What is there here in port?

[beshears]

OK, so if we want to get the conch shells, we go the "opposite" direction, than what we would be doing to go to Jack's Shack???

[mitsugirly]

Is that photo of the sex organ itself? Or the whole conch???

 

Oh no. Like I said, it looks like a long piece of spaghetti and it's clear. That's the actual conch.

 

I was too busy sitting there with my mouth wide open in shock and forgot to take a picture of "the part" when he had it out...and passing it around for people to try. I'll have to see if I can find one online. :D

 

OK, so if we want to get the conch shells, we go the "opposite" direction, than what we would be doing to go to Jack's Shack???

 

 

Correct.

[mitsugirly]

Is that photo of the sex organ itself? Or the whole conch???

 

 

 

There ya go...They call it Bahamian ******

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

There ya go...They call it Bahamian ******

 

That would totally gross me out too, definitely would not be trying that. I think I've learned more about conch than I needed to. LOL!!! :D

Edited February 18, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[mitsugirly]

That would totally gross me out too, definitely would not be trying that. I think I've learned more about conch than I needed to. LOL!!! :D

 

 

Yea, that was a totally "interesting" excursion to say the least. :eek: :p

[beshears]

In regard to the graveyard. The way it was stated, someone said you could see the "point" from the ship? Do you have to be on one of the "high" decks to see the point, or can you see it after walking through the main center, and going right?

[Nitemare]

In regard to the graveyard. The way it was stated, someone said you could see the "point" from the ship? Do you have to be on one of the "high" decks to see the point, or can you see it after walking through the main center, and going right?

 

Look at the first picture on Post 19 in this thread, it's a shot from the ship of the point.

 

You can also look at a map (Google Maps, perhaps) and see how far it is from the long cruise ship dock to the point.

[beshears]

Thanks, I'll go the "opposite" direction of Jacks shack to find the graveyard.

[pghsteelerfan]

beshears,

 

I think the picture (post #19) that Nightmare mentioned is the one I posted. Before we sailed out of Grand Turk, I took a bunch of pictures from deck 10 (Panorama) of Carnival Glory because the views and the water were just so beautiful. I added that picture to show what the point was. You should be able to see it from lower decks of the ship as well. But you are correct in that you'll need to go the opposite direction of Jack's Shack to get there. I think it took us about a half hour, total, to get down there. What I mean by "total" is that it took about a half hour from the time we got off the ship and to the actual "graveyard", which is just before getting to the point. Once you're off the ship, you'll obviously have to walk up the pier (Grand Turk has a shorter pier) but you can't access the beach right from the pier. You'll have to go through the Dufry (Duty free) shop at the end of the pier right between the "Welcome to Grand Turk" signs. When you exit the Dufry Shop, you'll be in the main cruise center. You'll need to head right and that's where you'll see the walkway that leads to that section of the beach. Once on the beach, it was about 15 minutes to the point. From what I've seen, there is not much left over in the actual "graveyard" but if you go around the point you may have better luck, especially down by the water. When we were there, there were hundreds of them. They were on the beach, half buried in the wet sand by the water, and even more in the water. I only went in knee deep. The ones around the point were in better condition and not as picked over as the ones in the actual "graveyard", which is actually just before the point. The toughest thing for me was choosing which ones to bring home. I did get a "keeper" from the actual "graveyard" then debated...I swear, for at least a half hour...between five or six nice ones I found on the other side of the point, to keep. They were all beautiful and that choosing was the hard part. On the walk back I found the smallest one and just couldn't leave it. I hope this helps. If you have any further questions or would like to see more pictures besides what I posted in post #19, feel free to ask. :)

Edited February 21, 2015 by pghsteelerfan
Edited to clear up confusion. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

I'll add a few extra pictures and some that I just did "screen shots" from of Grand Turk from Google Maps. This should give you a better idea of the distance and what to look for.

