Trip Report: Mariner of the Seas (with some Cocoa Beach, the Space Center and a finish at WDW)

anricat

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 20, 2014
Day 1 - Travel to Orlando/Cocoa Beach
June 5, 2019

Our flight departed at 7:55 AM and our travel was smooth. We landed in Orlando on time at around 11:30, collected our baggage and set out in our rental car. We stopped at a place a little ways from the airport called Nona Blue Modern Tavern for lunch. After lunch, DD got some fro-yo from a place in the same shopping center, while DH and I held out for some Starbucks down the road before we set out for Cocoa Beach.

Once in Cocoa Beach we made a stop at a grocery store to pick up some things for breakfast the next couple of mornings before checking into our accommodations: Beach Place Guest Houses. The place was cute and the property was very nice - right on the beach with small duplexes. We had a little one bedroom duplex with a little kitchen, small table with four chairs, bathroom, and a living room with a pull out sofa for DD (which was very uncomfortable and she complained about loudly both nights we were there). We liked the place very much with the exception of the sofa bed and the A/C, which seemed to have a hard time keeping up.

We dumped our bags and changed into our swimming costumes, stopping by a shed on the property to grab some beach chairs, umbrella, sand buckets/shovels and a boogie board and walked to the beach to spend the rest of the afternoon. The beach was quiet and the water was calm and clear and DD enjoyed some boogie boarding and sand castle building.

Late in the day, we packed up and returned the equipment, showered and ventured into downtown Cocoa Beach for dinner. The setting was lovely at Coconuts on the Beach but the food, service and other patrons were horrible and we left cranky and frustrated and headed off in search of a better finish to our evening. We found it at a little ice cream place called Fat Donkey. It is possibly one of the best local ice cream shops I’ve ever been to and it was nice to finish our evening on a good note. We went back to our little place on the beach and got ready for our trip to the Kennedy Space Center the next day.
 
Day 2 - Kennedy Space Center
June 6, 2019

When we were originally planning this vacation we started with the cruise. Let’s just try a few nights on Royal Caribbean to see if we like it as much as Disney. It would open up more (and often cheaper) itinerary options for us. Then we started building other portions of the trip around it. I knew one thing that I wanted to do was to visit the Kennedy Space Center and this is the main reason we flew in two days early instead of one day early like we normally would with a cruise.

I had done a little research online and found that, like many tourist attractions, earlier is better and visit Atlantis first so that’s what we did. They opened at 9 AM and we were there right around that time. I had already pre-paid for parking online so that was taken care of and I also had tickets so we were able to bypass the ticket windows and head straight for the turnstiles.

We went right away to the Atlantis building where you begin by watching a video in one room, then you’re moved to another room for a second video and I’m not going to spoil it in case you ever go there because the presentation of that video and the way it leads to the rest of the exhibit is absolutely stunning and genius. I almost got a little emotional! It was phenomenal.

We spent quite awhile exploring the exhibits, speaking with the docents (former NASA employees) and riding the launch simulator. They also had a slide that was sort of ridiculously fun, even for me and I may have gone down it more than once.

After we were done there, we made our way to the bus tour (included with admission) which took us all around the launch areas, past the immense VAB (vehicle assembly building), the crawlers (that take the rockets to the launch sites), and the crawler track (a specially designed track that the crawler uses) and to another set of exhibits related to the Apollo missions. They had the Saturn V rocket, an Apollo capsule, space suits and many other items on exhibit, as well as a memorial to the Apollo 1 astronauts, a moon landing theatre experience and more. While there, we ate lunch, which was actually halfway decent for that sort of thing. Then we took the bus back, again oohing and aahing at the huge size of the VAB (seriously, that’s a gigantic building).

We finished up with the rest of the exhibits such as the astronaut hall of fame and the rocket garden and we watched two different IMAX movies, one was about Apollo 11 and one a more general space exploration movie. We thoroughly enjoyed all of it, finally leaving around 5:30, having spent the entire day there, from opening to nearly closing.

As we were making our way back to Cocoa Beach, dark clouds were beginning to roll in and when we arrived at the restaurant we chose for dinner, things were looking rather ominous. While we were being seated at Jazzy’s Mainely Lobster and Seafood (much, much better meal than the night before) the sky opened up with a serious storm with rain, wind, lightning and thunder.

When we were done with our meal, we really wanted to return to Fat Donkey for ice cream, but the rain was still coming down, though slightly less than before. We decided if we could get a close spot, we would go and then we could just order (they don’t have an interior, it’s just a little window on the side of a building) and race back to the car and enjoy our treats in the car. We were lucky and got a very close spot so that’s exactly what we did.

After finishing our ice cream, we returned to our little house and got things packed and ready to start the next portion of our adventure the following day.

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Really looking forward to your report! We just booked Mariner for July 2020. It's our first RC. I've been afraid to book anything other than Disney. Hope you had a great time!
 


