Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Cruise ship companies probably became tired of watching passengers get off their boats to spend money in the stores of others. What if they stopped at their own island?

Thus, places like Half Moon Cay, the private island of the company that owns Holland America and Carnival, exist. Cruisers have to take a tender (small boats seating about 100 or so) from the cruise ship to the island., and they arrive at a completely private area. The area formerly known as Little San Salvador Island covers about four square miles.

This raised a pre-trip question: What exactly would we do there? Well, there's a nice beach, as the photo shows. The company has a variety of chairs and cabanas available for a relaxing day. There are a few side trips available, which involves some snorkeling, horseback riding, etc. A large barbecue lunch buffet is staged at the appropriate hour. You can get married on a small chapel along the beach if you are so inclined. But there is no way to visit anything else in the Bahamas.

The question becomes, then, is it worth getting off the boat for a visit, especially if you don't want to merely sit on the beach? That's a tough one. Granted, our one day there was on the overcast side in the morning. Some of the shore excursions were cancelled. That may have led some people to stay on the boat. In any event, there wasn't much energy on the island. We got our feet wet in the ocean, and walked around a bit. The promised nature trails on the island weren't marked, and no one at the information booth knew anything about them. A few stores offered basic souvenir items of the place. 

And so after a short amount of time, we headed back to the boat - even before lunch was served. It was worth checking out, and maybe we should have left later and had lunch there.  

You, however, might want to see a little more.