Does anyone know why Carnival replaced Half Moon Cay with Princess Cay, out of Jacksonville over the past couple years? I realize Eleuthera is a little closer, but it’s still a 5 day cruise either way. With 3 other east coast FL ports and Charleston all close enough, was there an issue of too many HMC itineraries, since they can only schedule one ship per day. If so, why was it not an issue in the past? We did the 5 day out of Jax 5 times before they switched, and 4 of them called on HMC. The only one that didn’t was 2014, when we went to Little Stirrup Cay. Don’t get me wrong Princess Cay is nice, but let’s be honest it’s no Half Moon! Any ideas?
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Why Princess Cay instead of Half Moon Cay?
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Originally posted by:
CruiselineSarah
I think that technically some days HMC has two ships there at once, but the reason Carnival started going to Princess Cays more is indeed because of scheduling. Holland America technically is the principle owner of Half Moon Cay, and when a HAL ship is there, they don't want a Carnival ship there since the audiences are so different on those two cruise lines. The days that they have two it's either two HAL or two Carnival ships, never one of each. Must be more HAL ships have been sailing in the Bahamas/Caribbean the last few years, so the days that their ships are there, Carnival needs to go somewhere else.
I figured it was a scheduling issue, but why completely remove HMC from itineraries out of Jacksonville, where there is only one ship? Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami all have multiple ships which have itineraries for both Princess Cays and HMC. Even The Sunshine, the only ship out of Charleston, goes to both, so why can’t the Ecstasy out of Jax? I was also unaware HMC could accommodate two ships at once. The four times we’ve been, as well as every picture I’ve seen there was only one so I assumed it was only one ship per day. As far as ownership is concerned, I’m aware that HAL is listed as the owner of Little San Salvador (aka HMC), as they purchased it in 1996. Carnival Corporation however, purchased HAL 7 years prior in 1989, so wouldn’t that technically make Carnival the owner? Thanks for any help in clearing this up. On a side note, this thread does not show up with other recent ones when I click the forum tab, so I have to search for it using one of the tags. I’m guessing it may be due to the fact that I accidentally flagged my original post as inappropriate while trying to see if I could remove some of the repeated tags. Is there any way to fix this.? Thanks for your help.
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Interesting. Thanks for the information.
Contributor Level:
First Mate
I think that technically some days HMC has two ships there at once, but the reason Carnival started going to Princess Cays more is indeed because of scheduling. Holland America technically is the principle owner of Half Moon Cay, and when a HAL ship is there, they don't want a Carnival ship there since the audiences are so different on those two cruise lines. The days that they have two it's either two HAL or two Carnival ships, never one of each. Must be more HAL ships have been sailing in the Bahamas/Caribbean the last few years, so the days that their ships are there, Carnival needs to go somewhere else.