Dune Buggy excursion pictures

Here are some pictures that I took while on the Dune Buggy excursion that was offered through Carnival

When you arrive at the pier, they have the dune buggies lined up.

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Then they let you test drive in the parking lot to make sure you are comfortable.

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While on the drive you will come across local free-roaming wildlife

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Some typical off-road driving that you will encounter on this excursion:

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Some of the scenery can be boring:

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more off road

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Everyone takes a pit stop and does a small hike up to Gun Hill (second highest point on Grand Turk). As you can see from these picture, it is not that bad of a hike.

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Looking down on dune buggies from Gun Hill

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View of cruise ship from Gun Hill

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Gun Hill sign (explaining history)

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View of Gibbs Cay (you can see one of the excursion boats taking passengers to snorkel with the stingrays) http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2856475970096361829UpkgYU

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After snapping some pictures on top of Gun Hill, we walked back down to the parked dune buggies.

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Close up of the parked dune buggies

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After visiting Gun Hill, we hit the hard road (remember you drive on the left) and went to the other side of the island (to the lighthouse) and on the way we passed the airport with the replica space capsule from John Glenn.

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More scenery

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I will add a few more pictures later when I get some time.

More scenery

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Wild Flamingos

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Grand Turk Hospital

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Here is an old boat that we past.

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Okay, when you read the description of the excursion, it says that you will get muddy and wet. This is why. They take you to a limestone quarry that has standing water. They stop you and warn you and let you decide if you want to splash or not.

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My wife had the camera uncovered and I decided to get us wet, so our camera broke because we were covered in water, so we only had a few more pictures before the camera stopped working.

Here is the lighthouse

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here are the grounds near the lighthouse:

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FYI, there is a restroom you can use at this pitstop.

By the way, these pictures were taken in January 2007, while we were on the excursion offered by the Carnival Elation.

Sounds like ALOT of fun.. DH and I want to do this and reading some of your other posts I guess there is no private party that offers this huh.....Oh well worth the money right!!??!! I don't like booking thru the ship either.

do you do any swimming? THe HAL web site instructs us to bring a towel, bathing suit and water shoes.

I hope snokelman is still around .. I have a couple questions.. Is this a guided tour? Are they real loud? I think that could take something away from it..if they are.. thanks!

nice pics of the buggies. I am about 290 pounds and 6'1" am I to heavy or too big for this excursion. I have read 250 pound weight limit. should i call carnival to confirm 250 lbs, looks like fun, i would like to do this

My wife and I did this excursion last September so let me try to answer your questions.

Sandiego1,

No there isn't any swimming.

Nikkin,

Yes it is a guided tour and no they are not very loud.

Tom E Boy,

I am 6' 210 lbs and I had plenty of room but you might want to call just to be sure.

We were cruising with Princess and went to St Thomas, San Juan, Grand Turk, and were suppose to go to Bermuda but couldn't because of a hurricane and we enjoyed our time on Grand Turk the best. This is defiantly worth the money.

thanks:)

no problem.

One more quick thing to add. My brother just got back yesterday from a cruise on Costa and they charged him $99.00 a person for the buggy excursion but when I went with Princess they charged me $99 for a buggy not per person. If they try to charger per person I would question it.

I am sorry I just checked and I paid $199 for a buggy on Princess not $99.

:) Thanks for the great pics.My husband and I are thinking about this tour. How long is it? How did you like it?We took this great dune buggy tour in Cozumel about 5 years ago called Jungle Tours. We had a blast. For 80 bucks we drove around for about 5 hours, had lunch by the beach and all the water or beer you could ask for. I know ths sounds reckless but it was really fun.

Lee , (or anyone else that took this excursion), do you think you got to see all of the island this way ? ..or would the jump on/off type bus thing be better for that??

Asil65

This tour is only about tow hours long but the wife and I loved it.

Nikkin

Yes we got to see all of the island but the island is so small I am sure you would get to see it all on either. When I went we had a great guide that told us about the history of the island which is actually pretty interesting but when my brother went last week his guide didn't tell him as much but he still loved it.

Any private tours or you have to book through the ship?

I am pretty sure you have to book through the ship.

I will try and answer the questions that have been posted since my original post.

I agree with Lee on everything except on the weight issue. Tom e Boy better plan on something else as an excursion. The first comment that the guides made was the weight restriction and that the machines could not carry over a certain weight. Maybe if your wife is only 90 pounds...

