5 Best Princess Cays Excursions to Try on Your Next Cruise

Table Of Content

• Island Bike Tour
• Princess Cays Adults-Only Bungalows
• Helpful resources for your Caribbean cruise
• I booked a Princess cruise to Alaska for $1,147 per person—take a tour of my tiny inside cabin
• Join my thousands of subscribers, and I’ll send you my exclusive printable Cruise Carry On Packing List for free!

More likely, cruise guests arriving at Princess Cays will look forward to private beach amenities ideal for relaxation or outdoor adventure. If you're looking for fun in the sun, Princess Cays weather patterns can be welcoming year-round. Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay are both very similar destinations, but they’re not identical. They offer similar water sports activities, but Half Moon Cay has the more unique experience of horse riding through the sea.

Island Bike Tour

But you could also venture deeper by booking a tour of the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve. See the Bahamian native habitat up close and enjoy the kind of peace that comes from communing with nature. Follow our social media and blog for the latest cruise and travel news, including our best vacation deals. Princess Cays may be a relatively small resort but it still packs a lot of activities into that space, without ever feeling too crowded either. While in some cruise ports, you might still get hassled, but that shouldn’t happen at Princess Cays.

Princess Cays Adults-Only Bungalows

The Crow’s Nest is an overlook tower that rises three stories high and is the place for photos of the island or your ship. Don’t forget about the thousands of sun loungers where you can veg out with a cold drink and a good book. Points of interest include gorgeous pink sandy beaches, quaint towns such as Rock Sound, caves, and unusual geological formations such as the Glass Window Bridge. Experience true Bahamian life with local churches, schools, and markets.

Helpful resources for your Caribbean cruise

Between North Beach and the snorkeling area is the Offshore Pavilion. This is a great spot to watch colorful fish swimming around its piers. It’s also a good place to snap a pic of your ship, especially if you don’t want to climb the stairs to the top of the Crow’s Nest.

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Half Moon Cay is a small private island, whereas Princess Cays is a resort on the island of Eleuthera. Guests tend to love that feeling of exclusivity in a tropical destination, away from the bigger crowds. Cruise lines can make the most of this through exclusive excursions and activities that attract more guests and can bring in more cash, too.

Princess Cays, The Bahamas

Read on to find out everything you need to know about Princess Cays. Private cabanas and air-conditioned beach bungalows are available to rent, but you need to book ahead of time. Ideal for families, these brightly colored bungalows are equipped with beach chairs and provide shade overlooking the beach. Consult with the cruise line before your cruise (and again with the crew on board) if you use a mobility device. If you’re visiting on a Princess cruise, you can use your beverage package (except the specialty coffee package) on the island.

Princess Cays for Kids

Visitors on a Carnival cruise can’t use any shipboard drinks packages on Princess Cays. Princess Cays is Princess Cruises’ private island destination on the island of Eleuthera. The southern tip of Eleuthera is reserved for cruise guests, while the rest of the island is populated and open to the public. The word “cay”, meaning a small, low island, is generally pronounced like the word “key”. You’ll hear the ship’s crew and other passengers referring to the private destination as Princess “Key”, Princess “Keys”, Princess “Kay”, or Princess “Kays”. Locals, including the salespeople at the straw markets, tend to call the area Princess “Key”.

Cruisers have the opportunity to buy tickets to feed and interact with friendly stingrays at a cove near the tender dock, or try your hand at surf fishing just offshore. The port of call at Princess Cays is canceled more often than ports with cruise ship docks, especially during the hurricane season from June through November. Here’s everything you need to know to enjoy your day at Princess Cays. Be sure to check out my Princess Cays FAQ at the bottom of the page, where I answer the most commonly asked questions about this exclusive port of call. Get Rad on a Dune BuggyThis is one for the serious adventure-fiends. Sign up for a Dune Buggy tour and explore the southernmost tip of Eluethera Island.

There are 25 private cabanas, called bungalows, on Princess Cays. Each one is a small hut-like structure in a different bright, tropical color, with a small deck, an umbrella for shade and an outdoor shower. There are 18 bungalows situated in the main section of the beach, and seven additional adults-only (age 18 and up) bungalows in a restricted Sanctuary area of the beach. Princess Cays was the first cruise line private island to expand their Wi-Fi to allow for onshore connectivity back in 2018. The Grill Crazy BBQ is located in the northern part of the island near North Beach and the snorkeling area.

Each bungalow is equipped with a ceiling fan, a table and four chairs, and an outdoor shower. Your bungalow will be stocked with towels, two flotation rafts to use for the day, and a cooler full of soft drinks and water. If you’re looking for an active day out on the water, Princess Cays has you covered with lots of water sports to choose from! You can book a guided activity or rent equipment for a DIY option.

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Winter tends to be the dry season at Princess Cays, while summers bring more rain and often daily thunderstorms. Hurricane season in the Bahamas runs from June 1 through November 30. While you’re exploring Princess Cays, there are a few other points of interest you might like to check out. More unusual souvenirs in these shops include crystal jewelry, dinnerware, leather accessories, and decorative wood carvings. You can even take home some of the famous Andros batik fabric, either by the yard or made into table linens or resort wear. The shops also sell a nice selection of typical souvenirs including t-shirts, mugs, shot glasses, and other trinkets with a Bahamas theme.

The temperature of the waters was perfect and we loved how calm the waves were. They have cabana rentals and rentals for tubes and other floating devices. We brought our own tubes with us and were able to use those instead of renting tubes. If it’s a toy that belongs in the water, you’re likely to find it here. You can even rent out a hobie sailboat for by the hour for up to three people.

The warm waters are teeming with brightly-colored fish and other sea creatures. After our boat tour, we walked around awhile to explore the island. It’s a beautiful island full of colorful buildings, some shops and vendors alongside the beach. You can take many other excursions which will take you on tours of the island if you wish to see more.

Or, bring your own snorkel gear to explore the quiet coves of Princess Cays and the coral reefs and mangroves of the Caribbean Sea. This guide to everything you need to know about Princess Cays shares how it stands out among the other private islands in the Bahamas. Just as onboard, there is a free buffet and BBQ near the Princess Cays pier for cruisers to enjoy an excellent selection of delicious meats, salads and desserts. Cast a line and see what you can hook on this 2.5-hour fishing tour. You’ll be fishing from a stretch of rocky coastline using a spinning reel. Catch and release is preferred as fish cannot be taken back onboard.

There isn’t a large swimming pool at Princess Cays, although there is a small paddle pool at the kids’ play area Pelican’s Perch. Guests are instead able to swim and enjoy water sports on the ocean, which has crystal-clear warm waters. This food is provided by the cruise line, with staff bringing it ashore and preparing it on the island during the morning. It’s similar to what you would get at the buffet restaurant on the ship but with more of a focus on burgers, chicken and other BBQ favourites. A buffet is provided for all guests to enjoy close to the tender pier, which includes a selection of barbecue favourites, salads and some tasty sweet treats.

Covering 176 square miles, Eleuthera is 100 miles long and about two miles wide. Princess Cays is situated at the southern end of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Eleuthera is part of the Great Bahama Bank, approximately 70 miles east of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas archipelago.