Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, Bahamas Port Reviews

OMG. By far one of the best private islands we have been to. We will book again on MSC just to go to the cay.

Very nice island that's still in the process of being built-out. If you go to the Yacht Club beach, remember to take water shoes. The rocks there are numerous and sharp! Sooooo many people stumbling, hurting, falling as they tried to get in and out of the water. In the sand, there are plenty of chairs and umbrellas.

It was a beautiful little private island. Prices were very high on the island and south beach had something biting us in the water. We did not have anything biting us at the lighthouse beach. You can’t take any sea shells or rocks from the island otherwise you will be asked to remove the ones you have in your bag. Lol.

Great island stop for beach activities

Beautiful place to visit lots of shops and thins to do.

No. Wanted to go for snorkeling but it was sold out.

Beautiful Island for relaxing beach day. Lunch food was better than the ship. Get down to lighthouse beach early for free umbrellas and chairs.

Loved It!

Lots of walking. Almost all beaches and a few shops and bars. Not much to do.

This is MSC's private island and in my opinion, it was my favorite part of the trip. If you enjoy swimming at the beach and relaxing, you will also enjoy this island. There aren't any fancy water parks or anything like that, but the experience was so quiet and enjoyable. We were lucky and only had 1,000 passengers on our cruise so the island felt like our own private island. Barely anyone was there. We really enjoyed the lagoon and swimming out to the floating docks. The water was crystal clear. There are lifeguards on all of the beaches. It is the Bahamas, so on both days it got kind of stormy around noon, so try to plan around that. We went to the beach first thing in the morning and again after the storm. The buffet on the island (included in the price of your cruise) was also very enjoyable, but was the same exact food on day 1 and day 2. We also brought our own goggles to "scuba" and I'm glad we did versus paying for scuba gear. I also saw people brought their own floats so they didn't have to pay for the ones on the island. The bathrooms were all clean and there were plenty of bathrooms and water fountains on the island. We also enjoyed the beach by the lighthouse and the lighthouse bar. When we went, only the lighthouse beach and lagoon were open - all the other beaches were closed... but we still had a good time all things considered. We walked to the lagoon and for able bodied people this was not an issue. They also have golf carts you can catch a ride on if you do not want to walk. There are concrete pathways going to each of the beaches and maps on big signs. The island also appeared very family friendly and there are excursions you can do if you prefer that. The lighthouse show was amazing and the beach party was cute. We wished we could sit closer to the bonfires, which were roped off so you could not get too close. I'm sure this is a safety issue. Also be aware that if you are on a busier cruise, it is likely that there will be no bean bag chairs on the beach to sit on (maybe bring a beach blanket or towel to sit on if you chose to sit on the beach for the lighthouse show). You can also see the show from the top deck of the boat and I was happy to see that the two shows were in fact different! So we watched both shows - one on the beach and one from the top deck of the boat. They are very short, so good for families with little kids. We found the beach bean bag chairs to be very comfortable despite previous reviews saying they were terrible - however, they ARE difficult to get out of! There were also some hard Adirondack chairs, but again, if you are on a busy boat I doubt you will get a chair or bean bag. Everyone puts their towels and/or shoes on them as a way to "hold" them. The lagoon on the other hand had TONS of loungers for free. That is where I would recommend friends and families to go if they were visiting Ocean Cay. We also enjoyed the beach bars, which did have some better seating options. There was one bar near the lagoon that had shade from trees that we really enjoyed with very comfortable whicker type chairs and cushions. I also really enjoyed that we could get on and off the boat so easily. We didn't feel like we HAD to stay out in that hot afternoon sun and knew we could easily get back on the beach whenever we wanted to. In fact, we went back on the boat after an early lunch and took a nap before returning to the island. But like I said, I really enjoyed being on the island in the Bahamas at night. Just a really cool experience I haven't seen before.