There is no question that we got to see most of the island. There really isn't much to the island and the lighthouse is at the opposite end of the island from where the ships are, so you obviously travel the entire length of the island. Since you are riding in a dune buggy you don't want to be on the pavement the whole time anyway.

Are they loud? Umm, I didn't notice and I have no real complaints. You wear a helmet which reduced any noise anyway.

There is no swimming and you don't want to bring anything with you because the guides take all bags anyway (there is no room for them in the buggy).

I suggest if you bring a camera that you pack it inside a zip lock bag.

Make sure to wear clothes that you don't care if they get covered in dirt, because they will. Also, there are wild horses, so it is possible that you may get horse feces kicked up on you (we didn't, but it is possible).

I am pretty sure that you have to book through the ship. I remember looking into doing it separately and I can't specifically remember what the result was, but I obviously went through the ship, so I must assume that either the price was the same, or that it was not possible to book any other way.

thanks snorkelman, we will make other plans.

we have these booked for an upcoming cruise. do you get to ge fast? what qould you say is the fastest speed you are allowed to go? also, did anyone get horse feces on them? i would hate to even have that be a slight possibility...yuck!! is it more of a laid back thing. We aren't on the island long, so i'd hate to pay alot of money when i could be relaxing without having to worry about horse poop:p

we have these booked for an upcoming cruise. do you get to ge fast? what qould you say is the fastest speed you are allowed to go? also, did anyone get horse feces on them? i would hate to even have that be a slight possibility...yuck!! is it more of a laid back thing. We aren't on the island long, so i'd hate to pay alot of money when i could be relaxing without having to worry about horse poop:p

The guide told us that the dune buggies can go 70 mph. I would guess that I had mine going around 50 mph, so yes they go fast.

I did not get horse feces on me, but my wife had to yell for me to avoid a "pile" when were were off road, as the horses roam free all over the island. It's not like you are driving over a house-size pile with your buggy, but it is possible that you may get some on you - that's why you wear clothes that you don't care about. this is a big thing to remember - don't wear expensive clothes.

Sounds like this isn't for you. I suggest that you just head over to jimmy buffets and relax, but then again, the loud music may annoy you, so you may just be better off staying on the ship.

The guide told us that the dune buggies can go 70 mph. I would guess that I had mine going around 50 mph, so yes they go fast.

 

I did not get horse feces on me, but my wife had to yell for me to avoid a "pile" when were were off road, as the horses roam free all over the island. It's not like you are driving over a house-size pile with your buggy, but it is possible that you may get some on you - that's why you wear clothes that you don't care about. this is a big thing to remember - don't wear expensive clothes.

 

Sounds like this isn't for you. I suggest that you just head over to jimmy buffets and relax, but then again, the loud music may annoy you, so you may just be better off staying on the ship.

We will be getting off the ship. the music will not annoy us. loud music and horse poop are two totally different things. so i really don't think i will be better off staying on the ship. but thanks for your travel advice

I know this is from a few years ago but I must say that the pictures are wonderful and I am hoping that its still the same (or similar) to the one talked about.

I do have two questions - are the seatbelts similar to what you see in cars or do they just go around the waist.

What exactly do the helmets look like? Feces possible getting on your clothes is one thing...eyes are another.

Hi hazeleyz3, so funny that you brought this thread back. I posted something 3 years ago. HaHa! We took the tour in the summer of 2007. At that time it was just like the original posted pictures. It was really fun, we got wet and dirty. My dh drove through the quarry water. We wore simple old style motorcycle type helmets no eye protection. We wore our sunglasses and they got dirty and we cleaned them repeatedly. The seat belts were shoulder and waist belts. We felt very secure in the buggy. Since we did the tour Grand turk got hit with that huge hurricane. So the views that you see may be different from the pictures. Actually there is not much to really see on the island. The buggy tour was fun. We actually are thinking about doing it again with our kids this summer.

My husband and I are cruising in March and my husband really wants to do the dune buggy tour. Personally I was thinking about the catamaran/snorkling excursion, which would you recommend? I'm looking for more opinions / reviews from people who have done either excursion recently. Thanks!

Is it possible to take along a responsible 5-year-old child?

We are a family of three -- mom, dad, and daughter -- and all are interested in this excursion.