Princess Cays in brief
Princess Cays is not an island — not in the way the name suggests.
It is roughly 40 acres of a real, inhabited one, on the southern tip of Eleuthera, about 50 miles from Nassau.
Princess has run it as a beach stop since 1992, and its own material calls it an exclusive Princess-owned island only for Princess guests.
That last part has been out of date for nine years. Carnival Cruise Line ships began calling here in 2017, and Carnival's own booking site carries roughly two dozen more sailings through 2027 — a second brand, on the same sand.
Both things are true at once.
The copy and the operating reality do not match — and you should know that before you picture an empty beach.
The structural fact here is the tender, and it governs everything else.
No ship ties up at Princess Cays. Princess's own fact sheet describes a pier for the ship's tenders — a landing stage rather than a berth — and neither line has published a plan for anything bigger.
Ships anchor offshore and run tenders in.
Princess rebuilt the marina in 2018, in its own words, to take larger tenders and smooth embarkation both ways.
The ride is reportedly about 20 minutes each way — a secondary figure, not a Princess one. Both crossings together are the better part of an hour out of your call.
Rough seas can suspend a tender operation anywhere. We could not find a specific, dated case of a Princess Cays call being cancelled for weather — which is not proof it has not happened, only that nobody has published one.
Two brands call here, and only one of them lets a drinks package off the ship.
Carnival's own CHEERS! terms name this destination. The package "is not offered on 2 day cruises, charter cruises, and beverage purchases made at Celebration Key, Half Moon Cay and Princess Cays."
The same terms exclude "Beverages purchased off the ship at any port of call, including Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay" — twice over, in the line's own document.
So a Carnival guest who bought CHEERS! pays menu prices from the moment the tender lands — every drink, all day, on the room account.
That is Carnival's own wording, not a traveller's report.
It is the single most expensive thing to get wrong here.
Princess's own packages reportedly do carry ashore. That reading is our own excursion guide's, and Princess's beverage-package terms returned 404s on every attempt when we checked — so we are printing it as a secondary claim rather than as the line's word.
Water, lemonade and iced tea come free with the barbecue whichever brand brought you.
Alcohol and soda are the part worth settling at the first bar.
The afternoon is where this port bites — and the number you need is published nowhere.
We found no Princess-published last-tender time and no all-aboard buffer specific to this destination.
What we did find is a pattern. Multiple independent traveller reviews describe the return tender queue getting long late in the day — repeated often enough to be a feature of the port, not one bad afternoon.
Princess prices the problem itself — which is the clearest evidence it exists. Priority tendering is reportedly bundled into a bungalow rental, and no line needs to sell a queue-jump for a queue that is short.
Go back earlier than feels necessary — well earlier.
There is no second gangway here — the boat is the only way home.
Can you walk out into the rest of Eleuthera? Treat the answer as no.
This is the one question a real-island private destination raises that a genuine private island does not — and it has a practical answer rather than a legal one. Eleuthera has settlements, roads and residents, and Bannerman Town sits about a mile north of the beach.
Neither Princess nor Carnival publishes a statement that you may not leave, and no source we could reach describes the boundary. So we are not going to claim a fence we cannot source.
What is sourced is the absence of any way to use one.
No line describes road transport, a shuttle, a taxi rank or a settlement worth reaching.
Princess's own 2018 works also added a security pre-clearance zone on the property, which is about the screening you pass through on the way back to the tender.
So: no town day, no independent operator, no exit that anybody has published. That is functionally closed, even without a published rule to quote at you.
The beach itself is disputed, and one side of the dispute is our own guide.
Our own excursion guide says about half a mile of white-sand shoreline, from multiple cruise-port guides — the one figure on this page that rests on our earlier reading rather than on the operator.
Princess's own 2018 completion release says more than a mile and a half — a threefold gap, not a rounding difference. We print both rather than average them.
The operator's figure may cover the whole leased frontage rather than the developed guest beach.
Neither side publishes that distinction — so we are not going to invent one.
The last thing, and it is urgent rather than structural: check that your sailing still calls here.
