We were thrilled to find a cruise itinerary that gave us the chance to finally visit Disney’s newest private port, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. In this post, I review the port, talking through its layout and offerings along with how we spent the day there. Read on to learn all about Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point!

About This Post

This post reviews a day we spent on Lookout Cay in early 2025. We visited as part of a cruise on the Disney Fantasy, which I’ll separately review sometime soon.

It’s worth remembering that Lookout Cay is a fairly new port, having opened in June 2024. If you read reviews, it’s probably worth it to note whether they’re older or more recent. The initial hiccups of the experience are pretty well documented, but I’m not going into them here.

Throughout this post I’ll make comparisons to Disney’s other private port, Castaway Cay. In most cases you won’t be choosing between them—your itinerary will go to one or the other. But just in case you wind up torn between two itineraries that go to each of them (read more about picking the best Disney Cruise for your family), this post might offer some relevant context.

Lookout Cay Basic Layout

Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point is Disney’s second privately owned port in the Bahamas, the other being Castaway Cay. Unlike Castaway Cay, Disney does not own the entire island here, but that doesn’t make a real difference in the experience.

Let’s start with a map of the whole port. I’ve boxed three locations that we’re going to cover next. I’ll cover all of this in more detail later—this is just an overview.

First, you’ve got the cruise ship dock, represented by the leftmost box above. The cruise ship dock is located at the end of a long cement strip that juts out into the ocean. It’s about a half-mile long, and we walked it in about 11 minutes.

At the end of that walkway is the security post and Mabrika Cove, highlighted by the middle box above. Mabrika Cove is basically a staging area, you probably won’t spend much time there. There’s check-in for some excursions, a small shop, a small snack stand, and the Mabrika Cove Cabanas. These are 20 family-friendly cabanas along a cabana-exclusive beach. As always, cabanas are incredibly popular and often get fully booked even before Castaway Club Gold members can book. Unless you have a cabana or an excursion from Mabrika Cove, you might as well just think of it as the where the tram picks you up.

Finally, a 10-minute tram ride away from Mabrika Cove is the main area of the island, let’s just call it the Eastern Side, highlighted by the rightmost box above. This is really where you’ll be spending your time—it’s got the dining, activities, beaches, and so on.

Before I get to the details of our visit, I just want to confirm that there are two journeys you have to make to actually get to enjoy the port. You’ll first have to get from the ship to Mabrika Cove. This is the journey along the cement path. Most guests walk this, but there is a reservable shuttle available for guests with mobility needs. Second, you’ll take the tram from Mabrika Cove to the Eastern Side, where the fun is.

Our Visit to Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point

Since I’m usually up early for a run, I always like to head to either deck 4 or deck 12 to watch the ships as we arrive at port. The arrival at Lookout Cay provided the above view of the looks-worse-than-it-is walk to the island from the ship.

We debarked the ship at about 8:43AM.

Our dinner host had told us the night before he recommended using a wagon for the little ones, and they were available right after we got off the ship. Zoe walked. It’s a 100% doable walk for most mobile kids, but I would point out that half the path is used for vehicle traffic, so if you have multiple small kids who could be difficult to corral, you might want to opt for the wagon.

We arrived at Mabrika Cove at 8:55AM. We were fortunate to be visiting in February, and the early morning sun was not at all overbearing for this journey.

I noted that cold brew was available at Mangroves & Go, the small snack shop at Mabrika Cove. Of course, if I had needed cold brew in the morning I’d probably have preferred to have had it for the 10-minute walk in any case.

I was a little stupefied looking around for Bicycle Rentals, which should have been located near the Cabanas. Instead, all I saw was an empty parking lot, and I inferred that they haven’t got bikes on the island yet.

We boarded the tram at about 9:05AM. It departed shortly and we arrived at the Goombay Cultural Center stop at 9:15AM.

I’m never happy about having to take a tram anywhere. But the route didn’t look very walkable, and certainly not pleasant if it was walkable. I hope they find a way to get the bikes setup soon. There was a welcome spiel on the tram that played into the cultural aspect of the port, but the volume was a little too low and I was trying to observe the surroundings, so I didn’t catch most of it.

Just off the tram stop are the two main stores, Disney T’ings and Treasures of Eleuthra. The bike rental stand here was being used for Port Adventures Check-In.

Lookout Cay First Impressions

I love walking around any space, so I while Emily and Zoe went to the kids’ club open house hours, I opted to head off and see every inch of Lookout Cay. Here’s a closer look at the layout of the eastern side:

I want to start by saying that the physical act of navigating this area is a bit tedious. Many of the specific locations are connected by elevated boardwalks that can seem unduly complex.

