Castaway cay 5K before and after

[Hillbeans]

i just got off the Magic last week and we had a magical time and I was so thankful we were able to even dock in CC because the last two voyages couldn't due to weather. Back in 2012 I ran the 5K and it was much less of an organized event and just had a ~50 participants. We were off and back without much fuss. This last time there was an 8am meeting time with hundreds of runners and only 4 staff helping. We didn't get off the ship until 8:40 and the race didn't start until 9 and I didn't get back to the ship until close to 10 with the walk back. I don't want to sound like a complainer but the event took way too much time to organize and participate in and I don't think next time I want to use 2 hours running a 30 minute race if we get off the ship the same time as everyone else?. I did like the new medals though.
Thoughts??

 

[DisneyPups]

i just got off the Magic last week and we had a magical time and I was so thankful we were able to even dock in CC because the last two voyages couldn't due to weather. Back in 2012 I ran the 5K and it was much less of an organized event and just had a ~50 participants. We were off and back without much fuss. This last time there was an 8am meeting time with hundreds of runners and only 4 staff helping. We didn't get off the ship until 8:40 and the race didn't start until 9 and I didn't get back to the ship until close to 10 with the walk back. I don't want to sound like a complainer but the event took way too much time to organize and participate in and I don't think next time I want to use 2 hours running a 30 minute race if we get off the ship the same time as everyone else?. I did like the new medals though.
Thoughts??

This was my husband's and my exact thought. He went alone bc we have two little ones and I was starting to panic bc we were running out of CC time (the youngest had to be back for nap by 1.) We finally left the ship hoping to find him and he was approaching the gangway as we came off. He was surprised at the time and even said he ran as fast as he's ever run finishing in just over 21 min. It was about 9:45 I think. He won't run again. But cool to do once! The medal is adorable. Last time we ran it was a cheap-o plastic Mickey head that went right in the trash.

 

[Neptune's Fork]

The number of participants shouldn't have too much effect on that though. I did it a few months ago and yes I did think they could have moved it along quicker, but it seems to me the delay was in the pre race meeting. They could have gotten us off ship and running quicker than they did. Maybe they need to have a hard cut off that if you aren't at the meeting spot by such and such a time, you don't get to run. That way everyone gets off the ship and running sooner so it doesn't cut into the day so much.

 

[CamColt]

I sort of feel the same way. I have done the 5K in 2014 with the generic medal, 2015 with the CC specific medal and then in 2016 as part of the Castaway Cay challenge so I got another one of the rubber CC 5K medals and the challenge medal. I was going to do it on my last cruise but just because my DS wanted to do it and I thought it would be nice to do with him. The day before he decided he wanted to do the wild side teen adventure with friends he had met, so then he couldn't do the 5K. I have to admit I was glad I didn't have to give up all that island time. DH ended up running it anyway, but I hit the beach asap.

 

[algae]

Yeah, it used to be that running the 5k meant you could be off the ship before everyone else so you can run before it gets too warm. I think people took advantage of that and faked going to run so they could stake out a spot before others. Now you have to wait to get off the ship with everyone else.

We just ran the 5k from the Fantasy a couple days ago. The crew said that we had about 300 running(!) We didn't get to the start until about 9am. While walking to the start, we saw a lot of non-5k'ers also walking to the island at the same time. Was still kinda fun and organized pretty well by the CM's. We'd do it again for the bibs and medals