WindyCity
December 26th, 2004, 01:44 PM
Half Moon Cay: We had pre-booked the Eco-Lagoon cruise back in October, so we had the tickets for this in our stateroom. Although we had picked a 10:30 excursion, our tickets read meet at 9:45 in the Vista Showroom. Now, I really like how this was done. Three or four different groups met there and, as we checked in, a sticker with a HAL logo and a number were put on our chest. We had number 13. When everyone was gathered, we were directed to the tender and taken to the island where we were met and directed to the shore excursion booth. We stopped off at a stand and bought 2 bottles of water. We also purchased a Half Moon Cay water bottle for $5.95 that would be filled with Bahama Mama or Sex on the Beach drink. Unfortunately, we were not told we had to fill it right away at the bar right inside the gates, so when Ed went to fill them at the bar in the dining area, he had a slight argument with the bartender who thought he wanted a refill. I would suggest that you buy this water bottle at one of the bars and have it filled right away rather than at one of the stands.
Once we checked in the shore excursion booth, we were taken to the ground transport and taken to the lagoon. Our glass bottom boat was ready & waiting, so we all boarded (approximately 14 passengers) and off we went. This was a very nice shore excursion, especially if you are not a “beach” person. Our guide was knowledgeable. He talked about the history of Half Moon Cay, the employees, the hurricanes and of course, the sea life we saw. Before we headed back to the embarkation point, he offered cold water or diet coke to all the passengers. Once we got back, we took the island transport to the dining area and had lunch. We were slightly disappointed that there were no ribs, so we made do with a steak instead. There were various salads, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken and steak. A separate area held desert & drink station where there was water, lemonade and iced tea. After lunch, we took the island transport back to the beach area and explored the shops. The workers in the shops left much to be desired. It was almost as if they didn’t care if you bought or not. They were too busy talking among themselves to pay much attention to anyone asking about an item.
We walked down to the beach and I waded into the chilly water (after all, it was December). Although the beach was lovely, the sand, wherever we walked was full of pebbles. Since this was our first time at HMC, I don’t know if this was the norm or if it was due to the hurricanes.
Again, since we are not beach people, we headed back to the ship and took the opportunity to take some final pictures of the ship and HMC and do most of the packing. We then prepared our tip envelopes (yes, we did tip extra and kept our automatic tips on) since the service we had was excellent! We headed down to dinner in a sad state of mind as this was our last dinner on the ship. After dinner, we again donated to the casino and then went to Karaoke in the Northern Lights lounge. This seemed to be poorly attended, which is a shame as it was a lot of fun and drinks were half-price. Keep an eye on the daily program – there were a number of times when they offered drinks at half price or buy one get one free. We then returned to our cabin and finished packing, put the tags on our luggage and placed them out in the hallway. We had the option of placing out bags out before 1 a.m. or, if we notified the concierge, we could place them in the hallway before 6 a.m. The Red 1 tags allowed us to debark whenever we wanted to after the ship was cleared.
Final Day – Debarkation: We got up at 7:00 a.m. and went to breakfast in the Lido. While we were gone, our cabin steward made up our room for the next passengers. We had told him we would be very careful not to mess anything up for him. After breakfast, we returned to our cabin and watched them offload the luggage into the port building and watched the info channel. There was one passenger they kept paging to come see customs. After they announced debarkation, we decided to get off the ship. There was no line and we were off and collecting our baggage a short time later. We had our passports and our Customs declaration in hand and breezed through customs. The Customs Official only looked at the front part of the form, not the itemization on the back.
After we got outside, we were told the taxis were on the other side of the buses. We caught a cab fairly quickly and headed to Hard Rock Casino and Resort, as our flight was not until 7:15 p.m. and it was only 10:00 a.m. Hard Rock will hold your luggage without charge at the bellboy’s station. We checked our luggage there and tried out the slots – very cold. We then wandered around the hotel and found there was a mall right behind it. Although we did not buy anything there, it helped to pass the time. There was also a Seminole Museum there, but we did not visit it. We had lunch at the “eatery” in the casino and then collected our luggage and headed to the airport. We got to the airport around 1:30 p.m., grabbed a luggage cart and walked around the airport. It was pretty crowded with all the cruise ship passengers and most of the seats were taken, but we found a bench and sat down and read, with occasional visits outside, taking turns, to have a cigarette. At 4:15, we were allowed to check our luggage. While there was a line at the check in counter, we ended up using the check-in outside which had no line and got our boarding passes before the first passengers in the inside line had theirs. We decided not to go through security until 6:30, so we again found some comfortable seats and read. Boarded the plane and landed in Chicago where the temperature was 8 degrees. What a change!! Luckily, our son, who picked us up, brought our winter coats along.
Items I Missed Mentioning:
There was one day when the swells were up to 12 feet and we noticed “relief bags” placed in strategic locations.
On Wednesday evening, the daily program mentioned an 11:00 p.m. activity – Star Gazing with the Navigation Officers. If you have a chance to do this activity, do not miss it. We met on the Forward Sport Deck, all the lights were turned off there and the sky was absolutely beautiful. They handed everyone a star chart for that day and started pointing out the various stars and constellations.
Food was always available. Late night snacks in the Lido were themed and had quite a number of passengers attending. The ice cream bar was open until 1 a.m. as was the pizza/pasta station.
