This January has been a hot mess as far as temperatures and weather here in Virginia! We’re still digging out from a crazy snow/sleet storm that has wreaked havoc on our roads for days. I’d say I wish that I was in Florida right now but they’re not much warmer so they don’t have it a whole lot better than we do!

Two weeks ago, I was in Florida though, sailing on the Disney Dream in the Bahamas. We embarked from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on a 4-night Bahamian cruise with stops at both of Disney’s private island paradises: Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. Castaway Cay is one we’ve been to many times but Lookout was new to us. Lookout is located on the southern tip of the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas and while it isn’t a ‘private island’ it still has a lot of those same qualities. The area is available to residents of Eleuthera to visit for a small fee for non-commercial purposes.This article has some interesting info about the history of Disney and Lookout Cay. I honestly couldn’t tell you if I saw any locals while there as the entire area is so big that everyone has plenty of room. More on Lookout later… Here’s the towel animal we got on the first night — love the love birds!

The Disney Dream is a lovely ship, first setting sail in 2011. It is the third ship in the Disney fleet, sister to the Disney Fantasy that embarked on its first cruise in 2012. The Dream is in Florida right now for Bahamian sailings but will go to Europe in May to pickup those sailings (European/Mediterranean) for guests until it returns to Florida in September. The Dream has had some renovations over the years, such as the recent addition of Ramone’s Cantina on the pool deck last year for an additional quick service food option. Much has remained the same though and its that classic Disney Cruise vibe that we returned ‘home’ to on our trip. When we were getting ready to set sail, there were a lot of ships going out before us and one was the brand new Disney Destiny (pictured below). The ships had a horn battle and she showed off her new tunes for all to hear. This was a great bonus for us!

The crew this time was the hubs, the daughter, my mom, and one of my nieces. We flew down to Fort Lauderdale and hopped onboard the Dream to enjoy our two connecting verandah staterooms on deck 6 aft. It’s always nice to have connecting verandah (aka balcony) staterooms when you’re traveling with family so you can go back and forth inside the rooms, if needed, but also so the stateroom host can remove the divider out on the balcony to open both up to a larger space. Having a long balcony was a treat for sure. This particular spot on the ship was nice as it didn’t have much hallway noise, was just a floor up from the laundry room, and provided for some interesting views as the ship docked and left each port. There was some docking noise from the staterooms (6182 and 6184) but we weren’t really bothered by it. Being able to watch the ropes shot out and reeled back in when in port was cool though!

Our first day was supposed to have been a day at sea but the Captain moved our Castaway Cay day up as a swap since the weather for its original day later in the week was to be nasty. That ended up being a great move because the weather on our original Castaway Cay was no good: rainy, windy, and cold. The day we got for Castaway was amazing though! Beautiful blue skies, warm breezes, and cold (then cool) water. I didn’t think I’d be able to get into the water at first but sucked it up and got in a float after lunch. We had a cabana reserved for us, Mickey and Minnie Cove Cabana #21. I’ve had cabanas at Serenity Bay (the adult beach) and what used to be the Family Beach (now called the Sandcastle Cabanas) but the Mickey and Minnie Cove ones just opened up in December. We saw them being built when we were on the island from the Disney Treasure back in September. These cabanas are super cute and so fresh! They’re in a little village type of area, right near Serenity Bay, so you take a tram to the first tram stop, then a tram to the second tram stop, get off and get on a Serenity Bay tram and boom, you’re there. Sounds like a lot of tram time but it really isn’t. Plus for families that have never been over to Serenity Bay because they are traveling with kids, you can see some of that area if you have a M&M Cove Cabana. So at Serenity Bay, you leave the tram and are taken via golf cart to your cabana. There about 30 units, 29 which hold up to 10 guests and one grand cabana that holds up to 16. These are super hard to get and run about $1,000/day for up to 6 guests (additional charges for over 6, up to the unit maximum). I’ve talked about cabanas before and these have similar amenities: private unit just for your family with a door, towels, plush furniture, a safe, floats and tubes, a hammock, lounge chairs for the beach plus an umbrella, a freshwater shower (so great!!), sand toys, access to a cabana attendant for anything you need (drink orders, take you to the quick service food location or back to the tram, bring more towels, etc.), a ceiling fan, music to play through the unit, sunscreen, plus snacks and drinks throughout the day like sodas/canned waters plus chips, a fresh fruit bowl, and granola bars. These cabanas have their own quick service barbecue location that is either a short walk or golf cart ride from your cabana plus restrooms are nearby in the cabana village. With sidewalks to each unit and the golf cart transport, getting around was a breeze! Plus, Castaway Minnie came by for meets and pictures too! Our cabana was pretty close to the restroom and cabana bar, which made it a super spot for us! We were right in the cove area of the cabana section so we had a beautiful area to hang out in all day. Quiet and just perfect! The literal only thing wrong with the cabanas is that you eventually have to leave! While the price seems high, these are a hot commodity and I will get one any time I can! This one took a lot of luck and searching since I booked the cruise fairly late and was well under my booking window to add this type of thing on. Success!

