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Don't fall into the trap of renting chairs from the locals


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I was in Grand Turk 2 weeks ago. Carnival provides free chairs-Green Umbrellas all the way to the pool. The locals have put 2 rows of chairs on the beach (most stolen from Carnival) in front of the Green Umbrellas. The locals will charge you $25 for 2 chairs and if you need another chair, they will take a Carnival chair from the Green Umbrella area and charge you $10. The locals will meet you at the entrance to the beach and sell you chairs right on the beach. Don't deal with them as the Carnival , along with Princess and Holland America provide you with free chairs just 2 feet from the locals 2 for $25 chairs. Don't get scammed by them and also tell your fellow passengers about the free chairs.

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Is there any way to tell the free chairs from the chairs they provide?

 

The ones that the locals claim as theirs usually have something written on the back of the chair. The chairs with the green umbrellas do not have anything written on them plus the umbrella says something like Grand Turk Cruise Center on them. We have been to GT multiple times and this is the first time that I have encountered such aggressive salesmen when you first enter the beach. I think that next time, I will hang a right when we leave the pier!

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Maybe I am missing it but where specifically is this? Margaritaville? I didn't realize Carnival had chairs on the beach in GT for cruisers.

 

It's on the beach in front of Margaritaville and the Cruise Center, and down the beach a couple hundred yards.

The Grand Turk Cruise Center ("GTCC") has always provided complimentary loungers on both sides of the cruise pier. Only recently has a group of "enterprising" locals managed to secure the rights (?) to rent out two rows of different-looking loungers between the complimentary ones and the surf line.

 

For those going to Grand Turk, it's easy to avoid the locals. When you walk through the cruise center or Margaritaville, observe the first loungers you see on the beach. All the loungers that look like that are free; the others (in front of them) are rentals. The free ones are often marked GTCC.

Further down the beach toward Jack's Shack, there will be others renting loungers, although I think the ones in front of Jack's are still free (they might charge for umbrellas).

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  • 2 weeks later...

We just recently sailed to GT in february. The locals renting stuff on the beach have just about ruined what was once one of our absolute favorite ports. the beach area right next to the ship was so crowded and the vendors were pushier than normal. THere are so many chairs and umbrellas shoved together, if you rented one in the middle you would be completely surrounded and wouldn't be able to see the water. We almost immediately walked back to the ship. We ended up walking down to Jack's Shack and got a free chait but even there it was extremely crowded. Hoping it was because of the new MSC Seaside docking next to us that made the beach so crowded. Wish is would go back to the way it was.

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We just recently sailed to GT in february. The locals renting stuff on the beach have just about ruined what was once one of our absolute favorite ports. the beach area right next to the ship was so crowded and the vendors were pushier than normal. THere are so many chairs and umbrellas shoved together, if you rented one in the middle you would be completely surrounded and wouldn't be able to see the water. We almost immediately walked back to the ship. We ended up walking down to Jack's Shack and got a free chait but even there it was extremely crowded. Hoping it was because of the new MSC Seaside docking next to us that made the beach so crowded. Wish is would go back to the way it was.

 

Seaside is a HUGE ship, probably the second-biggest ship ever to make port at Grand Turk, so that WOULD be a very busy day at GT. On days like that, you just have to hope you're the first to arrive there.

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Having just returned from a cruise that visited Grand Turk I would not be surprised if the "locals" selling sunbeds were the same guys that the cruise centre employs to lay out the sunbeds and tidy them away at the end of the day. The green beds and GTCC umbrellas were packed so close together as to make them look totally unappealing, in fact the area was so dark it looked like a ghetto. Towards the back of the cruise centre beach, by the boundary fence there were plenty of free cruise centre beds, blue with aluminium frames. We took one of these for the day and were not bothered by any one. But as these chairs were vacated at lunch time by people returning to the ship I witnessed the "locals" blatantly stealing these beds by dragging them to the shore line, placing an umbrella between them and charging $30 to the passengers from the recently arrived Carnival ship.

 

I sincerely hope the Carnival Corp. will do something about this scam by next season. If it is legally impossible to stop people selling beds within the confines of the GTCC then I hope that they will warn passengers of this in the ships daily paper and with announcements on board. It is ruining what was one a very pleasant port of call.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Having just returned from a cruise that visited Grand Turk I would not be surprised if the "locals" selling sunbeds were the same guys that the cruise centre employs to lay out the sunbeds and tidy them away at the end of the day. The green beds and GTCC umbrellas were packed so close together as to make them look totally unappealing, in fact the area was so dark it looked like a ghetto. Towards the back of the cruise centre beach, by the boundary fence there were plenty of free cruise centre beds, blue with aluminium frames. We took one of these for the day and were not bothered by any one. But as these chairs were vacated at lunch time by people returning to the ship I witnessed the "locals" blatantly stealing these beds by dragging them to the shore line, placing an umbrella between them and charging $30 to the passengers from the recently arrived Carnival ship.

 

I sincerely hope the Carnival Corp. will do something about this scam by next season. If it is legally impossible to stop people selling beds within the confines of the GTCC then I hope that they will warn passengers of this in the ships daily paper and with announcements on board. It is ruining what was one a very pleasant port of call.

I wonder if some of those chairs were "aquired" during the chaos of last years hurricanes.

 

This really is disheartening to read as Grand Turk was such a great relaxing beach port. I detest pushy intimidating locals in ports selling anything and scammers like this are even worse. I have no issue paying a fair price for anything but this kind of scam thing makes me mad. I wrote a snail mail letter to Holland America and Carnival Corporate voicing my concerns over this and if it has not been fixed by the time of our cruise I will complain onboard. Sometimes you just have to complain to get some of these issues addressed. Hopefully there is something a giant corporation can do to make its guest more comfortable at the port it built from the ground up.

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