Trip log, day three. Nassau, Bahamas.
3-Night Bahamian Cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Lighthouse Point Preview Cruise)
June 8, 2024

Guests Ashore: 8:30 am Guests Onboard: 4:45 pm
Personal Navigator – Day 3

After a full day and over 9 miles in flip flops the the day before, I was refreshed after restful night sleep. Emily was out of the room and at the gym. I made my way to the gym to meet her and head to Cove Cafe. The Disney Magic and Disney Wonder have the best gym views of the fleet. Interestingly enough, the Rain Forest room pass was still being advertised on the final morning – $88 for the 3-night sailing.

After a stop for caffeine, I headed around the upper decks to enjoy the tranquil sea views as we began our approach to Nassau.

This is my first time back on the Magic since they added the “outdoor” concierge seating area. In my opinion, the Wonder’s concierge area is so much nicer. I’ve been told it does have some nice sea views from friends that have sailed concierge level on the Magic.

Another day, another GoPro Timelapse – not because I am a broken record, but I like time-lapse stuff. My ultimate goal is to get work up the amazing night-lapses that have been captured in Unalaska and used on episodes of Deadliest Catch.

Our lovely view of Nassau was soon replaced by the starboard side of the Disney Wish. Ideally, if I was deciding where to berth the ships each day, I would tier the ships from smallest close to the shore to largest to create a much better photo op from the port looking back at the ships in port.

Before we went ashore, I was able to attend a Disney Lookout Cay media panel opportunity featuring a number of the Bahamian artists who contributed to the overall look and feel of the new destination. I encourage anyone interested in learning more about this to watch the video of the panel here.

Afterwards, I returned to our room to gather my things to go ashore and saw our updated view of Nassau. Not the time-lapse I originally envisioned, but I am becoming a seasoned profession when it comes to dealing with the uncontrollable. If anything, I know I captured the arrival of the Disney Wish.

In all of our cruises, we have never shared a photo op. I can’t believe that in all of our cruises, this is the 1st time docking with another Disney ship. Well there was that one time in October 2013, but that is water under the bridge.

Bottom line, it was the first opportunity to take a family photo like this.

Each time we return to Nassau, we see more shops open. The port revitalization has been great and word is they are adding a $35M pool based water park down by the amphitheater slated for completion in the next 18-months.

One of my regular stops is the Pirate Republic Brewery, which is literally across the street from the port and conveniently near one of the walkways.

As we were walking to our destination for the day, we passed a few scooters that you could rent. Not sure if these are a good idea to rent or not, but this is something that was available. According to the info on the scooters, you need to be at least 18 and have a valid drivers license.

Today, we were headed to the Margaritaville Beach Resort in Nassau.

Margaritaville Beach Resort is about a 15-minute walk from the port area.

We purchased day passes for the Fins Up Waterpark from Resort for a Day. We paid the deposit online and balance upon check-in. I will provide a more detailed overview of our experience in a follow-up article, but for now here is a photo dump.

We spent the morning in the lazy river, the beach, and the loungers. We even enjoyed a few smuggled ashore churro Mickey Waffles from Cabanas.

The local fauna were also intrigued in the Mickey Waffle. This bird just hung out on the lounger next to me until it realized I was not sharing.

Margaritaville Beach Resort also includes beach access near Junkanoo Beach with gated access back into the waterpark. We just need to show our wristband and the guard opened the gate.

Around lunch time, we determined the menu at the sit down restaurant was more interesting than the quick service at the pool. The food was delicious, but the service was slow – everyone was on island time.

By the time we got out of the restaurant and back to the pool, storms were starting to move in. We did manage to go down a few of the waterslides, but as soon as we discovered the hot tub, the lifeguards closed things down due to lightning. The radar did not look promising so we packed up and made it inside just as the deluge arrived.

CAT!!! There was a cat on some artwork with a boat from Abaco. Unfortunately, this was our only cat spotting this cruise.

There was a bakery inside with some grab and go items. It took everything in my power to not buy a bunch of cheese and crackers to take back onboard. Frankly, I believe cheese is considered perishable and not permitted back onboard per Disney’s prohibited items policy.

There was a break in the rain allowing us to walk back to the port area without getting totally soaked.

We stopped in a few stores along Woodes Rogers Walk looking for souvenirs and gifts to take back home. I spotted Bahamas Goombay Punch, a Coca-Cola product which could fit in well at the drink stations at Disney Lookout Cay, at least at the True True BBQ locations near Goombay Cultural Center.

Here is a pro-tip – you can always take photos with people in them when it is nice and sunny, but if you wait for the rain you can get some meh pictures with only a few people in the frame.

After a morning at the water park and storm, it was time to get back to the ship. We stopped at Soul Cat Lounge for a Pistachio Latte and a Mocha Latte both served with a chocolate rim with pistachio crumbles and whip cream.

We did have an interesting vantage point of Rapunzel on the stern of the Disney Wish.

