Day 2: Perfect Day at Coco Cay

 Welcome to Day 2 of mine and Asa's cruise to the Bahamas! It's Tuesday, we know, because the elevator tells us so! 

Lets be real about vacation here for a second. They're fun. I love them. But, I do not, at all, sleep well on them. Rarely do I find a hotel bed I can sleep through the night on. Most of the time I toss and turn. Eventually, if we've been on vacation long enough, I'll get a good nights sleep thanks to sheer exhaustion. The cruise was not really an exception to this. I woke up early, somewhere around 6:30, while Asa was still snoozing away, and I peered out the window to discover my morning view: 

We had docked already, but there was another Royal Caribbean Boat on it's way in. In fact at first, it was just sitting out there- something I wondered if we had done as well, waiting for the people on shore to be ready to help us dock. It was interesting to see the other boat come in and get docked though, you'd think it'd be a little more high tech than some people hanging onto some ropes that they toss to people on shore. (I mean, I'm sure there is more to it than that, but that's what I saw). I even got to see them drop anchor, which was cool. 

We knew we wanted to be one of the first people off the boat that morning, so we mulled around what to do for breakfast. Asa isn't a breakfast food person. In fact, you are hard pressed to get him to eat before lunch time, despite my best efforts (He's gotten a little better with some oatmeal here or there). But I am an avid breakfast fan. I eat at least a granola bar every day, and can house breakfast food like nobody's buisness. I would have gone up to the buffet at 6am, but I'm co-dependent, so instead we settled on room service. Room service on the boat is complimentary for the continental breakfast stuff- essentially coffee, juice, pastries, cereal and fruit. Anything beyond that for breakfast-lunch or dinner comes with a $7.95 charge, plus 18% gratuity, so it's about ten bucks to have anything hot delivered to your room. Still, with us going pretty inexpensive for this cruise, we decided to spring for it. After all, my argument was "when can you get room service for just ten bucks?!" Plus then Asa could have a little something, and his coffee (he MUST have that to function in the morning), and I could get whatever I wanted. Our room service was prompt and arrived right on time. 

But when the guy started brining in tray after tray and plate after plate, I realized I made a huge tactical error. I hardly EVER order room service. In fact, it's been YEARS. So, the thing is, we just checked boxes instead of listing how many of each thing we wanted. And so, to be on the safe side- they gave us two of EVERYTHING. 

So Asa's eggs and bacon turned into eggs and bacon for me as well. My hashbrowns and fruit turned into fruit and hashbrowns for Asa too. We even got two things of pancakes (the Blueberry pancakes from room service, by the way, were among my favorite things I had on the ship- just the right amount of fluffy-ness and blueberry-ness). So, our bad. Whoopsies. 

As we got ready to head out, I put my penguin in the middle, and noted we were in front of the last light post on the pier. I wanted to be able to see our window from down below. 

And it worked, look you can spot him! My Penguin has gone nearly everywhere since I got him over 15 years ago from Asa. But he has really seen better days. His fur is thinning and he's missing a flipper, and is about to lose an eye. But, even in his old age he made the trip to the Bahamas. 

As we got off the ship, we were pleasantly surprised with the nice island breeze. It was still hot, and a bit humid, which as Floridians, we're pretty used to (especially by September). But, the island breeze makes all the difference in the world, it reminded me a bit of Hawaii. 

A short four night cruise doesn't allow for a lot of port stops- however, we were getting two. The first stop was at Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean's private island. Most cruiselines have their own private island in the Bahamas, but since I'd never cruised out this way, I had never experienced one before. 

The island is called Perfect Day at Coco Cay (thus my blog title), and we certainly got a perfect weather day. Sunny with blue skies, not too terribly hot, and not too terribly windy, despite the fact that there was Hurricane Fiona churning out in the Atlantic. In fact, I was so worried our ports would be affected by the hurricane, it was a little ironic that we made it to all our ports only to come home and be faced with Hurricane Ian. 

