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Perfect Day At Labbdee?


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I am not going to make assumptions, but I will have to say that Labadee was not one of our favorite stops.  We did have a good time there but I honestly would appreciate any improvements that they could make there.  For me I really would not want another CocoCay experience but a little something else would be nice and greatly appreciated!  

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New food venues would be nice, like Snack Shack.

Modern kid's water park.

More cabanas are likely to be added.  Some on the Atlantic side for example.  These are massive profit centers.  The cost to build a cabana is quickly recovered in a matter of a few months then the rest of its life the revenue is pure profit.     Say buh bye to the current cabana pricing.

Fresh water pool.  

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I definitely agree it needs more food options... not just the BBQ during the set lunch hours. New activities would be nice too!

They not only need to add cabanas, but they need to refinish the decking on the existing ones! The ones on Nellie's Beach were in need of stripping and refinishing (as of last May).

I just hope they keep it more chill. The setup at Coco Cay makes sense since it's effectively a small sand bar, but Labadee IMO is more "exotic" and has nice mountains and heavy foliage. Definitely more relaxing IMO.

 

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21 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I think a lot will depend on whether Royal is planning on having a full time residence at Labadee, as they did with CC.  I don’t see them investing a great deal of money in permanent facilities (i.e., “restaurants”) unless there are Royal personnel in residence to maintain (and guard) them.

Labadee has 500 full time employees.  Some of those are residents of the local village, some live in the compound.  Our jetski guide in 2017 for example was european but lived in the compound.  Oasis class ships deliver provisions for the full time employee residents.  They are their supply chain.  CocoCay has adopted that model now that they have a pier.  

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

Labadee has 500 full time employees.  Some of those are residents of the local village, some live in the compound.  Our jetski guide in 2017 for example was european but lived in the compound.  Oasis class ships deliver provisions for the full time employee residents.  They are their supply chain.  CocoCay has adopted that model now that they have a pier.  

These are Royal Caribbean employees ?

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Coco Cay 2.0 is coming...and all kinds of things to spend your $ on......

 

hopefully they will leave one beach for poor ppl like myself who cant afford to pay to swim or slide down a water slide to still enjoy Labadee.

 

I am guessing at some point, those who want to eat for free will have to go back to the ship to do that as it will ALL be pay to play and eat on these islands.

 

Next thing will be drinks packages not working while on the islands so they can really rape your wallets.....just wait.....mark my words..its a slippery slope and most ppl it seems are glad to slide down it.

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23 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

I am guessing at some point, those who want to eat for free will have to go back to the ship to do that as it will ALL be pay to play and eat on these islands.

Where are you drawing this conclusion from?  

Royal has expanded food complimentary offerings on CocoCay with no rumor or indication the island will ever become pay or stay away.  

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These are just my thoughts and predictions....I mean, that's how it works at all amusement parks......and why wouldn't Royal do it.....as stated here often....Royal is a business and answers to shareholders, not to customers or clients.

 

With a pier now, it makes it much more realistic.

 

Would be a very simple and easy way to really increase revenue without costing them an extra penny.

 

if you told me 5 years ago it would cost hundreds or thousands for a family to use a waterslide or hang out in a Cabana on relaxing, quiet, pristine Coco Cay, most ppl would have thought it was absurd. Who would ever pay that and why would you??!......hmmmmm

 

Let's bookmark this thread and come back in a couple years and see what happens.....

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1 minute ago, monctonguy said:

if you told me 5 years ago it would cost hundreds or thousands for a family to use a waterslide or hang out in a Cabana on relaxing, quiet, pristine Coco Cay, most ppl would have thought it was absurd. Who would ever pay that and why would you??!......hmmmmm

Five years ago it did cost hundreds to rent a cabana.  I didn't buy the cabanas then and I still don't today.  No one is forced to buy a cabana yet some people lap it up and spend, spend, spend.

With cabanas sold out week after week that is a sign that they are priced too low.  So they increased supply and demand followed, still selling out.  So they raised prices.  That is how a market driven economy works.  

