NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Nassau Cruise Port this week marked an ‘historic’ achievement, recording six ships per day in port for two consecutive days.
The cruise port celebrated the historic achievement yesterday morning as the port team welcomed six ships in addition to the six vessels that came in on December 5.
On Monday, December 5, two Oasis-class Royal Caribbean ships – Wonder of the Seas and Harmony of the Seas – cruised into Nassau along with Explorer of the Seas, Carnival Elation, Celebrity Reflection, and Celebrity Beyond bringing over 21,000 guests.
Yesterday, four more Royal Caribbean ships arrived including Independence of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, and Liberty of the Seas. Disney Wish and Carnival Liberty rounded out the bunch to bring the total number of passengers today to 19,959.
The Nassau Cruise Port Ltd is projected to welcome over four million passengers in 2023.
The redeveloped cruise port is set to have its grand opening in May 2023, with just under $300 having been invested in the project to date.
Following a tour of the facilities by Prime Minister Philip Davis last week, NCP chief executive Mike Maura said there are currently 300 persons working on the port project, half of whom are Bahamian. The project’s general contractor is Enka, which is also working on the new US Embassy.
Once completed, Maura noted that the port will be able to comfortably handle three Oasis class ships at the same time along with three other vessels.
“We had expected to be finished long before the last weekend of May 2023 but the pandemic has had its fun with us. Once completed we will be able to handle comfortably three Oasis ships at the same time and three other vessels for a total of six,” said Maura.
He noted that the port’s passenger capacity will increase from 20,000 passengers to around 33,000 passengers per day.
Maura revealed that while initially planned as a $250 million investment, that number has increased to just under $300 million.
“It’s higher than we anticipated but obviously that was impacted by material costs rises due to the pandemic and so forth,” Maura added.
