Just back from Perfect Day At Coco Cay

[Beukeboom]

16 hours ago, j1d1 said:

Also we encountered fire coral.  Despite growing up in Florida, I had never encountered this before.  Several people along the beach had problems with it including my wife.  The lifeguards had a spray bottle of vinegar that helped, but it ruined the day for some.  There was one young girl who was stung and wouldn't stop crying for a long time.

 

I am from north Florida and have never encountered fire coral before. What should we be looking for? My wife and I have a cabana booked at the beach at Chill Island. Is fire coral a problem there? Would pair of some sort of "water shoes" be recommended or is going barefoot into the water at Chill Island beach okay?

[SAmome]

6 minutes ago, Beukeboom said:

 

I am from north Florida and have never encountered fire coral before. What should we be looking for? My wife and I have a cabana booked at the beach at Chill Island. Is fire coral a problem there? Would pair of some sort of "water shoes" be recommended or is going barefoot into the water at Chill Island beach okay?

From SoFL but have never noticed much in the way of live coral around where walking.  Any chance the jellyfish larve (sea lice) could be out and stinging?  I think the treatment for that is usually vinigar and anti-itch cream and taking some bendryl.  Some may have a worse reaction than others.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

Are there beaches without music?🤔

We prefer a quiet calm experience.....!👍

Edited June 2, 2019 by Thorben-Hendrik

[alevyinroc]

14 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Are there beaches without music?🤔

We prefer a quiet calm experience.....!👍

 

I thought it was pretty quiet on the South beach on Coco Cay. The further you get from the ship, I think the quieter it gets. You might encounter people who decide to bring their own music (bluetooth speakers connected to their phones), we heard that both on the island and the pool deck on board.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

6 minutes ago, alevyinroc said:

You might encounter people who decide to bring their own music (bluetooth speakers connected to their phones), we heard that both on the island and the pool deck on board.

👎🤮

[j1d1]

22 minutes ago, Beukeboom said:

 

I am from north Florida and have never encountered fire coral before. What should we be looking for? My wife and I have a cabana booked at the beach at Chill Island. Is fire coral a problem there? Would pair of some sort of "water shoes" be recommended or is going barefoot into the water at Chill Island beach okay?

 

13 minutes ago, SAmome said:

From SoFL but have never noticed much in the way of live coral around where walking.  Any chance the jellyfish larve (sea lice) could be out and stinging?  I think the treatment for that is usually vinigar and anti-itch cream and taking some bendryl.  Some may have a worse reaction than others.

 

So it turns out that "Fire Coral" isn't actually coral.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_coral It is more closely related to jellyfish or anemones.  So the sting is similar to a jellyfish sting.

 

With that said, it is certainly possible that this was sea lice.  My understanding of sea lice is that it causes more of a delayed reaction with a skin rash that is more itchy than it is painful.  What my wife and others around us experienced was more of an immediate inflammation that was painful.  I don't really know for sure.  Neither my wife nor I saw any of the actual "coral," but it can live among sea grass/seaweed and not be that visible.  There is a lot of the sea grass just off the shore on south beach, so I'm not sure how to avoid it completely.  If it was sea lice, there isn't much you can do other than stay out of the water.

[mariapd719]

On 5/22/2019 at 1:10 PM, PopeyeDaSailor said:

I was there last Friday on Symphony.  We booked a 1/2 day at the waterpark but because of a glitch in their systems everyone got a full day or no one bothered to kick us out.

 

I will say this, the waterpark is lots and lots of fun but the lines when on such a big ship are ridiculous.  We basically spent the whole day in the park but we waited over an hour for the large slide.  There is no way they should sell 1/2 day passes when an Oasis class ship docks.  At most you may get to go down about 3-8 slides total with the lines (depending on what slides you pick).  Then they close the park and start shoving you back on the ship at 4pm.  My suggestion would be to have the park open as soon as possible (7am) and close as late as possible (6pm) since the sail back to Miami is tiny.  I got to see the rest of the park from the top of a lot of slide lines and it looks impressive.  If you plan on hitting the waterpark don't bother renting a cabana it will just cost you a lot of $$$ to have a place to put a towel.

 

My observations ...

 

1. The large "red" slide (Daredevil's Peak) at the top has only ONE slide coming off the platform.  There is easily enough space up there to put two more slides and they should have.  It would have moved the line along at 3 times the speed.  This was the first slide I hit with my son when the park opened but it still took us an hour.  I later heard the wait was over 2 hours.  I only rode this slide once because of this.

 

2. The workers seemed overwhelmed or just didn't have the procedures down yet.  I noticed RED/GREEN lights at the top of the slides but that system didn't seemed to be running because the workers were relying on visual and walkie-talkie's to send the next sliders.  Perhaps they'll work out these bugs but there were times where one worker was sending people down two or three slides and left larger gaps where slides were open and people waiting.  I'm not blaming the workers they did the best they could be again the procedure was not well planned out.

