A deep dive into Royal Caribbean and Carnival's private islands

Royal Caribbean's CocoCay has long set the standard for cruise line private islands. Now Carnival has opened Celebration Key, and the early reviews are mixed.

TravelHost's Come Cruise With Me Editor in Chief Daniel Kline and his travel agent partner, Postcard Travel Planning's Dennis Post, have spent dozens of days at CocoCay and got an early look at Celebration Key. They compare what each one does well, where the new island still has work to do, and a drink package catch worth knowing about before you sail.

A full transcript follows below.

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Transcript:

Dan Kline: Hello there, cruisers. I am Dan Kline, Editor-in-Chief of TravelHost. Next to me is Dennis Post, co-owner of Postcard Travel Planning, and we're gonna talk about the two tippy-top cruise line private islands. Now, we've spent probably a couple dozen days at CocoCay, at Royal Caribbean's beach together.

Dennis Post: Yeah.

Kline: I've done the beach club over-water cabana. I have done the water park. We have done Hideaway, the adults area, many times. We've also done the "don't spend a dime and still have a really good time". So I think it's fair to say that CocoCay sets the standard. Would you… What's your favorite part of Coco Beach?

Post: Yeah, so I think I like the flow of it, that there's something for everybody. There's- We took our grandkids there. You have a beautiful, amazing, free area for the water park for the grandkids or small kids.

For us it was amazing. And then you've got the adult areas, and you've got areas that you can up-charge pay and go to more a little bit private experience.

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Kline: So I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to visit Celebration Key. I got up at 5:00 in the morning in Miami, got on a bus, got on a plane, got sent there. Got to spend maybe four or five hours. It was very, very hot, and here's what I can say. It's spectacular from a visual point of view.

I could imagine spending a month in what they're calling a lagoon, which is- It's gotta be four or five times bigger than the pool at CocoCay, which is also a fabulous, gigantic pool.

There are adults-only areas. There are added-fee kids areas. There's a very small water slide tower, and there are other tiers. They're gonna be building a full water park.

I didn't get to sample much of the food, but I would say a lot of people have been complaining about you get one free meal at sort of the pedestrian restaurants, and everything else is added fee.

I kind of agree with that complaint, 'cause it's sort of a benchmark that a cruise line private destination, at least the included ones, are going to have a barbecue. They're gonna have some all-you-can-eat areas.

And the food I did get to have at Celebration Key- Excuse me, first day, don't wanna pretend that everything was working, but none of it was very good, and the pictures I've seen since then have been very cafeteria, run-of-the-mill.

Dennis, we're not going to Celebration Key on this trip, are we?

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Post: Ha. No, we're not, we're not heading there. We're going to Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao. So this ship was not stopping there.

Wish we were, actually. But, you know, one of the things that we also do is the drink package cost, having to- at the island.

Kline: Yeah. So that's that's another pretty big negative. But again, Celebration Key looks like a fabulous place to spend a day. Just realize it's more of like a port than it is a, a private destination.

Because Carnival's drink package does not work on any of its islands. So Carnival also tracks your drinks, so you can only have 15 a day. They do not do that on the island. But some people are paranoid and use their own credit card rather than their ship card to pay, but they are not tracking your drinks.

So if you really wanna have a bunch of drinks, you can go do that. They're ironing out the kinks. These are the early days. This ship, Carnival Celebration, will stop there. I thought I was going there. I told many a Carnival executive I would be there next week. I will not. We will come back. We will get to that soon.

I am Dan Kline. He is Dennis Post. Come cruise with us soon.

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Make a free appointment with Come Cruise With Me's Travel Agent Partner, Postcard Travel, or email Amy Post at amypost@postcardtravelplanning.com or call or text her at 386-383-2472.

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This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 4:43 AM.