Grand Turk

We just wanted to note how much we enjoyed last evening on the ship. The Captain’s Welcome Reception was very nice and we really enjoyed the band. Dinner was just wonderful. We love our location in the dining room and the wait staff has been superb. While we didn’t go to the show afterwards, the rest of the family did.

This morning we began our day as we normally do with a workout in the Fitness Center. Keith was the first one up to the center arriving at 5:40 AM and did an hour and 20 minute workout on the elliptical machine. His knee, which was aching a bit from yesterdays paddle tennis, felt 100% back to normal. Anne Marie arrived about an hour later and did her workout on the treadmill. There were very few people in the center this morning while we were there. Keith did talk with fellow passenger John who we know so very well.

We are not sure if you have ever seen the movie “Groundhog Day” but Keith felt that he was the character that actor Bill Murray played.

Yesterday, after the workout Keith went to the Lido Café to bring two cups of coffee back to the room. When he got back he had them stacked on top of one another and carrying them with one hand with his room card in the other hand and when we got close to the desk the first one fell and flipped over and spilled coffee everywhere.

This morning Keith brought back two cups of coffee to the room. He was well aware of what happened yesterday. This time as he opened the door to the room the cup on top toppled over and fell to the floor right outside the room. The difference today is that some of the hot coffee hit his leg. And the coffee was very hot as instead of using cold skim milk Keith had added hot skim milk to the coffee. Thankfully a couple of doors down there was a butler who takes care of other rooms and he quickly came to the rescue and took charge of drying off the door and the carpet outside the room. With one of Keith’s socks drenched with coffee he changed and did a wash to get everything cleaned up.

Tomorrow, Keith will only bring back one cup of coffee to the room. Hopefully, he can hold onto that one.

Today, we arrived at Grand Turk. This is our first time visiting this port of call. We had originally booked a shore excursion but since we could not get all of our family member on the excursion we decided to visit this island on our own.

The population of this island is less than 4,000 people so it is clearly one of the less populated and smaller of the islands that we will visit during this journey. Since the pier is located near major facilities shuttle service was unnecessary. The Island is very pristine and the water is quite blue.

The ship arrived in dock at a little past 8:00 AM. We met the family at 9:30 AM to explore the area.

The area by the dock looks to be fairly new and is quite clean. There are some stores and a very nice outdoor pool. Along the beach were many lounge chairs. We walked around for about 90 minutes mainly on the beach as well as going in and out of stores. In the morning we were the only ship in port so just about everyone we ran into was either from the cruise ship or local the island. In the afternoon another cruise ship pulled into port.

We had a nice lunch at the Lido Café.

In the afternoon we stayed on the ship and the kids spent time at the beach. We enjoyed a very nice long walk on the Promenade Deck. The good news is that by mid-afternoon the sun came out.

When the kids arrived back on the ship, Keith played paddle tennis along with the four of them

At 5:15 we went to the Cruise Critic party that was hosted by Crystal Cruises.

This evening we all dined at the Silk Road Specialty Restaurant. This restaurant features Japanese Cuisine and has by far the best Japanese Cuisine we have ever had. We enjoy dining here during our Crystal Cruises and tonight was no exception.

OUR THOUGHT FOR THE DAY…..

“The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.”