Good morning from Grand Turk! It looks like everyone is getting off of the ship at 8am ship time, 9am local. My excursion doesn’t leave until 12:30 local time. I have a few hours to kill.

Today’s excursion is the “Hop on Hop off” shuttle that is available on Trip Advisor or Viator. I booked on Viator but found the trip advisor reviews to be helpful. From reading the reviews I know its closer to a regular city tour than a true hop on hop off bus. I really just wanted cheap transportation instead of paying $100 to rent a golf cart or paying for several taxi cab rides. This tour was only $20.

Main Dining Room

After taking a shower and getting dressed I headed down to the coffee shop where I grabbed a regular coffee to take to breakfast.

This is supposed to be French toast, ham, and hash browns.

Rectified.

Coffee Shop

After breakfast I headed back to the coffee shop to try the peppermint mocha java which is one of their special holiday coffees.

Deck 9 (secret deck)

I’m on what they call one of the secret decks all the way forward on deck 9.

The way I understand it is the green umbrellas and blue clam shells are free. Locals set up their umbrellas in front of the green ones and charge for those.

In some cases the locals may try to charge for the free umbrellas and clam shells. Don’t allow them to scam you. This is Carnival’s cruise port. I don’t understand why they allow it. Carnival should move their green umbrellas closer to the water.

I have this room on my 2021 Breeze cruise.

This is the port where they have all of the golf carts.

At one of my previous jobs there was sometimes a need to drive to the other side of the company property. If you didn’t want to use your personal vehicle they had golf carts you could sign out.

It was a big hassle because you had to go to security, give them your driver’s license, fill out a form, and sign out the key. Then you had to reverse the process when you returned.

I used my personal vehicle for awhile– Until I figured out the key to my filing cabinet could also be used to turn on the golf carts.

I brought my keys just in case I need to borrow a ride back from Jack’s Sack later.

Casino

I need some more tip money so I’m grabbing change in the casino. While I’m in line old white beard in front of me is screaming at the cashier. “I don’t know what your problem is but I’ve already spent six thousand dollars on this ship!” Then he walks away shouting some profanity.

Pier

And I’m off the ship.

Kiosk number 3 is where I’m supposed to meet my excursion. I still have time so I want to stop by the Harley Davidson gift shop to get my souvenir poker chip and check out the NASA splashdown exhibit.

To my disappointment they don’t have any poker chips in this store. I am coming back here at least three more times over the next couple years so hopefully they’ll get some in.

I saw the “Top 10 of Grand Turk” excursion. They circled this 10 times and went back to the ship.

This is where the Friendship 7 splashed down. I’ve seen some tour descriptions that make it sound like the actual capsule is here but this is just a replica. The real one is at the Smithsonian.

You can see another actual real capsule in Mercury 7 class at Space Center Houston if you cruise out of Galveston. The Faith 7 is in my Space Center Houston entry from when I was on Vista last year.

I returned to kiosk three only to find out I’m over an hour early. There’s a weird thing going on here where my phone is on ship time on the ship but in the port area it changed to port time. Normally my phone will change to the port’s time even when I’m on the ship. I thought the time change happened but it didn’t and I’m early.

I’ve seen everything I want to see in the port area so I decide to get back on the ship and grab a drink or two.

Someone is coming.

Atrium Bar

Nobody home?

The good bloody mary making bartender finally came and I was able to get a drink. They announced that the gangway is closed for 15 minutes while the other ship docks.

Deck 11

The ship has docked. It’s a sister to this ship and an old friend of mine. It took longer than you might think to get this shot with nobody walking through it.

Atrium Bar

Back to the bar. I needed something to offset the spicy so I went with a Funship.

I’m going to try it again. The time zone issue has been squared away. It just took an hour.

Pier

I’m off the ship and it’s a mess with people getting off of two ships and some that got off of Magic earlier returning now.

I’ve been known to get private excursions by booking later ones. Everyone likes to book the earlier ones for some reason. That came into the equation when I booked the 12:30 hop on hop off bus. That along with coffee, breakfast and pre-excursion drinks. I didn’t realize Breeze was coming in at 12pm. That got me nervous.

The instructions say step out of the gift shop and go to booth 3 on the left. There is a line at booth 3 but I can see it’s also the meeting spot for a Carnival excursion.

I go up and the guy matches my printout with one on the clipboard, shakes his head and gives me a yellow bracelet.