I generally assumed you were supposed to stay on these boardwalks, but I also saw some guests shortcutting between them.

Along the same lines, there’s not really one single path up the middle to take to see everything, like there is at Castaway Cay. The beach is the most “direct” way to get north and south, but generally you’ll just need to try and snake your way between any two points.

Finishing up the “hub” area where the tram dropped us off and where the shopping was, there’s also the Goombay Cultural Center (more on this later) and, at the beach, Flippers & Fins Snorkel Rental.

Unlike Castaway Cay, which has a dedicated snorkeling area, snorkeling at Lookout Cay is done in the open ocean in the same area people are swimming. On the one hand this means you need to be more aware, on the other hand, you’re more easily able to incorporate snorkeling into the rest of your activities.

From this hub area, facing the ocean, you’ve got two choice. Left takes you north, toward the adult-only Serenity Bay (there is family area between the hub and Serenity Bay, too). Right takes you south, toward the kid amenities.

I headed north (left when facing the ocean), toward Serenity Bay. Emily and Zoe had gone south, toward the kids’ club, and I figured I’d meet them there after my walk.

The overall setup of this port is very different from Castaway Cay, and you can see this starting with Serenity Bay. Serenity Bay at Castaway Cay is its own area of the island, while Serenity Bay at Lookout Cay is only separated from the family-friendly areas by small signs. The cabanas create some buffer between the family areas and Serenity Bay, but you can see above that the actual barrier sign is quite close to some Serenity Bay seats.

This organization is so baffling to me that I simply must be missing something. There is an isolated area with a dedicated beach and cabanas—at Mabrika Cove. But Disney has chosen to use that area for the family cabanas. This is particularly odd since all the family amenities—the kids’ club and water play area, particularly—are over here, on the Eastern Side, a tram ride away from Mabrika Cove. It’s too obvious, so I’m sure I’m missing something.

One nice thing about Serenity Bay is that I can give you a pretty good sense of what to expect from Lookout Cay just from this section. There’s a strip of beach and behind it a buffet restaurant—Serenity Bay BBQ—and a bar—Blue Hole Bar.

The beach is absolutely stunning and one of my favorite beaches I’ve been to (I’ve been to a few but wouldn’t claim to be an expert). The sand is a light pink, and you’ve got a beautiful view of the open ocean.

I imagine there could be some crowding issues on bigger ships during peak times in the middle of the island, but I think if you go a little north or south you’ll be just fine. Head far enough north and you’ll get to the edge of Disney property, marked by another small sign:

Besides waterfront, you’ll find these little pods of seats available just off the beach, too.

Heading south from Serenity Bay, I quickly noticed that things started to feel a bit repetitive. Still on the north side of Goombay Cultural Center, you’ve got another grouping of amenities—True True Too BBQ, one of the buffets, and its seating area, along with a bar—Bow & Ribbon Bar.

While there’s more seating here than at Serenity Bay BBQ, the overall setup is basically the same—buffet, bar, seating, beach. And this is a family-friendly area.

Continuing south we pass through the hub area that we already covered (shops, tram stop, cultural center). Then south of Goombay Cultural Center is another grouping of amenities—True True BBQ, the final of the buffets, and its seating area, along with a bar—Watering Hole Bar—plus a smoothie stand. Always worth also noting you can get soft serve ice cream and fountain drinks by the buffets, too.

So you can see that little stands out in this core beach area. There are basically the three sets of amenities—Serenity Bay and the north and south bar / restaurant / seating. And, subject to age restrictions, you’d be find making any of them your hub for a few hours.

You won’t need to visit every area just for the sake of exploring (and I say this as someone who loves exploring). This is pretty different from Castaway Cay. At Castaway Cay, I love Heads Up Bar because it offers a stunning, unique view of the island and the cruise ship. At Lookout Cay, each bar is little more than an indistinguishable stand.

At Castaway Cay, you’ll find one splash pad area by one of the BBQs, and the “In Da Shade” games near the other. There’s no such balance on Lookout Cay. With that said, we haven’t gotten to the best parts of Lookout Cay yet.

There are two particularly important things for families to know on the southern side of the area—Rush Out Gush Out and Sebastian’s Cove.

Rush Out Gush Out is the water play area. It’s got two small water slides and some other features. Zoe had a ton of fun here, but my reviewer-brain just couldn’t get over how unnecessarily small this space was. While the economics of Royal Caribbean’s pay-to-play Thrill Waterpark render a direct comparison inappropriate, I’m still baffled that Disney’s brand new private port couldn’t do more than this. It should be at least…three times bigger than this.

