Hideaway Beach mini-review from 2/17/24

[fletch1027]

We just got back from a week on Oasis which included a stop at CocoCay and there has been a lot of pro & con posts on here about it and we tried going in with open minds. That being said hopefully it will be helpful to others to share our experience.

 

To level set:

• we're in our early 50's so looking for more relaxation than partying  🙂
• we bought the day passes at a pretty good discount a couple weeks before our sailing for $33.99 each
• we were in port with Freedom so 2 relatively big ships
• in the RC app the day passes were showing sold out so I assume that Hideaway was "at max capacity"

 

Freedom had at least an hour head start on us for our day. They let us off starting at 10am. We let the initial surge go and we were off the ship around 10:15. We decided to walk to Hideaway and it was a pretty easy 12 minute walk for us from the end of the dock to the Hideaway entrance. 

 

Getting there around 10:15, we walked past the main pool and got a couple of beachside chairs between the pool and the group of cabanas with their own infinity pool (pretty much in front of the Pizza place). We had 2 chairs, umbrella, and table on the 2nd row from the beach. There are around 4-5 rows of chairs and it was pretty empty at 10:30. Here's a photo of our view...

 

 

By probably noon the peak population was there. There were still beach chairs available but they were down at the end of the beach area, so there was never a time where there were no chairs available.

 

Also, Hideaway has a blue towel stand so hauling towels from the ship is optional. We decided to bring 2 and we checked out 2 more at Hideaway.

 

Food:

This was one of the big standouts of the area. There are food options that are not available elsewhere on CC and I tried many of them and they were all great. Especially the coconut shrimp & beef empanadas. Here's some photos of the menus:

 

 

 

As far as food lines go, I made several trips to and past both of them between 11:30 & 1:30 and there was either no line or at most 1-2 people in any of the lines.

 

No line here at 1:00...

 

Drinks:

There are plenty of bars (at least 3-4) to walk up and get a drink and there are also a lot of roaming people taking drink orders from the beach chairs. We only had the coke package but had our 4 Diamond vouchers that we had no problem using. Actually it seemed like the 2 vouchers we used never "sync'ed" up with Oasis because when I got a drink later that night on the ship the bartender said that I had 3 vouchers left. 

 

to be continued...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20 by fletch1027

[BecciBoo]

The only thing I worry about is the noise from the DJ.  So our plan is to get loungers at the other end towards the Jazz Rock place or whatever it's called.  Hoping we can hear some of that rather than blaring heavy metal or rap music.  And there are some hammocks over there....hope you had a chance to see the whole area.  Also interested in whether one could snorkel over by where the openings in the coral are to let in the sea...always good critters in coral!  But I think I saw buoys with netting to prevent that.

Edited February 20 by BecciBoo

[loug1601]

Nice review start!

We will be going to Hideaway Beach next week on the Anthem of the Seas. 
My main question is the warmth of the pool. Was it warm enough to enjoy?

It’s cold up here in NJ and I’m looking forward to the heated pool 😊

 

Also hoping the music is not blaring. We are in our 70’s and fully able bodied. We just don’t like blaring music 🤪
 

Thanks!

 

Pat

Edited February 20 by loug1601

[fletch1027]

Around 1pm, the crowd started to actually thin out a bit and by the time we started heading back around 3:15, it was only around 25% occupied. 

 

We never got in the main pool, but walking past it several times it had a lot of people in there but was far from overcrowded. By comparison it was a lot less crowded then what the Oasis pool usually looks like. 

 

Here's what it looked like between the main pool and infinity pool cabanas around 1:30 - 2:00 time frame

 

 

 

For reference, the purple arrow is pointing to where our beach chairs were

 

 

Around 2:00 when I moved up to a chair closer to the beach 🙂

 

 

 

There were a lot of comments from initial Icon cruises posters that the music at Hideaway coming from the main pool area was too loud. I'm not sure if it was adjusted down since then but we did not have that experience. It is loud if you are right there at the main pool / swim up bar area, but from where we were sitting a little down from there, the music could still be heard, but it did not prevent normal conversation nor did it prevent me from taking a 45 minute nap 🙂

 

Demographics wise, it seemed like probably 70-75% of the people were over 35, so while there were a decent about of college age people there, it was no where near the "non-stop party" atmosphere some people were concerned about it being. 

 

Around 3:15 we started to head back to Oasis and after returning our 2 towels, we decided to take the tram back so we could see how that went. To our surprise, there was a walk on tram and 2-3 empty ones waiting in the queue!