The market will determine pricing.  If they set cabanas to $3,000 I predict people wouldn't book them.  The market reacts and they learn they have priced them too high.  That's market driven pricing.    

If land resorts start charging for loungers by the pool and they charge to access the hotel's beach facilities that would be a quantum shift for the tourism industry.  The same holds true for CocoCay and making everything a pay model.  If the entire travel industry moves to this model it's possible cruise lines would as well.  However there are no signs or indications that is the trend.

Since I don't eat very many meals in the MDR I would embrace a model where cruise fares are lower but they charge for the MDR.  That isn't a trend either and there no indications it's going to happen despite my best wishes.  

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So why wouldn't they charge for everything on the island at some point..if supply and demand supports it. Seems like ppl are willing to pay for anything and everything on these islands.

 

its a market driven economy...if you don't like it..go back to the ship to eat and play?!

 

You cant really think that its that far reaching to see this happening in the near future?!

 

Just my prediction....give it time.

 

I hope I am wrong..but what % of Coco Cay is now pay to play or eat....50%? 65%?

 

last time I was there..it was 1% probably..

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I hate to break this to you but the food on the ship isn't free either. And I don't mean the specialty restaurants. It's all included in your fare. 

Now as to your question about percentage of fee food at Coco Cay, I think it's only the chicken wings at the one restaurant/bar. So my rough guess is 1%?

And you must have forgotten all the added cost activities at the old Coco Cay. An hour on the inflatable water toys cost more than a day at the new water park. 

Back on topic: I think they eventually will refresh Labadee. And it seems with the South Pacific island they announced that they are not directly cloning Coco Cay. So I have hope that Labadee will be unique. 

I remember a rumor a while ago about a pirate theme for it. I think that could be cool.  

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Haven been there yet since all the changes...will be twice this year....wasn't referring to land mass. Was referring to total amount of venues and what you have to pay to use. It aint .1%...

Just from what I have read here there seems to be some confusion and disagreement. Pretty sure there is a lot to pay to play on Coco Cay..its a huge revenue booster  the CEO stated....that means $$$. Royal doesn't make profit on free...

I will stick with my prediction

I have bookmarked this thread for 2022.....lol

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4 hours ago, monctonguy said:

Coco Cay 2.0 is coming...and all kinds of things to spend your $ on......

 

hopefully they will leave one beach for poor ppl like myself who cant afford to pay to swim or slide down a water slide to still enjoy Labadee.

 

I am guessing at some point, those who want to eat for free will have to go back to the ship to do that as it will ALL be pay to play and eat on these islands.

 

Next thing will be drinks packages not working while on the islands so they can really rape your wallets.....just wait.....mark my words..its a slippery slope and most ppl it seems are glad to slide down it.

I still stick with my original post....just give it time....irregardless of the % of what's free or not on Coco Cay right now...the whole point for Royal is to make money....so stay tuned and watch what I predicted come to fruition....

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23 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

I still stick with my original post....just give it time....irregardless of the % of what's free or not on Coco Cay right now...the whole point for Royal is to make money....so stay tuned and watch what I predicted come to fruition....

Just don't see it happening in my cruise lifetime.

I also don't see them charging for the MDR or WJ either.  

If they ever tried to charge for all food at their private destination it would send everyone back to the ship to eat.  They know that.  One way or the other Royal is feeding the ship's population on the day the ship is at a private destination.  

I could see them charging for some entrees at the Snack Shack.  Kind of surprised they didn't out of the gate.  So that could become a paid venue in my cruise lifetime. 

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13 hours ago, monctonguy said:

I still stick with my original post....just give it time....irregardless of the % of what's free or not on Coco Cay right now...the whole point for Royal is to make money....so stay tuned and watch what I predicted come to fruition....

Well if we will look on Coco Cay as an example , there is not one service that was free and now you are paying for it , actually they added many things free which are being paid by the other activities 

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On 12/27/2019 at 8:46 PM, bhageerah said:

I am not going to make assumptions, but I will have to say that Labadee was not one of our favorite stops.  We did have a good time there but I honestly would appreciate any improvements that they could make there.  For me I really would not want another CocoCay experience but a little something else would be nice and greatly appreciated!  

