Nicole721 Takes on the SUNSHINE: A Full PICTORIAL Review

[Nicole721]

The dining room was surprisingly empty when we were seated. We weren’t sure if it was due to the winds (which were heavily more pronounced in the aft dining room) or if was because it was Christmas, but either way, we had excellent service and an excellent meal.

 

Where is everybody?!

 

Bread Basket

 

Corn Chowder Maryland

 

Shrimp Cocktail

 

Penne Siciliana

 

Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup

[Nicole721]

Caesar Salad

 

Green Bean and Roma Tomato Salad

 

Roasted Half Spring Chicken with Gravy

 

Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise

[Nicole721]

Baked Alaska

 

Cheese Plate

 

Amaretto Cake

[Nicole721]

We went to watch Jurassic World at the Dive In Movies, but a rain shower forced us to take shelter at the Blue Iguana for most of the movie.

 

 

 

Earlier that morning, during The Morning Show, Darnell had mentioned that fans of musicals should head to the Red Frog at 9:00 pm sharp for a special surprise. And when Stephanie mentioned that to me, I immediately understood: “December 24th, 9:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script.” It was Rent day! So we headed to the Red Frog and grabbed some drinks and waited for our special surprise. It never came. Lies lies lies. But we were treated to a nice acoustic set from a really fantastic singer. I really enjoy the live music in the Red Frog on the ships we’ve sailed on that has the pub onboard. It’s completely unplugged and raw, a nice change of pace from the backtracks that have filled the production shows and piano bars since the 2.0 changes.

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

There was a late night deck party, but I’m pretty sure we completely slept through that. But we woke up just in time to grab a snack from the pizza shop, watch Crazy Stupid Love on the TV in our cabin and enjoy the fact that six nights into our cruise, we were finally hitting some smoother seas.

 

 

 

[LizSS]

No one wants to go to Alaska?! I volunteer to go with you

 

 

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[Nicole721]

No one wants to go to Alaska?! I volunteer to go with you

 

 

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The more the merrier :D

[Nicole721]

There’s a scene in Home Alone 2 where Kevin rhetorically asks his parents who’d want to spend Christmas with palm trees. They weren't in Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos islands, though. I think they were going to Miami. We’ve never spent Christmas anywhere but Chicago. Granted, we don’t celebrate Christmas, ourselves, but we have our own traditions and we enjoy the spirit of the holiday.

 

Usually, we sleep in, lament about all of the places we can’t go because everything is closed, have an early dinner at our local Chinese restaurant and then hit the movies.

 

And, oddly enough, we were able to keep most of our “traditions” on the ship. But Kevin McAllister was right – it is weird spending Christmas with palm trees.

 

We were already docked in Grand Turk when we woke up. We headed up to the Lido deck for a quick breakfast of the made to order breakfast pizza’s we’d discovered the morning earlier and found a pool deck full of hogs…and zebras, crocodiles, frogs and all kinds of towel creatures!

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We settled in for a leisurely breakfast when Jaime came over the PA to announce that the Splendor would be docking alongside us in about a half hour and at that time, they’d shut down the pier for about 20 minutes while the Splendor docked. We had no time sensitive plans, but we also didn’t want to be sitting around waiting, so we wrapped up our breakfast quickly and disembarked.

 

 

I’ve never met anyone who has claimed that Grand Turk is their favorite island. We’ve been there at least half a dozen times and, don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice island. It’s just…lacking of things to do.

 

 

 

Though the largest Turk island in the Turks & Caicos chain, Grand Turk is still less than seven square miles. From the Lido deck, you can see the ocean touching the coast on the other side of the island. It’s that small.

 

 

And not only is it small, Carnival has pumped millions of dollars into the creation, renovation and upkeep of the port, so walking around “downtown” Grand Turk is just like walking around Roatan and Costa Maya: completely commercialized with minimal local flavor. So between the size and the Carnival factor, there isn’t a ton to do. You can shop. You can go to the beach. You can brave Margaritaville. There are a handful of excursions that take you on a tour of the island or to a private resort. We just wing it.

 

[Nicole721]

Usually we shop and then head back to the ship to swim. This time, we decided to walk down the beach to see what we’d find before shopping (…and heading back to the ship to swim. Why hang around a very crowded beach when you’d have a nice and empty Serenity deck on the ship?). We walked towards the gates and hung a right and then we just kept walking until there weren’t any people around. We found some rock formations that were stunningly gorgeous and took some pictures that looked like they were postcards. Grand Turk may not be anyone’s favorite port, but it is a gorgeous one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also found a small monument to NASA and the space program. Did you know that Grand Turk has played an integral role in the space program? They even have a little shop at the periphery of the shopping area.

 

[Nicole721]

When we were done exploring the beach, we headed back to the downtown area to finish our shopping. The shopping in Grand Turk is better (price-wise) than the shopping in Bonaire, but neither are as good as the shopping in Aruba. We picked up a few handmade rings and called it a day. More than the shopping, though, we enjoyed the holiday spirit tucked into every corner of the island. Between the holiday decorations and the reggae Christmas carols, Christmas was all around.

 

 

 

 

 

We walked through the small crafts market on our way back, but nothing seemed all that unique – it was just the same stuff sold in the shops hocked in a stand.

