In one word....PARADISE! my favorite place on earth so far!!! Relaxing, drinks great, service excellent, clearest waters I've ever seen and sand felt like baby powder. Amazing! My happy place :-)

Half Moon Cay is the very definition of a pristine jewel of the Caribbean. It is the image that pops up in your head when you think of a perfect white sand beach, with clear turquoise water, tropical palm trees, and endless blue sky. I took a cruise on Carnival Pride there to do the snorkel excursion in open water. There is no actual “Port” there so we got off Pride and onto another boat that actually takes you to the island. The ship stayed in deeper water and remained highly photogenic for everybody. As it turns out, my excursion ended up being canceled due to rough ocean currents. They assured us that what we paid for the excursion would be refunded on our sign and sail cards, which indeed it was, no problem there. They then told us that we were more than welcome to experience a beach day, or see what other excursion we could book right there. As this was a particularly hot day, and I didn’t feel like standing in line, I opted for the beach day. I’m devoutly thankful I did cause I ended up getting my snorkel experience anyway, plus a bag of beer and mixed frozen drink to boot. The beach was already set up with lounge chairs, with a view of the ship in deep water. Can you say, “Selfies!” Figuring I had my snorkel gear, I decided to take a look in the shallows life jacket free. The beach was swarming with mid sized, sand colored tropical fish, gently weaving mostly undetected through the swimmers. There was no signs of trash on the bottom, and the little clumps of seaweed that were there hosted many more tiny fish lazily orbiting them. Back home, I’m not used to things being able to live in the polluted water, so this was a thrill. Then I ditched my gear and spent a few hours lazily swimming. After that I got my afore mentioned bag of beer, sold to me by a most attractive lady. Exploring the island, I found an enormous Carnival funded buffet with more food than you can imagine. And it goes without saying that anything natural on the island is beautiful and untouched. I retreated back to the ship sooner than I wanted, because it really was devilishly hot, but I will definitely return. For a mostly uninhabited island, there sure is enough to do.

This island is to die for!!! So beautiful and peaceful.. because it’s carnivals private island they come off of the ship and make a huge bbq lunch for everyone and they run the bars. Food was pretty good and there was a TON of it. The bars were running and you can charge it to your room that was awesome. They also came off the ship for entertainment and the DJ was playing music while on the beach. This island was the best stop out of the 3 and I would absolutely go back!

This island is absolutely amazing. Water is crystal clear and so far my favorite place on the planet!

Visited: Apr 29, 2017

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I wish they would make this port an overnighter, and skip Freeport. Carnival could have beach parties at night. Bon fires. Dances, live music. I could see this place as having serious opportunities.