Family Vacation 2014 - Day 5 - Grand Turk

This is part 4 of multi-day travelogue. It started with this post!

After such a restful day, it was time for an adventure. A grand one. Maybe a Turkish one, maybe on Grand Turk! Yeah, that's it, we would have an adventure on Grand Turk.

Our ship docked at 7:00 AM and after a quick breakfast we went back to the room to gather up our stuff for a day of island adventures. When we got to the room, what to our wondering eyes appeared, but a miniature chair, and eight tiny reindeer. OK, no, it was just the missing car seat. Sitting there nicely waiting for us. The baggage tag, written plainly in my own handwriting had the wrong room number.

Some other poor soul sat in their suite pondering what to do with our car seat for 2 days while we sweated over what to do without it. We were relieved and happy to have it back because today was the day we needed it! Today was Safari day!

We gathered up the two boys' car seats, some snacks and supplies and headed for the gangway. Once on shore, a wind came up and a sunburst soaked us (and the ship's photographers) and  we half ran/half waddled to the shelter of the duty free shops in the cruise terminal. Once there, we took a minute to rest and dry off before venturing out timidly into light rain as the storm tapered off.

As we worked our way through the terminal, taxi drivers kept approaching us with offers of great rides. We really didn't need a taxi though, we had something better...

A few days before leaving on the cruise, I had called down to Nathan (he's the only one on the Island) and reserved a Jeep (He only owns 2) from Nathan's Carts. Nathan turns a brisk business renting golf carts and scooters - and 2 jeeps - to tourists. We had needed our car seats to use in our rental jeep.

If you look closely at the picture above, you may notice that there are no car seats in our rental jeep. That is because there are no seat belts in our rental jeep. Nor is there a radio, windshield wipers, tire treads, etc. Anything on the jeep that had rusted was spray-bombed silver. It had no power at all, and little in the way of a suspension system. It was a perfect vehicle for bombing around Grand Turk, and we loved our worthy steed. The vinyl seats brought back memories of the 80's.

Since we had all day, a tiny island, a really bad map, and no plans we simply drove until we saw something interesting, then pulled over and took pictures of it until we were bored, then drove off again. It was a great plan. I highly recommend it.

The first interesting thing we saw was the space capsule. It was a space capsule. I wish I had more to say about it. Apparently the islanders are very proud of it:

After taking pictures of the capsule from outer space (make alien sounds) we drove off. No wait, the key won't turn. The engine is sort of coughing. Aha! There it goes. We idled gingerly along the island roads looking for more neat stuff.

After puttering around for a while, we saw one of the ATV tours offered by the ship, so we tucked in behind them, and tried to keep up. We couldn't. But we did find a really nice beach by following their tracks in the sand. Our very own family beach.

Beach pictures:

We played on the beach for a long time. SWMBO stepped on a ray and scared herself, the boys hunted for shells and fishes, and we found some conchs. After laying them out in the sun to pick the very best 2, we put the rest back in the water.

From the beach, we could see a lighthouse, so we decided to drive over to take a look at it, but first we would have to get in our perfect family picture...

 Getting closer on the photo...

So as our jeep wheezed toward the light house we took in the fauna of the island, which mostly includes birds and wild donkeys. Like these:

That last donkey looks like he knows something. Maybe he carried Sancho Panza to the windmills. No windmills here though, on to the lighthouse where there were more donkeys. "They come to steal your potato chips" warns the snack vendor.

Sancho Panza. We should have named the Jeep that, and I could have been Don Quixote. Dang, I come up with these ideas a week too late.

Oh yeah the lighthouse, and the lighthouse donkeys. Once Sancho Panza found the lighthouse, we tumbled out and looked around. There wasn't much there. A lighthouse, a bathroom, and a canteen/giftshop. I bought a shotglass and we walked over to the railing to look out over the ocean.

Obligatory Pirate

We noticed that the bottom of the cliff the lighthouse was on had a hidden beach, and hidden beaches are the best kind, so we went adventuring to find it. Actually we got scratched a lot while walking down a thorny path in sandals.

On the beach we found hermit crabs and sand dollars and watched the waves crash into the coral cliffs. 

After that we hopped back into Sancho Panza and traveled back to Cockburn Town where we had conch fritters and fries before going shopping in the straw market and visiting the national museum. In the museum, there was a real live replica lighthouse light, so Buddy pushed the button to see if it worked. 

Yup. It worked.

