Disney Cruise

Disney Cruise Line’s private island, Castaway Cay, is a small slice of paradise in the Caribbean!  On this slice of paradise, Disney added a private getaway where you can escape the crowds of people that you’ve been traveling with on your cruise ship.  These private getaways are called Cabanas and they are small cabins placed on a private sections of the family beach and the adult beach.  There are twenty regular and one large sized Cabanas on the family beach.  These are also six cabanas on the adult beach. read more

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Disney Cruise

Disney Cruise Line’s private island, Castaway Cay, is a small slice of paradise in the Caribbean!  On this slice of paradise, Disney added a private getaway where you can escape the crowds of people that you’ve been traveling with on your cruise ship.  These private getaways are called Cabanas and they are small cabins placed on a private sections of the family beach and the adult beach.  There are twenty regular and one large sized Cabanas on the family beach.  We will only be talking about the Cabanas on the family beach as we have never experienced the ones on the adult beach.

Reservation

The Cabanas are available via Disney Cruise Line’s reservation system.  That means Concierge guests get the first opportunity to book them at 125 days from sailing.  The next group will be the Platinum level Castaway Club cruisers at 120 days, followed by Gold members at 105, then Silver members at 90.  If there are any left at that point, first time passengers can reserve them at 75 days from sailing. 

We have heard many tales about all the Cabanas being rented by Concierge members and it being a miracle for Platinum members to get them, with little to no hope for Gold or Silver castaway club members to receive them.  I’m here to tell you that isn’t true.  We have sailed a total of eleven times and have reserved four Cabanas, once as a Silver Castaway Club member, twice as Gold members and once as Platinum.  One of the eleven cruises was to Alaska, so reserving a Cabana wasn’t a possibility.  So, we’ve had an almost 50% success rate of reserving a Cabana.  Our secret is to stay up until midnight of our booking date and attempt to grab one right away.  The other technique is to keep checking back multiple times if you aren’t able to get one.

Amenities

The Cabanas at Castaway Cay are open air cabins that are available to rent during the hours of 9 AM to 5 PM.  The Cabanas have a private beach that only Cabana guests can access.  They also come with unlimited drinks and snacks;  the use of snorkel equipment, floats, bike rentals, and beach toys; and a supply of sunscreen.  All this, including the first six guests, can be yours for the low price of $599 (or higher during certain parts of the year).  Yes, I know that is expensive, if not outrageous.  However, it tends to be the only excursion we do on some of our cruises.   The adult cabanas include the first four guests and are less expensive at $399.

In addition to the amenities described above, the Cabana rental provides you with other services.  The first is a Cabana host.  They will transport you via a golf cart around the island (mainly to get lunch or to a tram stop).  There are a ton of towels in the Cabana for your party to use that day, including cold washcloths in the mini-fridge for you to use when you want to cool off.  The snacks include chips and granola bars, fresh fruits, sodas, and water.  I’ve heard you can request certain sodas beforehand, but we’ve never done that.  The supply of sunscreen includes spray and lotion, and you can take it with you when you leave for the day.  The Cabanas also have sand toys you can use, as well as a huge number of rafts and floats.  Cabana guests can take advantage of one hour bicycle rental and also have use of snorkel equipment for the day.

We decided one time to use the snorkel equipment (the girls and I), since we figured it would be a safe learning environment for us.  Well, I don’t have any pictures of the experience.  My youngest daughter and I didn’t like snorkeling at all.  We either weren’t doing it correctly, or just don’t like it.  She couldn’t get her mask on quite right and I spent a lot of time helping her with it, while sucking in way too much water.  We tried it, but probably won’t repeat it.

The Cabanas are enclosed on three sides and open to the beach and water on the fourth side.  Each Cabana includes a loveseat and cushioned chairs which are inside in the shade; a ceiling fan keeps the area cool even in the heat of the summer.  There are also cushioned lounge chairs on the Cabana deck overlooking the beach, and each Cabana has its own hammock, sun umbrella, and several beach/lounge chairs on the beach.  The Cabana is outfitted with tissues, a safe for valuables ,and power outlets.  There are travel magazines in protective covers if you forgot your own reading material.  Finally, each Cabana includes a curtained changing area and outdoor showers (which include a foot washing faucet).  These feature made it very convenient when running the Castaway Cay 5K so we could change from running clothes into our bathing suits!

