Ok this was definitely our favorite day of the entire cruise! There was a multitude of reasons, one of which was because it was Todd's birthday!
Weather wise, it was a beautiful day but it was VERY windy!
I made Grant's legs even longer and skinnier with this 0.5 shot of Grant sandwiched between the two big ships in port this particular day!
They have a great little golf cart that takes you up to the entrance of Coco Cay which was really helpful because the island is actually really big.
Once you get off the golf cart, there are trams that take you all around the island. Goodbye Oasis and Freedom of the Seas!
The birthday boy was ready to get to our OVER THE WATER CABANA!
The over the water cabana was THE BOMB! It had a slide (with a hose that converted it to a water slide), deck chairs with comfy towels, covered couches and chairs, a fridge filled with alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages, a little changing room, plenty of snorkel gear if you wanted to see the marine life, a Bluetooth enabled, touch screen music system, and personal food and drink service from your very own attendant - ours was named Manny - who delivered food and drinks while riding one handed on a giant tricycle! If you purchased the drink package on the ship, you are not charged for drinks here on Coco Cay so that's another reason why we the drink package made sense to us.
Natalie and Grant enjoyed the catamaran net that was over the water.
I'm just happy to be here with the birthday boy!
It was a little windy on this day, and when the sun went behind the clouds, we were all a bit chilly! It was so weird -- if you went about 20 feet behind our cabana, it was MUCH warmer.
Now this is the life! Manny brought us our first round of drinks and promised to be "back every 15 minutes" with fresh drinks. Oh no, Manny. Please don't.
I spent the bulk of the day trying to build up the courage to go down this slide (the water was chilly!)
I mean, is there anything more beautiful??? This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences!
At this point, a Royal Caribbean photographer approached our cabana and asked us if we wanted to do a little photo shoot. Well, okay sure!
This one of Grant came out SO GOOD! Why does he look so old? Why is he so handsome? What is happening here?
We took some cute family photos with Nana.
And a few with just the four of us.
This was one of my favorite ones!
Pretend like you're walking down the dock and talking and laughing!
No, THIS one was my absolute favorite! All of us looking at my Mom!
This one was so fun too, very splashy!
The guy took some pictures of Todd and I on the catamaran net and caught a really cute one of us laughing, even if I do have six chins!
Finally, we decided we needed to go to the water slides before the lines got too long, so we left the cabana to take the tram over to the slides and spotted this guy on the way there!
AND we saw a Rootie! The story behind the name Rootie was that apparently when I was young, I would see a lizard and ask my Aunt Patti "What's his name?" And we have a LOT of lizards in Florida, so I suspect I was asking her this question a LOT. Eventually, she just spouted out, "His name is Rootie!" And from then on, they were all named that! Actually, it was probably Rudy, but whatever. I've always spelled it like this!
The tram dropped us off near the slides and it was time for us all to ride the Daredevil's Peak - the tallest water slide in North America! Superlative, check!
There was a bit of a line to ride. I think that's because the slide is SO long, it takes everyone forever to get down it, even though you're sliding at breakneck speed!
Everyone was in good spirits despite the wait!
We did not wind up going on any of those slides over there, although they looked really fun! The wait was really long and we wanted to enjoy our over the water cabana, which you can see in the distance on the left.
Finally, it was time! The slide was very dark with a few disco light sections, and it was super fast!
After we rode Daredevil's Peak, we rode this one, called the Manta Racer - it's open for a part of it, which you can see Grant for a bit until he disappeared.
And there goes Todd!
We also rode the Green Mamba - Todd took my phone and took pictures of us at the bottom of the slide. I don't get as far as everyone else! I barely even exited the slide before I came to a full stop!
Good job, Nat!
Meanwhile, this one was pure chaos!
We really wanted to spend some time in our cabana, and it was lunch time so we were hungry so we went back to the Swales Party Cabana!
By now it was a bit warmer, and the water was looking so beautiful!
Natalie was the first of us (and therefore the bravest) to take a slide down the water slide at our cabana! She said the water wasn't too cold, so we all eventually did it! The slides are actually new and improved. In the past, they used to have buckets of water that you had to pour down the slide in order to use it, but now, they have a built in hose that you turn on over near the refrigerator which is a lot less work and a lot more fun!
They also had some REALLY cute bathrooms at Coco Cay in the Coco Beach Club! They had REAL hand towels for you to use! No cheap paper towels here! It's not often that I take a picture inside of a bathroom!
