HARVEST CAYE: NCL
Our time at Harvest Caye would be from 8-5pm. Since this was a "free" port day with no excursions planned, I decided to get up when I got up. It was still early, but I didn't set an alarm or anything.
This pier was long and it was hot out. You could catch a ride on one of the many golf carts they had going by. Thank goodness they decided to do up this pier right and they have the entire walkway covered to protect you from the sun. Now if they'd just install some fans or a/c....:D
Finally arriving at the island. They had some misting stations and boy did it feel good on this hot and humid day! There's plenty of shopping in this area.
Of course the center of attraction is the ginormous pool! This thing goes off in various areas and twist and turns and has little islands with palm trees on them. Over by the restaurant, there are some pool chairs in the water. There's a walk way across the water with a waterfall under it.
We picked our spot along side the pool in the front row.
I actually made it in the water before Sakari this time around. It was so hot. A mermaid was entering the water
There was hardly anyone there at that point and we pretty much had the pool to ourselves. Sakari and I were standing in the water in the middle of the pool and she went in and got the whistle blown at her and was told "no diving". Um say what? We were standing in the middle of the pool...how was she diving???? He said you can't go in head first like that. Are you serious? Head first? You want us to just ease our way down into the water and go under is that what you are saying? Yes, no diving in or going in the water head first while standing in the water. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! This pattern would continue the rest of the day of the lifeguards blowing their whistles non-stop....for every little thing. But yet, there's signs all over the place that say "no life guard on duty". Every time I seen a kid go in the water head first "hey lifeguard, was that diving? I didn't hear you blow your whistle" It was irritating. They wanted you to get in and just stand there. These are kids...they don't want to get into a pool and just stand there. They want to swim. I was shocked they even let her swim with her mermaid tail on. I was just waiting for that whistle to come.
So let's take a look around...
You'd never know if there were any jelly fish or stingrays in the water until it was too late. The water is murky and not the crystal clear water you usually find in ports. I'm not sure if this is because it's a new port and things haven't settled or what or if it's just the area.
You could tell that they take good care of this island/port. The sand was all smoothed down and scraped perfect in areas that people had not walked on yet.There's plenty of chairs to sit in at the beach...plenty!
Going up away from the beach...
The Landshark restaurant:
Anyone for a game of chess or checkers?
Mobility problems? Not an issue.
They have beach wheelchairs.
Lockers for rent for the entire day. You use your ship card and receive a coin to use in the machine.
They have a kids water park with the bucket of dumping water, water spraying out everywhere and I believe ones that you can control as well. (Sakari didn't want to go there after seeing it and thought she was "too old" for it). LOL
You will also find a shower in this area as well.
Moving along toward the lagoon area. At least you could use your ship card for these events.
The lighthouse. This is where you go to zip line (and maybe the ropes course?)
Walking back down by the beach and toward the pool
Private cabana area:
I headed back to the pool area and the hubby went and got drinks (soda/pop). They charge you taxes AND the 15% service charge.
My little mermaid was sunbathing on the steps and I continued to take pictures of our beautiful surroundings.
Next up was the "Wildlife Experience". I don't know about "wild" life...but they had a couple scarlet macaw's, with a person that stands there all day feeding them seeds, 2 toucan Sam birds, a boa snake and a butterfly exhibit.
Next up...a sea cucumber. We find these every place we snorkel and are very common. Non-the-less, we decided pictures were appropriate.
Then up came a conch
The butterfly exhibit. Very pretty butterflies...when their wings are open or in flight. The outside is brown and the inside is a pretty blue.
Then they had a wild forest of animals at the entrance making all kinds of noises...only it was a speaker.
Around the area was various animals carved from wood.
There's one thing that you can say about Harvest Caye and that is that it's beautifully decorated. A lot of thought went into the layout and landscaping of this place and it was just gorgeous!!! Everywhere you look there were flowers and greenery, bushes and palms and umbrella and everything that could be thought up. It was just so nice there.
Back at the chairs, we decided we would order some lunch. It was really hard to get service from the people walking by and after asking for a menu, the hubby decided to just walk over to the restaurant and get one.
I ordered the fish tacos. They were "ok" but I've had a lot better!!! The chips and salsa were decent but the salsa merely tasted like tomato sauce and I'm not sure if it was their attempt at making pico de gallo but pico de gallo it was not!
The mini human ordered her usual....chicken tenders and fries and the hubby ordered the pulled pork tacos. I didn't hear any complaints from either of them, so it must have been good or at least filling.
By this time, everyone was off the ship and here and it was getting crowded in the pool area. There were plenty of seating available at the beach though.
We decided to take a dip in the ocean. I basically had to talk Sakari into it. She didn't want to come out of the pool. She immediately noticed the zip lining. She shouted "I wanna do that!" and I told her the cost and told her that if I paid for it, she better not get up there and back out! Then she seen the other little zip line (not over the water) and said she'd rather do that because it looked like it wasn't as high. I told her that it came out of the same lighthouse building and the same height so....in the end, she said she would do it, but I wasn't convinced and ended up saying no. I knew we had a day at another port that would test her and see if she'd do the zip lining and if she did it there, I'd know for future reference.
I spent so much in pop that day I swear. It was just so hot out and I needed to quench my thirst. We did end up asking for a cup with ice after awhile because getting a bottle (although it was ice cold when it was delivered) it would get hot really fast and be wasted. After asking the first time, they'd always bring the cup with ice.
We had several visitors around us.
We were getting ready to pack up and leave when it was discovered that some time during the day a rather large iguana had swam across the water and went to the little island in the middle of the pool. He was now the main attraction to those still left swimming in the pool. Sakari swam over to get pictures.
We packed up our things and started to head out...over the bridge and through the wilderness we go. They do have a shallow easy entrance at one side of the pool with some water spouts.
They had a Belize sign here...
We started our long journey down the pier to the ship.
The carts they give you rides in:
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Harvest Caye was super nice! We really enjoyed ourselves there that day. I personally would highly recommend visiting it. I know it's a commercialized man made place designed to sucker cruisers into donating more money to the cruise lines, but I personally don't mind spending a day here and there on a cruise in a beautiful place like this. Just like I enjoy going to the cruise lines private islands like Great Stirrup Cay or Half Moon Cay. It's a nice change to go somewhere really nice and enjoy everything and not be hassled by the vendors or paying to get to a nice beach or resort. We really enjoyed this. Is it for everyone? Of course not and those that don't enjoy a break from visiting other countries that might be poverty stricken or begging for money can always book an excursion away from the island. But that's just my opinion of the island...it's gorgeous!