Princess has been pulling this destination off a large share of its own 2026 Caribbean itineraries, mostly in favour of Half Moon Cay.
Trade press names October 17, 2026 aboard Regal Princess as the last confirmed Princess call, and two outlets checking the same schedule in early September 2026 counted either 5 or 7 remaining Princess sailings out of 160 published Caribbean cruises — two counts, one schedule, and we print both.
A dated case landed on September 11, 2026: Sun Princess's November 22, 2026 sailing lost Princess Cays and gained Relax Away, Half Moon Cay, with booked Princess Cays excursions automatically refunded.
Princess itself says the island is not closing, and Carnival's own 2027 schedule backs that up. Since then Princess has said most of its published calls have shifted to Half Moon Cay, and Princess Cays has dropped off Carnival Corporation's list of its private destinations, still with no closure statement.
This is a Princess-specific pullback, not a destination going dark.
Which of the paid add-ons earns its price over the free beach is the job of our Princess Cays shore excursion guide, not this page.
On foot from the ship
No ship berths here, so every guest arrives by boat. Princess's own fact sheet describes a pier for the ship's tenders — a landing stage, not a berth. The roughly 20-minute ride is a secondary figure rather than a Princess one, and Princess rebuilt the marina in 2018, in its own words, to take larger tenders and smooth embarkation both ways.
The half-mile figure is ours, from multiple port guides, as the overview says. Princess's own 2018 release says more than a mile and a half — a threefold gap, not a rounding difference. We print the disagreement rather than pick a winner.
Princess's own figure. That is small enough to walk end to end in a morning, and it is the entire extent of where a guest may go — the rest of Eleuthera is not part of the day in anything either line publishes.
The nearest real settlement, on OpenStreetMap's own record. It is close enough to matter as a fact and irrelevant as a plan — no line describes transport, a shuttle or any published way to get there and back.
A second cruise-line private destination on the same southern tip, per OpenStreetMap. Two lines, two fenced beach days, a mile and a half apart — and no guest crosses between them.
Princess added a security pre-clearance zone to the property in its 2018 works. It sits between you and the tender home — one more reason to start back earlier than feels necessary on a busy call.
What's nearby, broadly
The first five are your day. Everything from Bannerman Town onward is real, mapped, a few miles away and completely outside what either cruise line sells here — listed so you understand the geography, not because any of it is reachable. That is the honest shape of a private destination grafted onto an inhabited island: a genuine place next door, and no published door.
Commonly reached from
Princess Cruises is the regular caller and Carnival Cruise Line has been an ongoing one since 2017, per our own Caribbean cruise guide, which also carries the hub's standing advice to confirm your sailing still stops here. Most displaced Princess itineraries now route to Half Moon Cay instead, and some to Celebration Key. If you want the built-out version of a private-island day rather than a plain beach, that comparison lives in our CocoCay guide. The ranked add-on decision for this destination is in our Princess Cays shore excursion guide.
Planning your Princess Cays day
The specific picks — which paid excursion is actually worth it, what to skip, and why — already have their own dedicated guide, built and kept current on its own schedule. This page stays at the port-identity level on purpose; that one goes deep.
Booking a tour yourself? Our comparison of Shore Excursions Group and Viator covers which of the two suits which kind of port day — and when the ship’s own tour is still the better buy.
How does Princess Cays compare with the other cruise-line beach stops? Our private islands and beach clubs showdown scores twelve of them in six categories, with families and couples fit shown separately.
Best Princess Cays shore excursions
Princess Cays is a plain beach-and-barbecue stop on Eleuthera, reached by tender — not a built waterpark.
See the full excursion guide →Practical notes
This is leased private property on a real Bahamian island, and the distinction matters more here than at most private destinations.
Eleuthera is inhabited, with settlements, roads and a resident population. Princess Cays occupies roughly 40 acres of its southern tip.
There is no formal immigration process for guests going ashore.
Our Caribbean hub states that plainly, and the ship's ID is what you carry.