Lookout Cay, as I said, was a first for us. I knew that this destination had a very long pier to walk down from the ship to the island. I would say it is a 15 to 20 minute walk depending on your pace. There is no shade but there is a water station about halfway (plus at the tram stop at Mabrika Cove and at the ship on your return — along with cool cloths, which was very welcome after the walk back). I would strongly suggest that you bring a water bottle for use on the walk to/from the ship. For those with mobility issues, like my mom, you meet at a designated place/time in the morning and you can take a cart directly to the island. This information was provided to guests via a push notification on the Navigator app the day before our Lookout day. This was super handy! For those with littles, there are tons of plastic wagons you can use when you leave the ship to transport the kids to the island. Once you’re there though, you leave the wagon behind. Look at that line of wagons!

At the island’s entrance, you board a tram over to the opposite of the island to where most of the activity takes place. You’re arriving at Mabrika Cove and the bulk of the things to do are at the Goombay Cultural Center tram stop. Mabrika is on the west side of the island’s southern tip and Goombay is on the east side. Mabrika Cove has a small retail area and coffee shop plus this is where you’d stop if you have a cabana or are doing certain water excursions. We opted for no cabana here because I wanted to explore! These cabanas are on the west side of the island, away from everything else, and have great views of the ship. There is a separate food area for cabana guests and you are also able to go over to Goombay for anything you need there.

The tram ride is quite pleasant with narration providing information about the island and some of the unique environmental attributes. The ride takes like 10 minutes or less and is too far to walk, in fact I don’t think you can walk at this point, and a nice way to start off your day. You’re provided with towels for your use on the island once you arrive at the Goombay tram stop, which is great so you don’t have to carry those down the pier too. At the Goombay tram stop, you’ll find the other port adventures desk (called Rocky Point) for excursion check-in, one bathroom (literally a single unit but it has an adult changing table available), two stores (Disney T’ings and Treasures of Eleuthera) and several large photo ops. The photo ops are inspired by the characters in Junkanoo headdress style. The hair braiding station is in this area as well. From here, you split off into a variety of directions and can head toward the family beach, Serenity Bay, or toward the Nature Walk. The walkways here are raised boardwalk type of paths and they take you to the various beach accesses, to the food locations and bathrooms, etc. I thought this was lovely and a lot better than a bunch of sidewalks. There are three main food areas, one at the family beach to the right, one between the family beach and Serenity Bay to the left, and then another smaller one at Serenity Bay. There are also bars throughout and Sebastian’s Cove for youth activities is located on the far right side of the family beach area. This area is also where the Junkanoo parades come through and you can watch the performers (see the pictures below).

For the food, expect similar food to Castaway Cay. The big difference here is that there is a lot more covered seating and they have big fans inside the seating areas. If you look at the map of Lookout, these are the four oval pod/bean looking things across from #15 and #16 and the single pod across from #17. I have a picture of one of the areas below. There were also some picnic tables out in the sun too in each area. Ice cream and drink fountains were free flowing in each area. We chose our spot for the day right past #19, the Bow & Ribbon bar, at a beach access in that area. I will say that the early bird gets the best spots here. Our chairs were right at the access and we were able to get an umbrella, four loungers, and a couple of the regular chairs you can sit in the water in. Same type of chairs as at Castaway Cay but newer. Most of our crew did an excursion straight away so we had my mom go and grab this spot while we went out to do that. When we came back to her around noon, the beach was a lot fuller so this was definitely a great strategy. There is a ton of seating on the beach as well as back up in the dunes area so I think the idea that you wouldn’t find a chair is probably a stretch. You just might not find your first choice area if you wait around too long. This spot wasn’t far from the restrooms either or the food, so that was great. By the way, the restrooms had fresh water showers and foot washes outside too, super handy at the end of the day.

