MLJS

The tour was around 3.5 hrs

They asked when we we’re getting off. We all were. But my understanding is if you are not vaccinated, you cannot go ashore

Glad it helps. Hope you have a great trip and if you think of anything else, let me know.

As we were about to leave port, it started raining and produced a gorgeous rainbow

Some more pics of Grand Turk

There is a pool with lots of chairs & some umbrellas. You can go around the back of Margarittaville to get in to the pool.

There are shops, including a craft market with items made locally. There is a small section with the history of John Glenn splashing down at Grand Turk

The port area was awesome. There were hundreds of chairs available. All are FREE except for a few places where umbrellas were set up with the chairs in the first two rows by the water. There is little shade. But you can move the chairs around under the palm trees. We found a spot to right of the pier that provided a little shade. The restaurant next door had some great music

Due to high winds and lots of rain, our stop in Bimini aboard the Valiant Lady was canceled. Instead, they were able to arrange a stop in Grand Turk. We arrived in Grand Turk at 7am on what was suppose to be our second sea day. The weather was beautiful.

Any questions, I’ll try and answer. contact Clifford Jacobs for a great tour around the island. He can help set you up with the best trip.

Cruzan Rum and Captain Morgan’s are both produced in St Croix. Part of the normal tour is Captain Morgan’s for a tour of their facility. My husband really liked the Mutiny Vodka that is also produced on the island and wanted to take some home. We looked in a shop along the boardwalk, it was $28 a bottle. Our driver stopped a local store owned by a friend-he only had one bottle for $25. Then our driver got the idea to take us to the Mutiny distillery. He had never been inside. There is not a tour but there is a restaurant and small gift store. We bought bottles here for $20 each and they packaged them in a nice carry box. My husband had the Ginger Lime that he really liked. He bought several other flavors that I will let you know what he thinks about them when we get home and try them. Outside the distillery, there were horses just walking around

There is a lot of history here. Many of the buildings are quite old. At the end of the boardwalk is a park. There is an old fort, gazebo and then different signs with the history. It is part of the US park service.

Around the boardwalk there were lots of fish and sea weed. We were told they are currently experiencing a lot of sea weed right now.

I took pictures of some of the different tour operators. Have no idea if they are good or not, but at least a place to start if you are looking for a trip. These were all in Christiansted. I’m sure if you emailed Clifton Jacobs, our driver, he could help too.

We could see Buck Island. Buck Island is part of the National Park Service. The Buck Island Reef National monument is there. The only natural, under water monument in the United States & territories. The island is uninhabited and has a gorgeous beach. The snorkeling and diving is supposed to be spectacular

He then took us to Christiansted for an hour stop. We walked around the pier, shops & the park. There is a resort -Hotel on the Cay- on an island in the cove.

The drive along the ocean to Christiansted was beautiful. Along the way we saw old sugar mills or the remnants of ones from many years ago. They are not allowed to tear the sugar mills down. hurricane Hugo in 1989 and more recently Hurricane Maria in 2017 both did major damage to the island and some spots you could see were still waiting for repair

There was also a bar and restaurant across the street. My husband got a drink made of the Mutiny Vodka (more about this later) which was very good

Next stop was Cane Beach. Nice beach area but you had to bring your own chairs…so not so great for cruisers looking for sun but a great place to snorkel or dive from the beach

We drove past some sugar cane fields. He stopped and got some for us to try. Don’t eat too much of the raw sugar cane, it will give you a tummy ache. Then drove through the rainforest. Beautiful trees along the way but the road had lots of pot holes. He pointed out the different trees including the silk cotton tree that the Indians made canoes out of and the tablet wood, also called moth-in-law tongue. Mahogany also grows on the island and they even save trimmings to carve small spoons. At Mt Pellier Hut, you can stop and see a beer drinking pig. I think he said it was $2 a can to feed to the pig. We did not stop. Later he told us that it used to be beer, now it’s a non -alcoholic beer they feed the pigs after animal rights people got into them. Edited February 6 by MLJS

There is a beach close to the pier. Frederiksted Beach. Our driver said the locals did not like this beach because of the sewage canal right next to it.

We walked around town while waiting. There were wild chickens all over the island. Lots of shops, vendors & restaurants. Franklins (off the pier to the right) had a lot of very unique items in the shop. The area around the port was quite nice.

St Croix -there was very little info out there on Saint Croix. We decided to take a tour of the island. Outside the port gate were lots of taxi drivers. We found Jacob’s taxi service. He offered us a tour for $40 each of the island. He asked us to wait a little bit to see if he could find any other passengers. After about 15 minutes, he had not, so off we went. He was fantastic!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND HIM. He is a navy veteran, born on the island. He runs the taxi service, fixes up houses on the island and does a radio show 2-5pm during the week when Cruise Ships are not in port. You can email him to set up tours in advance. He had a 15passenger van, but 9 would fit comfortably

Prices on things were much better in town than at the port. Laramar is a stone only found in the Dominican Republic. We purchased a cross and earrings with the Laramar stone from a shop (on the left, up the hill just before the cathedral). The price started very similar to the port. $80 for the cross and $20 for the earrings. Unlike in the port shops, they negotiated in town. We ended up paying $50 for the set. My husband purchased hand rolled cigars from a shop just before you got into the main section of shops. It had a counter in front and a cigar lounge in back. He was able to get 12 cigars for $50.

Our plan had been to take a taxi to the Cable Cars and ride up to the top of the mountain. There were many, many taxis around and lots offered to take us to the cable cars. Only problem was, there were 15-20 mph winds and we never saw any cable cars going up and down the mountain. That along with low clouds, we decided to skip that and walk downtown. It was about a mile. A mainly flat walk with police at every intersection directing us. I don’t think theywould let you wander down the side streets. We did walk up the hill to the cathedral, which was beautiful. The streetswere lined with shops and restaurants.