*Live* "Don't fall off your chair" Day 4 - Enchantment of the Seas, CocoCay - Sun 4th Nov 2018

[Fuellady]

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Day 4 - Enchantment of the Seas, Coco Cay

Sunday 4th November 2018

We were up early today, around 6.30am as the clocks had gone back in the night so we had gained an extra hours sleep. It was already light due to the change so we had missed the sunrise, but it was still pretty looking out from the balcony.

This is the corridor our room was on, it reminded me of Titanic!

We got ready and headed to the Windjammer cafe for breakfast where we both had a cooked breakfast. Neil had a donut with his, and I went back for a second plate of pastries and fruit. Francis was one of our waiters from the main dining room in the evenings, and today he was working at breakfast as well. He stopped to chat and he was asking if we were going off of the boat to Coco Cay today. We confirmed that we were, and he commented that we would be hoping to get a tan. He told us that in the Philippines where he comes from, they don't like their skin being dark and that if his wife is even outside with washing for a few minutes when she comes in she complains that her skin has got darker. He said it is an obsession for them and they buy skin whitening cream. We were surprised by this, and we really enjoyed talking with Francis. He is such a lovely friendly person, and like all of the staff on board, a very hard worker. We could see the islands approaching as we were eating breakfast.

Because we had been up early, we were all organised and ready to catch the first tender boat to Coco Cay. From what the crew members had said, we were expecting huge queues, but when we lined up around 8.15am there were only a few people in front of us. The first boat left for the island not even half full. The Royal Caribbean ships used to dock at Coco Cay until a hurricane blew the pier away. They are currently rebuilding it, which doesn't make for a pretty view when arriving on the Island.

The island itself is very beautiful, with white sandy beaches and turquoise sea. Because we were amongst the first few off the gender we managed to secure beach lounger chairs for ourselves right on the beach front. A nice little set of 2 with a table in between. We decided not to hire an umbrella right away, but to wait and see if it got too hot. There was a nice breeze just now, and it was still very early so the sun wasn't at its hottest yet. We set about getting some pictures of the empty beach before the masses descended and had a little paddle.

We decided to get some drinks. I wanted to try the Coco Loco which was served in a pineapple. This wasn't included in the Deluxe Drinks Package and it cost $9 + tax. Neil had a Bud Light.

We spent the morning enjoying the sun from our loungers, and people watching. I had a wander along the beach hoping to get a good picture of the ship anchored out in the bay, but because of the pier works going on, there were cranes and old rusty work boats in front of it blocking a clear view of the ship. We got some more drinks, Bud Light again for Neil and Coke for me.

After a while a Japanese family consisting of a mum, dad, small girl around 4-5 years old and a grandmother came and sat on the lounger set next to ours. I'm not sure what they expected of a day at the beach, but they were fully clothed in jeans, trainers, jumpers, and the little girl had a kagool style jacket on. The dad took off his top and went into the water with his jeans on, the little girl had swimming bottoms on, but kept her jacket on the whole time, and the mum went in fully clothed, up to her waist. I don't know much about Japanese culture, perhaps something prevents them wearing appropriate beach attire? A second Japanese family joined them after a while, they were dressed more for the occasion apart from an older man with them who had long trousers, shoes, and a jacket. He put a hat on the put the hood up on the jacket and tied it tight. The whole situation was very strange!

Because the island of Coco Cay belongs to Royal Caribbean, the staff from the ship serve a lunch there. There are lots of covered areas for serving stations with a wide selection of food. There were meats, including a whole pig, salad items, breads, burgers, fruit and cookies and desserts. I didn't manage to get any pictures of the food, it was too busy. We grabbed a selection of items each and found a spot at a bench to eat. There was a steel drum band playing a short way off.

After lunch we decided to go back to the ship. All in all this had been a much better off-ship experience thank Nassau, we had really enjoyed our time at the beach. There was a tender boat waiting so we got on and went up to the top deck hoping to get a good view of the ship on the way back. There was a guy sitting in front of us whoever leaning over the side, so this was the best I managed!