I look at the wrists of the other people. They all have green bracelets. I look at the clip board and see one more yellow bracelet–not bad.

The guy tells me take a right past the gray building (Harley Davidson building) and take a seat on the white benches (taxi stand). He says “don’t go anywhere until you see me. You’re lucky today you’re the only one on the tour.” I voice my excitement verbally and head for the white benches.

He shows up and takes me to another set white benches over where the shuttles are.

He talks to a lady. I’m fearing people being added to the tour. He comes back over and says “That’s Pasta Sharon. She’s going to be your driver. Wait here and she’ll come pick you up.”

I’m sitting here on the second set of benches waiting for Pasta Sharon.

That is the first set of benches over there.

Pasta Sharon shows up with her cab. I’m confused as to why she’s heading to the passenger side. Finally I realize that is the driver’s side over here.

“I realize I’m on the wrong side of the road. I’m also on the wrong side of the car.” -Clark Griswold

We’re in the car with pasta Sharon. I knew from the reviews that this wasn’t a true hop on hop off bus. But it basically turned into a cab ride to the lighthouse then to Jack’s shack with some commentary along the way. 

Here you can see a group returning from the Island Exploration by Hummer excursion.

The Trolley Train excursion is returning to port.

This is the governor’s office. The house is behind it but apparently it was damaged in a hurricane a couple years ago. There’s a lot of that here.

They are very proud of the Splashdown thing.

This is like their Home Depot. That’s how exciting GT is. I didn’t take a picture of the grocery store but we did cover it. It’s called Smart. 

Duke Street

This is Duke street. It’s a big historic street here. Hotels, rentals, and dive shops are located on it.

This is one of their nicest hotels.

This is a popular restaurant/bar.

According to Pasta Sharon this is an unfinished house owned by Serena Williams. She hasn’t done anything with it since the hurricane.

One of the places I wanted to see was her majesty’s prison. We kind of zoomed by that to stop at a shopping center. I could’ve said something but I’m just going with the flow. I did tell her I wasn’t interested in shopping so we skipped the stop.

Columbus National Landfall Park

This is where fishermen bring their fish to be cleaned.

This is the new hospital.

This is the old hospital. It’s now a retirement home.

Condos owned by a Canadian General who hasn’t done anything with them since the hurricane.

This is the President’s office.

They have a lot of donkeys here. Many congregate near the lighthouse because tourists feed them there.

I love the color of the ocean water here.

The golf carts are slow and annoying. I’m glad I’m not in one of them. Pasta Sharon is annoyed that the car in front of us hasn’t passed the golf cart so we could. She doesn’t want to pass both.

I recommend to Pasta Sharon that she lean on the horn, zoom by, and I’ll show them who’s number 1. She opts not to.

Grand Turk Lighthouse

We finally make it to the lighthouse. If you want to go past the fence to see everything in the lighthouse area you have to pay three dollars. I paid the three dollars. They gave me a ticket. 

I found out you aren’t allowed to take pictures in the gift shop.

It looks like the gift shop was the lighthouse keeper’s house and this is the kitchen.

This is the bar area.

A beer is $5 here or $2 with the admission ticket. I traded in my ticket for a $2 beer.

I would’ve bought a lazy donkey t-shirt with that logo but they are out. I am coming back but it’s doubtful I’ll make the trek to this part of the island and pay $3 to get beyond the fenced in area just for the right to go inside the gift shop and see if they have that shirt in my size.

It started raining. I took shelter in the little gazebo no bar bar area, hoping for a rainbow over the lighthouse.

We didn’t get a rainbow over the lighthouse but we did get one over the ocean. I stayed there until it went away.

In the parking lot I came across the lighthouse donkeys. People are just to the right of this picture feeding them.

On the way back Pasta Sharon stopped in the road here and said it was a good spot to take a picture. While I was doing that the car behind us started blowing their horn profusely. I rolled down the window, extended my arm, gave them the 1 finger salute, and we continued on.

This is the Mega One Triton Ship at Governor’s Beach. It washed ashore in 2012 during hurricane Sandy. Formerly an oil rig service vessel, it was transporting cargo between Grand Turk and the Dominican Republic prior to the hurricane. The government would like to have it removed but the cost has been too high.

There was an option for beach time here at Governor’s Beach. I wanted to go to Jack’s Shack so we continued on.

