Reasons behind celebrity decision keep diverting from coco cay!

[MR_T]

It seems from quite a few recent posters that celebrity seem to changing the planned stop at coco cay most weeks for alternate stops at Nassau...

 

Now as we are due to stop there in a couple of weeks I'm starting to wonder whether there's another motive by celebrity for these decisions other then the reason given (the weather!) [emoji848]

 

Maybe it's the cynic in me that's starting to think this decision could be being made due to the large number of pax now onboard with the included drinks package... going to coco cay they would have to feed & water all the bodies on the island for a whole day... Going to Nassau would surely save the cruise line a nice pot of dollar bills...

 

Maybe it's just me but it does seem to be happening quite often these days... [emoji848]

[az_tchr]

Nassau gets them a big port bill. Probably a wash.

[cruzeluver]

Coco cay is always a crap shoot. If the seas are not perfectly calm the tenders cannot safely operate, not unlike Grand Cayman which also get skipped quite a bit.Its not a Celebrity thing. Royal ships have been going (and skipping it) for years. When we have missed it we have gotten an additional sea day.

[Dave85]

Royal and Celebrity ships have always had trouble calling on Coco Cay, particularly in the winter, due to sea conditions. For that matter, NCL has the same exact problems at its nearby island called Great Stirrup Cay. No conspiracies here.

[Scrappytraveller]

Well it seems to me that the honest thing to do would be to put a giant asterisk on the itinerary stating that coco cay is 95% likely to be substituted by crappy Nassau between this month and that month. False advertising. And I do find it strange that it's so unsafe to tender now that the great majority of passengers have drink packages. Makes me go hmmmmm... [emoji57]

Don't think reflection has made it once this year...

[Bytor62]

I can only say that yesterday the seas were rocking! 6-9' swells, not very friendly for tendering. We did end up in Nassau, so we took the ferry over to Paradise Island. Let's say it was exciting getting on/off. Could not imagine what the tender would have been like. But what do I know, Celebrity is declining by the minute :rolleyes:

[Bo1953]

Reads like some people have never sailed in the Caribbean this time of year... to put it another way from experience, we were on X and headed to Cayman, the waters were rough from the day before which made it a crap shoot as to if we would be able to tender in. Finally we sailed to another side of the island where the waves were a bit better but not much.

 

Several who chose to tender in came back quickly ill from the rough waters... doing some research before departure, we were prepared to miss this stop due to this.

 

So there is no conspiracy here or at Coco Cay it is the season and weather which conspire to either allow tendering or not. If these are important stops, then it is recommended to consider late spring through early fall for calmer waters.

 

bon voyage

[dkjretired]

Well it seems to me that the honest thing to do would be to put a giant asterisk on the itinerary stating that coco cay is 95% likely to be substituted by crappy Nassau between this month and that month. False advertising. And I do find it strange that it's so unsafe to tender now that the great majority of passengers have drink packages. Makes me go hmmmmm... [emoji57]

Don't think reflection has made it once this year...

 

If that was the case wouldn't they be doing the same thing in Labadee. Makes no sense unless they were staying at sea and not incurring port fees.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Folks, I live in South East Florida not so far from Nassau. We have had one of the worst winters for heavy surf and high waves that I can remember in a long, long time. We get Weather Service rip current warnings nearly every day and have since November. For the most part if the surf is rough along our coast, it is rough in the northern Bahamas. It has nothing to do with drink packages.

 

Also I have had personal experience on this matter. One day we tendered from Majesty of the Seas and spent a lovely morning at Coco Cay. When it came time to tender back, it was an entirely different matter. It was really difficult to unload the tender boats beside the ship because the waves had suddenly turned high and rough.

 

The tender boats bounced up and down against the ship. The gangway kept flying up in the air. Only a few passengers could leave the tender boat at a time. When I finally got to the gangway, it flew up and I went flying airborne into the ship. A security guard grabbed me. People in wheel chairs had a very hard time. Luckily there weren't many of them.

