2016-12-5  Half Moon Cay day (8am-2:30pm) :

We had all our breakfasts in the Lido.   Today we happened to be in this young man's station.  Along with busing tables and filling drinks, he took the time to make me a flower out of a napkin.  Such a nice gesture!  Thanks Komano!

 final result.  It sat in our cabin for the rest of the trip.

Soon after we ate, we were on the tender heading to the island.  

 I guess the true name of the island is San Salvador, but HAL calls it Half Moon Cay.

 It's nice having free loungers and a picnic on the beach at such a beautiful place!

 We like to plan our cruises around snorkeling, so we immediately donned our snorkel gear which we brought with us and headed into the water.  Snorkeling isn't the greatest at the beach here, but we enjoy it!  I did do the excursion once and it was fantastic, but can't see paying that much when the facilities for free were so nice.
a yellow fin surgeon fish

 sergeant major

 bally-hoo

 only place we saw a turtle this cruise.

 school of blue stripe snappers

 flounder

grunt

 a wrasse

a damsel fish

 some of the coral on the rocks that form the channel for the tender.

Hmmmmm-I'm sure these are suppose to be connected!  This is part of the expensive pavilion you can rent by the snorkel/kids area. 

Wonder if this is the same octopus I've seen here in the past?

 Some sort of water centipede. 

 another view of the octopus.

There are actually quite a few fish here.

 squirrel fish

 parrot fish

 black tailed snapper.

 Christmas tree worms on some coral

 there are lots of small wrasses in the Caribbean and the Bahamas

 looking back towards shore from the snorkel area.

 looking towards the ship from the snorkel area.

 under the steps by the large pavilion.

 another view from the water.

 The pavilion with the steps into the water and the broken  post in the water.  Looks like no one was renting it today.

 We always see at least one barracuda here.  Only saw this small one this time.

Some of the artificial reef in the snorkel area.

Around noon we took a break and headed to the bar b q area.

There is a shuttle that will take you to the bar b q area, but it's not a long walk.

only 183 miles from Fort Lauderdale

Ken charging ahead.  

 the little chapel on the island.

sand volleyball courts.

 part of a play ground.

 I thought this palm tree representation was really clever.

 my picnic lunch

 a bar on the island.

 after lunch I walked along the beach a bit.

 Lots of water toys for rent.

 Back to our part of the beach and back to snorkeling.

 the play ground area on the beach.

 It was a beautiful day!  Mid 80's.  The water was probably about 78. 

 the Koningsdam in the distance.

 Our wonderful view from our chairs!  Ken's always paranoid that the surf will rise 20' and steal our stuff, so we always park our stuff far far away!

Lots and lots of loungers!

Last tender was 2:30, so we headed back about 2.  Ken's also paranoid that we're going to miss the ship and be stuck like Gilligan.
 Went casual for an early dinner again in the Lido. 

First ships we've been on that had bags of potato chips.

We didn't sail away on time.  There was a medical evac.  We were told that someone fell on the tender and we waited for the Coast Guard to fly in.
A view of the island from the ship.

the snorkel area 

Almost time for sunset.

Couldn't lean on our railings for sunset pictures.  The workmen actually came onto our verandah while we were still in the room in the morning.  Would have been nice if we had some advance warning!   At least now we know why they were there.

 Ended up on level 12 to catch the sunset.

rather heavy clouds at the horizon.

but we still had a pretty nice sunset.

Wonder if we'll have a full moon before the cruise is over?

The movie was Home Alone, so we skipped it.  We did go to the World Stage for the ships singers and dancers show.  They were very good and the videos going on around the walls of the room were impressive.  That pretty much does it for day 2.