Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Coco Cay - Our Experience

lindalo5032
 Share

Recommended Posts

lindalo5032

lindalo5032

Posted
Posted

This was our experience, just sharing for what it’s worth. 

 

Trams - Our experience was that trams were few and far between.  Be prepared for a LOT of walking.  It is a long distance from the ship to the beach and the swimming pool.  There are paved pathways through the main areas.

 

Ice/Water – If you go early, fill your mugs with ice and water before you leave the ship.  We arrived between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. and went directly to Chill Island.  We tried to get ice/water at the Chill Grill but there was no ice or drinks available.  They said they don’t open till 10:00.  One of the guys took our mugs somewhere and got ice for us, which we appreciated.  We ended up at the swimming pool, and the bar there was open and they did fill our mugs with ice and water.

 

Pool – The pool (Oasis Lagoon) is very nice.  There is no deep water, so it’s safe and fun for the whole family.  If you go early, there is not much of a crowd in the pool, while later in the afternoon it did get a bit more crowded.

 

Food – We found the food to be good.  Our family had the Greek salad, cheeseburger, fries, mozzarella sticks, and funnel cakes. 

 

Chill Island – The day we were there, the water was murky with lots of seaweed.  DD (an adult) and I were on floating mats.  The water is shallow a long way out, so we were not in deep water.  We hadn’t been out there too long when she had her arms hanging off the mat, and said, “Ow!  Something just bit me!” Then it happened again, and she decided to get out of the water.  At first we thought it was insects, although we never saw any.  When she stood up, her legs were then being bitten/stung by something.  It was pretty painful for a few hours, then her arms got numb and tingly, and then later she felt like they were bruised, although no bruises appeared.  We weren’t sure what got her, maybe jellyfish?  Anyway, our experience in the ocean that day wasn’t good.

 

Watch Your Bags! -  They do have lockers available, but we didn’t use them.  We had family sitting with our bags most of the day, but there were a couple of times when they were in the pool and I went to the restroom and left my bags unattended. When we got back to the ship, my husband couldn’t find his hearing aids which he had put in a small box in the bag.  Also missing were my cell phone charger, his sunglasses, and his watch.  He walked back to the island to the two places we had been sitting and searched, but didn’t find anything.  We checked with the ship’s lost & found several times over the next two days, but nothing was turned in.  We believe someone must have gone through our bags when they were unattended.  Costly lesson for us! 

 

We didn’t visit the water park. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, lindalo5032 said:

 .... We weren’t sure what got her, maybe jellyfish?   ...

 

Could be, we have encountered jellyfish at Coco Cay several times.  Once they were so bad that we just decided that to skip snorkeling that trip.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Thorben-Hendrik

Thorben-Hendrik

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, lindalo5032 said:

When we got back to the ship, my husband couldn’t find his hearing aids which he had put in a small box in the bag.  Also missing were my cell phone charger, his sunglasses, and his watch.  He walked back to the island to the two places we had been sitting and searched, but didn’t find anything.  We checked with the ship’s lost & found several times over the next two days, but nothing was turned in.  We believe someone must have gone through our bags when they were unattended.  Costly lesson for us! 

Wow! 😱👎

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CRUISEFAN0001

CRUISEFAN0001

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, lindalo5032 said:

...When we got back to the ship, my husband couldn’t find his hearing aids which he had put in a small box in the bag.  Also missing were my cell phone charger, his sunglasses, and his watch...

 

We didn’t visit the water park. 

Your review certainly contains a number of things quite in contrast to other reviews to date.

 

A shame some things were taken...perhaps in hindsight...using the lockers isn't such a bad idea after all.

 

Surprised to hear that you didn't visit the Thrill Waterpark, since it is quite a major/substantial part of Coco Cay.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lindalo5032

lindalo5032

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 hour ago, ticketsunlimited said:

Cant imagine another cruise guest going out of the way to steal somebody's friggan hearing aids.  Has it come to that?