 

3. The park hours were way too short.  9am to 4pm.  Our ship was docked at 6am why did it take until almost 9am to open?  Plus we were on our last day and headed back to Miami there was no need to close the park at 4pm it easily could have stayed open past 6pm. 

 

4. Food was okay we had hotdogs, lemonade and mozzarella sticks but didn't spend much time eating since we were trying to make every water-slide.

 

5.  Wave pool was fun as well, my 5 year old loved it.

 

From what I could tell from above almost none of the back of the island is done and just looked like a beach with people wading on sandbars.  They did run parasailing and jet-skis from back there..  Chill beach looked okay but never got over there to verify anything.  At least the dock was 100% done. 

 

 

Hi, I see you went with a 5 year old. My son will be 4 almost 5 (big kid though, really tall) when we sail. Is it even worth the money for the big slides? Can he even go on all of them?

 

[SAmome]

2 hours ago, mariapd719 said:

Hi, I see you went with a 5 year old. My son will be 4 almost 5 (big kid though, really tall) when we sail. Is it even worth the money for the big slides? Can he even go on all of them?

 

I haven't been to the waterpark but did buy it for my teen.  I'm not sure I'd bother with that age 4-5 group.  Lines are a pain unless he's very patient he may prefer the free stuff.  And going to the beach, harbor bay if doesn't want much in the way of sea weed or debth.  The zero entry pool area and can bring some blow ups for the pool.  

 

If it we're me, I'd wait until a future trip and older child to do the waterpark.

 

https://www.cruise.blog/2019/04/royal-caribbean-opens-splashaway-bay-and-skippers-grill-private-island

 

 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

2 hours ago, mariapd719 said:

Hi, I see you went with a 5 year old. My son will be 4 almost 5 (big kid though, really tall) when we sail. Is it even worth the money for the big slides? Can he even go on all of them?

Height and adult accompaniment are the main criteria for all the water activities.

 

Here's the Royal site with answers to everything - your question is answered about 1/2 way down in detail:

FAQ about Coco Cay, Including Thrill Water Park

 

Our 5 year old grandson will be 6 in November when we bring him along...and he's 50" tall already...so he can go on virtually everything as long as a parent or grandparent goes along.

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[ken_nyc]

On 5/28/2019 at 9:41 AM, Sunkissed Mommy said:

I will apologize now if this has already been mentioned or addressed.  I just got off the Symphony this morning. I dont have any concerns about Oasis class ships being there.

 

 We had a last minute change of itinerary and we called on Coco Cay on Sunday.  Symphony was the only ship there.  There was NO chaos that I saw.  We got off the ship around 10am.

 

We took the kids to Splashaway Bay for a bit, then relocated to Harbor Beach.  Plenty of lounge chairs with umbrellas were available the entire time we were there at Harbor Beach.  The kids then wanted to swim in a pool so off we went to Oasis Lagoon.  We decided we wanted to make that our home base for the day around 12pm.  Also plenty of lounge chairs available with umbrellas too, so we moved our stuff.

 

Oasis Lagoon was very popular, but it handled the people well since it is such a large area.  The music was only loud if you were by the swim up bar.  If you were by the beach entry portion of the pool you could hear it but it wasn't obnoxious.

 

I peeked in the water park a few times throughout the day as I walked around and it did not look busy at all. I could not see long lines on any of the slides.  I wasn't physically in the waterpark, but from outside it looked just fine.

 

Absolutely NO lines for food as there are plenty of places throughout the island to get food.  No issues with seating by the food huts either.

 

Food is definitely improved with a much wider variety of things to eat!

 

I was dreading Perfect Day because I was really upset about them ruining the island with overdevelopment.  However we left loving it.  There is something for everyone and I never once felt like I HAD to spend extra money.  We actually didn't spend a cent on the island.  We used all the free venues and still had a great day.  There is still something for everyone from quiet beaches to thrills and more.

Thank you for your review, we will be there in July and looking forward to it!

[ken_nyc]

On 6/2/2019 at 3:13 PM, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Are there beaches without music?🤔

We prefer a quiet calm experience.....!👍

I heard Chill Island beach would be the place for you to go for a quiet relaxing experience.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

12 hours ago, ken_nyc said:

I heard Chill Island beach would be the place for you to go for a quiet relaxing experience.

It would seem so...but there have been a series of mixed reviews about the Chill Island area...where some folks are reporting they were hardly able to "chill" at all because of some kids in cabanas. Perhaps those are just occasional anomalies.

[PopeyeDaSailor]

20 hours ago, mariapd719 said:

Hi, I see you went with a 5 year old. My son will be 4 almost 5 (big kid though, really tall) when we sail. Is it even worth the money for the big slides? Can he even go on all of them?

 

 

This depends.  Some of the slides are pretty scary/intense.  With that said I did see a kid barely large enough just fire himself right down one slide with no fear.  One thing I always ask myself is if my child is "just" big enough how safe will they be?  Remember most of these rides only require height but to me weight is equally important.  A tall thin child is going to be thrown around in some of these slides and you will get a lot of speed built up.

