2021 Royal Caribbean International's Odyssey of the Seas Inaugural Cruise - Day 2 [Perfect Day at Cococay, Bahamas] ⋆ Superb Vacations

The ship arrived at Royal Caribbean’s private island Cococay early in the morning. Well it wasn’t so early that it was dark.

There wasn’t really anything interesting to see from my side of the ship as we were docking (except for the ocean). And the only location on the ship with a view to the front is the Solarium which is encased in glass, so I didn’t get a time lapse video of the arrival.

I went to breakfast in the main dining room (I generally avoid the buffets as I prefer hot, made to order food). I ordered the “Express Breakfast” so I could make myself a breakfast sandwich. They also gave me a cinnamon roll, which was okay, but not as nice as the warm ones United used to (might still) have in business class.

I walked to the back of the ship and took some photos of the island. I could also see Norwegian Cruise Line’s private island nearby. When I looked at Google Maps I thought it was close enough to swim to… it might be, but I didn’t try.

After breakfast they had a Question & Answer session with the travel agents in the main theater called “Common Ground”. They didn’t discuss anything too exciting except for an interesting conversation that occurred with the CEO Michael Bayley when a travel agent asked about the $1.99 per person per day fee to use the chat feature with family members on the app. The CEO announced that since the chief of onboard revenue was not in the meeting that they would drop the fee, and that the chief of onboard revenue would learn a lesson from not being present for the meeting. It was a bit more funny in person. He also mentioned about the adult only beach club they will be building in Nassau.

I waited in the line for the North Star for a little while, but the standby line was very slow because some people had received invitations. I decided to go play with the bumper cars instead of waiting for hours. I took a couple of pictures on the way to the bumper cars.

rock climbing wall and a cat playing with balls of yarn

The bumper cars was a tremendous amount of fun. I of course had figured out I could use my weight to prove a little additional inertia which made my impacts quite a bit more powerful.

It was now time for the main event – a Perfect Day at Cococay. I have been to Norwegian Cruise Line’s private island before and enjoyed it, but this was my first time here. Luckily I managed to get a free ticket to the Thrill waterpark (yes, unfortunately there is a charge to enter) from the Shore Excursion folks as even though I completed the survey saying I would like to visit the waterpark I didn’t receive any information about it.

I didn’t know the locker situation, so when I first left the ship I only took a beach towel, my SeaPass card and driver’s license. It was a very short walk to the Thrill waterpark and I exchanged my ticket for a green plastic wristband. I found some nearby lockers and secured my sandals, beach towel, SeaPass card and driver’s license.

I walked over to the long line in front of the tall waterslide tower. I figured it was some kind of waiver – I remember having to sign a waiver to do rock climbing back in the day, but it was actually to assign time slots for the Daredevils’ Peak waterslide to prevent long lines. I would have to wait an hour to go on it, but there were several other waterslides and after 14:00 (2 PM) the Daredevils’ Peak would be open to all without a time entry ticket.

I went on the Screeching Serpent, Green Mamba and Dueling Demons waterslides first as they were in the same tower as Daredevil’s Peak. The Dueling Demons was the most fun as it was 75 feet high (second highest) and it had the floor that fell away. There is really nothing as thrilling as that 1g of instant acceleration when the floor drops away.

Next I went over to ride the Twister which used a tube. This slide was 60 feet high and was much more comfortable (no friction on your back and you don’t feel the seams). I also tried the Splash Speedway slide which was different as it used a mat and faced forward.

I grabbed a quick snack at the Snack Shack inside the Thrill waterpark. There wasn’t a line and I ordered a chicken sandwich, mozzarella sticks and fries. The food was good and convenient.

At this time it was finally time to go back to Daredevils’ Peak. I went back to the locker to retrieve my entry ticket for Daredevil’s Peak and then went to the entrance. It seemed like it took ten minutes to climb the tower, but it was actually quicker than that. The platform is 135 feet tall, so it is a workout to climb that high. The slide was long and pretty fast as well. I only remember one change of direction, the slide mostly turns in the counterclockwise direction, but there is one change of direction and you do slide up the side of the tube. Honestly I thought I enjoyed the Dueling Dragons more, but since it was the tallest one and they limited the number of people to only that slide it was more alluring to do multiple times.

I dried off and walked back to the ship. While walking on the pier I saw a sea turtle in the shallow water. It didn’t stay too long. Now that I know what the lockers are like I retrieved my mobile phone, GoPro camera, and my MILC (looks like a DSLR, but without the mirror). Earlier in the day it was a bit overcast, so I went to enjoy the waterpark so I could take happier photos of the island with blue skies.

Now I can finally take photos of all the waterslides I experienced earlier (I would go back to the waterslides after my homework was complete and I took photos around the island).

The first thing that is visible after arriving on the island from the pier is Captain Jill’s Galleon. This is outside the Thrill Waterpark area (therefore it is complimentary), but obviously designed for the younger children (younger than me).

Next I walked into the Thrill Waterpark. The tower with Daredevils’ Peak is very close to the entrance. I think they did that to make it seem as large as possible to entice people to pay for the entrance.

The next stop was the wave pool. I can understand the appeal for families (safer than the ocean), but for me I would just jump in the ocean to play with the waves.

The next attraction I walked past was called Adventure Pool. They had a bunch of floating pads where you could try to walk across with ropes above you for support. They also has a small rock climbing wall at the end.