But here we were, technically in the Bahamas! Sure, I've been to all 50 states, but my country list is... sad. Canada, obviously (but that hardly counts when you go to college an hour away), Mexico and Honduras. But, I'm up to five now! Six if you count the U.S. Fun fact: my kids have all been to more countries than me. 

I know this technically counted as a new country, but lets be real, a private island hardly feels like another country. It honestly could have been Florida. It was like TRYING to be the Bahamas, but really had no unique Bahamaian anything. Still, the water was clearer and bluer than probably anything I had seen before- including in Hawaii and Mexico. I'm not knocking the private island, though. It was a lovely day there for sure. 

There's a lot to do on the island- a lot of it is included, but some is not. The biggest perk is all of your food is included (though, like the ship there are a few things you can get for an upcharge). There's plenty of beach space you can take up without buying a package or "excursion", though if you want to shell out the big bucks you can get everythign from a bed on the beach to over the water cabanas that come complete with a waterslide. You can also pay extra to do everything from jet skiing to zip lining to hitting up the water park. Originally we had planned an excursion here- but we cancelled in favor of a different one on Nassau (stay turned for that one- because it was AMAZING). So, we decided just to soak in the "free activities". I did some research so I'd know what was included ahead of time, before we sailed. After getting off the ship, we headed left, across the bridge to Chill Island. On our way we passed an awesome (free) kids play area complete with a water bucket and pirate ship to climb on. Again, why do they not make these things for adults? Chill Island is what you'd expect, a big beach, with lots of hammocks, offering lovely views of your ship. Sometimes, apparently, just one Royal Caribbean boat will be in port- but on our day to Coco Cay, there were two. 

We had gotten up so early to head out, because I read the snorkeling off Chill Island Beach was best before everyone started stirring up the sand. You can rent snorkeling gear there, but it is a little pricey. We brought ours from home, although admittedly, we could stand to get some new stuff. The seal is had to get right on these anymore (to be fair they are like six years old). 

The water was pretty calm the day we were there- but the purple flag was up. Any Floridian knows what that purple flag means: dangerous marine life in the area. It can mean anything from jellyfish to sting rays to sharks. Most the time it's up around us it's because of the sting rays. You just do the sting ray shuffle and you are a-ok. But, it became clear pretty quickly it was up here for jellyfish. 

Lucky for us the water was so clear they were easy to spot, or at least easy for me to spot. Asa, without his glasses had a hard time seeing them, so I was his official designated jelly-fish looker outer. We did have our water shoes on, so stepping on them wasn't as much of a concern (for us, obviously we don't want to step on a jellyfish and hurt them). And these guys did not have the long tenticles, so as long as we didn't get too close, I felt fine around them. I was like 'these look like the ones we pet at the aquarium!' And they're jellyfish, they don't move all that fast. I've since done some googling, and I think that these are Moon Jellyfish, ones that are the least dangerous to humans, without a big stinging power (they can sting you, but it won't penetrate the skin.) All this is to say,  we were in no real danger. 

But, story time. Asa and I are out there by the rocks, snorkeling around near one other guy, and another older couple. There are lots of colorful fish, and some really big ones- maybe up to a foot and a half, when all of a sudden the guy comes swimming (quickly!) towards us, and alerts us to a five foot shark swimming our way. Now, if you recall, a couple of weeks ago when we saw that bear on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail and some guy said "did anyone see where that other bear went to?" I high tailed it back to the car. I LOVE animals. I LOVE seeing them in the wild. But, I do have my limits. And when someone in Bahamaian waters (where an American woman had just died from a shark attack a couple weeks earlier), tells me there is a shark heading my way, I high tailed it out of the area and back to shore. 