Looking at the shot glasses I had picked up at the light house I realized that we had a shot glass for the Grand Turk Prison, but we hadn't been there. Everyone hopped in Sancho Panza and and it sputtered and snorted all the way to the aulde gaol. 

The jail on Grand Turk isn't much to look at. I'm sure it has great stories, but when we went through it was just concrete buildings. We did what every parent does when they visit a jail, put the kids in lockup.

On the way out, Buddy and cuppa helped this guy out with his ball and chain.

By now we were getting tired and dehydrated, so we headed back to return our rental car and get back on the boat. It had been a super-busy day. Once we were back aboard, it was dinner and then bed time. Everyone was wiped right out.

<EDIT to add... 

Momma reminded me that when we got back to the boat, Buddy really wanted to go water sliding, so we got some deck chairs at the base of the slide, and he went down the slide. A million times. It was the greatest thing in the world. After a while a guy halfway up the deck to the slide started commenting on his sliding abilities when Buddy went by, and next thing you know, this guy and his entire row were recruited into water sliding with Buddy.

Bud would go down first, then stand at the bottom of the slide and wait for a big person to come down and splash him with their wave. It was hilarious to watch. /EDIT>

Read on! Day 6 is here!

Family Vacation 2014 - Day 4 - Day at Sea

This is a continuation of a travelogue that started way back here!

Carnival lists sea days in their itinerary as "Fun Day at Sea" which sounds great, except that all SWMBO and I had energy to do was to sit on deck chairs sipping drinks and reading. Which is what we did. It was pretty darn fun.

I could end the post there. I mean all we did on our sea day was sit around reading. All. Day. Long.

But I'll expand anyways.

After a restful night, everyone woke up ready for the new day...

Since Momma and Cuppa were the first two out of bed, they got to play out on the balcony. Actually both of the boys really liked the balcony. We could sit out there and watch for flying fish.

We woke to a sunny sky and some pretty good waves, then had breakfast in the Lido Restaurant - I thought the Eggs Benedict with salmon was fantastic. Buddy thought the Lucky Charms were particularly good. We all noshed until we could nosh no more, then we took the boys to the kids club.

I have no idea what Chuck's day looked like. She left from breakfast, then reappeared at dinner.

It was very windy out on the decks, so we had to work to find a spot where we could lie without getting a sunburn OR windburn OR have the breeze rustle the pages in our books too much AND have a bar boy come around often enough to get drinks. It was a tough day, but we made the best of it, and settled into our books and lounging.

Noon came faster than expected, so we got the boys and had lunch, then returned them to the kids club, and returned ourselves to our deck chairs. After lunch Buddy had a nap, so we moved along to the balcony and sat there (and read).

Once buddy woke up it was too late for kids club so we got dressed and went to dinner where we met up with Chuck. Dinner went really well. Our boys are used to sitting through family meals, and the cruise had supplied a high chair for Cuppa, so we were pretty much set. I have the duck breast for my appetizer which was a good choice. I think it was the best thing I ate all week.

I think (but I'm not sure) that after dinner Chuck melted away to do teen things, and that Momma and I took the boys back to kids club so we could have a date night. If I remember right we went to the evening revue on the boat which turned out to be an endless array of songs with American Cities in their titles. I think Alex Trebek had song titles of America as a Jeopardy category  one night and Carnival just ran with it. If there is a song about where you live, they sang and danced to it. I enjoyed the costumes.

I don't have anything more to talk about on this day, so here's a bunch of pics of the boat stolen from a variety of internet sources. It turns out we didn't take ANY pictures of the actual boat we sailed on.

Here is the Carribean theatre where we watched the show:

Source: cruise.co.uk

This is the Atrium and stairways. We walked through here. There was often Latin music playing.

Source: cruiseweb.com

This is the wall of windows across the transom on Lido Deck. We sat here to watch Miami slip away on debarkation day. This was always a nice shady, quiet spot to be.

And this was Buddy's favorite shipboard feature... The WATERSLIDE!

Source: Lewisfamilynews.com

There isn't much more I can say about our Fun Day at Sea, except that I may have fallen asleep on the lounger at one point. I'm not sure.

At the end of the day our mystery car seat still hadn't appeared, so I approached the guest services desk and explained that it had gone missing, but that we had found its armrest in the hall. The girl at the desk took down our information and said she would do what she could to help. I was a skeptic. We worked our way up to the kids club to claim our boys. I was amazed that at 10:00 PM they were still awake and playing happily.