Day 3 - Embarkation Day
June 7, 2019

I just realized I never introduced my family. Anyway, for this trip it was me, my DH and my DD, age 10 (almost 11 - next month). We live in Austin, TX and we've been on 6 Disney cruises, but never any other cruise line, so this was sort of an experiment. Our first cruise wasn't that long ago - almost exactly 5 years ago on the Dream. In fact, I was getting Facebook memories from being on Dream while we were on this trip, which was pretty funny.

Anyway, back to embarkation morning. I woke up before everyone else, as I often do, and quietly put on my running clothes to sneak out the door for a morning run down the beach. It was a calm and peaceful morning with no indication that a powerful storm had taken place the night before. I enjoyed an easy 30 minute run out and back on the beach. Very few people were out. I saw a man fishing, a few other people out for a stroll and a group of people that had signs they were marking sea turtle nesting sites with. There were a lot of sea turtle nesting sites, which was really great to see.




When I got back, everyone was still asleep so I quietly got myself something to eat and checked my email and Facebook until they began to stir at which point we all ate breakfast and showered and got ourselves packed up and ready for the day.

We were ready a little earlier than we perhaps needed to be, but we didn’t have any other plans for the morning so we went ahead and checked out and took our rental car back and got on the shuttle to the port where we got a glimpse of both our ship, The Mariner of the Seas as well as several other ships in port, including the Disney Dream. We felt a little sad to not be on the Dream, but excited for our new adventure. Are we cruisers or just Disney cruisers?

Once at the terminal, we handed over our bags and headed inside at about 10:30. We went through security and then checked in. I was a little confused that we didn’t get our room keys, instead we were to use our paper check in sheets I had printed at home and they said the keys would be at our room. Okaaaay.

Prior to sailing, we had purchased an add on called “The Key” that allowed us a variety of perks including priority embarkation. Right around 11 AM they began boarding and they called for suites and “Pinnacle” (whatever that is) and The Key so we got right on board. On the way in, we stopped by a table for DD to pick up a wristband that had our muster station on it so that if she were in the kids’ club during an emergency, she could be brought directly to our muster station. It was one of those plastic things that you’re not supposed to be able to remove, but I explained that she has some sensory issues and we needed it loose enough that she could slip on and off and they were happy to do so. We just made sure she wore it any time she went to the clubs.

Once onboard, we took our carry on baggage to the theatre and dropped it off for delivery to our room by 1:30 (another perk of The Key). It wasn’t quite time for lunch yet so we gave ourselves a little self-guided tour to orient ourselves to the ship. Overall, the ship was clean and modern looking with a lot of different amenities. I took a moment to stop off at the main dining room to try to sort out a new time for our dinner seating.

Like Disney, Royal has an early and a late seating and you can choose one or the other upon booking, but they have a third option called My Time Dining where you can choose whatever time you like and make a reservation for a different time each evening (or the same time - whatever you want). Before sailing, I had made reservations with My Time Dining for 6:15 each night, but about a week prior, when we saw that what the entertainment schedule would be in the app, I logged into my account online and tried to make changes and couldn't. So I called and they told me that my travel agent had called that day to change my dining from My Time Dining to first seating. This was patently false, but the agent insisted that my travel agent had done this. I checked with her and, of course, she hadn't, so she called and the agent she spoke with said that there was an issue with our account and somehow we had both. The agent said that she solved it but that the time slot we wanted was full and once onboard we should be able to change the reservation time. When I went to change it the man at the podium of the dining room was EXTREMELY rude and told us we didn't have My Time Dining and we were assigned a table at first seating. I tried to show him on my app, but he literally wouldn't even look and just kept repeating that we did NOT have My Time Dining. I said that I was confused and didn't know what to do. He just rudely told me to come whenever and I could just have a table. He was so awful and dismissive.

After that we decided it was time for lunch so went to eat our upgraded lunch (again, The Key) at Chops (vs. the buffet lunch). Lunch at Chops was a very mixed bag. The bread service was hands down the best bread I’ve eaten on a cruise ship ever. It was soooooo good. I’m pretty sure DD ate almost an entire loaf for lunch. But the service was painfully slow. Just ridiculously slow. Thankfully we were somewhat entertained by a dolphin playing in the water below that we could see out the window. The food was pretty good. Most of the meal was very good with the exception of the mashed potatoes which were some of the worst I’ve ever had. They tasted like they were from a box, which was surprising. For dessert, the chocolate lava cake was incredible. One of the best desserts I’ve had onboard a ship - right up there with the Palo chocolate soufflé (maybe better *gasp*) but the ice cream served with it tasted like it came out of a cardboard box in 1986. They serve Ben and Jerry’s in the Promenade. They couldn’t spring for the good stuff in the upcharge restaurant?

When we were finally done with the slowest lunch ever (seriously, I’ve eaten Palo brunch in less time and walked away more satisfied) our room was ready so we made our way there. One of the perks of The Key was reserved time on the ice rink and for other activities. I had read about this in advance on the Internet and knew that it was likely that our one and only reserved time for the ice skating would be at 1:30 and I packed our long pants and socks (required) in our carry on. We found our room where our room keys and The Key welcome letter were waiting for us. Sure enough, the assigned time for The Key to ice skate was 1:30 so we changed and went down there.

