Resorts World Bimini Cruise Port sits on North Bimini, just fifty-three miles from Miami, about as close as the Bahamas gets to Florida. Ships dock straight at a single pier, and from there the Beach Club at Bimini, Fisherman’s Village and a run of free beaches are all a short tram or taxi ride away.
This little outpost, a short hop from Port Everglades and PortMiami, lives in Nassau’s shadow, but it still pulls in a steady run of ships each season, including regular visits from Royal Caribbean’s biggest ships, which only need the one wide berth to tie up.
Is it safe to wander beyond the resort gates on your own? Along the stretch covering the pier, Fisherman’s Village and Alice Town, yes, it’s pretty relaxed.
Anyone who’s made the crossing from Key West to Bimini by boat already knows how close this sliver of an island sits to the Florida coast.
Where Bimini Cruise Port Sits
Resorts World Bimini Cruise Port sits on North Bimini, just outside Alice Town, on an island so slim it only runs about seven miles long and, in places, barely seven hundred feet wide. North and South Bimini between them hold around 2,400 people, which tells you everything about the scale of this stop next to the Bahamas’ busier capital.
It’s the second most popular cruise port in the Bahamas after Nassau, helped along by sitting barely fifty-three miles from Miami, far closer to Florida than Nassau ever gets. The wider group of Family Islands that takes in Bimini, Eleuthera, Great Abaco and Harbour Island has seen visitor numbers climb sharply too, up around forty percent in a single year, with arrivals topping 4.6 million by sea and air combined.
If this is your first visit, our complete first-time visitor’s guide to Bimini cruise port goes into more depth than we’ve got room for here.
Getting Off the Ship: The Pier and Terminal
Getting off the ship in Bimini means a five-minute walk along a flat, wheelchair-friendly pier sidewalk straight off the gangway, as most ships dock alongside rather than tendering. There’s no shade or seating, so skip the tram queue and walk towards Fisherman’s Village or Alice Town to beat the crowds.
Bimini has just one berth, a single pier reaching out from North Bimini that’s wide and deep enough to take even Oasis class ships, Royal Caribbean’s biggest vessels. Most lines dock straight alongside, so there’s no tender ticket to wait around for, though a handful of older guides still describe a tender drop off behind the resort.
If your line’s app mentions tendering at all, that’s why, and it’s a good reason to double check before you plan your morning.
The walk off the ship takes about five minutes along a flat, well marked pier sidewalk. It’s wheelchair accessible the whole way, with bathrooms on hand, but there’s barely any shade and nowhere to sit while you wait for the tram. Bring a hat rather than planning to linger.
Because there’s only the one berth, every passenger off a large ship funnels through the same narrow stretch between gangway and tram stop at the same time. On a full sailing that’s a proper crowd for the first twenty minutes or so.
Walking straight past the tram queue towards Fisherman’s Village, or setting off on foot towards Alice Town, usually gets you clear faster than standing in line waiting for it to thin out.
Bimini cruise port map
Ships dock at Resorts World Bimini Cruise Port Pier. Tap a pin for directions.
- Resorts World Bimini Cruise Port PierWhere ships dock
- Tram Stop – Fisherman’s Village MarinaTram stop
- Tram Stop – Kayak BeachTram stop
- The Beach Club at BiminiBeach club
- Free Beach Near PierBeach
- Spook Hill BeachBeach
- Alice TownTown
Screenshot the map before you leave the ship. Signal gets patchy once you wander away from Fisherman’s Village.
Getting Around North Bimini
A free tram shuttles between the pier and the Resorts World attractions, running roughly every ten to fifteen minutes, though that stretches out when a big ship’s in port. It only runs north, towards the Beach Club and Fisherman’s Village Marina, so if you’re heading south to Alice Town or Radio Beach, you’ll want a taxi or a golf cart instead.
- Golf carts are the favourite for exploring under your own steam, hired by the day from vendors near the port.
- Taxis charge a flat per-person fare for most short hops around the island, and drivers wait near the pier for exactly this reason.
- The pier sits roughly halfway along North Bimini, so journey times north and south work out fairly similar.
Our comprehensive Bimini transportation guide with current prices and booking tips covers exactly what to expect from each option. Costs shift from season to season, and we’d rather send you somewhere that keeps them up to date than guess here.
