All right, folks. Talk to me about Castaway Cay post-race... How does it work? I'd ask more specific questions but I am totally clueless.
My friends and I were talking about an early Feb trip in 2021... but I sent a wild idea to the group text about skipping 2021 and doing the Castaway Cay Challenge after the full in 2022.
If you book the cruise that leaves the day after the marathon, you can sign up for the Castaway Cay Challenge. While every cruise has a 5k, there's a separate 5k on the island for people specifically doing the Challenge. When I did it (after the 2018 marathon weekend), the Challenge participants went first and the race started at about 7:00am. I think we had to be in the meeting place around 5:30am.
It's a lot less formal than WDW races, and people could hang out with their non-running family members right up until the race started. There were no corrals and it was untimed. The only characters I remember on the course were Vacation Genie (dude never goes on vacation) and Stitch. After the race we got the standard plastic 5k medal and the metal Challenge medal. Bib and shirt pick-up before hand was pretty easy; they had a table set up with the packet and a map of the course - nothing fancy.
I had never been on a
Disney cruise and thought it was pretty nice. My parents are full on cruise people and said it was probably one of the best ships they had been on. I also heard that there are fewer kids on that cruise than on a normal cruise, if that's something you care about.
I'm glad I did it and got that challenge medal, but I don't think I would do it again. It's very expensive for a short cruise, and I was so exhausted after Dopey (#neveragain) that I don't think I really took advantage of everything to do on the ship. Plus my legs hurt so much that I didn't even want to walk down the stairs (elevators are always crowded), let alone run a 5k. Not to mention I missed out on what seemed like an
amazing DATW!
I think it depends on how much you would enjoy the cruise and if that's a cost you're willing to spend. The Castaway Cay Challenge is a nice added bonus on top of Marathon Weekend, but focus more on if you would have a good time with your friends on the cruise, rather than just going for the run.