joeyjpaul

Bring your own snorkeling equipment and walk about a km south of the cruise port where there is a undeveloped beach with a reef just off shore. 

Last trip all of the ship based snorkeling tours were canceled because of the waves, however I went with my daughter and had a great time. It was a little cloudy, but not excessively so. 

For Grand Turk we found a good snorkeling location about a 1km walk from the pier. Head South from the pier, and leave the cruise ship area, from there take a sand road to the other side of the island, there is a beach and when we were there it was covered in conch shells. There are some reefs just off shore.

When we were there it was very rough, and all of the ship sponsored excursions were canceled, however we still had a great time.

Hello,

Just got off the Carnival Ecstasy and we made a stop in Grand Turk. It was a great place and I want to go back. We had really rough seas getting down to Grand Turk and all of the ship sponsored snorkeling trips were canceled, however having brought my own equipment we still had a great time.

We went South along the beach until we got to a sign that said we were leaving the cruise port area and to enter at our own risk. Just beyond that is a dirt road that heads South East. We followed that road until it got back to the ocean and we found a wonderful beach that had 100's of Conch shells on it in various conditions. I let my daughter take two (they are heavy) and we had no issue getting them back on the ship. There were very few people around us, maybe 10 for the whole 3 hours we were there. There was a beach where we could get into the water and then a coral reef just off-shore. The water was not perfectly clear and there were a lot of waves and currents to navigate but we saw some great coral and lots of fish. At one point we got to see a school of 1000's of small silver fish that moved in unison as well as some other fish along the coral reef. I even thought I saw a sea otter (it was a very brief glance, and it could have been something else, however it was right before we saw the school of fish, so it may have chased them close to shore)

I am a strong swimmer, but I had to be careful to keep away from the shallower corals with all of the waves in the area. So I understand why the ship based tours were canceled. But I think if the waters were calmer there would be even more here that I would be comfortable in exploring.

so if you end up in Grand Turk, and you like beach combing or snorkeling I would recommend that you head South-East of the cruise port for a wonderful time at a 'private' beach at no cost.

I was on the same sailing, so I thought I would put in my quick review here as well. (I may do a longer separate one later). I had a great time. It was very rough for the first 2 days, so much so that they actually could not dock at Nassau. My wife was sea sick so I still went out and made the most of it. I volunteered for every thing and I was sitting in the front of most of the playlist production shows that both my children and I really enjoyed.

The cruise director Brittney and her assistant Houston were amazing. They were a lot of fun and all over the ship. We ended up taking home 5 ships on a stick as a family and many medallions playing all of the games.

The Ecstasy rarely does 7 day cruises, so many of the things that are done on other 7 day cruises are not done here.

Highlights:

1) Grand turk snorkling

Most of the ship snorkeling excursions were canceled because of heavy waves and cloudy waters. However since we brought our own equipment we headed south of the cruise port along a dirt road for about 500m to a deserted beach with 100's of Conch shells a nice beach area to enter the water and a coral reef that had some interesting coral and fish. At one point we found ourselves in a school of 1000's of little silver fish that turned and reacted to us. It was not as clear as it could have been, and it required strong swimming to navigate the currents and waves but it was a lot of fun!

2) Games and Activities

I really enjoyed the games and activities on the ship. I did my best to participate in as many as possible. Our family got a reputation when we won twice in a row for trivia (Weird laws and a general knowledge, although the score wasn't really high for either of them, we just got lucky at some guesses)

3) Shows

I really liked the play list production shows, especially 'the Brits' and the Broadway singer (I forget his name right now)

4) Piano bar

I really enjoyed going to the piano bar in the evenings to sing along. I like singing so it was nice to have an opportunity where this was encouraged.

Things that could be improved

1) It would be nice to have family dancing time. The night club didn't open until 10:30 PM,why could they not open it for family dancing from 8:00 - 10:00?

2) It would be nice to move the trivia and activities away from the casino and smoking bar.

