Coco Cay Review: Wave Runners and Island Oasis

[April-in-NC]

Here is the Coco Cay portion of our review from the May 11th sailing of the Monarch of the Seas.

Coco Cay

Our first port of call was Coco Cay (not available on the drop down menu on the review form). The water was smooth as glass and we had no problems tendering into port.

 

We were on the 9:00 tender and we had booked the Wave Runner excursion for 10:30. We walked around for about an hour before signing in at the Wave Hut at 10:00. Once we were signed in we explored a little more before we had an orientation and safety meeting at 10:30. We were on the Wave Runners (Erin drove since she has driven one before, I was the picture taking passenger) around 11:00. We were on the Wave Runners for a little over an hour, we had several opportunities to go full throttle (fun, but a little scary trying to hang on from the passenger seat) and the course we took to each stopping point included twists and turns. At one stop our guide got off the wave runner and picked up to Caribbean Stars (looks like giant star fish) that we could hold and get pictures of. This tour was the first time we had done an excursion through the ship and we had a great time! My only complaint was that it was only an hour, it was slightly overpriced for the amount of time spent out on the water.

 

Lunch was VERY crowded and the sea gulls were pretty aggressive. We each got a Coco Loco which was pretty good, but very sweet. We tried to get one in a regular glass, but there weren't any available so we ended up with a souvenir mug.

 

After lunch we both had a spa appointment at the Island Oasis. We hadn't planned on doing a spa treatment because we didn't enjoy our ship spa experience on Carnival (hard sell) but they had a spa taster package for $109 and we could get it done in an air conditioned room on Coco Cay. The package included a European spa facial, scalp, neck & shoulder massage, conditioning hair treatment, moisturizing hand massage, foot and ankle massage, and sunglow makeover. The treatment was nice and reasonably priced considering it was a ship spa and best of all there was NO HARD SELL! As a matter of fact they didn't even mention that there were products for sale which was so nice!

 

It was 3:00 after I finished my spa treatment so I headed back to the ship. I was covered in oil and the conditioning treatment left my hair an oily mess (it was much better after my shower, then I could tell the difference) so I desperately needed a shower. After we got cleaned up we went outside to watch us leave Coco Cay, then donated some money to the casino and bought a bracelet and anklet.

 

This night was formal night, so we got ready a little early so we could go take pictures outside while the sun was setting.

 

If you are interested in seeing pictures I have most of them posted on Photobucket, http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/10...%20May%202009/. All pictures posted were taken with my DSLR (Minolta Maxxum 5D) and my new waterproof camera (Olympus Stylus 850 SW).