Discovery Cruise Line offers a day cruise to Grand Bahama. You leave port in Ft. Lauderdale around 8am and are in the Bahamas about 1pm. You have 3 hours on the island, then leave at 5pm and return to Ft. Lauderdale around 10pm. We bought both of our tickets for $100 and decided to add a stateroom for an extra $47.
My husband and I got to Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale at 5:30am. They suggest you arrive at about that time. You definitely need to be there before 7am otherwise you won’t be able to get on the ship. We got through the entire check-in process quite quickly and it was rather painless as well.
Since we booked a stateroom, we went to the information desk and got our key. We had to pay a $20 key deposit. One of the stewards showed us where our room was and unlocked the door for us. Michael and I put our bags in the room, took the key, and headed off for the all you can eat breakfast buffet.
The Stateroom
For an extra fee, you can book a stateroom about the size of a postage stamp with an even tinier bathroom. We paid an extra $45 for a stateroom with two single beds and a porthole style window. There was a place to hang our things and in the bathroom there was a small shower stall and towels.
I would say the room is adequate for a short day cruise if you want to lay down for a nap or just get away from everyone else.
One thing that wasn’t explained to my husband and I was the door does not automatically lock when you close it. Most hotel rooms have doors that lock automatically so we assumed the door on our stateroom did the same. Wrong. We had been leaving our door unlocked the whole time with our things in the room! The door needed to be manually locked.
The Breakfast Buffet
I was very impressed with the breakfast buffet. The menu included: Coffee, Tea, OJ, and water for drinks. For food – Rolls, Crescents, Pancakes, French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, Fresh Fruit, Potatoes, Omlets, Scrambled Eggs. I’m sure there was more, but I can’t remember it all. The tables had table cloths and we had glass water goblets that were filled with ice water. Much nicer than the cafeteria style buffet on Carnival. Of course, Discovery only needs to fee about 1,000 people instead of 4,000 people on Carnival.

On the tables were little notices alerting you to the appropriate amount to tip during your meal. The amount depended on the meal. For breakfast, the suggested amount was $2 per person, lunch – $2.50 and dinner – $3.50. This is written in both English with Spanish on the backside, just in case.
Fun & Games
Michael and I some most of our morning on one of the decks. He had his newspaper and I brought a book to read while we sat in the sun. We ordered virgin pina coladas and relaxed. After a while, the cruise people started games for people to participate in. It was fun watching things like hula hoop contests, hot potato, talent contests, dancing, etc.
Our Excursion
We had a choice of two excursions – a beach party or going to a hotel for lunch and then shopping. We chose the hotel and shopping. The cost was $30 per person. Since we had never been to the Bahamas, we figured it was best to book an excursion even though cruise excursions are notoriously pricey.

Once we joined up with the rest of the group going on the excursion, we disembarked and go onto a bus headed for the hotel. The hotel was Taino Beach Resort and is right on the beach. After we received our free drinks (either a Bahama Mama or fruit punch) Michael and I had our lunch on the deck right on the beach. The service and food were both very good.
After lunch we walked around the pool area. It’s a really cool pool with a very shallow wading area and deeper swimming area. There is also a grotto bar in a cave-like area. You can swim up to the bar or access it from land on the other side. I think I’d like to stay at Taino Beach Resort someday just for the pool.
We took a water taxi to Lucaya Marketplace. This was where I really wanted to go. I like shopping in marketplaces and looking at all the handmade trinkets. We were given about 1 hour and 15 minutes to explore the marketplace. After looking through a few shops, we quickly noticed that most of the things were items we’d seen in marketplaces on other islands – that is mass produced trinkets. I was disappointed. I did find a woman selling little 3 inch cloth doll ornaments. I picked up a bunch of those to give to friends at home.
On our way back onto the ship, we were given a little card with a time for dinner. We had a 7:45pm dinner time. We went to our stateroom to drop our things and rest a bit. After a little while I started to feel ill, so we went up to one of the top decks to get some fresh air. As we walked up to the upper decks, we found we had a hard time walking straight. I felt better in the fresh air, so we waited out our time for dinner.
Dinner Buffet
We arrived at dinner at 7:45. We were shown to a table and told we could go directly to the buffet. By this time, I realized I was seasick. All I wanted to eat was some bread. There wasn’t any bread to be found. I took some fruit and salad and felt a smidge better after eating.
Other than the absence of any bread product, the buffet appeared to be well stocked. However, within ten minutes of arriving they began to shut down the buffet. They did let us know they were shutting down the buffet. Michael did have plenty to eat before the buffet closed.
I was surprised we only had ten minutes for the buffet when we had a time of 7:45 for dinner. Apparently, we should have showed up for dinner early instead of going at the time the ticket said.
We made our way to our stateroom. Thank God for the stateroom. I didn’t have any dramamine with me since I had never gotten seasick before. I laid down on my bed and was able to take a nap until the ship docked at Fort Lauderdale.
Other Notes
You can also take the cruise in the morning and then return in the evening on another day. This allows you to really explore the island. Discovery also offers great rates on local hotels.
All expenses related to the Discovery Cruise were paid for by me and my husband with our own funds.
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Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)