ETA 11/6/16: Since this post my family has snorkeled again at Castaway Cay, and we saw a sea turtle. You can see pictures and read all about it here in my trip report.
ETA 11/2018: We snorkeled again in early November 2018, and you can read about that here.
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We have snorkeled at Castaway Cay once, on our first visit, and I thought I would share our experience with those of you who may be planning your first visit to Castaway Cay and want to know what to expect. Actually, “we” means my husband and oldest daughter. I stayed back in the cabana with the younger 2 who were too young/not interested, but I interviewed my husband about his experience, which I will get to shortly. But first, let me give you the basics about snorkeling at Castaway Cay:
Equipment
You can either rent snorkeling gear on the island (you can reserve online before your cruise, but you can also just walk right up and get it that day) or bring your own. If you rent it that day, it will be charged to your on board account. If you have reserved a cabana, the snorkeling gear is included in the cost. Here are the current prices for a 1 day rental:
$31.18 (ages 10 and up)
$15.05 (ages 5 to 9)
Just a note that if you reserve the equipment online in advance of your cruise, you have up until 3 days before your cruise to cancel without being charged. If you cancel after that deadline (say it is raining the day that you get to Castaway Cay and you don’t want to snorkel after all), you will still be charged. To me it makes more sense to just walk up to the equipment shack on the island and rent your stuff after you get onto the island and you are certain that you want to snorkel. There will be plenty available.
There are 2 locations on the island where you can rent the equipment – Gil’s Fins and Boats or Flippers and Floats. On the map below, Gil’s is the circle on the left and Flippers and Floats is the circle on the right. The large area encircled in white is the snorkeling trail area. To get to Gil’s you will want to use the Pelican Point (second) tram stop, while Flippers and Floats is closer to the Scuttle’s Cove (first) tram stop.
Some people do bring their own equipment, although we have not. However, I have recently began thinking about investing in these full face snorkel masks because they get fantastic reviews and my kids have always struggled with traditional snorkel masks. (Update: I purchased these before our last cruise and my younger 2 preferred them to traditional masks, while my youngest was indifferent.)
One very important thing to note is that all snorkelers are required to wear a bright yellow life vest. There is no charge to use one if you bring your own equipment, but the lifeguards will not allow you to snorkel without it. They are the kind of vest that you can inflate as little/much as you like (you can see one in the pictures below), so you don’t have to inflate it but you do have to wear it. I assume it so that the lifeguards can see you better.
Location
As you can see on the map above, the family snorkeling area/trails are located right off of the first family beach. The area is quite large (22 acres) and there are several lifeguard stands along the trail. In the pictures below, I tried to accurately circle the snorkeling area. Note that you can see the lifeguard stands, as well as buoys in the water marking the edges of the snorkeling area and underwater “treasures”. Hopefully this gives you an idea about how large the area is and far from shore you may swim.
Before I get to my husband’s thoughts, let me show you some of the pictures he took while they were snorkeling. He took a lot more than this, but I narrowed it down to those that showed the most interesting things. Hopefully this will give you an idea about what types of things you may (or may not) see. If you have ever snorkeled before, you should probably set your expectations low (but, we did see a sea turtle on a following trip – click here to see it). Also, these were taken pretty early in the day, and I have heard (but not confirmed) that the water gets cloudier as the day goes on and more people have swam through.
If you are wondering which waterproof camera I use, I love it so much that I have an entire post devoted to it here.
Now, onto the interview:
How would you rate this snorkeling experience compared to others you have done?
I would say that you don’t snorkel here with the goal of seeing amazing wildlife. We saw some fish, but not a lot. Spending time with my daughter and doing something fun together was the best part of this experience. We thought the most fun part was trying to find all of the sunken items.
(FYI, he has also snorkeled in Grand Cayman (excursion report here), St. Thomas (excursion report here), and St. Maarten (excursion report here).)
How physically demanding was this for both you and our daughter?
I started to get tired towards the end and our daughter was somewhat fatigued by the time we were finished. She was 8 at the time and an average swimmer. We swam the whole trail, and I did have to help her a little bit. I would say it is suitable for average swimmers and above.
Was it hard to find the sunken items?
They are marked with buoys, so try to use those as a guide. Also, the items are separated from each other by quite a distance so be aware of that as well.
How deep was the water?
The maximum depth seemed to be about 10 or 15 feet.
What was your favorite thing about it?
I liked the fact that trying to find the sunken items felt like a scavenger hunt. We wanted to make sure we found all of them.
Would you do it again?
I would do it again only if my kids wanted to. Like I said before, for me it was more about doing something fun with my family and less about seeing neat things underwater.
Hopefully this answers any questions you may have as you plan your cruise. As always, be sure to like me on Facebook (click here) and follow me on Pinterest (click here) for all of the latest Disney Cruise Mom updates!
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If you bring your own snorkel gear, where do you get life jackets?
You get them at the snorkel gear rental counter counter, but there is no charge for just the life vest.
