What time should you arrive for cruise embarkation?

Arrive within the check-in window you select in the cruise line's app, usually a 30-minute slot somewhere between late morning and mid-afternoon. The earliest slots fill first, so book yours as soon as check-in opens. Turning up hours before your window doesn't get you aboard sooner — it just means waiting in or outside the terminal.

Can you board the ship before your cabin is ready?

Yes, almost always. On most ships you board and the cabins open later, typically in the early afternoon. The gap is normal and useful: drop your carry-on somewhere, get lunch, and start exploring while the ship is quiet. An announcement usually lets you know when staterooms are ready.

What should you carry on and not check at embarkation?

Anything you'll want before your checked bags arrive at the cabin — which can be as late as dinner. That means medications, travel documents and ID, valuables, phone and chargers, a swimsuit if you want the pool on day one, and a change of clothes. Hand the rest to the porters outside the terminal; it's delivered to your cabin door later.

How does the cruise muster drill work now?

On most major lines it's now largely done through the app — you watch the short safety video and then check in at your assigned muster station in person at some point before sailing. The old all-passengers-assemble-with-life-jackets drill has mostly been replaced. Your station and the steps are shown in the app and on your cruise card.

When does checked luggage arrive at your cabin?

Usually by dinnertime on embarkation evening, though it can come earlier or, occasionally, quite late as the crew delivers thousands of bags. Because of that lag, pack anything you can't do without for the first several hours in the bag you carry on yourself.

What happens if embarkation is delayed?

It happens — terminal issues, weather, customs, or the time it takes to turn the ship around between cruises. Delays are usually absorbed before sailing and rarely cost you the trip. Build a little margin into your travel (a pre-cruise hotel near the port helps), keep essentials and medications on you, and treat the wait as the start of the vacation rather than a problem.

Great Stirrup Cay: What It Actually Costs

Free to land, free to sit, free to eat. Then a ten percent tax on every tour and rental, photographed off the island’s own board.

by Ken Baker | September 5, 2026

Answer first: getting onto Great Stirrup Cay costs nothing. Norwegian describes the island as including "expansive beaches, complimentary dining, a resort-style pool, a kids’ splash pad", with lounge chairs and umbrellas "based upon availability". The paid layer is cabanas, the Great Tides Waterpark day pass, and excursions. And there is one line almost nobody warns you about, photographed off the island’s own price board: "For all tours and rental on Great Stirrup Cay, there will be a 10% Bahamian sales tax added to the advertised prices." The posted number is not the number.

What is included

Norwegian’s own island page lists the complimentary layer: the beaches, "numerous complimentary dining options", and the Great Life Lagoon, which it describes as "a 28,000 square-foot pool with multiple swim-up bars, a kids’ splash pad, and private cabanas". Lounge chairs and umbrellas are complimentary "based upon availability". A qualification that means exactly what it sounds like on a full ship day.

Towels, lockers and life jackets are described as complimentary in the waterpark context. Read that carefully: those specific provisions are stated on the page about the waterpark day pass, not as a general island promise, and I am not going to widen a sentence past what it says.

What costs money

Three things, broadly.

Cabanas. Norwegian sells several tiers, on the beach and at the lagoon and at the waterpark, and describes them as "available for purchase". It does not publish prices on the island page: they appear inside the booking system, vary by sailing, and I did not have a live booking open to read them, so there are no cabana figures here.

The Great Tides Waterpark. Norwegian calls it "an upgraded experience available for an additional cost" with "Price varies by sailing and availability". That is the whole of what the line publishes; anyone quoting you a fixed waterpark price is quoting a sailing, not a policy.

Excursions and rentals. This is where the photographed board comes in, and it is the only part of this page where I can give you real numbers.

The zipline board, as posted

Photographed on the island on 27 August 2026. These are the posted prices on the day, not a quoted policy, and they will move:

Osprey, three lines that go over the beach, $99 adults, $79 kids
Seahawk, three lines that go over the ocean plus climbing, $99 adults, $79 kids
Island Combo, both tours combined, $139 adults, $119 kids

Posted zipline price board at Great Stirrup Cay listing Osprey and Seahawk tours at ninety-nine dollars for adults and seventy-nine for kids, Island Combo at one hundred thirty-nine and one hundred nineteen, with a note that ten percent Bahamian sales tax is added to advertised prices — The posted board, Great Stirrup Cay, 27 August 2026. The line that matters is the small one at the bottom.