 

This is a screen shot from Google Maps of the cruise ship pier (the longer pier), the cruise center, and the point:

 

This picture is the screen shot of the end of the pier and the cruise center so you can see where to get onto the beach:

 

This picture is a view from the ship of the cruise center and the point. This is the one I have that will give you the best visual view:

 

You'll notice that there is a smaller (shorter) pier next to the cruise ship pier. I believe that this pier is where a lot of water excursions leave from. This picture was taken right before this next one that I'm posting of the Dufry shop from the cruise pier:

 

This is the Dufry Shop you'll have to go through before entering the cruise center (once through here, start heading to the right for walkway to beach). I got this picture from the same spot I got the previous picture of the other pier from:

 

Again, I hope these help. Believe it or not, the conch shells in Grand Turk are how I stumbled upon Cruise critic. I'd read about them somewhere else and when I did a search before our cruise in 2010 of Grand Turk, I ended up on Cruise Critic and joined that April. Once I read posts about the "graveyard" and "the point", I used "Google Maps" (may have been Google Earth then) to get an idea of where I needed to go. I wish pictures had been posted then but we figured it out.

[beshears]

Yes, thanks for the pictures of Grand Turk. I am beginning to see what I need to do. My friend may not be able to walk that far, so I could leave her at the beach and do my walking, looking for the shells.

 

Another question, do I need to go EARLY in the morning to get these shells, or can they be found anytime of the day?

[pghsteelerfan]

Yes, thanks for the pictures of Grand Turk. I am beginning to see what I need to do. My friend may not be able to walk that far, so I could leave her at the beach and do my walking, looking for the shells.

 

Another question, do I need to go EARLY in the morning to get these shells, or can they be found anytime of the day?

 

I'm pretty sure they can be found any time of day. I may have mentioned before they are very nice but they aren't like the ones that are sold as souvenirs. Mine are bleached white and the once pink interior is no longer pink. On mine, the outer side is a little shiny like they'd been polished but that's the way I found them. That may have something to do with being tossed around, empty, in the water. Some of the ones we saw were also gray. I do prefer them over a bought souvenir because I found them. OK, I went garbage picking. :D The shells are in that area since that's where they're dumped once harvested and the animal is removed for it's meat.

[telli01]

Thanks so much for all of the info here! We are going next week and I hope to make it to the point to try and find a shell. We are renting a golf cart, can you drive down that way and then walk to the point or is it best to walk from the pier? Thanks!

[evandbob]

You love beaches so you would very much enjoy taking the inexpensive short taxi shuttle to Majahaul (known as the little fishing village but not so little any more). :D

 

A lovely idea, and one that I do when a ship docks in Costa Maya.

 

This is a Grand Turk question.

[pghsteelerfan]

Thanks so much for all of the info here! We are going next week and I hope to make it to the point to try and find a shell. We are renting a golf cart, can you drive down that way and then walk to the point or is it best to walk from the pier? Thanks!

 

I'm not aware of any roads that would get you closer. It's a very easy walk from the cruise center. The way it's set up, there is no beach access from the pier. You have to go through the Duty Free (Dufry) shops at the end of pier which get's you in the cruise center and from there are the walkways to the beach. I know from the ship, we were at the point in less than a half hour. On the return trip, we were back in the cruise center from the point in about 20 minutes...but we were lallygagging on the way back getting pictures of the graveyard and of our ship. I'd love to do the golf carts next time to get to the lighthouse and Pillory Beach. Hope you find a nice shell to bring back.

[beshears]

Thanks for letting me know that when I check out the "grave yard" at Grand Turk, I don't have to be there early in the morning. Yes, I would rather pick them out, then buy them, this way, it shows that I got them off the beach. Right now, with the ones I have, they are on my living room floor, all kinds. As you can guess, my living room is really "off limits.:)

[rjdcruises4fun]

Anyone have or seen any walking tours or ideas for exploring Grand Turk without spending a lot of money. We have done this Nassau and it worked great. Anyone think Grand Turk would be just as easy to plan as Nassau?

[jcool]

Rjd cruises 4fun

 

what day are you going to be their?

[rjdcruises4fun]

We will be there on a Friday, June 12th. We have three sea days before we get there so we will defnitly be ready to get off the boat and do some exploring.