The Beach Club at Bimini: Who Gets In Free
Virgin Voyages passengers get free access to the Beach Club at Bimini, a five minute tram ride from the pier. Everyone else, including guests sailing with Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean, can still go in, they just pay an entry fee at the gate.
The tram itself is free for every passenger whatever line you’re on, with stops at Kayak Beach and Fisherman’s Village Marina on the way.
If you’re trying to work out whether the Beach Club is worth the fee on your sailing, our detailed Virgin Voyages Beach Club Bimini guide with photos, amenities, and booking strategies and our detailed Celebrity vs Virgin Voyages Bimini comparison both go further into it than we’ve got room for here.
Free Things to Do Near the Cruise Port
There’s a free beach right next to the pier as you walk off, handy if all you want is sand and sea without going anywhere. Kayak Beach, a stop on the free resort tram, costs nothing to sit on, though kayak and lounger hire there are both extra.
- Browse the shops and marina views at Fisherman’s Village without spending a penny beyond what you choose to buy.
- Walk the flat pier sidewalk and surrounding paths at your own pace.
- Sit on the free beach beside the pier if you’d rather skip the tram altogether.
Finding Radio Beach: Why the Distance Depends Who You Ask
Radio Beach, named after a nearby radio tower, gets rated as the best free beach close to the port, but ask around and you’ll get a different distance every time, anywhere from about two miles to nearly four. Some of that gap is walking route versus straight line distance, and some of it is just people measuring from different spots.
What everyone agrees on is the practical bit. In Bahamian heat, walking the whole way is miserable, and most visitors take a taxi or golf cart instead, which gets you there in well under fifteen minutes.
The free resort tram doesn’t go that way at all, since it only runs north towards the Beach Club, so a taxi or golf cart isn’t really optional if you want to see Radio Beach and still make boarding.
For a fuller rundown of Radio Beach and the other sand options on the island, see our complete guide to Bimini’s best beaches for cruise passengers.
Bimini’s Beaches: What’s Really Free
Radio Beach, Spook Hill Beach and Bimini Public Beach are public beaches in the plain sense, free to walk onto with no resort strings attached. Paradise Beach sits inside the Resorts World complex itself, and while the sand isn’t gated off, the loungers, pool bars and most of what makes a day there comfortable come with a Beach Club fee unless you’re sailing with Virgin Voyages.
Pack sun protection whichever beach you pick. The water around Bimini is some of the clearest in the Bahamas, worth looking after, and something like this reef safe sunscreen does the job without leaving a film on your hands when you’re handling snorkel gear.
Shopping at Fisherman’s Village and Alice Town
Fisherman’s Village Marina is the easiest shopping stop, home to the Reef Retail Shops, including Rainbow Reef Shop for tie-dye souvenirs, SPLASH Swimwear, and Home Reef for handmade jewellery and accessories. It’s resort style shopping, simple for a short visit, and all within the tram loop.
Alice Town has smaller, locally owned stores selling Bahamian crafts, rum cakes and cigars, a different flavour altogether from the marina boutiques and worth the walk if you’ve got the time. Pair it with lunch using our guide to Bimini’s best restaurants and authentic local food experiences.
Beyond the Resort: Alice Town, the Dolphin House and the Healing Hole
The Dolphin House Museum in Alice Town is a whimsical three storey building put together from shells, sea glass and recycled materials, a properly odd and interesting stop once you’ve had enough of the beach. A short boat trip from the island takes visitors to the Healing Hole, a natural freshwater spring, usually booked as a shore excursion rather than arranged on the day.
Bimini’s waters are also known for marlin, tuna, grouper and bonefish, enough to have earned it the title of Sport Fishing Capital of the World, and several private charters run from the island. If fishing, snorkelling or a Healing Hole trip is on your list, our comprehensive Bimini shore excursions and tours guide for cruise passengers and our complete Bimini water sports and marine life guide cover what’s worth booking ahead.
Some locals point visitors towards Bimini Road, a curious underwater rock formation that a few reckon is a remnant of the lost city of Atlantis, though that’s local legend rather than settled fact. If you’re heading out on the water for any of this, a dry bag waterproof pouch keeps your phone and cash safe from spray on the smaller boats.
Inside the Resorts World Bimini Complex
The resort itself, owned and operated by The Genting Group, runs to around 480 townhouses and villas, six restaurants, the largest marina in the Bahamas, two lagoon style swimming pools and a 10,000 square foot casino with slots and card games. For passengers who’d rather not leave the complex at all, there’s plenty here to fill a full day ashore.