We were the only people on the rink. A couple of other people came but were turned away due to lack of long pants and socks. They complained (justly) that they didn’t know this would be the only time they would be able to skate with the special time afforded by purchasing The Key. They were told there would be a public skating time on the final night at 10:30 PM. Yes, PM. That was the only time over the 3-day voyage for public skating. Pretty skimpy if you ask me.

I had my fill of skating before DH and DD and returned to the room to organize some of our belongings from the carry on bag. They joined me shortly thereafter, DH having stopped by the dining area to ask about the wine corkage at dinner, was told by a different guy, “I see you have My Time Dining! See you at 6:15!” Can you feel the eye rolls coming at you through the blog? Nobody knew what was up with our dining. What a mess.

We decided we were going to stay dry for the rest of the day and DD really wanted to try out the SkyPad (jumping bungee cord trampoline thing) so we went to see what the wait was like. It wasn’t too bad so she tried out the SkyPad (and I did as well). I thought it was pretty fun and DD was really into it.



After the SkyPad, we fiddled around with the mini golf (we didn't play a full game) and explored some of the other areas of the upper decks where they have some cute swings and a climbing structure for kids. DH returned to the room to relax, but DD was curious about the sail away party so we waited for it to begin on the pool deck, but it just seemed to be more of a loud music type thing than any kind of organized event like Disney (unless we didn't wait long enough, I don't know). We shrugged and wandered off and DD wanted to do the SkyPad again so we went over there and there wasn't much of a line so she jumped again.




By this time it was getting close to 5 PM so I was hoping the luggage had arrived so we returned to the room to relax and unpack and get ready for dinner. We decided we wanted to go dinner around 6 PM and since everyone was confused about our dining time anyway, we opted to just give it a go. Unlike Disney, which has three distinct dining rooms with their own theme and menu, Royal has one dining room (and several upcharge dining rooms). This one dining room spans 3 decks (3, 4, and 5) and the My Time Dining folks are all on deck 3. We were seated quickly and greeted by our dining team for the evening, Reynaldo (aka Rey) and Randy. They were really good - as good as the best we’ve had on DCL and we were very impressed. The meal was very good, though we found the menu each night lacking in the same variety that the DCL menu has. Whereas DCL has a large menu of different items each night and a small number of consistent items, it seemed the reverse on Royal, with just a few new items each night, but a larger selection of consistent items from night to night. One thing we did enjoy was that right upon being seated, they provided DD with a cup of fresh fruit. This was nice as she focused on eating this as opposed to half a basket of bread.

Upon finishing our meal, our serving team told us that if we returned at the same time the following night and on the way out asked that we note we would like Rey and Randy on our My Time Dining reservation (haha) we could have them again the next night at the same table. We were happy to do so and we did end up with Rey and Randy each night on our cruise, which was great. Overall, even though we did miss some of the theming and variety of DCL, we really did like the food on Royal very much. There were a few misses, but there were also quite a few hits and if comparing DCL and Royal, I would rate the food very similar on both lines.

After dinner we returned to our room to gather our things and head for the ice rink to watch the ice skating show. We were supposed to have reserved seats as part of The Key, but found perfectly good seats elsewhere and we settled in for the show. We really enjoyed the show and found it fun to see something different. DCL puts on amazing shows, but we’ve seen them all several times and so seeing something new and completely different was great.

After that, we were tired and ready to turn in for the night. Our first port stop the next day was Nassau, however, having been twice, we had decided we were going to stay on board and explore everything that The Mariner of the Seas had to offer.
 
Day 4 - Nassau(ish)
June 8, 2019

I woke up before everyone, tossed on my running clothes and made my way up to the jogging track. We were still sailing into port and the track on the Mariner is way up top on Deck 12 and it was CRAZY windy up there and already getting hot. Unlike on the Disney ships where the track is on Deck 4 and somewhat protected, being way up in the wind and heat was less than ideal. On the plus side, they didn’t have to shut down a portion of the track in order to moor the ship. Unfortunately, in the negative category, the track is narrow and in a walkway that people frequent at all hours of the day and it’s extremely short. 8 laps for a mile (vs. the 3 laps I’m used to on the Magic and Wonder, I can’t remember how many laps make a mile on the Dream/Fantasy). So that’s a really long way of saying that by the end of my first 8 laps I was going stir crazy and decided that weight training in the gym sounded awesome, so that’s what I did.

I wandered into Windjammer after that (the buffet akin to Cabana’s on DCL) and scoped out the breakfast options, grabbing some juice and a pastry to refuel after my workout (it’s vacation - no judgement). I went back to the room where DH and DD were stirring as we started coming into port in Nassau.

We got ourselves ready and went up for breakfast at Windjammer, which I thought was about on the same level of quality as Cabana’s on DCL. We then went back to the room and put on our swim costumes. DD tried out the pools first, but upon dunking her head under water the first time, declared that it was salt water and she couldn’t deal with it so we moved on to the slides.