After staying in shallow waters and just checking out the colorful fish and crabs in the rocks near the shore, we determined it was probably safe to head back out. Now to be fair, nobody in this area, to my knowledge has been attacked by a shark. And there are lifegaurds in this area, in fact there was one walking up on the rocks looking out. We mentioned the shark to him and he was completely unphased. He was like 'yea, I'm sure you saw a shark'. He said the ones that come in aren't too big (As someone who is 5'2", I can assure you a 5 foot shark seems big), and aren't looking for people, but for fish to eat. They said as it gets more crowded, you won't see anymore sharks since they don't like people too much. Now, this all sounded alarming to me anyway. But, maybe sharks are the Bahamian equivelent to a Floridians alligators. People are always like, you see alligators like, IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD? And they ask how big, and what you do when you see one. The reality is you just keep your distance and leave them alone. No big deal. This lifeguard very much had that attitude about sharks. Still, I was a little on edge after that. 

So Asa and I decided to try a different rocky area to snorkle around (which I know makes no sense, a shark can swim anywhere- it's not like they just hang out in the same area all day- they have a whole ocean to traverse). This area proved even better for snorkeling though. 

Heres a picture I later took from the boat of the snorkeling area on Chill Island, there are three "bays" of water. The first, closest bay (behind the palm trees) was where the shark sighting occured. The middle bay proved the best for snorkeling out there at the edge toward the rocks. There's also some platforms out there you'll notice, that you are allowed to swim out to. After the shark and all the jellyfish sightings, we decided not to go out that far- but knowing what we know now, I would totally try it next time.  

After quite a bit of time in the salty ocean water, we were ready for some fresh water. Food places don't open on Coco Cay until 11, but you always have access to the water and juice machines (it's less juice and more flavored water), but it's all complimentary and self serve, which is nice. You'll find several of these staitons all throughout the island. 

In the middle of the island, you'll find Oasis Lagoon, the largest pool in the Caribbean. 

Everyone says to get to the pool area early to make sure you get a spot to sit by the pool. Sitting by the pool is not usually a me and Asa thing either- we like to be doing something. We get enough sunshine taking out the trash, I don't need to lay out "to get sun". So, when we go places like that  we tend to just set our stuff off to the side as not to take up a lounge spot someone else may want, just for our towels. Lucky for us there's a lovely grassy area with beanbag chairs- and an old guy already asleep in one. Asa said that man was his life goals. 

I was, however, happy to sit in the lounge chairs in the pool for awhile sure you're getting sun there- but you're also sitting in the water, which is fun. You'll not there are still plenty of these. Asa and I had a knack for being just a bit ahead of the crowds all vacation. By the time we came back to this area to grab our beach bag and towels, there wasn't an empty seat to be found. 

One place surprisingly busy for 10 am- the pool bar. A bar, in the pool! Who doesn't love those? Now, if you do have a drink package on the boat, it works here too, which is awesome. We didn't get one of those, though, but you can also buy drinks out of pocket, and we decided if we were ever going to do one of those, we would do it here. You don't really have to carry anything but your seapass card with you here- because you can charge anything extra you want to your seapass account (it even worked in the straw market for a magnet!) 

We both got some fruity drinks and snapped a picture at the bar with them before we swam off and away from the crowds (for real the bar is HUGE and it was hard to find a spot to order- at TEN AM, people. But, I guess if you bought that pricey drink package you gotta start drinking early to get your money's worth. 

Instead of hanging out at the bar, we found a cute little seating area in one of the little coves at the pool. While it is the biggest pool in the Caribbean, it has a lot of little rivers and coves- it's not just a giant circular pool. Lots of seating, plenty of shade, and lots of room to screw around. For little kids, there even is one part that is zero entry. 

On the other side of Oasis Lagoon you'll find South Beach. This is where those swanky cabanas with the waterslide can be found. It's also where the upcharge beach club is located. I've heard great things about both of them- but both are way out of today's price tag for me and Asa. Still, south beach has a nice beach (obviously), along with a snack shack. While there is a larger buffet (which you will see in a minute), there are a couple of complimentary snack shacks on the island where you can get everything from chicken sandwiches to funnel cakes to mozzerella sticks. It's here where I decided if we really do end up taking a cruise with my whole family for Asa's 40th birthday (something we've been discussing), this is a good contender- because my kids would love this place! 

