Athem going to Miami not CocoCay

[Edhoff]

Just received my email for the 3/15 sailing.  Miami instead of CocoCay.  What a bunch of crap. Just what I want to do, if I wanted to see Miami I would have flown and gotten a cruise from there.  To compensate they have arranged some free shuttles to SouthBeach etc WOW. Nice to know one week prior to sailing..They have my money I have no choice.

[lulugirl68]

Such a bummer!  We are on the ship the next week, and would be really disappointed with a stop in Miami instead.

[lovescats5]

We are sailing March 30 so guess if they stop in Miami we will just stay on board and iFly.  For us a beach is a beach is a beach.  Would kinda miss Cocoa Cay but RCI has the option to change stops as they wish.  Hope you have a great cruise anyway.

[ONECRUISER]

Common to miss Coco Cay this time yr due to Weather, but with Construction going on might be reason. Always limited when replacing a Port, I had a Sea Day added on 2 different Cruises. Also Missed/Changed 2 Dozen Ports over the years almost never Compensated, best usually offed was 2hrs of Drinks. But still sorry for you, sucks when looking forward to certain one. Daughters doing 9nite Anthem in June. Enjoy your cruise...

Edited March 8, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[bigeck]

3 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Common to miss Coco Cay this time yr due to Weather, but with Construction going on might be reason. Always limited when replacing a Port, I had a Sea Day added on 2 different Cruises. Also Missed/Changed 2 Dozen Ports over the years almost never Compensated, best usually offed was 2hrs of Drinks. But still sorry for you, sucks when looking forward to certain one. Daughters doing 9nite Anthem in June. Enjoy your cruise...

New pier opened yesterday. Mariner was the first to use it. Shouldn't cancel due to weather now

[Mikew0805]

1 hour ago, bigeck said:

New pier opened yesterday. Mariner was the first to use it. Shouldn't cancel due to weather now

Pictures from two weeks ago didn't even look close to the pier being finished. Where did you find that Mariner used it?

[Mikew0805]

8 hours ago, Edhoff said:

Just received my email for the 3/15 sailing.  Miami instead of CocoCay.  What a bunch of crap. Just what I want to do, if I wanted to see Miami I would have flown and gotten a cruise from there.  To compensate they have arranged some free shuttles to SouthBeach etc WOW. Nice to know one week prior to sailing..They have my money I have no choice.

Ugh.. so sorry about this. Miami is not even close to the same as Coco Cay. 😞

[emeraldcity]

6 minutes ago, Mikew0805 said:

Pictures from two weeks ago didn't even look close to the pier being finished. Where did you find that Mariner used it?

I'm interested in an answer to this as well. I am going to be on the March 25th sailing of the Mariner and we've been guessing whether the planned stop at Coco Cay will actually take place.

 

[CazV]

Mariner at Coco Cay yesterday for those of you asking... 

 

 

 

[Mikew0805]

Very nice! Thank you for that. 

[cementhands]

9 hours ago, Edhoff said:

Just received my email for the 3/15 sailing.  Miami instead of CocoCay.  What a bunch of crap. Just what I want to do, if I wanted to see Miami I would have flown and gotten a cruise from there.  To compensate they have arranged some free shuttles to SouthBeach etc WOW. Nice to know one week prior to sailing..They have my money I have no choice.

We feel your pain. We’ve been on a cruise or 2 when because of the weather entire itineraries were changed. Just before the cruise. This left little time for research of new ports. TripAdvisor helps.

However we have enjoyed the hop on hop off bus in Miami on 3 different occasions. It’s a great way to visit south beach and little Havana. The bus does a separate loop to both areas. We usually eat at the News cafe south beach where the designer Versace was killed. Clevelander is nice for drinks. The shopping center where you get the bus has a little Cuban cafe with real Cuban coffee and sandwich excellent next to the Polo shop. Miami can be fun! Coco Cay was a port we missed also a few years ago.

