The Bahamas is a popular destination for cruise ship registration, with many cruise lines like Carnival, Disney, NCL, and Royal Caribbean registering in the Bahamas to avoid US taxes, labor laws, and safety regulations. The Bahamas Maritime Authority provides direct access to the Registration Team and assistance with all registration transactions.
Cruise lines choose to fly the Bahamian flag to avoid more stringent labor regulations that would apply if they were registered in the United States or other countries where the cruise industry is owned and based. Most cruise ships are registered in the Bahamas or Panama as flags of convenience. There is only one US flagged cruise ship, Pride of the Seas.
Liability does not exist because cruise lines register their ships in Panama, Bahamas, Vanuatu, etc. They operate under the flag state law and an old law requires US flagged vessels to be used when a cruise ship itinerary is entirely within the US. Only US-flagged vessels are allowed to operate in the Bahamas and Panama.
Cruise ships pay domestic taxes as well as international ones, but the story about how they are flagged is a bit complicated. Ships registered in the Bahamas and Panama have the highest number of crew members from the Philippines. Each merchant ship is required by international law to be registered in a registry created by a country, and a ship is subject to the laws of that country.
Among ships on the Bahamian register are Chevron, Exxon International, Maersk Line, Cunard Lines, Texaco, Holland-America Cruises, Finnlines, Teekay Shipping, and others.
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