REVIEW – Great Tides Waterpark is Norwegian Cruise Line’s Newest Addition to Great Stirrup Cay

Great Tides Waterpark is the newest experience to debut at Great Stirrup Cay, Norwegian Cruise Line’s private island in the Bahamas. The waterpark offers guests a new way to play, relax, and enjoy the island. Norwegian Cruise Line invited us to experience Great Tides Waterpark ahead of its opening to the general public.

Admission to the waterpark is available for an additional charge and can be booked as an excursion during your visit to Great Stirrup Cay. However, daily attendance is limited, so guests should plan if they want to experience the waterpark.

One of the things that surprised me most from the moment we walked through the entrance was just how much the park was able to fit into a relatively compact footprint. Despite its size, the thoughtful design, landscaping, and placement of the slides and attractions make Great Tides Waterpark feel much larger than it actually is.

As you make your way through the park, the layout creates a sense of discovery, with different areas and attractions revealing themselves as you explore. Rather than feeling like everything is packed into one centralized area, the design encourages you to wander and discover what is around the next corner, making the overall experience feel much more expansive.

The centerpiece of Great Tides Waterpark is the Tidal Tower, a towering 170-foot structure that houses eight of the park’s water slides. Of those attractions, Breakaway Blasters is easily the standout for me—and arguably the main attraction of the entire waterpark.

Breakaway Blasters is a dueling water coaster and the Caribbean’s first dueling Master Blaster-style water coaster. What makes it particularly unique is the way the ride begins. Unlike many modern water coasters that start at the bottom and use the ride’s water propulsion to send guests uphill, Breakaway Blasters starts at the very top of the Tidal Tower. That means you’re already high above the park before the ride even gets going.

The opening drop is an absolute blast. Starting that high up gives the ride an immediate sense of scale and excitement, and the combination of the elevation, speed, and twists creates a genuinely thrilling experience. The layout is a lot of fun, and the dueling element adds another layer of excitement as you race alongside another rider. Of everything we experienced at Great Tides Waterpark, Breakaway Blasters was easily the highlight for me.

There is one important limitation, however: Breakaway Blasters requires two riders, with a combined weight limit of 400 pounds at the time of our visit. That’s something solo travelers or anyone visiting without a riding partner will want to keep in mind.

The rest of the Tidal Tower features a mix of body slides, racing slides, and tube slides. While these types of attractions are fairly common at waterparks, Great Tides adds something a little different with the Tropic Spiral.

Tropic Spiral is billed as the world’s first Nautilus slide and features large spiraling sections that spin riders throughout the experience. The unusual design means you can find yourself traveling forwards or even backwards through different portions of the slide, creating a more unpredictable ride than you might expect from a traditional water slide.

Perhaps the most unique area of Great Tides Waterpark is Cliffside Cove, which brings together three attractions that offer experiences you don’t typically find at a waterpark.

The first is The Great Slide, a large four-person family waterslide that allows everyone to ride together as you make your way down the expansive slide. It is an absolute blast, and there is something about experiencing it as an adult that instantly makes you feel like a kid again. It’s a fun, family-friendly attraction that delivers plenty of laughs from start to finish.

Then there’s Cliffside Leap—and yes, I said cliff jumping. Billed as the industry’s first-ever and the Caribbean’s tallest cliff jumps, the attraction features 10- and 15-foot jumping platforms overlooking a 13-foot-deep pool. Naturally, I had to try the 15-foot jump.

Standing at the edge, the jump looks considerably higher than it actually is, largely because all you see below you is a pool of blue water. Taking that leap is surprisingly thrilling, and the brief moment of freefall before hitting the water provides a genuine adrenaline rush.

Finally, there are the Fearless Falls, two body slides that send riders out approximately five feet above the surface of the water before plunging into the pool below. It had been years since I experienced a slide with that type of drop, and it was just as thrilling as I remembered.

Together, these three attractions make Cliffside Cove one of the most distinctive areas of Great Tides Waterpark. Each attraction offers something different, from family fun to cliff jumping and high-speed thrills, creating a surprisingly diverse experience—especially considering this waterpark is located on a private island in the Bahamas.

While splash areas like this are common at many waterparks, Splash Cay is still a must-visit at Great Tides Waterpark. The 9,000-square-foot family play area features eight mini slides, multiple interactive water elements, and one of those enormous tipping buckets that dumps a massive amount of water every few minutes.

