On June 7, 2024, the Disney Magic became the first cruise ship to dock at Disney Cruise Line’s new destination in South Eleuthera, Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.
Since booking the cruise on opening day back in March of 2023, I started planning to take a video to capture the moment the Disney Magic arrived. I also wanted to include a view overlooking the port in a full day time-lapse from our stateroom verandah. This started with picking our stateroom which at the time we didn’t know how the ship would dock leaving it a 50/50 shot. We picked the port side…
Flash forward to the morning of June 7th to my dismay when the Disney Magic was approaching to the pier on her starboard side. Thankfully, I had a backup plan in place thanks to a good friend with a starboard side room opposite ours allowing me to quickly move my setup to her verandah. By the way, the Disney Fantasy docked on the port side on both June 10th and 13th – I am still waiting for more data points before I will even consider recommending a port or starboard stateroom if you would like a view of Lighthouse Point.
Ultimately, due to the stateroom switch, my original vision did not materialize. However, I am happy with the lemonade I made with the multiple camera angles from positions on both port and starboard.
I hope that you enjoy the video (which starts on the port side) before sunrise while sailing to the berth, then switches to the starboard side for the arrival, the docking, and a full day time-lapse view as well as departure from the ship looking east over South Eleuthera. For the final act, the view returns to the port side as the Disney Magic sails away culminating at sunset.
For those wondering, as well as an opportunity to shamelessly insert Amazon affiliate links, I am going to share my setup for the day.
The primary camera was a GoPro Hero 10 mounted on a NEEWER Super Clamp. What I really like about the clamp is the rubber pads to prevent damage to the ship surfaces. As you can see in the photos, I’ve attached a tether to the gear in the unlikely event the clamp fails.
Speaking of failure, I have been testing out long time-lapse recording for the better part of a year and quickly discovered it was impossible to do with the standard GoPro battery as they would overheat the camera and simply would not last the duration of time I wanted to capture. I purchased the Anker Power Bank 26,800mAh external battery.
I chose this power bank because it just under the TSA limitations for portable battery packs because I want to take this with me to use during our Alaskan DCL Blog Group Cruise coming up in July (by the way, we also have a group cruise planned for 2025 that will visit both Castaway Cay and Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point – details can be found here). In testing at home, I far exceeded the 12 hour recording time with the external battery and still had plenty of juice left in the battery for potentially 24hrs. On the flip side, it takes a good solid 6 hours to recharge using two chargers. I found the key to a successful long time-lapse with a GoPro is to remove the GoPro battery and power the camera with an external power source – typically, I would plug-in the camera to a charger, but on the ship an extension cord from inside the stateroom outside to the verandah is not an option, thus my need for the external power bank. Since this was outdoors and I’ve had issues with rain before, I used the GoPro USB-C pass-through door that offers some water ingress protection. It also helps to have a longer USB cable to place the battery in a safe spot away from any potential rain or direct sunlight.
Check back soon, as there is so much more to share from our visit to Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. In the mean time, and last shameless plug, click over to the YouTube channel and subscribe to see our next video.
Scott, how long of a walk is the pier? It looks really long!!
It’s just shy of 1/2 a mile (0.47 miles to be exact) as per his earlier post here: https://disneycruiselineblog.com/2024/06/disney-lookout-cay-at-lighthouse-points-open-trestle-pier/
For those of us who are mobility challenged ( I walk with a cane and have trouble with distance). I don’t even see a rest bench on that long walk or any shade. Any updates to help us 70+ enjoy this new stop would be appreciated. Hopefully the golf carts I saw on other reviews are just not for the high dollar passengers. We have a trip planned in March 2025
My understanding is the golf carts are available to anyone with mobility issues needing assistance with the walk from ship to tram stop. I do not know how many golf carts are available or how long one may have to wait for one if they are all in use.
I think instead of pouring all that money into a resort on Eleuthera, DCL would have served us all better by offering NEW ports of call. We now all know the mistakes they made with this new project and the bad reports are going viral; it is going to take some time (if ever) before people will be excited about visiting Lookout Cay.
Jo, Couldn’t agree with you more. Just disembarked the 7-night Fantasy Inaugural which included 2 stops @ Lookout and I didn’t bother getting off for the 2nd. Booked this voyage on opening day and waited 14 months for it, SO disappointed!
100% agree Jo, why not choose to find more remote ports of call. Maybe its due to the success of RCL’s Coco Cay? We maybe in the minority, and the typical cruiser/family looking for safe and easy alts to Castaway. We can also count on DCL looking at profit margins….
There aren’t a lot of port options to string together a 3-5 night cruise? Cuba is a no-go and Haiti isn’t happening. Turks and Caicos would be nice. North side of Dominican Republic might be an option for a 5 day.
I was on the sailing that was supposed to be the inaugural sailing. For those with mobility issues they had golf carts to take you from the ship to the island. The island itself is just beautiful. The only real negative was the flies but I heard they were better at lunch our second day there but we went back to the ship for lunch.
There is no way I can make that walk! I have a cruise booked and I’m thinking if cancelling. I don’t have mobility issues but I have chronic bronchitis-so some shortness of breath. I see no benches and no SHADE along that trek.
The required walk is ridiculous. There should have been shuttles coming to the ship. With this distance, tendering would be better. The fly issue is not good.
Holy infrastructure they spared no expense on that dock, though i will third and fourth the distance. It seems unusually long and far away from anything visually appealing. I am sure its for a good reason but yeah the optics are terrible.
Sand flies on eluthera are bad. My wife and I got crushed on our 1st trip there. We had to use OFF spray to even enjoy the beaches. It was a wonderfully untouched (by commercial enterprise) island. Our neighbor here in Pgh had a home beside the old rainbow inn.