Carnival cruise ships to make stops at Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay. Any speculation?

[Jason]

Carnival Cruise Lines has announced on select five-night sailings of its Carnival Fascination will swap out a stop at Key West for the private island of Little Stirrup Cay, which is better known to Royal Caribbean fans as Coco Cay.

The Fascination sailings that will stop at CocoCay are scheduled for 03/11/2013, 04/08/2013, 05/06/2013, 05/27/2013, 06/10/2013, 06/24/2013, 07/08/2013, 07/22/2013, 08/05/2013, 08/19/2013, 09/02/2013, 09/16/2013, 09/30/2013, 10/14/2013, 10/28/2013, 11/25/2013, 12/09/2013, 01/20/2014, 03/03/2014, 03/17/2014, 04/14/2014 & 04/28/2014.

The news of Carnival stopping at Coco Cay came via emails sent to Carnival passengers that had booked the cruise previously.

The exact details of the agreement between Carnival and Royal Caribbean are unknown at this time. Royal Caribbean has an existing agreement with the Bahamas for exclusive access to the island via its lease. Many are speculating that Carnival will pay Royal Caribbean for access to the island because Carnival's private island of Half Moon Cay is booked up already.

Source: Royal Caribbean Blog

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[Sarge6870]

I just wonder if Carnival is going to be just as accomodating to other lines when it comes to Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan (Carnivals private beach they built)!

[WeCruiseToo]

Well, we’ve visited Roatan aboard Norwegian Epic (and Carnival Dream).

I think the difference is leasing an “island” (CocoCay, Great Stirrup Cay, Half Moon Cay, Princess Cays, Castaway Cay, Labadee) gives you exclusive rights unless you chose to share.

On the other hand, footing the bill for the development of a port (Roatan, Grand Turk, one of the docks in Cozumel) gives you priority docking but they can welcome other ships when you’re not there.

Now, does anyone know what category Icy Strait Point falls under?

[DebbieandJerry]

When we stopped at "private islands" in the past, I always thought that it was the same island that various ships just stopped at. To me, it's all the same -- booze, ocean and ocean games.