NEW - Swim with Stingrays at Castaway Cay

[Wendy L]

Starting in late September 2005. Visitors to Castaway Cay will have the chance to swim with rays at a stingray encounter.

It is expected to be a 45-minute experience which will combine a short lesson on the history and biology of the rays with an in the water interaction with Southern stingrays under the guidance of a marine specialist.

Part of the proceeds from this as yet unnamed experience will go to the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund.

[ukwdwnut]

sounds good wendy, any idea how much it costs? thanks for sharing :D

[Wendy L]

No idea on price yet, should hopefully be more information soon.

[ukwdwnut]

ok ta :D

[wdwgrandma]

Wow! Wish they were doing this when we are going to be there! Sounds great! We are, however, doing it as our excursion to the Grand Caymans.

[loinsley]

We have an animal loving daughter who would love to swim with the "rays" - anymore info on this out there???

[wdwgrandma]

I discussed the swim with 'rays that we did in our Disney Cruise trip report - Cruising Disney Style

[Joy]

Hmm, now it's gonna be a tough choice whether to do the swimming with 'rays in Grand Cayman or Castaway Cay......:confused:

[wdwgrandma]

The one on Castaway Cay is an hour long. No one under the age of 5 allowed. Children 5 to 16 need an adult or parent to accompany them.

[Ameriscot]

We just returned yesterday from a 3 night on the Wonder (WOW!!!), and we spoke to some of the other passengers who did the Castaway Rays experience and they loved it. We just chilled at the beach, snorkled a bit and our little guy LOVED the kid's activities.

My wife & I met working on cruise ships (RCCL) and left 11 years ago for a "normal" life on land. We could not find fault with anything about DCL, the shows, food, activities, kid's programs were all the best we have ever seen. This was out first cruise as Passengers since leaving Royal Caribbean 11 years ago and we are so glad we chose Disney. Already planning a 7 day!:D

[tweenie123]

I think we'll give the Stingrays a go next year. We didn't do anything on Castaway Cay this year apart from 'chill' on the beach. We hired some floats and it was bliss but the new trip sounds fantastic. Both DH and DS are into stuff like this but I think I might give it a miss and just stay on the beach and relish the peace!

[uscwest]

While we thoroughly enjoyed our day at Castaway Cay, I hope you had much clearer water than we did. We did our Stingray swim at Stingray City in the Grand Caymans on our 7 day cruise. The water at Castaway Cay was much too murky to swim with the rays the day we were there, though we did do some snorkling.

[forresterpj]

I did this excursion in October and loved it.

Here is a quick report:
We had the first Stingray excursion of the day at 9:00 am and we were the only folks there ;) I was really impressed with the excursion.
They have animal behavior specialist who was working with the rays. You check in for the excursion, and it takes place where the teen beach used to be. You get a brief orientation where you learn a bit about stingrays and then you walk right into the water to spend some time with the rays. They have a special U-shaped device that floats in the water that the guests stand around. They have trained the rays to swim into
the U-shaped device when the Mickey-shaped marker is present. The Mickey shaped marker lets the rays know that they are going to get fed. We were able to touch the rays, and feed them. Some of them were swimming up against our legs as well. They just are so soft and have such a unique feel! After we had our fill of feeding them, we took the snorkel equipment (included in the cost of the excursion) and were able
to snorkel around the Stingray Bay. There isn’t much to see here, but some of the rays did swim with us for a while and we did see a few fish.

There are some big plusses with this stingray experience that aren’t present at some of the other ray experiences at other ports. These Stingrays have their barbs clipped -no fear of getting “stung.” Also these rays are working within a behavior program and are being regularly fed-it isn’t a big feeding frenzy in the ocean ;) The U shaped device present the rays in a less threatening environment then some of the other stingray excursions. I think this will be a big plus for younger
guests or guests who are a bit timid. Also guests do not need to climb in and out of a boat so this will make the excursion more accessible to many guests.

I would do this excursion again in a minute ;)