Final Day at Coco Cay

 Thursday, May 15th

Once more, I was up at 10:15am, my now usual time, to head up to the Windjammer and get some breakfast. Today I did NOT miss the frosted donuts! In fact, the first part of the buffet had been converted into a breakfast pastry table with a chocolate fountain so any pastry one selected could be doused in liquid chocolate! I didn’t go for that, but I did get three different kinds of frosted donuts, taking 2 chocolate, 1 vanilla, and one chocolate/vanilla drizzle! I also grabbed 4 hashbrowns and some tea and coffee! In the room we had our breakfast and got into our bathing suits which would be the only clothes we would need on Coco Cay, which we had already docked at! We weren’t in any real hurry to get out there, but we also were excited to see what exactly awaited us on this Perfect Day at Coco Cay! 

We got off the ship about 11:30am, our ship side by side with another Royal Caribbean cruise ship which made quite the ominous picture as we walked between them to cross the bridge from the docking area to the actual island. When we arrived there was a man standing in front of a large map who asked where we were trying to go, and we said we were looking for some kind of burger we’d been recommended. I’d been told before going on the cruise that there was some kind of burgers served at Coco Cay that were excellent because they could be grilled in a way they couldn’t do on the ship for safety reasons. The guy we were talking to had... no idea what we were talking about. And instead of directing us to any of the food places, he just started talking about the beaches they had on the island. Like, maybe cut the script for a second and just, like, listen to what we asked about? 

After that, uh, helpful aside, Jess and I took a turn about the island to see what we could see! We walked by Chill Beach, which looked like one of the largest beaches on the island, then we passed Harbor Beach, which was a kind of interior beach that was small but looked nice, so we kept that one in mind! We also walked through the Straw Market which was full of cabana stands of goods that were SO overpriced! We saw the SAME style of dress Jess bought on Jamaica being sold for $55! Crazy! And the sunscreen and snorkel gear and whatnot? Outrageous! But very fun to look at and walk by and wonder who on earth bought those things there. 

We followed signs towards South Beach, which was reached by a maybe 2 minute walk through this loved shaded path that reminded us of the walk up to Killruddery House in Ireland. Just a charming stroll through some trees and wildlife before you emerged out into the open at your destination. We decided to set up shop for a bit at South Beach and headed into the water near the floating bar! We didn’t order anything, but we did watch as the bartenders changed for their shifts by kayaking out to each other! How cool is that! We also watched as people emerged from the water to climb up to the bar, revealing an array of sunburns from days in the sunshine or even, perhaps, just from that day!  

We walked along the beach, halfway in the water, up to the far right end where there was this neat shallow land bridge so you could walk out further and deeper without it actually getting deep! There was a family having some kinda meltdown in there, but we had fun looking for fish and gazing out across the water! A guy there had to get told if he was snorkeling he had to be moving and he didn’t seem to understand why he couldn’t just float in the water. Like... because you look dead man and it’s a waste of their resources to keep checking on you? This isn’t complicated. Except to him, I guess! We walked back to the floating bar after a while and finally committed to doing some swimming, or really more floating, around the bar, just enjoying the water and the people watching. 

At 1pm I asked someone for the time and we both decided it was time for something to eat, as we knew the food stands closed at 3:30pm and we wanted to be sure we tried some of the food. At the South Beach Snack Shack we ordered the Shack Burger, chicken sandwich, and mozzo-sticks, also getting and ice cream and some mango juice from the drink stand in front of the shack. The Shack Burger was super good! The chicken sandwich and mozzo-sticks were also good, but we wondered if the Shack Burger was the one we’d been recommended because it was quite delicious! We decided we would have to try the offerings at Skipper’s Grill to compare when we circled back that way. After a little more padding about in the water we decided to rinse off and do some more exploring. 

In the center of the island there was something called the Oasis Pool, and Jess had joked about “who would go to a pool when they’re on an island full of beaches?” when we first passed it, but of course we’re hypocrites so we took a dip in the pool when we passed it again on the way back. We just dipped our feet in really, sitting in the shallow end of the water, chit-chatting and people watching. We reapplied sunscreen then, as I had packed the spray on bottle so we would be prepared, and then we headed off towards Skipper’s Grill to see about the burgers there. On the way we passed the hot air balloon and those are always fun to see! At Skipper’s Grill it was basically buffet style, with different stands for salads, condiments, burgers, deserts, and fruit! We got one burger, some cookies, and some watermelon slices then parked ourselves at one of the picnic tables to eat. The Shack Burger was indeed the better of the burgers and we formally decided that was indeed what that person had been talking about. 

As we were right next to Harbor Beach, we hit that next, once more just walking up and down the waterfront, making in three or four times back and forth as it was a small beach area. In the water were these weird disc things that people could sit in to float in the water and it was fun to watch people try to use them and also get hollered at by the lifeguards for misusing them. Good stuff. We could see the zipliners going overhead as we walked, and there was a mermaid statue on one end that had certainly seen better days but maybe also it was supposed to look worn and old? Unsure, but either way it was fun to see everything, from the statues to the fish. 

We decided, again, because we’re hypocrites, that we would actually like to return to the Oasis Pool and do some actual swimming in it, so we packed up our stuff and returned to the pool. We reapplied sunscreen but the bottle ran out as we used it, so that was that until we were back on the ship! We got in the water and swam around the whole pool several times, passing around the little woodsy islands in the center and by the swim-up bar. It was fun to see and hear the kids in the water as they made up their little pool games of mermaids in danger and outswimming sharks. Nothing Jess and I love more than just going in circles, so we just did that for a while, swimming around and around the giant pool until someone near us asked a lifeguard for the time and it was 3:45pm. There was a funny game of telephone that happened where word of the time spread through the pool and we got to watch it happen, the person who asked initially passing it on to someone who was asked by someone near them what the time was who then told someone else and so on. 