 

When the seas are rough at Coco Cay, you don't want to be on one of those tender boats. They are open and waves can splash in on you. I do agree with the idea to put an asterisk by Coco Cay on an itinerary. Passengers should know that weather conditions can prevent a call to Coco Cay.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Gangway Style

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Royal and Celebrity ships have always had trouble calling on Coco Cay, particularly in the winter, due to sea conditions. For that matter, NCL has the same exact problems at its nearby island called Great Stirrup Cay. No conspiracies here.

 

Even with the dock at the island, Disney sometimes has to miss Castaway Cay this time of year. If the seas are such that they cannot back the ship into the channel, they can't dock so it's a bonus sea day.

[Big_G]

We've never had Coco Cay on a Celebrity itinerary but we've missed it 4 out of 5 times with Royal and that was long before the implementation of drink packages.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Big_G

[keesar]

It seems from quite a few recent posters that celebrity seem to changing the planned stop at coco cay most weeks for alternate stops at Nassau...

 

Now as we are due to stop there in a couple of weeks I'm starting to wonder whether there's another motive by celebrity for these decisions other then the reason given (the weather!) [emoji848]

 

Maybe it's the cynic in me that's starting to think this decision could be being made due to the large number of pax now onboard with the included drinks package... going to coco cay they would have to feed & water all the bodies on the island for a whole day... Going to Nassau would surely save the cruise line a nice pot of dollar bills...

 

Maybe it's just me but it does seem to be happening quite often these days... [emoji848]

 

The weather is the major factor. Yesterday, the winds were howling and the seas were 7-9 feet high. That was a logical decision to bypass the island. That is called making a responsible decision.

[loubetti]

This is not the first time there has been a conspiracy theory about missing a port (not just Celebrity either), and it won't be the last. Some knowledge of weather; meaning winds / sea conditions is necessary here. Hearing about it being about a drinks package has me ROFL! :D

[Peteymil]

The weather is the major factor. Yesterday, the winds were howling and the seas were 7-9 feet high. That was a logical decision to bypass the island. That is called making a responsible decision.

 

Agreed. If they have chosen to let the tender boats go in, and someone was hurt, everyone would be saying "Why didn't they just skip Coco Cay".

[Straughn]

We have been cruising on Royal and Celebrity since 1993. I would estimate that we have made the scheduled stop at Coco Cay maybe 50% of the time. Many of these cruises were long before drink packages were invented. It has everything to do with passenger safety and weather. And like the previous poster, we have also experienced very rough seas when we took the tender back. I was also on the island one time when they cleared it before the scheduled sail time because a big storm was blowing in and they had to get passengers back to the ship before it did.

[Xport]

Don't think reflection has made it once this year...

 

Reflection has called at Coco Cay this season... We were there last 11 December!

[Xport]

If that was the case wouldn't they be doing the same thing in Labadee. Makes no sense unless they were staying at sea and not incurring port fees.

 

Built a dock at Labadee--to allow visits by Oasis and Allure Of The Seas/to stop tendering by their smaller ships--during 2009...

 

I agree that drink packages have nothing to do with a porting decision!

[dkjretired]

Built a dock at Labadee--to allow visits by Oasis and Allure Of The Seas/to stop tendering by their smaller ships--during 2009...

 

I agree that drink packages have nothing to do with a porting decision!

 

We were at Labadee two years ago, really nice docking there. Just trying to point out that if they were devious enough not to go to CocoCay because of drink packages, why not do the same thing at Labadee, they have an even better excuse with the Political problems.

[c-legs]

Another issue.....and this applies to all the Bahamian Islands on current longterm lease to ALL cruise lines ( CoCo,HalfMoon, Princess Cay, etc.etc.etc..); they are all fairly flat, thus ''enjoying '' limited if any lee from the winds. When wind forces reach a certain level, tenders bringing local shoreside personnel to these islands on ship days can't make it within certain safety standards==that pretty well automatically results in the particular ship(s) due to call ,making the decision to simply turn back abd go ''somewhere else''.