It was much warmer up on the beach and Natalie found a nice hammock in the sun! She looks very happy here.
I was walking up on the docks by the beach area and some guy pointed out that there was a shark in the water next to the dock. He's pretty hard to spot but he was laying left to right in the picture above. Just look for the shadow.
Todd got to have the lobster for his birthday lunch - Only the best for him!
After lunch, Grant decided that he was cold because of the breeze so we wrapped him up and he took a little nap. It's a rough life for teenagers who are cruising around the Caribbean!
During another walk along the dock, one of the lifeguards that was also walking up and down the dock pointed out a school of barracuda!
The beach here was really beautiful and we could see the other over water cabana neighborhood. And more barracuda!
Also under the dock was this massive sting ray!
Beautiful green waters of the Bahamas and lots of fish and creatures in the ocean.
At one point back at the cabana, there was even a dance off between Natalie and Todd who did a little Gangnam Style in synch.
And then they moved on to this, which was like some kind of frog hopping...
... that led to the grand finale of jumping high fives!
I like it when they entertain me.
Next up, it was Todd who braved the cold water slide!
Since Manny got wind that it was Todd's birthday, they made a nice little strawberry shortcake for him!
We actually got a PLETHORA of desserts, including some rum cake that was VERY much drowning in rum! We sang happy birthday to Todd (Manny sang too!) and Grant ate ALL of the fruit!
I just love tropical plants - aren't these beautiful?
We wanted to check out the pool in the Coco Beach Club, which we had access to. Mostly because the pool was HEATED, and that it was infinitely warmer than the ocean!
You can see there are NOT a lot of people here. Which is really impressive given that between the two ships, there were literally 10,000 people on this island on this particular day.
After spending some time in the pool, we went back to the cabana where I finally took the plunge! Grant did too, but I didn't get any pictures. I mean, you can't spend all day at this beautiful over the water cabana and NOT ride down the slide!
Manny, our cabana attendant took a couple of really cute pictures of all of us before we were ready to head back to the ship.
End of the day beach hair, don't care.
But Manny, we need a selfie with you in it, too!
I don't want to leave this beautiful beach.
Goodbye beautiful cabana! Cabana #4 forever!
We all didn't fit on the tram back to the port area, so Todd and my mom went separate from Natalie, Grant and I. When you get to the port area, there is a band playing music as you prepare to board the ship. I don't know if anything can beat the music on the tram though - a song called "Perfect Day" set to the music of the song "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers . I thought they should have used the Perfect Day song from the movie Legally Blonde!
Was it the perfect day, Natalie? She would agree that it was!
We were half tempted to hide in the bathrooms and never leave the island.
We followed the masses back to the ships.
Perfect Day. Coco Cay.
Back on the ship, but still on Todd's birthday, his birthday cake was delivered!
AND, our towel animal was a birthday cake! Complete with fake rose petals!
I think it was the fake rose petals that really impressed him the most.
Wait, let me pose with my birthday cake towel animal!
For dinner, we went to 150 Central Park, a specialty restaurant for Todd's birthday. I had the pan seared veal medallions.
When Todd got up to go to the bathroom, the waiter came by with these funny signs for Todd's birthday. This was our favorite... Keep Calm and Sixty! LOL! (He's not 60!)
I think it was his favorite sign too. He looks good for 60! Oh wait...
This is his third birthday treat of the day!
I mustache you if it's your son-in-law's birthday.
After dinner, everyone kind of split up. Nana and Grant went back to the room, and Todd, Natalie and I wanted to go to the Rising Tide elevator bar.
Oh hey, what a lovely picture of me, Natalie and Todd (Natalie's drink is non alcoholic, obviously).
No one is safe!!!!
So there was this guy who was walking around in a rather cool outfit with fringe and glitter on it - very sassy, and Todd ran into him at one point, so he said something like, "Oh you must be with the band!" and the guy just mumbled something and looked at him funny - as if Todd was judging him based on his clothing. So Todd felt kind of bad! And even later, we saw him in one of the stores in the Royal Promenade so we thought, "Surely he just must be a passenger because why would the crew be in the stores?" But then we were walking around and passed by the hall with the live music and sure enough... there he was up on stage! Note: This story was WAY funnier after a number of drinks!
Meanwhile, we've got Rose here just looking for Jack.
At this point, I went to bed but these two hung out for a little bit longer.
They definitely belong in a fun house!
Todd and Natalie went back to the game room for a little basketball before wrapping up the day. I hope you had a great birthday, honey!
Until next time, Coco Cay!
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