I swear I had it configured once, but now I cant reproduce it.

I want to use it as a standard wireless AP with no NAT/firewall.

If I do a quickset for WISP AP, change it to bridge mode, and change the wifi info, I can use it as a expected. I can connect to wifi and surf.

However I cannot get back into the unit to make any changes after I hit save. Before switcing it to a Bridge, I note the IP address the unit received from the external DHCP and I cannot access the admin interface at that address. I can ping it, but I cant connect to the admin interface after saving the config. I can only ever get into the config when its in router mode and I hit it via the 192.168.88.1 address.

How do I get to the admin interface from the wired interface when it is in bridge mode?

Maybe you have some firewall rule (Layer 3) blocking your TCP input connection. There are many other problems that could lead to this issue, however, if you can directly connect your Mikrotik device to your computer then you could try to connect using Winbox on layer2, avoiding the layer3 firewall.
I hope this work.