 

 

You need to walk through Dufrey to get back to the ship, and Stephanie wanted to stop and buy some liquor for her boss, but man, it was so crowded. It took forever to find the one tequila set she wanted and pay for it. And if you need pharmaceutical goods or last minute sunscreen? Don’t buy it at Dufrey. The convenience is great but the prices are outrageous.

[Nicole721]

We snapped a couple of last minute shots of the beach before reembarking the ship. The beach is always super crowded in Grand Turk and when there’s more than one ship docked, it’s borderline ridiculous, but it always makes for a pretty photo op.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We dropped our stuff off at the room, changed into our swimsuits and headed up to Ji Ji’s for our traditional Chinese Christmas lunch. The lines had been outrageous all week, but being in port helped alleviate that. And the stir fry was good.

 

 

And for dessert, they put out a special display of cupcakes in the Marketplace. They were adorable and tasty!

 

 

[Nicole721]

We headed up to Serenity, grabbed some primo seats by the pool and alternated between swimming and staring out at the island.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

When our shoulders were starting to get red (even with the copious amounts of SPF 50 we were slathering onto ourselves), we headed inside to shower and get ready for formal night. Counter space to get ready is a premium in our family and we negotiate it as if it were prime real estate. This time, since sailaway overlapped with our get ready time, we had a clear compromise: we all did our hair, then Stephanie and I went out to deck 3 to watch sailaway while Mom did her makeup and got ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hadn’t seen a Caribbean sunset on this cruise, mostly because the sunsets come earlier in the winter and overlapped with our dinner time, but we did get a spectacular view of the sun peeking out from some fluffy clouds as we left Grand Turk.

 

[Nicole721]

Once we were all dressed and ready, we headed up to Ocean Plaza to check in for dinner and take our obligatory formal night pictures. The ship was really starting to rock again, and I had to hang on to Mom so I didn’t topple over in my heels.

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

There was a special Christmas gala dinner in the dining room, and it was refreshing to have new options to choose from. Everything we tried was fantastic, and I have my fingers crossed they rename the Christmas Salad and add it to their regular rotation.

 

Pumpkin Bisque

 

Shrimp Cocktail x2

 

Chilled Tomato Soup with Wild Berry Salad

 

Christmas Salad

[Nicole721]

Petite Filet Mignon and Braised Boneless Short Rib

 

Slowly Roasted Tom Turkey with Our Christmas Stuffing

 

Zucchini Fritters

 

Caramel Praline Crème Brulee

[Nicole721]

After dinner, we headed to the Liquid Lounge for a viewing of the Studio VIP show. They were looking high and low for some VIP’s to star in the show. Audience participation is not really our bag, but they were offering free drinks and special access to anyone who would participate. And while I’ve been (and will likely continue to be) critical of the Playlist Productions shows, I think this is one of the stronger ones. The setlist was on point and the performances were so good that I barely noticed those awful animatronic backgrounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We walked through the shops to peruse the sales after the show and then stopped into Cherry On Top to grab some candy to enjoy during the movie before heading back to the room to change.

 

 

 

And finally, waiting for us in the room, were the invites to the Platinum/Diamond Party. We had almost given up on this party – we were nearing the end of the cruise at this point.

 

 

We didn’t spend much time contemplating the late invites, though: we had a movie to catch. Going to the movies on Christmas is one of our family traditions, and we were excited to be able to continue it on the ship. We caught the tail end of The Grinch, but the big showing of the night was a 10:00 pm screening of Home Alone. I’ve seen Home Alone more times than I can count, but watching it on a cruise ship under the stars with a sippy cup of bubbly is infinitely more fun than watching it at home on my couch!

 

 

 

They were also doing a special midnight showing of Mad Max, but we were too tired to sit through a third movie. We grabbed some pizza and called it a night. We only had one more day left on the ship, and so much left to do.

 

[josieallen]

Great review

 

 

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[cruiselife4me]

On page 8, LOVING it!!!!

[NoDayButToday]

Glad to see the continuation, Christmas on a cruise ship was my family's tradition for years, it's nice to see that much of that experience is still the same.

 

And I promise, you do get used to Christmas with palm trees. I haven't seen snow in about 5 years now, and I still don't really miss it. Out Christmas tradition looks much like yours because it isn't my holiday either (and my husband isn't religious), ours is just less cold :)

 

 

 

I’ve never met anyone who has claimed that Grand Turk is their favorite island. We’ve been there at least half a dozen times and, don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice island. It’s just…lacking of things to do.

 

 

 

 

It isn't my favorite island either, it's nice, and a good beach day...but it's just a beach. However, it was the favorite stop for my husband and a couple friends on our last cruise because they are ocean people. They spent so much time snorkeling and looking at fish and loving that crystal clear water. And as a glasses wearer who can't see much without them, I can appreciate that because even I was able to see a lot of beautiful fish from the surface without having to take my glasses off and swap for my prescription dive mask.

[cruisequeen4ever]

What a difference a week can make...Grand Turk actually became my new fav Caribbean island even above Barbados on our visit there the week before you. The difference was that we were on a calm Princess ship, there were no other ships in port, the beach wasn't crowded at all, Margaritaville was the perfect balance of fun, liveliness, and relaxation, and the water was just plain perfect.

[tandemcruzr]

Really enjoying your review.

 

Here is a link to the actual downtown of GT. Some nice shops and eating places much cheaper than at the port and not too far away. Maybe you've been there before.

 

http://www.grandturkcc.com/island-information/historic-downtown-map.aspx

Edited February 29, 2016 by tandemcruzr