These days, it seems as if the cruise lines are building shore stops almost as fast as they are rolling out new ships.
Royal Caribbean, for instance, is under construction at two Royal Beach Club sites, one on Paradise Island just across from Nassau in the Bahamas set to open next year and another to open in 2027 at Cozumel. Both are extra-fee options for their passengers, and each will have a capacity limit of about half the passengers on the line’s biggest ships. A third club is planned for somewhere in the South Pacific.
The Nassau club is being built in part with Bahamas government funds, hoping to increase revenue from passengers in a port where a large proportion of passengers don’t disembark. The clubs will offer cabanas, family areas and games, beach areas with local foods, and a party zone with what’s being billed as the world’s largest swim-up bar—but no water park.
That feature is reserved for its Coco Cay private island and the recently-announced Perfect Day Mexico, which is another expanding project of the line with its ever-larger ships.
Carnival is also busy in its own destination business, building a new private island experience to be called Celebration Key, while also announcing plans for a second port at its existing Half Moon Cay. Celebration Key will have a wide assortment of things to do including a water park, spa, adults-only retreat and DJs, while Half Moon Cay has been a quieter beach-oriented stop, used mainly by Carnival’s Holland America Line. Carnival recently announce plans to build another, larger port at the other end of the beach, about a kilometer away. The new facility will cater mainly to Carnival’s larger ships, and will have a tram system so passengers can visit either end.
Image: Artist’s conception of party area of beach club
