Trip log, day seven. Perfect Day at Coco Cay.
7-Night Western Caribbean Royal Caribbean Cruise from Miami, Florida 
March 21, 2025
Cruise Compass – Day 7
Icon of the Seas Deck Plan

IT’S FRIDAY, but that means we’ve reached the final day of the voyage. The day started out on a high note when I walked up to the AquaDome and the doors were open.

I set up my office at sea at the bar overlooking the bow of the ship where I was eventually treated to a wonderful sunrise and view of the Voyager of the Seas as both ships maneuvered into their berths at Coco Cay.

It was a windy day, and the Icon of the Seas was on the outer berth taking the hit from the northerly wind. I’d love to know if the Icon became a jetty blocking the waves from the Voyager. Once docked, the ship was still moving which is incredible considering the size of this vessel. The ocean is powerful. It wasn’t bad movement by any means, plus I love when the ship actually moves. I booked a cruise, not a vacation on land. It’s part of the experience.

I met the family for coffee at Pearl Café before we made our away ashore. This is our second visit to Perfect Day at Coco Cay. Last year, we hung out on Chill Island. This year, we took advantage of a 50% off Black Friday deal for The Hideaway – an adult-only area.

The pier has wonderful shade sails which I am sure are a blessing on warmer days. Actually, something like this would be great on the pier at Lighthouse Point.

Today, much like yesterday, was subjectively chilly and not conducive for water activities. There was a tram available on the pier for those who needed assistance, but Emily was fine scooting her way to land where we then boarded a small tram to The Hideaway Beach area. It is walkable, but the path was sand so not ideal for a knee scooter or for anyone needing mobility assistance. The tram was perfect and we even spotted one with a dedicated wheel chair ramp.

The tram arrives and you tap your key card on a tablet, which confirms your admission to the area. There are crew members there and they let us know that we could come and go as we pleased. Once we checked into Hideway Beach, the concrete pathways were spacious and we set out to find a spot. We settled into chairs and a hammock at the end of the beach near the On the Rocks Bar. We were definitely underdressed; a lot of the island crew were in jackets and stocking caps.

The wind was blowing in off the water with occasional sea spray. Thankfully, we each checked out two towels which we used as blankets while we simply relaxed with books for the better part of the morning while enjoying the view of the waves crashing on the rocks. This area was absolutely deserted. There were so few people around and with the exception of the loud club music, this was lovely. It would seems that most people in the adult area were at the pool and not the beach.

Since we were seated near the On the Rocks bar, I picked up two Aperol Spritz to enjoy with lunch.

We packed up and set out to get lunch stopping first at the Hideaway Hut.

We ate lunch in the Hideaway Bar areas after I picked up some really healthy options such as the fried chicken sandwich which I topped with mozzarella sticks from the Hideaway Hut.

Over at Slice of Paradise, Emily found some specialty pizzas with unique toppings not offered elsewhere, as well as empanadas. She loved this area and the choices were solid.

Like I mentioned, I choose the most healthy option… A fried chicken sandwich to which I added 3 mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce.

These were the options available at Hideaway Beach, but I think I would have rather trekked back to the taco bar at Chill Grill or Skipper’s Grill or just waited to eat lunch back onboard at Feta Mediterranean in the AquaDome Market.

The seating area was nice and I can imagine it to be a great spot to escape the sun on warm days. Nearby was a beverage station where you can get juice and water.

It was not getting any warmer and the wind was still strong. We boarded the tram and headed over to the other side of the island and browsed the various Bahamian shops. We made use of one of the available sand wheel chairs, as it would have otherwise been impossible to move around the shops with a knee scooter, crutches or any sort of traditional wheel chair. If anyone is reading this at the RCL home office, consider adding Mobi Mats around this area. 

We headed back to the ship around 1:30pm. I’ve been asked about my opinion on Perfect Day at Coco Cay and I really cannot give you my full honest opinion, as we have not been here when it has been warm. Sure, it is nice to relax, but the water is where the fun is at. While only spending two days here, I can say that I WANT to return to enjoy waterside of the port. There is a lot to do and during both visits, with two ships, Perfect Day held people well. The only downside is a personal preference, I wish the Hideaway was not a party vibe with a DJ. I loved the area, but not the ambiance. I would’ve even been happy if it was split and half of the area was quieter and the DJ music was piped into the area with the pool & swim-up bar. Call me old all you want, it’s just not my vibe. I much prefer the bar in near the bridge where I heard someone playing an acoustic guitar singing Jimmy Buffett songs. Ambient seashore noise is also nice. Please don’t take this as a negative, I’m happy this exists for those that subscribe to this atmosphere. I just need to seek out another place and on the good side, that might just be somewhere in the included (free) area of Coco Cay.

Back in the room, we watched a golf commercial and the afternoon NCAA tournament games as we packed our suitcases before setting off for our final night around the ship.

While we were ashore, one of our towel animals had a little party in the room.

Tonight we are heading back to the main dining room, which is serving the Bon Voyage menu.

