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Monday, January 20, 2025

Rachel's Bachelorette Cruise | Allure of the Seas [Day 3] Perfect Day CocoCay

On our third and final day on Allure of the Seas, we woke up at Perfect Day CocoCay, Royal Caribbean's private island! This was my view from the bed upstairs -

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Okay, so maybe it was more like this..... still!

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Liberty of the Seas was docking beside us.

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Obligatory Royal Loft Suite balcony shot, getting all of the documentation that I could for the blog.

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Perfect Day CocoCay is very bright and colorful. This was my first time visiting the private island since its 2019 transformation. I visited in 2012 (on Rachel's high school graduation cruise!) when the island was simply "Coco Cay" and consisted of only beach chairs and some inflatable water activities. Our cruise on Harmony of the Seas in December 2019 was supposed to visit Perfect Day CocoCay, but unfortunately we had bad weather and skipped the private island.

This was not Rachel's first time at Perfect Day CocoCay. She visited the enhanced private island twice on her 2021 Freedom of the Seas cruise. Luckily, Rachel had conducted in-depth research for the blog which also helped her plan out our day.

There are no special amenities for suite/Star Class guests on the island. Interestingly, there was an area designated for suite guests back when this was just CocoCay in 2012. I did get several emails from Royal Caribbean before the cruise encouraging me to book a cabana in advance.

Originally, we were looking into booking an overwater cabana. However, the rate was $3000 for the day (for up to 8 people, including access to Coco Beach Club) which we thought was too high. Royal Caribbean did not sell out of the overwater cabanas at that price. About two weeks before the cruise, they dropped the price to $1500 which was much more reasonable... however, at that point we had already planned our day at CocoCay taking advantage of only the included offerings, so $1500 still seemed too steep. I think if we weren't staying in the Royal Loft Suite and had standard staterooms, the overwater cabana would have seemed like a more reasonable splurge.

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Liberty of the Seas had something Allure of the Seas didn't - waterslides! The two slides were added during the 2016 drydock. Like Allure, Liberty of the Seas also had her 2020-scheduled drydock postponed to early 2025.

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Our room service breakfast was supposed to arrive at 7AM, but they were a little delayed that morning. We wanted to get off the ship as soon as possible at 8AM, but Tao had another family that wanted to get off at 8AM, so we told him that he could escort us to the island after his other family.

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We ended up leaving the ship around 8:30 AM. Tao met us at our room and used his special elevator magic to quickly escort us off the ship.

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Tao asked if we wanted to take the shuttle service from the pier or walk. I figured it would be easier to keep everyone together if we took the shuttle, so we decided to wait.

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This is the little shuttle that will take you from the ship to the end of the pier. Tao saw us onto the shuttle, then headed back to the ship.

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At the end of the pier, we took the island tram to South Beach.

Spotted the hot air balloon on the way -

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Also a basketball court -

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It was definitely a good idea to leave the ship early! South Beach was pretty empty when we arrived.

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We picked out some beach chairs, and a few of the girls stayed behind with our things while we went and got everyone drinks.

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Although there was really no one else at Coconut Willie's, bar service was quite slow. We also had difficulty picking up drinks for the girls that stayed behind with the chairs, even though we had their key cards (I thought you could have two drinks per person). It makes sense because they want to be responsible, but it was a little snag in service.

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We opted for a round of Miami Vices because it would make a pretty drink for photos.

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Back at the beach, a couple kindly took our group photo. The parents of the little girl on the right fussed at her to get out of the background, but she's pretty epic, so I opted not to crop her out.

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Rachel wanted to swim out the the floating bar. We got out there just in time - there is a maximum occupancy and we were the cutoff. After we got on, the bartenders would turn and yell at anyone attempting to climb up that there was no room... which was a bummer because they were being yelled at to get off after they swam out there. It was a ridiculous procedure which could have been remedied with the use of a flag or a flip sign indicating whether or not more people can join the floating bar.

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This is the perfect use case for the wristlet lanyards that Judy gifted us.

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We got lunch at South Beach, then opted to head to the Oasis Lagoon.

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I handed the map that Tao gave me to Meredith so she could navigate.