The excursion we chose was the one called “Culture, Conservation, and Coral Nursery Walk”, number LPT22. We originally had a midday time reserved but were moved to a 9:15am start the day before. While that wasn’t what I originally wanted, I was so glad we went earlier as it got a lot hotter as the day went on and we would have been miserable. This tour was advertised as 1.5 hours but we were gone a full two hours, so plan accordingly. We had the best time though! This walk was very informative and just as advertised. Our tour guide was Andy and the tour was run by Tour Eleuthera LTD. He did a fantastic job telling us all about the island’s history, its flora and fauna, Disney’s impact from a local’s perspective, and taking us to the various scenic points on the nature trail. The trail is basically sand and cement and wouldn’t be accessible, unfortunately. It is a lot of walking but there are water stations along the trail and you’re encouraged to get a drink at the family beach food area before the tour really gets started. We walked to the limestone cliffs and down to the beach where you can see such great views of the ship plus up to the small lighthouse on the island (thus the name, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point). I highly recommend this tour for teens and adults, not sure how I feel about it for young kids with the walking and educational nature. At $59/person age 10 and up, this was a steal for us. I took a lot of great pictures and saw places that I would have never just ventured to on my own, even walking on the trail (which is available to all guests without a fee). It was really interesting to hear a local’s perspective on Disney coming in and how much Disney has done for Eleuthera and its people, improving schools, providing educational opportunities post K-12, building infrastructure, and providing jobs. Plus his prospective from growing up on Nassau and moving to Eleuthera was, for lack of a better way to put it, really cool. One neat thing we learned was about Eleuthera’s pink sand. Now, this is really weird until you see it in person, but that sand has all kinds of pink flecks in it which come from tiny microscopic coral insects called Foraminifera. They get eaten and their pale red and pink shells wash up and mix with white sand and coral fragments. When you have it in your hands, it is so strange to look at and when the tide hits the beach and then washes back out, it creates a weird cloud like effect in the water. So hard to get on camera but incredible in person. I’ve been to a lot of beaches and this ranks right up there with the neatest one because of that. In addition to the pink sand, you also have the clearest blue water that will just knock your socks off. An incredibly beautiful day.

After Lookout, we had a day at sea — rainy and windy — so we played a lot of trivia (and didn’t win anything, bummer!) and the daughter and I did some work (college senior, remember?) We watched the Beauty and the Beast stage show that night and quite enjoyed it, as we did the others (The Golden Mickeys and Believe). The food on this cruise was typical cruise food and our favorite menu ended up being the Pirate night menu (which has basically been the same for as long as I can remember). The hit quick service was Ramone’s Cantina, as expected, for its Chipotle style food. So much ice cream was consumed too, which is also very typical of this group, lol.

Debarkation back at Port Everglades the next day was easy peasy, they also have the new face recognition for those traveling with passports, so customs and immigration was a breeze. Going out to get a rideshare was a bit of a mess and I wish I would have just grabbed a taxi van instead. We came off at probably 8:30am and waited for what seemed like forever but but probably was less than 30 minutes. However, we needed an XXL Lyft (or Uber) and after we finally got one from Lyft, it cancelled on us after a couple of minutes. Starting over again with Uber, I got one and it showed up at 9:07am. Once we got picked up, it was about 15 minutes to our dayuse hotel nearby. We used ResortPass to get a dayuse room at the Holiday Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport for the group since our flight home didn’t depart until almost 6pm. None of us felt like hanging out at the airport basically all day. When we arrived at the hotel, we had about a 30 minute wait until the room was ready (official check-in/use period was from 10am-5pm) but we just relaxed in the lobby and walked over to a nearby gas station for some drinks to have for the day. Once the room was ready, we went up. The room was fine, had a bit of a smell like a weird perfume or something from a prior guest, but otherwise was just what we needed. The daughter and I worked again there for awhile and the rest of the crew went down to relax by the pool. It was a cool day but the sun came out and we all ended up putting our feet in the water. The pool there was really pretty and calm and this was a great way to chill before the flight. Another perk of the dayuse room was that this hotel had a shuttle to the airport included, so we just signed up for a time and popped back over to the airport again to catch our flight. I’d absolutely do this again with a late flight out after a cruise coming into Port Everglades.

So the cruise was a blast, loved Lookout, and our cabana day at Castaway Cay was the best. Can’t wait for the next one!

xoxo,

Amber