CoCo Cay

[Ken Greco]

Has anyone seen the improvements on RCL private island?

[Clarea]

None visible yet.

[Loonbeam]

None scheduled to open until May 2019 - Most December.

 

Are ships even visiting right now?  I know there was a period of total closure for construction, not sure when.

 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, Loonbeam said:

None scheduled to open until May 2019 - Most December.

 

Are ships even visiting right now?  I know there was a period of total closure for construction, not sure when.

 

There is no period of total closure.  There was a period that they stopped having 2 ships at the island on the same day but they never closed the island.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Ourusualbeach

[Loonbeam]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

There is no period of total closure.  There was a period that they stopped having 2 ships at the island on the same day but they never closed the island.

Not sure if they closed it, I remember reading that no ships were scheduled for a period so they could work on the dock and entry at least.  Might only have been a week or two.   

 

[SRF]

12 hours ago, Loonbeam said:

Not sure if they closed it, I remember reading that no ships were scheduled for a period so they could work on the dock and entry at least.  Might only have been a week or two.   

 

 

From what I have seen, every ship that got canceled, there was another ship at the island.

 

Also, a comment was made that the construction of the main Perfect Day venues was waiting for the pier to be finished to ease getting construction supplies onto the island.

 

As of August, there NO evidence of any actual construction.  There were moving dirt in preparation.   Based on experience on a number of construction sites, don't hold your breath for a May 19 opening.  May 20, possibly.

[John Reid]

From what I saw (rather, didn't see) mid-November, it looks like there will be no chance of a May, 2019, completion, yet RCCL takes bookings as if it is a given. 

[Clarea]

2 hours ago, SRF said:

  ...

As of August, there NO evidence of any actual construction.  There were moving dirt in preparation.   Based on experience on a number of construction sites, don't hold your breath for a May 19 opening.  May 20, possibly.

 

When we were there last July, there were areas blocked off to viewing by high fencing, so we could not see any contruction.

[LuCruise]

17 minutes ago, John Reid said:

From what I saw (rather, didn't see) mid-November, it looks like there will be no chance of a May, 2019, completion, yet RCCL takes bookings as if it is a given. 

I assume they'll be doing lots of refunds for the CoCo Cay "excursions".  We have it booked for August but do wonder if even then if it'l be completed.  Hopefully people haven't selected a specific cruise because on the Perfect Day stuff.

[ihopfar]

We are scheduled to go to CoCo Cay on the Symphony in May.  Although some of the enhancements would be nice, we will be happy with a chair and umbrella on the beach if the Perfect Day enhancements are delayed.   May should be enough time for them to complete the dock to allow the Symphony to go there, even with delays.

 

BUT, what are the chances they will cancel Oasis class visits even if the dock is completed if they feel the spaces open and not under construction would not be able to handle an Oasis size crowd?

 

Thanks!

Brad

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, ihopfar said:

BUT, what are the chances they will cancel Oasis class visits even if the dock is completed if they feel the spaces open and not under construction would not be able to handle an Oasis size crowd?

Pretty much zero.

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, ihopfar said:

We are scheduled to go to CoCo Cay on the Symphony in May.  Although some of the enhancements would be nice, we will be happy with a chair and umbrella on the beach if the Perfect Day enhancements are delayed.   May should be enough time for them to complete the dock to allow the Symphony to go there, even with delays.

 

BUT, what are the chances they will cancel Oasis class visits even if the dock is completed if they feel the spaces open and not under construction would not be able to handle an Oasis size crowd?

 

Thanks!

Brad

 

How can anyone here predict that?

[island lady]

Coco Cay is actually larger in size than the Labadee point of land area leased from Haiti.  Oasis class ships going to Labadee on regular basis with no problems handling the crowds.  

[John Reid]

45 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

I assume they'll be doing lots of refunds for the CoCo Cay "excursions".  We have it booked for August but do wonder if even then if it'l be completed.  Hopefully people haven't selected a specific cruise because on the Perfect Day stuff.

And if the pier is not finished as advertised, there remains the normal higher risk of not getting onshore do to continued tendering. A perfect day at sea!

It reminds me of the two years RCCL continued to promote the aerial show on Grandeur and Enchantment as their "WOW" factor even though it no longer existed.

[island lady]

7 minutes ago, John Reid said:

And if the pier is not finished as advertised, there remains the normal higher risk of not getting onshore do to continued tendering. A perfect day at sea!

It reminds me of the two years RCCL continued to promote the aerial show on Grandeur and Enchantment as their "WOW" factor even though it no longer existed.

 

Oasis class ships can't tender.  If the pier is not complete....won't be going to Coco Cay on those ships.  

[gatour]

4 hours ago, SRF said:

 

From what I have seen, every ship that got canceled, there was another ship at the island.

 

Also, a comment was made that the construction of the main Perfect Day venues was waiting for the pier to be finished to ease getting construction supplies onto the island.