The remaining waterslides (Twister, Slingshot, and Splash Speedway) were next and the final attraction within the Thrill side of the island which requires an entrance fee.

After exiting the Thrill area I took some photos of Splashaway Bay. I don’t know why, but the big pails of water that dump always get my attention. This is back in the complimentary area of the island, so if you have little ones they will have a place to play without paying the admission fee.

Up, Up and Away – the helium balloon was the next attraction I walked past. This is not complimentary, and it was a bit too windy to operate most of the day, which is disappointing.

Next I walked over to the South Beach area, which for your information is accessible by tram, but I was walking so I wouldn’t miss a photo opportunity.

At the South Beach area they had sport areas (basketball, volleyball, etc.) as well as beach chairs, another snack shack and a floating bar. The floating bar was popular, very popular.

From South Beach I could see the private over the water cabanas in the Coco Beach Club. You can see in the pictures above the floating cabanas are really nice and even have slides. There is also a pool area inside the beach club as well as a restaurant.

I walked around the Coco Beach Club (admission fee applies here as well) to get to another section of beach in the complimentary section. They had a pool table with soccer balls like they had on the ship here on the beach as well. It looks like it would be fun. There was also another snack shack for food. You could also see a few of the floating cabanas from this area.

From here I walked over to the Oasis Lagoon which was a large pool. It also was quite popular, however I would have been spending time in the ocean instead of a pool. Another food dispensary was located here, because we all know you can’t possibly go more than an hour without eating on a cruise. Seriously though, it was nice to have a number of food areas to prevent long lines.

Next I walked over to the watersports area where they had jetskis.

It was possible to see Norwegian Cruise Line’s island from here. They obviously don’t have a towering waterpark or helium balloon. It sure does look close. Maybe I could have hitchhiked on the sea turtle to visit their island.

I continued my trek along the shore to Chill Island where there were a few beach areas with a protected area to swim and snorkel. The ships were also visible from this area.

I walked across the bridge and took photos of Harbor Beach, which is a beach with a small sea inlet. The end of the zip line is on the left side of the inlet. The bridge also offered a good view of the ships.

There was a really nice sand castle near the entrance to Chill Island

At this point I was back to the pier, but I walked a little further to take some more photos of the ship..

I put the camera gear in the locker and went back to the waterpark. Since it was now past 2 PM the Daredevils’ Peak was open. As the time got closer to 4 PM the line got shorter and shorter, almost to the point where there was no line left be the time I climbed up 135 feet. I think I rode it four more times before calling it a day and going back to the ship.

When I got back to my cabin I had a towel animal, departure information and some gifts – a pen and mousepad.

The feathers are part of the top of the pen

I remembered there was a presentation called “Entertainment Media Immersion with Nick Weir, SVP of Entertainment”. This was not a normal show and I was so glad to be able to see it. From the first time I walked into Two70 I was trying to figure out how the projected the image on the back wall… Well it was 18 projectors. I recorded a video even though I probably wasn’t supposed to. Below is a video from Royal Caribbean’s YouTube channel with some footage.

The first demonstration they showed was a video called “Dance in a Box” which was obviously green screen, but very impressive as the video screens moved and rotated as the box the dancers were in did.

After that they showed a video of where the 18 projectors were and their test image. Following that was the next version of dance in a box where they had a swimmer inside a water vault. It was probably the most interesting thing I have ever seen since I always love seeing the behind the scenes details, especially when it comes to technological things like this theater.

I went up to the pool area to get a drink from the “Lime and the Coconut” bar and actually ordered a “Lime and Cononut” drink. Not only was it amazing, but it came in a cool plastic pail. I eventually had to go back for two more so I had one of each color.

I went to the Effectors show at 7:15 PM before dinner. It was one of the best shows I had seen. They had contemporary music and awesome special effects as well as a group of drones for lighting effects that flew over the crowd. They also had cutouts at the entrance to the theater, so I took advantage of that as well.

After the show it was time for dinner. Having previously looked at the menu I knew I would not be able to decide very easily. For the appetizer I had to order the French onion soup because I give my NCL BDM a difficult time about how NCL is too cheap to put cheese on their version, and I had to order the escargot as I haven’t had that in a long time, and the beef carpaccio sounded good as well.

For my main I asked for the beef tenderloin with herb butter and no vegetables as I had three appetizers.

For dessert I ordered the crème brulee. I really didn’t need dessert at this point, but I can’t pass up crème brulee.

I walked around the ship to get a few more photos. The chandelier goes through the 5th deck and down into the two main dining rooms on deck 3 and deck 4. The ship also had a fast rescue craft which I hadn’t seen before. I tried to walk around the ship on deck 5, but you can’t go all the way around the front or back. And I was surprised to see the dive store actually stocked, but it was the first time I have been on Royal Caribbean in the Caribbean.

At midnight the real fun began. It was time for the silent dance party. They gave guests a pair of wireless headphones and there is a switch that lets you pick from two different disc jockeys…. This makes it so much more interesting since half the people will listen, dance and sing along to one song while the other half do the same to others…. and sometimes when there is a really good song a lot of people switch to the good song. I managed to capture people dancing and singing to YMCA as well as a couple of other songs. It was entertaining and fun. I thought the best part was having two DJ’s because when they started to play something you didn’t like you could switch the music. It’s hard to tell from the pictures but the two colors on the headphones were green and blue. The party was held in two70 which gave the extra benefit of the big screen and they used it with outer space views, which made it seem like we were in the space station.