Princess Cruise Lines have confirmed that a fire destroyed several buildings on the south side of Princess Cays, the island which is home to their resort. The private Bahamian resort is located on Eleuthera and welcomes between three and five Princess ships each week.
The fire was reported to have started around 11 p.m. on Monday the 28th of January. It took local firefighters and resort staff over an hour to control and extinguish the flames. The cruise line owns over 40 acres on the island including a little more than a half-mile of beach shore which is enjoyed by their guests.
The cruise line uses Princess Cays as a day resort for passengers and had just completed a full renovation of the facilities in February of 2018. The only good news to come from this sad event was that there were no guests on the property at the time of the fire, and no one was injured. But the Carnival Pride which was scheduled to dock at Princess Cays on Wednesday will not be stopping for a visit to the island. Instead, the Pride will steam to Half Moon Cay, which is a private island in the Bahamas, that is owned by the Carnival subsidiary Holland America Cruise Line. This will not be quite the experience that passengers had looked forward to on their trip from Baltimore, but it is a far better and safer option considering the circumstances.
As there has not been time to fully access the condition of the structures at Princess Cays, the cruise line has not announced when the facility will be reopened for guests. It is assumed that Princess will continue to share Half Moon Cay with sister cruise line Holland America until Princess Cays is repaired and verified to be not only a fun stop for passengers but also a safe stop.
If you have a cruise booked that is scheduled to stop at Princess Cays in the coming weeks, it is best to contact the cruise line directly to learn the specifics of any alternate stops on your cruise. The phone number for Princess is 1-800-774-6237, and their website is www.princess.com. At this time there is no updated information on their website, but it could be included in their news section of the site once plans are finalized. But for trips in the next week or two, a call would be a better option for passengers.
