On a cruise morning in the Bahamas, the question comes up over coffee on the pool deck: which beach is the day’s plan, and is it on Paradise Island, the green strip across the harbor from Nassau? The Royal Beach Club is a beach club on Paradise Island, the island people mostly know through Atlantis. For a cruise passenger, it helps to understand the island first and the club second.
What is Royal Beach Club Paradise Island?
The Royal Beach Club Paradise Island is a beach club on Paradise Island, a small island in the Bahamas that faces Nassau across the harbor. The name belongs to a cruise-style beach day rather than to a hotel stay, and it sits beside one of the best-known resort addresses in the islands.
Anyone searching for it may also run into a similarly named timeshare property in Florida. That one is a different place and has nothing to do with the Bahamas.
To picture the setting, start with Paradise Island itself. It is linked to New Providence by two bridges over Nassau Harbour. The first was built in 1966 by Resorts International and the second came in the late 1990s. Crossing one of them takes you from the busy harbor front of Nassau to a quieter, resort-minded island.
An island with a film past
Paradise Island has a screen history that gives the place some of its glamour. The James Bond films Thunderball (1965) and Casino Royale (2006) were partly shot here. Bond fans like to look at the shoreline and the harbor with those scenes in mind, and it is a nice way to fill the minutes on the way to the sand.
There is also a small piece of aviation history. The Paradise Island airport closed in 1999, and the airfield and its runway were replaced by an 18-hole golf course. Where planes once landed, fairways now run flat and green, which says a good deal about how the island changed from a landing strip into a resort setting.
Atlantis next door
Paradise Island is best known for Atlantis, an ocean-themed casino resort that spans 154 acres. It opened as Atlantis on December 11, 1998, when the Royal Towers were built.
Later towers followed, with The Cove opening in March 2007 and The Reef in December 2007. Atlantis is a separate resort from the Royal Beach Club, but it explains the island’s reputation and why so many visitors arrive with water, aquariums and sand in mind.
Which cruise lines go to Royal Beach Club Paradise Island?
The Royal Beach Club is a cruise-line beach club, so it belongs to the world of ship passengers who spend a day ashore in the Bahamas, not to the resort-guest world of its neighbor. The name signals a cruise brand, and the way to think about it is as a day in port that ends back on board.
A beach club of this kind works as a destination within a port call. Passengers go ashore, spend the day on Paradise Island and return to the ship. That rhythm differs from a land vacation. The day is built around the ship, and the island’s own attractions are seen in the hours between disembarking and sailing.
Reading the island as a port stop
Paradise Island is a short hop across Nassau Harbour from the city, and the two bridges are the physical link between them. Passengers who think of Nassau and Paradise Island together are really thinking of one harbor with two shores. The old town and its streets are on one side, and the resort island with its beaches and golf is on the other.
Because an archipelago keeps every fact tied to one island, it is worth keeping Paradise Island apart from the rest of the Bahamas. What holds here, in this small corner of the harbor, does not carry over to Exuma, Eleuthera or Grand Bahama. Each island has its own setting, its own beaches and its own way of receiving visitors.
Cruise passengers and the island’s neighbors
Many cruise guests pair a beach day with a look at Atlantis, whose Atlantis spans about 154 acres, including Aquaventure and its beaches. The marine habitat holds more than 65,000 animals from 250 species, among them dolphins, sharks, sawfish and stingrays. Dolphin Cay, a marine conservation and education center, lets visitors interact with dolphins in a controlled environment.
What can you do at Royal Beach Club Paradise Island?
A beach day is the heart of it, and around it Paradise Island offers a handful of things you can see and do, from watching the resort towers to walking a golf fairway’s edge. The club itself is a place to settle on the sand, and the island fills the hours before and after.
The mood on the island is resort-polished. Palms line the roads, the towers of Atlantis rise over the shoreline, and the harbor behind you keeps the bustle of Nassau within sight. Mornings feel unhurried, and as the afternoon goes on the beach settles into the easy, sun-warmed pace of a day in port.
Atlantis for the curious
Even if the day is spent on the beach, the Atlantis resort draws the eye. It holds restaurants, pools, a beach, a walk-in aquarium and casinos. The casino covers 60,000 square feet, with 85 table games and over 700 slot machines. At the far end of the spectrum, the Bridge Suite in the span between the Royal Towers costs $25,000 per night, a number that tells you something about the scale of the place.
The marine habitat is the part of Atlantis that visitors talk about most, since it houses sharks, sawfish and stingrays among its tens of thousands of animals. Dolphin Cay adds the conservation and education side, with dolphins in a controlled setting.
Golf and the old runway
Atlantis includes a 7,100-yard golf course, and the island’s own 18-hole course now covers the former airfield. For golfers it is an unusual line to add to a scorecard, playing across ground where aircraft once touched down before the airport closed in 1999.
Non-golfers still enjoy the open sweep of the course from the road. It is one of the few wide green spaces on a small island, and it gives the landscape a calm, spacious look compared with the dense harbor frontage of Nassau.
Bridges, views and a film walk
The two bridges make a pleasant way to take in the harbor. Looking back from the island you see the Nassau waterfront, and looking the other way you see the resort towers. Film fans can think of Thunderball and Casino Royale, both partly shot on Paradise Island, as they take in the scenery.
What do you need to know before you go ashore?
Cruise passengers heading to the Bahamas need a travel document that fits the way they return, and the U.S. State Department strongly recommends a passport. For a cruise, another Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative compliant document, such as a U.S. passport card, may be used.
The reason for the passport advice is practical. If an emergency forces you to leave the ship and fly home, entering the United States by air takes a valid passport or one of a short list of other documents. Children must carry their own passport when flying, and the Indian or tribal card cannot be used for air travel.
| Situation | Document |
|---|---|
| Cruise travel to the Bahamas | A WHTI-compliant document, such as a U.S. passport card, may be used |
| Cruise travel, the State Department’s strong recommendation | A U.S. passport, in case an emergency requires returning by air |
| Entering the United States by air | A valid U.S. passport, a Trusted Traveler card (NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST), a U.S. military ID on official orders, or a Merchant Mariner document for official maritime business |
| Children flying to the United States | Their own passport |
Beyond documents, the island’s weather shapes the day. The mean daily high in January reaches 77°F on Paradise Island, which makes winter beach days warm. Summer nights stay mild, with the mean low in August at 75°F.
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.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, so a cruise in those months falls inside it. The Bahamas uses its own Bahamian dollar. The Royal Beach Club is on Paradise Island, which is a different place from Nassau city, even though the two bridges join them across the harbor.
Sources
- Royal Caribbean, Royal Beach Club Paradise Island (https://www.royalbeachclub.com/), checked October 10, 2026
- Wikipedia, Paradise Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Island), checked October 10, 2026
- Wikipedia, Atlantis Paradise Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_Paradise_Island), checked October 10, 2026
- U.S. Department of State, The Bahamas Travel Information, Entry and exit requirements (https://travel.state.gov/), checked October 10, 2026
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/western-hemisphere-travel-initiative), 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
To plan your stay
- Best Time for a Bahamas Cruise: Weather by Month, Hurricane Season and Sea Temperatures
- Bahamas Cruise Ports: Nassau, Freeport, Private Islands and Which Stop Suits You
- Freeport Cruise Port: Celebration Key, Port Lucaya and Getting Around Grand Bahama
- Bahamas Cruise from Baltimore: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Ports and Boarding Documents