Castaway Cay Private Cabanas

[rtkane]

Interesting. For whom was it a non-issue? For the regular guest capacity of the Magic or Wonder who normally fit comfortably on the old family beach, and now have an extra 150 yards of expanded family beach to roam? Or the 1600 additional passengers who are going to come off the Disney Dream in a few months and wonder if they are supposed to fit in that 150 yards of beach while 100 of thier shipmates stretch out on the other 150 yards of private beach.

Well, according to Disney's own press release from August (or whatever you call it), the family beach is being expanded by 700':

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/whats-new/castaway-cay-enhancements/

It's definitely much bigger and i cant imagine it being all private--it has to be largely "public" wouldn't you think? As an aside, it appears that there will be a back road to the cabanas, but for what I have no idea, because there was signage past the bike rental area on a road that said "welcome cabana guests". I wish I snapped a pic. Anyone else see that?

 

[atigeg]

I would think that the 700 ft is the old Castaway Rays area
just past Pelican Plunge

That area was packed on 9/7, with very few open chairs, compared to the gaps on the family beach between the two tram stops.

my guess being that the tram now stops there.

 

[rtkane]

I would think that the 700 ft is the old Castaway Rays area
just past Pelican Plunge

That area was packed on 9/7, with very few open chairs, compared to the gaps on the family beach between the two tram stops.

my guess being that the tram now stops there.

Yup...looks like they eliminated the teen beach (extending it a bit) and took over the stingray area. We actually never made it to the beach this time between the kayak tour (awesome) and riding bikes. Now I wish I had.

 

[ppiew]

The area aroung Pelican Plunge would all be family beach area. The small area by the cabanas (which are at the very end of the beach area) would probably be 'private.' It actually looked like it wrapped around the point. It just didn't look to me like anyone would walk all the way to the end of the beach when there were so many chairs everywhere else. Once you get to the cabanas, you are a long way from everything else ie. Pelican Plunge, Heads Up Bar, Stingray Beach etc. It just didn't seem to be an advantage to me to hike all that way for a little bit of sand. I don't know the exact footage but it didn't look like more than 100 ft to me (could be wrong). Many of the cabanas are set back quite a ways and only a few were close to the water. Anyway, it wasn't anything I would lose sleep over. I am sure all passengers should be able to get along!

 

[bigAWL]

This might help. I posted this here back in May.

So the half of the new beach in front of where Pelican plunge is now located used to be Castaway Rays, right? And the other half (pretty much where the cabanas are now) was the teen beach. So Disney says the expansion totals 700 ft. That's even smaller than I measured (300 yards). Assuming any private area will be in front of all the cabanas - which is about half of the new area - that leaves just about 100-125 additional yards for the family beach and the additional people from the bigger ships.

 

[Davids-Coco]

Well, on FB they are saying the family cabanas are open. Unfortunately, even if they are open, concierge is saying we can't book them yet.

 

[dylan'smom]

I read that they are available for booking on the ship. Pricing is $499. Includes food, snacks, water, snorkel equipment, floats, sand toys, bike rental, and private shower too. They looked pretty small when I saw them in April, so I can't imagine squeezing in any more people.

The pre booking seems to only be for suites at the moment...oh well, gotta have some perks!

 

[princssdisnygina]

Any updates for the private cabanas? Can we officially book them on the ship? Are they officially $499? Anyone? TIA!

 

[ibouncetoo]

Friends of mine got one just last week. I'll mosey over to facebook and ask them to post some pictures and info here....

.

 

[princssdisnygina]

Friends of mine got one just last week. I'll mosey over to facebook and ask them to post some pictures and info here....

.

Sounds great! I would love to hear more about it. Trying to decide if that is something we want to do on our cruise in November!

 

[SharonLowe]

We're on the November 11 cruise and are concierge. We were able to book ahead and pretty much had our choice of cabanas. I expect it won't be too hard to book on board. The description of what is included is pretty much the same as has been posted.

"Each well-appointed cabana is furnished with comfortable seating, a beverage refrigerator, safe, ceiling fan, plush towels and sunscreen. Outside on the patio, luxurious chaise lounge chairs, a freshwater shower, hammock and sailcloth shade are yours to enjoy amid spectacular offshore views. Fresh fruit and snacks are included along with complimentary bottled water and soft drinks. Dedicated beverage service is provided and alcoholic beverage packages are available for purchase onboard at an additional cost.

Additionally, each cabana includes use of snorkeling equipment, floats, sand toys, and one hour of bike rental."

If you have 6 people, the cost of all the equipment that is included makes the $499 price not seem quite so bad - $36 for 6 1-hour bike rentals; $36 for 6 float tubes; $105 for snorkel equipment (assuming 3 "adults" (over age 10) and 3 kids; whatever it costs to buy sand toys.