The ten percent nobody mentions

At the foot of that board, in text you would walk past: "For all tours and rental on Great Stirrup Cay, there will be a 10% Bahamian sales tax added to the advertised prices."

Two things follow from the wording. First, the advertised price is not the price. The $139 combo is $152.90, and a family of four doing the combo is paying roughly fifty-six dollars in tax they had not budgeted. Second, the sentence says tours and rental. By its own wording it reaches beyond the ziplines to rented equipment as well, so whatever you were pricing at face value on this island, add ten percent before you decide.

This is not a criticism of Norwegian. It is a Bahamian tax, it is disclosed, and the sign is posted where you buy. It simply is not in any brochure, any app screen, or any pre-cruise planner I have seen, and it is the difference between a budget that holds and one that does not.

The board that decides whether you can go at all

Next to the price board is a second sign that matters more than pricing for a good number of readers, because it decides availability rather than cost. As posted:

Age: "Flyers must be a minimum of 8 years of age. Flyers under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult."
Weight: "Minimum 50 lb / 23 kg with a maximum weight of 250 lb / 113 kg."
Height: "Flyers must be a minimum of 4 feet tall / 122 cm."
Dress: pants or shorts and a shirt. Footwear "must consist of a closed toe shoe or sandal", with heel straps required, the sign names Crocs and Keens, and "No slip-ons, flip flops or bare feet."
Physical: flyers "should be in good physical condition and able to climb a 20-foot ladder unassisted."
Not recommended for people with "balance problems, epilepsy, heart, back, neck or shoulder conditions or any other condition that may impair your safety."
Long hair must be tied back or bunned under the helmet. No alcohol, drugs or medication that might affect balance, concentration, coordination or judgment. Participants must be able to understand instructions, and safety equipment must fit as determined by the operator.

Attraction safety rules sign for the Great Stirrup Cay zipline, in English and Spanish, listing minimum age, weight and height requirements, dress code, the unassisted ladder climb, and conditions for which the attraction is not recommended — The requirements board beside the prices. That ladder sentence is the quiet gatekeeper.

The one to read twice is the ladder. "Able to climb a 20-foot ladder unassisted" is a harder filter than the weight range, and it appears in no marketing anywhere. If you are planning around a bad knee, a replaced hip, a heart condition or a shoulder that will not go overhead, that sentence is the answer to your question, and you would otherwise find it out standing in line having already paid.

The 250-pound ceiling deserves the same flag. It is a real limit, it is checked, and finding it out at the platform is a bad way to spend a port morning.

The part that costs nothing and still costs you

The island had a working pier on 27 August 2026. A temporary one, while the permanent two-ship pier is finished. That is good news and it is covered separately in what is changing at Great Stirrup Cay.

What the pier does not solve is the distance. It is a long walk from the ship to the island facilities. For a strong walker that is a pleasant few minutes in the sun. For someone using a chair, a walker, or simply not moving well in heat, it is the defining fact of the day, and no price list mentions it. I did not see a lift deployed. Plan the day around the walk, not around the map.

What I cannot price

Honestly: most of it. There is no published price for cabanas, for the waterpark day pass, for equipment rental, for food beyond the complimentary options, or for the other excursions on the island. Norwegian says the waterpark price "varies by sailing and availability", and cabana pricing behaves the same way. The zipline board above is the exception, and the only reason I can give you those three numbers is that I stood in front of the sign and photographed it.

So take this page for what it is: one verified corner of the island’s pricing, one tax line that changes every other number on it, one eligibility board that decides whether the money is even relevant to you, and an honest admission about the rest. Your cruise planner and the island’s own excursion desk are authoritative for your sailing.

Zipline prices, the sales-tax line and the attraction requirements are transcribed from the author’s own photographs of the posted boards on Great Stirrup Cay, 27 August 2026: posted prices on one day, not a quoted policy, and subject to change. Complimentary and additional-cost descriptions quoted from ncl.com on 5 September 2026. Cabana, waterpark and rental prices are not given because Norwegian does not publish them. Your cruise planner and the island excursion desk are authoritative for your sailing. Reviewed September 5, 2026. No affiliate links.