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You could take the tram or walk to the Oasis Lagoon from South Beach. We opted to walk. It's a little path through the trees, around a 5 minute walk.

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We found some chairs to set down our belongings, then headed into the Oasis Lagoon. I left my DSLR on the ship today, but I did bring my GoPro.

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We played some drinking games in the pool -

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When Rachel last visited Perfect Day CocoCay, Oasis Lagoon was the party place with a live D.J. in the afternoon. However, Royal Caribbean since opened the for-fee, adults-only Hideaway Beach Club. So they've moved the D.J. from the Oasis Lagoon to Hideaway Beach Club. While I think it's a bit of a bummer that they've made the D.J. available in a for-fee area on the island, taking away entertainment that was once included, I do understand why they would want to move the D.J. to an adults-only location. That being said, the Oasis Lagoon was still full of drunk adults without the D.J.

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After a bathroom/sunscreen application break, Meredith, Sara and I went to the walk-up bar to get drinks, and the bartender poured us shots and took our photo and video while we took shots. So I guess bar service just depends on the location/time of day/specific bartender because while we hit a few snags throughout the cruise, ultimately we had a lot of amazing service.

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In the meantime, the other girls hit it off with a bachelor group from Liberty of the Seas who had their own Bluetooth speaker. (We forgot to bring a speaker to the beach.... Sara thought I had mine, and I assumed she had hers!)

Couldn't leave without a cute sister shot!

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Eventually, they cleared us all out of the Oasis Lagoon and sent us back to our respective ships.

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And I took this opportunity to get another group shot -

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We missed the tram back to the ship, so we walked back. I was happy about that because it gave me the opportunity to do more exploring/photography.

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There are various outdoor games setup at Chill Island -

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The best views of the ships are at Harbor Beach.

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Skipper's Grill is an option for lunch near Harbor Beach, hours are 11:30 AM - 3:00 PM.

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We got a peek at Thrill Waterpark (which can be booked as an excursion for a fee). When we were supposed to visit Perfect Day CocoCay on our Harmony of the Seas Cruise in 2019, I had purchased the waterpark excursion for all of us as a Christmas gift..... so when our stop was canceled due to weather, I was refunded and no longer had a Christmas gift to give the family. If you're curious about the waterpark, Rachel and Judy visited in 2021 and Rachel blogged about her experience.

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Captain Jill's Galleon is included (no fee) and has no age limit.

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We made it back to the pier - talk about a Perfect Day!

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Tao told us that we could message him if we needed help getting an elevator, but we boarded the ship so late that we didn't have any problem.

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We returned to the suite where there were snacks and drinks waiting for us!

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As well as gifts for everyone!

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So sweet!

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We waved goodbye to the Liberty of the Seas.

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And set sail from Perfect Day CocoCay!

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Tao wanted to get a photo with all of us, so we setup the tripod for a group shot!

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Tao had shots an espresso martinis delivered to the room - his suggestion, and it was a hit!

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We had so much fun in the hot tub that we didn't want to get ready for dinner.

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Tao kindly pushed our Samba Grill dinner reservation back for us.

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The girls convinced me to leave the DSLR in the room, so it was iPhone photos only for Samba Grill. Samba Grill is the Brazilian Steakhouse onboard Allure of the Seas, and I'm glad we got to try it before the drydock. Although yet to be confirmed, it is likely that Samba Grill will be replaced by The Mason Jar Southern Restaurant & Bar.

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there is a soup and salad buffet. Servers come around with spears of meat which they'll serve for you at the table. I've had sub-par Brazilian Steakhouse experiences before, but I was really surprised by the quality and flavor of the meat.

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Tao reminded us about the Rising Tides bar and suggested that we go there after dinner. He met up with us and was relieved to see us seated at Rising Tides. (I think he might have pulled some Genie superpower if we weren't able to get a table.) He took our photo for us while we were down in the Promenade level. Rising Tides goes up and down between Promenade level and Central Park.

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After Rising Tides, we bar hopped along the Promenade, then headed back to the suite to hang out and pack our bags.

NEXT: Rachel's Bachelorette Cruise | [Day 4] Debarkation

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