Out of all our stops on this cruise, we were probably most excited to stop in Castaway Cay. A private island owned by Disney? Pretty cool.
**If you are looking for a review of the ship & my stateroom, see this post.**
Departure Date: September 13, 2014
Departure Port: Port Canaveral, Florida
Cruise Length: 7 days
Itinerary
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Day 1
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Embark/Sea Day
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Day 2
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Sea Day
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Day 3
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Cozumel, Mexico
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Day 4
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Grand Cayman
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Day 5
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Falmouth, Jamaica
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Day 6
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Sea Day
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Day 7
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Castaway Cay
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Day 8
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Disembark
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Castaway Cay, Bahamas - Castaway Cay Getaway Package ($41.93 per adult, $20.43 per child)
We were pleasantly surprised when we had an envelope in our stateroom the day before with complimentary tickets for the Castaway Cay Getaway Package. This package includes a tube or float rental, 1 hour bicycle rental, and a snorkel equipment rental. While we were only planning on snorkeling here on the island, and we had already brought our own snorkel gear from home, we were excited to ride bikes around Castaway Cay and possibly just float in the ocean with a tube rental.
The cool thing about Castaway Cay is that everything on the island belongs to Disney. So no need to head back to the ship in order to grab a bite to eat; just stop by Cookies BBQ (or Cookies Too BBQ) and eat on the island! As with on the ship, where ice cream and soda is complimentary, food at Cookies is free, so don't worry about any extra fees. Things that do cost money (besides souvenirs) are specialty drinks, tube/float rentals, bike rentals, and cabana rentals.
Here is a "Park Map", courtesy of Disney:
To start our day off, we decided to ride the bikes first. Upon arriving at the bike rental area, they informed us that while the rental is only for an hour, they really don't care when you get the bikes back to them. That was nice to know! You can pick between a "girl bike" or a "boy bike"; you can see in the picture to the left that the bikes are red or yellow. This island is extremely flat, with hardly any inclines at all. However you can probably see the expression on my dads face is not one of extreme joy. That's because it was very warm and extremely humid. Just pedaling the bike around on flat trails made you break a sweat. It was also more tiring than you might imagine. The bike trail is nothing to write home about, though. It's just pavement with a few interesting things to look at along the way; it takes you on a couple loops through the airstrip and to the Observation Tower. If you don't have a bike rental, don't waste your time walking to the Observation Tower, it's not that exciting either.
One thing to note: they have water stations quite frequently along the trail. These for us were big brown coolers with chilled water and paper cone cups. It was really nice (and needed)!
You can also take the tram to/from the ship and around to the various stops offered on Castaway Cay. If you enjoy walking and are in no hurry, none of the various stops the tram makes are terrible far apart. The longest walk would probably be down the airstrip to get to Serenity Bay.
Below are a few pictures of things you can see along the bike path.
Above and to the left you can see a view of a beach you are not allowed on to. You can stop your bike along a fence and look out; in the distance you can see I think the family beach area. It could also be Serenity Bay (adults only beach).
To the left is a view walking down the Observation Tour. The view was interesting, but because this island has no tall features (like mountains) it was pretty much the same looking wherever you looked.
To the right is one of the views you can see from the Observation Tour. There are people way off in the distance on some kind of kayak tour. We later met one of these people and they said that the kayak excursion was "okay". They had more fun just splashing water at family and friends, rather than seeing anything that amazing. Their words, not mine. Down below are a few more pictures of the view from the Observation Tour. Mostly swamp land, and I've heard the mosquitoes are really bad a night! Luckily not a problem for us there in the day.
A view of the runaway above; you can see one of the drink stations just over my mom's left shoulder.
After returning our bikes, we decided it was time to eat some lunch! I didn't take any pictures of the lunch area, but they actually had different flavors of soda in their dispensers than they did on the ship, which I appreciated (they had two flavors of HiC). They had a much more basic menu here than they do on the ship. The burgers/hotdogs/chicken sandwiches came pre-assembled with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese etc. They offered a variety of salads (potato, cous cous, cole slaw). They offered other food like fish, garlic and mozzarella flat bread, ribs, and vegetarian chili. They also had sides like corn on the cob and bags of chips (plain or BBQ). Deserts were cookies, pineapple upside down cake, fruit salad and banana bread.
If you let them know ahead of time that you have allergies, they will have food waiting for you that you can eat. We had a cook come out and talk with my sister to determine what they had that she could eat, and they brought out a few things for her.
After eating, we decided it was time to snorkel. We don't believe that wait 30 minutes after eating before swimming bit! You have to wear the yellow life jacket that Disney will provide if you want to snorkel. I believe they offer it free of charge, which is nice. Originally we planned to rent a tube or float and use that to help us snorkel, but the life jackets actually worked pretty well. You can see in the picture to the left where you pick up the life jackets; underneath the red painted eaves there was someone standing handing them out when you asked for them.
The water felt GREAT after being hot and a bit sweaty from bike riding around earlier! If you are worried about being cold in the water, don't. The exercise from snorkeling and the generally warm temperature in the Bahamas means that the water (also warm) feels great.
It actually started to sprinkle a little bit as we were snorkeling, but not very much and not for very long. After snorkeling we went into the various shops and probably spent way too much money. Some of the Castaway Cay branded stuff is just so cute!
Don't forget to try Pelican Plunge! Getting dropped into salt water is something you can't really understand until you've tried it yourself. Even though you know it's salt water, you still don't really expect it!
There goes mom!
Don't forget to hit up the post office while in town! You can mail a message in a bottle (a lot of people were doing this!) or just send a regular post card (we did this). You will need to buy Bhamaian stamps, but the post office is more than able to help you do this. Even if you don't mail a letter or post card, be sure to pose with Olaf for a picture.
We actually spent very little time on the beaches. The family beach was definitely crowded, but the adult only beach seemed only moderately busy. And the later in the day it got, the less crowded the areas were. A few hours before departure, and you can see there are not many folks staking out beach chairs. Maybe they were scared off by the light sprinkle of rain, or maybe they wanted more extravagant food back on the ship; either way, it was nice to have it a little more empty!
I didn't label which beach was which, but below you can enjoy a few more photos I took of Castaway Cay.
My Rating: 10/10
Castaway Cay is like your own private Disneyland minus the rides and long lines. It's clean, staff are super friendly, and there are lots of things to see/do. It's an island stop you will not want to miss!
(The above two photos are definitely the family beach! That mesh/rope "trail" is how you get out to Pelican Plunge if you are interested in that.)
(This photo above is of Serenity Bay, the adults only area)
