Castaway Cay Tips to avoid crowd? -Fantasy sailing

[nichollenoyes]

This will be our first time to Castaway Cay on the Fantasy.

Is it too crowded? Has Disney expanded the seating, float rentals etc to cover the larger boats, Fantasy and Dream? What is the best time to get off the boat? Is it better to wait until the first round of people gets off? We have a 5 year old, so waiting in a large crowded space to get off the boat doesn't sound like a good idea.

What are some of the best things to do with a 5 year old that day. He can swim.

 

[Skyw]

We were on the Dream last week. We never had a big crowd and this is what we did.

Get off of the boat as soon as you can and start having fun. We found a great spot near the Pelican Plunge. From there you can easily get the rafts, snorkel and hit the slides.

We also had our excursions at the beginning of the morning. So when we were done, the beaches were still empty. And it was cooler.

We ate Lunch right when it opened at 11:30. Never had a crowd.

Then got back on the boat earlier then others and hit the Aqua Duck.

Have fun.

 

[diz2011]

I will start off by saying that our family LOVED Castaway Cay!! I did, however, feel that the beach got pretty crowded as the morning progressed. We were on the Fantasy, got off the boat right away and made our way to the 2nd family beach as we wanted to be near Pelican Plunge. We had no trouble finding chairs together (and we were a group of 11). We booked the extreme getaway package, so we rode the bikes first thing before it got too hot (that was a lot of fun!). By the time we got back from our bike ride, the beach was really crowded!! The chairs are pretty close together, and when you add everyone's giant tubes to the area, it can make it hard to walk around to get to your chair. We swam out to Pelican Plunge, but were told that the wait was about an hour, so we decided to make better use of our time on the island and skipped it.
We had lunch around noon, little to no wait in line and no trouble finding a table to eat at (we were at Cookies Too). We did the stingray excursion and were back to our chairs around 2:30 or so. At that point, the crowds were definitely starting to thin out. I don't know what the crowd level was like at the first family beach, so maybe it is less crowded there?? While it was crowded, it certainly didn't put a damper on our plans/activities for the day (unless you count the fact that we didn't do Pelican Plunge because of the wait time). If you are looking to spend time on the beach when it is less crowded, my experience was that it was less crowded in the afternoon. If you are planning to do any activities, it might be best to do those in the morning and then enjoy a less crowded beach in the afternoon. We left the beach at around 3:30 (all aboard time was 5:00) and it was really starting to quiet down at that point.
Have fun!!!!

 

[bmer1rick]

With the Eastern Caribbean Fantasy Itinerary only having one stop at CC and the Western Caribbean not stopping at all, most of the passengers will get off the ship at CC on the day it docks. With a 5 yr old, it will make it more difficult. You mentioned that you would rather not sit in the confined space at the gangway door waiting for it to be open. I would recommend you either wait for the announcement that the gangway is open or head down 5 mins after the posted all ashore time.

Early in the morning will be the least crowded, but it will be hot with the all ashore not till 9:45, it is getting pretty hot by then. I would head down to the Pelican Plunge beach which we found as the least crowded. It is also the closest to the "Spring a Leak" water play area that a 5 yr old may like. It is close to Cookies Too which I would hit as close the the opening time as possible to minimize the crowd.

With the larger ships, CC does get crowded, but don't forget you are only a tram ride and a short walk to the ship to escape. However, we have also found the pool deck gets pretty full on CC day as it gets later in the day as many try to head back early and try the Aquaduck.

 

[Renysmom]

With the Eastern Caribbean Fantasy Itinerary only having one stop at CC and the Western Caribbean not stopping at all, most of the passengers will get off the ship at CC on the day it docks. With a 5 yr old, it will make it more difficult. You mentioned that you would rather not sit in the confined space at the gangway door waiting for it to be open. I would recommend you either wait for the announcement that the gangway is open or head down 5 mins after the posted all ashore time.

Early in the morning will be the least crowded, but it will be hot with the all ashore not till 9:45, it is getting pretty hot by then. I would head down to the Pelican Plunge beach which we found as the least crowded. It is also the closest to the "Spring a Leak" water play area that a 5 yr old may like. It is close to Cookies Too which I would hit as close the the opening time as possible to minimize the crowd.

With the larger ships, CC does get crowded, but don't forget you are only a tram ride and a short walk to the ship to escape. However, we have also found the pool deck gets pretty full on CC day as it gets later in the day as many try to head back early and try the Aquaduck.

The family beach gets pretty crowded by mid morning so I wouldn't wait all morning but you certainly can take your time at breakfast and then head out.

BTW, you do stop at CC for Western Caribbean sailings. Actually any cruise out of Port Canaveral gets Castaway Cay as a stop (unless the weather permits it from happening).

 

[boogabuzz]

With the Eastern Caribbean Fantasy Itinerary only having one stop at CC and the Western Caribbean not stopping at all, most of the passengers will get off the ship at CC on the day it docks. With a 5 yr old, it will make it more difficult. You mentioned that you would rather not sit in the confined space at the gangway door waiting for it to be open. I would recommend you either wait for the announcement that the gangway is open or head down 5 mins after the posted all ashore time.

Early in the morning will be the least crowded, but it will be hot with the all ashore not till 9:45, it is getting pretty hot by then. I would head down to the Pelican Plunge beach which we found as the least crowded. It is also the closest to the "Spring a Leak" water play area that a 5 yr old may like. It is close to Cookies Too which I would hit as close the the opening time as possible to minimize the crowd.

With the larger ships, CC does get crowded, but don't forget you are only a tram ride and a short walk to the ship to escape. However, we have also found the pool deck gets pretty full on CC day as it gets later in the day as many try to head back early and try the Aquaduck.

