Castaway Bay About This Page:

[Nick and Ryans Mom]

Castaway Bay is the new indoor waterpark operated by Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio. We went there January 20th and 21st with some friends to check it out.

The only other indoor waterpark we have been to is Sandusky's Great Bear Lodge (now known as Great Wolf Lodge).

Who: Me (Cheryl)
DH (Eric)
DSs (Nick 8 and Ryan 5)
Our friends Dan and Janice, their 2 children Nathan 9 and Anna 7

Nick and Nathan have been best friends since kindergarten and our families have become close. Nick has some problems (Aspergers, Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, ADHD). Anna is hearing impaired (almost no hearing without her aids). Nick and Anna both exist to some extent in their own internal worlds, I think it has made us closer having other parents who kind of understand what we live with. We have done daytrips together but this was our first overnight excursion. We have rented a house together for spring break so this was a quick trip to see how things might go.

The trip was first planned as a Thursday afterschool trip. Then we decided to pull the kids out at lunch time. Finally we just decided to skip school Thursday (Friday was a teacher in-service day so the kids did not have school). The week before Ryan ended up with walking pneumonia and Nathan and Anna were diagnosed with ear infections two days before our trip. Everyone had their medication so we decided to go on with the trip.

We had decided to leave around 10 am. Cedar Point is about 45 minutes away so we figured we would check-in around 11. Since our friends only live one street away they called as they were leaving and we followed them out. Eric calls it synchronized-mini-van-driving and feels it should be an Olmypic sport. The kids all had their gameboys and we had our cell phones to keep in touch. The roads were clear and it wasn't snowing!

We got there and checked in with no line and no problems. We had $100 off coupons for the rooms which was nice. Janice forgot hers and they told her not to worry and still gave her the discount. We were each given 4 bands that we needed to get into the waterpark. If you lost a band it was $15 to replace it. They told you not to remove them but we did at night and were able to trade them in for replacements with no problem (and no fee since we had the old ones).

We had reserved bunk-bed/kid cabin rooms and both got what we asked for. The rooms were huge and next to each other as we had requested. The kids' rooms each had 2 sets of bunk beds, an armoire with a tv, and a chair. Our room had a king-sized bed with an armoir and tv. There were two closets, one small closet for coats and boots and a huge walk-in closet. There was a huge area with a double sink,and tons of counter area. The bathroom was not very large and did not look as updated as the rest of the room. There was a dorm-sized fridge, a microwave, a coffee pot, and a hair dryer. There was also a screened in balcony with chairs and a table.

The hotel had Nintendo as a pay-to-play option. We had brought our PS2 and our friends brought a Gamecube. The problem was the tvs did not have the AV hookups available (probably to insure you used their Nintendo option). We had brought a small tv with us in case this happened. Our friends didn't, so our room ended up being the hang-out room. Nathan had packed the gamecube but forgot the controllers.

Once we checked in the boys wanted to start playing games. We didn't pay $200 per family (after our $100 off coupons) to play playstation. We agreed to grab some lunch and discuss our plans while we ate. The hotel has one restaurant (buffet style) with restricted hours and a snack counter (donuts, ice cream, sodas, pastries, muffins, and fudge ). There is a Fridays restaurant attached to the hotel. We decided to head over to Fridays. Nick is very picky about food and this Fridays was perfect. Fridays kids' menu has pizza, which Nick loves if it has pepperoni on it - not all Fridays have pepperoni available but this one did!!! I have a Fridays Club card with a lot of points racked up so we ordered free appetizers. Lunch was good, the restaurant was almost empty. Our server was Matt and he was great. We agreed to change into our suits after we ate and try out the water park.

The water park was wonderful. There was a wave pool (smaller than Typhoon Lagoon but still fun), 3 large slides that took you out of the building, a roller coaster, a HUGE hot tub that extended outside, a "tree" fort area with climbing areas, 2 medium and 2 small slides, and a tipping bucket. There was also an area for smaller children with 3 small slides and cute little fountains and water toys. There was a deep pool with basketball hoops and floating animals to climb on. There was also a pool which had floating "logs" that the kids were to walk across (there was a rope net overhead to hang on).

The roller coaster was a blast. You climb up the stairs to the loading area and then get into an innertube. The tube is propelled by water up hills, down, and through tunnels. Ryan insisted on riding this ride over a dozen times. Unlike other waterparks we have been to you do not carry the tube up the steps to the loading platform, the tubes are conveyed to the platform on a seperate conveyer. Very nice!

