Bahamas cruise Alaska cruise · Seattle & Vancouver round-trips · any ship, any linemiddot; short sailings from Miami Alaska cruise · Seattle & Vancouver round-trips · any ship, any linemiddot; 3, 4 and 5 nights

22 videos for your Bahamas cruise

Grouped by port rather than by day — the short Miami sailings run 3, 4 and 5 nights with different combinations of the same few stops, so a fixed day order would be wrong for most people.

Open all 22 on the map

Great Stirrup Cay · Nassau · Key West, plus the Norwegian Joy herself — because on a four-night sailing the ship is most of the holiday.

Before you sail

Miami & the ship

embarkation

On a three or four night sailing the ship is the destination as much as any port - you are aboard for most of it. Norwegian Joy runs these from Miami through the winter, so the walkthroughs below are the fastest way to know what is actually on board before you get there.

On nearly every sailing

Great Stirrup Cay

typically 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Norwegian’s own island in the Berry Islands, and the stop that appears on almost every short Bahamas itinerary. Lunch is included, the island is small enough to walk end to end, and the day is as busy or as idle as you make it. Its neighbour, Little Stirrup Cay, is Royal Caribbean’s CocoCay - close enough that photos of the two get mixed up constantly.

Book ahead Cabanas sell out well before sailing and there is rarely anything left to book once you are aboard. Three different types are reviewed below - Vibe Shore Club, Cabana on the Cay and the Premier cabanas - which is worth ten minutes if you are considering one, because NCL’s own site shows you very little.
Check the programme This has historically been a tendered stop rather than a walk-off pier. That changes how much of the day you actually get, so check your daily programme the night before rather than assuming.
On most sailings

Nassau

typically 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

One of the busiest cruise ports in the world, and the one people ask most questions about. You dock in the middle of town, so the Straw Market, Queen’s Staircase and Fort Fincastle are all walkable without booking anything. Junkanoo Beach is the nearest free swim; an Atlantis day pass is the expensive alternative.

The safety question It comes up in every Nassau thread, and several of the guides below address it head-on rather than dodging it - which is why they are here. The short version most of them land on: the main tourist corridor in daylight is busy and fine, and the usual advice is to stay in it. Read a couple and judge for yourself rather than taking one opinion.
On some sailings

Key West

typically 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

The one stop that is still the United States, and the most walkable port of the lot - Duval Street, the Southernmost Point and the Hemingway House are all within reach on foot from the pier. It appears on some Miami itineraries rather than all, so check yours.

Do not wait for it Key West’s famous Mallory Square sunset celebration is genuinely worth seeing, but ships almost always sail before it starts. Plan the day around the morning and afternoon, not the evening.

Watch tomorrow’s port tonight

All 22, on the map, grouped by the port you’ll wake up in.

Open the map

Port times are typical rather than exact — they vary by ship and sailing date, so always check your own documents. Not every itinerary includes every stop: Great Stirrup Cay is on nearly all of them, Key West only on some. Every video opens on YouTube, or plays inside the map.