Castaway Island Day Cruise

I wish Viator would have rescheduled our day trip to Castaway Island. It was cloudy when we left Port Denarau, but about 45 minutes out to sea, a torrential rainfall started and continued a good portion of the day. It was scary getting from the catamaran onto the dingy at sea during this kind of rainfall. We were drenched from head to toe and my daughter described the experience as horrific and I agree! Once on the island, like I said it rained most of the day and then lunch took 2 hours! By the time that was done, we didn't have much time to enjoy the island. My daughter wanted to snorkel and when we went to get the snorkel gear and had it in hand and then we were asked if we had paid the $35.00 deposit that we knew nothing about. When we said no, we were told that we would have to go to front desk to pay and then come back to get snorkel gear. Under normal circumstances that would not have been a big deal, but since we only had a 1/2 hour left, that would have eaten up most of that time. I was extremely disappointed by this, since we didn't get a chance to take advantage of any of the water sports due to the rain. I know that Viator is not responsible for the weather, however, when I called the day before to confirm, I asked about the weather because rain was in the forecast, if we should reschedule and the lady on the phone said that the weather would be good. I honestly feel that we wasted $800.00 and a day of our vacation.

They make u to pay for everything even water when u pay top dollar for a day trip they didn’t write about it they serve u lunch but for drink u have to pay for my bottle of water get lost from stuff they took 30 minutes to realise to just give one other instead to make a drama anyway atmosphere there is beautiful but with a price .

Beautiful water lovely setting quiet and relaxing. Food was good and the people were friendly. We were able to view alot of the other ilsands on the way on the cruise out

A beautiful small island to spend your day. A variety of activities. Wish we had more hours,at least one to two hours.

The island itself is wonderful. Beach is beautiful. However, snorkeling is boring. We can only snorkel along the beach which we did not see anything. For some reason, the vessel traveled 1 hour more than it is announced at first. We totally spent nearly 6 hours on the vessel but only 4.5 hours on the island. I do not like how Viator do these work. They provided no enough info about this day cruise only if I ask them where do we board a vessel and when should I be at the port.

We had a great day, but first, one piece of information that we wish we knew but didn't when we made reservations for multiple one-day trips to the islands. If you are making reservations for multiple day trips to several islands, the same boat serves each of the islands. So, we went to Mana to catch the Seaspray one day and we went to Castaway another day--Mana takes about 90 minutes each way and Castaway takes 120 minutes, and the first 90 minutes of both days were the same i.e., same boat goes to South Sea Island, Mana, Castaway and others. Castaway Island is beautiful. The island limits the number of day trippers, and everyone on the island knows who you are since you have to wear an armband. There are limits on how much of the resort you can explore. Having said that, the buffet lunch was very good, we had no problem finding chairs with shade by the beach, we were able to use the two pools as well, the snorkeling was good and everyone on the island was very nice to us. I was wondering if we would have too much time on the island, but the time went very quickly and we could have gladly used more. Highly recommend this trip.

A beautiful relaxing island. The staff are very friendly. Our lunch was fantastic. The ocean was great to swim and snorkelling in.

Fantastic, lots of sunshine and lots of activities especially for children.

Good trip with nice food great desert and the beer. staff are welcoming and friendly. I went for snorkeling but did not see many fishes. Lots of sea weeds but not much coral to see around the snorkeling area.

Very nice beach and clearer water. Food is limited but good. Asked to go on the jungle walk, like an uphill hike but great views from up there nice and quite. They have a lot of activities you can pay for additionally on the island that make this a good tour. Big island but you are limited to the beach area and jungle walk. Nicer snorkeling here.