Nieuw Amsterdam: Half Moon Cay

I woke up at 6 am and could see a beautiful sunrise outside so got up to enjoy it. Today we have a port day at Holland America’s private island, Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

While on the balcony, I took a photo of it too.

Morning on Board

Then we got dressed as coffee was calling our names up on the Lido deck. There were just a few other early birds there.

I went ahead and bought the email package. It was $89.99 for 6 days. Yesterday it was $99.99 for the full week but really didn’t need it since we didn’t leave port until late afternoon so saved $10.

At 7:30,we went to the dining room for breakfast. It wasn’t crowded and we had a table for four to ourselves. I had the crab Benedict (didn’t eat the muffin part) while Steve had eggs Benedict.

Afterwards we returned to our cabin to get ready for our day at Half Moon Cay.

Half Moon Cay

We went down to A deck for the tender and had to wait a few minutes before it arrived. Once boarded we waited 20 minutes before it left the ship. A tip when tendering to Half Moon Cay in the large tenders is to sit on the bottom deck as it’s the level you exit on the island.

I had purchased a cabana for this port as soon as we booked the cruise. They go fast and since there were four of us it wasn’t as extravagant a purchase. When you book it’s listed by color but on the island they go by number.

Once on Half Moon Cay, I checked in at the excursions hut and they directed us to the tram and to tell her cabin 8. The first tram filled up so we had a private tram.

The cabana was stocked with the fins, floating maps, ice, water and sodas. I had completed a form with our shoe sizes and soda preferences the day before.

There was a welcome message (which I’m sure is useful to make sure people are at the right cabana).

The fridge contained our drinks, dips and guacamole…

In the fridge door were the cold snacks of veggies and shrimp.

On the counter was two bottles of water, ice and cups. We had two types of chips (potato and tortilla).

Later one fruit was brought to the cabana.

It was really too much food for the four of us in addition to lunch.

We settled in and enjoyed the floating mats and loungers… a lot.

The kids came over about 10:30 am and ended up staying later than us as well.

Son and his fiancee enjoying Half Moon Cay.

We headed to the island barbeque about 11:30 for lunch. There was fish, chicken, burgers, hot dogs, and short ribs. Salads included ceviche, potato salad and cole slaw. Sides were baked beans and corn on the cob. Desserts included fresh fruit, cupcakes (two kinds) and ice cream cones (waffle or regular).

The view from our cabana before it got busy.

About 1:30 pm the food was taken away as the crew started to clean up the island. We ended up taking four of our soda cans back to the ship to drink later.

The two of us left about 2 pm and caught a tram back to the tender area. On the way back sit on the top level as that’s the on the same level as the ship. As always, we loved our day at Half Moon Cay.

We got to our cabin, took showers and had an hour power nap.

Evening OnBoard

Our evening kicked off with happy hour at the Ocean Bar.

We love the buy one get one for $2 and appetizers.

We don’t always know what we’re eating but it’s fun to try new things.

Afterwards I had some time before dinner to look in the photo gallery. I couldn’t find our embarkation photo but did get information on the photo packages.

We went to the main dining room for dinner for the first time.

We loved our table by the window (29) on deck 3. The menus had some good selections tonight.

I had french onion soup to start…

And the quoina pomegranate appetizer.

It was pretty but not my thing. Others in our group had Caesar salad, gumbo and shrimp cocktail. We all got the carne asada for mains.

It was enjoyed by all of us. I had the featured cocktail with our meals and it was very tasty!

For dessert I went with the cheese plate (my usual selection).

Others had the cherries jubilee sundae..

as well as creme brûlée and peach crisp.

After dinner my husband and I headed to the Crow’s nest to read before going to the show room for the 8 pm comedy show. We both enjoyed his humor. Afterwards we watched a set by the BB King Blues Club performers.