With that it seemed like it was time to head back, as All Aboard for 4:30pm, so we grabbed our things, rinsed our sand feet off a little, and began the trek back to the ship with many others who had the same idea we did. As we approached the bridge we saw SO many trams going to and fro! The certainly had their work cut out for them with how many people didn’t want to walk all the way back to the boat! There was a line at the first port entry to get on the boat, but Jess and I kept walking all the way to the end of the ship where a 3rd and almost empty port door was open and we only stood in line for maybe a minute before we were checked in and headed back to our room, which was conveniently right above where we had gotten on! 

It was about 4:10pm when we got back to our room, so pretty close to the All Aboard, closer than we’d gotten on any other day! I showered then did some writing while Jess took hers. We both got a /little/ sun while on Coco Cay, but no burns which was nice! Just a little tanner than I wanted so I ended up with a bathing suit line tan on my back, a VERY obvious one as my suit is crisscrossed. Bummer. But, not a burn, so not the end of the world! Showered and clean we were glad we hit the FlowRider yesterday as neither of us were up for it today, and we spend the take-off eating snacks, watching Hotel Transylvania 3, and drinking our tea and coffee. 

We did, at 6pm, head up to see about some shuffleboard, which we had not gotten to yesterday! The court was indeed free and we played 3 rounds with Jess coming in as the winner with 2 out of 3 victories, despite routinely getting her puck into the 10 OFF section! As we played there was a guy in a chair who was there before we arrived who left when we did, so I think he just hung around for the free entertainment of watching us compete aha! After that it was off to the Windjammer! We got 4 chicken spring rolls, 5 veggie spring rolls, some sweet chili sauce which we put in a tiny bowl we acquired from the desert table after horking down the brownie in it, some kung pow chicken, and of course water. They also had, to my DELIGHT, hot chocolate! With meringue marshmallow! Incredible!! What a fun last-day treat!

As the pool deck was empty, we found one of the circular couch things in the Solarium to set up on, eating and drinking and just talking about what a fun time we had had, and how we were already missing what we were enjoying right that second. We took a turn around the deck after we ate, seeing if we missed anything on our other passes, and we found the cornhole available so we of course had to play that! I won both rounds of that, because I’m a cornhole queen, then we headed back to 5 for some tea. They were out of the peppermint tea, but we actually had a bag in our room already, so score! We headed back to have our tea and get dressed for our final dinner, this time wearing our new dresses from Jamaica! Worked out so perfectly we got them, as we ended up one dress short for our dinners and we so hate to repeat and outfit! 

For dinner Jess got the Caesar salad, the chicken chettinad, and the chocolate brownie, while I got the chilled shrimp, the vegetable moussaka, and the black cherry tart. Once again, I had ordered the vegetarian dish and once again the waiter recommended a fish dish to pair with it, and once again I said bring it on! I, for the first time, didn’t finish my entree(s), though I did /almost/ finish both of them, but I didn’t want to make myself sick for the sake of not wasting a little bit of food, so I did admit defeat with a little room left in my stomach for my desert. We thanked our waiter and assistant waiter for everything for the past few days and wished them well as we left our final dinner of the cruise. Sad, but true.

We took a talk around the 4th floor deck after dinner, just because we hadn’t been around that deck really since our arrival, and we found 3 shuffleboard courts we had completely missed! Of course they had more than one, how silly we were! We played a little on each of them, adding up our points as we went with the result that I was the winner, so we were technically tied for shuffleboard wins for the day! After that we headed up to 13 to finally do that game of minigolf we’d attempted by given up on so many days ago! It was a calm, quiet evening, so we had the court to ourselves and no distracting wind as we played. After our official game, which Jess won, we decided to horse around, trying out the trick holes of the boat (which was impossible to get the ball into because the ramp wasn’t lined up right), the lighthouse, and the seashell. 

As we were goofing around at the lighthouse a kid with his parents passed us and we heard him go “No pool, no putt-putt, what are we supposed to do?” and Jess and I worked out that the clubs had, apparently, been put away by someone on staff and ours had just not been taken or even noticed. We called the family over and told them we were just goofing around but we were done playing if they wanted our clubs and balls to play a round. The kid was so excited and the parent so grateful, and we even found one more club, child sized, to offer, though we only had the two balls, and they were so happy and we felt so good and we left the course hoping they had a super fun final game on their last night of the cruise! 

We returned to 5 to get some lemon ginger tea to sustain us as we went back to our room to start packing up, as we had an early start waiting the next day. It only took maybe 20 minutes to get everything packed up so we were done by 10:45pm. We did make a point that we HAD to return our blue towels in the morning, as it was a $25 fee for every one not returned and we’d forgotten to do it that day, but otherwise we were set! Our chocolate liqueur that we purchased in Jamaica was dropped off (I guess they give it to you the night before arrival?) so with that added to our luggage, everything was packed up and we were ready to just get up and go in the morning! With Hotel Transylvania 3 once again on the DVD player we made our plan to be up at 7am so we could be up in the Windjammer by 7:30am for our final breakfast before we departed the ship at our estimated window of 8:15am, then we went to bed for our last sleep on the cruise.