Just back from Perfect Day At Coco Cay

[JRudy33]

Could you please tell me if there is any type of shuttle that takes you down the pier.  Both my husband and I can't walk very long, especially in the heat.  That would help us tremendously because I realize we will have to be doing some walking on the island. 

[Scotty G]

3 hours ago, JRudy33 said:

Could you please tell me if there is any type of shuttle that takes you down the pier.  Both my husband and I can't walk very long, especially in the heat.  That would help us tremendously because I realize we will have to be doing some walking on the island. 

There were no provisions for assistance last week. I used my rollater and had to leave it at the start of the pier since it was all sand after the bridge. There are large tired wheelchairs available for use at that point but no attendants to push them.

[suesnake2002]

Op i am interested in hearing about your experience with the self serve beer station. Did you just swipe your sea pass card?

[sunsetme]

Where were the clamshells located?

[Carolina Girl 99]

On 5/7/2019 at 8:05 AM, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Glad we reserved our Thrill Waterpark Cabana. Steps away from the Wave Pool, giant Slides, etc. Great "home base" for our visit later this year - and at $66/person...reasonable considering it includes bottled water, towels, food, and admission to the waterpark itself.

Wow, that's a great price! We're booked on Mariner for Feb 2020 and the Thrill Waterpark cabanas are $499, which works out to just over $83/pp for the 6 of us. I do have the option to book Chill Island, Oasis Lagoon or South Beach Cabanas for "only" $399, but then we lose the waterpark entry tickets.

Also noticed that the Half Day waterpark option (at $39) disappeared from my planner and the only option left is the full day pass at $44 🤔 

[tbretthauer1]

On 5/6/2019 at 2:34 PM, ramidon1 said:

Pros:  no tendering, music and dancers to welcome you, food was fresh and delish, drink servers were frequent and quite quick, lots of different areas to explore.  Floating tiki bar was great,  could walk waaay out on sandbar...watch out for stingrays....do the stingray shuffle!  Fireworks just prior to departing COCO Cay were great but need to be later as it was not dark enough!  A very worthy effort tho.  Loved the beer tap at the buffet!  Lots of bathrooms around.  

 

Cons:  Oasis lagoon cabana was underwhelming.  Poor and limited seating in the cabana, poor location...could not even see the pool past rows and rows of the free chairs... zero service except for regular bar servers.  No towels in cabana.  Music at lagoon pool was obnoxious and relentless.....got louder as afternoon progressed.  We were hoping to relax and nap in cabana but music was too much.  Did not realize it is set up as such a party scene....not described that way—would have never wasted the money on the cabana.  Pool water was cold in the morning but warmed up as day went on.  Waterslides.....per our twenty somethings in the group....1.5 hour wait for the big slide with only one ship at coco....what will it be with more than 1 ship??

 

Overall impression.....it feels pretty disney-ized, miss the natural relaxed beauty of the Bahamas.  Plenty for everyone to do and lots of opportunity for RCCL to get their hands onto more of your $$.  It’s nice and all but personally not really anything I’m looking for on a cruise.  

 

 

 

Natural relaxed beauty of the Bahamas?  Is there a different Bahamas somewhere that you go to?  Every cruise stop in the Bahamas lacks natural relaxed beauty.  Freeport looks like an industrial harbor and unless you take an excursion to the national park it is kind of a dump.  Nassau is pretty much a meat market at the port and overshadowed by the man made island Atlantis is on.  Not to mention the US state department has issued a warning about the Bahamas for lack of safety and high crime.  What you described sounds like a blast.  If you wanted to take a nap, you could have stayed on the ship and slept on the pool deck.  Nobody would be there.  I never understand reviews like this

[drewdrewcruiser]

40 minutes ago, Carolina Girl 99 said:

Wow, that's a great price! We're booked on Mariner for Feb 2020 and the Thrill Waterpark cabanas are $499, which works out to just over $83/pp for the 6 of us. I do have the option to book Chill Island, Oasis Lagoon or South Beach Cabanas for "only" $399, but then we lose the waterpark entry tickets.

