Labadee or Coco Cay???

[elaineb]

Trying to help a friend pick an RCCL cruise. One goes to Labadee and the other Coco Cay. So all of you with experience, which would you choose all other things being equal? Thanks for your help!

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

I love both places. Labadee has mountains; Coco Cay is flat. I like Coco Cay's sand better. It is softer and smoother. Labadee has a zipline that goes out over the ocean. Coco Cay has no zipline being as the area is flat.

 

Labadee has seemed hotter to me than Coco Cay, but that might just be a function of the time of year I was there. Labadee, being larger, has a little open air trolley that you can ride from one end to the other, for free.

 

Coco Cay is problematic in that it is often subject to rough ocean currents which make it too hard for ships to stop there. It can be a big disappointment if your ship is unable to stop there.

 

The best thing to do is choose the cruise based on the other stops, because either island is a paradise.

[sandytoes03]

There's no way I could decide between the two. They are both awesome. Either one will be a hit--your friend should base his/her decission on the other ports.

[elaineb]

The rest of the itinerary is San Juan and St. Maarten on Liberty, St. Thomas and St. Maarten on the Mariner. Fairly equal, that's why I was hoping one of the private islands would sway this!!! Not being able to stop due to weather conditions is a concern, though. I'd hate for her 7 nite cruise to only have 2 stops....

Thanks for your input everyone.

[GaryWT]

Either is great and if one did not go to San Juan, I would pick it in a minute. I think RC made a big mistake when the stopped offering a cruise that went to both places. We did that twice, it is a great week when you can sit on the beach at Coco Cay and Laberdee. We have replaced it with Carnival that stops at Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay. To date, Half Moon Cay puts them all to shame.

[azkcruizers]

I would probably pick the one that goes to St. Thomas if you love beaches or shopping, or the one with San Juan if you would rather do something else like rainforest, forts, old san juan.

[cruisingtrish]

Either is great and if one did not go to San Juan, I would pick it in a minute. I think RC made a big mistake when the stopped offering a cruise that went to both places. We did that twice, it is a great week when you can sit on the beach at Coco Cay and Laberdee. We have replaced it with Carnival that stops at Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay. To date, Half Moon Cay puts them all to shame.

 

 

Gary why does HMC put RCCL's two private Islands to shame? I am asking because I have never been to Half moon cay.

[kmunis]

The rest of the itinerary is San Juan and St. Maarten on Liberty, St. Thomas and St. Maarten on the Mariner. Fairly equal, that's why I was hoping one of the private islands would sway this!!! Not being able to stop due to weather conditions is a concern, though. I'd hate for her 7 nite cruise to only have 2 stops....

Thanks for your input everyone.

 

 

IMHO I would pick St Thomas over San Juan. When the Liberty is in San Juan it gets there at 3pm which doesn't really give you much beach time and many things like the fort and I believe the Bacardi Distillery close in the early evening. If you go to St Thomas you have options like Magens Bay or the gorgeous Trunk Bay on St John, which is one of my absolute favorite beaches anywhere. If the private islands are the same (been to Labadee and loved it!), then St Thomas would sway me to the Mariner.

[cot427]

I love both private islands, but I found that Labadee is a little nicer. It has the open air barter market, nicer waters, and nicer scenery. CocoCay is also very nice, but we found the beach to be dirty in one area (clean in all the rest) and one area to be filled with Jellyfish. They both have their pros and cons.

 

But for the itinerary, I like San Juan better than St. Thomas. If you like history and more active things to do, go to San Juan. If you want to go to the beach, go to St. Thomas, although we have been to 2 beach in St. Thomas, Magens Bay and Sapphire, and I did not like either of them at all (except for the scenery).

 

As for the ship, I like both Mariner and Liberty since they both have the promenade, so you can't go wrong with either.

[paradise08]

We were in Coco Cay this January and found it to be beautiful. So many options. Rest or action. The jet skis looked like a lot of fun.

 

Here are our pictures of Coco Cay : Coco Cay Pictures