10/19/23
Half Moon Cay is a private island exclusively for Carnival and Princess Cruise Line guests. I was excited for a true beach day!
There is no dock at Halfmoon Cay, so we had to take a tender boat in order to get to the island. To get a boarding time for the tender (so there isn’t a stampede of people), they distributed the tickets for the tender beginning at 7:30 a.m. on deck 5 in the Gondola Lounge. It was first come first served. We got there at 7:30 a.m. and were group #16 to board. So YES! People do go early and line up! She estimated our call time to board the tender to be 9:30 a.m. You have to listen for them to call your group number on the PA system. This does not broadcast into staterooms though, so you need to be in a common area outside of your room to hear it. We figured we had two hours, so we went to breakfast at the Grand Canal Restaurant.
I ordered the Seasonal Melon, which was just your basic melon but still good! I consider any fruit good when I don’t have to cut it!
And the Vanilla French Toast with Bacon.
This was delicious!!
We finished breakfast and decided to go back to our stateroom and fully charge our phones, and get cold water to bring ashore with us. To our surprise, they called our boarding number just before 8:45 a.m. and not 9:30 a.m. We made our way to Deck 0. There were several crew members directing us where to go along the way. They were loading 2 tenders, one midship and one forward. Each tender seemed to hold a few hundred people. We were packed in!
You can see on this map where the tender pier is located at the bottom.
We were on the island at 9:00 a.m. We did load towards the end of filling this particular tender though so didn’t have to wait very long until we left. Once we were off the tender, we decided to walk towards the middle of the beach, closer to where lunch would be served. We found a spot right in front of the pirate ship bar.
The water was the clearest I have ever seen! Look at the fish!
To our right:
To our left:
There were 3 rows of chairs, and they were tightly packed in together. Most of the chairs were already taken up to this point on the beach. We decided to go in the third row, and we were thankful for this later! The beach area from the chairs to the water was actually very small! When the tide started coming in, the first row of chairs were kind of wiped out and stuck. They couldn’t pull their chairs back at all because there was another row directly behind them! After awhile, they started bringing out more chairs and just jamming them into any open space they could find. This is possibly my only complaint about the entire cruise! It was CROWDED on the beach. The beach was very small from the sand to the water line. And people gave no cares at all if they were crowding others as long as they had their own spot.
This view though!
I went to check out the water, and IT WAS THE CLEAREST WATER I HAD EVER SEEN AT A BEACH! I could see my feet no matter how far out I went. The water was very calm and there weren’t really any waves at all. It was slightly overcast when we arrived, and it did sprinkle the slightest bit. This in turn produced a rainbow!
You could rent these houses.
I also want to point out that there really isn’t any natural shade. While the chairs were free, if you wanted an umbrella, you had to rent it. There were several options for renting clam shells and cabanas as well.
More crowd pics! This was at 10:30 a.m.
The water was amazing, and we spent a lot of time in versus sitting out on the crowded beach. They served lunch from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. There was a larger pavilion with several lines serving food. There were also several pavilions with picnic tables to sit and eat.
(One note here, everyone was lining up in one line. However, there are several lines right in the middle as well.)
I could not get pictures of the actual hot food as it was a mad house! The lines were crazy and I felt pressured to keep moving!
This was by far my least favorite meal the entire trip. It just wasn’t good at all. The first plate was my friend’s.
My plate:
The chips and salsa were the best part…
Here you can see some of the seating areas:
Drink stations:
All aboard time was 3:30 p.m. with the last tender going back at 3:15 p.m. We headed back around 2:00 p.m.
My favorite photo taken while walking back to the tender!
There are some little shops right at the tender area.
Once back onboard, I went up to the buffet to grab a snack since I didn’t really eat much for lunch on the island.
(Random I know. Ha!)
Don’t even ask what cake this is, I have no clue. But it was so moist and delicious!
We just chilled for awhile, napped and then showered for dinner. This was our towel animal for the day:
Tonight’s menu:
For my appetizer I had Wild Rice, Gruyere and Country Chicken Soup.
This was AMAZING!
Chrissy had the Baked Onion Soup.
Insalata Caprese:
For my main, I had the Lasagne Alla Bolognese.
This was good! Very rich.
Involtini Di Melanzane (eggplant rolled up and baked with ricotta and spinach, marinara sauce):
BBQ Pork Spareribs (southern baked beans, creamed corn, steak fries):
Torta Sbriciolata Alle Mele E Mandorle (apple crumble pie, orange peel confit, brown butter, almonds):
This was very good!
Tonight’s theme was Halloween. Some people wore costumes, some did not. After dinner, we checked out the Piazza San Marco. There was live music going on. They were really good!
At 9:30 p.m., we went to the Teatro Rosso to watch Guess that Groove. This was fun! After that it was time for Patch’s Halloween Deck Party at 10:30 p.m.
The Halloween party was fun! There was a costume contest for different age groups from baby all the way up to adults. They taught the Thriller dance, and the DJ played some tunes.
All in all it was a fun day!
SUGGESTIONS FOR HALF MOON CAY:
- Get the earliest tender transfer time that you can.
- Once on the island, keep walking until at least the big pirate ship for chairs.
- Do not get a chair in the front row. The tide came in and was wiping those people out and they had nowhere to go! They couldn’t pull their chairs back because there was a row directly behind them.
- Don’t count on the food being very good. Eat a good breakfast onboard before getting on the tender.