Also noticed that the Half Day waterpark option (at $39) disappeared from my planner and the only option left is the full day pass at $44 🤔 

For my April 2020 sailing, the waterpark cabana is $600.  😫

[Iamcruzin]

39 minutes ago, tbretthauer1 said:

 

 

Natural relaxed beauty of the Bahamas?  Is there a different Bahamas somewhere that you go to?  Every cruise stop in the Bahamas lacks natural relaxed beauty.  Freeport looks like an industrial harbor and unless you take an excursion to the national park it is kind of a dump.  Nassau is pretty much a meat market at the port and overshadowed by the man made island Atlantis is on.  Not to mention the US state department has issued a warning about the Bahamas for lack of safety and high crime.  What you described sounds like a blast.  If you wanted to take a nap, you could have stayed on the ship and slept on the pool deck.  Nobody would be there.  I never understand reviews like this

The last time I was at Coco Cay was in 2001 so I can understand the review. My kids  5 and 8 at the time had a blast just with the regular beach activity and this was coming off of a pre cruise 3 days at Disney/Universal stay. They never asked to go back to Disney but asked when the next cruise was. Perfect kids in my eyes.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 hour ago, Carolina Girl 99 said:

Wow, that's a great price! We're booked on Mariner for Feb 2020 and the Thrill Waterpark cabanas are $499, which works out to just over $83/pp for the 6 of us. I do have the option to book Chill Island, Oasis Lagoon or South Beach Cabanas for "only" $399, but then we lose the waterpark entry tickets.

Also noticed that the Half Day waterpark option (at $39) disappeared from my planner and the only option left is the full day pass at $44 🤔 

The price we booked is below $375 for the Thrill Waterpark Cabana.

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[drewdrewcruiser]

1 hour ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

The price we booked is below $375 for the Thrill Waterpark Cabana.

 

For 6 people and includes wristbands for admission?? I'd book that in a heartbeat. 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

5 hours ago, drewdrewcruiser said:

For 6 people and includes wristbands for admission?? I'd book that in a heartbeat. 

Yup...and we did.

[mattb31]

10 hours ago, tbretthauer1 said:

 

 

Natural relaxed beauty of the Bahamas?  Is there a different Bahamas somewhere that you go to?  Every cruise stop in the Bahamas lacks natural relaxed beauty.  Freeport looks like an industrial harbor and unless you take an excursion to the national park it is kind of a dump.  Nassau is pretty much a meat market at the port and overshadowed by the man made island Atlantis is on.  Not to mention the US state department has issued a warning about the Bahamas for lack of safety and high crime.  What you described sounds like a blast.  If you wanted to take a nap, you could have stayed on the ship and slept on the pool deck.  Nobody would be there.  I never understand reviews like this

 

Just so were not fear mongering here the Level 2 Bahamas advisory is the same level that was issued in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and UK.

 

Freeport sucks, but the Nassau hate here is so overblown.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

16 minutes ago, mattb31 said:

 

Just so were not fear mongering here the Level 2 Bahamas advisory is the same level that was issued in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and UK.

 

Freeport sucks, but the Nassau hate here is so overblown.

Yeah...considering that poster you referenced has never been to Coco Cay (and perhaps not even to the other Bahama destinations...), their negativity is beyond belief.

 

While we are not fond of Nassau after stopping there several times in the past, it also isn't the depiction given by that same negative poster.

 

As most intelligent people know (like you),  Coco Cay is a private island - with cruise ship access only, so any security issues in other places aren't even relevant. That other poster you referenced has no clue.

 

We're looking forward to enjoying Coco Cay later this year, especially now with even lower prices. 👍

[senrab]

1 hour ago, mattb31 said:

 

Just so were not fear mongering here the Level 2 Bahamas advisory is the same level that was issued in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and UK.

 

Freeport sucks, but the Nassau hate here is so overblown.

 

Don't you know that perspective, rationality, and complete information aren't permitted on the internet? 😏

Edited May 9, 2019 by senrab

[itsanita]

9 hours ago, drewdrewcruiser said:

For 6 people and includes wristbands for admission?? I'd book that in a heartbeat. 

 

We would book this too...except that in addition to us 6 adults, we have 5 kids with us.   So even if we bought them tickets for a full day at the water park, I doubt they would allow them to hang out with us in the Cabana.    

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 minute ago, itsanita said:

 

We would book this too...except that in addition to us 6 adults, we have 5 kids with us.   So even if we bought them tickets for a full day at the water park, I doubt they would allow them to hang out with us in the Cabana.    