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, bigeck said:

New pier opened yesterday. Mariner was the first to use it. Shouldn't cancel due to weather now

Yes, I know. Will be better but still will be times canceled due to Weather, High Winds, Storms/Heavy Rain. Even the more Sheltered Labadee cancels at times

[CRUISEFAN0001]

It seems reading that "Itineraries Subject To Change" text in the cruise documentation might be a good idea for everyone.

 

In the case of Coco Cay...there are already numerous posts in other threads that talk about May 2019 being the first real opening of most of the features of Coco Cay (The South Cabana section in December 2019). That information has been out there for some time.

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, Mikew0805 said:

Pictures from two weeks ago didn't even look close to the pier being finished. Where did you find that Mariner used it?

Once the Pilings are in doesnt take long at all. Couple yrs ago did B2B2B one stop at Antigua they were starting to replace all the Pier on top existing Pilings. Returned 2 weeks later and were done...

[nepacruisers]

It's not weather that is keeping Anthem from Coco Cay, so why is it being canceled? Any other ships scheduled in the next 2 weeks being canceled, or just Anthem? We understand itinerary can be changed, but just wonder what the reason is. Also our cruise planner still says Coco Cay, so there aren't any Miami excursions listed and we only have 7 days until sailaway to sort it out. Very frustrating.

[Mass2Cruise]

Are they going to install dolphins on the end of the pier at Coco Cay to accommodate the longer ships?  Mariner is just over 1k feet and Athem is 110 feet longer.  Looking at the picture, the bow line looks really tight back toward the aft.  More so than other piers.  And it looks like there is a good amount of hull that extends past the front of the pier.  Could be the angle of the picture.  But would imagine they still have to provide some sort of mooring for the longer ships.  

[CRUISEFAN0001]

9 minutes ago, Mass2Cruise said:

 Mariner is just over 1k feet and Athem is 110 feet longer.  Looking at the picture, the bow line looks really tight back toward the aft.  More so than other piers.  And it looks like there is a good amount of hull that extends past the front of the pier.  Could be the angle of the picture.  But would imagine they still have to provide some sort of mooring for the longer ships.  

Since larger ships have that destination planned...docking will be supported in the final rendition of the pier.

[XJokerX]

15 minutes ago, nepacruisers said:

It's not weather that is keeping Anthem from Coco Cay, so why is it being canceled? Any other ships scheduled in the next 2 weeks being canceled, or just Anthem? We understand itinerary can be changed, but just wonder what the reason is. Also our cruise planner still says Coco Cay, so there aren't any Miami excursions listed and we only have 7 days until sailaway to sort it out. Very frustrating.

 

Of course it isn't weather... but it could be.  Unfortunately if they were to cancel Coco Cay the day of due to weather I would rather not be floating around at sea.  A stop is better than nothing.

[Jasukkie]

I've been cancelled every time at Coco Cay. We joke about it being a mythological place. How exciting to see Mariner docking there!

 

[reallyitsmema]

4 hours ago, bigeck said:

New pier opened yesterday. Mariner was the first to use it. Shouldn't cancel due to weather now

 

Mariner only did a test docking.  

[blueridgemama]

I would have expected more of an announcement from RCI that the pier is officially open and way more excitement.

[blueridgemama]

2 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Mariner only did a test docking.  

 

so was the ship empty or did they actually disembark passengers?

[reallyitsmema]

3 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

 

so was the ship empty or did they actually disembark passengers?

 

The ship definitely had passengers, but I have not seen that they disembarked anyone.  Lots of pictures and videos on social media.  Pier still has open sections and equipment on it.

[CazV]

1 hour ago, blueridgemama said:

I would have expected more of an announcement from RCI that the pier is officially open and way more excitement.

 

 It clearly says in the Instagram post I shared that it was a test. You can see in the photos that it's still under construction. 

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Mariner only did a test docking.  

Still it's a positive thing.