The area is designed primarily with families and younger guests in mind, but it’s also one of the best places in the park for anyone to cool off—especially during the hottest times of the year. When we visited for the park’s debut, staying wet was one of the keys to staying comfortable in the heat.

One thing worth noting is that Great Tides doesn’t feature a traditional pool or dedicated lounging pool, so Splash Cay becomes the easiest place to cool down quickly. You can walk beneath the structure and get completely drenched by the various water features, which provides some much-needed relief from the heat. Or, if you find the right spot, you can wait for the giant tipping bucket to release and get absolutely soaked.

The eight slides range from smaller options designed for toddlers and younger children to slides that adults can enjoy as well. While interactive family play areas like Splash Cay are a familiar feature at many waterparks, the combination of the water features, slides, and opportunities to cool off makes this area particularly enjoyable at Great Tides. On a hot day in the Bahamas, sometimes getting completely soaked is exactly what you need.

What would a waterpark be without a lazy river? At Great Tides Waterpark, that experience is called Wandering River, but it takes a slightly different approach than many of the lazy rivers you’ll find at other waterparks.

Rather than filling the attraction with waterfalls, fountains, geysers, and other features designed to splash and soak guests, Wandering River is focused primarily on relaxation. It’s a more tranquil experience that gives you the opportunity to simply sit back in your tube and enjoy a leisurely ride around the park.

One of the highlights is an immersive tunnel along the route. Not only does it provide some welcome relief from the heat, but the combination of theming and LED screens creates the illusion that you’re traveling underwater. It adds an unexpected element to what would otherwise be a fairly traditional lazy river.

Wandering River also features a swim-up bar, which is one of two bars located within Great Tides Waterpark. The other is located beneath The Great Slide. At the Wandering River bar, guests can float up in their tubes and grab a drink, or simply step out of the water and walk up to the bar. There is also a dry side where guests can sit and relax while enjoying their drinks without getting back into the water.

Overall, Wandering River provides a nice change of pace from the park’s more thrilling attractions. After spending time on the slides and other attractions, it’s an ideal place to slow down, cool off, and enjoy a more relaxing side of Great Tides Waterpark.

An important part of the cruise line private-island experience is the cookout-style lunch, and Great Tides Waterpark has its own take on this classic offering. The included meal features a selection of fresh fruit, salads, hamburgers, hot dogs, jerk chicken, and desserts, providing plenty of options to refuel after spending time in the water.

For those looking for something beyond the included meal, there are also three additional food truck options available for an upcharge. The food trucks specialize in seafood, barbecue, and ice cream, with each offering a selection of à la carte items. While all three are tempting, the ice cream option may be particularly difficult to resist on a hot day in the Bahamas.

At the time of our visit, Norwegian Cruise Line was limiting attendance at Great Tides Waterpark to 1,200 guests per day, despite the park having a maximum capacity of 1,800. Norwegian says attendance levels may be adjusted over time based on how the park’s operations perform. Because Great Tides is a separately priced excursion, the goal is to ensure guests have a more premium experience rather than allowing the park to reach its full capacity immediately.

Overall, it’s impressive how much Norwegian has managed to pack into a relatively compact space. The Tidal Tower is undoubtedly the centerpiece of the waterpark, but the diverse lineup of attractions helps make the park feel much larger than its physical footprint. While Great Tides may not have as many slides as some of the larger waterparks, there is a surprisingly wide variety of experiences for a park of this size.

My biggest criticism is the amount of available seating. I would have liked to see more loungers and additional umbrellas, particularly for those extremely hot days when finding some shade is essential.

Despite that, Great Tides Waterpark is a fantastic addition to Great Stirrup Cay. With the waterpark joining the island’s already extensive lineup of activities and experiences, guests now have even more ways to spend their day in the Bahamas. We’re already looking forward to returning and exploring even more of what the island has to offer.

A big thank you to Norwegian Cruise Line for inviting us to experience Great Tides Waterpark during its debut. It’s exciting to see how Great Stirrup Cay continues to evolve, and with plenty of space remaining on the island, it will be interesting to see what new experiences are introduced in the future.

Barry Short

Barry joined Thrillgeek in 2016. He has been a journalist for over 20 years. He is one of the co-hosts of the Thrillgeek Podcast, Editor and Digital Content Coordinator here at Thrillgeek. When he is not going to the theme parks, traveling with his wife, Cyn or playing with their dogs. He is playing drums, going to concerts, trying some of the amazing food or enjoying many of the amazing performing arts we have in Orlando.