Bahamas Cruise Private Islands: Who Owns Which Island, Lines and Things to Do

On the last evening at sea, the talk at the rail turns to the next morning’s port, and someone asks whether it is a real island or the cruise line’s own. In the Bahamas it is often the second: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC and Disney each hold a stretch of sand here, set aside for their own passengers. Each island belongs to one line, and each has its own mood, from a lighthouse cay to a marine reserve.

A private island seen from above · Illustration

Which private islands do cruise lines own in the Bahamas?

Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, Disney, Holland America and Princess have Bahamas destinations. They sit on different islands, so one cruise can look nothing like another. Some are tiny cays in the Berry Islands, others take up a corner of a large island such as Grand Bahama or Eleuthera.

A few of these places are old, and some are brand new. Great Stirrup Cay has been in use for decades, while Lookout Cay on Eleuthera and Celebration Key on Grand Bahama are the new arrivals. Their stories say a good deal about what each line wants you to do on shore.

The Berry Islands and the old cays

Great Stirrup Cay belongs to the Berry Islands district and is owned and operated by Norwegian Cruise Line for its passengers. A lighthouse built in 1863 by the Imperial Lighthouse Service still stands there, a reminder that this stretch of water was a working sea lane long before cruise ships arrived.

Right next door is Little Stirrup Cay, better known as CocoCay, which is used for tourism exclusively by Royal Caribbean Group. It is a small island, less than a mile long from east to west and narrow from north to south. The 2010 census counted only a few dozen residents, so what you find today is a destination built almost entirely around visiting ship guests.

Little San Salvador and Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay is the cruise name for Little San Salvador Island, a private island owned by Carnival Corporation & plc, which uses it as a port of call for its ships. Holland America Line bought the island in December 1996 for six million dollars, and the island has stayed in the family of cruise brands ever since.

The island is large on paper, with a total area of 2,400 acres, yet only a sliver of it, about 50 acres, has been developed. The rest stays as it was, which gives the place a more spacious feel than the small cays nearby. It lies roughly a hundred miles southeast of Nassau.

Eleuthera: Lookout Cay and Princess Cays

Eleuthera hosts two cruise destinations at opposite ends of the same long island story. Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point is an exclusive destination for Disney Cruise Line ships, southeast of Bannerman Town. It opened to guests on June 6, 2024, and the Disney Magic was the first ship to dock there.

Princess Cays sits at the southern end of Eleuthera, about 50 miles from Nassau. Its calling card is a long list of beach activities, which the third section covers. Both places show that Eleuthera’s southern tip has turned into a cruise corner, with wide beaches and low, quiet country behind them.

Grand Bahama, Bimini and Abaco-side ports of call

Celebration Key is a new exclusive destination from Carnival on the south side of Grand Bahama island, designed for Carnival guests. It gives the line a home on an island that is otherwise known for Freeport and Lucaya, and the cruise beach sits apart from both.

Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve lies in the Bimini district, 20 miles south of Bimini proper. It is a former working island that MSC Cruises redeveloped after signing a 100-year lease with the Bahamian government in 2015. The island is small, just 42 hectares in all, and its name tells you the line wants it read as a marine reserve as much as a beach stop.

Castaway Cay, Disney’s other Bahamas stop, holds a 99-year land lease from the Bahamian government that lasts through 2096. About 60 Disney Cruise Line employees live and work there full time in company-provided bungalows, so the island runs like a small village.

Which cruise line goes to which island?

Each private island is tied to one line or group, so the ship you board largely decides which island you see: Carnival has Celebration Key and Half Moon Cay, Royal Caribbean has CocoCay, Norwegian has Great Stirrup Cay, MSC has Ocean Cay, and Disney has Lookout Cay and Castaway Cay.

Private island	Where	Cruise line
Celebration Key	South side of Grand Bahama	Carnival
Half Moon Cay (Little San Salvador)	Southeast of Nassau	Carnival Corporation & plc
Perfect Day at CocoCay	Next to Great Stirrup Cay	Royal Caribbean Group
Great Stirrup Cay	Berry Islands district	Norwegian Cruise Line
Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve	Bimini district	MSC Cruises
Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point	Southeast of Bannerman Town, Eleuthera	Disney Cruise Line
Castaway Cay	Ships dock directly at the island	Disney Cruise Line

Carnival: Celebration Key and Half Moon Cay

Carnival has two Bahamas stops that feel very different. Celebration Key is the newest, built for the line’s guests on Grand Bahama, and it begins with Paradise Plaza, the first portal, where guests are welcomed ashore with guest information, live music and photo ops.

Half Moon Cay, on Little San Salvador, is the older of the two and works as a port of call for Carnival’s ships. If your itinerary lists one of these, you are on a Carnival Corporation ship. The line’s choice of island tends to say whether the cruise leans toward a lively resort-style day or a quieter, more open stretch of sand.

