Have any Carnival cruises been to Grand Turk yet ?

[wardwhitty]

We have a cruise on the Freedom January 9th with a stop in Grand Turk.  I know someone  said  Mardi Gras has been rerouted from Grand Turk but I was wondering if any of the smaller ships were able to visit.  

[htkodiak]

Yes we were there on our Magic sailing of Dec 5th.

 

[cmp03]

The Freedom stopped there earlier this month too.

[1025cruise]

Yes, Carnival is cruising to Grand Turk again. The exception is Mardi Gras, due to them needing to dredge a bit.

[kabux]

42 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

Yes, Carnival is cruising to Grand Turk again. The exception is Mardi Gras, due to them needing to dredge a bit.

Anyone hear any buzz about when they will dredge or how long that actually takes??? we are supposed to be in GT on 1/6 on MG, still on our planner... TIA!!

 

[audcc77]

1 hour ago, 1025cruise said:

Yes, Carnival is cruising to Grand Turk again. The exception is Mardi Gras, due to them needing to dredge a bit.

Huh?  This is the first I’ve heard.  
 

My Jan 2 itinerary still says grand Turk.  What are they substituting it with?   

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, kabux said:

Anyone hear any buzz about when they will dredge or how long that actually takes??? we are supposed to be in GT on 1/6 on MG, still on our planner... TIA!!

 

Still on the GT calendar, but the virus will determine, I imagine.

http://www.grandturkcc.com/Port-Schedule.aspx

[audcc77]

Hmmm. I guess it doesn’t matter unless they replace with HMC.  

That would be great!  
 

GT is just not the same since the trees were taken out by a hurricane. 
 

[DD fun]

We were on the Magic on Dec 5th and that was a sea day. Grand Turk was replaced by Amber Cove on that sailing.

[RhinoMomIL]

5 minutes ago, audcc77 said:

Hmmm. I guess it doesn’t matter unless they replace with HMC.  

That would be great!  
 

GT is just not the same since the trees were taken out by a hurricane. 
 

Seems like they have been replacing it with Nassau up until now. I wonder if they will continue doing that until they dredge rather than making it a tender stop when GT seems to want to limit cruise passengers.

 

[goofy2010]

We were in Grand Turk yesterday on the Sunrise and it was wonderful. 

[audcc77]

1 hour ago, RhinoMomIL said:

Seems like they have been replacing it with Nassau up until now. I wonder if they will continue doing that until they dredge rather than making it a tender stop when GT seems to want to limit cruise passengers.

 

We are already going to Nassau and amber cove.  
 

We’re going on MG for the ship so it doesn’t matter to me I guess.  

[Clarasgrandma]

We were on the Freedom, first Carnival ship back to Grand Turk since reopening! We were the only ship there during our time that day. It was fantastic!

 

[wardwhitty]

We are scheduled for Grand Turk with 2 other ships.  I wish we were the only ones 

[SmoothFlying]

8 hours ago, wardwhitty said:

We are scheduled for Grand Turk with 2 other ships.  I wish we were the only ones 

At this point and time, I'd be SURPRISED if even your ship is allowed to dock/disenbark with the current virus situation.

 

Mac

[3redheads]

On 12/26/2021 at 4:11 PM, audcc77 said:

We are already going to Nassau and amber cove.  
 

We’re going on MG for the ship so it doesn’t matter to me I guess.  

We are on MG next week and have the same itinerary.   The Bahamas announced a covid testing requirement,  but it's unclear if it applies to cruise ships.  You have to have a negative test 2 days before you visit. 

 

If we can't go to Nassau/Bahamas and Grand Turks can't accommodate us, we only have one port.  I can't figure what ports they could substitute. 

[dbrucern]

On 12/26/2021 at 3:31 PM, goofy2010 said:

We were in Grand Turk yesterday on the Sunrise and it was wonderful. 

Curious was Margaritaville open

 

[Pellaz]

On 12/26/2021 at 3:00 PM, audcc77 said:

GT is just not the same since the trees were taken out by a hurricane. 

Totally agree.   AND, those annoying "local operators" selling chairs and umbrellas closest to the shore.  For anyone going there, the green GTCC umbrellas and chairs are FREE.  

 

On 12/26/2021 at 3:06 PM, RhinoMomIL said:

Seems like they have been replacing it with Nassau up until now. I wonder if they will continue doing that until they dredge rather than making it a tender stop when GT seems to want to limit cruise passengers.

It would be difficult indeed for Carnival to make Grand Turk a tender stop, since there are no tenders stationed there.   They seldom, if ever, use ship's boats for tendering.  
Holland America does, though....

 

On 12/27/2021 at 7:19 AM, wardwhitty said:

We are scheduled for Grand Turk with 2 other ships.  I wish we were the only ones 

That will be...interesting, since the dock only accommodates two ships at a time.  

 

 

[pe4all]

Our Freedom cruise end of January goes to Princess Cays, GT and Amber Cove. Will be interesting to see how this itinerary may change.  Would hate to have Nassau in place of GT.

[wardwhitty]

I was wondering about 3 ships as well.  The Carnival magic and a NCL ship are scheduled from 7am to 3 pm and the Freedom is scheduled from 11am-6pm.

[audcc77]

3 hours ago, Pellaz said:

Totally agree.   AND, those annoying "local operators" selling chairs and umbrellas closest to the shore.  For anyone going there, the green GTCC umbrellas and chairs are FREE.  

 

It would be difficult indeed for Carnival to make Grand Turk a tender stop, since there are no tenders stationed there.   They seldom, if ever, use ship's boats for tendering.  
Holland America does, though....

 

That will be...interesting, since the dock only accommodates two ships at a time.  

 

 

Thanks!  
I was wondering about that. 

[Green4me]

We are on the 1/02 MG sailing too.   Hoping GT is still in play.  We sailed the Magic October 17th and GT was replaced by HMC which we really enjoyed.      At the time GT was not letting any ships in.

 

Margaritaville is part of the Carnival enclave so expect it would be open.  We like to walk the 300 yards down the beach and go to Jack's Shack.

 

Have a safe and Happy New Year all.

 

Cheers

[goofy2010]

On 12/28/2021 at 9:43 AM, dbrucern said:

Curious was Margaritaville open

 

Yes it was open.  We didn't go but saw lots of people there.  The pool was open but it didn't look like the Wave Rider was going.

[goofy2010]

14 hours ago, Pellaz said:

Totally agree.   AND, those annoying "local operators" selling chairs and umbrellas closest to the shore.  For anyone going there, the green GTCC umbrellas and chairs are FREE.  

 

The local operators weren't out when we were there.  There were only blue chairs and no umbrella's on the beaches closest to the pier.  From what we saw, all the blue chairs were fair game and people were moving them closer to the water if they wanted.

[Pellaz]

On 12/29/2021 at 8:59 AM, wardwhitty said:

I was wondering about 3 ships as well.  The Carnival magic and a NCL ship are scheduled from 7am to 3 pm and the Freedom is scheduled from 11am-6pm.

 

IF they DO host 3 ships at once, I'd expect the NCL ship to tender using ships' boats, as there aren't any tender vessels stationed or available at Grand Turk.  

 

On 12/29/2021 at 8:57 PM, goofy2010 said:

The local operators weren't out when we were there.  There were only blue chairs and no umbrella's on the beaches closest to the pier.  From what we saw, all the blue chairs were fair game and people were moving them closer to the water if they wanted.

 

Cool, those blue chairs might be the complimentary Grand Turk Cruise Center chairs I was thinking of.  (I thought they were green.)