What is it about Castaway Cay?
 

I've been reading the Cruise boards for a while now and am super excited to have booked our very first cruise yesterday!! Wheee!!

My question is, what makes Castaway Cay so amazing? Consistently here and other places I read people rave about CC.

What is your favourite part of CC? My DD will be celebrating her 5th Birthday during our cruise.

Looking forward to hearing all about it as I know it's got lots to offer!

You get Disney service in a topical setting. Everything is so easy going, all your rentals are on island time ( meaning take your time). There is something for everyone. The BBQ is awesome, just an all around great time. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

It's a beautiful beach and set up to be as easy as possible, compared to say if we went to an East Coast beach on our own.

Chairs & umbrellas are already set up.
There are chaise lounge type chairs and the small, close to the ground type chairs you can put right in the surf.
BBQ (gas grill) lunch included with non-alcoholic drinks & desserts.
Souvenir shops near the beach & you can use your KTTW card.
Pelican Plunge, water slides
Lots of excursions: parasailing, jetskiing, stingray meet, snorkeling, bike rentals, kayaking, sailing, pedal boats, fishing trips, & many more.
Adult-only beach area too with it's own lunch area.

We've been fortunate to always have beautiful weather there. Some windy days where water sports are cancelled but still a nice time. If weather is bad enough, it's possible that docking is not safe and they have to skip it as a port stop. I'm not sure what % of cruises can't dock but just saying it's not guaranteed.

I'm not really a beach person, and CC is the easiest beach I've ever seen/done. You WALK from the ship (no tender). You can go back to the ship at any time.

They hand you towels as you leave the pier area, so you are carrying some "stuff" especially if you bring your own snorkel gear. There's a tram either waiting or coming within a few minutes. Get to the beach and you'll find chairs and umbrellas waiting for you. Don't see one? Walk just a little farther down the beach. There are cement/paved type paths to make walking easier along the "service" area where you'll find restrooms, outdoor showers, FOOD, and music/game places.

Want to swim or snorkel but you have to watch the kids? That's what the programming is for. No kids? That's the adult beach. It is just as easy as a beach day can be...and beautiful...and DCL level service. Truly lives up to their slogan from years ago--take the magic of Disney and just add water.

That's really good to know. I've snorkeled in the past and really enjoyed it but my DD will not have the swimming skills to do this. It's nice to know there is an option to let her play in the kids programming while I try snorkeling again!

Is snorkeling included in the costs of the cruise or is there a charge for equipment rental?

We live near the coast and I dread going to the beach here because of everything we [I] need to carry when we go. At CC we only take a small bag with camera and maybe a book, and the towels they pass out on the pier. We don't need to carry the chairs, shade, food or drinks. There are bathrooms closeby and the water is relatively shallow and there isn't the rip current we need to watch out for here, so the kids can enjoy the water and I can relax a bit.

You can rent snorkle equipment at CC or take your own.

Are towels available later or elsewhere on CC? Or do you need to gather as many as you think you'll need as you are leaving the ship?

1) Island in the ocean. Very cool.
2) Very, very safe.
3) Ship, very close.
4) No one asks you to buy stuff and says "hello, my friend!"
5) You will probably never see the same people again in your life.
6) You wonder, "now, who lives on this island?"
7) Jet skiing is harder than it looks (waves) but they don't laugh at you.:lmao:
8) Food. Food. Food.
9) Super nice people in lost and found and they don't laugh at you.:lmao:
10) Eat on the beach and move lawn chairs and no one yells at you.
11) No cabs anywhere on the island.
12) Runway but no planes.
13) You can rent a bike ride around.
14) You can swim in the ocean and not worry about the "jellies", "mon".

This...
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...psb5d2deaa.jpg

Nice picture of all the clean (groomed) white sand. Disney keeps the island in pristine condition.

This.

Since we've taken two double dips, we've been to CC 9 times (have never been unable to dock, although came real close not being able to once) & this is what DH always says. We live in Tampa and are 45-60 min to so many beautiful breathtaking Gulf coast beaches (Anna Maria Island tops my list!!!), but we go once maybe twice a year because of all of the schlepping. CC is beautiful. Hammocks, chairs, loungers, umbrellas are already set up. It's clean & pristine.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

We experienced CC for the first time last year. I thought it was the best day of the cruise. The weather was perfect and we had a day with no excursions planned. We rented the tubes and snorkles. My DS and I saw a lot of fish while snorkling and just enjoyed the water and sand. I changed to the later dining for our upcoming trip because last year we had to cut short our time at CC for our early dinner. Cant wait to go back in about 4 months.

I am not worried about jellies-I have watched Jaws too many times. I am convinced that a shark is waiting for me.

I agree totally. I will qualify the last point. We have encountered on several occasions on CC (8 stops), Sea Lice which are jelly fish larvae. They leave quite a sting. We started using Sea Safe and have not been bothered since.

DCL thought of that too. Disney does not like bad publicity. Feeding children to sharks would look really bad. There is a shark fence around the whole family beach.
I discovered that while waiting to board in the PC terminal of our 1st Disney cruise. Over near the cartoons playing there is art on the wall, sketches, etc. One sketch shows aerial view of CC with labels one of which is a shark fence. You can also see it on Google maps. :cloud9: