7 Day Tropical Caribbean on the Neiuw Statendam

[Haljo1935]

That is awesome you got the snacks - they look terrific. Sounds like HAL did a nice thing. 

[scubacruiserx2]

20 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

That is awesome you got the snacks - they look terrific. Sounds like HAL did a nice thing. 

 

  They were and they did !  We hope to surprise the family with it , maybe on an afternoon at sea .

 This was the food that came with our daughters wedding on Carnival in the Port of Miami .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

That looks lovely!

[scubacruiserx2]

6 hours ago, QuattroRomeo said:

That looks lovely!

 

 They did a good job for a great price . Highly recommended for wedding . The guests that didn't sail left the ship before it left . We went on our daughter's honeymoon but didn't see her or our SIL until the last night at the Chef 's Table . 😊🙂

Edited May 3 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

7-Day Tropical Caribbean

 

[scubacruiserx2]

  For our visit to Amber Cove and what we did we would recommend post # 297 on the link below .

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 6 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 We spent Cinco de Mayo with our daughters , SIL and her 2 sons . Today she has a 2 hour surgery in the hospital where she has been a nurse for 17 years . If you pray we would appreciate that you would pray for her surgery and the team of Doctors and nurses , and her family as she undergoes a 6 month rehab before returning to work and cruising later on our family cruise . Thank you  . 🙏

[scubacruiserx2]

 A map of Amber Cove  

 

 

We found some photos from Grand Turk when we first visited there with a trip to the Lighthouse  7 miles from the port at the North end of the Island .

 

 

The only lighthouse in the country, it was prefabricated in England and built in 1852 it first used whale oil to light the lamp before being converted to kerosene .

 

 

As we walked around the grounds we took a picture of the lighthouse but the glare from the sun didn't allow a good photo .

 

Edited May 8 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

   This was the only time that we went on the East side of Grand Turk . With 1000 shipwrecks on this side , it's best for cruise ships to keep their distance . Pretty but deadly .

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

  At the beginning of the last century salt production was Grand Turk's main business with an export of 140 million pounds per year . Donkeys were used for labor and you can still see wild ones all over the island . We saw this one near the lighthouse looking for food in the scrub 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

  Instead of the Northeastern reef system with waves , we would be diving and eating on the calmer West side .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The dark blue line on the horizon is where the wall drops off to 7000 ' deep .

 

[scubacruiserx2]

On 5/8/2024 at 4:54 PM, scubacruiserx2 said:

 A map of Amber Cove  

 

 

We found some photos from Grand Turk when we first visited there with a trip to the Lighthouse  7 miles from the port at the North end of the Island .

 

 

The only lighthouse in the country, it was prefabricated in England and built in 1852 it first used whale oil to light the lamp before being converted to kerosene .

 

 

As we walked around the grounds we took a picture of the lighthouse but the glare from the sun didn't allow a good photo .

 

 

 

 Found the better photo of the lighthouse

 

[scubacruiserx2]

  While we like Half Moon Cay , it is only a part of  Little San Salvador Island in the Bahamas . The people who work there are from Eleuthera and commute daily by boat .

 Our favorite cruise ship Cay was Princess Cay located at the Southern area of Eleuthera . There was a natural beach called Lighthouse Beach which was off of the Princess property that we used to go to . You can see from left to right on this map , Eleuthera Island  ( Princess Cay ) , Little San Salvador Island ( Half Moon Cay ) and Cat Island .

    https://www.google.com/maps/place/Little+San+Salvador+Island/@24.5754043,-76.0265797,12.05z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x893042c47ce97625:0xb817f511398b8006!8m2!3d24.5712472!4d-75.9143867!16zL20vMGNzcWRw?entry=ttu

 

 Unfortunately , Disney bought Lighthouse Beach and will change it in the same way that Carnival buys or rents land like Amber Cove in the DR . And HAL did with Half Moon Cay . Here's the story on the Disney purchase .

 

 https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2023/03/new-disney-cruise-line-island-destination-at-lighthouse-point-in-the-bahamas-to-welcome-guests-in-summer-2024/

 

  Please look at what Disney is doing and we will show photos of what it was when we went there on a Princess cruise with a local guide before the Disney purchase .

 

 

  We left the Princess property by a gate in the back of the property by showing our Passport and met our guide here .

 

 

 

 We needed a 4 wheel drive vehicle to travel to the beach in the back of the truck .

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

  A video panorama of the Lighthouse Beach before Disney development . On the horizon after the cove you can see the Regal Princess as a white spot at the 15 second mark , in the distance  .

