Shark at Castawy Cay - UPDATED with pictures

[Zandy595]

I haven't read through all the posts yet, but I wanted to mention that CM's routinely have to "rescue" sharks from the net that's supposed to keep them out. I believe they usually are dead by the time CM's get to them.

 

[plutojudy]

lets hope there are no clowns, spiders, snakes or Charlie Sheen either on CC

Charlie Sheen, now that's scary.

 

[Zandy595]

I've been looking at pictures from a facebook page that someone set up for former Castaway Cay CM's. There are a lot of pictures of dead sharks. Very, very sad.

 

[iloverags2]

Ok I wasn't going to post this but I decided I had too. I just finished reading this thread and it reminded me of the last cruise I took in 2009 on the Magic. At the time I thought this was really funny and still do and I tell people.

My tablemates (a family from the west coast and lives near the beach) could not wait to go CC. They were doing the stingray adventure and the snorkeling. Well my family & I had the first stingray adventure of the day, and after the tabelmates came and found us and asked how it was. We told them it was fun and we had a good time. They were on there way to go snorkle and couldn't wait till their stingray adventure later in the day. Well imagine my surprise later in the day after my family & I had lunch at cookies when the wife and husband saw me and they were very upset . It seems that when they were snorkeling a fish swam up to the wife and scared her and she "jumped" and started screaming. It seems that she and her husband could not believe there were fish, live fish, at CC. They honestly thought Disney took the live fish out of the lagoon and exchanged them for fake fish. Mind you, she was telling me this in front of alot of people and no one could believe it. She also was very upset that DCL would not refund her her money for canceling the stingray adventure. I had all I could do not to laugh out loud. She kept scremaing " did you know there are live fish in that lagoon? why would Disney put live fish in there? Don't they know that people want to swim in the lagoon?" Let's say that night my tablemates never came to dinner and my family had a very nice and quiet dinner that night.

That has got to be one of the funniest stories I have ever heard! Oh. My. Word! And what kind of stingrays did they think they were going to be feeding? Animatronics?

 

[com_op_2000]

At Serenity Bay, I am on the beach, and DW is on a raft about 20 yards out. I start walking out to take her picture and all the little fish around me scatter. I start looking around and see a 3 - 4 foot Black Tip shark crusing through the water. Picture did not come out due to angle of sun and reflection off the water. My DW is splashing the water with her hands to move the raft, so I tell her to stop cause I see a shark. So what does DW do, she jumps off the raft and makes a bigger splash. The sharks turns towards her. I have to run and get between her and the shark.

Check out this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2241477&page=3

 

[dahuffy]

That has got to be one of the funniest stories I have ever heard! Oh. My. Word! And what kind of stingrays did they think they were going to be feeding? Animatronics?

 

[luvndizny]

Where's the CC fan page you're referencing?

 

[Zandy595]

Where's the CC fan page you're referencing?

Do a fb search for Castaway Cay, Bahamas. You'll know you have the right one if there are over 800 photos.

 

[TiszBear]

dahuffy & iloverags2 - she really thought Disney would not have real fish at CC. She was really upset and those around her had a hard time not laughing. Yep real fish in the ocean, what a concept

 

[dahuffy]

dahuffy & iloverags2 - she really thought Disney would not have real fish at CC. She was really upset and those around her had a hard time not laughing. Yep real fish in the ocean, what a concept

This is something I would expect from a child,not an adult!

 

[starspangle95]

Okay. You guys are FREAKING me out. My two older kids (11 & 8) love to snorkel and I have to take them because DH doesn't like it. I think I would NOT do well if I encountered one of these creatures....YIKES!

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm scared of these creatures too, but we didn't encounter anything like that while we were there last Tuesday. I went snorkeling for about a half hour with my dad and sister and the only thing we found were four or five fish. However, we only went about halfway out and stayed close to groups of people. That's what I would advise you do if you're concerned.

 

[Alexander]

And this is exactly why I won't swim in anything that isn't chlorinated! One glimpse of any fish and I'm walkin' on water to get away from it!

 

[myxdvz]

I just came back from CC and we loved it. I did wonder why anyone would "snorkel" in these waters though. I didn't see enough reef to house marine life.

Can people share some of their snorkel pictures? I've kinda made up my mind that CC is not the place to snorkel in. I've snorkelled in Hawaii and Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) which has very beautiful marine life. I get easily disappointed if I don't see any even though I know its always unpredictable This would be a good note in the future. I did see some fish and jelly fish in the ocean while swimming there with the kids.

As for sharks, I've also swammed with sharks in Hawaii. From what I know of them, most of them are harmless and are more scared of us than we are of them. Touching any marine life though specially those that you don't know is a bit stupid. There are poisonous fish, corals, and others. I also read someone about using the reef as a stepping board, this is a big no no. Coral Reefs normally take years to build and takes seconds to kill if we touch it, kick it or handle it. I am actually more scared of going too near the reefs than near any marine life because I know I can hurt it more than the fish can hurt me

Look but don't touch, is what I have always been told.

 

[SoCaOC-Mom]

A few years ago our son was on the fishing excursion off CC and caught one of Barry's family or friend....35 lbs. worth!!!

MJ

What do you do with the fish that are caught when you are cruising? Is it catch and release? I can imagine how it could be filleted and taken home without spoiling.

 

[wdw_girl_18]

I just came back from CC and we loved it. I did wonder why anyone would "snorkel" in these waters though. I didn't see enough reef to house marine life.

Can people share some of their snorkel pictures? I've kinda made up my mind that CC is not the place to snorkel in.

We spent an hour snorkeling in CC. Mainly just trying to swim out to the minnie and mickey statue (which was so far away from shore!). But there were tons of fish and marine life in the water!

These guys were all over the place

fish in the submarine!

 

[truck1]

DCL has over the years placed a lot of oblects on the bottom to facilitate marine growth. Heres a few:

 

[sws.london]

Zandy- the only one I found with a lot of pictures is for the cast? Anyone have a link for the FB page???

 

[disneycrazzzy]

Here are some pics from our trips in 2006 and 2009:

^ I think this is a grouper that was under a lifeguard chair.

^ Sea slug very near shore

^ Lion fish at Serenity Bay

^ Barry the Barracuda. This was taken on the snorkeling excursion. We've seen similar in the snorkeling area ... but my pictures weren't as good as this one.

 

[myxdvz]

Thanks for the photos! Hope I didn't hijack the thread. It is indeed very different type of marine life than I was expecting

We stayed at CC from about 10:30am-2:30pm, and only stayed in our area of the beach (near Pelican Plunge, near the border of the cabanas). We even missed Mount Rustmore! I didn't know about the Minnie and Mickey statue so I'll have to google that.

Good to know there are more different things to try as the kids grow older. Hopefully we'll be back in CC more times!

 

[Zandy595]

What do you do with the fish that are caught when you are cruising? Is it catch and release? I can imagine how it could be filleted and taken home without spoiling.

Not sure if it's catch and release, but I don't think you're supposed to eat barracuda anyway. I could be wrong though.

Zandy- the only one I found with a lot of pictures is for the cast? Anyone have a link for the FB page???

The fb page I was looking at was for CM's.