Thanks,

Rachel

[mitsugirly]

We had a great day at Grand Turk and made it to (what I think) was the graveyard, or at least the beginning of it.

 

We walked along the beach area and down by the water until you couldn't really walk anymore along the beach. It was very rocky in that area (where the conchs were) so we stopped. Plenty to chose from and we ended up with 3 of them. I believe (by looking at the maps on here) that we made it just before the tip. I think you could have walked up above on the land to get there easier. We just happen to be walking along the beach and water area.

 

I have tons of picture I took from that day. If anyone is interested in seeing them, there's a link in my signature line for Grand Turk. :)

[beshears]

Someone may have already advise you about the conch graveyard, but we just got back from there last month.

 

First, I want to say that if someone had told me it wasn't far from the Space Shuttle, I probably would have found it sooner, but I did.:)

 

I started walking and found a large light cream shell with red spots. I kept walking, and before I know it, I came across a large light blue shell (not perfect, but gets a lot of attention:)) that I brought home. It is now in the middle of all my other small shells in my living room.

 

In some of the area you can bargain if you wish with the people.

[mitsugirly]

Someone may have already advise you about the conch graveyard, but we just got back from there last month.

 

First, I want to say that if someone had told me it wasn't far from the Space Shuttle, I probably would have found it sooner, but I did.:)

 

I started walking and found a large light cream shell with red spots. I kept walking, and before I know it, I came across a large light blue shell (not perfect, but gets a lot of attention:)) that I brought home. It is now in the middle of all my other small shells in my living room.

 

In some of the area you can bargain if you wish with the people.

 

Not sure if you are talking to me, since I'm the OP, but we were already there almost 2 months ago. ;) :D

[pghsteelerfan]

beshears, so glad you got to the graveyard and the shell you found sounds gorgeous! Next time we get there, and I'm determined there will be a next time, I'm thinking of getting one that color since mine are all cream color. I have two grey/blue shells (whelks, but they are also referred to as conch shells) that I found in SC and love them. Believe it or not, we didn't even see the Space Shuttle while there. I also saw the whale in Mitsugirly's review and that wasn't there when we were there. :( That was 5 years ago though.

 

Mitsugirly, again, I really enjoyed your review of the whole cruise and just looked through your Grand Turk link just now. I just love the pictures you get, so beautiful!!! I love how you got a picture of your conch on the rocks with the beautiful water in the background. I was too busy getting pictures of our ship since it was actually docked on that side of the pier, even though we were the only ship in port that day. They did have trouble getting us docked due to the winds, so maybe that's why. They tried twice and failed but made it on the third attempt. If that wasn't successful, we'd have missed port. Whew!!! It was very cloudy, windy, and spitting rain but did clear up later in the day.

[mitsugirly]

I have two grey/blue shells (whelks, but they are also referred to as conch shells) that I found in SC and love them.

 

Mitsugirly, again, I really enjoyed your review of the whole cruise and just looked through your Grand Turk link just now. I just love the pictures you get, so beautiful!!! I love how you got a picture of your conch on the rocks with the beautiful water in the background. I was too busy getting pictures of our ship since it was actually docked on that side of the pier, even though we were the only ship in port that day. They did have trouble getting us docked due to the winds, so maybe that's why. They tried twice and failed but made it on the third attempt. If that wasn't successful, we'd have missed port. Whew!!! It was very cloudy, windy, and spitting rain but did clear up later in the day.

 

Thank y ou so much. If you looked at the review, you probably seen the space shuttle pictures. They are located right there in port where you find the shopping area. It's right past Ron Jon going toward the beach area kinda. All the space shuttle stuff is all together in the area. If you go back, you'll know where to look next time. ;)

 

I ended up grabbing one of those blue/gray shells when we were there too. I had never seen any that color and knew I wanted one.

