I haven’t experienced any private island port of call nearly as anticipated as Perfect Day at CocoCay.
When we arrived at the long pier built to welcome Royal Caribbean megaships, it seemed like every guest on the ship headed for the gangway to rush ashore.
Only scanning our room keys was required to exit, but 4,000 passengers doing the same thing at once can take longer than you may imagine.
Walking toward the island brought to mind entering Mount Rushmore for some reason, but there were more families streaming toward this new tourist mecca for the 21st Century than on our family's visit last summer to that South Dakota engineering marvel of the 20th Century.
Many families with kids had paid the additional fares to visit the thrill park, including Daredevil's Peak, North America's tallest waterslide.
It is not essential that anyone spend money to have a good time at CocoCay, but ziplining and other rides are not free, as a general rule.
As we arrived, a talented Caribbean band played the CocoCay theme song live, making it like the opening credits of a cheerful TV show where you're the star.
Julie and I had received advance information from the Diamond Lounge Concierge that we should follow the green arrows to Chill Island where we would find plenty of lounge chairs and umbrellas. He correctly said that would be the best spot on the island for snorkeling.
It turned out to be low tide when we arrived, so not the best time for spotting fish who stay out of shallow water in order to avoid being eaten by winged predators.
The lifeguard fully covered in red and white garb that looked somewhat like onesie pajamas said that if we could find the shipwreck out near two platforms, there might be more fish out there.
He said we could climb up on one of the platforms to rest after swimming out to be fresher for snorkeling. Not surprisingly, this man who lives on this island along with about 400 others who maintain and organize ship visits knew what he was talking about.
While not as prevalent as at Maui's Black Rock, we saw many fish swimming around the submerged ship, which served as an artificial reef.
There was a strong breeze this day, so after Julie and I snorkeled around the ship and rested a bit, Julie walked over to the sheltered lagoon.
While not that far away, the beach by that lagoon proved to be a much warmer spot, mainly because the sea breeze passed above our heads, making the weather perfect.
We had barely settled in when we realized it was time for lunch. We chose to sit at one of the lagoon-facing tables at Skippers, where the barbecued chicken was terrific. We also split a burger and fries.
Our Diamond beverage package also worked at CocoCay, so we split a Skinny Captain (Captain Morgan’s Rum and Diet Coke) plus a plain Diet Coke.
We hadn’t fallen asleep in our lounge chairs before Julie said we should go to the swim up bar at South Beach just in case storm clouds that threatened on the horizon burst into rain.
This swim up bar is in the ocean on the other side of the island from the snorkel beach. The water was not above shoulder-deep for me on the way out.
It was a bit of a party-scene for 20 to 30-somethings, but the young crowd welcomed Julie and me like one of their own. We sipped Skinny Captains while they drank shots that included Patron Tequila alongside their lemon drops and other beverages.
After our drinks, we swam back to shore, and after a few minutes in ocean-facing lounge chairs, we walked back toward the lagoon, stopping for a dip at the enormous freshwater pool, the biggest I remember seeing anywhere, and then back to the lagoon where the weather was indeed perfect.
The rain never came, but we nonetheless returned to the ship early enough to avoid the rush back from a Perfect Day at CocoCay.
We hadn't done many of the "Must Dos" according to some marketing hype, but we enjoyed our visit. On this day, only Anthem of the Seas was in port, so we never contended with any crowds, which was pretty close to perfect for us
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