We planned to make our way over to our special reserved time with The Key for the big slides from 10-11. We were a little early, but the slides were open and not busy so we each tried out each of the two slides. When 10 AM rolled around, it didn’t appear that there was any sort of checking for The Key. It wasn’t busy, but it was getting busier. Either way, we were done with the slides and saw that the line for the Flow Rider surf simulator was short so we jumped into that line. DD was only tall enough for boogie boarding so she did that. I did one round of boogie boarding, which was fine, but it was pretty much a constant flow of water right in my face. I tried stand up surfing and found it nearly impossible. DD wasn’t really a fan either so we cut our losses and moved on.

We spent a little time up near the flow rider/slide area with the hammocks, climbing structure, and swings I mentioned from the day before. DD climbed and played a bit, while DH and I relaxed in some chairs. Then we all decided we were done with the wet activities and went back to the room to shower and get into dry clothes.

From there we were ready for our special reserved time for The Key for the rock climbing wall, which again proved to be completely unnecessary and not busy at all. I had forgotten to mention that DD tried out the rock wall the day before, but DH and I hadn’t. I think we all climbed three times, with DD outclimbing all of us. I only made it halfway up both times, but DH was able to make it to the top on one of his attempts. It was harder than it looked. Unless, of course, you’re a 10 year old gymnast, in which case, it's easy.



After climbing, it was about noon so we went back to Windjammer to have some lunch. There were many options available and we all found something that we liked from the buffet. I particularly liked some of the Indian dishes available. After lunch we went back to the room to relax for a little bit but soon grew restless and DD and I set off for a game of mini golf, which was fun, but up on the top deck with zero shade so it was very very hot.

After mini golf, we went to find ice cream by the pool deck. They had chocolate and vanilla the entire voyage (unlike DCL which has one or two machines of chocolate and vanilla and another one or two machines of rotating flavors - usually fruit like blueberry, banana, or strawberry). Despite having two machines on deck, they only ever had one machine operating and this often meant long lines, which was frustrating. This time the line wasn’t too bad.

After ice cream, it was time for DH to participate in the ping pong tournament so DD and I met him there to watch. We had reservations for the Sky Pad at 2:30 so we didn’t get to see the end of the tournament (which DH didn’t win, I think a guy from India did, there were a lot of people from India on the ship).

We went back to the Sky Pad and DD and I both jumped again and then DD jumped yet again because the line wasn’t too bad. Then she wanted to do the rock wall again so she climbed that yet again. (I’m worn out just thinking of all the jumping and climbing, but she loved it.) During this time, DH decided to disembark the ship in Nassau and shop for some kind of alcoholic product to take home, but he returned shortly thereafter empty-handed declaring that there was nothing worth purchasing.

After that, we returned to the room again and rested a bit and tried to figure out what to do next. We saw that there was a belly flop competition up at the pool and DD wanted to see what that was about. DH and I speculated that it was going to be large white men who had too much to drink flinging themselves into the pool on their bellies. Which is exactly what it turned out to be. DD was sort of baffled by the whole thing, having not really had much exposure to intoxicated people doing stupid things.

During this time, DH went in search of a quiet place to have coffee. Something like Cove Cafe on the DCL ships. There’s a Starbucks onboard and they also have coffee drinks at Promenade Cafe on the Promenade, which is sort of a little mini mall-like corridor where loud music was always playing and there was always a line of people either buying coffee, buying Ben and Jerry’s, or trying to get pizza or a sandwich at one of the only placed to obtain food when the buffet wasn’t open.

Unlike DCL, if you had a mid-afternoon hankering for food, it wasn’t readily available. There are numerous quick service options on the pool deck of the DCL ships serving up everything from healthy options like salads, fresh fruit and wraps to comfort foods like burgers (both meat and veg), chicken fingers, fries, pizza, and even schwarma. On the Mariner of the Seas if you wanted something by the pool your included options were hot dogs and potato salad. If you want a burger and fries, you would have to pay the cover charge for Johnny Rocket’s. So the pool is up on deck 11, which is where the hot dogs are (you know, right next to the smoking section that takes up HALF THE POOL DECK on one side, port side, I think) and the other included food was pizza and sandwiches in the freakishly long line way down on deck 5 on the Promenade. Hands down, DCL has the edge in quick service department.

So anyway, back to our day. We met up with DH in Promenade Cafe and had a couple slices of pizza and DH bought an iced mocha that we shared. We found a quieter table in the back of the busy cafe that wasn’t quiet as loud as the rest of the area, which brings me back to my next complaint, noise. The noise level many places on the ship was generally just loud. In the evenings DCL frequently has live music happening around the ship, in the atrium or Promenade Lounge and in some of the adult areas, but on Royal there was ALWAYS loud loud loud music in the Promenade. I have no idea how the poor guest services people could do their job. The couple of times I visited the desk, we practically had to shout at each other over the music. I would probably lose my mind if I worked there.