 

As of August, there NO evidence of any actual construction.  There were moving dirt in preparation.   Based on experience on a number of construction sites, don't hold your breath for a May 19 opening.  May 20, possibly.

As of October and mid November there was definitely evidence of constructions.  Some buildings were substationally along.  In Oct we saw construction workers far to the right of the tender dock.  They were far away so didn't hear anything.  However, in November they were working near the wooden barrier and we did hear some construction noise.  I can see that some of the buildings in a month or two.

[rkelzenberg]

.We were at CoCo Cay this month.  There are signs of construction all over the island, though they may end up being behind in the schedule.  It appears that the staff areas have been moved to the west side of the island from the central part of the island.

The water park is under construction, the new dining area, new reception center and pier all are showings signs of progress.

The one area that I was disappointed to see is that all of the walking paths and trails that were located on the south side of the island have been closed off and you no longer have access to any of those areas of the island.  I enjoyed the paths and the viewing tower on our previous stop and myself and others were disappointed to see that those are no longer an option.

[island lady]

1 hour ago, rkelzenberg said:

.We were at CoCo Cay this month.  There are signs of construction all over the island, though they may end up being behind in the schedule.  It appears that the staff areas have been moved to the west side of the island from the central part of the island.

The water park is under construction, the new dining area, new reception center and pier all are showings signs of progress.

The one area that I was disappointed to see is that all of the walking paths and trails that were located on the south side of the island have been closed off and you no longer have access to any of those areas of the island.  I enjoyed the paths and the viewing tower on our previous stop and myself and others were disappointed to see that those are no longer an option.

 

Agree.  That nature trail was one of the things we loved to do the most.  Came out at the other end with a nice bluff off to the right with a view over the bay and the ship.  The DH tried it this last year, (I was stuck with a broken foot) and came back covered in spider webs, and scratches.  They completely let it go.  Might still be able to get to the far end on the road, but that gravel road is not pretty at all, and now construction vehicles going back and forth kicking up dust.  Sad. 

 

Not a fan of turning the quaint, relaxing little island with natural pretty beaches into yet another theme park.  Sad.  😞 

Edited December 24, 2018 by island lady

[NouCruzer]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Not a fan of turning the quaint, relaxing little island with natural pretty beaches into yet another theme park.  Sad.  😞 

 

 

Agree, and with regards to Oasis class ships, one might question why a passenger would pay extra to get off their floating amusement park attend a land based water park.  

[FireDragon76]

We're on the Grandeur out of Baltimore on Feb 14th and I just received an email saying, " While we are transforming our private destination, CocoCay, into Perfect Dat at CocoCay, we have experienced a minor delay. As a result, we've had to replace your visit to CocoCay with the beautiful port, Grand Bahama Island. We are sorry for any disappointment."

 

 They were saying the pier would be done in January. Doesn't look to be the case.

[Clarea]

7 minutes ago, FireDragon76 said:

We're on the Grandeur out of Baltimore on Feb 14th and I just received an email saying, " While we are transforming our private destination, CocoCay, into Perfect Dat at CocoCay, we have experienced a minor delay. As a result, we've had to replace your visit to CocoCay with the beautiful port, Grand Bahama Island. We are sorry for any disappointment."

 

 They were saying the pier would be done in January. Doesn't look to be the case.

 

The absence of the pier would not have eliminated Grandeur's visit in and of itself.  Must be something else going on too.

[FireDragon76]

True, I was looking forward to some time on the floaty bar though. 😞

[ihopfar]

2 hours ago, FireDragon76 said:

We're on the Grandeur out of Baltimore on Feb 14th and I just received an email saying, " While we are transforming our private destination, CocoCay, into Perfect Dat at CocoCay, we have experienced a minor delay. As a result, we've had to replace your visit to CocoCay with the beautiful port, Grand Bahama Island. We are sorry for any disappointment."

 

 They were saying the pier would be done in January. Doesn't look to be the case.

 

Looks like this is a case of two ships scheduled to be in Coco Cay in the same day and them cancelling one because of the construction.  I guess that is being extended now into February -- which sounds like more delays.

 

This was actual my fear with my previous comment -- if construction keeps getting delayed and the island can't handle two ships, I doubt it could handle the Symphony!

[cb at sea]

There is a blog, with pictures somewhere on the internet...just do a google search for Coco Cay.....it will be there somewhere!  You've got to remember, these folks work on ISLAND time.  What should take a couple months can take years on the islands.

[robandana]

We booked 6 weeks on the Vision in Jan/19 and Feb/19, out of the 6 sailings we were suppose to visit Coco Cay 5 times. They only changed the first 2 sailings(switched Coco Cay with Miami) but we are still scheduled to visit Coco Cay on Jan 19th, Jan 26th and Feb 2nd sailings. 

Are no ships docking/tendering at Coco Cay at this time? Or is it just one ship each day?

 

Thanks