South beach is also where you'll find all kinds of beach games, including foot billards! 

Our "table" seemed to be a little on a slant though, and all the balls hung out on one side. Asa still managed to beat me (I was not good at this, at all), but I had fun. They also have everything from jenga to connect four and a volleyball net. 

Also found on the island: a little library. How cute! Now if this island seems big to traverse (especially since we ignored the entire side of the island with excursions and the water park), don't worry, a little tram will take you around. We didn't find it to be too big to walk, but I get how some people might, especially if you're dragging all your beach gear along with you. 

By now, it was time for lunch. Besides the snack shacks, a bunch of bars, and a couple extra fee places to eat there are also two (identical) buffet places. They have the usual hot dogs and hamburgers, bbq chicken, fries and corn. 

Though, I will say, for a buffet everything was really fresh- they were cooking everything from burgers to flour tortillas right in front of us! 

Asa was most excited about the flour tortillas and the taco section. They had all kinds of meats to choose from, and plenty of beans and rice. 

There was also a whole toppings bar- one for burgers, and one for tacos. 

Asa missed the taco one, and got lettuce onion and tomatoes from the burger topping bar, when he showed back up, I was like 'no guacamole' and he was like "WHAT!?" So he had to go back. Guacamole on Coco cay isn't extra. A perfect day indeed. 

As if all of that wasn't enough food, they also had a variety of sandwiches: a Philly cheesesteak one, a cuban one, and a portabella mushroom sandwich. 

We got one of everything, to split. Luckily these too come in small portions (they're cut into like half sandwiches). My favorite was the philly cheesesteak one. In fact, that was my favorite thing on the Coco Cay buffet, but the other two were decent. 

Obviously, I had to get fruit too. I nabbed a brownie and a cookie, and to balance it out a bunch of fruit- including a couple of weird fruits I hadn't seen before. I determined one was some kind of a papaya. The other tasted like some kind of weird pear. I was a little disappointed in the cookie and brownie though- both were pretty crispy and I like my baked goods on the soft side. 

After lunch the island was buzzing. A lot more people had showed up, in fact, we even had a hard time finding a picnic table for lunch. But, by now we were ready to head back to the ship. We had a big day planned for Wednesday and I didn't want to get sunburnt and not enjoy it, plus we had a very pleasant morning, so why not call it a good day when we were on the upswing. 

When we arrived back on the boat, we found it practically empty. Everyone was on the island, and boat was very, very quiet. 

Of course our first stop was by Cafe Promenade to get our coffees, and since I found the island desserts disappointing, I decided I could fit one more in here. I loved the little shot glass desserts. It was just enough for a little taste of one, but not so much I couldn't eat lots of them! 

For real though, the ship was empty. Not that this was usually a bustling staircase, but holy geez. It made for some good pictures. 

Back in our room, I noticed Ida had been by to make up the room, and even left my penguin in the window for me. I'll admit, I did think there might be a step down in service going from a suite attendant to someone on Deck 3 with exclusively inside rooms and a few porthole rooms, but Ida was the man. He kept my ice fully stocked, always made up our room and turned it down at just the right time, and was always friendly in the hallways asking if we needed anything. 

Back on the boat, we got some lovely views of Coco Cay. It's what you see in all of Royal Caribbean's ads, complete with the balloon. It's an extra cost to do that, too. But I heard it's hardly ever going thanks to winds- a problem we didn't have. 

Asa and I had planned to just chill in the room for a little bit, but when we noticed how empty the boat was, we decided to take advanatage of all the open attractions. I even went down the waterslide! Me! In an enclosed slide! (to be fair, there are clear parts of the tube, so it never gets too dark, and it doesn't empty into a pool, so I didn't have depth to worry about). I thought they were fun, Asa thought they were a little slow, but we both agreed it was WARM in there. 

Warm or not, we were taking this opportunity of nobody around to hang out in the hot tub, now not only was it overlooking the water- but we had a great view of the area we had been snorkeling in. I kept looking down in the water for sharks, but didn't see anything more than some giant fish. 

