Eastern Carribean Excursions Similar to Castaway Cay?

justme0729

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 11, 2014
A 7 night eastern carribean in March is the same price as a 5 night double dip in June. We loved our double dip we took last year but the 7 night is actually more affordable since we wouldn’t be adding extra 2 nights at WDW like we would after the 5 night. So...

What excursions or beaches in St. Thomas or Tortola are most similar to Castaway Cay? Like having clear water, rafts to float on in the water, beach chairs, food, drinks, restrooms, etc.

After reading, it seems Magen’s Bay and Honeymoon Beach are popular. I also see Abi’s Full Day beach escape excursion but haven’t seen anyone write about it in my searches. Any thoughts?
 
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March this year, or next? This year's Eastern is going to SXM instead of Tortola...
 
What excursions or beaches in St. Thomas or Tortola are most similar to Castaway Cay? Like having clear water, rafts to float on in the water, beach chairs, food, drinks, restrooms, etc.?
The impoverished Eastern Caribbean islands are nothing like Castaway Cay. The water is clear, but everything else about the experience is different. People pay big bucks for those Castaway Cay double dips for a reason, and Castaway being clean, pretty and easy is that reason.

The Caribbean islands are in a third world setting. You can have a nice few hours at a beach (we visited White Bay Beach on Tortola and Megans Bay on St. Thomas), but have realistic expectations and don't expect your surroundings on those beaches to be anything like Castaway Cay.
 


The impoverished Eastern Caribbean islands are nothing like Castaway Cay. The water is clear, but everything else about the experience is different. People pay big bucks for those Castaway Cay double dips for a reason, and Castaway being clean, pretty and easy is that reason.

The Caribbean islands are in a third world setting. You can have a nice few hours at a beach (we visited White Bay Beach on Tortola and Megans Bay on St. Thomas), but have realistic expectations and don't expect your surroundings on those beaches to be anything like Castaway Cay.

Do you have any pictures? When I look at pictures of Honeymoon Beach or Magens Bay, they look nice like Castaway Cay. I know that getting to a beach will be different and we will see poverty but once at the beach, how is it different? Are there a lot of locals?
 
Do you have any pictures? When I look at pictures of Honeymoon Beach or Magens Bay, they look nice like Castaway Cay. I know that getting to a beach will be different and we will see poverty but once at the beach, how is it different? Are there a lot of locals?
Both beaches are pretty enough when you only look out at the sand and water. That's what I meant by, you can go & have a nice few hours at the beach. They're fine & we always felt safe.

However, the beach area at White Bay Beach was crammed with loungers & beach umbrellas "for sale", and that really detracted from the appearance of the beach. There was a run-down restaurant right on the beach, & it was pretty gross when I took my son to the bathroom there.

At Megan's Bay, there were a few really run-down buildings at the beach, but you could easily turn the other way and ignore them. There were a few locals there hawking items, but not many.

Both beaches mostly had tourists there. I wouldn't have minded locals being there though.

I was just wanting to be clear that while the beach & water is nice, it's not a Castaway Cay environment at all. You seemed to be asking if it was like Castaway, and it's not.

They are perfectly fine beaches to visit, though.
 


Since you wanted a double dip, but 7 days, have you looked at doing a B2B on the dream?

That's a good idea. I just looked into pricing and it would end up being about $700 more for a 3 night with a 4 night cruise than a 7 night on the Fantasy probably because I am getting 10% off one cruise only for my onboard booking placeholder discount. Plus, it would repeat the shows, same dinner menu etc so I worry it might feel a little odd. This is something to think about though!
 
The whole thing about private islands is that they're cleaned up, sanitized, they import workers, there aren't shacks or grocery stores or anything to distract.

Magen's Bay is lovely, but one of the things you'll encounter is people hawking chairs and amenities and the like. You'll have to pass through areas that aren't pristine. Even St. John, where generally speaking the island is fairly affluent, you'll see things that bust the illusion.
 