We made it back to the ship at the perfect time. The severe thunderstorm was upon us and there was a close lighting strike the even impacted the camera at the onset of the following storm video. The first video is over an hour long view of the storm and rain followed by a horn battle between the Disney Wish and Disney Magic as we departed.

This second video is just the horn battle which the Disney Magic and for that matter, the Disney Wonder will always win.

Before dinner, we were invited to a farewell reception where we had the opportunity to take a photo with Mickey and Minnie in their brand new Junkanoo inspired outfits designed by Theodore Elyett for Disney Lookout Cay.

After eating lunch ashore, we opted for room service in lieu of dinner at Lumiere’s. While not the cheese plate I would have made from Margaritaville, the All Hands on Deck cheese plate we received from room service was one of the best in a long time. The plant based chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries was the sleeper hit and the spinach and feta pide was a solid choice.

For dessert, we headed out to Soul Cat Lodge for the Jazz 75 Porthole for two. I think we got one of those community chest bank error in your favor cards because we both received our own mini bottle of Moet to accompany the infused gin.

As well as an order of the Zeppoles.

It was the final race of the Triple Crown with the running of the Belmont Stakes. I have no idea if this was available in the stateroom or in O’Gills, but we were settled in and had an internet package so we streamed the race from our booth.

The following is a massive photo dump from walking around the merchandise shops on deck 4 staring with Mickey’s MainSail. The best time to shop onboard is the magical time during a dinner seating and a show in the Walt Disney Theatre.

Moving across the hall to WhiteCaps.

Over at Preludes outside the Walt Disney Theater, there was a selection of popcorn buckets and the Crush Sipper available.

Randomly, a friend we met onboard had one of the Lookout Cay trading pins out so I was able to get a much better picture of it compared to the somewhat blurry photo from my tour of Disney T’ings.

The next item on our schedule was trivia in O’Gills. We were early and wanted to order drinks, but there was only 1 server working the room. I’ve seen this movie before, if you wait, you will not get your drink until the final moments of trivia. I walked over to the bar and ordered drinks for our table from the bartender rather than waiting for the drink orders to come in from across the lone server.

We did ok at 90’s Music Trivia, which is still rocking My Heart Will Go On while everyone pretends to be shocked by the mere mention of the Titanic whilst sailing on a cruise ship.

We made one last stroll along deck 4 where we spotted the Allure Of The Seas and Freedom Of The Seas sailing in the opposite direction as we made our way back toward Fort Lauderdale.

The final feedback survey was 100% online now with reality no option for general comments making me question, do they really want to hear from me or just want numerical values to weaponize against departments and crew members? I’ve been around too long at this point and spoken to too many crew members. I’ve become part of the problem because I blindly fill it out giving excellent ratings because I do not believe any of the feedback is used address actual management decisions and policies and the aggregate feedback is only used to measure satisfaction rates of the various departments. I figure it’s more like an A or F feedback; if I do not say something is excellent, it is basically an F. It has been years since I was last emailed a post cruise survey, and one would think they would have sent one specific to guests for Disney Lookout Cay. By the way, we had an amazing cruise and this cruise on the Disney Magic restored my love of the Disney Cruise experience, which has been less than excellent over the last few years. The Disney Magic was the palate cleanser I personally needed after multiple sailings on the Wish, a mediocre onboard experience in Europe last summer on the Dream, and a recent non-Disney cruise over spring break (which made me feel like I was on a floating resort vs on a cruise ship). Plus, I loved Disney Lookout Cay and cannot wait to return.

With the excellent feedback registered, it was time to pack up our suitcases and call it a night.

To close out the final day, here is a full date time-lapse from our day in Nassau featuring the Disney Wish.

Trip log, day four. Debarkatin Day in Fort Lauderdale.
3-Night Bahamian Cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Lighthouse Point Preview Cruise)
June 9, 2024

Our final few hours onboard started with a trip to Cove Cafe to cash in our free coffee……

…….followed by a quick walk around the upper deck.

We departed the ship when our luggage tags were called; we were not in any rush, but the Customs and Boarder Control facial recognition system at the port made the debarkation process so amazingly smooth!

As mentioned on embarkation day, Disney’s terminal at Port Everglades is great because you are dropped off and picked up on the ground floor of the parking garage. Today, this didn’t make any difference, but on bad weather days, this will be a welcomed setup.

We requested a Lyft which picked us up within 10-mintues and were headed back to the Brightline station.

The Brightline train station was full of guests from the Disney Magic heading back to Orlando. Just like with Margaritaville Beach Resort, I will be following with an overview of our Brightline train experience from between Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back soon as we are in Vancouver heading out on the Disney Wonder on a 9-night DCL Blog Group Cruise to Alaska! If you are interested in joining us on a future sailing, we have a DCL Blog Group Cruise planned for May 2025, that will visit both Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay sailing on my favorite ship, the Disney Magic, from Port Canaveral. Click here to learn more about our next cruise and follow along as we will soon be sharing our experience in Alaska.

Complete Trip Log Index

• Day 1 – Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Day 2 – Lookout Cay
• Day 3 – Nassau, Bahamas