Half Moon Cay

Today's port is Half Moon Cay.  Half Moony Cay is the private island owned by Holland America which is, in turn, owned by Carnival.   Basically, it's a little island resort that where you use your sign & sail card, just like you do on the ship.  It is, however, probably one of the most amazing beaches I have been on.  Beautiful, clear, water in shades of brilliant blue.  Sand as soft as powdered sugar.  Gentle waves lapping at the beach.  If you have young kids, or are a big kid who loves a beach day, then Half Moon Cay is your port!  

When booking this cruise, we also rented a cabana on HMC.  The "cabanas" are small little "shacks" on the beach that you can rent for up to 6 people to use.  The cost is about $220 US for the day and includes snacks (see picture below), water (two 1-litre bottles), pop (8 cans), snorkel equipment, floating mats, and lounge chairs.  It has a little window-unit air conditioner and several fans, as well as a little outdoor shower.   We chose cabana #15, which is the very last cabana in the line.  This means that it is farthest down the beach.  Even though it's only about 100 yards to that point, about 75% of the passengers don't make it down that far.   They plop down closer where the tender drops them off, or stop in front of the Pirate Ship Bar.  We had very few people in our area, so it was lovely and quiet!  

A view of the cabanas fromt he ship.  The large, two-story version is
for large groups of more than 8 people.  Our is the last one on the left (#15).

Andrew on the steps of the cabana.  The floating mats are to his left, and
the outdoor shower is right in that same area.  

View of the inside of the cabana.  Those longe chairs were heaven!
In the cabinets along the back are a fridge and trash  

View of the beach & the ship from our cabana.  Have you ever seen
anything so beautiful?  

Pirate ship bar.  About 50 yards from our cabana, which meant that the crowds
and the noise stopped here! 

It was a beautiful sunny day, but only about 80 degrees and quite windy.  We took floating mats out for a little bit but it was a bit too cool with the wind, so we just laid out on the beach on our mats and soaked in the sun.  About an hour after we arrived, they brought snacks to our cabana.  It was quite a lot for just two people - I think they bring the same amount regardless of the number of people!

After lunch, the sun had moved around so that we could lay on those luxurious lounge chairs.  We spent the next two hours luxuriating in the beautiful weather and trying not to think about the snow we'll be returning home to!   About noon, we wandered up to the main pavilion to check out lunch.  They had burgers, hot dogs, jerk chicken and about a million kinds of salads.  They also had fruit, cookies, and several kinds of cakes.  Since we had a snack in our cabana, we just had a light lunch and then grabbed a drink in the Pirate Ship bar on our way back to the cabana.  

After lunch we decided to try out the snorkeling, so we grabbed our gear and headed back down the 100 yards to the "snorkel area".   Along the way, we passed many people making the most perfect sand castles with that amazing sand!  The snorkeling was less than impressive.  Holland America has created a few artificial reefs and there are a few fish swimming around.  The nice thing about the area is that it was only about 6-feet deep, so even young kids could navigate it easily.  Unfortunately (or, fortunately!), we've been spoiled by the beautiful reefs of Belize & Honduras, so we didn't look for very long.  

We had just enough time to dry out a bit in the cabana before it was time to get on the tender back to the ship.  We then had a couple of hours to relax (from such a strenuous day) back in our cabin before it was time for dinner.  After dinner, we went back to watch karaoke for a bit, then hit three shows in the main lounge (two game shows and the Love & Marriage game), then saw the adult's only comedian at 11 pm.  We typically don't go to the comedy shows, because we find they are not especially good.  This comedian, however, was very funny so we were glad we made it! 

We were back in the room around midnight - which is shockingly late for us!  Good thing we get to sleep in tomorrow...we don't get to Grand Turk until 11 am.  Good night!