Once again we had a rough sea night, but woke up to an awesome sunshiny day. And it was the perfect day for Coco Cay, literally. Coco Cay is Royal Caribbean’s newest private island beach. And it is awesome.

Time for beach number two!

I’m not all that fond of Labadee, Haiti because of the straw market vendors on Labadee, so I was really looking forward to Coco Cay. We’d never been to Coco Cay before, but I knew that there would be no one pressuring us to spend money. We had pretty much the same breakfast, grabbed towels from the pool deck, then headed to the beach early since the huge ship, Symphony of the Seas, was also in port and I knew it would be crowded.

Oasis Lagoon pool area

We’d decided to do the pool at Oasis Lagoon first, so we headed left and kept walking. This is a really beautiful island, and perfectly tended. We saw Chill Island on the left as we walked, along with a small island market. On the right was Harbor Beach, which is a huge sandy beach with lots of chairs and umbrellas. We kept walking and found the sign for Oasis Lagoon on the left. Lots of people had claimed chairs, but we walked on a bit and found a couple of chairs in a shady-ish spot under an umbrella.

The temperature in the pool was absolutely perfect. It was a hot day, and the water was not freezing, but very comfortable. At the spot we were seated, you could walk right into the pool, and the deepest spot I saw was 3’6″. It was great to hop into the water and then lay down on the beach chair and chill out. I think that we were sitting right behind Flavio from Italy, one of the lead singers in the production shows. Nice to see that the performers can relax a bit. I would highly recommend the pool area, it’s a huge pool and a lot of people can go in without it feeling crowded. There are lifeguards and life preservers for the kids.

We were sitting in a really convenient area. There was a path that led straight to the restrooms and the lunch buffet area. It was all the way to the right as you come into the pool area, in a sandy spot. You can use your internet on the island also, if you bought it. There are places to wash the sand from your feet scattered around.

Lunch

We could smell burgers and hot dogs grilling, so we decided to go and get some lunch. There are “washy washy” areas in the Skipper’s Grill Buffet but no washy washy guy. There was quite a selection of food to choose from. There is a sandwich area where you can get a vegetarian mushroom sandwich, a cuban sandwich, along with other selections. You can get a burger or a hotdog, jerk chicken, BBQ, different salads, a taco station, plenty of fruit, brownies, cookies, and ice cream. There are also free drinks you can get all day, along with ice. The drinks were water, Tropical Mango, and Strawberry Kiwi. You can use your drink package at the bars. You will not go home hungry. There is also a Chill Grill buffet on Chill beach, and three Snack Shack’s with other complimentary items. Cezar, our waiter, was there and made sure to say hello to both of us. I love how they remember us off the ship.

Chill Island Beach

After we ate we walked around and explored a while, then exchanged our beach towel at a kiosk for a clean one. The crew member from Symphony of the Seas who worked there was so friendly. I love meeting people from different countries. I saw what I could see from the extra charge Thrill Waterpark but couldn’t see much. We could see the big hot air balloon, but I guess it was too windy, because we never saw it in the air.

We went to Chill Island beach and found a beach chair and umbrella then walked to the beach. I waded a while but then heard that someone got stung by a jellyfish, so decided to relax on the beach for a while. This is a sheltered beach that’s normally good for snorkeling, but because of Hurricane Fiona, it was kind of murky and hard to see anything. My husband decided to try snorkeling, and I decided that it was too hot and that I’d start back to the ship.

There are small trams that will take you from the ship to the entrance of Coco Cay and then back to the ship. I decided to walk back so that I could get some pictures of the island from the dock. It is a very long dock.

The rest of the day

He came back from snorkeling and said he couldn’t see anything. I’m glad I didn’t try. We showered and then ran to the Marketplace buffet to get something to drink and our last soft serve ice cream. Tip, if you want your soft serve in a dish, head to a drink station and ask for an empty glass. Then pick up a spoon at the buffet. They’ll fill up the cup for you. I also had to get a picture of the “washy washy” guy. He’s great.

We then packed everything we could because the next day is debarkation day. We had gotten debarkation number 22, but we decided that we’d just take our luggage off ourselves because we wanted to get an earlier start than that. We packed pretty light, so it was possible. And we were also delivered some Red Velvet cupcakes from Sweet Street. I have no idea who they were from, there was not tag. But they were delicious! Thank you!

Dinner

It was Caribbean night at dinner and we were looking forward to it. Our waiters have been great, and I wanted to give them a little extra tip before the other table mates got there. I’m going to miss them.

Food was good. I started with a beet and orange salad and coconut shrimp. Both were delicious. I had the turkey dinner. Normally I don’t like the turkey dinner but I’d heard someone on a Facebook group say it was delicious. And it was! I especially liked the mashed sweet potatoes. Dessert was the chocolate cake on the everyday menu, which was delicious. My husband had the fish dinner, and he didn’t think the fish was very good. Too much breading.

Wajdi, the head waiter, came over to talk to us before we left. I gave Randy a hug and told the table mates goodbye. The last day is always a sad day for me after I get to know people.

We went to see the last variety show. (By the way, if you want the Cruise Compass (the daily schedule), in paper form instead of on the app, just ask your room steward to bring it. He’ll leave it in your cabin every day.) This variety show included the comedian, Nery Saenz, and the comedian/juggler from the night before, Billy Prudhome. They are both very funny and we really enjoyed it.

Then we decided to make an early night of it because we had a long drive the next day. There was a party going on in the Promenade, but somehow I managed to get to sleep. I hear that the ship was rocking all night and that there was a storm, but I didn’t notice.

Last day – debarkation

We got up before 7 am since we had to be out of our cabin by 8:10. We got dressed and ran down to the buffet to get a quick breakfast. When I came back I saw our Steward, Gus, and got a picture of him. I left him a bit of extra tip in the cabin.

Debarkation was very easy. We even managed to get an elevator to get down to deck four. We walked out on deck and to the gangplank. They scanned our Sea Card and we were down the gangplank and into the terminal. We rolled our luggage down a series of ramps to get to the terminal. So much better than having to navigate an escalator with luggage. We didn’t even need our passports, they used face recognition with a camera, and then we left the terminal.

Port Canaveral Parking Company

The only problem that we had was with the terminal employees who had no idea on where the shuttles for Port Canaveral Parking would be. I had realized on the ship that the shuttle driver had never told us where to meet them, but I figured that they would know that at the port. Well, they sent us the wrong way, and no one over there knew anything. We finally called Port Canaveral Parking and they told us we should have gone right. We headed over there, and saw the kiosk. He checked us in, and it took about ten minutes to get a shuttle and get going back to the parking lot.

They dropped us off and we got our luggage back to the car. The car was covered with small yellow dots, we still don’t know what they are. We were not parked under or near a tree. And then it was after driving for a while that we noticed ants crawling in the car on the dashboard. And then more ants. And more. We’re home and we’re still finding ants in our car. Our car was parked on dirt, not concrete. All I can figure is that there was an ant nest under our car. The Port Canaveral Parking company, which is not affiliated with the port itself, is cheaper than the rest, but not one that I can recommend. I won’t park there again.

What’s next?

I’m glad to be home to take a break and get things put away. Our next cruise isn’t far off. We’ll be on the Carnival Elation on Halloween. Be sure to check back!