Sebastian’s Cove is the kids’ club (ages 3-10) on Lookout Cay. While I found it a little simple, it did seem to offer a fair amount of shade, and it’s the crew-led activities that are really going to carry the day inside this space. If it’s just free play you’re looking for, kids are probably going to have a better time at the beach or Rush Out Gush Out.

Finally, there are two small activity spaces / stages down here that we didn’t actually experience. Triton’s Trumpet Stage and Play-Play Pavilion. These hosted activities like Sand Creature Creations, Seek and Find, and the Sun Beach Bash.

I finished my walk of the Eastern Side in about 30 minutes. The big thing (and it’s a good one!) we haven’t covered yet is the nature trail, which I walked later with Emily. Besides that, I really think I’ve given a thorough look at the “hard” product at Lookout Cay.

Lookout Cay Characters and Entertainment

After hanging out with Zoe a little bit during Sebastian’s Cove open house hours, I saw in the app that there were a few character greetings scheduled nearby at True True BBQ.

We wound up getting to meet Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale, and Goofy all with short waits. These greetings wound up being one of the highlights of Lookout Cay because they weren’t too popular and the characters had unique outfits.

The location of these greetings is at least somewhat “hidden” in the early hours. Sure, people going all the way to Sebastian’s Cove will pass by, but even those just going to Rush Out Gush Out won’t see these greetings in passing.

This is in contrast to Castaway Cay, where the major greetings occur on the only walkway connecting the ship and the main parts of the island. Because of their prominent location, Castaway Cay greetings can get pretty busy.

I even saw Minnie Mouse with no line for a little bit at Lookout Cay. I selfishly hope Disney keeps this greeting location on Lookout Cay, but they could probably easily move it to somewhere more central.

After the greetings, I went to check out Sights and Sounds of Junkanoo Workshop at the Goombay Cultural Center. This wound up being a mix of cultural education and crafting. There’s only about half a dozen tables.

After Sights and Sounds of Junkanoo Workshop was RUSH! A Junkanoo Celebration at Disney Lookout Cay. This is billed as a “colorful, musical procession” led by a “local Junkanoo group” with Mickey and friends. While it was that, I was pretty disappointed in it overall.

I don’t want to nitpick too much, but the broad problem is just that the space is oddly designed. RUSH! took place on the steps in front of the Cultural Center, which just isn’t a very big space. Guests only piled two rows deep because (1) this side of the Cultural Center isn’t a good location for foot traffic and (2) you just couldn’t see anything if you were more than a few people deep.

It was the sort of staging that makes you think it was the best of bad options rather than a space that should have been built specifically with this show in mind. After a short time, the celebration proceeds to the hub area, between the stores, which does allow for more dancing space.

These two cultural offerings were held twice each, but I think this was a missed opportunity. I’d prefer to see the cultural center have basically a day’s worth of diverse programming. This would allow a better use of the small space, allowing crowds (currently just potential crowds) to spread throughout the day. Offering a bigger range of activities—maybe include some nature talks, for example—also would encourage more people to come and partake in the cultural aspect of the port.

A Digression on Theming at Lookout Cay

At this point it’s fine to tell me to “get back to the beach stuff,” but the reason I fixate on the cultural center is because Disney itself billed the port originally as “a signature island experience that celebrates the spirit and culture of The Bahamas and the natural environment.”

At the time, in 2019, the project was headed by Joe Rohde, but he retired in early 2021. Joe Rohde’s attachment got a lot of people excited, including me. Joe was the lead creative mind on Animal Kingdom, a park that really plumbed the depths of placemaking. The idea of bringing his magic and injecting some cultural elements into a new Disney port had a lot of potential.

But it didn’t pan out. This (overall positive) review isn’t done yet, but it’s worth pausing here to say I just don’t think this was the original vision for the port. If it was, it was significantly less ambitious in its cultural aspirations than what was let on. Yes, I looked closely and found some nice details. There are a few beautiful, artistic elements around the island. But this is no Harambe, Anandapur, or Pandora.

For better or worse, the theming of Lookout Cay is a huge contrast with Castaway Cay. Castaway Cay is peak Eisner-era Disney Experiences. They took a place and slapped cartoonish details of a story all over it. It’s fun. It’s the sort of “Disney detail” that you don’t have to work hard to find—just pick a thing and look at it, and the “story” is there.

