Half-Time

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Half Moon Cay is Holland America’s “private Island.” It is actually a large bay on the Bahamian island of Little San Salvador. The bay, which many people call a “private island”  was named Half Moon Cay by Holland America because the ship on their original logo was the “Half Moon,” the ship of Henry Hudson, the famous British navigator. Hudson did a lot of exploring on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. He explored the area that is now New York City, as well as Canada and the North American Arctic. I found no source indicating that he ever visited the Bahamas, though he is known to have explored as far south as Delaware and the Chesapeake Bay. And the bay does look like a half moon.

The area called Half Moon Cay is very beautiful. It has gorgeous  sandy beaches and brilliant aqua-colored water. Most of the site has been left in its natural state, and is covered by dense, verdant tropical vegetation. It is fairly flat.

Holland America has built some boardwalks and walking trails, some docks, and a few facilities such as bars, shops, and a large dining venue. There is a horse stable, a massage cabana, a water sports rental center, a chapel, and a stingray adventure. I don’t think anyone lives on the property, but there might be some caretakers or security people. 

Such a perfect half moon

The crescent beach is over two miles long. The water is an astonishing turquoise color. It is shallow and clear for a long way out. There are a lot of lounge chairs, available to all at no charge. They even have a few hammocks. We rented a “clamshell” before the cruise started. The shade was most welcome. (Tip: The clamshells sell out fast. If you are inclined to rent one, do so well before you start the cruise.) Cabanas and small beach houses are also available to rent. They are quite expensive, but if you have a group of six or eight, they might be fun.

This mini-food truck (drink truck?) drove along the beach. The driver/waiter would stop and ask all the people sitting nearby if they wanted a drink. Then he would go to the truck, fix the drinks, and bring them to you. This delightful amenity is not free, even if you have a drink package.

Me and my strawberry margarita

Clamshells

Holland America has begun a major expansion to its operations at this property, and several construction sites could be seen as I wandered about.

Half Moon Cay (HMC) is substantially nicer than Princess Cay (PC), the “private island” of Princess Cruises. The beach at HMC is larger and more appealing. The water is easier to get into and to navigate in. The water at PC is filled with large rocks, and has much rougher surf. To be fair, PC used to be nicer, but it was impacted by a major hurricane and the result is unfortunate. However, PC was never as attractive as HMC and it always felt much more crowded.

At HMC, shore tenders are used. They take longer to load and unload, but the process of getting the passengers from ship to shore seems to be much quicker. At PC, you could wait for 45 minutes to board a tender to return to the ship. Maybe Princess has started using shore tenders recently.

I wanted to find some geocaches, so I walked around for an hour and a half in the hot sun. It probably would have been smarter to do this as soon as we arrived, but you just don’t realize how quickly it can get very hot. I walked down the only road, past the horse stables, to a point where the road was blocked off due to construction. I really enjoyed the wildness of this part of the island. I saw very few other people. 

During my walk I had a good view of both HAL ships that called at Half Moon Cay today.

This guy

At the horse stables, I saw an animal that was probably a donkey, but it was as big as a horse. I thought donkeys were much smaller. I believe I read something about wild donkeys living on this island, so maybe that was what I saw. I also saw white herons and many small lizards. I found two geocaches in isolated spots and I completed an earthcache. Then I walked back to home sweet clamshell for some more beach time.

We had dinner tonight at the Pinnacle, HAL’s version of a steakhouse. I would give it a 4 out of 5, but I would give the Chocolate Cobbler a 5.

This guy

The show tonight was an “illusionist.” That is the new way of saying a “magician.” “Illusionist” sounds more boring than “magician,” but it is more accurate, I suppose. Still, we opted out and went out on our verandah to look at the stars. It was so beautiful out there. Sometimes you hear about passengers who take the mattresses off their beds and drag them out to their balconies to sleep under the stars. Tonight was a night that made me think about doing that - but after 5 seconds I knew that we would never do it.

The most striking - and ironic - feature of the night sky was the moon. It was a perfect half-moon, but it looked strangely different from the moon I am used to back in Alaska. It suddenly hit me. In Alaska, the half-moon usually looks like this:🌗. Here it was rotated 90°, with the bottom half lit up. We looked this up. It has to do with the latitude from which you are viewing the moon.

This was such a good day.

Monday, January 26, 2026

At Sea

Today was a lazy day of sleeping  for an extra hour, getting settled in to the cruise routine and to our stateroom, and getting things a little more organized.

We tried out the room service today. It was very good. The menu is somewhat limited, but we both found a nice salad to eat. Eating on our balcony was the icing on the cake.

This is a 7-day cruise for many of the passengers. That tends to change the passenger demographics.You get more passengers who are working and have limited time off, which means more younger passengers.You get more children, but we have not seen many children onboard. You get more passengers traveling in groups - families, groups of friends, or special interest groups. I have not noticed a lot of groups except for one church group of about 40 folks. I think the reason is due to the fact that many passengers are staying on for the next cruise, and many others were already onboard for one or more previous cruises.

Dinner tonight was “dressy.” We shared a table with two other couples. It’s always fun meeting new people. (I should probably have said it’s “usually “ fun. But this time it was quite fun.) Afterwards we went to a dance show called “Move.” It was excellent. I think we have seen it before, on a different ship, with different dancers. When a show is this good, it’s a treat to see it again. You really can’t take it all in the first time you see it.

 

Meanwhile, back in our room:

Who let the dog out?

Today’s fabric is terry cloth. Terry cloth is a soft, highly-absorbent fabric, characterized by uncut loops on one or both sides. Terry cloth is usually made from 100% cotton. It is generally woven, but it can be knitted. The name comes from the French word, “tirer,” which means to pull. This is a reference to the process of pulling out threads by hand to create the loopy texture. Nowadays it is normally manufactured by automatic looms, which pull out the loops mechanically.

Frontgate Resort Collection Cabana Stripe Pool or Beach Towel in Sea Blue