 

 

All in all we felt like it was easily worth the $34 we paid. The "regular" price on the ship for our sailing was something like $95 and we would not pay that. Probably our threshold would be in the $45-50 range. Any questions let me know! 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

What type of music was it?  a good mix? 

 

edit:  Thanks for this.  It makes me feel a little better about booking this. We got it for the same price you did.  Since there seem to be lots of kids on our cruise we wanted an adults- only experience. . . . but, were worried the music would get to us after a while. 

 

 

Edited February 20 by DragonOfTheSeas

[fletch1027]

9 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

The only thing I worry about is the noise from the DJ.  So our plan is to get loungers at the other end towards the Jazz Rock place or whatever it's called.  Hoping we can hear some of that rather than blaring heavy metal or rap music.  And there are some hammocks over there....hope you had a chance to see the whole area.  Also interested in whether one could snorkel over by where the openings in the coral are to let in the sea...always good critters in coral!  But I think I saw buoys with netting to prevent that.

I mentioned the music in the 2nd post I just posted - it was more like standard pop music that the DJ turns to a dance mix. I'm in my 50's and it wasn't offensive to me 🙂 - nor was it overly loud or blaring.

 

While there's a lifeguard on the rock side of the lagoon, I don't think they allow people to the ocean side of the lagoon. Pretty big rocks you wouldn't want to be slammed up against lol...

[DragonOfTheSeas]

2 minutes ago, fletch1027 said:

I mentioned the music in the 2nd post I just posted - it was more like standard pop music that the DJ turns to a dance mix. I'm in my 50's and it wasn't offensive to me 🙂 - nor was it overly loud or blaring.

 

Sorry--reading is fundamental.😁

[fletch1027]

12 minutes ago, loug1601 said:

Nice review start!

We will be going to Hideaway Beach next week on the Anthem of the Seas. 
My main question is the warmth of the pool. Was it warm enough to enjoy?

It’s cold up here in NJ and I’m looking forward to the heated pool 😊

 

Also hoping the music is not blaring. We are in our 70’s and fully able bodied. We just don’t like blaring music 🤪
 

Thanks!

 

Pat

The warmth of the heated pool was definitely noticeable! It was probably halfway between the very chilly ocean and a hot tub. You will enjoy it. 

 

Music was louder at the big pool because that's where it originates but it disperses if you are out in the open air part of the pool (as opposed to the covered area by the swim up bar)

[BecciBoo]

26 minutes ago, fletch1027 said:

The "regular" price on the ship for our sailing was something like $95 and we would not pay that

The original for our ICON was $89 but I got it on sale for 62.99 pp.  The newer and bigger the ship the more all things cost.  But I'm happy to pay that, can't wait.

[BND]

We'll be there in April on Vision along with Freedom.  We're both due in at 7 am.  Our experience from past visits where we go to the pool is that getting off by 930, we have our choice of seats so I'm assuming the same for Hideaway.  By 1130-12, the late sleepers always appear and seem surprised they can't find seats exactly where they want or in a group lol.  We paid less than $40 pp so worth trying it out for us.  

[fletch1027]

40 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

The original for our ICON was $89 but I got it on sale for 62.99 pp.  The newer and bigger the ship the more all things cost.  But I'm happy to pay that, can't wait.

It's funny how RCI seems to charge more for things just because it's an Icon sailing even though the thing that's being bought isn't even on the ship itself. It's almost like since the fare itself is higher they can get away with charging more for everything else as well... 🤬

[crewsweeper]

So give us a sense of what type of music was playing--Oldies, Hip Hop, Metal, Reggae?

[fletch1027]

22 minutes ago, BND said:

We'll be there in April on Vision along with Freedom.  We're both due in at 7 am.  Our experience from past visits where we go to the pool is that getting off by 930, we have our choice of seats so I'm assuming the same for Hideaway.  By 1130-12, the late sleepers always appear and seem surprised they can't find seats exactly where they want or in a group lol.  We paid less than $40 pp so worth trying it out for us.  

 

Reminds me of playing trivia as well. We go 20-30 mins early to hang out and get a seat in those way too small venues then people show up right as it's starting and are put out because there's no seats available... 🙂

[fletch1027]

8 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

So give us a sense of what type of music was playing--Oldies, Hip Hop, Metal, Reggae?

 

Pretty similar to what a DJ would play poolside on the ship. It was all "public friendly". No F words and stuff like that. From what I remember, the rap and hip-hop is top 40 rap and hip-hop, mixed with other top 40 stuff from the 90's and beyond.

