Castaway Bay

[Harpo]

Has anyone had the opportunity to visit Castaway Bay at Cedar Point to try out their new indoor waterpark? Any opinions from anyone who's visited the hotel & waterpark?

I just booked a reservation for next weekend. Apparently they are sold out for next Saturday, but they had a room available for Friday night, so I can go try out the new waterpark. I'm looking forward to it!

[Darth Gilbert]

Hey Harpo, would you care to share a trip report with us?

I'm going to Castaway Bay near the end of April with the ulterior motive of redeeming our season passes before CP opens. ;)

I have a couple questions in particular.

How busy does it get? I'm going on a Saturday so I'm assuming it'll be booked solid.

How did you like the water coaster?

What's the earliest you were allowed to enter the waterpark, and the latest you could stay the next day?

Do you know of any available coupons? The ones on the website are expired.

I appreciate any info you can share. :D

[Harpo]

My girlfriend and I had a very good time.

The rooms are nothing special -- they're just typical Radisson-style rooms. I'd like to see them remodel the rooms to better fit with the theme of the hotel and waterpark.

The waterpark was very clean, and it was fun. I believe it's open until 10 PM. We didn't go into the waterpark on Friday because we got in around 9, and it just didn't seem worthwhile to get changed for less than an hour.

So, we enjoyed the park on Saturday. As I recall, it opened at 10 AM, but I'm not sure of that. We went in around 10:30, and stayed until about 4. (We stopped for a little while for lunch.) There were very few people in the park until about 2:30, then the Saturday check-ins started showing up. It was getting somewhat busy by the time we left at 4, and it looked like a lot more people were checking in and getting ready to go to the water park. So, I'd recommend going into the park early (well, at least early on a Saturday -- I wouldn't be surprised if Sunday morning is very busy due to people from Saturday night trying to get into the waterpark for a bit longer). If you get to the hotel early Saturday, even though you can't get into your room until later, you should be able to do a pre-checkin, which will allow you to get into the waterpark. If we had wanted to, we could have stayed until the waterpark closed on the day of our checkout, although we did have to check out by 11 AM. But, we did everything in the park a few times by 4, so we decided to move on to other things!

The indoor-outdoor hottub was quite nice. It was a sunny, although cold, day, so it was actually enjoyable to be able to sit outside, in the sun, in a hot tub.

The water coaster was fun -- it's not the best one I've been on, but I really enjoyed it, so we rode that one several times. We tried it both with sharing a boat and with going in separate boats -- I think it was a bit more fun in separate boats, as the jets pushing the boats uphill were able to provide a bit more speed with pushing less weight. The three water slides that extend outside of the building are also very good. The water slides that are entirely inside the building are OK, but not super. The wave pool is also enjoyable.

I'd like to see some real pinball games in the arcade. Most of the games are the "win a ticket" type of game.

One nice diversion we did before leaving town was to visit the Sandusky Merry-Go-Round Museum. It's not expensive, and it has some nice pieces, so I'd recommend taking an hour and stopping there. There are also some beautiful views of Cedar Point from the Battery Park (I think that's the name of the park -- I never was good with names!) area and the Sandusky docks, which are not far from the Merry-Go-Round museum. (We walked to the docks from the museum.) We went on Sunday, when it was open from 10 AM until 5 PM.

[Darth Gilbert]

Thanks for all info, Harpo. :up:

[iAMpaste001]

I haven't been to Castaway Bay yet, but in terms of the Merry-Go-Round Museum, I would recommend going there too.

Mr. Paste and I went there on one of our weekend trips to CP a couple years ago. We got there mid-day Friday and it was cold and rainy, so we went to the museum instead. It was really very interesting, especially if you're into amusement park history. It's got a lot of old CP memorabilia, and it has the statue of the lady from the Schwäbinchen. Plus, there's a restored carousel inside that you can ride. :-) Also, if you an Ohio/Sandusky area visitor's guide, there might be discount coupons in there, we found some for our visit.

[CedarPoint89]

Thanks for the info Harpo, I might be going next week since im off of school (Spring Break!)

What I really want to know is the demographic, what is the average age of person who goes there, because im 16 and I dont want to go there and be around ONLY 8 years olds.. bit that I mind, I just wanted to know if teens go there too

[Harpo]

On my trip, it was a lot of families -- parents with small kids, and some teens. The arcade had quite a few teens -- I'm guessing they'd wind up in the water park a bit later in the day, after I'd already left.

[Hyde244]

yes, I was in the water park the opening day (thanks to writing to Mr. Kinsel himself, and receiving an invitation). It is all in all a neat waterpark. If you have ever been to Great Wolf Lodge 9also in Sandusky, and the only other indoor water park I have been to), it is very similar except better water slides (they have a master blaster), and they also have a theme with the whole castaway thing. They even change the lighting to simulate sunsets. It is pretty cool.


BUT, if you are coming to Sandusky during the 20th of May or after, I would strongly recommend not worrying about Castaway Bay, but more the Kalahari (the same as the Wesconsin Dells). Let me say, this hotel/indoor water park is going to be big! Not only will it have more water slides, but an outside waterpark as well. sure, Castaway Bay is fun, but Kalahari is going to be much better. (Not to mention it'll be about as large as Castaway Bay and Great Wolf Lodge combined).


Anyways, enough advertising for Kalahari, here is a pic (http://www.castawaybay.com/castawaybay_upload/CastawayBayDiag.jpg) of castaway bay's layout.

[goliath]

I will probably be going to Cedar Point this summer, because, I will be going on a tour throughout Canada. I will be visiting the major theme parks, and I will also be doing many other things there. I will get a chance to go through the East Coast, and visit those parks, but in Toronto, I might as well visit Cedar Point. I wil be going to every major park in the East Coast. Then, it is back ome to California.

[Harpo]

Just as a word of caution, you might want to check your maps -- Cedar Point is quite a ways from Toronto -- about 360 miles via Buffalo, New York. (According to Yahoo, that would be the shortest route.)

Near Toronto, you'll find Paramount Canada's Wonderland. It's a very enjoyable park, and one I try to visit every year. (It's about 4 hours from my home in Metro Detroit.) I definitely prefer Cedar Point, but Canada's Wonderland is certainly a worthwhile visit.

[goliath]

Thanks for the info, Harpo! I'll take the shortest route, Buffalo. You saved me quite some time traveling. I don't look at maps as much as I should, and it usually costs me valuable time. Thanks again, Harpo!

[BRTeller]

Im going June 15th.