Grand Bahama’s drydock East End has served its first cruise repair season

Grand Bahama Shipyard has completed its first cruise repair season using East End, a 93,500-tonne-capacity floating drydock that has restored and expanded the yard’s ability to handle large cruise vessels.

Built by Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding, the 357.39m-long dock arrived in Freeport in November 2025 and entered commercial service in January 2026, lifting Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Elation on January 16th for scheduled maintenance and statutory work. The vessel returned to service on February 9th.

East End is around 57m longer than the yard’s previous largest dock and increases lifting capacity by approximately 11,000 tonnes. It forms part of a USD 600 million (EUR 512 million) redevelopment programme covering two floating docks and associated shoreside infrastructure.

The investment restores multi-dock capability lost after a crane collapse damaged Dry Dock No. 2 and Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas in 2019. The yard subsequently lost the ability to accommodate some of the largest cruise vessels in the region, forcing operators to seek repair capacity elsewhere.

During the 2026 cruise repair season, Grand Bahama Shipyard handled maintenance work on 28 vessels. Chief executive Chris Earl said: “The arrival of East End greatly enhances cruise docking and retrofit capability and expands our commercial docking capacity.”

A second, larger floating dock, Lucayan, is expected to enter service later this year, further increasing the yard’s capacity to serve the cruise fleet.