Until recently, the sleepy and tired port of Nassau in the Bahamas was the stop many cruisers chose to skip. Some ponied up for a pricey excursion to Atlantis or a day pass to Margaritaville, while many repeat visitors just spent the day onboard their ship, saying there was nothing they cared to do in Nassau.
But no more. Just a year after a $330-million port redevelopment began luring travelers to downtown, the Nassau Cruise Port now is adding a $35-million water park and a Royal Caribbean private island.
Aimed at everyone from little tykes to their grandparents, the water park will offer a family-friendly venue open to the public, and including everything from exhilarating slides to tranquil pools. It is scheduled to debut in time for Christmas 2025.
The water park will built on the cleared site on the western side of the downtown area of the port, behind the amphitheater, according to media reports.
Also opening next December, the 17-acre Royal Beach Club Paradise Island will offer a private and beautiful destination for up to 2,700 Royal Caribbean guests, with multiple swimming pools and beachfront facilities.
Nassau is the largest port in the Bahamas, and growing rapidly. It hosted the most visitors ever, 29,316, one day in December 2023; a record seven cruise ships at the same time in March 2024; and 800,000 more cruise passengers in the first six months of 2024 than in the same period in 2019.