After our snacks, we still had over an hour until dinner and we were looking for something to do. There just didn’t seem to be many activities, and certainly not many family activities that we are used to doing on DCL. We made our way to the library we remembered visiting from our self-guided tour the day before. It was blessedly quiet and we found a shelf of board games and DD and I played a rousing game of backgammon and did some sudoku puzzles we found on a stack of printed up activity sheets.

Eventually it was time for dinner so we made our way to the dining room and checked in, pleased that we had Rey and Randy again as our serving team. We had a good dinner. Again, I would say the meal was on par with DCL in terms of quality, but the selection seemed a little lacking.

After dinner, our original intention was to see the stage show in the theatre at 8:30, but we learned from looking at the app that there wasn’t one at 8:30, only 10:15 so I asked at Guest Services what the deal was and they informed me that because of our late departure time (all ashore was 8 PM, I think) not enough people would be back on board to enjoy an 8:30 show. I was pretty annoyed by this and really didn’t know what we were supposed to do to kill time for the next three hours.

Ultimately, we did a little shopping in the increasingly crowded Promenade. We didn’t buy anything from either the shops or from the super tacky tables of cheap crap they had set up in the hallway (making it even more impassible). As the evening went on, more and more people were coming down to the Promenade to begin drinking and partying (there are a lot of bars on that ship).

We made a nighttime trip to the Sky Pad, then I talked DD into visiting the kid’s club so she could see how things were there, so I dropped her off there to play and assured her that I would check in with her in a little while (which I did and she was having fun and wanted to stay). Meanwhile, I organized some of our things to prepare for the next day at CocoCay so we could get to bed right after the show, because I wanted to be up and on the island as early as possible because I heard that the slides in the waterpark could get really busy and have long lines.



On my way back in the elevator when checking on DD in the club, the elevator doors opened on a piano festooned with disco lights and man dressed in Steampunk style singing and playing. Inside the elevator. It was actually pretty cool and fun and I ended up riding up and down with him for a bit, singing along here and there. When I picked up DD, we waited for that particular elevator and she loved signing along as well.



Finally, at 10:15 we went to our special are of the theatre reserved for The Key, which, again, we didn’t really seem to need as there weren’t that many people in the theatre. I think they were all boozing it up in the various bars on the ship. Or maybe they heard about the show, “Gallery of Dreams,” and how it had zero plot, didn’t make any sense at all and wasn’t really very good. I was ready to get up and leave about a song or two in. DD and DH weren’t impressed at all. It just seemed like they had set up random scenarios for doing really bad covers of various pop songs through the years.

Well, you win some you lose some, I guess. We went to bed feeling a little discouraged by our evening and pining for the Disney Dream that had been docked next to us in Nassau (where they enjoying pirate fireworks without us?!) but we had high hopes for CocoCay the next day.
 
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Day 5 - CocoCay
June 9, 2019

Royal Caribbean’s private island of CocoCay certainly looked amazing when I woke up in the morning and went to have a look. Regrettably, our port side stateroom did not look out onto the island, but at the sea instead. I made my way to decks 12 and 13 to get a better look and snap some photos.



We got changed, ate breakfast in Windjammer and went ashore as soon as possible. In advance of our sailing, I had purchased all day waterpark passes for us to enjoy the waterpark. Let me pause here to talk about things that cost extra on Royal. There are some thing that are extra that I don’t mind paying extra for: specialty coffee, upcharge restaurants, bottled water, alcohol, and tickets to a water park that cost $250 million dollars to build. That said, I don’t want to be bombarded with these things and I do feel that I was. Before our sailing, I received emails nearly daily about adding on to our trip with these extras. Once onboard the ship, every time we entered Windjammer, someone was trying to sell us on dining in an upcharge venue that night. It was annoying and over the top. I also felt like the soda being extra is stupid. I’m not a huge soda drinker and I don’t drink it at all at home, but sometimes, having a few sips of coke mid-afternoon is a nice treat. It’s inexpensive sugar water, just include it already.

So we’re back at the water park and we decide to start with the body slides. At Devil’s Peak there are six different slides, the tallest one being the tallest water slide in North America. We started small with the two shortest slides. They were pretty ho hum. We weren’t interested in the next two, they were drop slides, where the floor drops out from underneath you. Been there, done that. That’s a NOPE. So we climbed all the way to the very top of the tower so the red slide. The tallest slide. There was already a long line forming and we waited about 20-30 minutes and I’m here to tell you that even though the floor doesn’t drop out from under you, that sucker is FAST. It was the fastest slide I’ve ever been on. It was terrifying at times and fun at times and long. I didn’t get a good photo of the slides, so here’s one courtesy of Royal Caribbean. The two tamest slides are the pink and green. Then there’s the blue plunge one in the middle (we didn’t do that one, it’s just a big drop that made everyone’s swim suit got up their butt at the end) and then there are the yellow and blue floor drop out slides in the middle and then the crazy long fast red one that goes all the way from the top.