 

I remember things like Low & Good Feeling from Flo Rida, Temperature from Sean Paul, stuff like that... 

[Engineroom Snipe]

@fletch1027,

 

Great review and information. Thank you.

 

The smaller ships must be getting bigger breaks. My Vision voyage in April is currently offering it at $30.99 and it was on a non-holiday special price as low as $26.99 a month ago.

 

I was not even going to be interested at that price but maybe I will change my mind due to your truly unbiased presentation. Sometimes it is hard to separate advertising and hype from reality.

[OCSC Mike]

15 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

The smaller ships must be getting bigger breaks.

 

It was on sale for my March 17th Wonder cruise during the "Grand Opening Sale" (during Icon's inaugural) for $19.99 and I've seen $22.99 since then. My best guess was it's because we are there alone but who knows?

Edited February 20 by OCSC Mike

[smokeybandit]

Did you have the ceviche? I'm curious if that was any good.

[ATG]

We were there in early February. I had a chicken sandwich and DH had the coconut shrimp.  He said they were better than what he got on the ship.  We got the $19.99 deal, I’m not sure I would pay more than $30.  

[Destaw71835]

I appreciate your review.

[fletch1027]

12 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Did you have the ceviche? I'm curious if that was any good.

 

I did not try the ceviche cause I don't like "raw" seafood. I know it's technically cooked via the acid in the citrus juice but I didn't want to waste it...  🙂

[Beer Belly]

Thank you for the review. We are scheduled to hit coco Cay during our April 14 sailing, I've heard we will be the only ship at Port.

 

[dgramling]

4 hours ago, fletch1027 said:

Drinks:

There are plenty of bars (at least 3-4) to walk up and get a drink and there are also a lot of roaming people taking drink orders from the beach chairs. We only had the coke package but had our 4 Diamond vouchers that we had no problem using. Actually it seemed like the 2 vouchers we used never "sync'ed" up with Oasis because when I got a drink later that night on the ship the bartender said that I had 3 vouchers left. 

Be careful with using vouchers on CocoCay/Labadee and in specialty restaurants, they often don't enter them into the system until much later.  This can cause you to be charged for a drink you thought you used a voucher for.  On CocoCay they enter vouchers on paper and then ring them in once the ship sails.  In specialty restaurants where they fill the drink order in the restaurant and not by going to a bar they ring them after they close.

[chfenton]

5 hours ago, fletch1027 said:

Around 1pm, the crowd started to actually thin out a bit and by the time we started heading back around 3:15, it was only around 25% occupied. 

 

We never got in the main pool, but walking past it several times it had a lot of people in there but was far from overcrowded. By comparison it was a lot less crowded then what the Oasis pool usually looks like. 

 

Here's what it looked like between the main pool and infinity pool cabanas around 1:30 - 2:00 time frame

 

 

 

For reference, the purple arrow is pointing to where our beach chairs were

 

 

Around 2:00 when I moved up to a chair closer to the beach 🙂

 

 

 

There were a lot of comments from initial Icon cruises posters that the music at Hideaway coming from the main pool area was too loud. I'm not sure if it was adjusted down since then but we did not have that experience. It is loud if you are right there at the main pool / swim up bar area, but from where we were sitting a little down from there, the music could still be heard, but it did not prevent normal conversation nor did it prevent me from taking a 45 minute nap 🙂

 

Demographics wise, it seemed like probably 70-75% of the people were over 35, so while there were a decent about of college age people there, it was no where near the "non-stop party" atmosphere some people were concerned about it being. 

 

Around 3:15 we started to head back to Oasis and after returning our 2 towels, we decided to take the tram back so we could see how that went. To our surprise, there was a walk on tram and 2-3 empty ones waiting in the queue!

 

 

All in all we felt like it was easily worth the $34 we paid. The "regular" price on the ship for our sailing was something like $95 and we would not pay that. Probably our threshold would be in the $45-50 range. Any questions let me know! 

 

 

Had the exact same experience on Feb 8th - Loud right by the main pool, but I sat where you sat (by the cabanas with their infinity pool) and hardly noticed the music after a while.

[Jcol5786]

Thanks for your review. We will be visiting CocoCay next week and have booked Hideaway beach. Got it for $39 Cd so we thougth we would give it a try. Looking forward to the heated pool, different food options and the padded loungers.

[HappyCouple72]

For those that have been there , any decent snorkeling at hideaway ? Maybe out near rocks / inlets ?