We also leave on Saturday, we are leaving to drive down today. My son will be glad to hear that the ice cream machines are working :)

We did self-assist on the Pride and found it difficult and annoying as they ran the line through the casino which was full of smoke. Disembarkation was the worst part of the cruise.

The next year on the Freedom, we let them handle most of the luggage and we went up to the Lido deck where we had a leisurely breakfast and then played mini-golf until our group was called (we were near the end) and we got off with out much trouble.

So this time, we will probably let them take the luggage off for us and be patient.

We really liked the Freedom when we cruised on her last year. It was $1000 cheaper than the Breeze, so it let us cruise with the family. We are looking for economical family vacations, so we end up on the older ships and still have a great time. I liked the games that they had on the deck. The giant chess board near the kids club and the shuffle board. My one complaint was that they closed the sports cage in the evening as it was right above the steak house.

Dining was great and the kids really enjoyed the shows, although they were almost all the same from the ones we saw on the Pride the year before.

We are about to go on our third cruise with Carnival. So far we have done the Freedom and the Pride. This time we are on an older ship, the Carnival Ecstasy out of Charleston that does Nassau, Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk as ports of call. Getting to Charleston is a lot easier for us (only 17 hour drive) as compared to Florida. The Pride sails out of Baltimore which is nice if you are in the North East.

We like the food, the activities and the shows. The kids programming is also great.

We are doing our 3rd Carnival Cruise with our kids (now 12,10,10,7). The kids love cruising and it makes a great family vacation. We have typically traveled in slightly off season when it was less expensive as we can still take our kids out of school. (Canadian schools seem to be much more free in this matter than american schools)

We did the Pride out of Baltimore, the Freedom out of Galveston and now the Ecstasy out of Charleston. In all cases we drove to the port from Ottawa Canada as flying with 4 children gets expensive fast.

We never did any pay dining and we were always satisfied with the food choices. One of my sons loves Guy's Burgers and that was important in staying with Carnival.

With the Cruise coming up, we choose it because it was closer (17h drive to get to Charleston vs 24 to Port Canaveral) and the ports that this cruise went to all had fun things to do without booking excursions. (Nassau, Private Island, Grand Turk)

The kids have enjoyed Circle C and Camp Carnival as well as the other activities on the ship. (We spent a lot of time playing mini-golf and shuffleboard on our last cruise)

For the muster wristbands - everyone 12 or under must wear them. So only when they become 13 will they be able not to wear wrist bands.

We have done 2 cruises so far with Carnival with my daughter (first cruise on the Pride she just turned 5, second cruise on the Freedom she turned 6 on the cruise). She did a couple of the events with the kids clubs but not too often. She enjoyed the slide on the freedom and the pools there. On the Pride, she really liked the fact that there was an indoor pool that she could swim in when the weather was colder, but you will likely not have that issue in Summer.

On of the best places on the Freedom that she enjoyed was the Library. It was right near our dining room and we were able to play board games while waiting for dinner. She also really enjoyed the music shows, although I sometimes had to carry her back sleeping (and she was getting heavy).

We are booked for another cruise this March on the Carnival Ecstasy. It will be smaller than the other ships, but the mini-golf and waterworks areas look like they will be a lot of fun for her (who now will have just turned 7).

My Son was 11.5 and while on the cruise we went to the Circle-C and they allowed him to participate there. There were organized activities and group games, (They were not allowed to play video games all day) but I think that there was also some unstructured time. He loved it and was out with them until 1:00 AM most nights.

We did cruise in January when there were not that many kids on board. My understanding it that they are more strict with the age groups when there are more kids.

We have a Saturday-Saturday cruise booked for the Ecstasy on March 3rd 2018 and are wondering if there are usually and Christian service on the Sunday that we are at sea.

Our last cruise happened to have a Christian Gospel music group on board and they welcomed everyone to their meetings. We probably won't be that lucky twice so I was just wondering if there was anything organized.