Once we were too warm for the hot tub, we made our way over to one of the main pools. The thing I love about cruise ship pools is the ankle deep water all around them. You know, the boat gets moving and the water gets splashing, so that's the practical way to keep it all in. But, I just think it makes for a lovely hanging out area. 

Plus Asa and I are great at finding shaded areas in pools. We did swim, but we also just hang out in the shallow water for quite awhile. It was also nice to spend all this time on the boat without it moving. I love non-moving cruise ships. So much to do, no sea sickness to worry about! I still had just been using my wristbands and hadn't even resorted to Dramamine (even the "less drowsy" stuff can make me sleepy, so I was trying to avoid it as long as possible). 

After the pool, we swung by the casino to play some penny slots. That's only as adventerous as we get, because we're not big spenders. Now, since we've been home we learned we could have used some of My Vegas coins we've been saving up for a trip to Vegas (it's an online slot game you can pay for free to earn coins to get real-life discounts in Vegas), in the casino on the ship. It'll be good to know for next time. This go around I doubled my dollar to two though. And then I took it up to the counter and gladly cashed it in. We later lost all of it, but it was good while it lasted. 

Right next to the casino on Deck 4 you'll find the sports bar, Playmakers. There you'll find a couple of pool tables, so we played a couple games. Of course, I lost them all to Asa... 

But we were basically the only people in the whole bar! It was that empty! 

Back outside on deck 4, we got to check out the blue waters some more. 

And along that deck, we also spotted our dinner table. We wouldn't be there this evening, though, because it was formal night- and we don't really do formal. 

What do we do? Shuffleboard! Or really any random game. Shuffleboard was on both sides of deck 4 near the aft, with a little box hanging on the wall to contain the pushers and the discs- or whatever you call them. Lucky for us, they also had the directions posted, because, honestly, I always want to play shuffleboard, but I never remember how. 

After Asa ALSO beat me in shuffleboard, we headed back up to Deck 13- where you can find the Sky Pad. The SKy Pad is basically one of those trampoline things where they strap you in and you can bounce super high. I wanted to try this out- especially when the boat was not moving- because I thought it would be easier on my sea sickness. Truth be told, though, I usually get motion sick on a plain old trampoline. But, the joy of a cruise ship is that all of this comes complimentary, so if you try something for 5 minutes, you're not out 20 bucks. 

Usually there is a virtual reality game you can play on the Sky Pad as you jump. I was never going to try that (if I move too much playing beat saber, it gets to me), but Asa was interested. It wasn't working that day, though, so instead we just jumped. Asa got going much higher than me, but that also came with some bruises on the inside of his arm from the bunjee cords. He may go hard on every activity he's ever done. 

After the Sky Pad (which I really did enjoy by the way, it was super fun, but very tiring), we headed over to the Rock Climbing Wall. Unfortunately, you had to have socks, and I didn't have them on. Instead of going all the way back to our room, I told Asa to try it, and I'd do it later. He was pretty tired from the Sky Pad, but he made a go of it, getting most of the way up on the "medium" difficulty wall. 

After all that activity, we were ready for a snack, so we headed back to Cafe Promenade where I got a dessert (what else?) and a turkey wrap. 

We also stopped by Sorrentos. It was also located on the promenade, also complimentary. They had mostly pizza and antipasta type of things. We asked for a plate of all their little sides, and ended up with a nice little afternoon snack. 

On our way around the ship, we came across piano guy. This guys piano was on wheels- and he'd take it all over the ship to play, including in the elevator. I first noticed him when some girls went running down the stairs trying to catch "elevator piano guy". People really liked getting in the elevator with him! 

We were about to set sail, so there's one last look at Coco Cay! 

As the boat took off, we headed over to the Schooner Bar, just up the stairs from our room on Deck 4. 

