How is the water (ship, CC, Nassau) in late January?

TigerLaw

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 17, 2000
Doing a five night trip on the magic this upcoming January at the end of the month. What I am curious about is how well you are able to swim in the pools, castaway cay, nassau beaches, etc., or is the water just too cold?

Thanks in advance for your help
 
'cold' water for swimming is very subjective

in Wisconsin the lake water never gets 'warm' by my standard but plenty of folks go swimming.

I live near Cape Canaveral and in the winter plenty of folks go in the water at the beach .... locals call them tourist, snow bird or just crazy ....

I don't go in my pool once the water is below low 80's but family from Wisc visits in March and they go swimming both in my pool and at the beach ....

CC is just about the same latitude (north) as Ft Lauderdale ..... water temps will be similar .....
 
We have been on the dream twice in January and to WDW many times, about to take our 3rd cruise and we've seen it all! Both cruises we swam and were very warm at castaway cay we had a great beach day and finished in the pool. DH did go in the ocean both times with no complaint. As for our WDW trips we have had some horrible weather where we had to wear jackets and gloves with tons of rain we were just lucky our cruises weren't during those trips ;) we continue to on,y travel in January due to the pricing and break from winter. It's worth the weather risk to us
 
we live in Florida, Daytona Beach area, we always hit the pools and spend some time in the bech, we go in Dec
 


We've been to CC three times, all in early to mid January and February. It's absolutely fine, swam at CC and the pools every day. I guess it depends on your definition of cold, sinec it's so subjective, but we also always had perfect weather , never too hot and humid, which is a bonus!
 
We were there one year in mid-February. Wore capris on the beach, too windy on our balcony, and water was absolutely freezing. Weather at that time of year can be hit or miss.
 
We were on the Wonder in mid February (President's week). The water was on the chillier side, but coming from NY, it was great to us! Atlantis water was warm in the lagoon and pools. Weather was gorgeous for both islands. 80ish
 


Sounds like we will be on the same cruise. Average water temperature in January and February is 73F. Depends on the air temperature for me, if it is in the 80's and sunny that day then the water will be fine for a quick dip. If it is only in the 70's then the warm sandy beach will be plenty!
 
We've stopped going to the Bahamas during winter because the water is just too cool for us to enjoy. On our last Jan Bahamas cruise, DD barely got in the water at all and DS wore a sweatshirt the whole time. :cold: Others seemed to be enjoying it, but with the usual light breeze any water below about 76 degree is just too cold for us.
 
We sail the first week of December and the water at CC is almost always too cool for my liking. Pool water on the ship should be fine.
 
As a west-coaster, I'm particularly hopeful that the water in the Caribbean in January will be much better than the freezing cold Pacific ocean....LOL.
 
We just purchased a outside pool this year and have been testing out the different temperatures as we have a pool heat pump. 78 degrees is the minimum I have found you can swim but the water feels cold on entry and takes a few minutes to acclimatize.

Ideally I would say anything in the 80's and you would be fine unless you live in a hot part of the country.
 
As a west-coaster, I'm particularly hopeful that the water in the Caribbean in January will be much better than the freezing cold Pacific ocean....LOL.

Haha. Yeah its hilarious to me hearing people mention 70s being too cold. We surf and boogie board here in San Diego. During the summer on a warm sunny day, the water temp gets in the upper 60s, sometimes a nice warm 67-68 at the warmest. When its in the low 60s or 50s is when I put the wetsuit on. Water in any of those tropical places is like hot tub water to us.
 
We were on the Magic this January. In Cozumel, I wore a long-sleeved Under Armour over my suit. Waves were a bit high and it was chilly upon entry but we soon acclimated. We sailed past Castaway Cay -- too windy. :sad1:
 
Doing a five night trip on the magic this upcoming January at the end of the month. What I am curious about is how well you are able to swim in the pools, castaway cay, nassau beaches, etc., or is the water just too cold?

Thanks in advance for your help
We are going on this cruise also! Thanks for asking....I am curious as well!
 
I'm from Canada and we cruised January 10-15 and the water at castaway cay was too cold for me. There were kids in there though so it depends on your tolerance. Grand Cayman was gorgeous though. So further south will probably be nice so get to the beach if you can.
 
We found the ocean too cold to enjoy at CC during our January cruise. The pools were better, but it was overcast and very windy for most of our week so everything felt chilly.
 
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