We went back to our room, showered and dressed for the evening. Our room attendant had left us a towel elephant today...

It was time for a drink so we headed to our favourite, the Schooner but it turns out if doesn't open until 3pm. It was about 2.45 now. We went downstairs instead to the R Bar which is I the Centrum, where I had the cocktail of the day, a WooWoo and Neil had a Tom Collins which he didn't enjoy as it was flat. The ship was very quiet and we found a seat no problem by a porthole window and watched the tenders go back and forth from the island.

It was after 3pm now, so we took a stroll back up to the Schooner which was now open. I feel like this is turning into a drinks report! Anyway, I had a lavender daiquiri which was pleasant, but didn't taste as I expected it to (like lavender!), Neil had another Tom Collins which was much better this time.

After we finished our drinks, we went for a wander around the top deck of the ship. Along with looking out over the balcony, this was one of my favourite things to do on board. We ended up in the Park Cafe so decided to get a snack. Neil had pizza, and I chose a tuna sandwich, which was pretty rubbish. There was much more bread then filling! I had a coffee too, to try and counteract all of the cocktails I had been drinking 😉.

Over the past few days we kept seeing people walking about with ice-creams but we had yet to locate where to get them so we decided to make this our mission now. We found the ice-cream machine easily in the end, tucked in a corner of the pool deck. Neil chose vanilla, and I had strawberry, and we went back up onto the top deck to eat them. It was so hot though, that they ended up just being a runny mess, so no photo. There wasn't time.

There was a Harry Potter quiz about to start in the Schooner, so we headed back there to take part in that, which is very unlike us. Oh my goodness, the questions were so difficult. We managed to get 9 out of 15, which amazingly was the highest score along with 2 other groups. One person from each group, me in our case, had to go up to the host for a tie-break question which we all got wrong! He didn't have a back up tie-break question, so we all won a Royal Caribbean highlighter pen. Yay! Neil took this pic of me with the other winners at the tie-break.

We stayed to finish our drinks, a Tom Collins (surprise, surprise) for Neil and a strawberry daiquiri for me. I had asked for a New Fashioned but they didn't have the right ingredients so Neil got me the daiquiri instead.

A Disney Tunes quiz was about to start now, so we decided to stay for that as well. Just before this quiz, the bar filled right up, people standing everywhere, we hadn't seen it so busy in here before. Anyway, we did really badly in the Disney Tunes quiz, 14 out of 40 (hangs head in shame ). Immediately this quiz was finished, the bar emptied of people again. Makes you wonder if most of these people should have been on the Disney Dream instead!

It was soon time for dinner so we headed off to the My Fair Lady dining room. Once again, we were seated at the same table with the same waiters. They were very anxious that we would complete a survey we would receive and give them a 10 for service. And really we couldn't fault the service at all. On this cruise, we have encountered some of the hardest working individuals we have ever met. I honestly don't know when they get any time off. Tonight Neil had the New York Strip Steak followed by Creme Brûlée (of course), I had Turkey with sweet potato mash for mains, then chocolate cake. It was all very nice.

After dinner, we sat above the Centrum watching the evenings entertainment. First a band, who were quite good, then a game - guess the song then sing it- some of the contestants were very good. Next up was the Parade of Flags, where they shout out every country that the staff on board are from. Not surprisingly, the largest number of staff are from the Philippines, almost 300. I think it was 10 from the UK.

We went back to our room and packed up a few things ready for departure tomorrow. We had decided to self-disembark, so we didn't need to put our luggage outside the room tonight. This little fellow was waiting for us, we think he's a monkey?

Before retiring for the night, we took one last chance to stand out looking over the balcony. It's so peaceful out here, and with no light pollution we could see the lights from other ships in the distance, and lots of stars. It was a nice way to end our cruise.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Another great day, that beach looks gorgeous, lovely white sand. I love the towel elephant, not so sure about the monkey though 😂

[Doowop]

I would say that’s a sloth?

[Goldia]

I was going to say koala, but actually now I've seen sloth suggested I think I'm wrong!

