Disney’s Castaway Cay 5K

I’ve had a Disney Cruise on my bucket list for awhile, but what was also on my bucket list was running a race on an island, specifically the Disney Castaway Cay 5K! Well, thankfully the weather worked out and I got to check this race off my bucket list. This is my THIRD Disney race that I’ve done… I’ve ran the Wine and Dine Half Marathon in 2012 and during Covid I ran the Star Wars Half Marathon in my hometown and they shipped me the medal for that race.

The Castaway Cay 5K used to be a timed race, but since Covid they’ve made it open to whenever you want to do it while you’re docked at the island that day on your Disney cruise. We got off the ship as soon as we could at 8:30 a.m. (we had granola bars in our state room) and did a quick photo once we stepped foot on Disney’s private island and then took the tram over to the race starting point.

We found the 5K Start sign over by the bike rental information booth. The 5K is an out and back/loop style of race, so you actually land back at the bike rental information booth when you finish and that is where you pick up your free race medal.

The 5K race has several spots where you can stop and get a photo. The 5K is marked fairly well with signs on which way to go, but at the very end we got a little turned around and messed it up. BUT, we were able to figure it out fairly easily on how to get back on track. Part of the run takes you along the road of the tram, so you have to get over quickly if you see the tram coming… but, there is plenty of space in which to do this, so it really isn’t a big issue. It is a race with little to no shade, so you’ll really want to run it as soon as you can get off the ship. It was 83 degrees Fahrenheit with 80% humidity when we started the race, so it was pretty HOT. We ran it at a ‘fun’ pace and not a ‘race’ pace and stopped for a few photos during it.

Here is the map of the race that I captured from my phone.