Castaway Cay - what do you like to do and are prebooked excursions worth it?

[YawningDodo]

Heyo, back again. My first cruise is coming in January, etc., etc.

I'm curious about how people spend their time on Castaway Cay, particularly any fellow solo travelers. Right now I've got the combo excursion booked that gets me rental gear for snorkeling, an hour bike rental, and a tube rental. I keep going back and forth between thinking $43 sounds perfectly reasonable for all of that (especially if snorkeling is around $30 by itself, which I think I read somewhere?) versus thinking it's a bit overkill.

So what do you get up to on your CC port days? I'm not much of one for just sitting on the beach.

 

[Sytrace]

Heyo, back again. My first cruise is coming in January, etc., etc.

I'm curious about how people spend their time on Castaway Cay, particularly any fellow solo travelers. Right now I've got the combo excursion booked that gets me rental gear for snorkeling, an hour bike rental, and a tube rental. I keep going back and forth between thinking $43 sounds perfectly reasonable for all of that (especially if snorkeling is around $30 by itself, which I think I read somewhere?) versus thinking it's a bit overkill.

So what do you get up to on your CC port days? I'm not much of one for just sitting on the beach.

On our first cruise we did that excursion for the 4 of us. It was lots of fun and we thought it was well worth it. The bike rental is nice and we went to the observation tower off the air strip. Now we always get the floats for my daughter and I. We have also gone on the Kayak and walking excursion, snorkeled with the stingrays and just enjoyed the beach. Sometimes, we leave the ship, walk around and take pictures and have lunch before we go back onto the ship and hang out and ride the Aquaduck while there are no lines.

 

[Shanti]

We like to ride bikes around the island, do the Pelican Plunge water slides, and return early to the ship.

 

[koala1966]

For me the perfect Castaway day is doing the 5k, then hitting the waterslide, drying out by watching the character dance party, then swimming at Serenity Bay, followed by lunch! After that, game time. There's plenty to do without an excursion imo, although we might rent bikes the next time around. If you like to snorkel then the package you are looking at seems like a good fit.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Another vote for 5k. Bike rental, snorkel. The walking and kayak excursion was fun. That would be your whole day-with a break for lunch.

 

[YawningDodo]

I miiight do the 5K, but I'd have to walk a lot of it. Does feel good to get out in the morning and do a big run with a crowd, though. I'll be honest, the only snorkeling experience I've had is when I've done a few minutes here and there before or after SCUBA dives back in college, and back then my feelings re: snorkeling were mostly that it's Not As Good As SCUBA. Since I've got a SCUBA excursion booked in Cozumel I've thought about ditching the snorkeling in CC, and once you take that equipment rental out of the package it starts to make more sense to just rent the bike and/or tube individually on the island if I find that I feel like it at the time. I guess my big hesitation is wondering if I'll feel like I'm missing out, won't have enough to do, etc., but since I do plan to spend most of the Cozumel port day actually in Cozumel, I suppose going back to an uncrowded ship early wouldn't actually be the worst thing in the world if I find myself at too much of a loose end.

 

[SteveMP]

We like to ride bikes around the island, do the Pelican Plunge water slides, and return early to the ship.

Yeah personally I don't like snorkeling at CC, unles you do one of the boats to somewhwere. We love the bike ride, probably our favorite thing there to ride up to the lookout tower. So we usually just rent the bikes once we feel like it(think it was $12? Last time). We liked renting kayaks much better than snorkeling. But personally would just rather go with bikes and some cold brews on te beach, and a few times down the water slides.

 

[Lisa F]

I'm planning to do the stingray thing just before lunch, it seems to get positive reviews (whatever I can find of it), and then maybe rent a kayak in the afternoon. I think we'll bring our own snorkel equipment so that snorkeling is not a "thing" he can just snorkel if he wants to, we live on an island with tons of beaches and my kid has gone through about 3 cheapie sets the last couple of summers, it might be time to get him something real. We are flying southwest so baggage is not an issue. If I were solo I would probably not snorkel at CC, especially if I had a real scuba excursion elsewhere (I don't scuba but I'd LOVE to!).. if you find good snorkeling disappointing compared to scuba I'd think snorkeling at CC would be even more disappointing! I'd probably just chill on the adult beach