Are fins a requirement to snorkel or is just face mask & snorkel ok?
Hi Linda! The only thing that is required is the green inflatable vest (which is free of charge), and you don’t have to inflate it if you don’t want to but you do have to wear it. Fins are not required.
Thank you. Did your husband & daughter find using fins very helpful or feel they could have done w/o them?
They both used them. For a strong swimmer, I think it would be ok without them, but it is a long way to swim if you go out as far as they allow.
I’m thinking of bringing our own masks. Can we rent just the flippers? If so how much per person?
You can just rent the flippers, but I am not sure if they give you a price break or not as I have never tried. The normal price is $31.18 (ages 10 and up) and $15.05 (ages 5 to 9) so it will either be this amount, or possibly less. Hope this helps!
Hi, I will go to Castaway Cay in Dec 2017. I have both snorkels, fins and life vest for my sons. My older one is good swimmer but younger at 6 yrs old not so much. Does it worth to carry my son’s life vest on trip? The one they provide, it is just for color showing, not really help floating.
Hi Pam! They do require everyone to wear the free life vest that they provide, because of visibility like you said (it is neon yellow). You can inflate the vest as little or as much as you like – you can leave it completely empty if you don’t want any flotation, or fill it all the way for maximum flotation. If you want your sons to wear their own life vests, then I think it is possible that the lifeguards will make you put one of the provided ones on top of theirs, unless your sons’ life jackets are a bright yellow. I’m not certain about this though. FYI, there are life jackets provided for free both onboard the ship and at Castaway Cay in case you don’t want to lug yours along. Here is a link that shows photos of both the snorkel vest and life jackets: https://www.disboards.com/threads/castaway-cay-flotation-vest-for-snorkeling-if-bring-own-equipment.3507418/
I plan to go snorkeling for the first time n my upcoming cruise. The first question I have is if you are required to swim the trail or are you allowed to roam freely in the designated area. Also, are you limited to snorkeling in that specific area or can you go in the “swimming” areas as well? The reason I ask that is because we have a family cabana.
Hi Jeffrey! You are allowed to roam freely in the designated snorkeling area, which is very large. I am pretty sure that you could also snorkel in the other areas, such as in front of the family cabanas, but you really won’t see much as that area is a shallow lagoon just about as far out as you can go. You might see a few small fish but that’s about it. If you walk over to the designated snorkeling area, it is much deeper and you will see a lot more sea life. We have seen a stingray and sea turtle before, and I have heard of some people seeing a moray eel. We have stayed in a cabana before and just walked over to the snorkeling area. You should also be able to summon a golf cart to drive you there as well.
Thank you so much for posting this review. I’ve been trying to find out if we need a snorkeling excursion vs just snorkeling at Castaway. This helped me decide to do the excursion. My daughter loves to snorkel, but hasn’t had a fantastic experience yet and wasn’t sure if Castaway would give it. Sounds like it is a nice place to do something as family, but not if you hope to see a good amount of fish/sea life.
Is there any additional cost besides the equipment rental?
Hi Susan! No, there is no extra cost besides renting the equipment. If you bring your own equipment, you will still be required to wear one of the yellow visibility vests but those are provided free of charge.
Hi! I am an avid Disney lover and I enjoy traveling. I have never been out of the United States, but this upcoming summer I will be going out of the U.S. twice. I am going on a Disney cruise but am not sure where to go as a first time cruiser. Snorkeling has been on my bucket list for a long time now and I would love to do it! Any suggestions or help you can provide? Thanks in advance!
Hi! Thank you so much for all your tips! All of your articles have been so helpful!!
So my 7 yo son loves to swim and is a very strong swimmer. He would LOVE to snorkel on our upcoming trip. We will also have a 15 month old when we travel next year. Do you know if the snorkel excursions will allow my little one and I to travel on the boat but only have my 7 yo and husband snorkel? I would hate to miss his first time!
Hi Katie! I don’t think that they would allow that, as they are very strict about the age requirements and they system wouldn’t allow you to even book it for your baby. You could leave your baby in the nursery on the ship, but, I think that snorkeling in the snorkel lagoon at Castaway Cay (vs. reserving the snorkeling excursion) would be better anyway. I have done both and prefer the lagoon (and it’s much cheaper!). You can walk into the lagoon from the beach, start and stop whenever you like, go out as far as you like, and can see some really neat things (plus there are lifeguards stationed along the way). We have seen a stingray, sea turtle, and tons of colorful fish. They also have sunken objects (including a Mickey and Minnie statue!) that are fun to search for. When I did the snorkeling excursion, it was in the open ocean which made me a bit nervous, and we really didn’t see much, definitely not as much as I have seen in the lagoon. It also takes more time out of your day because you have to meet at the dock, motor out the spot, wait for everyone on the boat to get their gear, etc. If you decide to do the snorkel lagoon, you and your husband could take turns with the baby, or you could still leave the baby on the ship in the nursery. I hope this helps!