Sunday, March 22, 2020

November 6, 2019 – Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos, BWI – Partly Cloudy – 85F

Distance from St. Barts to Grand Turk Island 533 Nautical Miles

We are at our last port of call.

I got up to breakfast a little late this morning and my view consisted of a very large cruise ship next to Symphony.  I didn’t know that you could dock two ships at the Terminal Center but I guess you can.  Don’t know which ship it is but we’ll find out soon enough. 

I had my usual breakfast plus a cranberry pancake and bite of a chocolate doughnut (just had to check them out).  Everything continues to be perfect at breakfast.

Ellen ordered room service and I am going to sample the buckwheat pancakes with blueberries and walnuts – am just hungrier than usual today.  By sample, I mean I actually ate all three pancakes – they were that good.

I went out on the deck and discovered that our companion is the Mariner of the Seas, one of RCL’s mongo ships (2900 passengers).  









We found out later by asking some of their crew members that the ship is chartered and is on a short two day back to back voyage from Port Canaveral.  All I can really say is that the demographic on this ship is not the typical one found on cruise ships.  There are some things that cannot be unseen.

We made the decision to go and check out the Grand Turk Cruise Terminal complex to see what they have done to it over the past couple of years.  The space between the ships was a veritable wind tunnel and when we started across the bridge to the beach, we were greeted by an oven. 

I did manage to get a nice picture of the two ships (look at the size difference) as well as the beach, which was dominated by the passengers from the Mariner OTS. 



Pretty hot and humid.  We inquired about the beach chairs and umbrellas and were told that the blue ones were free but the others involved a charge (not sure how that works).  After checking out a few stores – I should mention that a new Starbucks has sprung up in the terminal – we decided that it was indeed too warm (even under an umbrella) and headed back to the ship.  Before we left I did get a picture of me standing next to a parrot at Margaritaville.


It turned out to be a day of reading, drinking, and resting.  I am still making my way through “The Wrong Side of Goodbye” and have been doing most of my reading in the Silk Reading Room. As the cruise has gone along this room has morphed into a combination library/bar – a perfect melding of two important activities.

I had another Impossible Burger for lunch (certainly getting my money’s worth on this cruise).  They still taste just like a hamburger and feel like a hamburger.  Not a lot of people have gone ashore based on the number of people at the buffet (maybe they’ve gone and come back). Ellen had a tuna salad wrap, which she said was the best item she has had for lunch on this trip.

I actually stayed in the Silk area for the whole afternoon and am now over half way done with the book.

As we sailed away, I got another picture of the beach, still populated by RCL passengers.


After checking out the menu at Waterside we decided that we wanted a quiet dinner tonight so we had the chef at the Trident Grill make us two pizzas, one Margherita and one with tomatoes and onions – I also had the sweet potato/coconut soup.  The pizzas took longer than 10 minute (I suspect the pizza over was shut off due to the impending closing time).  The pizzas were great – I ate all of mine – they are personal sized.

Tonight’s headliner is comedian Darrell Joyce.  We have never seen him before and this is his first Crystal Cruise.  He made some jokes about being the only black person on board (he may be right) but overall he was pretty funny.  Some of his material took a long time to get to the punch line – he also pauses a lot between segments, maybe on purpose - but I think the audience liked him (based on the walk outs).

We finished off the evening with a few minutes of Double Malt Duo up in the Palm Court.  The female singer came over to us and asked for a request – we requested “Hallelujah” but forgot that they do this as an instrumental.  Doesn’t matter, the do a very nice arrangement of the song.

Back in the room.

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