Mahogany Bay Is Now Isla Tropicale With a New Pool Area

May 21, 2026 Randy Young

Cruise lines in North America have been working to build up their cruise ports to increase guest satisfaction and offer more for passengers to do ashore. While a lot of the focus has been on private destinations, like Perfect Day at CocoCay, Celebration Key, and Great Stirrup Cay, cruise lines are also investing in other ports.

These ports are not treated quite like “private destinations,” which are usually designed as an extension of the cruise ship experience and are often partially owned by the cruise line in addition to local ownership. One example is in Roatan, Honduras, where Carnival has given its cruise port a makeover.

Mahogany Bay Becomes Isla Tropicale

mahogany beach sign in front of carnival celebration

Mahogany Bay in Honduras first opened in 2009 and is exclusively for Carnival Corporation ships, including Carnival, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and others. The destination is probably best known for its picturesque chairlift that guests can take from the main port shopping area to the beach. It offers beautiful views of the ship along the way.

The beach has thousands of free loungers and palm trees, along with turquoise blue waters overlooking the two cruise ships that can dock there.

But Carnival has made some upgrades, and in the process, renamed the port Isla Tropicale. The new logo includes a large hummingbird, a nod to the 40 species of hummingbirds that live in Honduras.

Guests who have previously visited Mahogany Bay probably remember the steep, inclined walk up from the ship to the main shopping area, which has a few restaurants, bars, and stores. That walk and shopping area still remain, except now with the new Isla Tropicale logo.

Closer to the beach is the new addition, which Carnival named Mangrove Bay. It added 48,000 square feet of space, including a pool with a swim-up bar, splash pad, and cabanas for rent.

The beautiful beach still remains, as do the private cabanas at the end of the beach.

Isla Tropicale Is Still a Cruise Port, Not a Private Destination

shopping village in Roatan — The shopping port has all the usual tourist shops you’d expect.

While the lines are getting quite blurred between the two, Isla Tropicale remains a cruise port, not a private destination. That means there is no included food, the ship’s Wi-Fi does not work on shore, and guests cannot charge purchases to their ship account.

The pool and loungers are complimentary, though.

My Take: A Nice Improvement, But I’m Not Sure It Was Necessary

First off, I’m not sure why Carnival felt that it had to rename the port. Mahogany Bay seemed fine to me, but maybe they had a negative guest experience at the port, so they were trying to get rid of that association.

A large pool at no extra cost is certainly a nice addition to a cruise port, but I don’t know how necessary it is. Mahogany Bay already had a beautiful beach with plenty of loungers. Adding a pool might help people who do not like the ocean, but it did not seem like something the port was missing.

One thing I liked about Mahogany Bay was how close the cruise port was to the ship. I sailed there on Carnival Celebration (see the blog here), where we booked an excursion through the cruise line. The excursion was for the whole morning, so the bus let us off, we walked back to the ship for lunch, and then went back to the beach, taking the chairlift on the way, for a few hours in the afternoon.

It was nice to add in as part of the day, but for me, it was not necessarily a full-day destination.