Seeing Miami

[erikthewise]

On a typical 5:00PM departure, roughly what time do we pass Miami? Are we close enough to shore for it to be visible? Worth seeing (at night)?

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

I never thought to look for Miami, but my guess is that you could possibly see it from the Magic on its western itinerary. I'm thinking that for the eastern, or from the Wonder en route to Nassau, the ship would be too far away to see. A straight line between Port Canaveral and Nassau would be about 80 miles or so out to sea at its closest point to Miami. The Magic follows roughly the same path on the eastern, heading further east to cut between Abaco and Eleuthera Islands.

I'm not sure how close to the coast the ship would be for the trip to Key West on the western. If it had a casino, I'm guessing it would have to be at least 12 miles out to sea in order to open it (the casino), but since there isn't one on the Magic, it's possible the ship is closer to land.

I would guess that it would be roughly between 1:00 and 2:00am when Miami would be visible, probably closer to 2:00. I think Miami is about 200 miles from Port Canaveral, give or take, and the ship usually makes about 20-25 knots on the open sea.

 

[luvalldisney]

We live near Ft Lauderdale and went on the western Magic this summer. We sat out on deck 4 from about 11pm until 1 am and got to see the lights of West Palm Beach and Ft Lauderdale. We did not stay to see Miami. We were close enough to recognize the lights of those cities and even the causeways. Have fun if you decide to watch the lights (it helps if you know what the shoreline looks like at night, lights are different for each city, but there are no signs from the sea,and we even had difficulty distinguishing cities and we are familiar with the night views! perhaps trying to find post cards of night views of West Palm, Ft Lauderale and Miami might help.) We also watched a spectacular light show from mother nature when we observed a far away thunderstorm probably over the Everglades!