The State Department's Bahamas page sets out the real country rules anyway: a valid passport, valid at time of entry through departure, two blank pages, and no visa for tourism stays up to 90 days.
Cruise passengers may use other WHTI-compliant documents.
A passport solves a missed-ship problem, not a slow beach day.
Money here is simpler than at almost any other call in the region.
The Bahamian dollar is pegged one to one with the US dollar, so there is no conversion to think about.
Nearly everything on the property charges to your cruise card, per multiple secondary port guides. That is a genuine simplification versus a normal port day.
The consistent exception across those sources is the artisan or craft market, which reportedly takes US dollars or a credit card rather than the ship's account.
Bring cash only if the craft market is actually on your list — a few small notes, not a day's budget.
Otherwise you carry it all day for nothing.
The drinks question, and the answer splits by which brand brought you.
Carnival's own CHEERS! terms exclude this destination by name — the package is not offered for "beverage purchases made at Celebration Key, Half Moon Cay and Princess Cays."
The same document rules out "Beverages purchased off the ship at any port of call, including Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay."
So a Carnival guest on CHEERS! pays menu prices ashore all day. That is settled policy in Carnival's own words — not a traveller's report, and not something the bar will waive.
Princess's own packages reportedly do carry over, per that same guide. Princess's beverage-package terms would not load for us when we checked, so it stays a secondary reading rather than the line's own position.
Ask at the first bar what your card actually covers.
The answer costs nothing to get and a whole day's drinks to assume.
What your fare already covers, before anyone sells you anything.
The beach, loungers and umbrellas are included, along with a barbecue lunch reportedly served from 11:30am to 1:30pm and free water, lemonade and iced tea — the non-alcoholic half of the bar, in other words.
Casual snorkelling off the main beach costs nothing.
The paid tour buys a guide and a specific site, not access to the water.
That is a genuinely full day for a lot of travellers.
It is a beach stop by design — not an underbuilt waterpark.
There is no waterpark, no thrill rides and no built attraction. If that is what your group wants, this is the wrong island and we would rather you knew now.
The tender, and the part of it nobody publishes.
Ships anchor and tender.
There is no berth, and weather that stops tenders stops the call.
We found no dated example of a Princess Cays call being skipped for sea state. That is a gap in what we could confirm, not evidence it does not happen.
No Princess-published last-tender time exists, and no all-aboard buffer specific to this destination does either.
Independent traveller reviews describe the return queue running long late in the day — consistently enough to plan around, if not precisely enough to time.
Priority tendering is reportedly bundled into a bungalow rental. A line does not sell a queue-jump for a queue that does not exist.
Our own number, not the operator's: start back at least 90 minutes before all-aboard on a full-ship call. Use your Princess Patter or the app for the actual time.
Leaving the property, and why we will not give you a rule to quote.
Neither Princess nor Carnival publishes a statement that guests may not walk out into the rest of Eleuthera, and no reachable source describes the boundary.
So we are not claiming a fence we cannot source.
Nothing published gives you a way to use one.
No line describes road transport, a shuttle, a taxi rank or a reachable settlement. Bannerman Town is about a mile north — and it appears in nobody's excursion catalogue.
Princess's own 2018 works added a security pre-clearance zone on the property, on the tender side of your day.
Treat the destination as closed and plan a beach day.
If you want a real Bahamian town, this is the wrong call to want it at.
Safety, and reading the advisory for what it actually says.
The State Department rates The Bahamas Level 2, Exercise Increased Caution, dated July 28, 2026, due to crime.
Its most specific warnings are about the water — not the beach.
The page says boating is not well regulated and that injuries and deaths have occurred, and that sexual assaults by jet ski operators have been reported.
Its prohibition on US government employees renting jet skis from independent operators is scoped to New Providence and Paradise Islands. Eleuthera is not named in that restriction, and we are not going to stretch it to cover a destination it does not mention.
The watersports you rent here are the cruise line's own, which is a different arrangement from an unlicensed beach vendor. Ask about life jackets and age limits before you pay.
Season, weather and one piece of history.
The regional dry season runs roughly November to April, which is also when most of these itineraries run.