The Schooner Bar was the hub for trivia contests. I told Asa I wanted to try everything on the ship because on other sailings I was either too sea sick, worried too much about what everyone else wanted to do, or had kids in tow - to get to do too many of the activities. The trip from Coco Cay to Nassau on Tuesday was perfect for activities. The trip is so short (something like 55 miles), and you have like 15 hours to make it there, that the boat barely moved. Seriously, at times we were just out there and I'd say "I don't think we're moving". I didn't feel it at all. It was like we were docked, but I was still going somewhere new- the best of both worlds. 

Anyway, we got to trivia late- like just as they were starting the first question. I'd never been to things like this, but after this trip, I can tell you the ideal time to arrive to any ship activity is 10 minutes early. 5 minutes you'll be hard pressed to find a spot. 15 and you're there way too early. 10 minutes is the sweet spot. Anyway, there were two empty seats by these three people so we asked if we could have a seat. Halfway through trivia we were joining forces with them, and they affectionatly became known as our "trivia buddies". Turns out they almost always have these seats, too. We didn't win trivia, but our trivia buddies have been winners before, and took pity on us for not winning anything, so they gave us some highlighters- the prize from previous trivias. Don't worry, you'll see "Trivia buddies" again in subsequent blogs. 

After trivia, we made our way up to Windjammer for dinner. It was oddly empty too, I guess we're one of the few non-fans of formal night. It allowed us to nab the cool seats in the gazebo type thing though, which was cool. 

Obviously, what's a meal time picture without  my picture of desserts. The carrot cake here was my favorite, but the back left there- that was tiramisu, and it was also good. At this point, Asa was even trying and rating my desserts. I think he might like desserts a tiny bit more after this trip! Or, he was just indulging me, which is also entirely possible. 

Back in our room, we noticed the sun was begining to set, so we headed up to see if we could catch a lovely sunset from the outside balcony area on Deck 4. 

The clouds stopped us from getting a really good sunset, unfortunately. But lots of people were out trying to catch pictures. An older couple, from the Villages offered to take ours, and then some people next to us from Wesley Chapel asked us to take theirs. Apparently there were a whole lot of Floridians on this cruise. Thats what you get for it being fall- my favorite time to be a Floridian! 

While realizing the sunset wasn't going to be anything to write home about, we did make our way to the very front of the boat. We went up here when the boat originally set sail, but it was packed. As the days went on, this area, on the helipad, was always very quiet. 

With the sun sufficiently down, we made our way up to Deck 13 to get in some mini golf. The novelty of it is that you're playing mini golf on a cruise ship. But, even if you don't feel like you're moving, you are- and it can affect your short game. Or so, that's my argument. It's only 9 holes, but they're tough. There's essentially no guard rails on most of the course, so you can go way off base. But you know, it's me and Asa. We can have fun on the jankiest of mini golf courses. And we did. 

The thing about inside, or even oceanview rooms is always the lack of outdoor space- nowhere to get fresh air. But, there's so much outdoor seating on these ships, including some very comfy nooks and cranies to just sit and hang out and get the fresh air. I highly recommend the giant round seats at the front of the ship on Deck 13. 

And if it's not too hot, there's also some couches and chairs up above the pool deck on their own little balcony. It sits above the pool bar, and you can even sit there to watch the movie at the pool. They usually had two movies a night, a kid friendlier one around 6 or 7 and a older kids one around 9. 

It's just a relaxing place to hang out, and there's even a telescope for ocean veiwing. Plus, there usually weren't too many people up here either. 

I'm telling you: top deck after 6 PM is the place to be. It empties out hard. 

Eventually we made our way back to our room, not only had it been turned down, but tonight we got our very first towel animal. How cute! 

I would have spent more time aroudn the ship that night- there was lots to do, but we had a big day ahead of us on Wednesday and I wanted to try my best to go to bed early. Just wait for my next blog. It's insanity. A total bucket list item for sure, and something I can't recommend enough. It's going to take me awhile to sort all those pictures though, so give me a minute. 

Next up: Sandy Toes. The single greatest place in the world.