We have always found the gift shopping better at Labadee than Coco Cay.  We have enjoyed the fixed price shop with many vendors and genuine hand-made gifts.  We have also enjoyed the beach precisely because it is less commercial.  That said, the snorkeling off the beach isn't as good at Labadee as at Coco Cay.    I like the fact that Royal invested in Haiti many years ago when others didn't.  I am open to improvements, but I hope it is never a theme-park atmosphere.

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6 minutes ago, ChessE4 said:

We have always found the gift shopping better at Labadee than Coco Cay.  We have enjoyed the fixed price shop with many vendors and genuine hand-made gifts.  We have also enjoyed the beach precisely because it is less commercial.  That said, the snorkeling off the beach isn't as good at Labadee as at Coco Cay.    I like the fact that Royal invested in Haiti many years ago when others didn't.  I am open to improvements, but I hope it is never a theme-park atmosphere.

Have to agree, on a few points!  The shopping there is MUCH better and you have far more choices, I am open to improvements but I do not want it to be anything like a theme park atmosphere.  I think that there are a few other things that they can do to make it nicer and a better experience, but I personally would be happy with Coco Cay being the only experience.  I really wouldn't see them trying to replicate it there as I believe that it would be far too close.  

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On 12/31/2019 at 1:01 PM, bhageerah said:

Have to agree, on a few points!  The shopping there is MUCH better and you have far more choices, I am open to improvements but I do not want it to be anything like a theme park atmosphere.  I think that there are a few other things that they can do to make it nicer and a better experience, but I personally would be happy with Coco Cay being the only experience.  I really wouldn't see them trying to replicate it there as I believe that it would be far too close.  

Not having been to either one just yet I have to agree that I think having 2 Perfect Days might be a bit much.  Let people choose which private island experience they want.  Perfect Day has options for just chilling out or trill experience so there is argument that you can have your pick still.  See-see what happens. 

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  • 1 month later...
On ‎2020‎/‎01‎/‎06 at 8:40 AM, DublinFC said:

Not having been to either one just yet I have to agree that I think having 2 Perfect Days might be a bit much.  Let people choose which private island experience they want.  Perfect Day has options for just chilling out or trill experience so there is argument that you can have your pick still.  See-see what happens. 

I personally love the private island experience. I booked a Symphony itinerary specifically because it stops at both Perfect Day and Labadee! 

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Last year I was sent a survey from RCCL where it looked like they were floating the idea of a pirates themed (and most likely extra charge) sort of family amusement area.  Sure it's one of several concepts under consideration, but it looks cool.

I'm not sure if the weird animosity between CC and this site goes both ways, but my thread over there is at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2685673-survey-from-rccl-re-pirates-on-labadee/?tab=comments#comment-58062087   If that sort of thing is not allowed, let me know and I can host the image somewhere else. I'm just feeling lazy right now :)

 

 

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On 2/15/2020 at 4:38 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

There are still chickens and iguanas running around at Coco Cay.

update:

I think @WAAAYTOOO laughed because she's learned that I'm OBSESSED with the chickens, iguanas, and general fauna pretty much everywhere, lol

Don't forget the roosters! One made it very clear his presence was not to be ignored... from behind the bushes.

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  • 1 month later...

I echo some of you all and hope that they keep Labadee as a different experience than Coco Cay. Labadee can stay as just a simple beach destination as it is. We sailed to Labadee last year on the Oasis for the first time in a long long time and absolutely loved the laid back atmosphere and thought the bar service and food offerings were ok. Then we went to Coco Cay a few weeks ago aboard Symphony and the food and beverage service there was far superior. Way more places to get food, so the lines were minimal and the food quality and selection was much better. Also nice that there were more options for drinks on the island. I'd vote to keep labadee as what it is but take the improvements you put into Coco Cay for food and beverage and implement those into Labadee. And for those of you scared of an amusement park/ waterpark feel at Coco Cay, I'd say it was not that at all. Despite all the commericials showing all the thrills, it was only a very small part of the experience and you easily could find places to relax and just enjoy the beach. The free umbrellas were a huge plus too. 

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