 

I will say this, if your son is tall enough, weighs enough and can swim without any support devices then it may be worth it if they use the slides.  Has your son gone down larger water slides yet?  There is a kids splash area that has smaller water slides right outside of the water park that is free to use.  Had we known this going in we probably would not have bought my 5 year old a pass.  She did use the wave pool (with her swimming arms on) but did not go down any slide.  My five year old is about 44 inches tall and weighs about 43 pounds.  She will probably learn to swim this summer but still isn't comfortable putting her face under yet.

 

You may be able to contact RCCL and ask if you can get her a wristband to enter the park with you, but my wife and I just switched off riding slides with my older son and she played in the free splash area (which is literally right outside of the park). 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

18 hours ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

Had we known this going in we probably would not have bought my 5 year old a pass.  She did use the wave pool (with her swimming arms on) but did not go down any slide.  My five year old is about 44 inches tall and weighs about 43 pounds.  

You post is well stated - thanks. As we know, the slides have size limits for a reason (to avoid injury being the main one).

 

In our case, our 5-year old grandson is 50" tall already, weighs 48 lbs., and is a pretty good swimmer who even dives underwater intentionally at the neighborhood pool. So those slides won't intimidate him, but the height might...we won't know until we try. If it works out great...if not...there are plenty of other water activity alternatives on Coco Cay.

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[PopeyeDaSailor]

2 hours ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

You post is well stated - thanks. As we know, the slides have size limits for a reason (to avoid injury being the main one).

 

In our case, our 5-year old grandson is 50" tall already, weighs 48 lbs., and is a pretty good swimmer who even dives underwater intentionally at the neighborhood pool. So those slides won't intimidate him, but the height might...we won't know until we try. If it works out great...if not...there are plenty of other water activity alternatives on Coco Cay.

 

 

Oh it's really up to the parents and child.  Like I said I saw a kid barely big enough just walk right up to the blue slide that went straight down and just plunge right in it.  This is a slide most adults were afraid of.  If you do take him in start out with the smaller slides and if he's okay then go for the bigger slides.  I will say this the workers are on top of things and it's safe.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

6 minutes ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

 

Oh it's really up to the parents and child.  Like I said I saw a kid barely big enough just walk right up to the blue slide that went straight down and just plunge right in it.  This is a slide most adults were afraid of.  If you do take him in start out with the smaller slides and if he's okay then go for the bigger slides.  I will say this the workers are on top of things and it's safe.

That's helpful information for many folks. Nice.

[Artemis908]

Were the beaches really packed because of some of the island being closed? I know the beach club won't open until Dec and it sounds like South Beach may or may not be open, but there is also no bar near that beach.

 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 hour ago, Artemis908 said:

Were the beaches really packed because of some of the island being closed? I know the beach club won't open until Dec and it sounds like South Beach may or may not be open, but there is also no bar near that beach.

 

Those are the only "closed" or at least partially under construction areas. Everything else is open...and there are reports of everything from "wide open spaces" to crowded at select places/select times.

[gatour]

3 hours ago, Artemis908 said:

Were the beaches really packed because of some of the island being closed? I know the beach club won't open until Dec and it sounds like South Beach may or may not be open, but there is also no bar near that beach.

 

As of week and half ago, the week before Memorial day weekend.  The South beach area is open and there is a bar.  As you walk along the beach from Chill beach to South Beach there are no closed areas.  In fact besides the floating tiki bar being in its normal location, there is an additional bar in the vicinity of where you wade out to the tiki bar.

 

Based on the construction of the over water cabanas, I expect this to change.

 

[rkak]

We're going in Sept to COCO Cay.  I hope all the "bugs" will have been worked out.

My questions are about accessibility to the Up, Up and Away.  We're senior citizens and we both use Walkers.  Does a Tram run from the shop to the park?  How about transport to the Balloon area?  Also every comment so far about the balloon ride said they were cancelled due to wind.  Did anyone actually get to ride up the 450 ft?

[anricat]

Currently on the Mariner. Tomorrow is our day at Coco Cay. Any questions and I can try to do some recon. We have water park passes (all day). 🙂

[CRUISEFAN0001]

8 hours ago, anricat said:

Currently on the Mariner. Tomorrow is our day at Coco Cay. Any questions and I can try to do some recon. We have water park passes (all day). 🙂

Pix of the wave pool and waterpark cabanas seem scarce...so sharing those would be great and appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[jptoz]

Does anyone know if there are multiple entrances to the water park. Rented a oasis lagoon  cabana, and just wondering if there a more direct route to the water park. thanks for any info.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

9 minutes ago, jptoz said:

Does anyone know if there are multiple entrances to the water park. Rented a oasis lagoon  cabana, and just wondering if there a more direct route to the water park. thanks for any info.

One monitored entrance only. It's easily located by hanging a right at the end of the pier on Coco Cay.

[anricat]