LEGEND 9/2 review...Part 4

Previous chapters can be found at the links below:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=624665

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=624701

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=625266

We woke up on Wednesday to yet another 9am table-for-8 breakfast at the Unicorn café. By this time in the vacation though, some of us were a little weary of eating together. The in-laws actually left after only sitting for a few minutes admitting that they had eaten at 8am. Aha! The family togetherness is wearing off!

We were dismayed to see that the Valor was also docked at Grand Turk, thinking that all of those “other” Valor passengers were going to make Grand Turk seem too crowded. Actually, it didn’t have an effect at all. There was plenty of room for everyone. We didn’t realize it at the time, but the Valor would be the ONLY cruise ship we would see the entire week. Because we were traveling such an odd “backwards” itinerary, no other cruise ships would be in-port at any of the other locations we were at. Do you know what an amazing feat that is? And, imagine how UNCROWDED and relaxed our ports seemed, teeming with only our 2500 Legend passengers, and not 7500 others?

The ship docked at Grand Turk, and everyone set off in a different directions. Don’tcha just love that about cruising? So many different possibilities all wrapped up in one trip!

Father-in-law retired to the cabin, felling a little under the weather with a long-standing hip injury. My parents wandered off to prepare for their 10:30am carriage ride around Grand Turk. The four of us, with MIL in tow hit the beach for some massive conch shell discovering. If there’s one thing that my kids love, it is finding shells at the beach, So, their A#1, most favorite thing in the whole-wide-world would be finding CONCH shells, the mac-daddy of all beach shells.

Our immediate family had visited Grand Turk once before, so we remembered that there were armloads of conch shells to be found to the right of the cruise pier. So, we set out with beach bag in tow, to see if those conch shells could still be found…years later. First stop, the “regular” beach to secure (chair hog!) several beach chairs for use when we returned from our exploration. Although we weren’t the first ones off the ship, we were still able to snag two chairs shaded by several palm trees. Sweet!

NOTE—Grand Turk is massively hot. Be sure to wear sunscreen, and do all you can do to STAY in the shade while on the beach.

After plunking our things down and applying sunscreen, we began to walk away from the beach.

NOTE—the normal beach is right there adjacent to the cruise pier. Can’t miss it! To access the conch beach area, you must cross the cruise pier and walk towards the left along the shore.

First stop, the conch “graveyard”. This is an area of rocks that conch shells get washed into. Many of the conch shells have become “one” with the rocks, and make really neat formations. DO NOT pick up any of the conch shells here, as they are worn down. There are much better ones further down.

After spending about 20 minutes exploring the conch graveyard and hearing shouts of “Look at this MOM!”, we continued walking down the beach. Grand Turk is just fabulously undeveloped, and walking along this desolate part of the beach really makes you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere.

Of course, all you need to do is turn around and see the cruise ships parked in the distance and the other “ant-like” people swarming the normal beach, and you are quickly brought back to reality.

We continued walking down the beach until we reached an outcropping of rocks that seemed to mark the tip of the coastline. No one was near us, so once again that desolate feeling washed over us. Oh, but wait, there seems to be a couple on the other side of the rocks…and wait, what are they doing…?

AAAAAA!!!!!

You guessed it. Grand Turk was so desolate that apparently an amorous couple had decided to do what amorous couples do...Talk about awkward, being with your kids and mother-in-law.

I quickly distracted the kids by leaping into the water and picking up a conch shell from under the water. They were amazed—as was I, that conch shells were “ripe for the picking” in the water. It was unbelievable—there were hundreds of conchs in the water.

So, the kids started collecting them and stockpiling them on the beach, while I unobtrusively kept slowly moving further down the beach AWAY from the amorous couple. After amassing a large pile of conch shells, and realizing that we had spent the better part of an hour doing so, I announced that the kids could each keep one, and only one conch.

With prized conch shells in hand, we returned to our chairs on the “normal” beach and spent the remainder of the morning building sand castles.

Since it was so hot in Grand Turk, we opted to return to the ship by noon and eat lunch onboard. After lunch, I returned to the island to do some solo power shopping.