Usage

For two of our four Cabana rentals, we have had a Cabana setup waiting in our stateroom the night before before Castaway Cay day.  This included a letter telling us all the benefits of the Cabana rental as well as a paper model of the Cabana.  The wristbands we would use that indicated we were Cabana guests were included in an envelope.  The last Cabana we rented while on a Dream cruise just included the wrist bands.
 

Getting to the Cabana

The first thing you will encounter when leaving the ship is the Bahamian Inspection Station (I think that’s what its called).  I believe they want to make sure you aren’t bringing alcohol onto the island and they check your ID when you get back onto the ship.  I don’t quite understand it, since the 99% of the people on the island are the people that just got off the boat (there are only a handful of people that stay on the island overnight).

Once you clear the inspection station, you will see a post office (yes you can mail items back to the US) and the excursion shack (known as Marge’s Barges and Sea Charters Dock).  You can check in here if you have boat related excursions.

The first stop is the tram stop.  Yes, Disney runs a tram just like at the theme parks.  There are three tram stops for the family beaches.  You can also get a tram to the adult beach, but you have to transfer at the last family beach stop.  To get to the cabanas, you will want to head to the last family beach stop, known as Pelican Point Tram Stop.

Checking In

The Cabana check-in shack is located right next to the last tram stop, Pelican Point.  Simply tell the staff which Cabana you have, and show them your wrist bands.  They will check your names against the list.  They have always offered to drive us in a golf cart down to whichever Cabana we had for the day. 

Locations

We have had Cabanas 6, 19, 20 and 23.  Cabana 6 is close to the regular family beach, near the rope barrier that separates the family beach from the reserved beach that is limited to Cabana guests.  Cabana 19 and 20 are farther from the family beach.  However, the lower number Cabanas (which I believe are the original Cabanas) are spaced farther apart than the higher number Cabanas.  We felt like we were much more on top of our neighbors in Cabanas 19 and 20 than we were in Cabana 6, especially when we were sitting in the hammock or beach chairs.   The other big difference between these Cabanas is the beach experience; the beach near Cabana 19 and 20 is narrow and the lagoon is not as wide or deep as other parts of the beach.  Cabana 23 is located on the adult beach.

Pictures of all the cabanas we’ve rented are included below.  We have also included pictures of Cabana 21, which is the grand family Cabana.  While the regular Cabanas can accommodate up to 10 people (6 are included with the rental price), Cabana 21 can hold up to 16 guests.

Cabana 6

 

Cabana 19

 

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Disney Cruise

Day 3 of our cruise was Castaway Cay, which is one of our favorite stops.  Imagine if Disney had taken an entire Caribbean Island and turned it into a water park.  That’s basically how I describe Castaway Cay to people.  We aren’t beach people, but we love this port stop more than any others.  We had managed to grab the last Cabana on the family beach (Cabana #20) when we checked in for this cruise, so it was going to be a great day.  We invited our friends to enjoy the Cabana with us, since there was no additional charge for six people versus four people.

Nancy signed up to run the Castaway Cay 5K, so she got off the ship before the girls and I did.  She had her Cabana wrist bands, so she would just meet us at the Cabana.  We took our bag for the day (complete with Nancy’s change of clothes for after the race) and headed off the ship.  Normally, we would have grabbed towels at the end of the gangway, but we knew there would be plenty of towels in the Cabana. 

We normally would have taken the tram down to the Cabana check in, but we decided to walk today to get some pictures.  Here is a map of the island.

There are helpful signs to point you to your destination!

We also passed by Mount Rustmore, a favorite photo stop on the island!

This is another favorite photo spot!

We also walked past all the shops.  You can get almost everything you need for a fun beach day here, including goggles, sun screen and beach toys.

