Carnival/Half Moon Cay?

[cosmo cruiser]

We are finally able to begin looking at our next cruise to book. We visited Half Moon Cay in Feb of 2008 and loved, loved, loved it!!! I am having trouble finding any Carnival cruises that visit Half Moon Cay in Feb, Mar, or April of 09? Anyone know why so few Carnival ships visit Half Moon Cay???? Thanks

[twinkletoes4445]

HMC was originally HAL's island, prior to Carnival acquiring HAL, so HAL ships get priority. When HMC is not being used by HAL, Carnival ships use the island. HAL has ships in the Caribbean mid-October through mid-may (or so) so if there are any Carnival ships visiting HMC during that time, it would have to be on a day that HAL doesn't have a ship there. You do see days when 2 HAL ships in port, but I've not ever heard about a day where a Carnival ship and a HAL ship are in port the same day. It may have happened, but it's not typical.

 

We loved HMC! I hope you can find a cruise that stops at HMC. :)

[cruiseapril]

Try the Carnival Fascination out of Jacksonville. They cruise to HMCay.:)

[cosmo cruiser]

Twinkletoes: Thanks for the information. I didn't know the history of HMC.

April: Thanks for the idea. I looked into Jacsonville but they are only 5 day and mostly only to the Bahamas. Living in Indiana we always try to do at least 7 nights because of the added cost of our airfare. We could do a B2B of 5 days each but 10 days in just the Bahamas is not all that exciting as usually we cruise when the water is still pretty cold in the Bahamas and we are all about beach days! We did a 7 day bouy tour of the Bahamas once (ship damaged and re-routed) and we really missed our beach days and ocean swimming on that trip.

I think I will check on the Triumph, that is the ship we sailed last Feb. and she went there at that time. We will book regardless but I sure would enjoy a day at HMC again! The true definition of perfection in my book.

Thanks

[Typhoon1]

We are finally able to begin looking at our next cruise to book. We visited Half Moon Cay in Feb of 2008 and loved, loved, loved it!!! I am having trouble finding any Carnival cruises that visit Half Moon Cay in Feb, Mar, or April of 09? Anyone know why so few Carnival ships visit Half Moon Cay???? Thanks

 

Simple solution, just take a HAL cruise.:D

[bruce-r]

Simple solution, just take a HAL cruise.:D

 

That's just what I was thinking. :cool:

[twinkletoes4445]

Twinkletoes: Thanks for the information. I didn't know the history of HMC.

 

I didn't know the history myself until I read it here on CC when another poster asked this question a couple of years ago.

 

Here's a website that you can find out what ships are in what port on a specific day (by month). You might check out the HMC port and see what ships will be in port during the time frame in which you plan on cruising. If you click on the ship, you'll be able to see the itinerary of that particular ship, and which ships will be in port on the same day.

 

http://www.porttime.com/

[NCTribeFan]

I plan on sailing HAL one day, but not until I'm officially an "old fart" and qualify for those perks.

 

:p

 

Just kidding! My DD already considers me to be an old fart and I'm "just" mid-50s. I think I'd love HAL, but since I'm close to Platinum status on Carnival, I want to reach that milestone first.

 

In fact, if I love my Fascination cruise in December as much as I think I will (I booked it specifically because it's a 5 day, I can drive to Jax, it has two sea days, AND it goes to HMC), I just might book a B2B for next spring. That will get me to Platinum.

[cruiseapril]

cosmo- We just did the HAL Westerdam cruise to Half Moon Cay, Aruba, and Curacao. Aruba and Curacao are quite warm year round- good beaches and snorkeling.

[bruce-r]

cosmo- We just did the HAL Westerdam cruise to Half Moon Cay, Aruba, and Curacao. Aruba and Curacao are quite warm year round- good beaches and snorkeling.

 

That would be almost my dream itinerary. Add Bonaire and change out Aruba for Grand Turk and it would be perfect.

