Another day on a cruise, another day visiting Royal Caribbean's always impressive private island in The Bahamas.
On all the sailings I have been on since cruises restarted, I have had Perfect Day at CocoCay circled as the highlight of the itinerary. I love the diversity of activities, and relaxing nature of the island.
Our ship pulled in alongside Freedom of the Seas, which was also in port.
Some readers were curious if two ships were allowed to dock at once at CocoCay, and the answer is yes. The "one ship per CocoCay" rule applies to test cruises, but not the revenue cruises.
Originally I had no plans for my day here, but at the last minute I got invited to check out the floating cabanas at the Coco Beach Club. There were two good reasons for me to go for this plan: somewhere comfortable to write blog posts, and an opportunity to eat lunch at the Coco Beach Club.
I had a quick breakfast in the Windjammer with a cup of coffee before heading down to the gangway.
What is it like at Perfect Day at CocoCay with two ships? Pretty much the same as one ship during this era of limited capacity.
I heard Freedom of the Seas actually had less passengers onboard than us on Mariner, but even on the high end of estimating, that meant there were maybe 2,000 passengers total on an island designed to accommodate 9,000 - 12,000.
The weather was beautiful today, and there was a strong breeze that made it very tolerable to be outside since the heat was not quite so oppressive.
At the cabana, the combination of shade and breeze made it so comfortable to catch up on some blog posts.
I took a walk along the beach of Chill Island to see what the vibe was there. It was a really nice day to be outside and hanging by the water.
For lunch, it was time for one of the top Royal Caribbean restaurants at the Coco Beach Club.
The hummus is so good, I asked for a double helping of it to enjoy. It is something I wish I could box up and bring home.
I would go as far as to say the filet mignon is the best steak on any Royal Caribbean ship.
Suffice to say, the meal was great.
After lunch, I went for a dip in the infinity pool and then back to the cabana to relax and do a little bit more work.
Luckily there was never any rain, or even hint of rain today. A much nicer day compared to our start in Port Canaveral.
All aboard time was 4:30pm, so I headed back to the ship to shower and get ready for dinner.
Originally our plan was to eat dinner at the main dining room again, but our late lunch (1pm) was still very filling so we decided to push back out dinner plans and go to Playmakers.
Before dinner, I went up to the Diamond Lounge to see how busy it was up there. All the tables were full, so it looks like people still enjoy hanging out there.
The hors d'oeuvres are great (shoutout to the veggie eggrolls). No photo of the seating area because there were a lot of people watching me and it got awkward quickly.
To mix things up, we went with a bunch of appetizers to start with and just munched on those.
The nachos (veggies only, no sour cream) was my favorite of the bunch.
Of course, no meal at Playmakers is complete without the campfire cookie which is Royal Caribbean's take on a s'more. It will change your life for the better.
Following dinner, I headed down to the Schooner Bar for piano music and an evening drink.
Tomorrow we will be in Nassau. Let me know in the comments your favorite thing to do in Nassau.