Of course, even if shoreside personnel can be brought over on the specific island, the wind force ( and a worsening forecast for later in the day) will have a strong impact on the Master's decision to cancel the call at the time HE is due to drop anchor.

 

At this time of the year, Nassau is full of ''surprise'' calls .besides those ships scheduled to call. Those surprise visitors all sail in late morning/early afternoon; guess where they came from ? Yep;.... a scrubbed call at their

respective ''private'' island nearby, unapproachable due to weather.

 

While the ship may manoeuvre fairly well in high wind/strong swells, the tenders are another story...

 

It's a natural fact of life in the Bahamian Islands....all of them.

 

Cheers

[canusa1]

We were at Labadee two years ago, really nice docking there. Just trying to point out that if they were devious enough not to go to CocoCay because of drink packages, why not do the same thing at Labadee, they have an even better excuse with the Political problems.

 

 

We were on the Silhouette last Feb and were unable to dock there due to the high seas. The Captain took her into port and said he thought that he would try to dock the ship. But after assessing the situation decided it would not be safe for the passengers or the ship. Celebrity did give us a 10.00 credit for the canceled port. We are going back again in Aoril. Do ope we can dick this time.

[OBX-Cruisers]

We have been to CoCo Cay when an unexpected weather front changed direction and caused an early departure from the island.

 

I think the OP would have been the first on these boards to complain about how rough and unsafe getting off the tender and back onto the ship was during that event. Sorry but those tenders bounce like corks when up against the ramp at the ship where you have to get off. Several crew members were holding on to passengers both at the tender and at the ship ramp to prevent them from falling and being thrown into the ocean. Quite a vivid memory!

 

If you think that Celebrity/RCL is skipping a port for a reason other than safety, then stay on the ship and eat and drink so that you are not one of the possible victims when getting off or on those tenders.

Weather off the East Coast of the US is very unpredictable..............just ask the captain of the Anthem of the Seas

[K&RCurt]

We were at Coco Cay a week ago on the Constellation. It was very windy and the water was pretty rough. We had the call there, but it was quite a ride getting to the island. We were on the 3rd tender over to the island and people were going back to the ship on the second tender!

 

We had a cabana so we had some shelter from the wind, but walking around you got sand-blasted from the wind picking up sand from the beaches. We didn't see anyone in the water at all. Watching the tenders come and go to and from the ship from our cabana, they were getting tossed about quite a bit. If the wind or water had been any worse we would have had to skip the stop. As it was more people stayed on the ship than went to Coco Cay.

 

I don't think there is any conspiracy, just dealing with Mother Nature.

[cruzeluver]

Sorry. No conspiracy here.

 

ALL tender ports have this issue for ALL cruise lines and I am not aware of ANY cruise line that notates the odds of making it to a particular port on the published itinerary.

 

Our missed calls at Coco Cay (on Royal) were long before drink packages were the norm. We have also missed calls at Grand Cayman (on Celebrity and Royal) and Cancun (when ships still tendered there). All were tender ports and all instances were related to sea conditions.

[villauk]

Sorry. No conspiracy here.

 

ALL tender ports have this issue for ALL cruise lines and I am not aware of ANY cruise line that notates the odds of making it to a particular port on the published itinerary.

 

Our missed calls at Coco Cay (on Royal) were long before drink packages were the norm. We have also missed calls at Grand Cayman (on Celebrity and Royal) and Cancun (when ships still tendered there). All were tender ports and all instances were related to sea conditions.

 

Funny, we were told previously to expect not to get to either Coco Cay or Grand Cayman on different itineraries from past cruisers and we've managed both more than once - as you state, definitely the luck of the draw ;). Cococay is 'a paradise island' - much prefer it to Labadee :).

[jono mono]

If it's such a chore getting in there why have it ?? we did'nt get in on my 30/1/16 trip on Reflection,a disappointment but in telling us they made a big big point in how much negotiations took place !! but now i find it's quite regular that it's missed so why the big build up to explain ? Made us think !! Seriously thinking of giving Celebrity a miss in future.(Web site rubbish as well)