Question about Half Moon Cay for HAL Passengers

[LVinTennessee]

Currently, for a March 19th sailing on Nieux Amsterdam, HAL is not offering excursions in HMC, just cabana rentals.  Will HAL passengers have the option to book other excursions when we exit the ship or is everything else just for Carnival passengers? 

[FOPMan]

There are not usually a wealth of excursions ion HMC. I’d call the excursions department to see if something got lost somewhere. 

[LVinTennessee]

I just double checked - it’s all beach villas, cabanas, and butler services.  There is one glass bottom boat excursion and that’s it. 

[FOPMan]

That’s pretty typical. Renting watercraft is an on-island activity.

 

What are you expecting to see?

[LVinTennessee]

See my original post - Will HAL passengers have the option to book other excursions when we exit the ship or is everything just for Carnival passengers? 
Apparently, Carnival passengers have several choices. I asking whether HAL passengers are given any of those same options when they disembark. 

[canadianbear]

Does it indicate a Carnival ship will be there when you are-it’s very unusual for that to happen.  Some times there’s another HAL ship but it’s very strange no other excursions are showing up.  
 

 

If nothing shows up before you leave regarding excursions, I’d check when on the ship at the excursion desk.  Otherwise, when you arrive at HMC on shore there’s staff there (as far as I remember, it’s been a few years) that you can book if anything available.

[TGCRUISEO]

I have never seen a Carnival and Holland America shop at HMC the same time. 
 

does not happen

 

 

[richwmn]

1 hour ago, LVinTennessee said:

See my original post - Will HAL passengers have the option to book other excursions when we exit the ship or is everything just for Carnival passengers? 
Apparently, Carnival passengers have several choices. I asking whether HAL passengers are given any of those same options when they disembark. 

If you could list some of the Carnival options it might be easier to answer

[DFD1]

There is usually more on offer than you indicate. Horseback riding for example. I would suggest you check with the shore excursion desk as soon as you board and/or as soon as it is open.

 

Some friends of ours recently took the excursion of swimming with the rays...last month in fact. I hope you can find that there is more available.

 

Good Luck and have a great cruise.

[Roz]

I've done the historic nature hike on HMC as well as the trolley tour around the island.  Seems odd to me that renting a cabana is the only option for HAL  guests. 

[greensprout]

1 hour ago, LVinTennessee said:

Currently, for a March 19th sailing on Nieux Amsterdam, HAL is not offering excursions in HMC, just cabana rentals.  Will HAL passengers have the option to book other excursions when we exit the ship or is everything else just for Carnival passengers? 

We are on the same as first leg of B2B.  There were more online options last week, tho seems to be fewer now visible online.  My thought is wait a bit and more excursions should pop up, as there are normally several HMC options (kayak/horseback ride/snorkle/stingray/bicycle tour, etc).  If you want a simple beach day, I would recommend getting a clamshell rental as the shade will be welcome.

[Trapper44]

50 minutes ago, TGCRUISEO said:

I have never seen a Carnival and Holland America shop at HMC the same time. 
 

does not happen

 

 

We are scheduled onboard the Rotterdam in Oct. There is a Carnival ship scheduled to be at Half Moon Cay with us. 

 

[canadianbear]

1 minute ago, Trapper44 said:

We are scheduled onboard the Rotterdam in Oct. There is a Carnival ship scheduled to be at Half Moon Cay with us. 

 

That sucks.  They usually try to avoid that.  

[RuthC]

13 minutes ago, Trapper44 said:

We are scheduled onboard the Rotterdam in Oct. There is a Carnival ship scheduled to be at Half Moon Cay with us. 

 

There's an excellent chance that at some point one ship or the other will have a change in itinerary 'for operational reasons'. 
Plan on it. 

[CruiserBruce]

19 minutes ago, Trapper44 said:

We are scheduled onboard the Rotterdam in Oct. There is a Carnival ship scheduled to be at Half Moon Cay with us. 

 

It won't happen.  High chance the Carnival ship will be moved away. 

[wdw1972]

22 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

It won't happen.  High chance the Carnival ship will be moved away. 

Let's hope!  I can't imagine a HAL ship sharing HMC with a Carnival ship!  It was horrific enough when I was on a HAL ship when a Carnival ship was in port with us at Grand Turk.  Talk about a different demographic - after a brief period on shore I went back to the ship!

