Official Castaway Cay 5K Thread

[bumbershoot]

I would whole-heartedly agree with everything you said except for the part about the Run Disney races not being magical.

It's why I said "I" a lot.

For me, I don't really care about course entertainment. I'm too slow to be able to enjoy any of it. Music is OK, but I run with my own music. I'm NOT a character person; I was phobic as a kid and I just don't care about them now. Still not quite sure why I keep booking these things, LOL. Might be a sign of a problem, to not enjoy things but keep doing them anyway. Or it's just a reason to get another vacation.

But I'm rather immune to magic and pixie dust anyway. I prefer "mummy dust" over at Universal.

anyone think they will change for 2016?

One hopes they'll change the year on the medal.

 

[BelleWannabe4]

I'm sure this question has already been asked, but I didn't see it in the most recent pages. I'm wondering what time the 5K actually starts. I think we're supposed to be at CC by 9:30 on the Fantasy. Does anyone have recent experience with this? Would the 5K start by 10 am? The whole slow walk from the ship thing concerns me. I'm interested in running it but not if it takes away too much of my beach time Thanks!

 

[islandsnoopy]

I'm sure this question has already been asked, but I didn't see it in the most recent pages. I'm wondering what time the 5K actually starts. I think we're supposed to be at CC by 9:30 on the Fantasy. Does anyone have recent experience with this? Would the 5K start by 10 am? The whole slow walk from the ship thing concerns me. I'm interested in running it but not if it takes away too much of my beach time Thanks!

All ashore time was 8:30 am on 1 Jan at Castaway Cay on the Fantasy. The runners leave the ship in a group and are usually the first ones off the ship.

 

[bumbershoot]

The runners leave the ship in a group and are usually the first ones off the ship.

Except when they aren't. I've done the 5K something like 4 times, and I have never once experienced being in the first group off the ship. Not even close; our group is always mixed in with lots of other people getting off the ship.

Belle, it varies with every sailing. There is no way to tell when the 5K on your sailing will meet, will leave the meet-up room, etc etc.

But it's still a great experience. Especially if you have people to bring your stuff off the ship for you, it's well worth the time.

 

[RachieBelle]

This thread is 60 pages long, so I'm sure it has already been addressed... but where can I find out information about the Castaway 5k for our specific cruise? Is there a link? How do you sign up?

 

[Quellman]

This thread is 60 pages long, so I'm sure it has already been addressed... but where can I find out information about the Castaway 5k for our specific cruise? Is there a link? How do you sign up?

The information is the same for all cruises. The ship navigators will tell you where and when to sign up, generally at guest services or the shore excursion desk.

At this time the ONLY deviation to the above has been the runDisney event in conjunction with the WDW Marathon weekend. This consists of a separate paid 5k event in which people can sign up to run the WDW marathon and is valid only on select cruises immediately following the WDW marathon weekend. Even when there is an "official runDisney 5k" on board, the normal "free Castaway 5k" is still held.

 

[Shanti]

I'm sure this question has already been asked, but I didn't see it in the most recent pages. I'm wondering what time the 5K actually starts. I think we're supposed to be at CC by 9:30 on the Fantasy. Does anyone have recent experience with this? Would the 5K start by 10 am? The whole slow walk from the ship thing concerns me. I'm interested in running it but not if it takes away too much of my beach time Thanks!

We just ran the 5K 3 days ago as part of a Magic cruise. The runners were scheduled to meet at 8:15am in the Fathoms lounge, and we actually got to the starting point of the 5K at about 9am. We were not the first off the ship at all- the ship-wide announcement for guests to hit the island was made while we were still waiting at Fathoms. The 5K took my son and I about 45 minutes, because we walked more than we ran. It was quite hot, humid and sunny- that was the hardest thing about it.

We signed up at Guest Services, but could have done so at Port Adventures, too.

 

[vitaminj]

We did the 5k on 12/30/2015 on the Wonder. We were not even close to being the first off the ship. All ashore was at 8:30 or so, we were off at 9:15.
It was fun but very humid.

 

[hjic15102]

Can you do the race pushing a child in a stroller?

