The weather outside is frightful, but Castaway is so delightful with a year round temperature of 82 degrees!!!
Disclosure: My son and I received a complementary one night stay at Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort as part of my involvement in Cedar Point's #CPMoms program. All opinions are my own...
Polar Vortex Go Away!
We are barely into the month of February and I am already sick and tired of Winter!
January was the snowest month ever in Detroit with a record snowfall total of 32.9 inches. My son's school has been closed for 5 unplanned days since the beginning of 2014 due to record cold temperatures averaging -15 to -30 degrees below zero. There is so much snow piled up in front of my house that I can barely see the street when I have to pull out of my driveway.
This Polar Vortex is no joke and my son and I have been in desperate need of a Winter weather break. While a trip to the Caribbean would be great, that kind of expense in not currently in our travel budget.
Escape to Castaway Bay!
So when
Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH invited my family to join them for a complementary night's stay at their
Caribbean themed Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort, I could not say "YES" fast enough. While the weather outside is frightful, Castaway Bay is so delightful with an inside temperature of 82 degrees all year round - HOLLA!!!
Although I have been going every year to
Cedar Point Amusement Park since I was 10 years old, this was my first time visiting
Cedar Point's Castaway Bay Resort and this place made me forget for 24 hours that the Polar Vortex even exists.
After making the 2 hour drive to Sandusky, OH from Detroit in -5 degree weather, my son and I were ready for some relaxation and warmer temperatures. So after we parked and rolled our luggage through the freezing cold parking lot, it was wonderful to enter the Caribbean themed hotel lobby and see people walking around in bathing suits, shorts and flip flops.
Castaway Bay Resort features 237 hotel rooms and suites including family-oriented units, a 38,000-square-foot indoor waterpark with water activities for all ages, fitness center, 6,000-square-foot state-of-the-art arcade, a craft and child activity center, in-resort restaurants, retail shops, adjacent marina and space for meetings, group events and birthday parties.
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| Castaway Bay Starfish rooms are spacious with frigs and microwaves. |
I Love a Room with a Frig & Microwave!
We were given a
Starfish (standard) room on the 3rd floor of the resort. Starfish rooms have two double beds, a dorm size refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker and a private screened in balcony. The room can accommodate up to 5 people with an rollaway bed that costs an additional $10 per night.
I love resorts that have rooms with refrigerators and microwaves because they can save a family tons of money on food while on vacation. I stopped in Detroit before I left to buy snacks and cereal for breakfast. But even if I had not had time to stop, there is a Target down the street from the resort where I could buy extra food at a reasonable price.
Rooms at Castaway Bay also include FREE WIFI. It is an open WIFI connection that anyone can use that is in the area of the hotel, which means the bandwidth is only strong enough to check your email, NOT to stream movies or videos. Due to the low bandwidth of the hotel WIFI, while at the hotel I just used my smartphone data connection since it was stronger.
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| Castaway Bay Mango Mike's makes some great pizza! |
No need to leave the resort for a great meal...
After checking into our room, Cedar Point treated all twenty-six #CPMoms and our families to dinner at the
Castaway Bay Mango Mike's restaurant. We were treated to salad and pizza made on location in the restaurant's numerous pizza ovens. My son is a very picky eater and he loved the pizza - and he ate enough for 2 people!
In addition to Mango Mike's, Castaway Bay has three other in-resort restaurants that include TGIFridays, Ebb and Eddy's Sweets and Eats, and the Big Daddy's Snack Shack inside of the waterpark.
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| The Castaway Bay Warter Park was totally relaxing! |
The Caribbean lives inside of Castaway Bay Waterpark!
After dinner, we changed into our bathing suits and hit the
Castaway Bay Waterpark. My son loved everything about this waterpark including the watersides, water roller coaster, and especially the wave pool. Once he got into the wave pool he didn't leave for 2 hours!
Our experience in the Castaway Bay waterpark was without technology. I purposely locked both our smartphones in the room safe so that we could both enjoy the moment. And it was one of the best decisions that I have made in a long time. We both were able to unwind and just relax.
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| The Castaway Bay Spa Hot Springs were wonderful! |
While my son enjoyed the wave pool, I hit the Castaway Bay Spa Hot Springs. The Hot Springs is huge and can hold tens of people. I sat in front of one of the water jets and just let it relax my body. At the back of the spa, there is an exit where you can walk/swim to the outside spa area. And at the end of the evening, my son and I went out to enjoy the snow coming down on my faces while we were incased in the ultra warm jetted water - it was totally wonderful and very peaceful.
Families that have young children will love the Castaway Bay Waterpark because it is the perfect size to keep an eye of your kids without running behind them all the time. You can just sit in a deck chair and see them most anywhere that they go. Castaway Bay has lots of lifeguards that do a good job making sure the kids are safe.
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| I got to try some delicious locally grown Ohio wines…. |
Local Ohio grown Wines are the perfect end to a great day...
After returning to our room, my son watched TV while I joined the other #CPMoms for a wine tasting of local Ohio area brands. It was a wonderful way to end the evening.
I thought I might have trouble sleeping with all the kids that are in the hotel, but once I closed our room's door, it was nice and quiet and I fell right to sleep. My son sleeps like a rock no matter where he is.
Castaway Bay waterpark wristbands are also good on the day that you check-out so you can take the kids to the waterpark again on your last day at the resort either before or after the 11am check-out time.
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| Look who we ran into on our way out of Castaway Bay? SNOOPY! |
Goodbye Snoopy. We'll be back...
Castaway Bay was the perfect escape from this severe winter weather. And as I write this post, and hear the spinning wheels of a car outside my house that is stuck on some ice and snow, I cannot wait to go back to Castaway Bay again for a another Polar Votex break.
and
Enjoy!
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FREEISMYLIFE by J.R. Harper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
