On my family’s recent cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, I splurged on a “Perfect Day Beach Bed” on CocoCay, the private island. Was it worth the cost?
Booking
I booked the beach bed about 6 months prior to our sailing. If you’re familiar with Royal Caribbean, you probably know that the cruise line has sales on excursions/dining/drink packages frequently. The “normal” price of a day bed for our sailing was around $400. I booked it during a 25% off sale for around $300. Note that these beach beds are different from the cabanas, which were twice as expensive.
The price in the online cruise planner is per day bed, not per person. Up to 4 people are allowed to share one day bed. We could choose a day bed on Chill Island, Breezy Bay or South Beach. Based on reviews, I picked South Beach due to its location in a serene, quiet area of the island.
On the second day of our cruise, the shore excursions team called our cabin to verify the names of our family members who would be using the bed. Even though we’re a family of five, one of my sons didn’t want to get off the ship on our CocoCay day. So, the numbers worked out for us.
The “Perfect Day Beach Bed” Experience
On our CocoCay port day, there were two ships docked at the private island. It was going to be a busy day!
My family took the island tram from the dock to South Beach and walked to the day bed check-in stand. Crew members gave us wrist bands and towels before taking us to our day bed.
We did not have a choice of which specific bed, as guest names were already written on the beds. Our bed was in the front row (of 2 rows).
The bed itself was a large, king-size bed with angled pillows and curtains on both sides. It had two lounge chairs in front of it as well as a cooler with bottled water and two floating mats.
The bed was very comfortable. We all fell asleep in it at some point during the day. And, the curtains were handy to block the sun.
South Beach is a quiet, clear beach on the island. I loved that we were close to restrooms and the Snack Shack for lunch.
Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t secluded by any means. There were lots of beds around us.
But overall, it was fairly quiet and definitely relaxing.
So, was it worth $300 for the day? In my opinion, YES. We didn’t have to worry about towels, water, shade or chairs. We had our own space and even a bit of privacy with the curtains.I alternated between reading, sleeping and dipping in the ocean. For my family, the beach bed was a nice convenience.
However, if you plan to spend a lot of time on the water slides or in the pool, it might not be worth the money for you. Also, there are usually plenty of “regular” lounge chairs available on CocoCay, especially if you get off the ship in the morning.
Have you rented a beach bed on CocoCay?
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
It depends. If you’d like to splurge – go ahead. Pumper yourselves – it’s a vacation!
But most of those “private” islands have enough free beach beds, including in the shaded areas – some of them very remote from the main crowds, so I personally don’t feel the need to spend more money. Some islands even have small cabanas (shacks) to rent – to my surprise people sit inside of them most of the day – what is the reason to come to beach island in the first place then!?
I spend a lot of time swimming and walking on the beach, so day bed mostly won’t worth money to me.
Happy travels!!
@Aleks Good point about the free lounge chairs. They are plentiful on CocoCay, especially if you get off the ship within an hour or two of porting. The cabanas were over twice the cost of a beach bed on my cruise.