SnowyShasta

We have booked with "Tours by Locals" and the guide we are using said it would be feasible to see Giant's Causeway, and Carrick-a-Rede, and also get back to Belfast to the Titanic Experience by 4:00 or 4:30, which gives 90 minutes or so before closing. We'll see how it goes - we let him know this is ideal but we want Giant's Causeway most, so if we end up too late for Titanic that's okay. But he at least seemed to think it was possible.

Yes, there are free chairs/loungers at both the pool and beach. I believe some have umbrellas for shade. I don't know exact distances, but from the ship to the actual shore is maybe 1/4 mile? And another 1/4 mile to walk to the beach? The pool is a little closer to the ship than the beach. There was a shuttle/golf cart type of vehicle that looked to be available for use for those with mobility issues.

My personal response from Harvest Caye - I am not sure about "plenty to do" but we managed to have an enjoyable day. Our itinerary had 5 port stops, so we had other ports in which we were scuba diving and snorkeling and doing other activities, so we were okay with a day that was a bit more relaxing.

We spent the day swimming in the pool, relaxing at the beach, enjoying walking through the butterfly garden, and rented some SUPs in the lagoon area. I wouldn't say this was the most exciting day of our itinerary, but it was relaxing and enjoyable, and didn't cost us much.

We didn't buy any food or drinks, so sorry, no help there. We ate a big breakfast on the ship, then went back late afternoon and ate. The beach is nice and large, with lots of lounge chairs. I didn't see any rafts available to float on (although the lagoon area has SUPs and kayaks). My understanding is that the snorkeling is not really good there, no reef, but we didn't try it.

Our summary was that if the entire cruise were like Harvest Caye, we would be disappointed. But as one day of our cruise, where we could enjoy the beach and pool without having to pay for/arrange transportation or beach access, it was a nice day.

I would think you'd be fine jogging at 7 AM. Most people won't be up and off the ship, so I wouldn't think the island is crowded. It depends how far you want to go. The walkway to/from the ship is probably half a mile all by itself; you could run back and forth down it (if not crowded with other people). The paths that roughly circle the island are also okay to run on (although again you'd have to be careful there weren't too many people walking on them).

We also visited last week on the Norwegian Dawn first visit. I agree that there did not appear to be any way off the island without an excursion.

We treated the day as a basic "beach/pool day" with no excursions and enjoyed it for what it was. But it is barely Belize - no real visibility into the culture.

The pool was very nice and big enough that it never seemed crowded. The beach was long and our kids had fun in the sand. The area seemed pretty protected, which was good for calm waters but bad for my kids that enjoy body surfing.

We rented SUPs for an hour and had some fun paddling around the lagoon, although strong winds made it hard. We also enjoyed seeing the toucans and butterfly garden.

We didn't buy any food; just stayed on the island until about 2:30 and then went back to the ship for a late lunch. You could easily go back to the ship any time and then return to the island, but it's probably a 10-15 minute walk each way since the pier is quite long.

Overall we enjoyed the day - it wasn't the best one of the trip but it was at least the cheapest since we didn't pay for any excursions (via the ship or on our own).