 

Our thought was that someone quickly stuck their hand in the bag and felt for anything that wasn't clothing or towels, grabbed the stuff and ran.  The hearing aids were in a little box, and it wasn't obvious what they were from looking at the box.  Whoever it was didn't spend a lot of time looking through the bag. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
lindalo5032

lindalo5032

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

 

Surprised to hear that you didn't visit the Thrill Waterpark, since it is quite a major/substantial part of Coco Cay.

There were 8 in our group, and it is just too expensive for that many people.  Plus we had heard about the long lines and figured it wasn't worth it.

Quote

 

 

Edited by lindalo5032
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SAmome

SAmome

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the review. It's good to have some reminders about securing valuables and the stings might make some more likely to consult with lifegaurds before entering, especially if have allergic reactions to stings.

 

One quick question, are you sure you were in the Chill island beach area as opposed to the South beach area?  I think of the south beach area as the beach that goes a long way out shallow. 

 

Sounds like the fire coral/jellyfish larva whatever might be all over the island.  Harbor beach might be "safer" for those with young kids if the bites are coming from something hanging out in the seaweed.

 

44E16380-0A23-4EED-A651-F9FF0BF44937.jpe

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CRUISEFAN0001

CRUISEFAN0001

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, lindalo5032 said:

There were 8 in our group, and it is just too expensive for that many people.  Plus we had heard about the long lines and figured it wasn't worth it.

 

Yeah...long lines aren't fun (although not everyone has reported them to be all that long, depending on the day and date of the visit to Coco Cay). As for the cost...it takes some persistent following of the pricing to get a reasonable cost - Royal regularly discounts access to the Thrill Waterpark - you can catch lower/reasonable pricing...but it takes frequent checking on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cru1s1ng2009

Cru1s1ng2009

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Could be, we have encountered jellyfish at Coco Cay several times.  Once they were so bad that we just decided that to skip snorkeling that trip.

yes my guess are the tiny little jelly fish that you cant see. they got us bad last year over the seaweed. We caught some afterwards. they are barely visible and that was with looking very hard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lindalo5032

lindalo5032

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
24 minutes ago, SAmome said:

 

 

One quick question, are you sure you were in the Chill island beach area as opposed to the South beach area?  I think of the south beach area as the beach that goes a long way out shallow. 

 

 

 

44E16380-0A23-4EED-A651-F9FF0BF44937.jpe

 

We were definitely in the Chill Island area.  South Beach is behind the water park, according to the map.  We didn't go over on that side.  Not even sure it's open yet.  The map shows South Beach open in December 2019.

Edited by lindalo5032
Link to comment
Share on other sites
NanciRDH

NanciRDH

Posted
Posted

Wow.  I just looked at the map, and it all looks so unfamiliar to me!  We were there in October and January, South Beach was open, I did the beach beds in October, but the entire island center was behind walls, and didn't look much different from one visit to the next.  I can't even envision where the tender loading zone was from this map.  We  cruise on Symphony in July, can't wait to see all the changes!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
retiredgram

retiredgram

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, lindalo5032 said:

This was our experience, just sharing for what it’s worth.  .........

 .....

 

Thanks for your feedback on CoCo Cay.  I am looking forward to seeing all the improvements.  It does sound nice.  We will not be visiting the water park either.  Just not our thing. Would be nice to be able to just walk through and see what they have built.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Judyrem

Judyrem

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Cru1s1ng2009 said:

yes my guess are the tiny little jelly fish that you cant see. they got us bad last year over the seaweed. We caught some afterwards. they are barely visible and that was with looking very hard.

We experienced them in the Outer Banks and we called  them sea lice, whether they were or not, we did not like the experience at all.  I have a real phobia about jellyfish.😝

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CruiseMomTX

CruiseMomTX

Posted
Posted

We were there on May 20th, bought the full day waterpark pass for our teen boys went it went on sale almost half price.  We were in our beach chairs by at 8:30 am and sent them off to ride water slides before it got busy.  Well they rode 1 slide, the tallest one and after that said they lines were 30 min to an hour long!!  I couldn't believe it got so busy so fast.  I would not wast money on the waterpark unless you are willing to wait in long lines all day.  We enjoyed everything else and since our drink package worked they only other thing we spent money on was a few souvenirs.   Get off the ship early if you want the best place to sit for the day. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...