We decided we were one and done with that slide so we wound our way over to the “Family Tower” where they had a variety of different tube slides. This is where we spent most of the day until the lines started getting long, then DD wanted to hit up the Adventure Pool which had a foam lily pad obstacle course, a small (and extremely slippery) rock climbing wall and some little tiny rope swings that swung into the pool. We hung out for awhile and watched her play before we decided to seek out lunch.

We made our way out of the water park area and into another section of the island to their lunch buffer Skipper’s Grill. There were some other snack areas around, but they didn’t have any vegetarian options and were also not very extensive with their menus. The spread of food was huge and there were a lot of really amazing choices. I’ve always felt like the food at Castaway Cay (DCL’s island) was pretty meh and I will say the food at Skipper’s Grill was really tasty. I really enjoyed the taco bar as well as fresh salads and fruits. If they could just put that food somewhere on the ship for afternoon snacking, I’d be all set.

After lunch, DH went back to the ship to rest and DD and I made our way to the Oasis Lagoon pool. The pool was huge with lots of areas to swim and DD and I swam and played together. After awhile, we decided to get out and check out the beach. So we hopped on a tram and made our way to one of the beach areas of the island. It’s not a huge island and in the end we could have walked, but it was nice to have a little ride. The beach was really beautiful but many areas of CocoCay are marred by the large number of smoking areas - 12 in all. There are so many smoking areas, that it was actually hard to avoid all of them and was really annoying. The other not as nice thing about CocoCay is that they didn’t do a good job separating the infrastructure of the island (crew lodgings, water treatment, storage, etc.) and all those buildings are just sort of right there next to all the public recreation areas. At Castaway Cay, behind the scenes is truly behind the scenes. There’s nothing in evidence as all that points to the inner workings of the island. Something I’ve always appreciated about Disney. I know it’s all an illusion, but it’s still nice to not have a bunch of ugly infrastructure staring at you while you lounge on a beautiful beach.




We didn’t spend much time at the beach, instead making our way back over to the pool, then eventually back over to the Skipper’s Grill for some snacks before they were set to close at 3 PM. After our snacks, we ventured back over to the Family Tower slides where the lines were starting to come down. We had a weird incident of getting stuck and almost flipping over in one of the family rafts that was actually sort of scary and was witnessed by a lifeguard who pulled us aside after and we spoke with him, then his boss, then her boss and her boss as well before it was all over. We avoided that slide the rest of the day. The lines were super short at the very end of the day so we kept sliding, but eventually we were exhausted and still needed to shower and start packing to disembark the following morning so we made our way back onboard.

After showering, I started getting us packed up, which was sort of tricky because I needed to pack stuff that DH would be taking home when we split up the next day, but also pack in such a way that we could keep one carry on with us with the stuff we would need for overnight since we needed to put our luggage out in the hallway. I think I unpacked and repacked about three times, eventually getting everything more or less sorted out, but there would still need to be some sorting the following day.

The show that night was some kind of comedian or juggler, or juggling comedian, I don’t know, but it wasn’t until 10:15 and I wasn’t risking that again, not when we had to get up crazy early to be off the ship. Apparently others didn’t share my sentiments because after dinner when I went to guest services to adjust gratuities, the party people were starting to come out again and I was reminded of DH commenting on the first day that he saw some people wearing “boozing and cruising” shirts. I think many, many of the travelers sailing with us were perhaps not really our crowd.

I have to say, though, CocoCay is really nice with really great food. The waterpark is super fun, assuming you go very early or very late in the day. As private islands go, I think I prefer CocoCay slightly to Castaway Cay in terms of things to do and food, but Castaway Cay is definitely more beautiful and has a more family friendly vibe to it.
 
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Outstanding T-R !!! After reading how busy you-all were, I need a nap.

Oops---forgot, since you were on the port side of the ship and facing open water, that means the ship was "stern facing the island," correct? (backed in)
 
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I have to say, though, CocoCay is really nice with really great food. The waterpark is super fun, assuming you go very early or very late in the day. As private islands go, I think I prefer CocoCay slightly to Castaway Cay in terms of things to do and food, but Castaway Cay is definitely more beautiful and has a more family friendly vibe to it.
Thanks so much for the review. We're going in October, but we'll be on Harmony. We bought the all-day water park tickets and our hope is to hit them first thing in the morning since we got the swimming with the pigs excursion at 1:30pm.

It sounds like overall you enjoyed your cruise. Our first non-DCL cruise (after doing 3 DCL) was RCL Jewel. We had fun, but found ourselves comparing it to DCL a lot. Eventually we got over that and it became easy to sail non-DCL. You do have to say "no thank you" more often, but with the price savings, I'm ok with that. I can't find how long your cruise was, I'm sure it's in your review but I can't find it now. I think you get less of the "booze cruise" atmosphere on longer cruises or ones overseas. Our Europe trips have been all really calm.

We've discovered we're cruise people and not Disney cruise people. We just love that we can visit so many great places on a floating hotel. What did you guys come up with? Cruise people or Disney cruise people? I guess maybe I should wait to ask until your review is done :)
 
Outstanding T-R !!! After reading how busy you-all were, I need a nap.

