A number of cruisers received emails this week informing them that their upcoming Royal Caribbean cruise stop at Perfect Day at CocoCay has been cancelled due to a "minor delay".
Over the past two days, we have received reports from Royal Caribbean guests that certain upcoming sailings towards the very end of 2018 or beginning of 2019 have had their port call in CocoCay cancelled and replaced with a stop in Miami, Florida.
December 29, 2018 Vision of the Seas email
Vision of the Seas January 5, 2019 email
Vision of the Seas January 12, 2019 email
The email explains that work to convert CocoCay to Perfect Day at CocoCay is the reason, "While we are transforming our private destination, CocoCay, into Perfect Day at CocoCay, we have experienced a minor delay. As a result, we've had to replace your visit to CocoCay with the beautiful Miami, Florida."
Thus far, we have received reports just of sailings going to CocoCay in late December 2018 and early January 2019 and all on Vision of the Seas.
Any pre-paid shore excursions scheduled for CocoCay will be refunded to the original form of payment.
Perfect Day at CocoCay is a $200 million upgrade to Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas and is scheduled to open in phases that will last into the end of 2019.
Royal Caribbean is actively working on building a new pier at its private island of CocoCay in the Bahamas, and we have some new photos to share of the progress being made.
Royal Caribbean Blog reader Jason Percival shared with us these photos of the progress, as seen earlier today during a stopover on Adventure of the Seas.
Royal Caribbean announced today that its Perfect Day Island at CocoCay experiences are now ready to book for upcoming sailings from May 2019 and beyond.
Guests booked on these sailings can now reserve their perfect day activities, including Up, Up and Away, a tethered helium balloon that takes guests to new heights 450 feet above the island, and Thrill Waterpark, with the tallest waterslide in North America.
Perfect Day at CocoCay is what Royal Caribbean is renaming its private destination in the Bahamas, which will see the island transformed with a $200 million upgrade.
The new pier will open in November 2018.
Up, Up and Away helium balloon, Chill Island, and Oasis Lagoon freshwater pool will open in December 2018.
Thrill Waterpark, the Zip Line, Splashaway Bay aquapark, Captain Jack’s dining, Skipper’s Grill dining, and Captain Jack’s Galleon will open in May 2019.
South Beach, Coco Beach Club and the overwater cabanas will open in December 2019.
Perfect Day at CocoCay Costs
Royal Caribbean has also provided additional details as to which activities will be complimentary and which activities will have an extra charge.
Perfect Day at CocoCay will offer Voom high speed internet. In addition, Beverage and Wi-Fi packages purchased onboard will be active on the island. You can also enjoy five new complimentary dining venues located throughout the island.
Towels and beach chairs are complimentary to all cruise guests. Umbrellas are available to rent for a nominal fee.
Lockers are available throughout the island for a nominal rental fee. You’ll also find complimentary freshwater showers, restrooms, and changing rooms available on the island.
Cabana Prices
Perfect Day at CocoCay will offer beach umbrellas, clamshells and daybeds for a rental charge.
In addition, cabanas will be available at beaches, Thrill Waterpark, and Oasis Lagoon freshwater pool. Or elevate your beach day with an overwater cabana at Coco Beach Club, which accommodates up to eight guests and comes with attendant service, a private hammock, a minibar, and your own personal slide into the sea.
Some cabanas come with extra perks, too. If you reserve a cabana at Thrill Waterpark, you’ll enjoy complimentary entry to all of the slides and activities inside for up to six guests. If you reserve a cabana at Coco Beach Club (including the overwater cabanas), you’ll enjoy complimentary access to the club for up to eight guests.
Cabana pricing varies by season. See price ranges below.
Perfect Day at CocoCay Height & Weight Restrictions
There are no age restrictions for the experiences at Perfect Day at CocoCay. Some slides and activities have height and weight restrictions; see the chart below for specifics. Many of the island’s other experiences, such as Up, Up and Away helium balloon, Oasis Lagoon freshwater pool, and Captain Jack’s Galleon, are open to all adventurers.
Royal Caribbean is partnering with h StarGuard, the leading provider of lifeguard services, to ensure there are lifeguards at every pool and every slide, as well as in recommended locations on the beach.
Perfect Day at CocoCay Access Policies
Currently, all venues and activities are open to guests of all ages.