 

There was a lady that was heading back with her "prized shell" and it was so neat. It was like someone took the entire shell and just cut the entire thing in half and it exposed all the layers inside. It was so cool (reminds me of the jewelry you sometimes find of the shells like the following picture-but only a conch shell instead)

 

 

 

I looked several times for one like that and found a few "similar" but not as good as hers. I ended up not getting the ones I did find like that. I guess if I couldn't find the "perfect" one after seeing hers, I didn't want it. :D

 

I still to this date have not been able to find my sea urchin that I found there as well. I know I had it up until it was packed in my suitcase to come home. Once I arrived home, it was no where to be found. :( I kept thinking it was going to fall out of the laundry somewhere and it never did. My last hope is that it's still in the luggage somewhere (I keep our snorkeling stuff in there after we return and a few other things) and hopefully if it is, I will be finding it sometime next week when I start to pack for our next vacation. It looked like this:

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Thank y ou so much. If you looked at the review, you probably seen the space shuttle pictures. They are located right there in port where you find the shopping area. It's right past Ron Jon going toward the beach area kinda. All the space shuttle stuff is all together in the area. If you go back, you'll know where to look next time. ;)

 

I ended up grabbing one of those blue/gray shells when we were there too. I had never seen any that color and knew I wanted one.

 

There was a lady that was heading back with her "prized shell" and it was so neat. It was like someone took the entire shell and just cut the entire thing in half and it exposed all the layers inside. It was so cool (reminds me of the jewelry you sometimes find of the shells like the following picture-but only a conch shell instead)

 

 

 

I looked several times for one like that and found a few "similar" but not as good as hers. I ended up not getting the ones I did find like that. I guess if I couldn't find the "perfect" one after seeing hers, I didn't want it. :D

 

I still to this date have not been able to find my sea urchin that I found there as well. I know I had it up until it was packed in my suitcase to come home. Once I arrived home, it was no where to be found. :( I kept thinking it was going to fall out of the laundry somewhere and it never did. My last hope is that it's still in the luggage somewhere (I keep our snorkeling stuff in there after we return and a few other things) and hopefully if it is, I will be finding it sometime next week when I start to pack for our next vacation. It looked like this:

 

 

Thank you. Yes, I did see your space shuttle pictures in your review. I'd seen pictures of them in a few other reviews but they were after our trip to Grand Turk. I only joined CC a few weeks before our cruise that year. Next time, I know where to look and the directions you gave me were helpful. We were in the Ron Jon shop for a few minutes the day we were there and just never saw it. Believe it or not, we did see the "real deal" in April 2012 when they flew Space Shuttle Discovery from FL to the Air and Space museum located near Washington Dulles International Airport. They flew it on the back, piggy back style, of a specially outfitted NASA 747 jet and had an escort of a NASA fighter jet. We live under the landing/takeoff pattern in/out of Dulles and it just depends on which way the wind is blowing whether we see them coming in for landing or taking off and that day, the winds were in our favor...the landing pattern. They flew it over our whole area for about an our that day and we saw it five times, three passing right over our neighborhood. We only needed to go out to our driveway to get great views of it and we took so many pictures and video.

 

The prized shell that the other lady found sounds like a one of a kind, especially natural like that. I'd love to have seen that, but I got a good idea from the picture you included of what it looked like. I'm kicking myself now for not getting one of the pretty blue/grey ones but am happy with the ones I found. We'll just have to make sure we get to Grand Turk again and I'll have an "excuse" to get one of the blue/grey ones. I saw another one that was a pinkish orange, very pretty, but it had black stuff at the top that I knew would not come off so I left it. It's in one of the pictures I attached earlier in this thread. I had no problems finding them, it was trying to decide which were my "keepers" that was tough.

 

Gosh, I sure do hope you find your urchin with your luggage. I found a really nice one the day we were there, pinkish/purple and white, but it didn't make it back in one piece. I bought a replacement a couple years later while on a beach vacation in SC with my family. I normally prefer to find my own, but the one in the store looked very similar and I did find one, so that was good enough for me. I found a tiny one in Grand Turk, the size of a dime, that made it home. I also found a really nice one in St. Martin (French side) while on our Valor cruise that made it back in one piece. It's the size of a large egg and bleached white from the sun. Again, I really hope you find yours. Let us know if you do. :)

Edited May 23, 2015 by pghsteelerfan