A day on Half Moon Cay, Bahamas
November 12: Today was entirely a beach day – 6 hours on a private island in the Bahamas, with lots of options for activities for those who choose to not just laze around.
This is Explorations Cafe, the library and computer area on Deck 3 on the Noordam. This photo was shot at 08:00 am.
This is the elevator area outside Explorations Cafe.
The Oak Room, on Deck 10 adjacent to the Crow’s Nest lounge.
The Crow’s Nest is a wonderful place to watch the world go by. It’s a particularly calm place when there’s a lot going on (like disembarkation at a port).
This is Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, seen from the Crow’s Nest.
The Eurodam was also at Half Moon Cay, and she was using the island’s transfer boats (one of which is seen in this photo), so we had to use tenders to get ashore.
We took a tender ashore at 09:30. Once you get off at the island’s well-sheltered dock area, this is the entrance to the island (or you can take a short-cut to the left, directly to the beach).
A photo op at the “I Wish I Could Stay Here Forever” bar!
A broader view from the “I Wish I Could Stay Here Forever” bar shows the Noordam on the left and the Eurodam on the right.
Won’t that make a cute Christmas card for them? 🙂
The cabin cabanas can be rented for the day – they have loungers, air conditioning, barbecues, etc. Or you can rent a shade for the free loungers that are set up by the thousands along the beach.
This is the water-toy rental area. As always in ports, the further you get from the dock, the fewer people there are. I insisted on going far down the beach, almost to the end of the loungers. It was gorgeous, though the water wasn’t as warm as I had expected.
I wanted to see the Stingray Adventure setup before booking. It only took a couple of minutes to decide that this wasn’t the experience I’m looking for. We’ll go to Grand Cayman some day and do it properly (Cathy’s a little leery of stingrays, but I think will come with me when the place is right).
Having 2 ships here did not make for a good overall experience. The barbecue area had no traffic control and was rather chaotic. As for drinks, lots of luck getting near a bar 🙁
Aaaaahhhhh, back to the empty end of the beach…..
There were a couple of very light and brief showers, but the day was mostly beautiful.
We caught a tender back at 2:30, an hour before the last one to avoid the crowds. At 3:45, 15 minutes before sailing away, this very heavy rainstorm hit the ship.
When we’re here on the Carnival Destiny next week, I’d like to get out to the end of the island if possible. The surf today was quite impressive.
I’m still amazed at how short sunsets are. In the Yukon they seem to go on for hours – in the tropics you have 2 minutes to get any photos!
Tonight was a special by-reservation dinner that featured the cooks and waiters – many people apparently don’t like these performances, but I think they’re good fun.
Mark Donohue put on an excellent show, playing violin, harmonica, piano and guitar in a wide variety of styles.
Tomorrow morning at 07:00 am, the Noordam docks at Fort Lauderdale, and at 10:00 am we have to get off 🙁
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