Oops---forgot, since you were on the port side of the ship and facing open water, that means the ship was "stern facing the island," correct? (backed in)

That's just how we roll. We aren't really relax and chill out vacation people. We are go go go!!

Yes, we backed in. So if you want a view of the island, I recommend a starboard side room.
 
Thanks so much for the review. We're going in October, but we'll be on Harmony. We bought the all-day water park tickets and our hope is to hit them first thing in the morning since we got the swimming with the pigs excursion at 1:30pm.

It sounds like overall you enjoyed your cruise. Our first non-DCL cruise (after doing 3 DCL) was RCL Jewel. We had fun, but found ourselves comparing it to DCL a lot. Eventually we got over that and it became easy to sail non-DCL. You do have to say "no thank you" more often, but with the price savings, I'm ok with that. I can't find how long your cruise was, I'm sure it's in your review but I can't find it now. I think you get less of the "booze cruise" atmosphere on longer cruises or ones overseas. Our Europe trips have been all really calm.

We've discovered we're cruise people and not Disney cruise people. We just love that we can visit so many great places on a floating hotel. What did you guys come up with? Cruise people or Disney cruise people? I guess maybe I should wait to ask until your review is done :)

I definitely think some of the booze cruise mentality was that it was indeed a 3-night.

I will probably talk a little more about comparisons at the end. I mean, it's impossible not to compare stuff as human beings, but I do think one needs to manage expectations. We liked having different experiences, trying different things and there were some high points. DD loved the Sky Pad and rock wall and ice skating and those are not things offered by DCL. On the other hand, certain things about it lacked a bit of the magic and lustre we're used to with DCL. Though, I have to say, the dude with the piano in the elevator felt clever and cute in a way that seemed sort of Disney-like to me and delighted me very much.

Most of the time, the price on another line wins. I mean, the same 3-night on the Dream in an oceanview would have been double what we paid for a balcony on Mariner. With that said, we had booked both Royal and DCL to Greece in 2020 and the DCL cruise is double the price. Actually, we booked Royal first thinking DCL wouldn't return there, then they announced itineraries and so we booked a 9-night. Ultimately, we picked the DCL ship for a variety of reasons: we have friends sailing that itinerary, we liked 9 vs. 7 night better and while Royal has a 9 night, the dates weren't as good for us and the ports, while still Greece, were a little preferable on the DCL itinerary. And while it's double, it's a 9 vs. a 7 so the price comparison isn't entirely fair. However, it really shouldn't be double for 2 extra nights :P Though, those are for comparable rooms. We booked oceanview on both. I'm sure a balcony would have been more on the Royal cruise and honestly not that far off.

However, for other port-intensive itineraries, I think we will definitely price out other lines. When the ship is not the destination and we are in need of a good meal and a comfortable room, the prices of other lines definitely win out, hands down. If I had it to do over, I would have sailed the Mediterranean on another line. We just weren't on the ship all that much, if at all.
 
That's just how we roll. We aren't really relax and chill out vacation people. We are go go go!!

Yes, we backed in. So if you want a view of the island, I recommend a starboard side room.

More like ROCK & ROLL !!!

Our upcoming 4 nighter is Deck 9 --- Stern 2 Bedroom, so I'm guessing the view should be ok.
 
Day 6 - Debarkation
June 10, 2019

Having purchased The Key, we were able to attend a sit down debarkation breakfast. But it sounded long and the selection limited and we decided it just sounded simpler to go to Windjammer instead so that’s what we did. After breakfast, we hopped back to the room to grab our carry on bags and went to where we were supposed to meet for our special “priority” debarkation with The Key. I have to say, we did get to skip the line, but it was sort of awkward and ill handled. I felt really self conscious as we got odd (and a few downright dirty looks) as we were basically just lead to the front of the line to have our cards scanned and get off the ship.

Once in the terminal building we found our luggage, reshuffled some items and then got in the line for customs and immigration. And then we waited and waited and waited and waited. And waited. We have debarked in 5 ports: Port Canaveral, Miami, Puerto Rico, Civitavecchia (Rome), and Vancouver. I was going to comment that I didn’t think we waited that long in PC last time, but I just went back and checked my trip report from The Dream sailing we did out of PC and I commented on how long we waited at customs. So I’m not sure if it was a matter of the sheer number of people on a bigger ship (like Mariner or Dream) or if that’s how PC rolls. They only had two agents on duty and it seems to be I recall far more agents on duty at the other ports where we’ve debarked.

We bumbled our way back to where the rental car shuttle had dropped us off, not quite sure if that’s where we were supposed to be and then I vaguely remembered the shuttle driver telling us he would pick us up in exactly the same spot and that he actually preferred the Disney terminal for that reason - drop off and pick up are in different places and he felt like it made things smoother for passengers.

The shuttle bus didn’t take too long and we found ourselves back at the chaotic Budget Car Rental office. We got our car and got underway, stopped at a Whole Foods once we reached Orlando. Last time we were at WDW, we got Amazon Prime Now delivery, but since we had a car, we figured we could quickly stop at Whole Foods and pick out our own stuff.

