Posted by: Editor on Sep 11, 2006 – 10:20 AM
exoticlocations Not only are the customers funny-looking, but all the place serves is raw fish, shrimp and squid — and it’s no sushi joint.
Actually, the customers are all southern stingrays, and we’re feeding them the fish, not eating it ourselves. My two 10-year-old companions, Max Weinberg and Jackson Solis, giggle as a big ray snatches a piece of shrimp off a black plate that resembles Mickey Mouse ears.
Welcome to the Stingray Lagoon, home to 43 extremely well-trained rays (whose stingers, incidentally, have been removed) on Castaway Cay, the Disney Cruise Line’s private island in the Bahamas. Along with some 2,700 other passengers — nearly 1,000 of them kids — we’ve been traveling aboard the Disney Wonder and have just arrived for a day of fun and games on and around the beach. Amazingly, the place doesn’t seem overly crowded, even with so many people here.
Besides the stingrays, there’s a 12-acre snorkeling lagoon, a giant play structure in the water with shrieking kids all over it, banana boat rides, kayaks and paddleboats, beach volleyball, basketball, and all the burgers, ribs, chicken, ice cream and pop that I’ll let the boys consume. Did I mention the separate beach for teens and the other one just for grown-ups? (Massage, anyone?) And if parents want a little adult time — or if kids want time away from their parents — there’s a full schedule of supervised activities.
All around us, families are playing in the water and on the beach, tossing footballs and Frisbees, posing for pictures with Minnie and Goofy, sipping frothy concoctions.
The Stingray Lagoon earned praise from parents such as Katy and Dean Boshart of Wilmington, Del., even though their kids preferred to play in the sand rather than in the water with the rays. When the two young Boshart boys got skittish, Disney staffer Navardo Johnson immediately started building a giant sand castle with them. “He turned what could have been a disaster into an adventure,” said Katy Boshart.
On the ship and off, it’s clear that Disney knows how to please its guests, whether they’re 3 months old (Disney Cruise Line has one of the few infant day cares at sea), 3 years old (there are lots of little princesses in sparkly dresses and pirates with plastic swords running around) or 83 years old (there are grandparents everywhere on this ship).
Castaway Cay has proved so popular that, bowing to customers’ suggestions, the ship now stops here twice on some seven-day sailings. I’ve been on a lot of private islands owned by cruise lines, but I’ve never seen one that works as well for all age groups.
The only complaint I heard in four days was from a 21-year-old who had been dragged along by his family. This ship seems more geared to kids 16 and younger, and teens seemed especially happy when they had been allowed to bring a friend along on the trip.
This month, Disney is offering two longer itineraries in the Caribbean, and next summer it will offer a European cruise for the first time, with 10- and 11-day sailings from Barcelona. There are also fall deals, with seven-day combined Walt Disney World and cruise vacations starting at less than $1,000 a person. Four-day cruises start at less than $500. (Visit www.disneycruise.com.)
Jackson and Max loved not having to make their beds, and finding elephants, monkeys and stingrays fashioned out of towels when they returned to the cabin at night. “Free” room service was “awesome,” the boys said, and they were very impressed that our waiters not only knew their names the first night, but also quickly learned that they liked vanilla smoothies and Caesar salads with dinner. Even better, we could sample three different restaurants and have the same wait staff guaranteed to show them magic tricks.
Most important, they loved the freedom. Where else but on a kid-centric ship with such an attentive staff could two 10-year-olds roam on their own, (toy) pirate pistols in their belts?
By Eileen Ogintz
Tribune Media Services
Traveling With Kids alternates each Sunday with The Business Traveler. Eileen Ogintz answers questions at www.takingthekids.com.