The hotel at the centre of the resort ran for several years as a Hilton Hotels & Resorts property, though that branding agreement has since ended. We couldn’t pin down what name the hotel currently trades under at the time of writing, so check directly with the resort or your cruise line if a hotel stay is part of your plans.
Resorts World Bimini is one of only three cruise ports in the Bahamas that isn’t on a private island, alongside Nassau and Freeport, and it’s grown fast since opening, reportedly welcoming its one millionth cruise passenger within just a couple of years.
Money in Bimini: currency, cards and cash
Bimini uses the Bahamian dollar, which is tied one-to-one to the US dollar. US cash is accepted everywhere, so you don’t need to change money before you go. Euros aren’t used here. Cards work at larger businesses, including Resorts World Bimini, but plenty of small vendors, conch stands and casual eateries are cash-only.
- Taxis don’t have meters, so agree the fare before you get in. It’s commonly a few dollars a person
- Golf cart hire and tips are paid in cash too
- The resort has ATMs that give out US dollars, but there aren’t many and the fees are high. Bring some small notes just in case
Is Bimini safe for cruise passengers?
For most cruise passengers, Bimini is a safe, low-crime port, and it’s one of the Bahamas’ quieter Out Islands. The UK Foreign Office lists these outer islands as lower crime than Nassau or Freeport, with no advisory against travel. Most visitors find it a relaxed port to walk around, from the pier through Fisherman’s Village to Alice Town.
Taxis don’t have meters, so agree the fare before you set off to avoid overcharging. There’s more pickpocketing around festivals and fishing tournaments, so keep your bag close then. Watersports operators are loosely regulated. Book jet ski or snorkelling trips through your ship or a known operator rather than off the street. Avoid swimming at dusk because of shark activity in local waters.
Where to Eat and Drink Near Bimini Cruise Port
You’ve got three real choices for a port day meal: stay inside the Resorts World complex, wander over to Fisherman’s Village, or walk down into Alice Town for the proper local stuff. All three are doable in a few hours, so it’s really a question of how far you fancy wandering and how long your lunch break needs to be.
Resorts World Bimini has ten restaurants, bars and cafes scattered through the hotel and casino, so you’re never short of somewhere to grab a plate without going anywhere near a taxi. The casino’s sports bar does wings and casual plates, and the Lobby Bar in the middle of the hotel is the quickest stop for a snack between the beach and the pier.
Fisherman’s Village, right by the pier, is the easy middle option. Alongside the shops you’ve already spotted, it has Amici’s Pizzeria & Gelateria, and a rum bar with live music and Bahamian food, which is about as good a combination as a short call needs.
Alice Town is where the food gets properly local, and it’s worth the walk if you’ve got the time. Stuart’s Conch Stand is a local institution serving the freshest conch salad on the island, prepared right in front of you using conch caught that morning.
A couple of minutes along, Joe’s Conch Shack does its own version of the same classic, and if you’ve room for pudding, Nate’s Bimini Bread is the local sweet bread and bakery stop worth seeking out before you head back.
Conch is the dish to try wherever you end up, whether that’s the salad, cracked and fried, or baked into something richer. Baked crab in the shell is the other seafood dish to look out for.
Then there’s Bimini bread. It’s sweeter and more buttery than an ordinary loaf, and it lines the shelves of local bakeries, so even a small loaf carried back up the gangway makes a decent souvenir.
As for whether to eat ashore or stick to the ship’s buffet, with only a few hours in port it genuinely comes down to how far you’ve already wandered. If you’re spending the day around the Beach Club or Fisherman’s Village, grabbing conch salad or a slice of pizza there costs you no extra travel time.
If you’ve pushed on to Alice Town, factor in the walk or taxi back, because the queue at the gangway on a full ship moves slower than you’d like when everyone’s trying to make the same cut off.
Bimini Shore Excursions Worth Booking
Bimini’s excursions are almost all water based, built around one short crossing from the island. Snorkelling the SS Sapona wreck, swimming with wild dolphins, visiting the Healing Hole and heading out on a fishing charter are the four that come up again and again, whether you book through the ship or with a local operator.
Snorkelling the SS Sapona is the trip most people ask about by name. The concrete-hulled wreck sits in shallow water about four miles off South Bimini, and it’s thick with fish.
