Castaway Bay 5/29

[RBull4life]

After our exciting two days at Kings Island, it was time to venture off to our next set of parks up in wonderful Sandusky. We left Mason at around 10:30 or so, and made our 3 1/2 hr. trek North. Sometimes I wonder about Mapquest directions, but that is something for another time. We pulled up front at Castaway Bay, and I headed in to check in. Unlike Kings Island Resort, this check-in was smooth, and easy. Picked up our 4 wristbands for the waterpark, and headed off to our "Pelican" room. Threw on our bathing suits, and went on down to the park.

Castaway Bay:
The Waterpark.

Being a Cedar Point Resort, I had really high hopes for the waterpark, but when I got inside, and looked around, I noticed how small it was. Yeah, I know, its an indoor waterpark how big can it be. Two months ago, the wife, and I took a trip up to Geneva,WI for a visit to the indoor waterpark up there (the name escapes me at the moment), and was kind of impressed at the size of it. Anywho, it didn't matter, because it was pratically empty, and we had pretty much free reign to do what we wanted.

Lookout Lagoon Family Funhouse:

A nice little water play area for the kiddies, much like at Hurricane Harbor, but of course, to a smaller scale. My daughter had a blast going down the mini body slides, and my son, well, lets just say he might not be a waterslide person. My son started to get alittle adventerous, and he wouldn't stay close to me as he ran right under where the bucket dumps a ton of water down on guests. He stopped there, and as I was trying to keep up, and gave me his usual 'Ha, now try to catch me' grin. I heard the horn sound, warning us of the impending water drop, but I decided to teach my son a leason, and let him stand there as water just got dumped on him. He was stunned at first, but he got over it. Lookout Lagoon Family Funhouse does not compare to the one at Hurricane Harbor, but I didn't expect it to. 7/10. 10/10 if I has a kid.

Castaway Bay Wave Pool:

My daughter who had just learned how to swim, wanted to go over to the wave pool. After getting measured to make sure she can go without a life jacket (she was measured about 5 times by the same lifeguard throughout our stay), we dived right on in. I am not much of a swimmer, but as long as I am able to get my feet to the bottom of the pool, I am fine, so riding the waves was no problem for me. I took my daughters hand, and headed out to the deeper end of the pool, and tried to show her how to time your jump right, and ride the wave to the shallow end. Well, this did not work out as well as I expected. I sort of tossed her slightly up to catch the wave, but I did it alittle to late, and she did a nose dive right to the bottom, and scrapped her nose. When she came right back up, I had never seen her eyes opened as wide as they were then. She started to cry, and at that moment I felt like the worse father in the world. Being the trooper that she is, she quickly got over it, and was right back into the pool. My wife took our son out to about 2 feet deep, and it was quite funny watching him trying to keep his balance as the waves crashed into him. As for the acual wave pool, it was better than HH. The waves were better, and they ran at 10 minute cycles. I guess a wave pool is a wave pool, but seeing since I have only been in two of them my entire life, I can't really judge it. Fun factor is a 10/10.

Rendezvous Run:

I am not a big fan of waterslides, and I have been on just 1 my entire life, but as I try my hardest to get my daughter on coasters, she pursuaded me to go on this one. If it wasn't a tube slide, I never would have gone on it, but since it was, I decided what the hell, and plus, I felt I owed her one for the wave pool incident. We made the long hike up the stairway to the top, and boarded the tube. I never get nervous about getting on any ride, but this one my heart was racing almost with fear. We left the station, and went right into a drop. After the drop, water jets propelled us up another hill, and our adventure began. We flew through a couple of banked turns, and came up to another drop, and then up another water jet propelled hill. So far, my daughter is laughing, and screaming "Yahooooo", while I am holding on for dear life. Through more twists, and turns in almost complete darkness, we shot out the end, where the lifeguard assisted us out of the tube. "Again, Again", my daughter said as she jumped up, and down. Without hesitation I said "yes." It was a blast, and we managed to get on 14 rides on it that night. She tried to get my wife to go on it, but as usual, the chicken s*** was scared. I loved this ride, so hopefully I might be able to get over my fear, and tackle some of them at Hurricane Harbor. Sure it may be tame compared to other tube slides out there, but for me, for it being my first ever tube slide, I give it a 10/10.

Creature Cove:

This area is basically a pool with a snake, a turtle, and a dolphin (though it did look like an angry shark), as floatation devices. Nothing really to exciting unless you are a child. They did have a large screen tv showing old Hanna Barbara cartoons. Really can't give this a rating since it was just a simple pool.

The rest of the night was just a relaxing, and watching the kids have fun, which they did. The only thing that dissapointed me was the lack of a lazy river. After we left the park, we settled down for a dinner at TGIF's, and some ice cream at Ebb, and Eddy's, and called it a night.

The next morning we ate some breakfast, and hit the waterpark again before we had to check out. My daughter and I rode Rendezvous Run 5 more times, a few more wades in the wave pool, and it was time to leave. As we were checking out, I asked the girl at the front counter to call Hotel Breakers to see if our room would be ready, since we would be over there by 12:00. After a quick phone call, she informed us that indeed it would be ready for us. After the mess at Kings Island Resort, I was happy, but then again, Cedar Point resorts have always been the best I have been at. Which brings me to my next point. The hospitality, and kindness, and the overall atmosphere of Castaway Bay is one of the reasons I will be returning next year to this resort for more than a one night stay. A treasure hunt for the kids so they can win a prize, and a craft shop for the kids. For $5 my daughter made a photo album so she can store photo's from our trip, and did other various craft stuff. The only negative thing I can say about Castaway Bay was the breakfast. They only had Ebb, and Eddy's open for breakfast, and not Mango Mikes. I did find out that they had a slow week, and putting out a buffet, they would have thrown away more food than they would have sold. Understandable, but in true Cedar Point Resort fashion, the manager for Mango Mikes (I think he was the manager), gave us a table in the resturant, so the four of us wouldn't be trying to eat off of a small round table at Ebb, and Eddy's. Needless to say, he got a very nice tip.

Do yourself a favor, and visit Castaway Bay. Even though it is a bit pricey, around $260 a night depending on what time of year you stay, but you get 4 wristbands for the waterpark good for your entire stay at the resort.
Castaway Bay gets a resounding 10/10.

Up next: Cedar Point

[RagingBullLover1543]

Wow. Fun day.

[joiclarrissa]

Wow $260 a night. Thats out of control but it sounds fun, so maybe when I'm older.

[Galvan]

I never-ever use Mapquest, always use RandMcnally.com driving directions, i figure if its from the map people, they have to be right.

[RBull4life]

I never-ever use Mapquest, always use RandMcnally.com driving directions, i figure if its from the map people, they have to be right.

You know, I think I might try RandMcNally.com. Getting to castaway Bay, Mapquest had me going the long way. Instead I just followed the signs for Cedar Point, and made it there in no time.

[RagingBullLover1543]

Yeah. Thats what I did too. Sometimes mapquest is stupid but sometimes it's helpful.