Overall, the MDR experience on the Icon of the Seas was excellent and not in the same way I’d give feedback at the end of a Disney Cruise. I truly mean the service was excellent and there were some really great dishes served this week. Top to bottom our serving team was great. Emily and I had a good half hour discussion trying to figure out why the serving team was so relaxed and actually seemed happy, instead of overwhelmed, rushed and sometimes forced. It was not just our team, looking around I could see other teams and their interaction with guests. The vibe is totally different – in a good way. I will note, one of the things that we learned on the galley tour is the way they handle dining service. On the Icon, the server takes the food order, all 3 courses at once (none of the pomp and circumstance of a dessert menu presentation), and then the asst server is the one to retrieve the food, leaving the server there on the floor to be guest-facing. They also have dedicated bar servers to handle alcohol deliveries. The assistant server takes the drink orders, a drink ticket prints at a dedicated bar in the galley, and then is delivered by the bar server. This all seems like such a cohesive way to handle dinner service. The head server came by every night and chatted with us – we learned about a few personal life things about him. It was very refreshing.

After dinner, we stopped at Giovanni’s wine bar to redeem our final two 50% off wine vouchers, a Crown & Anchor benefit.

Wine in hand, we headed over to the Pearl Cafe to enjoy the sea views before our next events.

Both of the evenings festivities were located in Dueling Pianos, starting with 2000s music trivia.

The night was capped off with the actual Dueling pianos. Before the music started, I went up to Lou’s jazz bar in Central Park to grab a Jazzy Saz.

I’m going to sound like a broken record, but the jazz bar was LOUD; so loud that the bartender had a hard time hearing my order over in the corner near the open door to Central Park. I have the same issues with some of the venues onboard the Disney ships, so this is not an RCL issue – I recognize, it is a me issue. I am all for music, but please turn it down some.

We were not sure how long we’d stay, but we ended up staying out late for the entire first set.

When we returned to our room, our duty free liquor purchase was sitting on the desk just in time for an overnight bender. NO, seriously, it was awesome to have it delivered instead of having to stop at a designated spot on the way out in the morning to pick up the bottle. Thanks for trusting us RCL!

We finished packing up and headed to bed.

We had pre-paid our gratuities, but they are kind enough to leave you an extra tip envelope if you would like to add any additional tips and do not wish to say, hand them extra cash in person.

Trip log, day eight. Miami, Florida: Debarkation and Travel Home Day.
7-Night Western Caribbean Royal Caribbean Cruise from Miami, Florida 
March 22, 2025

We chose to keep our luggage and essentially go with what DCL would call express walk-off. Our Debarkation time was 6:00 AM which we set up earlier in the week.

The Icon docked in Miami around 3:30 AM so the ship was cleared and all luggage groups were called as we were walking off the ship at 7:00 AM.

We didn’t stop walking from the time we left our stateroom other than the brief pause for facial recognition with Customs and Boarder control. Once outside, we arranged a Lyft which picked us up in less than 10 minutes and dropped us off at the Brightline station at 7:25am. 

We were early for our scheduled 8:50 AM train back to Orlando. The debarkation and ride from the port was so fast & smooth that we could’ve booked 7:45am train. Instead, we had coffee at the shop inside the Brightline Station on the first floor, and hung out at train station until it was time to board.

We had a great time this week and after I did not love the Wonder of the Seas, plus my initial concerns about the massive size and passenger capacity of the Icon of the Seas, I would definitely return to an Icon Class ship, which the sister ship, Star of the Seas will soon be sailing 7-night Caribbean voyages from Port Canaveral in direct completion with the Disney Treasure. The ladies loved both the Wonder of the Seas and the Icon of the Seas, but gave the edge to the Icon between the two. The only ‘negative’ was having to travel to Miami versus our super convenient 1-hr drive to Port Canaveral. We would absolutely sail the Star of the Seas the next time we consider a 7-night Caribbean trip.

While not apples to apples due to the different embarkation port and itinerary, I do want to discuss the pricing comparison with the Disney Treasure for what was a common spring break week for a lot of school districts in Florida. We booked the Central Park interior room (which had a view!) on the Icon of the Seas in April 2023 – 2 adults and 1 child ran us $5264.84. Breaking that out, the first 2 guests/adults for this same room and cruise would have been $4696.56. Now looking at the cost for the Disney Treasure’s March 15, 2025 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise the opening day price for 2 adults started at $5,441 for an inside stateroom, $5,903 for Oceanview, and $6,575 for a Verandah.

Complete Trip Log Index

• Day 1 – Miami
• Day 2 – At Sea
• Day 3 – Roatán, Honduras
• Day 4 – Costa Maya
• Day 5 – Cozumel
• Day 6 – At Sea
• Day 7 – Perfect Day at Coco Cay

One last thing, after some discussion with my friend the RCL Blog, we booked another Royal Caribbean cruise. Similar to DCL, it was a placeholder and it was $200. This was perfect, as we did not have a sail date in mind yet.