Celebration Park reopens Thursday, Oct. 1, after closing for all of September to finish renovations. For anyone who keeps a boat on Naples Bay, that brings back more than a food-truck lot. It restores one of only two waterfront venues on these waters that say, on their own sites, that diners can arrive by boat and tie up.
The other is The Boathouse on Naples Bay. We went down the rest of the bay's best-known waterfront rooms one by one: The Dock at Crayton Cove, Tin City, Kelly's Fish House, the Naples Bay Resort restaurants, Wahoo's on the Gordon River. None of them publishes a diner-dockage policy. Some may welcome your boat. They just don't say so in writing, and that changes how you plan an evening on the water.
What Comes Back on Becca Avenue
The Naples Daily News previewed the reopening on Sept. 29. It described a refresh that includes a revamped waterfront bar program, expanded entertainment offerings, and new food truck dining experiences. The venue hasn't published a project-by-project list of what changed in September. So the clearest way to see the new season is through the calendar and the bar.
Opening weekend is set:
- Thursday, Oct. 1: a free Reopening Block Party from 4 to 9 p.m. A DJ and MC run the early evening, and live music takes the stage from 6 to 9 p.m. The venue's calendar names Vybe Shifters as the headline band. The first 100 guests get a free Celebration Park hat.
- Friday, Oct. 2: AURA, 6 to 9 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 3: Kelly Neff, 6 to 9 p.m.
Gray Whale is the bar partner for the grand reopening. The current menu carries two Gray Whale drinks at $14 each: the Surfrider Sparkling Lemonade, made with Gray Whale Vodka, and the Whale Refresher, made with Gray Whale Gin. The menu says a Gray Whale purchase supports the Surfrider Foundation and 1% for the Planet.
The food-truck page lists Authentic Greek, Gigi's Chicken Coop, GoGo Gourmet, OCN Seafood Co., and Rick's Taco Cartel. The page doesn't mark any of them as new for this season. The block-party page said truck details for reopening night would be announced separately.
Posted weekly hours run Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. The park is closed Mondays. For boaters, that Monday closure is the detail most likely to wreck a spontaneous plan.
Rebecca Maddox is the founder. Camille Kielty and Robin Forbes-Kielty are general managers, Doug Vincent directs events, and Nina Skoco manages the bar.
What "Waterfront Dock Access" Does and Doesn't Tell You
Celebration Park's arrival instructions by water come down to three lines: Haldeman Creek, Marker 24, waterfront dock access. WINK's reopening coverage confirms the same detail, describing guests who arrive by boat through Haldeman Creek at Marker 24.
The venue doesn't publish a dock length, slip count, time limit, fee, reservation process, or vessel-size limit. On a free block-party night with live music until 9, that gap matters more than usual. Before you head up the creek with a larger boat, call the park at (239) 316-7253.
The trip up the creek has its own pace. Florida's Collier County manatee rule makes Naples Bay and its associated waters, Haldeman Creek included, a year-round slow-speed area, apart from waters the rule designates separately. The same rule allows 30 mph in the marked Haldeman Creek channel north to marker 3. That's a zone description, not a route to the dock. The City of Naples hosts an FWC manatee-zone map, but the map itself says it was accurate as of February 2018 and tells boaters to follow posted signs. Use posted signage and current NOAA charts for depth and approach. No current published source we found gives a controlling depth for the run to Marker 24.
The Other Restaurant That Puts It in Writing
On the west side of the bay, The Boathouse on Naples Bay is the one restaurant on these waters that is fully specific. It sits at 990 Broad Avenue South, next to the Cove Inn. It says it is at Channel Marker 4 in Naples Bay, with a 100-foot dock directly outside the restaurant. Its homepage adds, plainly, "Free dockage available!" The restaurant describes itself as a local Naples tradition since 1984.
The Boathouse doesn't publish first-come, reservation, time-limit, or boat-size rules either, so the phone number still earns its place: (239) 643-2235. Posted hours are Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Put the two side by side and the boat-up dinner map has a practical shape. The Boathouse covers the Crayton Cove end of the bay and opens every day, including Sunday brunch hours. Celebration Park covers Haldeman Creek on the east side and closes Mondays. For a Monday dinner by boat, only one of the two is open.
The Call-First List
Many more Naples restaurants sit right on the water. What they lack is a published policy for a diner's boat. Here is what each venue does say, as of its current site.
| Venue | Location | What's published | Diner dockage |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Dock at Crayton Cove | Crayton Cove, Naples Bay | Waterfront dining; walk-in, first-come seating | Not stated |
| Pinchers at Tin City | 1200 5th Ave. S. | Current location listing | Not stated |
| Riverwalk at Tin City | 1200 5th Ave. S. | Open-air waterfront dining and hours | Not stated |
| Kelly's Fish House Dining Room | 1302 Fifth Ave. S., Gordon River | Local fishermen tie up at the adjoining fish house | Not advertised for guests |
| Naples Bay Resort dining | 1500 5th Ave. S. | Nosh on Naples Bay, Blackbird Modern Asian, BlueWater Bar & Grill, Indulge, Café on the Bay | Not stated; marina slips are leased |
| Wahoo's River Bar & Grill at PORT 32 | 475 North Road, Gordon River | "By land or sea"; Wed–Sun, 11 a.m.–8 p.m. | No public rules posted |
A few lines in that table are easy to misread. At The Dock, "first-come" refers to restaurant seating, not to slips. At Kelly's, the boats tying up belong to the working fish house next door. Naples Bay Resort describes its marina slips as leases that come with private-club access. Waterway Guide lists only two transient slips there and tells boaters to call for rates. Wahoo's welcomes diners "by land or sea," but its PORT 32 neighbor describes a member-oriented valet-storage operation. Any of these could still work for a dinner stop. The only way to know is to ask before you leave the slip.
Why the City Dock Isn't a Dinner Workaround
Naples City Dock is the obvious fallback for the Crayton Cove restaurants. It sits due west of marker Red 36, near 8th Street South and 12th Avenue South. Its pricing is built around overnight stays, not a two-hour dinner. Transient dockage runs $3.25 per foot per night, with reservations open up to three months ahead, along 400 feet of frontage. For a 30-foot boat, that comes to $97.50 for the night before utilities. A boater heading to The Boathouse a short distance away is looking at a dock the restaurant calls free.
The dock's other rules follow the same overnight logic. Since June 1, 2025, a cancellation made less than 24 hours before the 2 p.m. check-in on the arrival date costs one night of transient dockage. The mooring field is first-come at $20 a night. Stays are capped at four consecutive nights and eight nights in 30 days, for boats up to 43 feet long, 18.5 feet of beam, and 5 feet of draft.
The City Dock does earn a spot in a bay evening, just not as dinner parking. It sells Rec 90 ethanol-free gasoline and off-highway dyed diesel, and it runs a free 24/7 self-serve pump-out at the fuel dock. Fuel there, then run to whichever of the two confirmed docks fits the night: Marker 4 on Broad Avenue South, or Marker 24 up Haldeman Creek from Thursday on.
Knowing which docks welcome you is half of waterfront living. The other half is having a slip of your own that puts both within easy reach. If you're weighing a Naples Bay slip or a waterfront home with dockage, The Sprigg Group brings marina-level knowledge to the details that matter on the water. Create Your Paradise and start your waterfront search with us.