 

[wuv tigger]

just wondering ....

 

[ibouncetoo]

"Each well-appointed cabana is furnished with comfortable seating, a beverage refrigerator, safe, ceiling fan, plush towels and sunscreen. Outside on the patio, luxurious chaise lounge chairs, a freshwater shower, hammock and sailcloth shade are yours to enjoy amid spectacular offshore views. Fresh fruit and snacks are included along with complimentary bottled water and soft drinks. Dedicated beverage service is provided and alcoholic beverage packages are available for purchase onboard at an additional cost.

Additionally, each cabana includes use of snorkeling equipment, floats, sand toys, and one hour of bike rental."

If you have 6 people, the cost of all the equipment that is included makes the $499 price not seem quite so bad - $36 for 6 1-hour bike rentals; $36 for 6 float tubes; $105 for snorkel equipment (assuming 3 "adults" (over age 10) and 3 kids; whatever it costs to buy sand toys.

AND, its a PRIVATE beach! The cabanas are set back from the beach, so mom and dad can't sit on the front deck and monitor the little ones in the water however.

.

 

[DVC4US]

just wondering ....

No, you can't have 7 people. DCL is limiting the number of people to each cabana to 6 and they won't budge. We have 8 people so I tried that first and they said no, only 6. So now we are getting 2 cabanas and I tried to share with another family of 5 (one of them being a 3yo) and DCL said, no only 6 people allowed. I was prepared to pay extra for the extra people but DCL is keeping the limit to 6. I don't know if they will change this over time, but this is what they are doing right now.

 

[mcubit]

Can you have other people visit you if you rent a cabana? I am surprised to see that they are limiting it to 6 and no additional options for more.

 

[cats mom]

If you have 6 people, the cost of all the equipment that is included makes the $499 price not seem quite so bad - $36 for 6 1-hour bike rentals; $36 for 6 float tubes; $105 for snorkel equipment (assuming 3 "adults" (over age 10) and 3 kids; whatever it costs to buy sand toys.

Although if you weren't doing the cabana, would you really pay for all that, especially for all 6 people?

We've traveled as a group of 6 several times and the only thing we might rent for all 6 is snorkle gear. (Personally we bring our own masks though) It seems there's always at least a couple of people who don't want to do bikes, and floats are easy to share, I can't imagine getting one for each person.

I understand your point though.

No, you can't have 7 people. DCL is limiting the number of people to each cabana to 6 and they won't budge. We have 8 people so I tried that first and they said no, only 6. So now we are getting 2 cabanas and I tried to share with another family of 5 (one of them being a 3yo) and DCL said, no only 6 people allowed. I was prepared to pay extra for the extra people but DCL is keeping the limit to 6. I don't know if they will change this over time, but this is what they are doing right now.

Thanks for the info.

I do think it's a good thing that DCL has a capacity limit and they are sticking with it. I'm a little surprised they don't allow 1 or 2 above the limit with payment of an additional per person charge though. Of course the cabanas don't look very big. I bet they're already plenty cozy with 6 people.

 

[dylan'smom]

AND, its a PRIVATE beach! The cabanas are set back from the beach, so mom and dad can't sit on the front deck and monitor the little ones in the water however.

.

I dunno...I was just looking at them a few days ago, and that private beach is just a little strip behind some shrubs, with the cabanas all pretty close together & sharing it. We were glad we hadn't reserved one when we saw them up close. We were at the adult beach so that's the ones we checked out - NO one had rented them & all were empty.

But then they do come with some equipment & snacks so may be better with kids and/or those who like to be out of the sun, behind the lounges -- we like to sit down by the water w/ the short chairs while some of our group liked to use the lounges behind us....but the cabanas I saw were behind all of this.

 

[kbmo4444]

Friends of mine got one just last week. I'll mosey over to facebook and ask them to post some pictures and info here....

.

That would be great. We have one reserved for our Nov 13,2010 sailing and curious to know from those that have rented if they thought it was worth the $$$ and if they would rent one again

 

[LisaG520]

We had cabana #5 on the family beach

Here is the front of the cabana:

The back of the cabana:

Our hammock:

The view off one side of our deck:

 

[SharonLowe]

We had cabana #5 on the family beach

Thanks for the photos. We have number 4 reserved for November 11. I like that they are set back from the beach but I can understand how parents with young kids wouldn't get the most benefit from them (other than maybe using them for naps. We've done cabanas at some water parks and these are by far the nicest looking. Having the shower will be nice to get the sand off before heading back to the ship. And, of course just because you have a bit of beach doesn't mean you can't go to other parts too.