The large slides outside are all different. One is faster, one has more turns, and the other is kind of mild. Ryan was not tall enough for the large slides. Nick only went on them once but Nathan really like them.

The hot tub was serpentine in shape and was rather large. Children had to be accompanied by an adult to get into the hot tub. There was a small opening that had clear plastic vertical blinds hanging down, when you went through the blinds you were outside! It was especially nice Thursday night - the temps were around zero and there was a slight snowfall. The kids were scooping snow and melting it in the tub. They also enjoyed spiking their hair since it froze that way rather quickly.

The wave pool was really neat. They had a row boat full of life vests and they made all children under 44 inches wear a lifevest. Anna loved the wave pool. Without her hearing aids she couldn't hear the announcement and bell telling when the wave was coming but she could tell by the actions of the other kids and would get really excited. All of the kids loved the wave pool.

The water at the park did not seem as warm as Great Bear Lodge. However GBL smelled heavily of chlorine and was very windy because of the fans they had running.

There was also a snackbar, locker room, 2 family changing rooms, and large restrooms. The prices at the snack bar were very reasonable. There were tons of chairs around to sit on.

The hotel also had a gameroom (which we declared off limits - we brought the PS2 we were not wasting another $50-100 on games!!). There were three gift shops, one had candy bars/magazines, another had swim suits and bags, and the other had shirts/sweatshirts/souveniers.

Ryan had a coughing fit around 4:00 so I took him back to the room for a breathing treatment. Nick and Nathan showed up a few minutes later to play games. We ended up going back to Fridays for dinner (Matt ended up being our waiter again). Fridays had a dinner special - for $12.99 you could get an appetizer, entre, and dessert! What a deal!! Walking by the front desk on our way back from dinner we couldn't help but notice the huge number of people checking in. We later found out they were booked solid that night!!

After we ate we went back to the water park and ended up staying until 9:20. One whole wall in the waterpark is a large screen showing Nickelodeon! The time was on the screen, the kids got confused because it was military time! I saw two other PTA moms I knew, it's a small world!

The boys ended up in our room after baths and played games again. Ryan went to Anna's room for a while and watched a Snoopy DVD on their portable DVD player. We called it a night and sent Nathan to his room around 11:00. Nick fell right asleep but Ryan would not go to sleep. There was a small window (with a curtain that closes) between their room and ours and he kept talking to us through the window. Finally he said "It would be really nice if you invited me to come sleep with you guys!!!" Eric and I started laughing and Ryan took that as a yes....

When we woke up the next morning I called and got a later check-out (12:00). I packed us up and got a bag ready for the water park. The other family are late sleepers so I knew we wouldn't be moving too fast. Nathan came over with his suit and Eric took the boys to the regular pool near our room. It is just a normal pool but the view is gorgeous. The room has 3 sides made of glass with a beautiful view of Lake Erie. The boys swam for a while then came back and played more games. Around 11:00 we gave Ryan another breathing treatment while Eric packed up our car. We decided to eat again at Fridays (using our card for a free appetizer again!) and then headed back to the water park.

We ended up swimming and playing until 4:30. Finally we decided to call it a day and go home. The park was kind of crowded all day but not too bad. The line for the roller coaster was only about 15 minutes which I thought was not too bad of a wait.

We definitely would go back. For our family the water park was a better fit than the one at Great Bear Lodge. We had stayed once in the kid cabin suite at GBL and it was much smaller than CB. We still need to try out Splash Lagoon (Erie PA not bad of a drive) and they are building another park in Sandusky that is supposed to be huge. Next time I will remember to pack Nick's goggles!!! I couldn't believe I forgot them and the gift shop was sold out, luckily Janice had packed an extra pair.

We had a great time with our friends and I hope our spring break trip goes as well!

[buzzspal2]

Cheryl,
Sounds like fun. I forget that there is other places to go besides WDW.

[loobyoxlip]

How fun! I am thinking of taking the boys to the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City or the one in Wisconsin Dells. Thanks for the review!

[CRCrazy]

Sounds fantastic - I'm glad it worked out so well!

[JoanW]

Do you have websites for these places? It sounds like fun, and we could meet my sister and brother in law there for something to do!

[GoofyMom]

Wow! That really sounds like a fun couple of days!

[Nick and Ryans Mom]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have websites for these places? It sounds like fun, and we could meet my sister and brother in law there for something to do!

[/ QUOTE ]

Castaway Bay is www.castawaybay.cedarpoint.com

Great Bear Lodge is www.greatbearlodge.com