I am still confused on the bugs part. Been to Castaway over 20 times and never had a bug problem. We love Castaway and we live in Florida with beautiful beaches. It is my favorite port and reason why we do Disney cruises.
We did b2b Disney Dream cruises Dec 11-14 and Dec 14-18 2015.
My sister got bug bites on her ankles and feet while at
Castaway Cay on the second cruise. She wore water sandals. I wore Crocs with no holes (unintended, but bad things happened to the water shoes I had been going to wear, so Crocs it was). She is a mosquito magnet at home. No idea what the bugs were, but she easily had a half dozen bites per foot. She did not feel them as they were happening, only that night when her feet were itchy and she took a look were they discovered.
I am thinking maybe sand fleas or something similar ?
While annoying, it will not disuade us from really liking CC. Next trip we will bring bug wipes and apply often.
As for water depth: on previous cruises we have:
- snorkeled the snorkel lagoon first thing in the morning; once you got out into deeper water it was pretty clear; we saw many things, lots of fish including ones that liked to follow me around; and the water was over my 5'4" head in many places
- swam off Serenity Bay - depth was comfortable for using floats
- swam off the family beach cabanas beach -- water did not get very deep, but was nice to putter in
- swam off the beach they take you to when you do the hike and kayak adventure: water got deep, was VERY clear, and seemed colder than the family beach water (could be a depth issue, plus it is not sheltered)
- on the hike and kayak adventure, for the kayaking part, the explained the water is stand-up-able, so if we toppled the kayak, just stand up (and then the guide would come help get you back in); we did NOT topple, but I did note that in addition to the wildlife we saw, there was quite a bit of coral in places, so dumping in the water could have been unpleasant from a coral POV even if wearing shoes
SW