The day after our departure from Miami, we sailed overnight to CocoCay – a private island in the Bahamas that is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean. It typically bookends each cruise itinerary out of Miami where a stop is made there the day after embarkation and the day before disembarkation.
Many of the crew indicated that it was their least favourite port of call. Many of them were required to work onshore serving the passengers of the ship(s) that were there that day. It was typically very hot without a lot of relief for them.
One of the few ship excursions that I managed to book before we left was a quiet beach bed on the South Beach of the island. It was a peaceful, restful day. The service was great and the island was not crowded or at least it did not appear to be (many world cruisers stayed onboard the ship and were busy getting unpacked and organized). It was a pretty spot and it was just what we needed that day as we were resting up from all we accomplished in order to get away on this adventure.
It reminded me of a typical North American amusement park — expensive reservation options, mostly fast food options included and lots of water slides. We were fortunate to have found a quiet spot to enjoy because that is all we could manage that day.
Severe weather began to come in as we went back to the ship. As we wandered back to return to the ship, you really got a sense of the size of our ship when docked in port beside the Wonder of the Seas. As far as cruise ships go, the Serenade is a smaller ship, chosen for its ability to maneuver into some of the smaller ports we had on the itinerary but also due to its ability to effectively handle rough seas.
After we left the port, no ships were able to dock for at least a few days due to weather that came behind us.
Next up…. Our very first Sea Day (at that point, we thought that there were going to be too many on the itinerary…)