Anyway, the beach trip sounds good, I loved the look of that pineapple cocktail.

You did well on the Harry Potter quiz but oh dear the Disney score is very poor! I'm sure the questions were very hard indeed.

[Pussycat Doll]

Food looks good, cocktails look even better! Great day!

[mick]

Another great day nice looking beach 🏖


Joan

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

Another great day, that beach looks gorgeous, lovely white sand. I love the towel elephant, not so sure about the monkey though 😂

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It really is beautiful on Coco Cay, although surprisingly the sand is quite rough underfoot, I expected it to be smooth. The elephant was very cute, although he did come with a tip envelope 😂

Originally Posted by Doowop

I would say that’s a sloth?

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I think you may be right! We couldn't work out what he was, well done

Originally Posted by Goldia

I was going to say koala, but actually now I've seen sloth suggested I think I'm wrong!

Anyway, the beach trip sounds good, I loved the look of that pineapple cocktail.

You did well on the Harry Potter quiz but oh dear the Disney score is very poor! I'm sure the questions were very hard indeed.

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I'm sure you would have enjoyed the Coco Loco, it was very good and lots of it!

The Disney quiz was one point for the name of the film, and one point for the name of the song, so 20 films in all. I'll admit there are a lot of Disney films I've only seen once, and more I haven't seen at all, I tend to stick to my favourites I don't know why I'm trying to justify my bad score, I'll just skulk of back to my corner now.

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Food looks good, cocktails look even better! Great day!

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The food was better than we had expected, especially the buffet choices. We're not usually big buffet fans. And of course, the cocktails were fab!

Originally Posted by mick

Another great day nice looking beach 🏖


Joan

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This was a really lovely day, the beach was beautiful

[WileyCoyote]

Nice day, great idea being early off and having quiet time on the beach. The other family certainly sounded oddly dressed for the day!
Well done on the HP quiz. Lol at all the Disney peeps pitching up for the quiz. I’d be rubbish at that one.
Sounds like a nice afternoon mooching and more cocktail tasting... do like a Woo Woo myself.
What did you think of the food overall ?

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Nice day, great idea being early off and having quiet time on the beach. The other family certainly sounded oddly dressed for the day!
Well done on the HP quiz. Lol at all the Disney peeps pitching up for the quiz. I’d be rubbish at that one.
Sounds like a nice afternoon mooching and more cocktail tasting... do like a Woo Woo myself.
What did you think of the food overall ?

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We hadn't particularly planned to be so early, but with the time change it just worked out that way, and it worked out well. The beach was lovely, and quiet for quite some time before it got busy. Yes, strange attire for a beach day

We really enjoyed our afternoon, it was nice to be back on the boat and ready for dinner without it being a rush.

The food in the Windjammer cafe is a buffet. Lots of choice, everything you could think of really, and it's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We didn't have dinner there at all so I don't know if the options changed from lunch or if they were the same. We enjoyed the food from here, it was always hot, fresh and tasty.

We had dinner in the main dining room each night. The menu stays the same apart from they change the top 2 items every night. There are always several fish items and always steak. We found the choice of starters limited for us as they were mainly fish which we don't eat so we didn't have a starter any night. Off the top of my head, other starters were French Onion soup, and a fruit bowl.

The quality of the food here was good although the portions weren't huge. Despite only having 2 courses each night, we never left hungry despite this, so they were adequate. The desserts were very nice, I tried a different one each of the 3 nights, neil stuck with creme brulee each night as he loved it the first day!

There is also a cafe bar for coffee and cakes. We only went there one time, but the cakes we had were nice. Hope this helps

[collybird]

I laughed at your saying the corridor reminded you of Titanic, it certainly looks like it. I tried not to think of Titanic when I was on the ship, I definitely felt safer at sea than I do in the air.

The staff on the cruise ships really work so hard, and they are so pleasant all the time, it beggars belief.

The beach looks lovely and so relaxing, the water looks beautiful in the picture with the other boat.

I’d have loved the Harry Potter and Disney quizzes.