Royal Caribbean and Norwegian: the Stirrup neighbors

Two lines share the same corner of the Berry Islands. Royal Caribbean Group uses CocoCay, also called Little Stirrup Cay, as its private island, while Norwegian Cruise Line has had Great Stirrup Cay next door since 1977. Passengers on each line see their own cay, and the two beaches never merge.

It is a neat piece of geography for anyone who has ever wondered why two competing lines would choose neighboring islands. The cays are close because the Berry Islands chain forms a natural stopping place on the way from Florida, and both lines have long treated it that way.

Disney: Lookout Cay and Castaway Cay

Disney Cruise Line has two Bahamas islands, and Castaway Cay serves as an exclusive port for its ships, with the exception of the Disney Adventure. Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point on Eleuthera is the second, open to Disney ships since the Disney Magic docked there first.

Castaway Cay was the first private island in the cruise industry where ships dock directly on the island, so guests do not need to be tendered to land. For a family with small children or anyone who dislikes small boats, that is the detail that matters most about the island.

MSC at Ocean Cay

MSC Cruises is the line that goes to Ocean Cay, the former industrial island turned marine reserve. It is the farthest from the usual cruise map of the lot, set in the Bimini district well south of Bimini itself, and it gets its character from that isolation.

If your cruise is booked with another line, you will not stop here. The island is built around MSC guests, and its marine reserve identity runs through everything the line says about it.

What can you do on a cruise line’s private island?

On a private island you spend the day on a beach built for ship guests, with activities that change from one line to the next: waterslides at one, a helium balloon at another, a lighthouse walk at a third. The shared idea is a day that is easy to organize, in a place designed for it from the dock to the sand.

Celebration Key: beach and family water play

The beach at Celebration Key is a mile-long stretch of white sand, and it is the first thing you see after Paradise Plaza. Walk along it and you can leave the plaza crowds behind, which is the point of such a long beach.

Starfish Lagoon is the family corner. It has the Flash Flamingo and Mach III Marlin waterslides, the Guppy Grotto splash pad, and sports courts for basketball, beach volleyball and pickleball. Children can burn off energy for hours, and parents can watch from the sand.

Perfect Day at CocoCay: balloon and waterpark

CocoCay is the island of big attractions. The Up, Up & Away helium balloon lifts riders over the island, and it comes with firm limits: riders must be at least 48 inches tall and weigh between 75 and 275 lbs. Passengers aged three and younger ride free with an adult admission.

Thrill Waterpark is the other big draw. Children under 14 must be accompanied by a ticketed guest 14 or older to enter, so a family with mixed ages should plan who goes in with whom. The rest of the island, small as it is, stays low-key by comparison.

Princess Cays: a long list of water sports

Princess Cays is built around the water. Visitors can swim, canoe, kayak, ride a banana boat, water ski, snorkel, parasail, go sailing and try waverunning. That is a long menu for one stretch of the southern Eleuthera shore, and it suits people who would rather be moving than lying still.

On land there are volleyball and basketball courts. Between a morning on the water and an afternoon of beach games, the day fills quickly, and the quiet country of southern Eleuthera sits just beyond the shoreline.

Castaway Cay, Lookout Cay, Ocean Cay and Great Stirrup Cay

Castaway Cay lets you step straight from the ship onto the island, which shapes the whole day because there is no wait for a tender. With about 60 crew members living on the island, it feels staffed and cared for in a way few beaches do.

Lookout Cay sits at Lighthouse Point on Eleuthera, and the name points to the headland that gives it its character. Ocean Cay is a marine reserve, so the sea is the draw there. Great Stirrup Cay has its old lighthouse, a reason to look up from the beach at least once.

Good to know before you go

The U.S. State Department rates the Bahamas Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, and says most crime occurs in Nassau on New Providence and in Freeport on Grand Bahama.

Private islands are visited on a ship’s schedule, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, so a stormy week can change a port of call. The islands themselves are small, which means shade, sand and water are all within a short stretch of the landing. Each line runs its own island, so the activities, courts and attractions described for one will not apply to another.

Sources

Carnival Cruise Line, Celebration Key (https://www.carnival.com/celebration-key), checked October 10, 2026
Wikipedia, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookout_Cay_at_Lighthouse_Point), checked October 10, 2026
Royal Caribbean, Perfect Day at CocoCay (https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-destinations/perfect-day-at-cococay), checked October 10, 2026
Wikipedia, CocoCay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CocoCay), checked October 10, 2026
Wikipedia, Half Moon Cay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Moon_Cay), checked October 10, 2026
Wikipedia, Great Stirrup Cay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stirrup_Cay), checked October 10, 2026
Wikipedia, Ocean Cay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Cay), checked October 10, 2026
Wikipedia, Castaway Cay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castaway_Cay), checked October 10, 2026
Wikipedia, Princess Cays (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Cays), checked October 10, 2026
Royal Caribbean, Royal Beach Club Paradise Island (https://www.royalbeachclub.com/), checked October 10, 2026
U.S. Department of State, The Bahamas Travel Advisory, Level 2 (https://travel.state.gov/), checked October 10, 2026
NOAA National Hurricane Center, Climatology (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/), checked October 10, 2026