Cocoa Beach and Area

[BOTL76]

Hello Disney Fans,

We are going to be at Disney the first week of May. For one of our non-disney days, we are considering a beach day. in our travel party, there will be 4 children ages 1-5 and 5 adults.

We have been to Clearwater and St. Pete beach areas many times, so we have decided to mix it up a bit and head to the Atlantic side.

So for Cocoa Beach and area options, would love feedback on the following:

1) Is there 2-3 recommendations for which area of Cocoa Beach to stop at? Preference would be for easy parking and direct access to beach (if we have to pay for parking that is fine with us)
2) Any sights for young children in that area?
3) Any other recommendations for this area for things to check out


Thank you!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We visited Cocoa Beach for the first time last August. Its an easy drive (lots of tolls, though) and a very fun day.

We parked at Lori Wilson Park (which is free). There are washrooms and changing facilities right off the parking area.

After enjoying some beach time, we visited Ron Jon's Surf Shop, then returned to Merritt Island on our way home to do Glow Golf at the mall. By that point, we needed to get out of the searing sun....we were cooked!

You can check out the details and see lots of pictures of the beach in my August trip report. Click on the link in my signature to start at the beginning, or here to go right to the Cocoa Beach portion:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3167818&page=8

 

[GetUpTop]

My family and I went to Cocoa Beach when I was about 13. I have two younger siblings as well. For the life of me I can't remember the hotel name.

Anyway, we had a great time just lounging around in the beach. As the previous poster said, Ron Jon Surf Shop is definitely worth checking out. The Cocoa Beach Pier was pretty cool to grab a bite to eat. They had an arcade and an ice cream shop too. There's lots of restaurants up and down A1A but beware of traffic and tolls.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

If you go on a Sunday you can go up to the Jetty where all the cruise ships are docked and at 5 p.m you can watch each one set sail. OR you can go to Fishlips and get a bit to eat and watch the ships leave. We have done this and the food was great.

 

[jennib5426]

If you drive to the other side of town there is parking across from Patrick AFB, right on the beach. There is bathrooms and a snack bar there i believe and it is away from the busy part of town.

 

[conniehar90]

We went last summer and had a great time. We didn't really know where we were going so we ended up parking by the pier. It cost $10 but it gave you free access to the very end of the pier where there were people fishing. Kind of cool but wouldn't pay for that again. After we were done and we drove down by Ron Jon's (a must do!) we found that there were streets with free parking.

 

[OKW Lover]

If you go on a Sunday you can go up to the Jetty where all the cruise ships are docked and at 5 p.m you can watch each one set sail. OR you can go to Fishlips and get a bit to eat and watch the ships leave. We have done this and the food was great.

A lot of ships also sail out of Port Canaveral on Saturday. The Dream also sails on Thursday. Not sure of the other cruise line's mid-week departures.

 

[RabFlmom]

If you go on a Sunday you can go up to the Jetty where all the cruise ships are docked and at 5 p.m you can watch each one set sail. OR you can go to Fishlips and get a bit to eat and watch the ships leave. We have done this and the food was great.

If you go to Lori Wilson or really any of the beaches in Cocoa Beach and are there on late Sunday afternoon you can still see the ships as they are parallel to the shore for a while before heading farther out . I have taken pics of my nephews in the water with the Disney ship way off in the background.

 

[ckergald]

Jetty Park
Ron Jon surf Shop
Cocoa beach pier
the dinosaur store (close to ron jon's)
there's a Atlas 5 rocket scheduled for Launch on May 7th if you will be around then you might want to watch this from jetty park.

 

[BOTL76]

Thank you everyone and Gina thanks for sharing your trip report with photos, awesome!