Cruise passengers are flocking to the revamped Nassau Cruise Port in The Bahamas, with the Caribbean’s most popular cruise destination topping its all-time record with a month to spare in 2023.
So far this year, Nassau Cruise Port has received 3,869,003 passengers through the end of November, the highest total in its history.
That eclipsed the previous record of 3,859,183 passengers set in 2019.
The total is a “monumental milestone,” said Mike Maura, Jr, CEO of the Nassau Cruise Port. Cruise officials are eyeing a new record of 4.2 million passengers by the end of 2023, he said.
The record-breaking total comes after the cruise port inaugurated a $300 million redevelopment earlier this year, one that includes 60 retail stores, a new Bahamas Museum of Junkanoo, a wine bar and art gallery and a 3,000-person amphitheater, among other additions.
It’s part of a years-long renaissance for downtown Nassau, one that has helped turn the Bahamian capital into a new haven of history, culture, dining and art, from the Graycliff Heritage Village to the Pointe, a mixed-use project on the waterfront that now includes a pair of Margaritaville-branded resorts.
Another new resort, the reimagined British Colonial, also in downtown just steps from the cruise port, is slated to reopen soon.