Peering out through our "faux porthole" (the TV channel showing the ship webcam views) we determined that we were at Half Moon Cay when we woke up. We met Jon and Michelle at the buffet and around 7:40 am an announcement was made that the tenders were beginning to run. As instructed, the four of us went to the Ocean Bar at 8 am to get tender tickets. There was no line when we arrived and we were given number 7 and told to go directly to board the tender. The boat was loading when we got there and it was just a couple of minutes before we were on our way to the island.
 |
| Bob and Michelle on tender. |
Finding a chair wasn't a problem with only the smaller Veendam in port but we walked quite a ways down the beach to where we knew there would be some chairs in the shade. We found what we were looking for just a little past the pirate ship bar.
 |
| Pirate Ship Bar |
 |
| Some of the 2-story cabanas. |
 |
| No problem finding a chair! Notice how wide the beach is in front of the chairs. Things will look much different in a week when we return for our second stop at Half Moon Cay. |
 |
| Sail boats for rent. |
The four of us "played" in the water for awhile but when Bob began to get chilly he convinced Jon to walk down the beach to the end of the island. We watched them until they were out of sight. Michelle and I stayed in the water a bit longer watching the few white fish playing around our feet and then got out to dry off on our lounge chairs.
 |
| Michelle with one of my inflatable noodles...best purchase ever! |
I was able to access Facebook with my cell phone (love T-Mobile free international service!) and posted a photo of the ship in the beautiful blue water. From what I was reading, it was quite cold back home.
 |
| Look at the color of that water! Paradise! |
The guys were gone for a long time and returned with their legs covered in scratches...a casualty from walking through the bushes to get to the top of the little hill so they could look towards the other side of the island. An adventure for sure.
I took another swim and then it was time for lunch. A picnic of freshly grilled hamburgers and various salads was a perfect lunch on a perfect day. Chickens were running around the tables looking for crumbs and nearby a rooster was crowing as we ate. The guys were nice enough to go back to the buffet and get us some ice cream cones before we returned to the beach.
I went right back in the water and floated some more and before we knew it, my watch said 1:30 pm. The last tender was to leave the island at 2 pm (way too early in my opinion 😕) so we gathered up our stuff and made the rather long walk back, only stopping to wash the sand off our feet at one of the rinsing stations.
A tender was loading when we arrived at the dock. We walked right on, found seats on the lower level and then we waited...and waited...and waited. I guess they were waiting on the last stragglers to return, but it was over a half hour before the tender headed back to the ship. By then the people on the top deck were burning to a crisp and looking for any open seats in the shaded lower level.
Once we got back to the cabin, I showered and took a nap while Bob and Jon played pickleball on the top deck. Jon hadn't packed any sneakers and had to play wearing his water shoes. His feet hurt so bad that he vowed he was getting off the ship the next day in Ft. Lauderdale and buy some!
After dinner in the main dining room we went to the theater. Jon brought his laptop and as we were waiting on the show to begin, he downloaded all of the photos I had taken during the week. We watched some of the videos I had taken in Grand Cayman and I was quite impressed! I am still figuring out how to use the GoPro, but the quality of the videos was great!
The show was billed as a variety show and was split between the comedian, John Wing, who was just so-so and vocal impressionist, Robbie Howard, who was quite good. Howard had spent much of his career impersonating Frank Sinatra and if you closed your eyes you could almost think you were hearing Frank himself!
After the show ended, we went up to the buffet to get something to drink and then stayed to play cards. The late night buffet opened just as we were finishing our game so we grabbed a little something and then called it a night.
It was so nice to know that we didn't have to have our luggage out in the hallway or set an alarm for the next morning. That would come soon enough but for now we had another week of cruising to look forward to!
No comments:
Post a Comment