Final Conclusion: This was a very nice ship, albeit a little too big for us. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Food was good and hot, tablemates were wonderful. Crew seemed happy and always smiling. Cabin Steward was excellent, as was our Waiter and Assistant Waiter. Our water glasses were never empty, our wait for food was never too long. We are smokers, but never found this to be a problem. We only smoked in designated areas and found a closed room, right outside the dining room that was a smoking area, which we thought was a very considerate location. The itinerary was good (with the exception of Nassau). The location of our cabin was EXCELLENT! We would definitely said HAL again and would sail on the Westerdam again if the itinerary was to our liking.
Once we checked in the shore excursion booth, we were taken to the ground transport and taken to the lagoon. Our glass bottom boat was ready & waiting, so we all boarded (approximately 14 passengers) and off we went. This was a very nice shore excursion, especially if you are not a “beach” person. Our guide was knowledgeable. He talked about the history of Half Moon Cay, the employees, the hurricanes and of course, the sea life we saw. Before we headed back to the embarkation point, he offered cold water or diet coke to all the passengers. Once we got back, we took the island transport to the dining area and had lunch. We were slightly disappointed that there were no ribs, so we made do with a steak instead. There were various salads, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken and steak. A separate area held desert & drink station where there was water, lemonade and iced tea. After lunch, we took the island transport back to the beach area and explored the shops. The workers in the shops left much to be desired. It was almost as if they didn’t care if you bought or not. They were too busy talking among themselves to pay much attention to anyone asking about an item.
We walked down to the beach and I waded into the chilly water (after all, it was December). Although the beach was lovely, the sand, wherever we walked was full of pebbles. Since this was our first time at HMC, I don’t know if this was the norm or if it was due to the hurricanes.
Again, since we are not beach people, we headed back to the ship and took the opportunity to take some final pictures of the ship and HMC and do most of the packing. We then prepared our tip envelopes (yes, we did tip extra and kept our automatic tips on) since the service we had was excellent! We headed down to dinner in a sad state of mind as this was our last dinner on the ship. After dinner, we again donated to the casino and then went to Karaoke in the Northern Lights lounge. This seemed to be poorly attended, which is a shame as it was a lot of fun and drinks were half-price. Keep an eye on the daily program – there were a number of times when they offered drinks at half price or buy one get one free. We then returned to our cabin and finished packing, put the tags on our luggage and placed them out in the hallway. We had the option of placing out bags out before 1 a.m. or, if we notified the concierge, we could place them in the hallway before 6 a.m. The Red 1 tags allowed us to debark whenever we wanted to after the ship was cleared.
Final Day – Debarkation: We got up at 7:00 a.m. and went to breakfast in the Lido. While we were gone, our cabin steward made up our room for the next passengers. We had told him we would be very careful not to mess anything up for him. After breakfast, we returned to our cabin and watched them offload the luggage into the port building and watched the info channel. There was one passenger they kept paging to come see customs. After they announced debarkation, we decided to get off the ship. There was no line and we were off and collecting our baggage a short time later. We had our passports and our Customs declaration in hand and breezed through customs. The Customs Official only looked at the front part of the form, not the itemization on the back.
After we got outside, we were told the taxis were on the other side of the buses. We caught a cab fairly quickly and headed to Hard Rock Casino and Resort, as our flight was not until 7:15 p.m. and it was only 10:00 a.m. Hard Rock will hold your luggage without charge at the bellboy’s station. We checked our luggage there and tried out the slots – very cold. We then wandered around the hotel and found there was a mall right behind it. Although we did not buy anything there, it helped to pass the time. There was also a Seminole Museum there, but we did not visit it. We had lunch at the “eatery” in the casino and then collected our luggage and headed to the airport. We got to the airport around 1:30 p.m., grabbed a luggage cart and walked around the airport. It was pretty crowded with all the cruise ship passengers and most of the seats were taken, but we found a bench and sat down and read, with occasional visits outside, taking turns, to have a cigarette. At 4:15, we were allowed to check our luggage. While there was a line at the check in counter, we ended up using the check-in outside which had no line and got our boarding passes before the first passengers in the inside line had theirs. We decided not to go through security until 6:30, so we again found some comfortable seats and read. Boarded the plane and landed in Chicago where the temperature was 8 degrees. What a change!! Luckily, our son, who picked us up, brought our winter coats along.
Items I Missed Mentioning:
There was one day when the swells were up to 12 feet and we noticed “relief bags” placed in strategic locations.
On Wednesday evening, the daily program mentioned an 11:00 p.m. activity – Star Gazing with the Navigation Officers. If you have a chance to do this activity, do not miss it. We met on the Forward Sport Deck, all the lights were turned off there and the sky was absolutely beautiful. They handed everyone a star chart for that day and started pointing out the various stars and constellations.
Food was always available. Late night snacks in the Lido were themed and had quite a number of passengers attending. The ice cream bar was open until 1 a.m. as was the pizza/pasta station.
Final Conclusion: This was a very nice ship, albeit a little too big for us. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Food was good and hot, tablemates were wonderful. Crew seemed happy and always smiling. Cabin Steward was excellent, as was our Waiter and Assistant Waiter. Our water glasses were never empty, our wait for food was never too long. We are smokers, but never found this to be a problem. We only smoked in designated areas and found a closed room, right outside the dining room that was a smoking area, which we thought was a very considerate location. The itinerary was good (with the exception of Nassau). The location of our cabin was EXCELLENT! We would definitely said HAL again and would sail on the Westerdam again if the itinerary was to our liking.