M.S. Koningsdam goes to Grand Turk

 March 19, 2019 - Day Three

Today our ship docked in Grand Turk. Grand Turk is part of the island group of Turks and Caicos.

Turks and Caicos is a "British Overseas Territory". That means it either has not been granted independence or has voted to remain a British territory. These territories are not considered part of the United Kingdom or the EU. Turks and Caicos appears to have had some serious political strife in recent history, and in 2009 the U.K. government took over direct control of the island. The Turks and Caicos government returned to its local administration in 2012.

There are two island groups. Guess what they are called? Yep... the Turks Islands and the Caicos Islands 😁 They are located southeast of the Bahamas and northeast of Cuba. I can't seem to find out exactly how many islands there are in this archipelago, but the numbers seem to be certain that there are eight inhabited islands and at least 40 islands altogether.

I always enjoy watching the cruise ship dock. Fascinating to watch how the people on shore do the procedure... and it differs in intensity from place to place. Today we were pulling in beside a Carnival ship... so who knows what kind of excitement we might see!

You can see the island in the distance. It is basically flat, but beautiful. It is only 18km squared and has a population of less than 4000 people.

Today was going to be a beach day for us. Yep, we planned a lot of beach days this time because that is what we were craving. Sunshine, sand and turquoise waters are three of our favourite things!

You walk on a long concrete dock before you get to the port. This is where things started getting crazy. Look at me breaking the rules! Luckily I didn't get caught! It must have been the influence of the "Carnival People"!

When you get to the port there are shops (of course), a large pool area, and some restaurants/bars. This is where they have the largest Margaritaville in the Caribbean... more about that later!

We headed straight for the beach. It was quite crowded, but there were still many chairs available to rent. We decided to keep walking down to a quieter part of the beach. (We also noticed that the sand at the ship end of the beach had a lot more weeds on it, and the water was not as clear.) We are both happy to put our towels in the sand if it means there are less people squished in beside us 😁 You could also rent chairs and an umbrella at this end of the beach... but we're happy in the sand.

I've included a short video... not a Vlog... just to show you how beautiful the beach is at this port!

As you can see from the video my skin is almost as white as the sand! After spending quite a bit of time in the sun, we started getting thirsty... well we had water... but were thirsty for something better... like a mudslide! I knew there was a recommended beach bar/restaurant called "Jacks' Shack" that we had passed, so prepared my tastebuds for my favourite tropical drink.

That was when we realized that neither of us remembered to bring money with us! That's a first... and hopefully a last!

So we began the trek down the beach back to the ship. We thought we'd just pop into the Margaritaville pool area, before returning to the ship, just to see what it was like. It was quite a sight. Plenty of chairs, pools, drinks and fun! So much fun was being had by many young people at the bar that a German lady was covering her daughter's eyes so as not to scar her for life. I had no one to cover my eyes, so may have been scarred... don't worry I haven't been having flashbacks... yet!

I was so flabbergasted by what was going on (I'm sheltered, I know) that I forgot to take pictures for you... also maybe they wouldn't have been "blog appropriate" photos!

We enjoyed a lovely rest of the day on the ship. Steve tested out the "Dive In" burger bar by the pool. We had a nap, I read my book on the balcony while I drank wine, we enjoyed another delicious dinner in the dining room, and some late night music. I can't imagine a better day!

I know some of you enjoy seeing the towel animals... so here is a ... um... maybe a butterfly?