When you first see Half Moon Cay from the deck of the over-sized shore-side tender that ferries you over there, all you see is this massive crescent shaped stretch of white sand. As you get closer, you can make out the huge Capt Morgan Pirate ship that houses the bar and the band (and way too many photo opportunities), and as you get closer still you can see the people. But even then, it doesn’t look crowded. Then the tender turns a corner into the secluded channel leading to the harbor, and you lose sight of the beach just long enough to catch sight of the entryway, paved, lined with palm trees and centered around a fountain that’s trimmed with conch shells (nope, not kidding).
It should feel crowded, but it honestly doesn’t. Especially since most of the crew (those of us that have HMC day off, which isn’t many), usually drift to the far end of the island so that we’re away from most of the passengers. Rumour has it that there’s an actual crew-only area around the other side of the island itself, but no one that I know knows how to get there!).
The reason so few crewmembers end up with HMC day off is because when we port here we actually move most of the services on the ship to shore-side. The party band goes to the pirate ship, the spa girls set up shop on the beach, shore excursions takes up residence in the welcoming area, and the bar-staff of course still have to tend bar. On smaller ships this plays havoc with the IPM schedule – because so many people have to go ashore, it ends up that people who don’t have to work end up having to stay on the ship. Thankfully, this ship is big enough to avoid that particular collision.
I was just glad to get to go at all. The last time a ship I was on was scheduled to port at HMC, it was a much much smaller vessel (the smallest of the fleet as a matter of fact), and we were using our own tenders rather than the large ones provided by the port and we ended up not being able to stop at all because the swells were too strong for the tenders to be safe..
This is why I like working slightly bigger ships.
The island is privately owned by the line, and is advertised as a little piece of paradise. For once, the adverts got something right. The water here is something beyond blue and into electric, and while there are no fish , I’ve never seen water so incredibly clear. The waves roll in with a strength that makes them crash against the sand Hawaii-style, great sparkling crystalline breakers that roar up and then hiss away. You have to watch the undertow every so often when you’re walking on the beach or you end up falling over (thankfully, most of the things in my beach bag are waterproof, my cell phone however is not, I was very lucky not to drop it and be out an alarm clock!)
When you’re in a place like this, it’s difficult to remember that it’s December let alone late December.