Hurricane season is June to November.
A tender-only destination has less weather margin than a berth does — that is the structural cost of having none.
A fire at a generator facility damaged the property on January 28, 2019. It reopened — and the incident is worth knowing only as evidence that a single-point utility failure can close a destination like this one.
Accessibility, and a real gap.
A tender transfer is the hardest arrival format for a guest with limited mobility.
It is also the only format on offer here — there is no second way ashore.
Princess's 2018 marina works were described as accommodating larger tenders and smoother embarkation both ways, which is an operational improvement rather than a published accessibility standard.
Golf-cart transport to a bungalow is reportedly included with that rental — a mobility aid sold as a convenience, but a mobility aid all the same.
Beyond that, no source we could reach publishes accessibility detail for the tenders, the beach or the marina. Ask your line before you sail, not at the tender platform.
Sources: Seabound Journeys' own Caribbean cruise guide and Princess Cays shore excursion guide, Princess Cruises' own Princess Cays destination page and its own Princess Cays fact sheet (princess.com), Carnival's own CHEERS! package terms (carnival.com) for the beverage exclusion, Cruise Industry News (February 16, 2018 carrying Princess's own completion release; January 10, 2017 on Carnival's first calls; September 11, 2026 on the Sun Princess itinerary change), the U.S. Department of State's Bahamas information page (travel.state.gov, advisory dated July 28, 2026), and coordinates and settlement distances from OpenStreetMap via Mapcarta, cross-checked against Wikipedia. Princess's own beverage-package terms returned 404s on every attempt when we checked and are recorded as unread — all consulted September 21, 2026.
Planning a Princess Cays port day?
Tell us how much time you've got and who's with you.
A short call, a full day, kids in tow or a couple wanting quiet water — we'll point you at the actual right answer, not just a list.
Answers verified against current pricing and itineraries before you book.
Princess Cays FAQ
Does the ship dock or tender at Princess Cays?
Tender, always. Princess's own fact sheet describes a pier for the ship's tenders — a landing stage for boats, not a berth for a ship — and neither line has published a plan for anything bigger.
Ships anchor offshore and run tenders to a marina Princess rebuilt in 2018, in its own words, to take larger tenders and smooth disembarkation and embarkation.
The ride is reportedly about 20 minutes each way. That is a secondary figure rather than a Princess one, and it is the better part of an hour out of your day.
What time is the last tender back?
Nobody publishes it, and that is the honest answer rather than a dodge.
We found no Princess-published last-tender time and no all-aboard buffer specific to this destination. Your Princess Patter or the app is the only authority.
What is well documented is the pattern. Independent traveller reviews consistently describe a long return queue late in the day, and Princess reportedly bundles priority tendering into a bungalow rental — a perk nobody sells for a queue that does not exist.
Start back at least 90 minutes before all-aboard on a full ship. That is our number, not the line's.
Can I leave Princess Cays and explore the rest of Eleuthera?
Treat the answer as no, and understand why we are phrasing it that way.
Eleuthera is a real inhabited island, and Bannerman Town sits about a mile north of the beach. Neither Princess nor Carnival publishes a statement that guests may not walk out, and no source we could reach describes the boundary, so we will not claim a fence we cannot source.
What is sourced is the absence of any way to use one. No line describes road transport, a shuttle, a taxi rank or a settlement worth reaching, and Princess's own 2018 works added a security pre-clearance zone on the way back to the tender. Plan a beach day.
Is my sailing still calling at Princess Cays?
Check it directly, because this is the live question at this destination right now.
Princess has been pulling Princess Cays off a large share of its own 2026 Caribbean itineraries, mostly swapping in Half Moon Cay. Trade press names October 17, 2026 aboard Regal Princess as the last confirmed Princess call, and two outlets counting the same schedule in early September 2026 came up with either 5 or 7 remaining Princess sailings out of 160 published Caribbean cruises.
A dated case: on September 11, 2026 it was reported that Sun Princess's November 22, 2026 sailing had lost Princess Cays and gained Relax Away, Half Moon Cay, with booked Princess Cays excursions automatically refunded.