 

[YawningDodo]

I'm planning to do the stingray thing just before lunch, it seems to get positive reviews (whatever I can find of it), and then maybe rent a kayak in the afternoon. I think we'll bring our own snorkel equipment so that snorkeling is not a "thing" he can just snorkel if he wants to, we live on an island with tons of beaches and my kid has gone through about 3 cheapie sets the last couple of summers, it might be time to get him something real. We are flying southwest so baggage is not an issue. If I were solo I would probably not snorkel at CC, especially if I had a real scuba excursion elsewhere (I don't scuba but I'd LOVE to!).. if you find good snorkeling disappointing compared to scuba I'd think snorkeling at CC would be even more disappointing! I'd probably just chill on the adult beach

I have seriously considered bringing my own mask, snorkel, and fins both to use on the excursion in Cozumel and to have at CC (so, like you say, it won't be a "thing" if I do/don't feel like it)...but even though my United credit card gets me a free checked bag, I can't imagine I'll have space for adult-size snorkeling equipment without needing to check a second bag, especially since I'm bringing two costumes for theme nights. And, too, I'd be a little more nervous about leaving my equipment unattended on the beach in CC if I wanted to go do something else. I don't know, maybe when it gets closer I'll play around with it and see if they fit in the bag. It's nice to have your own basic gear since then you know it'll fit properly, but it's probably more of a chore than it's worth to try to bring and use my own stuff.

I don't know if I'd say I've had "good" snorkeling, since it was all cold-water trips and it was in sharp contrast to "real" dives right before and after (whaddya mean, I can't dive down without holding my breath??), though the Santa Rosa Blue Hole is an awful lot of fun in general. It's been more than a decade, too, since I've actually been diving. My certification lapsed ages ago, so this trip I'm just doing the beginners' dive since it doesn't carry any requirements for prior experience or certification. I'm starting to think I'll be better off cancelling my CC excursion and not feeling obligated to use all the rentals it comes with. I think the snorkeling could be fun, but I also think I should have plenty to occupy me otherwise and it doesn't sound as fun when I'll be alone and when I'll have had a real dive two days before.

 

[wherespluto]

We save our excursion money for other places. We do absolutely nothing. Which means we play in the order, relax on the beach, have a couple of drinks, or take a walk. It is my #1 happy place in the entire world!!!!

I keep trying figure out if there is a way to hide out and them not to notice I stayed behind.

 

[Trera]

We like to rent a cabana on the family beach!!! It includes bike rental, snorkeling gear and tube/raft rentals for our whole family. It’s our favorite thing to do on the whole cruise!

 

[tlprice]

We've done the combo excursion twice. The snorkeling is very tiring as you have to swim a long way out to actually see anything. This trip we are not pre-booking anything. I'm sure we'll end up renting tubes, but since it is December, the water may not be warm enough so I don't want to be stuck with paying for them if I change my mind. We also might rent the bikes once on the island, but we've been to the observation tower twice--not sure I feel the need to go again. I think we might just relax on the beach and maybe go to the whale dig again.

 

[YawningDodo]

We've done the combo excursion twice. The snorkeling is very tiring as you have to swim a long way out to actually see anything. This trip we are not pre-booking anything. I'm sure we'll end up renting tubes, but since it is December, the water may not be warm enough so I don't want to be stuck with paying for them if I change my mind. We also might rent the bikes once on the island, but we've been to the observation tower twice--not sure I feel the need to go again. I think we might just relax on the beach and maybe go to the whale dig again.

That's actually another thing worth considering. It seems very likely that January weather will be very warm compared to home, but it may still be too chilly for me to want to spend a lot of time in the water (going to have to just suck it up for the SCUBA dive if it is, I guess, since the beginners' excursion doesn't include wetsuit rental). Thanks for letting me know about the swim distance, too.

I went ahead and canceled the combo excursion earlier today. I think if I end up wanting to do anything that involves a rental I'm more likely to be okay with just doing one thing (bike OR tube OR snorkel if I change my mind entirely...) and it'll end up cheaper regardless.

