We decided to take a quick jaunt down to Florida to celebrate my last birthday. It was a 4 day vacation and we stayed in South Beach, Florida.
Since it was still early spring, it was a little too cold to go swimming or spend a lot of time laying in the sun, so we went on the Discovery Sun One Day Cruise for a day of our time there.
The Discovery Sun runs everyday out of Fort Lauderdale and visits Port Lucaya, Bahamas.
The port was about an hour from our hotel, and the brochure recommends that you arrive 2 hours prior to boarding to go through customs. So we headed out on our journey bright and early at 4 AM and and arrived at the dock before dawn. While getting checked in, they handed us a bright pink slip that warned of high winds and choppy waters, which should have been an omen. Then it was on to customs, where you had to pay a departure fee to go the Bahamas. We didn't bring on luggage, so Customs went trouble free. Then it was time to board the boat.
The boat (to me) seemed like a glorified ferry. Luckily I made the call to pay a little extra for a cabin, so we had somewhere to hang out in privacy. It wasn't big by any stretch of the word, but it had a small bed and a private bathroom. Enough to keep us happy, anyhow. We decided to take a nap while we were traveling. It's a 5 hour boat ride so we figured we had time.
After napping for a while, we went on deck and found a couple of lounge chairs poolside. We people watched for a while, a few people were enjoying daiquiris, beer and the occasional cigar or cigarette. No one was taking advantage of the pool. We strolled around some more and found the "casino" on the top deck. It was also small and offered a few games of chance and skill, but not many. We didn't spend any money there.
All meals are provided on this adventure at sea. They offer buffet style meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Drinks aren't included. The food, as I remember it, was all pretty good, and it was all you can eat. Everyone sat together cafeteria style on the Discovery Sun.
Arriving on Grand Bahama island was the best part. We knew as soon as we set our eyes on the beautiful turquoise waters that we were close. Once the cruiseship docked, we caught a taxi into town to do a little sight seeing. We set up a time for our taxi driver to return us to the boat and made a mental note that his van had spinners. That made me laugh..
We only had a couple of actual hours off the boat, so we checked out the town square and had a salad and conch soup at a local restaurant, it was very affordable and tasty. I would've enjoyed a little more time there, but was able to pick up my magnet (I always pick one up on vacation, even if it's only for a day) and check out some of the local wares. Before we knew it, the spinners were spinning in our predetermined spot, and we were headed back to the boat.
Our boat ride back was more of the same, but it was a little chillier. You don't have to do all of this in one day, they have packages that you can stay in the Bahamas and return on another evening, but it was most of the same faces we saw on the way there. Most of us (including my husband and myself) were anxious to get back to Florida. They had a few different shows and some other entertainment, but another 5 hours on the boat put us back to sleep. At 10 PM we arrived back in Fort Lauderdale for the ride back to SoBe.
I would give it a rating of 2 1/2 stars out of 5. There has to be some other boat that'll get you to the Bahamas faster. |
