2019-12-19 Half Moon Cay:


I was worried that our day at Half Moon Cay would be cancelled from the way the captain talked yesterday.  But I was happy to see some blue skies when I got up.

 Pretty nice sunrise.

 Now to see if we're able to anchor and tender in.

 We had company at Half Moon Cay today---the Veendam (HAL's small ship now, like the Maasdam).  I never realized how small the Maasdam was until I saw the Veendam from the Zuiderdam (a mid-large size ship).

 and we were greeted by another rainbow, too!

 Wonder where that guy is coming from.

 I've read the snorkeling over by these rocks is good, but I hesitate to go there by myself.

 some of the beach leading to the above rocky coast.

 AFter a quick breakfast, I was off to the tender.  Wanted to get to the island before the predicted bad weather got there.

 Looked pretty good at this point!

 The new childrens playground is pretty impressive!  Nice job, HAL!

 Looking right.

 Looking out towards the ship

 Looking left to the new playground area.

 Heading in!

 ultimately heading to the left along the wall by the big pavilion. 

 The water was beautiful!  Mostly calm and probably about 83.

 some of the artificial reefs looked like they were more submerged now.

 but they still attracted fish

 snapper

 ?? don't know what these guys are, but there have always been quite a few of them here.

 snapper hiding in the rocks

 one of the barracudas here---there's always a lot of barracudas here, too.

 looking towards the kids playground.

 looking farther up the beach.

 towards the expensive pavilion.

 a juvenile wrasse

 sargeant major---pretty common in the Caribbean and Hawaii.

 school of tiny fish

 juvenile puddingwife wrasse

 the rocky area by the playground.

 snappers and a soldier fish

 surgeonfish

 a shell

 variety of fish

 blue head wrasse

 female blue head wrasse

 more barracudas

 black jack

 school of medium sized fish

 our ship with a tender coming in.

 looking towards the bar area.

 just another picture of the Zuiderdam.

 the large school of fish again

 the school of fish swimming away from the jacks.

 I don't think the 2 boys here moved from their chairs.  They were on their phones or tablets playing who knows what.

 the beach was filling up.

 I decided to head to the shopping area on my way to the picnic lunch.

 also came across the volleyball courts with people actually attempting to play.  I stayed and played for a short while, but they kept calling more people over so when there were more then 6 people per side, I decided it was getting crowded.

 on to lunch.

 Lunch!

 again, the desserts look a lot better then they really are.

 a map of the island.

 walking along the road

 for having been through a a lot of weather, it looked pretty good.

 love my bougainvillea 

 heading to the beach.

 walking back to my area along the beach---as it started to rain.

 Apparently tide was coming in.  A lot of the front loungers were in the water.  I did what Ken likes to do and set up a few rows back.

 Looking back at some of the rentals.

 the place cleared out quickly when the rains started.

 I was going to leave then, too, but the line was out of the covered area, so I figured I might as well be in the water. 

 Hung out there for about a half hour, then decided to head out again.

 lines weren't any better.

 was quite the fun getting to the tender.

 First time I noticed Half Moon Cay classified as Eleuthera, Bahamas. 

After waiting in line about 1 1/2 hours, I finally got on the tender.  Then waited another 30 minutes for the tender to fill.  Finally got back to the boat.  The long wait was still worth being able to spend a wonderful morning there.

BAck on the ship, loving the Christmas decorations. 

 Loved this little tin foil critter in Lido.

 I decided the soup last night was so good I'd try it again.  Tonight it was chicken corn soup.  Sounded weird, looked weird again, but tasted really good.

 Last night with our favorite waiter--Edo.  We usually find someone who we feel deserves a special tip---this time Edo was the one.

 Last show on the Mainstage.  Tonight it was comedian Jeff Burghart again as well as the pianist comedian John Bressler.

 both were very good.

They often announce no recording.  Not sure that includes no flashless photography.  But if there is no announcement, I like to take a photo to remind me of who the performer is.

 After the show, I made a point of going by the atrium again to see if the gingerbread houses were done.  They appear to be finished. 

 I'm really glad we were there for Christmas decorations this time.

 close up of the smaller ginger bread houses.

 the large one, complete with Santa!

 They even had cute little trees here and there.

 Back in the room----another funny little towel critter.  And lots of packing.

Got our 3 bags out in the hall before midnight and hit the sack.  not looking forward to tomorrow at all!!!!