 

[kiford]

We don't do a lot at CC - we're not really beach people. But we have done parasailing (it was cancelled three times due to high winds and waves, able to do it once) and that was a lot of fun. We did the stingrays. Enjoyed that. Snorkelled a couple of times. Did the kayaking and walking tour. That one was good. Did the seadoos (or whatever they call them). Kind of fun but a little too intense for me so I wouldn't likely do that again. Dumped both of us off and lost my sunglasses (DH couldn't stop laughing and unfortunately had the presence of mind to take many pictures with our waterproof camera and never ceases to remind me of it).

You do need to book things like parasailing and stingrays in advance but snorkel equipment is typically available for walk-up. While we continue to try to book parasailing, we now mostly just head out for lunch and a drink at Serenity Bay and then head back to the ship. Last time our parasailing was cancelled so we and our friends headed back after lunch at Serenity Bay and did the AquaDuck 5-6 times in a row. We were the only ones on it.

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

I grew up around Fl beaches and had my share of sun (and skin cancer). We get a cabana on SB, DH snorkels and I get comfy with a good book. Sometimes DH gets a bike and rides around. Later in the day we have a few beers at the waters edge.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

We like to rent the bikes and tour the island on them, climb the tower, enjoyed the hike and kayak excursion, last couple of times we haven't done snorkeling, so next time on the island I would like to give it a go again. We do bring our own snorkels and masks, so we just need the fins and the vest.
Except for the excursion we don't book anything in advance and have never had a problem getting snorkel gear or the bikes. We eat lunch on the island, hit the shops and return to the ship a little early to miss the lines.

 

[Minnie - Not the Mouse]

We do Castaway different. We aren't in a hurry to get off the boat, we sleep in, have brunch at Cabanas then head off the ship. Honestly, we just chill at Castaway Cay. We bring our own snorkeling stuff, swim a bit, build a few sand castles, have lunch as late as possible, go for walks, do some shopping and take the very last tram back to the ship. The last two hours there is almost nobody around. Plus all the floaties people are done with are lying around or they offer them to you as they leave.

 

[Shanti]

We do Castaway different. We aren't in a hurry to get off the boat, we sleep in, have brunch at Cabanas then head off the ship. Honestly, we just chill at Castaway Cay. We bring our own snorkeling stuff, swim a bit, build a few sand castles, have lunch as late as possible, go for walks, do some shopping and take the very last tram back to the ship. The last two hours there is almost nobody around. Plus all the floaties people are done with are lying around or they offer them to you as they leave.

Do you know how late Pelican Plunge is operational? I want us to sleep in and do a late afternoon on Castaway Cay, but am afraid of Pelican Plunge maybe being closed for the last hour or so.

 

[Minnie - Not the Mouse]

Do you know how late Pelican Plunge is operational? I want us to sleep in and do a late afternoon on Castaway Cay, but am afraid of Pelican Plunge maybe being closed for the last hour or so.

I honestly don't know. My daughter doesn't like sliding into the salt water, her eyes are super sensitive so we only ever did it once. There are lifeguards on the beach still so my bet would be probably. I am sure you can find out for sure once you are on board.

 

[Cirlonde]

We don't do a lot at CC - we're not really beach people. But we have done parasailing (it was cancelled three times due to high winds and waves, able to do it once) and that was a lot of fun. We did the stingrays. Enjoyed that. Snorkelled a couple of times. Did the kayaking and walking tour. That one was good. Did the seadoos (or whatever they call them). Kind of fun but a little too intense for me so I wouldn't likely do that again. Dumped both of us off and lost my sunglasses (DH couldn't stop laughing and unfortunately had the presence of mind to take many pictures with our waterproof camera and never ceases to remind me of it).

You do need to book things like parasailing and stingrays in advance but snorkel equipment is typically available for walk-up. While we continue to try to book parasailing, we now mostly just head out for lunch and a drink at Serenity Bay and then head back to the ship. Last time our parasailing was cancelled so we and our friends headed back after lunch at Serenity Bay and did the AquaDuck 5-6 times in a row. We were the only ones on it.

Is the parasailing excursion worth it? It's the only one we're seriously considering for our upcoming May cruise...I'm interested in it but I also feel like part of me wants to do it just because it seems like I "ought" to book something since this is our first cruise...if that makes any sense.