There will not be a dedicated daycare on the island, but the Adventure Ocean team will be hosting activities onshore for children and their families. Island programming is still being developed. And Adventure Ocean will remain open onboard for families who choose to stay on the ship.
At this time, Royal Caribbean does not have plans for any exclusive areas for Crown and Anchor Society members and Suite guests.
Getting Around Perfect Day at CocoCay
A tram service will run at all times on the island with four stops every 15 minutes: arrivals plaza, South Beach, Coco Beach Club, and Oasis Lagoon. All trams are ADA compliant.
The island is ADA compliant, but some experiences are not. There are complimentary beach access wheelchairs available, and an ADA compliant tram service. Oasis Lagoon freshwater pool is also ADA compliant, as is the wave pool in Thrill Waterpark. However, the towers to the waterpark’s slides have stairs, as does the tower up to the Zip Line.
Other Policies and offerings
You’ll find gluten free and vegetarian options available at all of the island’s dining venues, as well as options to suit most dietary needs.
The island will have designated smoking areas.
Charging stations will be available in cabanas and in select public locations for complimentary use.
Most of the trash is recycled, while some is sent to the ship to be disposed of properly. Additionally, Royal Caribbean is hard at work to reduce the use of plastics on their ships, and this effort will also extend to its private island destinations.
Royal Caribbean has emailed guests with sailings to CocoCay on or after May 2019 to let them know that the Perfect Day at CocoCay changeover is coming soon.
The cruise line has also began opening up bookings for some of the new activities and features coming to Perfect Day at CocoCay, which provides our first look at pricing. Thanks to Royal Caribbean Blog reader Kayla Hildebrandt for providing screenshots.
The email to guests indicated that May 2019 appears to be the date the cruise line is eyeing for the official opening and changeover.
It appears the booking options are available for select sailings with stops in Perfect Day at CocoCay that are at least in May 2019.
Perfect Day at CocoCay will open in phases and is a $200 million upgrade to the private island.
The first aspect of Perfect Day at CocoCay is scheduled to open in September 2018 when the new pier is completed. Chill Island and Oasis Lagoon are planned for November 2018, while Thrill Waterpark and South Beach debut in April 2019.
The official Perfect Day at CocoCay Grand Opening, which will include CocoBeach Club and the Overwater Cabanas, is set for November 2019.
Sure, there will be incredible water slides, over the water cabanas, an impressive wave pool, and plenty of beach fun to go around, but scouring the various concept art, we came up with seven smaller details that are part of the plans for Perfect Day at CocoCay that we think are worth mentioning...and looking forward to trying out.
It is worth mentioning that we found these details by looking closely at artist renderings. This artwork may not necessarily represent what will actually be the final product, nor what may actually be something offered at CocoCay.
A covered pier
It is safe to say a lot of people are excited for Royal Caribbean to add a pier to CocoCay for the sole benefit of increasing the likelihood of being able to go to CocoCay. Tendering is dependent on ideal sea and wind conditions, which has resulted quite often in ships having to skip scheduled stops in CocoCay due to poor conditions.
While a pier makes it a whole lot easier to get to the island, anyone that has walked on a pier can tell you one thing that you quickly notice while walking down the pier is how hot it can get there. There is no shade, as it is often a concrete walkway in the middle of the shore.
Royal Caribbean appears to have remedied that issue by providing a covered pier walkway for guests to enjoy, which means less of that "surface of the sun" heat!
Geyser
With all the excitement of Perfect Day at CocoCay, it is easy to overlook a new feature that is sure to be the focus of plenty of photos.
At the Arrival Plaza, there appears to be a geyser, or some other sort of water spouting semi-natural phenomena.
Tidal wave slide
Up until now, Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas was the only place to try out the Tidal Wave water slide, which is a fun raft ride that features a Boomerang style slide.
CocoCay will offer its own Tidal Wave slide at the Family Tower area of Thrill Waterpark. It looks like Royal Caribbean will call it The Twister, and describes it as, "takes two riders down its winding tubes on a tandem raft."
Rock climbing wall in the pool
Royal Caribbean made a name for itself years ago when it added rock climbing walls to its cruise ships. Back then, that was a revolutionary change. Now, all Royal Caribbean ships offer this signature activity and it appears CocoCay will take the idea one step further with a rock climbing wall... over water!
Thrill Waterpark will offer a rock climbing wall that is built over the pool, which means "falling off" is just as fun as going up!
