Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s private oasis, was our first port. It is filled with a variety of island activities including stingray encounters, glass-bottom boat viewing, snorkeling or just hanging out on the beach and swimming in the pristine Caribbean Sea.

The best part today we hope will be viewing the stingrays! We had gone here previously on another Holland America Cruise and participated in the Stingray Encounter. The required age for the encounter is six, so we made it mostly a beach day with a chance to see the stingrays from the shoreline.

Going to the Island

We took our time and headed out on a tender that worked best for us. Tenders are the boats that you use to go from the cruise ship to the shore when there is not a large pier available for docking.

We got on the 9:15 a.m. tinder and it was not really full. It was still a little cool when we arrived at the beach. On the plus side, we easily found a few lounge chairs on the beach and it was not crowded.

Building Sand Castles

My first activity with Andrew was to play in the sand. We made little sandcastles and ponds that the waves kept casting away. It was fun to do with him. The downside with all the lounge chairs was the lack of a lot of sand space. The tide was in I guess, also.

While I played with him, David went out to deeper water closer to where people were snorkeling to look for aquatic life.

Seeing Schools of Fish

He reported that he saw some colorful fish, but nothing else and a lady with snorkeling gear had found a conch shell. She said she had been there before, but they allowed you to go further out then and she had come across a stingray.

With David back, I decided to try my hand at what I could see. I followed along a rocky shoreline and came across a large school of fish. As I went further I noticed a young man with fish food. He was feeding them and lots of striped yellow fish came up to him.

I headed back after seeing him and told David to bring Andrew out and the fish surrounded us all. It was a cool experience and I was glad I had come across him. I thanked him as we headed back to the shoreline.

Dining on the Island

I told David I wanted to see how crazy it was at the Dining Pavilion, where free food was provided off the ship.

I reported back to him, “It’s not to busy yet and the walk from the Welcome Center where we entered the beach from was hot and not pleasant with people and Holland America service vehicles and the tram going about. We should instead walk along the beach.”

Lunch on the island is included and we had burgers, fish tacos, which I thought were good, chicken, ceviche salad, potato salad and plenty of fruit. I liked the carrot cake cupcakes but David didn’t.

The lunch is well shaded with lots of picnic shelters to choose from. There are also restrooms nearby.

This was much better than last time we were here, then we had made it back late from the time with stingrays and were eating almost table scraps.

Viewing Stingrays

After lunch, we headed to the stingray cove. I remembered that we could see a lot just by being in a covered deck along the shoreline.

When David and I had done this before we had been in the fenced-off area and touched the stingrays. They also let you touch a sea cucumber and a starfish. Some stingrays from stinger to head were the size of me. It was quite the experience.

At least Andrew could see them. When we showed up there was not much going on. We had just missed a group in the water. We stayed around for a bit watching a few darting about. After about ten minutes we thought about leaving but then another group showed up. The stingray handlers brought the stingrays out with food and we watched the encounter.

Andrew really enjoyed this. The stingrays would come up out of the water. You could see their mouths and eyes and fins pretty close even if you weren’t in there with them.

I even learned a few things. The stingrays have hard teeth and can break shells to get their meal inside. Recently when Hurricane Dorian came through they had to evacuate the island and let the stingrays go. Some did come back since they received food here from the trainers.

One father tried to get the photo and get the kid to touch the stingray and they were crying and not wanting to do it. That was what I worried if we had Andrew do this, that he would be uncomfortable at his age.

If you weren’t interested in interacting with them, just watching them from the shoreline works really well.

Heading Back to the Ship

After this, we waited for a tram to take us back. We couldn’t ride in the first one since it was for those who were there for the stingray encounter, which was fine for us since the next one came in about ten minutes. One of the stingray handlers provided us some bottled water. That was a really nice thing to do since we hadn’t even been part of the program.

I had wanted to hike around the island, but it was getting late in the day so we headed back to where the tender docks.

I checked out a few shops that were by the dock. They do have some stalls that sell straw hats and some handicrafts, but they were expensive. I also didn’t see any cheap souvenirs in the shops. We had come here before so I had already gotten a magnet from the Bahamas.

Next, we waited in line for the tender. There was a lot of security checking. I found that interesting since we were on a private island. I was not sure where someone would have come from to get on the ship.

We disembarked they scanned our cruise ship card and we headed back. Beach day is done, next, I’ll share our time on Grand Turk, an island known for diving, beaches, and a rocket ship.

Go to the Holland American Cruises Website to learn more about the excursions and activities on the island. Also, Carnival Cruise lines stop at this island.

Next, I will share our time on the small island oasis of Grand Turk!