We arrived at Jack’s Shack which as you can see is not far from the ship. After telling Pasta Sharon I would walk back to the ship when I was done, we parted ways.

Jack’s Shack

After a couple of beers I started heading back to the ship. I thought I could just walk the beach back but I had to go back out to the road.

On the walk back it started raining lightly.

When I got back to the port I noticed the rain had driven most of the people off of the beach. The line to get back on the ship was long. I decided to take this opportunity to get in the water for a little bit.

It looks like Santa is driving the Breeze today.

Cabin

I headed up to the room to shower and change clothes. While I was in there it started raining really hard. The decks go soaked.

I decided to head down to the Alchemy to wait for them to open and work on something very important.

Alchemy Bar

I need to craft a letter that will really get my point across this year.

All ready to drop in Santa’s mailbox in the atrium.

Cabin

I returned to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

Tonight is the second elegant night. I know I’m going to want to change clothes again after dinner. My steward and savior Jesus doesn’t quite have the room cleaning timing down yet. It seems he’s still working on the room when I finish dinner. On the first elegant night I had to just kill time for 10 minutes waiting for Jesus to finish making my bed.

Before heading out to dinner tonight I attempted to deceive Jesus by putting the snoozing sign out on my door.

Main Dining Room

I have only been in the dining room twice on this cruise. I was here once for a full dinner. Then last night I stopped by just for dessert after eating dinner in the Steakhouse.

Last night they seated me in the same table as the first time so I thought they had it down. Well this time they tried to send me to one of those tables that are six inches from another table..and that next table was occupied by a couple. That’s not the situation I want to be in.

As soon as the hostess started walking the wrong way I said “no.” She ignored me and continued walking to the wrong table. I walked over to my table which was empty. She said she would check to see if I could be relocated to that table. I just sat down and didn’t see her again. Next time I will make sure they have the correct table number. I was spoiled by the Glory crew last cruise.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Filet Mignon, Broccoli, Mashed Potatoes

Grand Marnier Souffle

Cabin

After dinner I need to get back into my cabin without Jesus seeing me, change clothes, and remove the snoozing sign when I leave so Jesus knows to clean my room.

I slowly approach my hallway. I peek around the corner. I don’t see Jesus. I can see his cart further down the hall and a door open. I slowly, quietly make my way down to my room and slip inside.

After slipping into something more comfortable, I step outside. Jesus is right there. “You going to dinner now, Greg?” Uh yeah. “Okay Greg have a good dinner.” 

I lied to Jesus.

Alchemy Bar

I was able to get a spot at the Alchemy.

Luby made this.

Sinan made this vodka blackberry pineapple drink

Another from Sinan. This one is a strawberry vodka drink.

Atrium

I realized I was late for the the start of the ‘Tis the Season function in the atrium so I finished up and headed that way. I was only 12 minutes late but I missed the whole thing.

Cruise director Simon London had a good costume.

Red Frog Pub

At this point I realized Thursday night football was on. I headed to the RFP and was able to get a spot and a pumpkin beer.

Comedy Club

I knew comedy was going to be packed. All the of the other shows were over and we haven’t had comedy for two nights. Due to football I didn’t get there until less than 5 minutes before showtime. Not only was it standing room only, I couldn’t even see the stage.

Red Frog Pub

After comedy I headed back to the RFP where I was able to get my seat back. I’ve been here for 15 minutes and will be heading back to the comedy club in a few minutes for the second show.

Comedy Club

This time I got to comedy 10 minutes early and people were standing but it wasn’t as crowded as the previous show. I was able to get a standing spot at the end of the bar.

On Breeze they have a TV on this wall so you can see the stage from over here.

Pizza Pirate

I cut out of a comedy like two minutes early to beat the rush. I’m at the pizza place for the first time this week. The line is 14 deep and I’m going to special order.

They cranked out a bunch of cheese and pepperoni pizzas. If I wanted just cheese or just pepperoni I could’ve been out in two minutes. I special ordered extra cheese, extra pepperoni.

No line.

I timed the wait from the back of the line until I got my special order pizza.

Cabin

It looked like they had a late night comedy movie playing on the big screen on the lido deck as I made my way back to the room.

Jesus left me a monkey towel animal. I haven’t had a monkey since my first cruise.

Money ball is on one of the free movie channels in the room so I’m watching that before I go to bed. Tomorrow is a sea day and the last day of the cruise.

• Carnival Magic
• Grand Turk
• Hop on hop off