Trips run to around two hours, and they’re often paired with a stop at a nearby reef where you can snorkel with nurse and reef sharks in calmer water first, which is a gentler way in if you’re not keen on jumping straight in near a wreck.
Swimming with dolphins is Bimini’s other headline trip, and it’s one of the few places anywhere that offers it with animals in open water rather than a pool. The Gulf Stream runs close by, and wild Atlantic spotted and bottlenose dolphins feed in the shallows.
These dolphin safaris typically run to around three and a half hours, so it eats a proper chunk of a short call and is worth booking as early in the day as your ship’s schedule allows.
The Healing Hole is a quieter, less strenuous option. It’s a freshwater pool in a mangrove setting, reached by boat, and most people treat it as a half day trip rather than a quick stop, since getting there and back by water takes a while longer than the distance on a map suggests.
Fishing charters round out the list, and they’re a serious draw here rather than an afterthought. Bimini’s reputation as the Sport Fishing Capital of the World comes from its marlin, tuna, grouper and bonefish, and boats can be chartered for half day or full day trips covering fishing, snorkelling or island hopping, so you can tailor the length to whatever window you’ve got before boarding.
Booking through the ship means a fixed return time and the ship waits if the excursion overruns, which is worth paying for if your schedule is tight. Independent operators such as Bimini Undersea and Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Center run the same snorkelling and dolphin trips, usually for less, but you’re responsible for getting yourself back to the pier, so build in a bigger buffer than you think you need.
Boats for these trips generally leave from the marina rather than the cruise pier itself, so factor in a short walk or tram ride to the dock before the trip even starts, and build that into your timing alongside the trip length itself rather than assuming the clock starts the moment you book.
Weather and Timing Your Visit
Bimini’s weather follows the same pattern as the rest of the Bahamas, warm and humid for most of the year, with a hurricane season that can throw itineraries off. Showers tend to be short and heavy rather than day long washouts, so they rarely cancel a port day outright, but they’ll happily rearrange whatever order you’d planned things in.
For a fuller seasonal breakdown, our comprehensive Bimini weather guide and best time to cruise analysis covers which months tend to be calmest.
Bimini Compared to Nassau and Other Stops
Bimini is a very different day out from Nassau, smaller, quieter and far more resort focused, which suits some trips better than others depending on what you’re after. Our comprehensive Bimini vs Nassau ports comparison weighs the two against each other directly.
If Bimini’s just one stop on a longer trip, our guides to the Western Caribbean ports and the wider Caribbean cruise region cover what to expect elsewhere, including the Roatan Honduras Port Guide and the Bonaire Cruise Port Guide.
Bimini cruise port guides
Each of these goes deeper into one part of a Bimini port day.
Common Questions
Do cruise ships dock or tender at Bimini?
Most lines dock straight at the single pier, no tender boat involved. A few older guides still mention tendering, so check your cruise line’s app if you’re not sure.
Is Bimini safe to explore on foot?
Yes. The stretch between the pier, Fisherman’s Village and Alice Town is relaxed and easy to explore on your own during daylight hours ashore.
How do I get to Radio Beach from the port?
By taxi or golf cart, usually under fifteen minutes. The free resort tram doesn’t run that way, so walking the whole distance isn’t realistic once the heat kicks in.
Can I use the Beach Club at Bimini if I’m not sailing with Virgin Voyages?
Yes, you can still get in for a fee. Only Virgin Voyages guests get free access.
Is there Wi-Fi at the cruise port?
Not at the pier itself, but free internet is available at Fisherman’s Village, and Virgin Voyages passengers get it at the Beach Club too.
Is the port wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the pier and tram are both flat and ramped, though don’t expect much shade or seating while you wait.
What’s the best free beach near the port?
Radio Beach is the most popular free option, though Spook Hill Beach and Bimini Public Beach are also free and handier for a quick dip.
Do I need to book excursions like the Healing Hole in advance?
Yes, boat trips to the Healing Hole and most fishing charters are better booked ahead. Availability’s limited on busy port days.
Why Trust About2Cruise
This guide was pulled together from cruise line materials, port operator information and first hand reporting from other travel publications covering Bimini, cross checked against each other wherever sources disagreed, which happened more often than you’d expect for such a small island. We haven’t sailed into Bimini ourselves, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise, but we have done the work of untangling conflicting distances, tram schedules and facility details so you don’t have to do it mid cruise. Find out more about how we research and fact check our port guides on our about us page.
Last Updated: 4 November 2026