Castaway Cay was LOVELY! It was a bit chilly and overcast when we left Port Canaveral, but we couldn't have asked for a better day (which also happened to be my birthday!) when we docked at Castaway. I think it was in the 80s and pretty hot temperature-wise, and the water was chilly, but we all got in despite being very wussy Floridians who don't do cold.
Really depends on your preferences.
We did NOT get off the ship in Nassau. I'm not too fond of it as a port, and especially didn't want to try it with little kids tagging along. The boat was still pretty crowded, so I think a lot of people followed suit.
The boat was nearly empty on Castaway day, by the way. We got back on the ship around 1 and were able to do the Aquaduck in 15 minutes once and 25 minutes the second time. By 3:00 the wait was up to 60 minutes!
Speaking of the Aquaduck, that was DS4's favorite part of the cruise. He was literally JUST tall enough (he was right at the marker, and the CM said if he could slide a credit card under his head, he would have to say no, but thankfully it didn't go under!) and was pretty nervous about it, but after I told him we could go get ice cream after if he was brave, he went with his Dad and has a blast! Then he and his Grampy went for a second time, and I think he would have gone over and over again if not for the lines.
As for activities, we didn't do much with the kids club. DS4 is a bit clingy, so he wasn't wild about being dropped off there by himself and DS2 was too little to go. We took them for Open House on the first day and they LOVED Andy's room, but we weren't too thrilled with the number of computers (a zillion!) in the Club. If we left it up to them, that's all they would have played with the whole time, and we would rather have them doing something more interactive. I'm sure the planned activities were great, just couldn't convince DS4 to stay!
They both really enjoyed dinner in Animator's Palette with all of the Nemo rigamarole. The other two restaurants were harder to keep them quiet and amused. Overall, I was very impressed by behavior of all of the children on board. Considering how many kids there were in those dining rooms, there were surprisingly few meltdowns...until night 3 and sheesh, there were a ton of them, including DS2!
The Golden Mickeys show on the first night was a big hit, but the Villains show on night 2 (despite DS2 always loving the "bad, bad witches" and "big, big dragons" in any movie we watch) scared both of them and we ended up leaving early because there were "hairy" (scary) witches. Hubby and I went to the third show solo while my parents watched the boys. We also went to see Frozen, but DS4 got cranky after about 20 minutes and left with his grandma, and DS2 fell fast asleep, so I just watched it myself with my sleeping guy and loved it.
At least we didn't spend a fortune to see it in the theater!
They loved the Nemo splash area and DS4 went down the ray slide about 50 times in a row, and the Mickey pool was a big hit. I liked how shallow it was so I wasn't as stressed out about taking them both in by myself. (Donald pool is deeper)
We were very disappointed by the ridiculously long lines to visit with all of the characters. I was hoping it would taper off by the last day, but the line for Mickey on night 3 was the longest one I saw! We only saw Minnie (maybe 20 minutes in line) and Santa (my parents waited in that one for almost an hour!), but thankfully the boys were happy just waving at the others as we walked by. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since it was Disney after all and lines are just par for the course, but I really thought that part would be easier!
The onboard mystery was lots of fun! DS4 insisted on going to ALL of the paintings despite it saying we wouldn't need to see all of them to solve the mystery (we didn't) and I'm glad we did because otherwise you would miss out on "catching" the villain. We only did the Missing Paintings (because my feet hurt after walking all over the ship!) but if you did one on the first day and the other one on the third day, you would be fine. It was a great way to get to know your way around the ship, too. DS2 was equally as amused, and Hubby and I thought it was fun, too.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's more if you have other questions!
