So we had an absolutely amazing time! Cannot wait to go again. Castaway Cay remains my favorite, but Lighthouse Point at
Lookout Cay was beautiful and I think it’ll only get better as it matures.
We had a total of 3 stops at Lookout Cay - 2 on the
DVC cruise, and one on the second (3-night) cruise.
We did the snorkel by boat tour on the first journey, and it was lovely. We went to 2 snorkeling points - one by the islands right off Lighthouse Point, and one further north, near the Princess Cruise Cay. Saw tons of fish though only fish. The guides were great, the boat ride gentle, and decent rum punch on the way back.
We then took the tram over to Lookout Cay and had lunch. There were flies about but they had fans on the tables and other things to deal with them. We wandered a bit but didn’t go into the water, instead doing the Junkanoo Celebration and arts & crafts and just enjoying the view. We had about ~3 hours after the tour to enjoy the resort.
In the second stop, we did the South Eleuthra Eco & Cultural Tour in the afternoon. We spent a lazy morning on the ship, had a late breakfast, then headed over to the island. The tour was late leaving, and as such the tour was a bit rushed AND they skipped the stop at Rock Sound, which was one of the main reasons I chose this tour.
The tour was new and it showed. We enjoyed it but I’m not sure it was entirely worth the cost. The Junkanoo workshop was insightful and interesting, but smaller than I expected and we were very rushed through the arts and crafts portion. Still fun.
Boiling Hole and Ocean Hole sounded so much more amazing in the description than in person - they were smaller than expected and Boiling Hole wasn’t so much as bubbling the day we were there. Ocean Hole had an amazing amount of fish, but they didn’t bring enough food for everyone in the group to be able to feed them; still, it was pretty neat.
Cathedral Cave, in my opinion, was the highlight - but I love natural wonders so I’m biased here. It was gorgeous, there were so many bats, and it was just lovely. It’s a short walk from Boiling Hole.
There was very little commentary during the ride, despite what the description said, and most of the time the guide forgot to use the speaker system so those in the back couldn’t hear them. But the bus was comfortable and water was provided.
We were like the fourth or fifth time ever the tour had happened, so I suspect it will get better over time. I don’t regret doing it - as I said we enjoyed it - but we wish we had stopped at Rock Sound, that there had been a little more substance and less rushing. I suggest doing the morning tour rather than the afternoon, since they can’t be late getting you back.
On our third stop, we just enjoyed the island and spent most of our time at the Serenity Bay end. We did the far and of Serenity Bay so most of the time there was no one around us. We had no real issue getting loungers on the beach going that far down. The sand was gorgeous and soft, the water warm and the most beautiful shades of turquoise. I can’t say enough wonderful things about the beach and water. There’s no protecting reef so there were gentle waves all day, and it also gets much deeper than Serenity Bay on Castaway Cay.
At least on the day we were there, Serenity Bay BBQ didn’t offer anything different than the True True BBQs. I was so hoping for a fish offering.
My only other disappointment was all of the colorful Lookout Cay Tumblers being sold out. I very much wanted one!
That said on the DVC Member Charter they DID give us special gifts: we got Inside Out towels, a reversible bucket hat that was Bahamian colorful on one side with Lookout Cay logo on it and turquoise blue with DVC logo on the other; salmon pink (an orangey pink) corkicle water bottles (very large) with Lookout Cay logo on it, and a special cross boulder bag to hold them with an extra pouch (large enough to fit a kindle Oasis in it, as well as other things), also with Lookout Cay logo.
We also got to special events: Inside Out 2 premiere one evening with Kensington Tallman, the voice actress of Riley, onboard doing a special sit down ahead of the show, and then at the day at sea, James Fore Murphy did a deep dive into the creation of Lava.
We did switch rooms during the back-to-back, so we didn’t get the luxury of not having to back, but doing the second cruise meant we didn’t have to deal with leaving luggage out the night before. We could pack everything up and leave it in our room, and we didn’t have to be at Fathoms till 9:30am. It made for a nice leisurely morning. They led us all off the ship, had a special line to clear customs, then checked us back in, and soon as ship cleared customs, we were allowed back on. It was so neat walking around a very empty ship. We also got free specialty coffee at Cove Cafe. It ver much makes me want to do more B2B cruises!
And now we have Platinum Status! Hopefully this will come in handy when we sail the Treasure in February.
And then when we disembark, we'll finally be Platinum 