We cruised last January on Carnival and our 11.5 year old was able to attend the Circle-C programming and loved it. We are somewhat free-range parents so we told him the basic safety rules (go with a group, don't go into anyone's cabin ...) and told him to be back by 1:00 AM (When the Circle-C programming ended) and that is what he did. He is excited to go cruising again as we have one booked for this March.

I will second the vote for the turtle farm. Our kids loved it.

We did the Freedom last January with 4 kids (6,9,9,11) and they had a really good time. The older one moved up into the 12-14 year old group and really fit in and spent most of the cruise in circle-C. The 9 year old twins really enjoyed playing mini-golf and shuttle board as well as swimming and using the slide.

We have booked another cruise with Carnival in March of this year as we are comfortable with them and they meet all of our needs.

I think that there is a big difference here between the US views on schooling and Canada/Australia/NZ views. We have taken our kids out of school while informing the teachers and they have always been very supportive and encouraging. They realize that there is more to education than just being at school. Parents should be the PRIMARY educators of their children and the school should support this. Our kids all have special needs, with both of our Boys being diagnosed with high functioning Autism, and the contained cruise environment with the excellent kid and pre-teen programing that Carnival offers gives them space to learn to be a little more independant and to develop social skills. The time in the dining room encourages them to try new food choices (although one went to Pizza every night) and the shows give them an appreciation for various forms of music and dance. Physical education is encouraged in the times swimming and snorkeling, where reef habitat is also observed at the ports of call.

We have two sons that are high functioning autism. For both our cruises we have asked through our travel agent to ask for a quieter side of the dining room. On the Pride we got a really nice place off to the side of the main dining room, and on the Freedom we were on the upper level of the middle dining room.

One of our sons had the cocktail shrimp appetizer, cheese pizza main course and tropical fruit plate dessert for every dinner. We tried to encourage him to diversify but he was content with that order.

My Brother is on a Power Crew restoring power to the Turks and Caicos Islands. He is on an outlying island where when he got there they only had about 20% of power. However he mentioned that most of Grand Turk is up and running.

We had a group of 8 in Nassau, and we arranged a private boat that took us to an island with a beach not far away where we were able to snorkel and he even had a tube to do tube rides (Getting salt water splashed in your face is not as fun as fresh water back home). I think it came out to about $600 for the 8 of us.

We have so far done 2 Carnival cruises. In both cases we were not on the road until almost noon. For our first one we were trying to do the self assist and waiting in the line that went through the smoky casino (when members of our party were allergic to smoke and we avoided that part of the ship by switching decks to get through) It was the one part of the cruise that was really stressful and left a bad taste in our mouth.

For our second cruise we put most of the luggage out the night before and went up to the Lido deck and munched away until the buffet was closed. We then went and played mini-golf and eventually our number was called and we left the ship without being encumbered. The line for a porter was fairly long, but as Canadians coming into the port at Texas, the customs line for non-US citizens was quite short. It was much more relaxing this way.

Well, the private utility company that my brother works for owns and operates the electricity delivery system in Grand Turk and Cayman Islands. So they are sending help from their other utilities that they own in a rotation. Perhaps they may send there crews up here the next time we get a major ice storm.

We really enjoyed the Carnival Pride with our kids. The Splash area was great and it was nice to have an indoor pool as we traveled South from Baltimore. Our 8 year olds twins at the time had a blast at the kids club, but our youngest (4) and oldest (10) didn't really enjoy it, but they found other things to do. We went with my mother and aunt, so there was lots of adults for the kids to be with.

My Brother is scheduled to go to Grand Turk in October to lead a power restoration crew from Canada. We are scheduled to go there by Cruise ship in March, so I will get an update from him on the status of the restoration later this fall.

On the Freedom, our 11.5 year old son was able to join the Circle C group on the third day of the cruise. It was in February and they did not have a very large group. He had a great time as he normally gets along with older kids much better than younger ones.

We did the Turtle farm with the Carnival excursion as it was not much more expensive than doing it on our own. It was great, it was amazing to snorkel with the turtles as we would follow them gliding through the water, although 2 of my kids didn't really like it and enjoyed the fresh water pool and the waterslide.