Vests for Snorkeling at Castaway Cay

[logan1_2000]

I read at another site, www.cruisemates.com, a 2001 review that said swim vests were free if you had your own snorkle equipment. Can anyone verify if that is true or false at the present time? My DW and DS(6) and I were at Castaway Cay with the Wonder in May 2002 but we had to rent the entire snorkle-gear set up, which added up quickly for the three of us. Since then we got DS his own snorkle and mask and flippers, which he has loved. I would rather buy my own snorkle and mask than use a rental set again as well.

But I do recall that Disney Lifeguards were Snorkle-Nazis (Seinfeld fans, what do you think of that reference?) in that if at any time DS wanted to just put on mask and snorkle and put his face in the water to look around, he was whistled and we were told that we had to go over to the snorkle side of the rope and wear a vest at all times. On our upcoming 1/11/03 Magic cruise we will likely be doing some very close to the beach snorkle use in St. Thomas and possibly St. Martin, both islands where I have been before, but then its back to Castaway Cay.

I don't really want to go out and buy a vest for DS and possibly one for myself for our upcoming cruise, and if the "free vest" reference is correct, I would not have to. I can't imagine that anything is ever free from Disney but then I saw that other review. Anyone got the story on the vests? Thanks.

Oh--any who can help me with how do you put those countdown clocks till your cruise at the bottom of your posts? Double thanks.

 

[SC Minnie]

The life vests are free to use. They will not let you use your own at Castaway Cay. We brought our own and were told we had to use theirs.

Check out the Technical Board for help with the countdown clocks.

 

[jds]

Yes indeed, the vests are free. When we cruised in July they left bunches of them draped over beach chairs near the water, so if you had your own equipment you didn't need to stand in line to get a vest. They had kids and adult sizes.

Re the snorkel police: one family in our group had young kids (3 and 5-year-olds) who just wanted to try out the masks, and nobody made them leave the regular family beach area... but they probably are stricter about older kids and adults...

 

[garyss7]

We went on Nov 2nd cruise and used our own snorkel vests. Nobody
said a word about it... I trust my stuff before anybody elses! Gary

 

[logan1_2000]

I appreciate the prompt and up to date info--thanks everyone!

 

[logan1_2000]

I appreciate the countdown clock tip, as well. Thanks to all for keeping these boards so useful and informative. Oh yes--and fun.

 

[my3kids]

My children have their own vests, but we used DCL's for free at CC. No charge, and no problem with ours from home either. If you plan on snorkeling at the other islands also, I'd go ahead and buy a child's vest. I think we ordered from diversdirect.com. Tried joe diver america and had horrible problems. Definately worth it to buy your own vests. They deflate so no probelm to pack. Water at St. Marteen was VERY rough. I wouldn't allow them to even splash without a vest on.