On the one hand, you applaud the idea of aiming for more cultural sophistication with Lookout Cay. On the other hand, I don’t think it materialized. And what’s left is a place that feels more thematically empty. This feeling isn’t helped by the still-young environment, but it also isn’t helped by the copious amount of designed beige surfaces, either.

Lunch at Lookout Cay

I don’t have much to say about lunch (I’m sure you can find commentary for other more qualified eaters, if necessary). Like Castaway Cay, Lookout Cay offers buffet lunch at three locations—True True BBQ, True True Too BBQ, and Serenity Bay BBQ. The menu includes chicken, seafood, ribs, and burgers. They also had fake meat burgers available with a short wait.

We ate right as the buffets opened. As with many buffets, the organization left a lot to be desired. There were two identical sides, but people mostly piled into a huge line on one side. No one wanted to be the person “cutting” by skipping the first station, so that long line was contrasted with several empty stations.

In any case, with our early arrival, we were in and out relatively quickly. Emily and I didn’t communicate perfectly, and I would have liked to have gone back to grab some more variety, but by the time we’d gotten our burgers the lines were getting excessive. As we walked by later a Crew Member was trying to direct everyone to the other location. Try and eat early.

Lookout Cay Nature Trail

After lunch and the shows, Emily and I decided to walk the nature trail. It’s something we’d usually make Zoe do, but we thought time with Grandma and Grandpa is important, too, so we left the three of them at Rush Out Gush Out.

The nature trail is a loop along the southern part of the Eastern Side (represented in yellow on the main map). It starts right behind Sebastian’s Cove. You can either walk the entire trail loop or, as we did, walk one side of it and then take the beach back.

Along the route are some informational signs about the flora and fauna of the island. It took us about seven minutes to reach the historic lighthouse, which is not itself accessible.

Off the side of the lighthouse, behind a rope and a warning sign, was a plateau that probably had some pretty good views. We opted to just obey the sign and instead headed down to the beach, where you could also see people climbing up the plateau.

It was a beautiful walk. While Castaway Cay has its remote areas, the far south end of the Lookout Cay beach is a really special spot, unlike anything at Disney’s other port. There were a handful of other guests, but the environment and the low crowds definitely make the short walk here worth it.

Walking back along the beach we were struck by how beautiful this coastline was. The sand is a beautiful light pink. The water was beautiful turquoise. After we finished the walk we got the group back together and spent some time on the beach. Zoe had a ton of fun playing in the waves. The open-ocean setup makes it wavier than Castaway Cay, but it never felt unsafe.

Lookout Cay Closing Thoughts

After what’s been written so far you might be a little surprised by my conclusion on Lookout Cay—I think I prefer it to Castaway Cay.

I wrote a lot above about what Lookout Cay isn’t. And it’s always easy to do that about anything, because any single thing isn’t an infinite number of things. Lookout Cay isn’t Castaway Cay. It isn’t as deep a cultural experience as some hoped. It also isn’t a ham sandwich or a UFO. But it’s not a bad destination simply for not being those things.

Lookout Cay does one thing really, really well—it provides a great day at the beach. By crowding, layout, atmosphere, and any other measure, I’d take the Lookout Cay beach over Castaway Cay every day.

Not-so-ironically, Lookout Cay works best where Disney did the least—the beach. What works about the Lookout Cay beach is that it’s a long, long strip of beautiful sand and water. Some people have criticized Lookout Cay as a bit barren, a sentiment that maybe comes across in what I said above, but the blessing of space works wonders on the beach, where you can basically always move a little farther down to leave the crowds behind.

Lookout Cay does some other stuff better than Castaway Cay, too. Rush Out Gush Out is too small for my liking, but we felt it bested the hodgepodge of water activities at Castaway Cay. The character greetings at Lookout Cay were a dream come true, too.

Sure, I missed sitting at Heads Up Bar with a stunning view of the ship. And Lookout Cay has nothing like In Da Shade or the beach sports area at Castaway Cay. But this cruise had Lookout Cay the day after Castaway Cay, and what I realized was that I spent so much time at Castaway Cay just running around trying to do everything and “take it all in.” That wasn’t a problem at Lookout Cay.

On the margins, it might matter what sort of cruise you’re on. We were spending 4 full days on the Fantasy, two of which we spent entirely on the boat, and two on Disney’s ports. Between the ship and Castaway Cay, there’s a mindset of trying to check every box. Lookout Cay offered a nice break from that.

Lookout Cay was a simpler place than I expected, but there was a ton of joy in its simplicity.

Get the Newsletter