Both beaches are pretty enough when you only look out at the sand and water. That's what I meant by, you can go & have a nice few hours at the beach. They're fine & we always felt safe.

However, the beach area at White Bay Beach was crammed with loungers & beach umbrellas "for sale", and that really detracted from the appearance of the beach. There was a run-down restaurant right on the beach, & it was pretty gross when I took my son to the bathroom there.

At Megan's Bay, there were a few really run-down buildings at the beach, but you could easily turn the other way and ignore them. There were a few locals there hawking items, but not many.

Both beaches mostly had tourists there. I wouldn't have minded locals being there though.

I was just wanting to be clear that while the beach & water is nice, it's not a Castaway Cay environment at all.

Thanks :) That makes sense. So now I'm wondering which beach excursion would feel cleanest/ safest I guess? The website says Honeymoon beach is only accessible by boat so does this mean it is mostly private?
 
Thanks :) That makes sense. So now I'm wondering which beach excursion would feel cleanest/ safest I guess? The website says Honeymoon beach is only accessible by boat so does this mean it is mostly private?
Megan's Bay is clean and safe. If you're going with kids, I would go there. It's pretty shallow for quite a ways out, which is good for kids. You can easily take a shared taxi to and from Megans's Bay, as there is an orderly dispatch service right at the port, and one at Megan's Bay. Taxis are open-air and shared, just like excursion buses. Bring cash for the taxis and cash for entrance to Megan's Bay. I don't remember the prices for either offhand, but it's not much. A little searching online should get you that info.

We had a much better experience doing the taxi at St. Thomas over doing the DCL excursion on Tortola. It's much faster, and you get to decide when you arrive and leave. No DCL CMs accompany you on DCL excursons: they're run by locals, so there is not much advantage to doing it via DCL compared to going on your own.
 
Honestly, as far as beaches go, I think Castaway Cay is one of the worst I've been to.
Yes, it has all the "Disney magic", and is completely free of "outsiders", but, as far as beaches go, its kind of ugly, it doesn't have nice sand it feels as fake as it is.

Megan's Bay, on the other hand, is truly an amazing beach. Soft sand, clear water, just an absolutely gorgeous beach.
As PP said, shallow a long way out, so a nice beach for the kids to swim in.
We bought lunch at the beach shack, it was nothing to write home about, but it was decent food.

We had a wonderful day there and would not hesitate to go back.

(At Tortola we had a similarly positive experience at The Baths.)
 
Is Megan's beach good for snorkeling? We are doing the eastern cruise in June and want to take taxi's to good snorkeling/beach locations. Any recommendations?
 
Haven't been to Tortola. In St. Thomas, we did Sapphire Beach. It was a lovely beach with a restroom and food and drink options. I don't recall any activity options, but I wasn't looking for them. I think that the Virgin Islands have some of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen, but I'm not sure what you are looking for beyond a pretty beach.
 

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Is Megan's beach good for snorkeling? We are doing the eastern cruise in June and want to take taxi's to good snorkeling/beach locations. Any recommendations?

No, Megan's is definitely not a snorkeling beach. For good snorkeling you need a lot of coral, both to look at and to provide homes for the pretty fish. Megan's is just a beautiful white sand beach.
(That being said, we brought my kid's snorkel and he played with it for hours. There were a bunch of small white fish that he looked at, and he just enjoying using his snorkel in the water. Since there was no surf, it was an easy place for him to play.)
 
For snorkeling, you're better off on St. John, which is a bit more of a production to get to.
 
We did the turtle cove and honeymoon beach snorkeling on dcl a few years ago. It was pretty good. Beach is only accessible by boat. Perfectly safe. seems set up for cruise excursions. Snorkeling is off the boat via jumping on and back on via ladder. You have to walk on waist deep water to get to island. I would bring a blow up raft or float for Kids.
St. John’s excursions are fine as well.
I would never pick 3+4 days over 7 days. Different menus entertainment and beautiful Carib Islands to enjoy. Yes there is poverty. You will feel totally safe on honeymoon beach or St. John’s.
 
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