Cruise 2011 - Half Moon Cay - Our own little private island...ok Carnival's!!!

Monday we woke up so excited...Half Moon Cay...the private island.  We woke up early and put on our sunscreen prior to heading up for breakfast.  After eating, we headed down to tender to Half Moon Cay.  The tender boats pull up to the cruise ship (the cruise ship is anchored) and after loading up the people they bring you over to the island.  We have never missed the port although we have heard of several examples where the boat have skipped the island due to bad weather.  We learned exactly why that was, the weather was not bad but there were definitely some rollers out there and the boat rocked as we went to port and back to the ship.  It was not bad but it did show you how easily it could be bad enough to not be safe.  Once stepping on the island all worries of life quickly went away.  This is one of our favorite ports and this year was even better than last year.  Because we had rented a cabana they shuttled us to Cabana 10 which was right by the bathrooms and the perfect location.  The cabana is about 4 cabana's down from the Captain Morgan Bar on the island so you could still hear the music but you did not feel like you were in the party.  Samantha loved playing on the beach and swimming in the water.  We had brought our sandcastle tools and Samantha loved building them and destroying them as quick as we could build them.  The food was wonderful and Samantha loved the guacamole.  They do a barbecue on the island so we went and picked up our food and brought it back to the cabana to enjoy.  One thing I love about Samantha is she loves to give to others, when she saw the oranges she said she wanted to hand them out, so down the beach we go asking complete strangers if they wanted an orange.  Luckily there were several people we had met on the ship that we could steer her towards asking so we did not feel completely strange, that said I love the kid's heart.  After eating Samantha was tired so her and daddy relaxed on the lounger until she fell asleep.  While sleeping mommy caught up on her reading while daddy went snorkeling in the Caribbean water.  When Samantha woke up we decided to walk around the island (check out the new bar they built, let Samantha play on the playground area, and do a little shopping) prior to packing up and heading back to the boat.  What a relaxing wonderful day!!!  Once we got back on the boat we got dressed prior to heading to dinner.  After dinner Samantha wanted to take pictures so we went around the ship and let her take some pictures with the Carnival photographers.  After walking around the ship some more we called it a night...we knew we would have a big day tomorrow in Nassau!!!