 

[cgolf]

Got back from our B2B last Friday on the magic and happy to say I ran it both times after not having run for 2 years. First attempt was a dreadful 37:50 that felt worse than that. Super happy though with smashing my PB by 3 minutes and only pausing twice for water, no other walking and sprinting to the end for 33 minutes which is great time for me Now I just need to get on a routine at home with the excercise bike to get even better and to save my knees

 

[MeliMel702]

Has anyone done the 5K and then gone snorkeling? My kids (10 and 12) really want to get the medal, but they also want the chance to see sea turtles and the statues. If we did the 5K, then Stingray Adveture, then Lunch, would we still have energy to snorkel out in the lagoon? We will be going in August on the Dream. I'm planning to practice with my girls during their summer vacation. We live in Vegas so we know all about the heat and it can get pretty humid too. I will also be participating in the Virtual RunDisney again this year, it would be nice to add the CC medal to my collection.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

My daughter and I have snorkeled after the 5k. I will say that she is older-18. And we didn't do the stingray. I guess it depends on how much energy you find you have after a warm run and whether you like any down time on the island. The run is fine for our family-we are all runners, so not taxing. But if you are new to running you or your kids may have tired legs. Snorkeling out to where the fish and statues are takes some leg power (get the fins!) to get there and back. For us we like to run, snorkel, lunch and enjoy the day wading, sitting, reading, adult drink. Hope you enjoy your cruise!

 

[PAGA2003]

Can you do the race pushing a child in a stroller?

No, they don't allow strollers.

 

[MeliMel702]

Thank You @ladyofthetramp! I'm pretty sure I can do it with my 12yr old, not so sure about my 10yr old. Think I'm going to have to skip it this time.

 

[tigerchic89]

I think you'd be fine doing the 5K, stingrays and snorkel. For snorkel, the water is pretty calm, you have fins and an inflatable/deflatable bib thingy (mandatory). You can take your time and do lots of surface floating with the bib inflated. As long as you have a nice chunk of time and apply lots of sunscreen, you can do the snorkel lagoon very relaxed.

 

[WDWLODGE]

For those of you than have done the 5K during a double dip cruise, did the fact that there were 2 opportunities to do the 5K reduce the # of people participating for each run? If so, did you get off the ship closer to the all ashore time? Does the 1st run or 2nd run have more participants, or were they about the same?

 

[Steve Dexter]

I've done the 5K on both stops on a double dip. There was definitely a drop in number of runners for the 2nd 5K. I spoke to a crew member and he said that is normally how it works.

 

[EpicBilynn]

My whole point of going on the cruise is the 5K. Most expensive 5K ever

 

[mikewdw]

What are the nuts and bolts of how the morning goes for the race? My wife and i are considering running it. Our kids are 14 and 12. Do people go back to ship to get stuff for day at CC or do they bring and drop stuff somewhere? Is course straight line or double back on itself? I thought i saw youtube of someone who passed people on way to finish. We have 2 stops at CC so will there be race both days? any info we need to know about it?
thanks
mikewdw

 

[TCB in FLA]

What are the nuts and bolts of how the morning goes for the race? My wife and i are considering running it. Our kids are 14 and 12. Do people go back to ship to get stuff for day at CC or do they bring and drop stuff somewhere? Is course straight line or double back on itself? I thought i saw youtube of someone who passed people on way to finish. We have 2 stops at CC so will there be race both days? any info we need to know about it?
thanks
mikewdw

I have no idea about the double CC stops, but can help with the other bits. We usually run as a family. We bring our beach stuff with us and drop it off quickly at the family beach on some chairs before the run (you have to walk a way to the start, so if you are quick, you can have someone dash to drop off the stuff before the start). They start letting people off the boat around the same time as they do the 5k people, so you might see some non-runners toward the finish. The course is basically an out-and-back with a loop part you do at the beginning and the end. Most importantly, IT WILL BE HOT AND HUMID! Like crazy humid. Slow down, take advantage of the water station (it’s by the loop, so you pass it four times). We usually walk back to the ship, taking advantage of character stops with our medals, shower and change, maybe grab a quick something to eat, then head back to the beach.