to come along side the ship he kept bumping the ship/platform, but was not able to connect in a way they could off load the passengers. She said as they bobbed in the water and kept trying to connect with the ship the anxiety level rose.

After several tries the operator decided to go back to shore and get a 2-level tender to give them a better chance of reaching the platform. It was not bad enough they had to make the trip once, but, now they had to get on another boat and try again. They were told to don their life jackets. She said the life vests were in bad shape. That is something the cruise lines need to discuss with the tender operator.

 

She said one passenger did not want to get on the bigger tender and try again. I am not sure how she thought she would get back to the ship. But, they finally convinced her to board. Others were crying and many had anxiety. She told me she was sure she was going to die.

 

The ride back out was rough and the exchange from the tender to the ship was difficult. The ship greeted them with warm towels, since they were drenched by this time.

 

 

She stated she would never ride another tender. All made it back without physical injury. The Equinox delivered each of them a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. It was a nice gesture—but, I bet they will never forget that ride.

 

 

I remember some years ago (many) we sailed from NYC on the Italian Line Leonardo Da Vinci. It only made one stop and it was St. Thomas. The only way to get to shore was by tender. At about 11 we were ready to go ashore. The incoming tender was having a bit of a problem due choppy water. There was a Pax who seemed to have ingested too much of the bubbly while ashore and was having all sort of problems getting on board. The crew members were becoming impatient after a few times and cursing him in Italian. Finally a couple of the crew grabbed him by his belt and lifted him on board. It was a funny incident as the crew member were waiving their arms (as Italians do) and yelling at him "Disgraziato" which in Italian has many English meaning such as sob, bastard, etc.

 

It was an episode that I will never forget and ingrained in my mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LMaxwell Great Review Rare

LMaxwell

Posted
Posted
^ of course it will be a charge.

 

That's too bad. I like CocoCay because it's just a relatively easy beach day. Don't need to do much planning or be presented with a lot of optional extras. The water park would be a nice addition but based on pricing of extras at Labadee I doubt I'd take them up on it at CocoCay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

Posted
Posted
We try to avoid it also. Except on 8 night itineraries I look at Labadee as a trade off for an extra day on the cruise.

 

 

Agree. If we just can't avoid it in favor of a longer cruise, we just get off the ship in the morning for a walk, then come back and enjoy an uncrowded ship with lunch on board....missing out on the beach BBQ "you want flies with that?" :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hellsop

hellsop

Posted
Posted
It's an awfully small island (1 mile wide and 200yds north to south ) to accommodate a super duper water park....!

Where is it going?

 

While it's true that it's not a big island, 80% of is isn't even being used by passengers. I like walking out to the end, but there's like 2000 people in the red square and maybe 20 on the rest of the island all day.

 

CocoCay.png

 

As for if there's enough room, the water park park at Six Flags Great America is about 400 yards by 150 yards. That would fit EASILY. Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells claims to be America's largest waterpark and without the parking lots, it's 500 yards by 200 yards. That would ALSO fit if they leveled the existing staff buildings and moved them to the west end of the cay.

 

And as for cost? $50 per person billed through the excursion desk would probably cover it, AND be not terribly overpriced. (Noah's Ark is about $40 for adults for a day's admission. Season passes are less than two day's admission, so the actual incremental operating cost can't be much at all.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mc33

mc33

Posted
Posted
While it's true that it's not a big island, 80% of is isn't even being used by passengers. I like walking out to the end, but there's like 2000 people in the red square and maybe 20 on the rest of the island all day.

 

 

 

CocoCay.png

 

 

 

As for if there's enough room, the water park park at Six Flags Great America is about 400 yards by 150 yards. That would fit EASILY. Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells claims to be America's largest waterpark and without the parking lots, it's 500 yards by 200 yards. That would ALSO fit if they leveled the existing staff buildings and moved them to the west end of the cay.

 

 

 

And as for cost? $50 per person billed through the excursion desk would probably cover it, AND be not terribly overpriced. (Noah's Ark is about $40 for adults for a day's admission. Season passes are less than two day's admission, so the actual incremental operating cost can't be much at all.)

 

 

Pretty much disregarding everyone on here who says it isn't feasible and won't be an exceptional park. With a few modifications to the island's infrastructure and at $50 a person, it is wholly possible. You don't think every kid on the ship will want to go? And then the parents are going to have to go too. Let's say they build a dock and have Oasis class ships there every week. If a low number of 1,200 people buy a water park ticket that's $60,000 a trip. I'm thinking $50,000 a month for electricity and water, you can definitely turn a profit off that.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites
island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

Posted
Posted
De-salinization?

 

Extremely expensive...and what do you do with all that salt brine left over? Many times the ships cannot use the desalination due to not being allowed to dump the salt brine generated by that process in some areas.

 

Even the power on the island comes from a very large fossil fueled generator. You can hear it off the gravel road if you actually walk away from the "red square". ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

Posted
Posted
These things use a lot of water, can salt water be used?

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

 

 

John, I don't remember which ships (I don't use the pools) but I think there were many that

used salt water in them?

 

Would think salt water would work well for a water park...though could be tough on the

pump system?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John&LaLa "Live from...." Rare

John&LaLa

Posted
Posted
John, I don't remember which ships (I don't use the pools) but I think there were many that

used salt water in them?

 

Would think salt water would work well for a water park...though could be tough on the

pump system?

That's what I was thinking

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites
island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

Posted
Posted
Does anyone think they will build a water park on the same scale as Atlantis? I'd be surprised if they build something as large as the older part of Atlantis by Beach Tower.

 

The little island is not really set up for freighters to come in to supply the fuel, materials, etc. needed for a large park like Atlantis. Even WITH the proposed hard dock for cruise ships...where do the supply freighters go? Tiny little inter-island supply boats come in on the opposite end at a carved out rock area...but can't take larger supply ships.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 6 months later...
CruiseFanatic407

CruiseFanatic407

Posted
Posted

I sent them the idea to develop some sort of overnight experience a couple of years ago. i saved what I sent them (below). thought it would be an awesome idea. But I would want it kept more primitive.

 

Don't have an issue, I have an idea for an extreme shore excursion on Cococay.

It involves the 3 and 4 night cruises sailing to Cococay.

 

Set aside a select number of cabins for this, let's say 10.

An example for the Enchantment OTS. As you arrive at Cococay on Sunday,

you depart the ship for a Cococay 2 night overnight camping experience.

 

You stay in cabanas for two nights enjoying the island. On tuesday when

the ship returns to the island for its next scheduled stop you get on that Cruise and finish out the week.

 

Those who have signed up for the 5 Night Cococay Overnight experience

will remain behind From Tuesday until the Enchantment returns the following Sunday.

The process repeats. Select cabins will be set aside for this on the Enchantment.

 

It would be a camping like roughing it experience on the island.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...