 

 

 

 The most current Google map of development .

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@24.6213773,-76.1519099,2963m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

Edited May 11 by scubacruiserx2

[Haljo1935]

On 5/9/2024 at 5:21 PM, scubacruiserx2 said:

  At the beginning of the last century salt production was Grand Turk's main business with an export of 140 million pounds per year . Donkeys were used for labor and you can still see wild ones all over the island . We saw this one near the lighthouse looking for food in the scrub 

 

Thanks for sharing your adventures and the great pictures. I love Turks - it is so calming.

I took this picture of a "local" last Feb when I was blessed to enjoy my birthday with them.

[scubacruiserx2]

8 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Thanks for sharing your adventures and the great pictures. I love Turks - it is so calming.

I took this picture of a "local" last Feb when I was blessed to enjoy my birthday with them.

 

  What a nice birthday surprise . It looks like it's going to the beach for your birthday .

[scubacruiserx2]

  At Lighthouse Beach there is a point that juts out into the ocean from which we took these photos , facing back . From left to the right was a cove where we snorkeled , a panorama of the cove , the old lighthouse and the ocean and beach .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beach from the point and walking the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

  It appears that Disney may have left the larger cove where we snorkeled and the Lighthouse Beach intact . From the Google Map you can see the point . the island beyond and the larger cove where we snorkeled on the reefs .

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@24.6156775,-76.1517276,867m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Not much life on the reef . Soft corals , sea fans and a small school French Grunts hiding under the rocks . We prefer SCUBA diving

and still photos where the Strobe Flash shows the true colors . Photos from the same trip at Grand Cayman .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And our Avatar - That's a Moray

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

   Happy Mother's Day ! 💗

 

 

 

Edited May 12 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 Mother's Day photo

 

 Mom , Dad , and our son and daughters , half of the family for the next cruise we hope .

 

[albingirl]

You have the very best blogs or postings, whatever we call it.  Thank you for all the fabulous photos....it makes me want to book a cruise right now!

[scubacruiserx2]

13 hours ago, albingirl said:

You have the very best blogs or postings, whatever we call it.  Thank you for all the fabulous photos....it makes me want to book a cruise right now!

 

 Thank you very much for your kind words . They are very much appreciated . We agree with booking a cruise , we would love to book a quickie before the summer heat and the Storm season . 

 But the budget says for the same price we can update our hurricane protection with Storm Catcher roll down screens . It's a weak point of the house where the kitchen overlooks the pool with 3 windows and we need a lot of large heavy shutters for the French doors .

  And with the screen partially , down it works like sunglasses for the house , reducing the glare from the pool . We're still waiting for the permits but we wanted to beat the busy season when the weather people keep every one the edge with their overly excited forecasts . 🙄🌀

[scubacruiserx2]

  Being of a certain age , I remember seeing the first manned space launches in school on TV live . On Grand Turk , near the pier to the right , there is a tribute to the first 7 Mercury Astronauts .

  Here are a few photos and the story of how John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth in Friendship 7 in 1962 . He landed not far from Grand Turk where he first sat foot on land and spent several days and met with most of the other original Astronauts . The red and white canopy is the pattern of the parachute that slowed his capsule on reentry to the earth's atmosphere .

 

 

 

 

 

On landing he was very hot in the capsule and space suit so he blew open the side hatch using the explosive bolts .

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/60-years-ago-john-glenn-the-first-american-to-orbit-the-earth-aboard-friendship-7

 

 Last week we went out front of our house and watched the Space X launch from Cape Canaveral , 150 miles away . The first photo was the second stage separation and the second was the penumbra  , AKA the Jellyfish crossing the horizon . So cool !

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

  We spent New Years Eve of 2022 on the NieuwAmsterdam . It was our first cruise after Covid and we had to wear masks . It was also our second trip to Amber Cove DR . The ship was fairly empty and  we were the only ship in port and loved it  !

 

 

 

 

 

Some sights entering the port

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 When exiting the ship we had to walk from the aft corner to the mid ship stairway . It's almost a mile walk from there to the front gate at the bottom of the photo where it says local guides . We tried to get the tricycle to take us there but he stopped at the half way point at the Alamo car rental . From there it was about a half a mile walk to get to front gate where we met our guide Henry .

 

 

 

 

 

We each carry about 20 pounds in gear and water and we stopped part way to look back and take a photo of the ship

 

 

The Pico de Gallo