Royal Caribbean, MSC and Disney Just Helped the Caribbean’s Most Popular Cruise Port Set Another Record

The Caribbean remains the most-visited cruise destination in the world, and if you’re taking a cruise somewhere in the region, chances are one particular port will be your first stop: Nassau, The Bahamas, the powerhouse of the regional cruise industry and one that keeps getting better with a transformed cruise port and fresh new experiences — and record-breaking numbers that continue to make it the highest-volume cruise destination in the Caribbean. 

And Nassau just set another major record, with the most cruise visitors it’s ever had in a single day: 30,538 on a regular Tuesday. 

The new record was driven by a total of six major ships visiting downtown Nassau, including MSC Seaside, Disney Dream, and four Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ships – Independence  of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, and Utopia of the Seas. 

The news comes after Nassau broke its calendar year record for passenger arrivals in 2024. 

Two years ago, the cruise port completed a significant $300 million upgrade, one that included new facilities and even a museum of The Bahamas’ most famous cultural art form, Junkanoo. 

Nassau’s cruise offering is getting even better later this year with the planned debut of Royal Caribbean’s new beach club on Paradise Island. That will be opening to guests beginning in December, and the port is already spending $2 million to improve its ground transport capabilities and add more ferry capacity to take guests across the harbor to Paradise Island. 

So what’s on tap for the port? Officials told Caribbean Journal the expectation is for around 6.5 million cruise passengers in 2025, which would be a 15 percent increase compared to last year. 

In other words, it’s going to be “another banner year for Bahamas tourism,” Nassau Cruise Port CEO Mike Maura Jr said.