We arrived at Wilderness Lodge to check in, but our room wasn’t ready so we handed off all our stuff to bell services and drove over to Beach Club for our lunch reservation at Beaches and Cream. I wanted to return there because on our last trip I had the best veggie burger I’ve ever eaten in my life (no joke - it was that good). We were early and I was worried we would have to wait a long time. It’s just hard to gauge how long everything is going to take so I was overly cautious with our lunch reservation. It wasn’t a problem, though, to my surprise and we didn’t have to wait long at all. Regrettably, they have a new head chef and have replaced the amazing house made veggie burger with a Beyond Burger. I like Beyond Burgers, but I can buy those at the grocery store so it felt like a wasted trip.

At this point, it was time to part company, DD and I made our way to Epcot (with our shiny new Annual Passes in hand) and DH took the car back to Wilderness Lodge with the hope that the room would be ready soon and he could rest for a bit before his evening flight home. Regrettably it wasn’t ready until later in the day and he spent most of his time hanging out in the lobby. I mean, it’s a nice lobby, but it’s not quite the same. The room was super nice, though and it was nice that he could order our suitcases up to the room for us.

At this point, the trip report turns more into a WDW vacation. I'll post the next entry with a summary of our WDW trip, even though this is the Royal Caribbean forum. ;) I'm also going to post one more entry with a final compare/contrast and our final thoughts about the cruise experience itself.
 
Once again, thanks for the great TR.

...............We arrived at Wilderness Lodge to check in, but our room wasn’t ready so we handed off all our stuff to bell services and drove over to Beach Club for our lunch reservation at Beaches and Cream. I wanted to return there because on our last trip I had the best veggie burger I’ve ever eaten in my life (no joke - it was that good). We were early and I was worried we would have to wait a long time. It’s just hard to gauge how long everything is going to take so I was overly cautious with our lunch reservation. It wasn’t a problem, though, to my surprise and we didn’t have to wait long at all. Regrettably, they have a new head chef and have replaced the amazing house made veggie burger with a Beyond Burger. I like Beyond Burgers, but I can buy those at the grocery store so it felt like a wasted trip............

Never had a B&C Veggie Burger and just my first Beyond Burger yesterday, it was just ok, but I wonder if you have had the veggie burger from D-Luxe Burger at Disney Springs and if yes, did you like it?
 
I enjoyed your trip report! We are currently looking at a late 2020 cruise on RCCL from Port Canaveral. I am looking at the 4 night on Mariner so we can also do 2 days in Orlando, but also considering 7 night on Harmony as DH likes a longer, cruise only week. Thanks for the good report!
 
Once again, thanks for the great TR.



Never had a B&C Veggie Burger and just my first Beyond Burger yesterday, it was just ok, but I wonder if you have had the veggie burger from D-Luxe Burger at Disney Springs and if yes, did you like it?

No, I've never had that one. Is it made in-house? I make it a habit to try in-house veggie burgers when I can. The one I had at Nona Blue on the way out of Orlando was pretty good. Though it was a little dry. I had to ask for extra sauce.
 
Really loving your trip report! I am a bit worried about being nickeled and dimed to death. DH and I are soda drinkers, but 12 per day seems crazy to me. Only DH will probably get the package.

One very important question. Is there eggs benedict at windjammer? I have this daily on DCL and it is seriously something I look forward to on every cruise.

Do you recall if there are any waterslides that you don't have to purchase a pass for on coco cay? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy the pass for the day.
 
Really loving your trip report! I am a bit worried about being nickeled and dimed to death. DH and I are soda drinkers, but 12 per day seems crazy to me. Only DH will probably get the package.

One very important question. Is there eggs benedict at windjammer? I have this daily on DCL and it is seriously something I look forward to on every cruise.

Do you recall if there are any waterslides that you don't have to purchase a pass for on coco cay? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy the pass for the day.

I think, but I may be wrong about this, but if one person get a drinks package, everyone in the stateroom must. I may be incorrect about that, but that's what's ringing from the back of my head from when I looked into it. Someone more experienced with Royal may be able to clarify.

I feel like I remember eggs benedict at Windjammer, but I don't eat it so I can't be 100% sure. They definitely had an omelet station and I got an omelet on two occasions and they were really good.

There's a kiddie play area for younger kids and some kind of other little boat/sprinker/slide thing that was outside the water park, but depending on the age of your kiddos, they may be either too old (pretty sure one area had a max age) or not interested. I think the boat thing with spray/slides was really sort of smallish and my DD was completely uninterested. Like, tiny slides, nothing like Pelican Plunge. Honestly, not being super huge beach people (we pretty much hit our max in like two hours at Cocoa Beach and decided that filled our beach needs for the next year or so) it was worth it for us. We really enjoyed the family slide tower in particular.
 
Do you recall if there are any waterslides that you don't have to purchase a pass for on coco cay? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy the pass for the day.

Depends on how old your kids are...theres no age limit, they're just mini:

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