Twin pool rope swing
Speaking of pool fun, there will be twin rope swings at Thrill Waterpark, where you will be able to practice your back flip/summersault combo.
The renderings appear to show two rope swings on either end of the pool.
Beach teepees
You have heard of beach cabanas, bungalows and beds, but prepare yourself for beach teepees!
Located on South Beach, Royal Caribbean describes them simply by saying, "Kick back in your own beachfront glampsite."
Zorb balls
South Beach will also be home to a new kind of activity, called zorbing.
Basically, you enter an inflatable zorb ball and, uhh...., zorb around! From what we understand from hours of scouring the internet, zorbing involves entering these giant inflatable balls in a hamster ball-like activity.
Which of these under the radar activities are you most excited about? Is there something else you spotted in the artist renderings worth mentioning? Let's talk about it in the comments for this post!
Have you heard about Royal Caribbean's $200 million development project at its private destination in the Bahamas? The Perfect Day at CocoCay is slated to offer cruise guests an incredible day ashore that will be exclusively available to Royal Caribbean cruise guests.
This information was up to date as of May 15, 2018.
When will CocoCay open?
Royal Caribbean plans to open CocoCay in phases as parts of the island's upgrades are ready.
The first aspect of Perfect Day at CocoCay is scheduled to open in September 2018 when the new pier is completed. Chill Island and Oasis Lagoon are planned for November 2018, while Thrill Waterpark and South Beach debut in April 2019.
The official Perfect Day at CocoCay Grand Opening, which will include CocoBeach Club and the Overwater Cabanas, is set for December 2019.
The exact schedule is subject to change and is fully dependent upon achieving all construction deadlines and does not account for unforeseeable events.
Capacity and operations
Royal Caribbean designed the Perfect Day at CocoCay so that all of its cruise ships could potentially stop there, including the Oasis class ships.
The average service capacity for a single call day on the island is projected at 6,500 guests.
Perfect Day at CocoCay is a private destination exclusive to Royal Caribbean and no other cruise lines will be able to stop there.
Coco Beach Club costs and access
Guests looking to truly indulge will want to go to the Coco Beach Club. The Coco Beach Club will offer an oceanfront infinity pool, upgraded cuisine and the only overwater cabanas in the Bahamas. Cabanas at the Coco Beach Club come with an overwater hammock, waterslide and private attendant.
Coco Beach Club offers an exclusive beach experience available to all guests, not just suite guests. An additional fee will be administered for entry into this elevated experience. Costs will be shared at a later date.
Children will be allowed in the Coco Beach Club. In fact, there are no age restrictions at any of the Perfect Day at CocoCay attractions or activities. Children of all ages are welcome!
How to book Perfect Day at CocoCay
In the future, your clients will have the opportunity to plan out their perfect day as most experiences at Perfect Day at CocoCay will be available to book via the Cruise Planner tool.
Guests booked on sailings that call on Perfect Day at CocoCay will be notified when this feature becomes available.
In a press conference with members of the media aboard Independence of the Seas, Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley spoke about some options the cruise line is considering with regard to allowing guests to stay longer at its private destination of CocoCay.
Adam Coulter of Cruise Critic reported that Bayley talked of keeping ships later in CocoCay, "The next stage is to have longer stays in Perfect Day till 11 o' clock at night and we're building it so we have all the lighting and infrastructure in place."
Moreover, Royal Caribbean is also considering the idea of guests staying even longer, with stays overnight or even longer. Tom Stieghorst of Travel Weekly quoted Michael Bayley as saying, "We're pretty sure late nights will be a hit. We think overnights could be a hit and we're wondering if a whole weekend could be a hit."
"It would not be a volume component. It would maybe be 10 cabanas of suite-type quality which would be pretty high-priced, and then you'd have the ability to hop on any one of our ships. But there's a lot of revenue and logistical issues to work out with that idea," Bayley said.
Royal Caribbean is in the midst of building the Perfect Day at CocoCay improvements, which will bring a water park, slides, cabanas and more the island. The $200 million project is underway, with the majority of the additions ready for launch in spring 2019. Coco Beach Club, the final experience to be completed, is set to open November 2019.
Royal Caribbean Blog is an unofficial fan blog written for other fans of Royal Caribbean International. The Royal Caribbean Blog is not affiliated with Royal Caribbean International
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