Our western in Sept is scheduled to stop at CC. Weather would be the only thing keeping any sailing from port canaveral from stopping there. That stop alone is part of the DCL experience!!

 

[reimero]

It's a minor thing, but you may also want to consider timing your departure based on your Daily Navigator. If you time it right, you'll encounter characters on your way to the family beach. On our cruise Jack Sparrow made 2 brief appearances.

 

[gatorfreud]

We were on the Dream in June. I did not find it too crowded at all. I had planning to get up to be first off, but that didn;t happen. I think we went off both days around 9:30 and it was totally fine. Easily found umbrella chairs -once on 1st set of beach, 2nd day it was a little more crowded when we got off and we just went all the way down by the cabana rope and not too many people. We did floats, biked. The food wait was not long. Everything was Awesome!!!!

 

[bmer1rick]

The family beach gets pretty crowded by mid morning so I wouldn't wait all morning but you certainly can take your time at breakfast and then head out.

BTW, you do stop at CC for Western Caribbean sailings. Actually any cruise out of Port Canaveral gets Castaway Cay as a stop (unless the weather permits it from happening).

My fault confused the Galveston WCarib with the PC one.

 

[IrenicMom]

We were just there last week on a sold out Fantasy.

We wanted to be at the first beach because it was close to Castaway Rays and the snorkeling.

Was it crowded? yes.

Did it in any way affect our day there? Nope, not at all.

We found four seats together, though not under an umbrella.

We waited until 1pm to eat lunch - no line.

We waiting until after lunch to go to Pelican Plunge. My younger son and I did both slides two or three times each, and the wait was never more than 15/20 minutes.

Of course, YMMV.

 

[Illini_Fan]

I've read (in this thread and others) that the beach starts to thin out mid-afternoon as people return to the this ship? Has anyone tried the reverse approach and stayed on the ship in the morning and done CC after lunch? I was wondering if that would give us an empty AquaDuck for a bit and then an empty beach from 2pm until it is time to reboard.

 

[herb102211]

We were on the Dream last March and we got off the ship as soon as we were cleared to go ashore (around 9am). The beach wasn't too crowded then, but by mid-morning we noticed the crowds picked up. We got all of our character photos done first thing, and there were no lines. We stayed at the family beach for most of the morning and then headed over to Serenity Bay (adult only beach since it was only DH and myself). We also ate lunch as soon as it was served (around 11am) and the crowds were minimal. We did notice most people starting to go back to the ship around 3pm.

 

[bzkds]

We sailed last year. We went ashore around 10am and no trouble finding chairs/umbrellas if you go further down the beach (toward the snorkeling area). We also stayed on the beach until around 4:30, the last hour was the best of all. It was cooler, and not crowded. I'd love it if they'd have all aboard later than 5pm!

 

[closetmickey]

I've read (in this thread and others) that the beach starts to thin out mid-afternoon as people return to the this ship? Has anyone tried the reverse approach and stayed on the ship in the morning and done CC after lunch? I was wondering if that would give us an empty AquaDuck for a bit and then an empty beach from 2pm until it is time to reboard.

I was wondering this too! Has anyone tried this approach?

 

[SnowWhite2]

Starting around 2 or 3 pm, there are 2 for 1 Konk Koolers and some other type of drink.

 

[mmouse37]

We also were on the Fantasy last week and found CC to be fine. yes, it is crowded (you have 4,000 people onboard but we got off the ship when announced and found chairs easily. We were near the snorkerling area. We headed back to the ship by about 2:30-3:00 and hung out in the adult pool.

Everyone said it was their favorite island stop....the water was great and we rented floats and tubes and had a ball.

MJ

 

[ScrappinGran]

Are hammocks available only with Cabanas? We will be going to the adult beach.

 

[SCMouseFans]

We were off the ship probably within 5 minutes of the gangways opening. While there was a small crowd walking off with us we never had to stand and wait, it was just a steady steam of traffic.

We stopped to meet and take a picture with Donald, then headed to the tram and took it to the Pelican beach. We walked to the right along the beach and quickly found four chairs underneath a palm tree, right in front of the Sand Bar. (No problems being in front of the bar). At 11:30 we headed for lunch and back to the ship for my son's nap time. The beach was quite crowded by then, with a lot of people in the water. A family stopped near us looking for chairs and I told them if they could wait 2 minutes they could have ours. Cookie's Two was not crowded at all at 11:30.

After getting my son setlled with my husband I walked back onto to island to head to the adult beach. This was around 1:30 and a lot of people were heading back to the ship. When I got to Serenity Bay it was very quiet with maybe 12-15 adults in the immediate vicinity? There were three hammocks right as I walked onto the beach - the one in the shade was occupied but two in the sun were not, so I was able to enjoy a hammock for a while.

One thing to mention, it is HOT later in the afternoon. (At least in July ). I think for families with young children it would be better to do the beach first thing in the morning, rather than have them hot and miserable at 3 pm.

 

[Maleficent's Dad]

Was it crowded? yes.

Did it in any way affect our day there? Nope, not at all.

We found four seats together, though not under an umbrella.

We waited until 1pm to eat lunch - no line.

This was our experience as well. We ran the 5K first as a family of four (hot, but a great start to the day). Pelican Plunge can NOT handle the crowds; I'm not sure if it's the larger ships, or that's always the case, but our lines were so long the kids never attempted it. The snorkeling is great, but you swim out very far to get to the cool stuff. Although loads of people were snorkeling, the area is large and we were never crowded.

Only thing we wished for was MORE time at Castaway Cay!

 

[kamgen]

We find that the beach clears out a lot starting around 3pm. We love that time. We usually get chairs toward the end of the main beach, before you get to the area where Pelican Plunge is. It always seems less people are over there. And it is close to the Heads Up Bar (love that place!)