Country guide
Cruise ports in Bahamas
9 ports we cover in Bahamas, across the The Bahamas. Each guide covers how ships berth, how far the town is and what a group can do with the day.
Practical basics
Currency
Bahamian dollar (BSD), at parity with the US dollar; US dollars accepted everywhere · Purchases run on the onboard account; no cash needed · Bahamian dollar (BSD), fixed at parity with the US dollar; US dollars accepted everywhere
Language
English
Time zone
Eastern Time (UTC−5, UTC−4 in summer) · Eastern Time (UTC−5, UTC−4 in summer) — the same clock as Miami
Getting ashore
6 ports with a berth, 3 where ships tender
Drawn from the individual port guides below. Currency, language and berthing can differ between ports in the same country, so the detail that matters is on each port's own page.
How Bahamas's ports compare
The Bahamas is the only country on a Caribbean itinerary where most of your port calls may not be at a town at all. Six of the nine calls here are private islands leased or owned by a single cruise line — CocoCay, Castaway Cay, Half Moon Cay, Great Stirrup Cay, Princess Cays and Ocean Cay — and which ones you can visit is decided by which line you sail with, not by the itinerary you pick.
For a group, the split that matters is pier versus tender. CocoCay, Castaway Cay, Ocean Cay and Bimini have berths, so forty people walk ashore in minutes. Half Moon Cay, Great Stirrup Cay and Princess Cays are tender-only, which costs an hour at each end of the day and is the most common reason a Bahamas call is cancelled outright in winter swell.
Nassau and Freeport are the two genuine towns. Nassau is the more useful of them for a group since its 2023 terminal rebuild put the ship within a five-minute walk of Bay Street, so people can disperse and regroup without transport. Freeport sits inside a working industrial port with nothing within walking distance, so every plan there begins with a taxi.
Every Bahamas cruise port
Bimini
The closest Bahamian island to Florida — 80 km from Miami — with a docked berth, a beach club and a very small island to explore.
Castaway Cay
Disney’s private island in the Abacos — the only major private island where ships dock rather than tender, with a separate adults-only beach.
CocoCay
Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Berry Islands, with a pier, the Caribbean’s tallest waterslide and a very large freshwater pool.
Freeport
A Grand Bahama industrial harbour with beaches and Lucaya a short drive away — the closest Bahamian port to Florida.
Great Stirrup Cay
Norwegian Cruise Line’s private island in the Berry Islands — the industry’s first, tender-served, with a quiet beach and a lagoon.
Half Moon Cay
Holland America and Carnival’s private island — a crescent of white sand, mostly undeveloped, reached by tender.
Nassau
The Bahamian capital and the most-called port in the world, with a rebuilt terminal that opens directly onto the historic town.
Ocean Cay
MSC’s private island in the Bimini chain — a rehabilitated industrial sand-dredging site, now a marine reserve, with overnight calls.
Princess Cays
Princess Cruises’ beach resort on the southern tip of Eleuthera — not an island but a leased stretch of coast, reached by tender.
Regions Bahamas sits in
Other countries with cruise ports
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Aruba
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bonaire
- British Virgin Islands
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Croatia
- Curaçao
- Dominica
- France
- Greece
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Honduras
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Malta
- Martinique
- Mexico
- Montenegro
- Puerto Rico
- Sint Maarten
- Spain
- St. Kitts and Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Turkey
- United States
- US Virgin Islands
Taking a group to Bahamas
Five cabins or more held together as one block, quoted once, with each household booking and paying separately. Tell us roughly when and how many.