Discovery cruise to the Bahamas?

[riu girl]

Has anyone taken a discovery cruise to the Bahamas? The web site is discoverycruise.com. We are considering a day cruise of maybe even to stay a night or two and then cruise back.

I would be very interested in hearing from others who have taken this cruise.
Thank you

 

[Seahunt]

Please believe that I don't mean to scare you off as I haven't sailed on the Discovery Sun, but have read many stories about this ship while looking for cruises to go on in the past like these on cruise review sites:

We just returned today from our honeymoon to Freeport, Bahamas, where we stayed at the Island Seas resort. We took the "Discovery Sun" cruise ship from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. to Freeport. The cruise ship was not what we expected to say the least. It was not for tourists but more for Bahamian people wanting a cheap ride to the U.S. to do shopping and ship goods back to the Bahamas. There were few other tourists on the ship and in the lounges there were people everywhere covered up with blankets just sleeping. They were there just for the ride back to the Bahamas, not for a vacation type cruise. From what we gathered from others we visited with in Florida and on the island, Carnival is the way to go if you want to cruise. If you want a cheap what feels like bus ride to the Bahamas that takes 5 hours, the Discovery is fine.

Or:

The pool was in disrepair, the food was horrible, and everything seemed "run down."

Because of Wilma, we left from a different port than we came back to - and had to wait over half an hour for a ride back to our parking deck upon return. This was at 11:30 p.m.

And this about a New Years Eve cruise:

Okay, finally at about 6:30PM the line starts to move forward, we don’t know what we are doing at this point, there’s a line, we got in it and we are following the throng of people filing into this building. At 7PM we suddenly see a rush of people back towards the back left side of the auditorium we are waiting in. Off we go to be herded down a little skinny hallway between a wall and an escalator. No one has told anyone anything as far as what the procedure is. Many people stood in the boarding line with their embarkation paperwork in hand thinking this was what they needed to board. The line to get tickets now slowed to a snails pace and still 100’s of people in line trying to get their boarding pass/tickets, etc. Tempers are starting to flare as people who thought they were ready to board now had to turn and go to the back of the ticketing line that reached all the way back to the doors where we had originally entered! By this time our feet are killing us and we are wondering if we are ever going to get onboard this ship! But we are still excited; after all we have a $200.00 suite waiting on us! We step foot on the ship and now we finally see employees of the cruise line and they are strategically stationed along the stairwells. They don’t utter a word, just motion us like cattle up the stairs! Yes, after being exhausted and standing on concrete for hours, we now have to carry our bag and purses, etc. up 3 flights of stairs! Mind you, we have a 63 yo woman with us, we are 43 and 47 and our 12 yo daughter. Many, many others were much older and unable to manage such a feat to board this vessel. When we got onboard we are still asking where our suite is. We are told to go to the general information desk onboard. It is now 7:45PM and we are standing in yet another line to pay a $20.00 key deposit and get our room. We are among the first few hundred to board and this ship was to have left port at 7:30PM and people are still in the terminal in line getting ticketed. This line took approx 20 mins., get the key, assess my now completely swollen ankles and feet and head for the suite. We open the door and there is a nice bucket of iced down champagne and two gift baskets, one with fruit and one with small deserts and 76 degree room temp with no thermostat. This was about the nicest part of this trip and this suite. My hair is now a total mess and I proceed to unpack the make up and my curling iron. I look in the bathroom, not a electrical receptacle to be found. I look all over this room and there is not one plug in for electrical to be found! I can’t fix my now flat hair!! I have paid an add’l $200.00 to have a place to rest and freshen up and there isn’t one electrical plug in site! I go back to the information desk and she informs me there is some kind of public locker room place with mirrors and plug ins, etc. and that I am welcome to use it to freshen up. I am about livid at this point. We are so late now, it is 8:05PM and we have one brochure that says we are to be at the lounge for our show seating at 8PM and then another ticket that says we are to be there at 8:15PM, so which is it? We get to the lounge at 8:20PM and feel the ship pulling out of the dock. We sit down in the lounge and it must have been 82 degrees in here. We are offered no drinks, no waiter, nothing. My husband goes on a hunt for a drink, ending up I believe 3 complete floors up just to find a bar. The lounge is very small and certainly not big enough for all these people with late dining to get into and it is so hot that we have to leave before the girl has sang even her second song. We travel about the ship trying to find entertainment and a cool spot. The ONLY cool spot on this ship was in the very well air conditioned casino!

We decide to take the daughter and put her to bed in our wonderful suite with hot air, no television and no electrical outlets! She did bring a charged Nintendo DS, so she was happy! We head to the casino that is very cool temp wise. As the evening goes on and I am winning big at the 5 cent slots, as big as you could probably expect to do with 5 cent slots! HA! Tempers start to flare as machines run out of coins and there is one man to take care of refilling the machines, pay outs, etc. I know because the man behind me was mad that his machine locked up due to no money and he sat there for half an hour waiting on this guy to take care of his machine and they got into a yelling match whereby the employee informs him that he is working on New Years Eve for his and the other passengers convenience and that he is working alone! The machines in the casino started shutting down about 1:45AM because we are to dock at 2:30AM. I hit cash out for 1,600 nickels and it stops with 412 to go! I sat there til 2:10AM waiting on “the guy” to come and put money in my machine. I now have three buckets of nickels and the line to cash them in is all the way from the cashiers cage to almost the back of the casino. I have had enough of lines and yelling stressed out hot passengers, so I head with my mom to the suite carrying 20 lbs of nickles. It is now 2:30AM and we are or should be docked! We travel down to disembark with hundreds of others and we stood in a hot packed corridor from 2:30AM until 3:05AM holding 3 large jugs of nickles!! It was hot and miserable and tempers started to flare, people were chanting “refund, refund” and “let us out”. It was so hot, sweaty and miserable. We then had to travel down flights of stairs and everyone carrying their clothing they had now taken off and changed into cooler clothing due to the heat. Keep in mind, it is winter in Fl and temps of 72 to 73 degrees outside this evening, imagine if it had been 80 + humidity levels!! By far, this is the worst New Years we have ever experienced along with 100’s of others who said they were demanding a refund, as I will as well. There are much better ways to spend $800.00 + dollars for New Years! Happy New Years guys and stay far away from this day cruise/New Years nightmare they call Discovery Cruise Lines!! If I'd won the trip I would give it back to them!!

*****
Of course, bad reviews don't mean that you might not love it - I have been on a couple low rated ships (and to low rated resorts) before, and DH & I always seem to make the best of anywhere we go, but I do believe it's better to go in with your eyes open!

 

[riu girl]

O my gosh, those reviews sound ghastly. Would you mind telling me on what web site you read them? I would love to read some more. I looked at tripadvisor and cruisecritic but couldn't find any.

Thanks

 

[GetGlowing]

We went from Ft. Lauderdale to Grand Bahama Island on Discovery Cruises nearly ten years ago. If you're looking for luxury like Carnival or Princess or NCL, you are out of luck. It really was more like a ferry than anything else. I definitely wouldn't book a cabin for the cruise. That said, it was a fun way for my family to go back and forth to the Bahamas, and my mom had never been off the US mainland before, so it was a real treat for her. We changed clothes and lounged by the pool during the trip over and back. On the island our group of eight split up. Some of us went shopping, my husband and I went snorkeling, some went sightseeing. It was a fun day.

But remember -- that was ten years ago! I have no idea what it's like now. I don't even remember how we booked the trip, if it was online or through a phone number. If you find any other reviews, please share them.