[eh2zed]

HMC was originally HAL's island, prior to Carnival acquiring HAL, so HAL ships get priority. When HMC is not being used by HAL, Carnival ships use the island. HAL has ships in the Caribbean mid-October through mid-may (or so) so if there are any Carnival ships visiting HMC during that time, it would have to be on a day that HAL doesn't have a ship there. You do see days when 2 HAL ships in port, but I've not ever heard about a day where a Carnival ship and a HAL ship are in port the same day. It may have happened, but it's not typical.

 

We loved HMC! I hope you can find a cruise that stops at HMC. :)

Just a minor clarification on the ownership of HMC. Carnival Cruise Line does not own HAL. Carnival Corporation and PLC owns Holland America as it also owns Carnival Cruise Line, Costa, Princess, Seabourn, Cunard, AIDA and a few others. Carnival Cruise Line operates as a branded division like all the others.

In regards to HMC it is owned by Holland America Lines, a branded division of Carnival Corporation and PLC. Ultimately CCPLC owns it of course. It was concluded at the time of the acquisition that HMC was a tremendous marketing feature for HAL and would continue as an asset of HAL for primary use. However, in order to make best corporate use it was opened up to CCL ships when no HAL ship is scheduled.

Just wanted to clarify this since many CCL cruisers seem confused why CCL doesn't get greater access to HMC.

[cruiseapril]

Bruce- We also would like to see Bonaire added to the itinerary.

[twinkletoes4445]

Just a minor clarification on the ownership of HMC. Carnival Cruise Line does not own HAL. Carnival Corporation and PLC owns Holland America as it also owns Carnival Cruise Line, Costa, Princess, Seabourn, Cunard, AIDA and a few others. Carnival Cruise Line operates as a branded division like all the others.

In regards to HMC it is owned by Holland America Lines, a branded division of Carnival Corporation and PLC. Ultimately CCPLC owns it of course. It was concluded at the time of the acquisition that HMC was a tremendous marketing feature for HAL and would continue as an asset of HAL for primary use. However, in order to make best corporate use it was opened up to CCL ships when no HAL ship is scheduled.

Just wanted to clarify this since many CCL cruisers seem confused why CCL doesn't get greater access to HMC.

 

Actaully, Carnival acquired HAL 1989. In 2000 Carnival PLC was formed. HAL owned HMC, and because of that, it was kept intact (it's one of the reasons we cruise HAL-so it's popular), and HAL ships had priority when it came to use of the island. When I said Carnival bought HAL, that's what originally happened. Since then, the new corporation was formed and HAL is under that umbrella. At any rate, when I first heard about HAL owning HMC originally, I understood why HAL had priority...and that's what I was passing along...rather than getting into the details of the new corporation that was formed in 2000.

 

 

In 1989, HAL became a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corp., the largest cruise line in the world.

 

Carnival PLC was formed in October 2000 under the name P&O Princess Cruises PLC by the demerger of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company's cruise business.[7] P&O Princess' cruise business has had over 150 years of maritime history beginning in the United Kingdom in the 1840s. From established positions in the United Kingdom and Australia it improved its position in North America with the acquisitions of Princess Cruises and Sitmar Cruises in the 1970s and 1980s.

[cosmo cruiser]

Thanks for all the information, I learned a lot!

 

We might someday take a HAL cruise but for now we enjoy the military discount and our Platinum status on Carnival to much to switch. I think I would miss the special treatment we get as platinum members and plan to go to the next level of special at some point in the future. We have never had a bad cruise on Carnival so no real reason to switch. We have had cruises that didn't go where they were planned and some other issues but whatever happened has always been handled well by Carnival and we feel loyal to the line for the time being.

 

Hopefully we will be able to visit HMC on a future cruise. For now just being able to book the next one to anywhere is pretty exciting for us.

[twinkletoes4445]

Thanks for all the information, I learned a lot!

 

Probably way more than you wanted to know...lol :)

 

Have a great cruise. We love HMC, but since it's a tender island and many times you aren't able to even get to the island, so I'd probably do exactly what you're doing. It's hard to give up those special perks. I'm like you...I'm just happy to be cruising. :)