Is Princess Cays closing?
No. Princess itself says the island is not closing, and Carnival's own schedule supports that with roughly two dozen of its sailings booked here through 2027. Since then Princess has said most of its published calls have shifted to Half Moon Cay, and Princess Cays has dropped off Carnival Corporation's list of its private destinations, still with no closure statement.
What is happening is a Princess-specific pullback, not a suspension of the destination. Those are different things and the difference matters to your booking.
Princess's own stated reason for itinerary changes is generic. Trade press infers that newer islands with dedicated piers are cheaper to operate, and that inference is the reporters', not the company's.
Is Princess Cays only for Princess passengers?
Princess's own page says so. The operating record says otherwise.
Carnival Cruise Line ships began calling here in 2017 and Carnival has roughly two dozen of its own sailings booked through 2027, per its own booking site.
Both brands sit under Carnival Corporation, so whichever one brought you, the money goes to the same parent. Expect to share the beach.
Does my drinks package work ashore at Princess Cays?
If Carnival brought you, no — and Carnival says so itself.
Its own CHEERS! terms exclude "beverage purchases made at Celebration Key, Half Moon Cay and Princess Cays," and separately exclude "Beverages purchased off the ship at any port of call, including Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay."
So a CHEERS! guest pays menu prices from the moment the tender lands. That is the line's own policy, not a bar's discretion, and it is the most expensive assumption anyone makes at this destination.
Princess's own packages reportedly do carry ashore. That is our own earlier reading rather than Princess's word — the line's beverage-package terms would not load for us when we checked, so ask at the first bar. Water, lemonade and iced tea are free with the barbecue either way.
What is free at Princess Cays, and what costs money?
Included: the beach, loungers, umbrellas, a barbecue lunch reportedly served 11:30am to 1:30pm, and free water, lemonade and iced tea — though a Carnival CHEERS! card buys you nothing at the bar here, by Carnival's own terms. Casual snorkelling off the main beach costs nothing either.
Paid: bungalows and clamshells, the stingray encounter, glass-bottom and coastal boat trips, the guided snorkel tour, equipment rentals, the bike tour, surf fishing and the banana boat.
Almost none of those prices come from a live Princess or Carnival booking page — and two of them disagree across secondary trackers. Confirm through your own line's portal before you budget against any figure.
Do I need cash at Princess Cays?
Almost never. Nearly everything on the property charges to your cruise card, per multiple secondary port guides.
The consistent exception across those sources is the artisan or craft market, which reportedly takes US dollars or a credit card rather than the ship's account.
The Bahamian dollar is pegged one to one with the US dollar, so there is no conversion to worry about either way.
What happens if the sea is too rough to tender?
The call is cancelled or shortened, because there is no alternative way ashore.
That is the structural cost of a destination with no pier, and it is the single biggest difference between this stop and a private island that built one.
We could not find a specific, dated case of a Princess Cays call being skipped for weather. Absence of a documented case is not evidence it has not happened, only that nobody has published one.
Is Princess Cays like CocoCay or Half Moon Cay?
No, and that is deliberate on Princess's part rather than a shortfall.
There is no waterpark, no thrill rides and no built attraction. It is a beach, a barbecue and a short menu of rentals on roughly 40 acres.
If a built-out island day is what your group wants, look at CocoCay or Half Moon Cay instead — that is the honest steer, and we would rather you heard it now than at the tender platform.
Is Princess Cays accessible for a wheelchair user?
We cannot give you a proper answer, and a tender-only destination is the hardest place for that gap to sit.
Princess's 2018 marina works were described as accommodating larger tenders and smoother embarkation in both directions. That is an operational improvement, not a published accessibility standard.
Golf-cart transport is reportedly included with a bungalow rental and functions as a mobility aid in practice. Beyond that, nothing we could reach publishes accessibility detail for the tenders, the beach or the marina. Ask your line before you sail.
Want a sailing that stops in Princess Cays?
Tell us roughly when and who's going — we'll match the itinerary and ship to how you travel.
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