Reviews of Excursions

Reviews

6

Rating

9 / 10

Recommended By

100%



Reviewed by Harmon54 Review Date: 09/29/2018

Rating: (10)
Recommended

Extreme Getaway Package (includes Castaway Ray’s Stingray Adventure, float/tube + snorkel equipment rentals for the day, and a one hour bike rental). This is the best deal to experience a little bit of everything on the island.

We have done the Stingray portion with my boys and have a reservation coming up to go with my daughter. It is a very memorable experience. A cast member gives you an overview of what you will be doing and how to feed the rays. They make the kids feel very comfortable with the experience. Feeding lasts about 10-15 minutes and then you can snorkel in the lagoon with the rays for the remaining time. They provide the snorkel and vest that you will need.

You also get a tube rental and one hour bike rental with the package to enjoy while on the island. There are lots of bike trails and the kids bikes come with helmets and training wheels if needed.
If you can’t get a cabana (which are hard to come by) this is a good option for an excursion. You can enjoy the Island without booking any excursion though also - plenty stuff included to keep you busy!

Pros:

Good value - get to participate in a lot of different activities

Cons:

Would like more time feeding the stingrays.
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Reviewed by Thea Review Date: 09/27/2018

Rating: (9)
Recommended

Castaway Ray's Stingray Adventure. This is an hour long educational program that allows people to learn more about Southern stingrays. The program starts with a short presentation about rays. You then proceed to a shallow water area where ramps are set into the water. A few people gather around each ramp with a Disney animal care specialist. They demonstrate how to properly feed the rays as they glide around the ramp area and the guests are given some shrimp, squid or fish to feed them. You can also touch their backs and fins as they swim by. Following that, there is about 30 minutes where people can use the provided mask and snorkel to swim with the rays.

Pros:

Cool animal interaction and good information

Cons:

Rather expensive for 1 hour. Small children may be intimidated by the rays.
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Reviewed by bellebookworm9 Review Date: 02/26/2018

Rating: (9)
Recommended

I signed up for the Extreme Getaway Package (includes Castaway Ray’s Stingray Adventure, float/tube + snorkel equipment rentals for the day, and a one hour bike rental). I signed my mom up for just the Stingray Adventure at the same time as mine.

We found the Stingray portion to be pretty cool. Once the group is assembled in the hut, a cast member gives you an overview of the excursion, some background info on the Rays, and tells you how to hold the food for them to eat. We learned that of the 70-ish Rays in the Lagoon, there’s only one male. The largest female is Megatron, and she weighs about 120 lbs and measures 4.5 feet. The rays also have their barbs trimmed, so no worries about getting stung! They are well trained to come up to eat off their Mickey plates. The feeding part only lasts about 10-15 minutes. The rays remind me of my cats, in that they like to wind around your feet! We were surprised at how soft their “wings” are. After the feeding part, you’re allowed to snorkel in the lagoon with the rays for the remaining time. I didn’t see a whole lot with that part.

Next, I picked up my inner tube rental and went out into the swimming area to float for a bit. Big failure. I floated out a little too far and then they started to pull in the buoys to make the area smaller. It’s not easy to direct yourself on an inner tube, so I flopped off and awkwardly swam back, dragging my tube. No more of that, thanks.

Then I picked up my snorkel gear and gave that a try. I learned from the now closed Shark Reef at Typhoon Lagoon (WDW) that I’m not a particularly good snorkeler - I never had a great experience there. With this, I appreciated the buoyancy vest. However, snorkel mouthpieces never seem to fit me well. It’s hard for me to bite them properly and this mask ended up rubbing on my gums to the point of soreness. I completely missed the “trails” and the cool underwater statues and Nautilus shipwreck. Perhaps I’ll try this again next year.

I did not end up using the bike rental but still felt this was a good investment. Next time I think I would just do the “Getaway Package” (all the rentals without the stingrays) and use my time on the island more wisely.

Pros:

Cons:

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Reviewed by sasmmb Review Date: 06/12/2014

Rating: (9)
Recommended

In May 2014 I did the "Kayak and Nature Walk" excursion. You meet at Marge's barges, and then take the trams to Serenity beach, make a bathroom stop and don a life vest. From there you walk about 1 mile as your guide explains the island, animals on the island and other Bahama islands, flowers, fauna, poison plants, and other facts. Be sure to wear walking shoes. At the end you come to where the kayaks are. You can leave your belongings and anything you don't want to get wet. Your belongings are just sitting out, don't expect lockers. But this is a good place to change into water shoes if you have them. Your guide then explains how to enter the 2 person kayak. And that you are only going to be in 3 feet deep water and you are wearing a life vest, so that drowning would be kind of embarrassing. 🙂

Then you pair up with someone, and paddle, paddle, paddle. It's nice scenery and you paddle for quite a while. I was ready to come in for sure. But we did see large sea turtles swimming underneath us which was cool.

Once you arrive back at the beach, you can switch out your shoes, dry off with the towels provided, and walk the mile back to Serenity Beach. Hang out there for 30-60 minutes and then the BBQ will open. All in all a good excursion.

Pros:

can't drown

Cons:

wear walking shoes
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Reviewed by Ranger275 Review Date: 05/14/2014

Rating: (10)
Recommended

We rented the snorkel gear and it was the kids first time snorkeling in the ocean. We took all the kids ages 17,14,13, and 7 our snorkeling adn they all loved it. We did have to exchange masks once since one of them leaked but it wasn't a problem to do that. On the way back in the wind was strong so you did have to work pretty hard to get back to shore. But the view was great and the kids got to see a lot of colorful fish. This is a great day adventurn.

Pros:

Great

Cons:

none
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Reviewed by sasmmb Review Date: 01/16/2014

Rating: (7)
Recommended

This is for the Watercraft Ski Adventure  Single Rider "excursion".
I have never ridden a Jet Ski/Waverunner before. It definately took some getting used to. As such I was pretty timid and lagged behind the others in the group the majority of the time. What I was most suprised at though is there is a lead guide in front and trailing guide that is supposed to bring up the rear. There were several cases where the trailing guide was well in front of me and even in front of the guest in front of me! I have learned that this is not the activity for me. My husband would do it again in a heartbeat though.

Pros:

Fun - yet scary!

Cons:

Guides didn't wait for me.
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