NOTE—also available in Grand Turk is the FREE Margaritavilla pool. It is located within walking distance to the ship. Of course, the infamous Maragaritas and Cheeseburgers-in-Paradise are not free.

Shopping in Grand Turk is not great. Since the port is so underdeveloped (we love that as cruisers though…), there are only are few “major” stores (Little Switzerland, Del Sol) and many small flea-market type stalls selling trinkets. Despite the shopping challenges, I still managed to find a way to spend my money on a few things!

My parents, who had taken the 1.5 hour horse-drwan carriage ride, informed us that the entire island was quite desolate. There are roaming wild donkeys and not too many things to see.

Our ship was scheduled to sail-away from Grand Turk at 3pm. Shortly after 2:30pm, we began to hear the annoying “Would Mr/Mrs So-and-So from cabin XXXX please contact the Purser’s desk?” which signaled that there were guests missing from the ship. OK…this should be fun! How hard is it to be late at Grand Turk? There is absolutely mo where to go to be “late” from. Maybe it was the amorous couple?

After several announcement, the ship’s horn blew several short blasts. After a few more minutes, more announcements, then more horn blasts. This went on until 3pm. At this point the entire aft side of the side was filled with people watching over the edge of the ship, waiting for the missing “Mr/Mrs So-and-So.”

Is it mean to admit that we all secretly wished the ship pulled away so we could all witness the “So-and-So” couple running desperately up the dock? Our wish came true, somewhat. Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So came running up the dock, but the ship hadn’t left. As soon as they hit the gangplank, the security officers shook their heads, signaled to the rope guys to start pulling the rope, then pulled the gangplank away. We left port two minutes later.

Fun activities ensued once the ship was out-at-sea again. Most importantly, it was Build-A-Bear time in Camp Carnival!!!! My DD was beyond herself with excitement at the opportunity to create her very own bear. On land, she is a big BAB fan. Surprisngly, the BAB activity was not overly crowded. We arrived to find only a handful of other families enagaged in the activity. Perhaps because you actually had to PAY for the BAB?

A rough breakdown of the activity is as follows:

1—You enter the kids club and presented with a variety of animal “skins” to choose from. There are two types of dogs, a cat, frog, and two bears.

2—You are offered a sales pitch from the staff, who attempt to upsell you to the highest level. The regular BAB was $19.95 included the animal and a Carnival T. For a few atra dollars you could also acquire a sailor suit. For an additional few dollars you could also acquire a recordable voice chip. We chose the standard basic package, as Addie did not like the sailor cuits.

3—Once you choose and pay, you them sit at one of the tables in the kids club and “build” the bear. To do so you must self-stuff it, put the heart and angel inside, seal it up via the Velcro and zipper enclosure, and provie info to the staff re: the animal’s name for the birth certificate.

Addie’s Papa helped her create the BAB. Addie’s big brother opted not to build a bear. Instead, he really wanted one of the cute towel animals for sale in the store. A much cheaper option at only $7.99

Dinner at Truffles was lovely as always. FIL discovered that he could request two dishes of ice cream to accompany his Warm Chocolate Metling Cake. He was in heaven! After dinner, the kids rushed off to Camp Carnival again, no doubt to get their faces painted, while the adults headed to the theater to partake in a few adult activities. First up, Bargain Bingo, where the triple cards were sold for $10 instead of the normal $20. Nice! Much to her surprise, my Mom actually won. $250!!!!! Nice!

The show for the evening involved a magician and a comic, both of who’s names I've already forgotten. Unfortunately, they both were somewhat forgettable. The magician was a little annoying with his Kramer-esque persona in an attempt to shock everyone. He performed the predictable “take a $20 out of someone’s wallet and rip it up” trick, only to have it appear later in the show intact. My FIL was the “lucky” victim who sacrificed his wallet and $20 for the trick. Both were returned, and my FIL laughed when he found several fake paper $100 in the wallet too. The comedian, who also had a loud annoying voice, performed the typical “cruise ship” jokes regarding the food and toilets. Yawn…

And on that note, we all retired to our cabins…

Tune in next time for an exciting but relaxing day in Jamaica...

love it ... last year my son found a conch shell in Cozumel and that has been his fav souvenier!