NCL to expand Great Stirrup Cay with six-acre waterpark
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has announced plans to expand its private island destination in the Bahamas with the addition of a nearly six-acre waterpark
Great Tides Waterpark will open in Great Stirrup Cay next summer and feature cliff jumps, jet karts, swim-up bars and splash zones.
“Great Stirrup Cay has always been an amazing part of the Norwegian Cruise Line guest experience and continues to be one of our highest rated destinations,” said David Herrera, president of NCL.
“At 270 acres our private island provides us with an incredible blueprint to reinvent what guests can experience when they escape to ‘The Great Life’ with us. This new water park is an outstanding addition to our recent announcement about other amazing new amenities on the island soon to debut.”
The park will feature 19 waterslides, a nearly 800-foot dynamic river, a 9,000-square-foot splash zone for kids and the industry’s first cliffside jumps.
At 170-feet, the Tidal Tower will be home to eight waterslides, including the two tallest slides of the tower where guests can experience drops and climbs on an inner tube.
Additional features include racing slides, tube slides and body slides. Select slides will include conveyer belts to lift the rafts to the top of the tower.
Cliffside Cove will offer racer slides, two different cliff jumps standing at 10 and 15 feet tall and the Caribbean’s only family slide, where four guests can slide down simultaneously.
At the center of Great Tides Waterpark, a 9,000-square-foot kids splash zone houses an oversized tipping bucket towering at over 40 feet above the ground, eight mini slides and interactive water features.
It comes as NCL prepares to welcome one million guests to Great Stirrup Cay across 15 of its ships in 2026.
It will bring its newest ships to its private island in the Bahamas, including Norwegian Aqua, offering a variety of seven-day Caribbean voyages from Miami and Orlando through October 2027 with calls to the Dominican Republic and Virgin Islands.
Norwegian Luna, meanwhile, the company’s latest vessel debuting in March 2026, will offer seven-day Caribbean itineraries from April 2026 to October 2026, visiting the same destinations as Aqua.
