$499 for the family beach cabanas. Definitely worth it. Do a search and there are numerous threads that lay out the pros and cons.
Last week we upgraded to Concierge at the port. We had been trying to get a cabana for months, so of course asked for one right away, but there were none. Julia later told us that it has become common for all the cabanas to be pre-booked by concierge guests on the Fantasy and they actually had 4 concierge guests on the wait list this cruise.
The concierge staff is responsible for the Cabanas. If you are not staying Concierge on the ship, I'd tip accordingly.
You were on the Fantasy last week? Julia is still there? In May, she thought she'd be rotating to the Dream within a few months. We LOVED her so much! She was wonderful to our daughters.
we just completed our 13th Disney cruise and our first with renting a cabana (they weren't built during our last cruise). I know that the cost is high but we will never do another cruise without a cabana. I will scrimp on other things rather than not get a cabana.
I've made MANY trips to Castaway Cay before the cabanas were built and had an amazing time. "Worth it" is always a personal decision. The service associated with the cabanas is very nice....so if you didn't spend $500 on a cabana, what else would you choose to do with that money?
People make it sound like you MUST have a cabana to have a great day at Castaway. That's not true. You can cruise in an inside cabin and have a great cruise or you can pay 4 times as much and cruise in concierge and have an amazing cruise. We all make choices, and those choices may change from one cruise to the next. It's just a matter of what YOU want to do.
I'm not sure if this is always the case, maybe for concierge guests in cabanas, they are always hosted by the ship concierge. We had a cabana, were not in concierge and we had someone from Guest Services as our host. We weren't going to tip her anyway (whole different story; had many other issues with her regarding the cabana prior to Castaway Cay) but my feeling was that GS is not a tipped position so they would not be able to accept a tip for cabana hosting.
Don't give up hope on a cabana. I am a first-time cruiser who was able to grab one 35 days out when someone cancelled. Just keep checking and you may get lucky.