 

Sue/WDW1972

[LVinTennessee]

1 hour ago, greensprout said:

We are on the same as first leg of B2B.  There were more online options last week, tho seems to be fewer now visible online.  My thought is wait a bit and more excursions should pop up, as there are normally several HMC options (kayak/horseback ride/snorkle/stingray/bicycle tour, etc).  If you want a simple beach day, I would recommend getting a clamshell rental as the shade will be welcome.

I admit, I’ve only been booked on this cruise for 2-3 weeks, but I have seen no other excursions since booking other than the ones I’ve already mentioned. I don’t even see a clamshell rental.  I made sure I don’t have any filters set, and I clicked “see all excursions,” but still nothing new. 
Do you mind to check your app, Greenspout, to see if you see something that I’m not?

[3rdGenCunarder]

Don't count on the snorkel by boat. It was cancelled in January, and when I checked with the shorex desk, they said it's cancelled for the whole season. 

 

I hope they cancel the call for the Carnival ship. Even with two HAL ships, it makes things crowded. 

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, wdw1972 said:

Let's hope!  I can't imagine a HAL ship sharing HMC with a Carnival ship!  It was horrific enough when I was on a HAL ship when a Carnival ship was in port with us at Grand Turk.  Talk about a different demographic - after a brief period on shore I went back to the ship!

 

Sue/WDW1972

It has not happened in the past.

[Trapper44]

2 hours ago, LVinTennessee said:

I admit, I’ve only been booked on this cruise for 2-3 weeks, but I have seen no other excursions since booking other than the ones I’ve already mentioned. I don’t even see a clamshell rental.  I made sure I don’t have any filters set, and I clicked “see all excursions,” but still nothing new. 
Do you mind to check your app, Greenspout, to see if you see something that I’m not?

Are you looking for the excursions via the Navigator app or via your HAL account on the HAL website. If you are using Navigator it usually doesn't reflect the correct current info for your cruise. Even when I was onboard for a b2b (collectors Cruise) the info for the second portion did not show up correctly until that portion started. Some have reported that their info appeared a week or two prior to their cruise.

[AFNavigator]

55 minutes ago, Trapper44 said:

I don’t even see a clamshell rental.  I made sure I don’t have any filters set, and I clicked “see all excursions,” but still nothing new. 

There's definitely something wrong with the navigator app or whatever HAL booking listing you are looking at because even the full excursions would show up, they would just show as sold out.

 

You aren't, by chance, trying to find third-party (non-HAL) excursions?  If so, you won't find any because all HMC excursions are booked through the cruise line only. The island is owned and operated by Carnival Corp--and HAL, of course--so there are no third-party excursions there.

[Real NHDOC]

I'd call the excursions desk (if you haven't already - 1-888-425-9376 or 206-626-7320) and ask.  I just looked for our March sailings and they show the full compliment of excursions on HMC.  About 10 different activities.  Sounds like a glitch in their system if you aren't seeing them.

[rubytue]

14 hours ago, LVinTennessee said:

Will HAL passengers have the option to book other excursions when we exit the ship

I haven’t seen this part of the question addressed. HMC isn’t like other ports where there are vendors as you exit the ship. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the opportunity to book an excursion as you get on the dock at HMC. You might be able to book something through the shore excursions desk on the ship, but don’t save it until you get off. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

52 minutes ago, rubytue said:

I haven’t seen this part of the question addressed. HMC isn’t like other ports where there are vendors as you exit the ship. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the opportunity to book an excursion as you get on the dock at HMC. You might be able to book something through the shore excursions desk on the ship, but don’t save it until you get off. 

 

There's a place to check in for tours on HMC (the HAL tours), and I suppose if you get a last-minute urge to do something other than the beach, you might be able to get a spot on a tour from them. But they won't have anything more than the ship has, so there's no point in waiting.

[MTAK]

3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

There's a place to check in for tours on HMC (the HAL tours), and I suppose if you get a last-minute urge to do something other than the beach, you might be able to get a spot on a tour from them. But they won't have anything more than the ship has, so there's no point in waiting.

Correct, we ended up booking the kayak excursion at the last minute through the staff at the check-in/excursion area on shore. The only reason we did this is that the weather was a bit unsettled that morning and we weren't sure we really wanted to go. This was April 2022.