Spend a Day on Great Stirrup Cay

Prof. Cruise is hunkered down at home today hibernating in a blanket cave, fearful of reports of snowmageddon coming to Seattle this weekend, so I’ll be filling in for today’s lecture.

Introducing Prof. Cruise’s T.A., “H”

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m “H,” Prof. Cruise’s T.A. (teaching/travel assistant). At barely six, I’ve been on a big boat twelve times, so you should consider me an authority on the best mac and cheese and ice cream. But for those of you just emerging from a polar vortex or clearing the shelves at Target of cake ingredients (Prof. Cruise!) in anticipation of upcoming storms, I thought I’d focus on someplace warm for today’s lecture. So grab a cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows you can pretend is a tropical cocktail with an umbrella and join me as I review my first visit to Great Stirrup Cay aboard the Norwegian Breakaway.

If you know me at all, and by now you do, you know I love me some sugary frozen desserts and cheese AND the beach. So I was super excited to visit Great Stirrup Cay, NCL’s private island, for a beach day.

I loved almost everything about it – the smaller boat that sailed us over there, the tractor that drove us to and from the Lagoon, the sand, the water, the friends, and the chocolate dipped Rice Krispies at the buffet lunch.

While I prefer to focus on the positive, Prof. Cruise insists I discuss the tendering process as a warning for any of you who have a toddler (or mom) who isn’t as patient and saintly as I am. To sum it up: chaotic and slow.

The Tendering Process

The day before, Prof. Cruise called to make a tender reservation. If you want to leave the ship anytime before 2pm, a tender reservation is required (or so they said – stay tuned). Mom requested the earliest possible group and was assigned tender group “H,” estimated to leave around 11am. That was disappointing as we prefer to get to port early and get back for an afternoon nap or “quiet time” for Prof. Cruise – which usually turns out to be mostly yelling that she’s not tired. But we try.

We headed down to O ‘Sheehan’s bar (which is near the main show lounge where you’re supposed to go when you’re tender group is called) to kill time while we waited. We waited and waited and waited. Twelve games of pool later, I got bored and started using the Prof. as a bowling ball on one of the miniature bowling lanes. I guess she didn’t find that as fun as I did, because she walked over to the show lounge to ask which group they were on since we hadn’t heard an announcement for a long, long time.

Turns out they were telling everyone who came to the show lounge “if you’re ready to go now, go on in” regardless of their reservation (or lack of reservation). People who’d been waiting a long time for their group to be called were pretty ticked that they waited around for nothing and others without a reservation were able to just walk right in. It appeared very chaotic and disorganized.

We shook it off (it was a good lesson in patience for Prof. Cruise) and were directed to sit down in the show lounge where we waited another 30 minutes for our section of the lounge to be called. On the plus side, they talked about the island while we waited and we learned about the Lagoon, which is where we would end up spending our day. And we were so glad we did!

We finally boarded our tender boat:

I could practically taste the sand as we got closer!

And 15 minutes later we were welcomed to the island by this guy:

We headed left and followed the signs for the tram to the Lagoon. We waited (not long this time) at the tram stop for our chariot to arrive. Which turned out to be a tractor!

Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some farm equipment, but I’m used to them driving me to the pumpkin patch, so I was a little confused. Where’s the hay?

The Lagoon at Great Stirrup Cay

After a short and beautiful ride we arrived at the Lagoon. Although we wouldn’t be making any pumpkin pie later, this place was pretty sweet.

That last photo is of the main beach area as seen from the Lagoon. We never made it over to that side, but it looked much more crowded. We didn’t exactly have the Lagoon to ourselves either (like the beach at Nassau — stay tuned), but it didn’t feel overwhelming.

The Lagoon offers plenty of loungers (and clamshells available for a charge), calm, shallow waters great for swimming, plentiful sand for burying Prof. Cruise so you can steal her drink, beautiful views (and some not so beautiful like the Prof’s pasty legs), a free BBQ lunch, and booze (the Ultimate Beverage Package does work on the island although the bar line can get long).

Buffet Lunch

Here’s the lunch/bar area at the Lagoon. Get there early because the lines get very long after noon and tables go fast.

BBQ lunch includes hotdogs and hamburgers (They do have veggie burgers available upon request – they take 15 minutes to cook), a variety of salads and sides, and cookie and Rice Krispy bars for dessert.

After a wonderful, relaxing day we toweled off…

…and headed back to our big boat around 3pm (there was no wait for a tender on the way back) to not nap.

And that concludes our snow day virtual getaway to Great Stirrup Cay. But if you need something else to do between hibernating and dreaming of the beach, consider our list of snow day activities here.

See my other Bahamas port posts here.

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