Castaway Bay, Sandusky, OH Review

We recently drove up to Sandusky for a weekend away with our family. Our initial plans changed so we decided to stay at Castaway Bay for the night before joining our extended family on Saturday.

Castaway Bay is Cedar Point's indoor waterpark resort. It features hotel rooms and suites, an attached waterpark, arcade, fitness center, a craft and child activity center, three restaurants, and shops. They also offer an adjacent marina for rent.

We drove up on a Friday and arrived around 2pm. Pulling into the resort we figured we would have no problems getting into our room early as the place was pretty empty. Once we got inside our hunch was correct and we were able to check-in early.

I booked the standard Starfish room which features two double beds and sleeps four. The room also included a microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker, and TV with cable. The room itself was nice and decorated in a very beachy way lot of light blues and pictures of beaches. The one complaint I have about the rooms are the beds. The description on the website said the beds were doubles, but I beg to differ. These in no comfortable way could fit two grown adults. They reminded me more of the x-large twin bed I had in college. Once I figured out that my husband and I would not fit comfortably together in one bed I made the decision just to sleep in the other bed with our daughter. Turned out to be a good idea as that was the only way she would sleep.

The waterpark was better than I had remembered from the first time we visited years ago. The waterpark features five water slides, a water roller coaster, a family fun house, creature cove, cargo crossing, a wave pool, a grotto, and a toddler play area. We spent most of time in the toddler play area and creature cove because Lexi isn't quite big enough for the other parts. We did enjoy the wave pool a handful of times and she loved that. I think it really reminded her of the beach, which she loved when we visited Myrtle Beach last year. John went on the water roller coaster Rendezvous Run and said that it was much better than he expected. He also went on the Tropical Tube Slides which he had a lot of fun on as well.

For dinner on Friday night we ate at the attached TGI Fridays. It was just like your typical TGI Fridays nothing overly special other then it's attached so you don't have to drive or walk outside, which in the winter in northern Ohio is a great thing! The only bad thing was that we happened to find out before we left that our key card to swipe to enter the resort did not work. John had to walk around in the freezing cold without a jacket to go back to the resort and get a new key. I found out as he did this that the restaurant manager could have swiped as back in. I think that someone either a Castaway Bay or TGI Fridays needs to let customers know that. 

We stopped at Ebb & Eddy's for an after dinner snack and to pick up some milk for Lexi. They have fresh bakery items, quick service breakfast items, deli wraps, salads, ice cream, and assorted beverages. They also have Starbucks coffee, which was a big selling point for me. Castaway Bay offers a breakfast buffet at Mango Mike's but I found it to be really expensive. For adults it was $12 and for kids it was $6. With a 13 month old there was no way I was paying $6 for her to eat the little amount that she does. We just ate the Cheerio's we had in the room and saved some cash that way. If you’re looking for convenience then you'll be happy they offer a breakfast buffet. 

Overall we had a really nice time and would go back for the right price. I don't know if I would pay what I did for that night but seeing as it was a last minute trip it wasn't like I had much of an option on price. I definitely think this place is best suited for kids probably under 8 maybe 10 at the very latest. I believe that older kids will be very bored as there are only five water slides. For us it was great because the toddler area was huge and you never felt cramped even when it was busy. 

Here are just some of the pictures I have from my phone. I need to upload the rest from the camera.

Amanda