It is a rather bizarre concept. You go on a cruise ship where every wish is catered for. You can lie out by the pool all day, if that is your thing (its not mine) and have food and drinks brought to you. Then you arrive at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas and not only do you disembark for a day ashore but so does the crew who look after you on the ship. They continue to cater for your every wish - but at the beach! Along with the staff also comes all the food and drinks you will eat that day and the band to entertain. 

Further there are differing levels of beach cabanas you can hire for hundreds of dollars decked out with fridges, lounge chairs and French champagne for you, if you really need the status and have extremely deep pockets. Why would you need these cabanas, I wonder, for such a short time?

You see Holland America (the cruise line) owns the island and every Caribbean cruise of theirs spends a day of their itinerary ashore. Mind you it is a very pretty island. Perfect white sand with deck chairs aplenty, meets the clear blue water. Perfect boardwalks and manicured paths take you to amenities. 

After a very rough ride by tender into shore in cloudy weather, the day fined up and was the sort of shimmering sunny day one imagines the Caribbean to be like every day. (It's not).

There was supposed to be a basketball and volleyball competition and we found the courts but not enough people arrived at the allotted time and nor did the organiser. Nothing for it but to join the beach "tanners" for a short while and read our books with an exotic cocktail in hand. This was actually the first time we had acted like "cruisers"! A hike around the very small island took up more of our time as did a BBQ lunch, a listen to the band for awhile, and a swim. Before long it was time to catch the tender back. Just as we got back to the ship the storm clouds rolled in again so we had been extremely lucky to have had the sunshine for our day at the (cruise ship) beach.