Today the Nieuw Statendam calls in Grand Turk. I’ve been here a few times and have always gone to the beautiful beaches. That changes this time.
Grand Turk Morning
I was awake about 5 am and quickly got dressed to head to the buffet for coffee. I found that and these advertisements at every table.
The price is $35 a person. The pastry station opened about 5:30 so I grabbed a couple.
I hope to go to the dining room this morning and need something to get me by until it opens at 7:30 am. Also enjoyed the sun rising.
We met for breakfast in the MDR where I was happy to have two shipboard favorites. First muesli.
This one was a little too sweet but otherwise good. Also had eggs benedict; this one with crab meat and asparagus.
Yummy! It looks like it will be a gorgeous day in Grand Turk.
The weather app agrees.
The ship cleared about 8:30 after the Mariner of the Seas pulled in. My brother said he heard people talking in the smoking area that were sent letters that they couldn’t go ashore because they were unvaccinated. Apparently they didn’t know that until the letter. It is easy to find via google.
Margaritaville Cabana
Our plans today include using a Margaritaville pool cabana I reserved months ago. There wasn’t a ticket per we other than digital in the navigator app.
We got off and first headed the wrong direction before circling back and finding Margaritaville. After walking through the store, we found someone to check us into our cabana. Eventually that got done and we were in our cabana shortly afterwards.
We had the first one and only saw two others get guests all day. The air conditioned inside has seating for six.
There’s a fridge to keep anything you have cold (it’s empty).
We also had menus for food and drink. Our server all day was Shanekie who did a fantastic job! We spent most of the day in the front porch loungers.
Unfortunately our fan had lost it’s remote so we could not get it turned on.
My brother got a pina colada in the refillable souvenir cup.
That’s quite a bit of rum on top! I started with water.
Interesting to see it was branded. Later on I ordered the Caribbean mule with vodka instead of rum.
It was refreshing and tasty. The pool water was a bit cool but I quickly got used to it and took a spin around the entire pool.
For a snack, I ordered the mini bbq pork tacos (appetizer).
Very tasty! We left shortly after noon.
One tip is to ask your server for wifi info. The obvious network wasn’t the one we ended up being able to connect to. For the price I paid, the cabana was very much worth it if you want a pool day.
Grand Turk Afternoon and Evening
After dropping our stuff in the cabin we had lunch in the Lido buffet. I had the Asian station of noodles, pork stir fry and teriyaki steak.
Very good! Dessert was a vanilla ice cream cone —- no photos. Then it was nap time. Later in the afternoon I spent some time in the crow’s nest having a ginger ale and reading until sailaway.
Bye-bye Mariner of the Seas. I will see you in May!
We decided the main dining room menu wasn’t very enticing and we’d eat in the Lido buffet for dinner.
It was packed when we got there and they weren’t keeping up in clearing off the tables. Part of the problem was the sea food boil promotion they were running had resulted in a large number of tables blocked off even though I only saw 4 people actually in there.
Some nice passengers from Michigan let us join their table. I had roasted chicken, a popover, corn and mac and cheese. Dessert was peanut butter cookies (sorry no pics!)
Tonight’s entertainments as supposed to be a comedian but he must have had travel delays because instead we’re having BBC presentation. I’m finishing the day with 9,557 steps.
Here is today’s program (click image for full PDF).
Here is today’s port and shopping map (click image for full PDF).
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