Royal Caribbean's new adults-only beach getaway will have poolside cabanas, swim-up bar

14.09.2023 - 20:31 / thepointsguy.com / Royal Caribbean / Jay Schneider

Royal Caribbean may be the world leader in family cruises, but the latest expansion of its private island in the Bahamas will be all about adults.

The world's biggest cruise line on Thursday said the soon-to-debut Hideaway Beach area at Perfect Day at CocoCay will feature a large adults-oriented infinity pool where the drinks will flow from a swim-up bar and a DJ spinning tunes. It will also have the first sports bar on the island, which will double as a live music venue.

The beach will also have an exclusive cabana area called The Hideout with its own private pool where adults can literally hide away from not just their kids but most other cruisers visiting Perfect Day.

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The entire Hideaway Beach area, as previously announced, will be for adults only — something the executive in charge of dreaming up new experiences for Royal Caribbean told TPG was a nod to demand from customers.

The age cutoff to enter will be 18.

"One of the number one things that guests have been looking for at CocoCay is an adults-only space," Jay Schneider, Royal Caribbean's chief product innovation officer, said in an exclusive interview in advance of the announcement. He cited extensive customer research.

Scheduled to open in January, Hideaway Beach will be an extra-charge area of Perfect Day, with a day pass starting at $39 to $89 per person, depending on the day. It'll be more expensive than most of Perfect Day's beaches, which are open to Royal Caribbean cruisers at no extra cost, but significantly less pricey than the island's high-end Coco Beach Club, where the daily fee to enter can run around $200 per person.

"There are different tiers of experience on Perfect Day at CocoCay," Schneider noted. "The Coco Beach Club is ... meant to be more of an exclusive experience. You've got a dedicated restaurant, a dedicated menu that is very elevated. Hideaway Beach is not meant to be that."

In contrast to the built-for-a-luxury traveler vibe of Coco Beach Club, the experience at Hideaway Beach is "meant to be a really awesome mass-market adult product," Schneider added.

Located on the northwest side of the island (the until-recently-undeveloped area to the right of the pier as you face the island from a docked ship), Hideaway Beach will have a capacity of around 1,800 to 2,000 people.

That'll bring the total capacity of Perfect Day to around 13,000 people, Schneider said.

The capacity increase will allow Royal Caribbean to simultaneously dock two vessels with a larger combined capacity at Perfect Day than in the past. But Schneider says the island still wouldn't host two Oasis-class vessels at the same time.

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