Eventually, we arrived at the the Cabana check-in area.  We let them know we would be in Cabana 20.  Once they verified our wrist bands, they directed us to the golf carts and drove us down to our Cabana.  Cabana 20 is at the far, far end of the family beach with only the large family Cabana 21 next to it.  In fact, you have to go out onto a little deck walkway to get to the entrance!

At the entrance to the Cabana is your family name, welcoming you to your Cabana.

Here are a few photos of the Cabana!

The Cabana has a ton of seats, in addition to some beach toys that can be enjoyed while you are on Castaway Cay.

There is sun screen and plenty of towels in the Cabana as well.  There are magazines in one of the corner to read.

Each Cabana comes with its own hammock so you don’t have to share.  The beach is also lined with chairs, umbrellas, tubes and rafts. 

There is a small refrigerator in the Cabana that is stocked with sodas, water, and wet wash clothes to help keep you cool.  We also received a fruit plate that we place in the fridge just to keep any flies away from it.  There was a basket with chips and granola bars that I didn’t photograph this time.

Here are some pictures of the view from the Cabana.

Here is the view of the Cabana itself from the beach.  You can see a freshwater shower on landing attached to the stairs leading up to the Cabana.

Since we were here early, I made sure to take a picture of the large family Cabana next door (21) before anyone showed up to occupy it.

Since we went parasailing on our last visit to the island three weeks before this one, we had really talked up the experience to our friends.  They decided to go parasailing themselves.  They were at least smart though, they decided to take some great photographs while they were up in the air.

We spent the rest of the day in the Cabana and on the beach.  When we get a Cabana on Castaway Cay, that is the only thing we plan to do because of the cost involved.  We have the best time just relaxing in the hammock or swimming in the water on Castaway Cay.  We save some of the other excursions, like parasailing, water trikes, and Stingray Adventure for visits where we can’t get a Cabana.  We did go to Cookies Too for lunch, but quickly returned to the Cabana.  We didn’t attempt snorkeling like we did last Spring Break, mainly because that experience didn’t go well.  We stayed in the Cabana till around 4:30 before heading back to the ship. 

We decided to get showered and changed so we could watch the island crew wave goodbye to the ship.  We always make a habit of getting staterooms on the port side of the ship so we can head onto the verandah just to watch this.  Once that was done, we headed to the Walt Disney Theater to watch the show for the evening, which was Believe.  We had taken in that show on the Fantasy a few weeks earlier, but we decided to see it again and it didn’t disappoint.  After that, we headed to Animator’s Palate for dinner.  They didn’t do the full show like we were used to on the Fantasy in terms of the dancing drawings, but they did have the normal interaction with Crush.  I got my standard order of the Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin, served on Wasabi Mashed Potatoes. 

Of course, I managed to forget to get photos of the rest of the food or the dining room itself.  But, we did go on a tour of the ship after dinner to get photos of everything else!  Our first stop was the atrium and the shops.

We then head up to the pool deck to get some pictures.  In the first one, you can see into the Edge where the preteens are still having fun on the last night of the cruise!

This is a photo of the adult pool area.

As luck would have it, it was Super Bowl Sunday, so the entire pool deck was filled with people watching the Super Bowl.  We didn’t bother to watch the game, but kept going on our tour.  The ship did have special food out as well as decorations for the big game.  Disney Cruise Line definitely made sure that people would get to see the game despite being out on the cruise.  In our cruise group, several people stated they had people in their parties that wouldn’t sail unless they could see the game.  I don’t know what happened during the commercials though, perhaps they were only visible from within the United States and something else was put on during those.

 

This ice sculpture was setup right outside the quick service area.  I believe that was a cake that was meant to be eaten, but I didn’t see it get cut into at all while we were walking around.  Maybe it was being saved for the conclusion of the game.

The decorations and food wasn’t limited to just the pool deck, they also had viewing in the adult areas of the clubs as well.  A buffet was setup outside of the clubs.

We decided to skip  putting our luggage out that night so we could just carry it off using express walk off.  It would mean we would have to carry it to the Disney Cruise Line transportation bus in the morning and check it with the airline, but that was fine with us.  It was a short cruise and we didn’t have very much luggage to begin with. 

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