That's almost approaching the consideration of having 2 cabanas...

[itsanita]

23 minutes ago, itsanita said:

 

We would book this too...except that in addition to us 6 adults, we have 5 kids with us.   So even if we bought them tickets for a full day at the water park, I doubt they would allow them to hang out with us in the Cabana.    

 

I just spoke to the rep at RC and she said that we could still get the cabana, and the children could use it but they would not get any of the other benefits... free water, access to the complimentary food, drinks and beverages from the nearby Snack Shack.  So we would have to buy them the all day pass.   We all have the beverage package, so that's not an issue anyway.   

 

It would cost us an additional $140.00 to have the cabana.  

[TYMAN]

Just arrived today. They are running golf carts back & forth for those that need it. We’re on the Mariner, but was told Navigator was going to be here too. Not as of 9:40am. Lots & lots of beach chairs all around the island! 

Edited May 9, 2019 by TYMAN

[CRUISEFAN0001]

58 minutes ago, itsanita said:

 

I just spoke to the rep at RC and she said that we could still get the cabana, and the children could use it but they would not get any of the other benefits... free water, access to the complimentary food, drinks and beverages from the nearby Snack Shack.  So we would have to buy them the all day pass.   We all have the beverage package, so that's not an issue anyway.   

 

It would cost us an additional $140.00 to have the cabana.  

Makes sense.

[exercisemama]

I don't see a half day waterpark option anymore. Does that mean we can't purchase it while there either?

[ATG]

I can’t take much sun due to health issues, were there plenty of shaded loungers available?  I would love to be able to relax in the shade and watch the waves, but anywhere works.

[tbretthauer1]

6 hours ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Yeah...considering that poster you referenced has never been to Coco Cay (and perhaps not even to the other Bahama destinations...), their negativity is beyond belief.

 

While we are not fond of Nassau after stopping there several times in the past, it also isn't the depiction given by that same negative poster.

 

As most intelligent people know (like you),  Coco Cay is a private island - with cruise ship access only, so any security issues in other places aren't even relevant. That other poster you referenced has no clue.

 

We're looking forward to enjoying Coco Cay later this year, especially now with even lower prices. 👍

 

I have been to the Bahamas multiple times. Maybe you should check before making statements you have no clue about. I actually rented a house in Nassau for a week once. During that week there were two shootings at local bars. Several people that live there warned us about fake taxis that rob cruise passengers. I truly hate when people make statements in ignorance. 

[tbretthauer1]

6 hours ago, mattb31 said:

 

Just so were not fear mongering here the Level 2 Bahamas advisory is the same level that was issued in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and UK.

 

Freeport sucks, but the Nassau hate here is so overblown.

I have been to Nassau multiple times including a house rental for a week. Nassau crime is VERY high and to pretend it isn’t is putting your head in the sand. Additionally, the individual stated that they didn’t like the party atmosphere. The cruise port at Nassau is the definition of party atmosphere. During my week stay on the island there were two shootings. Multiple fake taxi robberies, I was offered drugs multiple times down town. Yeah, my personal experience on the island is soooo over blown right?

[tbretthauer1]

6 hours ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Yeah...considering that poster you referenced has never been to Coco Cay (and perhaps not even to the other Bahama destinations...), their negativity is beyond belief.

 

While we are not fond of Nassau after stopping there several times in the past, it also isn't the depiction given by that same negative poster.

 

As most intelligent people know (like you),  Coco Cay is a private island - with cruise ship access only, so any security issues in other places aren't even relevant. That other poster you referenced has no clue.

 

We're looking forward to enjoying Coco Cay later this year, especially now with even lower prices. 👍

 

I also should mention I was COMPLIMENTING Coco Cay because it is safer and more relaxed than the other Bahamian cruise ports. 

[tbretthauer1]

6 hours ago, mattb31 said:

 

Just so were not fear mongering here the Level 2 Bahamas advisory is the same level that was issued in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and UK.

 

Freeport sucks, but the Nassau hate here is so overblown.

The level two advisories on the other places you noted are for potential terrorist activity. The warning for the Bahamas is for violent crime. Which do you think is more likely. But tell me more about fear mongering.