Grand Turk – Sunday

our view from Jack's Shack

Events today are of course the Super Bowl for our American friends who follow.  It is being shown at Movies Under the Stars, in Club Fusion and in the Casino, I am not sure if it is being shown in the cabin or not though.  The Casino is hosting a football pool today too to make it more interesting.  I later found out that it is not being shown in the cabins because of the cost.  To get the feed to all the cabin tvs it is an extra $5,000 for Princess.  Now I understand why it is not shown there, but it sounds like they have lots of fun activities planned for tonight.

But for the rest of us the other events happening tonight are Rollin Jay Moore (comedian with a new show), Are you smarter than a crew member (which was hilarious last cruise), Korey Simons at the piano again (huge hit on board), Famous Couples themed trivia, Accent playing in Explorers, Ballroom dancing in Wheelhouse, and Karaoke.   

It has been a while but we both decide to head to the dining room for breakfast and we are sat at a large table with six others and we can’t hear a thing it is so noisy and the table is so large we can barely converse with each other.  And I once again say to myself “you hate large tables, especially when they put us in the corner”.    But once breakfast is done are good and I relax a bit before Zumba.  I am really looking forward to it as it has been a few days since the first class and they had two others but because of scheduling and us being in port I didn’t make it.  Today we don’t arrive until 1 pm so I have no excuse.

The interdenominational church service – hosted by Lee – is just wrapping up and Leesh and Lexi arrive and set up.  It is clear to see that Salt n Pepper (their new nickname) are more at ease as this is their fourth class together.  It is busy but not as crazy as the first class was.  And since many of us have done at least one of the classes we can follow a bit better.  Thanks again Leesh and Lexi for getting my butt going, it was fun.

I shower and change and head to the International Café for my cappuccino and to do some Suduko but once I get there I catch up with Beverly.  Then I run into Jack and I ask how his wife is doing, he tells me she is doing very well.  He also tells me how much they are enjoying vines every night.  I laugh and say you should replicate a Vines at their home!  He laughs and says that is a great idea. 

Then the couple beside me start asking me some questions about being on back to backs and then another couple beside them say “I recognize you Vickie from your fan page”.  I smile, I have been getting that a lot lately.  I don’t mind, it is so great to see people and put a face to their names and to people we have been talking to for a while.  If you haven’t checked out my Princess Facebook Fan Page, check it out here -- Facebook Fan Page Link                            It is a great spot to share cruising information on a respectful basis.  Lots of pictures, port information and every question is answered by myself or other frequent Princess cruisers.

Today we dock at 1 pm in Grand Turk, in the Patter it stated that the gangway gets busy so if you are not in any rush to head down about 1:30 for a better experience.  I guess many haven’t read that as they are queuing up at 12:15 for the gangways.   People are funny – I personally would rather sit and relax, sip a coffee, chat with someone, relax in my cabin, spend more time with my honey than line up for an hour to get off the ship.  But maybe that is just me.  In fact as we pull in towards the pier the crowds are crazy and I hear the announcement once again requesting that people relax in the public areas instead of converging on deck four for the gangways. 

I call Bernie to see if he wants lunch but he says he doesn’t so I head up to Horizon Court for a bite and then head aft towards Café Caribe for a seat.  Have to comment on these amazing rice balls they had, yummy I have to keep my eyes out for them again. 

We have gotten clearance to go ashore and I go back to the cabin to change into my swimsuit and lather on the sunscreen.  We head off around 1:45 and start walking towards the left towards Jack’s Shack. 

Immediately we both notice that there are more bars and places along the beach to hang out at outside of Margarittaville.  The last time we were here, about four years ago after a bad hurricane the beach was empty from Margarittaville to Jack’s Shack, but today we pass bar and blaring music a few times until we get to Jack’s Shack.  We head off to the side so we don’t have to scream over the music, damn we are getting old!

I ask one of the attendants for two lounge chairs and he says they are $25 and I said “really, last time they were free” and he says “oh yeah they are free” that ticked me off a bit and I was disappointed in this.   We grab a drink each, me rum punch $9 and Bernie a beer $4, pricy drinks – and that does cause us to limit how much we do end up drinking but we spent more here that we normally do up in Skywalkers that is for sure. 

Jack’s also has some great food options and even though we didn’t eat any of it, it sure did look good and others that did eat said they enjoyed it. 

I see a lot of familiar faces here, including many who have been following my blog and many of my Facebook fans too.  Also many of the crew are here, and one of them said oh you found the crew’s favorite spot and I said back heck you found our favorite spot as I have been coming here for years, probably longer than you have worked for Princess. 

We had a great day at the beach, lots of laughs and lots of sun and swimming.  And it is nice because we don’t have to be back on until 6:30 and we don’t head back until just before 6 walking thru Margarittaville, and the many shops.

Here are some shots around Margarittaville at the end of the day, but it was very crowded during the day.

Once back on board we shower and head down to Vines with our champagne to meet up with our friend Johan.  Bernie and he shared the champagne while I ordered a bottle of wine that Christian recommended and even got a small tasting for me to try it before I bought it.  Christian and Ryan took very good care of us along with the sushi chefs serving us sushi and tapas to go with our beverages.  I highly recommend to everyone to take at least one night while on board to forgo the dining room and head here for a bottle of wine or wine flight and some tapas, trust me you will be filled and it is a great place to people watch and quiet enough to chat about your day.

We decide to head to Explorers lounge afterwards to catch the “Are you smarter than a crew member” game, we loved it last sailing and thought it would be fun to participate again.  We took a seat at the bar and joined two women from Ontario in the game.  Even though we didn’t even come close to wining we had a great time. 

We can hear Kory singing in Crooners and after chatting and playing Frisbee with him this afternoon and a promise to check out his show again tonight as it is all about show tunes, and boy it is busy – we can only stand near the elevator banks but we stay for about a half hour laughing and singing before heading back to the cabin.

What a great day, pure bliss.  I love these days, nothing formally organized just played it by ear and had a great time with great people.