The car seat continued to go missing.

Continue to Day 5 here.

Family Vacation 2014 - Day 3 - To the Boat!

This is part 2 of a series of posts. Please find part 1 here!

Monday morning dawned bright and early , and after a quick breakfast (Burger King, you make yummy french toast sticks!) we headed to the cruise port. The bellhop loaded a mini-van taxi with all our stuff, Momma strapped in the two car seats, and a 15 minute drive took us to the docks.

We were met at Carnival's cruise terminal by a flurry of activity. Couples, families, porters buses, taxis, limos bicycles, everything and everyone seemed to be going pell-mell everyplace and everywhere. A porter ran to our taxi, claimed it as his own, promised to treat our luggage right, asked us to "show him some love" and set to loading up our stuff while we corralled kids and rounded up our carry-ons.

About 2 weeks before the cruise, I had decided to opt into Carnival's "Faster to the Fun" (FTTF) package, which means that for $50, your family gets to jump the lines all the way through the boarding procedure. It turns out that this was a good investment. At security, we were pushed to the front of the line. Same at check-in, and so about 15 minutes after stepping out of the cab, we were checked in and ready to board, sitting in the terminal. Maybe the only passable family picture of the entire trip was taken at that moment...

Barely passable family picture. Complete with Buddy slouching.

Since Buddy wasn't having the time of his life, we went for a hike around the terminal. On our way back, preboarding was announced for VIP guests and platinum/gold level cruisers. Moments later it was FTTF pass holders, and since that was us, off we went. Another security check, an elevator ride, across the boarding ramp, and we were on the boat.

One of the perks offered in the FTTF pass was that our room would be ready before we boarded, so no waiting around above decks, and our bags would reach our room early. This mattered to us so we could get our swimsuits and go play. Our room was ready, and it was nice. We went and ditched all our carry on stuff right away, but our bags didn't reach us until much later in the afternoon.

Oh well, no use complaining. We went and had lunch. While lunching we tried for another family photo...

Mom: Hey, its picture time!

Dad: Buddy, look at the camera!

Buddy: No Way! Hee Hee!!

Cuppa: Want a picture of my banana?

The elusive family photo was quickly becoming a theme on the trip. That last one is passable, I guess.

Lunch at the lido buffet (where we went) was mostly fried foods, and our boys don't really groove to the deep fryer. Besides, we'd had fried stuff for breakfast as well as for dinner the night before. They were starting to think America was one big deep fryer. Once we got them to choke down most of their food, Cuppa and I headed over to the pool and started wading around its edge. He found the fountain particularly mystifying. As the ship gently rocked, the waterfall would switch from the port to starboard side of the fountain.

Before long, Buddy declared his dinner done, and he rushed over to join in. The two of them were happy to have this great splash pad, but I had to be vigilant to be sure they didn't go in the deep water!

Note matching cruise shirts! They look so cute!

After a little while, the captain tooted the horn, and Carnival Victory left the dock. As we went, Momma started snapping photos of Miami as we passed by. It looked beautiful.

Before long we were off to sea. For a long time we chased other cruise ships leaving Miami. The boys were really interested in the other boats and things we saw along the shore. It was a perfect sailaway with no hiccups.

Once we got tired of the pool, we took the boys to visit the Carnival Kids Club, and Chuck to visit Club O2. The kids club is essentially a floating Daycare with a panoramic view of the water. It is way up at the front of the boat, and likely has the best views of any room on the whole boat. The boys L-O-V-E loved it. They made crafts and painted, sang songs and watched movies, and just had a great time. On our sea days, we checked them in as soon as it opened (10:00 AM) and left them until lunch. After lunch they would beg to return, and would spend most of the afternoon there.

Chuck liked the O2 teen club a lot too. She made a bunch of friends there from around the world and we hardly saw her after breakfast until dinner, and again until about midnight. We threw away rules and curfews for the cruise and stuck our heads in the sand. Chuck had a helluva time. I don't want to know anything more than that.

By the time we were done exploring the boat and signing everyone up for their clubs, it was dinner and bedtime. We returned to our room to find our luggage (Yay!) and a new friend...

The bears weren't sure what to make of him.

Everything was perfect, except for one small detail. We had arrived at the cruise port with 2 car seats for the boys. In our cabin there was only one. In the hallway we found the armrest off the other.

The mystery of the missing carseat had begun. Who had swiped Buddy's Booster seat! (Cue the suspenseful music.)

Continue to Day 4 here!