DAY 3 GRAND TURK 7-2pm

So, today is Sakari's 9th birthday. As I said before, we didn't tell her that her birthday fell at the time of the cruise. We hadn't mentioned it to her yet....

This was going to be a short port day (hate those) and we have been here twice already. It's such a small little island and I knew I wanted something new to do here. After researching, I found that there are tours that will take you to a little remote island called "Gibbs Caye" and it's known for having stingrays that swim right up to the beach. Although we have swam with the stingrays at the sandbar in Grand Cayman a few times, and also encountered stingrays while snorkeling from the beach at other places, this seemed like the best options to do something "different" other than just a beach. So, I started my research to see which company provided these services.

When contacting BOHIO, I was a little put off by their responses when asking questions. In the end, they told me there was a minimum of $450.00 to go!!! Say what??? THEN they told me "We could not offer you a Gibbs Cay Excursion at this time as it is always subject to weather and availability . If you would like to contact us closer to your arrival date, we could check for availability for this trip."

Wait, what? Seriously? If they tell this to everyone inquiring about this trip, how do they gather enough people to do it? I would also be responsible for catching and paying for a cab to get to their facility. For a planner like me, I have to know exactly what I'm doing and can't wait until I get there to figure it out. Well, they lost my business.

Someone on the boards suggested Grand Turk Diving and stated that they meet you right on the beach, down from the cruise port. So, I contacted them. They had excellent communication and the cost was $88/pp. We made a 50% deposit and the rest was paid after the tour. So, I booked.

They did say this tour offered 2 snorkeling stops at "the wall" and then on to Gibbs. Honestly, I only wanted the Gibbs Caye portion, but they said it was all included in the price, unless I wanted to do a private tour. I really don't care for snorkeling from a boat for some reason. When I snorkel, I would much rather do it from the beach. There's also something about a wall or "drop off" that kinda freaks me out. So, I wasn't too thrilled about this portion of the tour...especially with Sakari, who thinks she can do anything and I battle with her to use a life jacket.

I set the alarm and headed for the shower that morning. When I got out, I had a message for Sakari to break the news to her.

She was so excited! She finally gets a birthday cruise!! The joy in her face was just priceless. Then I told her "guess what we are doing for your birthday other than going to the beach? STINGRAYS!!" Super happy child here I tell ya.

The kids club had sent her this:

We headed for breakfast and I had my "normal" breakfast.

After breakfast, we bumped into Thrilled and munchkins and Sakari took a pic of her new friend she just adores.

We were off the ship by 7:15 and headed to our assigned location for pick up.

The paparazzi swarmed us "Mitsugirly, mitsugirly, can we get a picture of you?"

Even the towel animals wanted a picture

It looked to me like they have cleared off a little more on this side of the beach? Or have I just not noticed it before?

The hubbs decided he had to "potty" and we headed for the restrooms. Just like a kid sometimes, don't go before you leave the ship. LOL So I took this opportunity to take a few pictures before it got too crowded in port.

The birthday girl

Then we headed out to the beach.

I always love the great pics you can get of the ship from the beach here.

To read our great day with the birthday girl and heading to Gibbs Cay, click the following tab:

After returning back to the port, we decided to stay at the port for awhile and swim in the awesome pool they have here.

So we took turns taking showers and tried our best to hurry. All aboard was 1:30pm and sail away was 2pm...and we all know that the buffet has wacko opening times and they close at 2:30pm...just in time for the rush of everyone getting back on the ship and hungry. GRRRR! I really don't understand these times they are open. It's never matching when people are hungry after a day in port.

Sakari decided she was going to do some drawings after her shower and waiting on us to get ready.

We made it upstairs at 2:45pm and of course everything was closed. 

I guess we are heading to the deli for lunch. 

We were completely starved and Sakari really doesn't care for anything they serve there and said she was going to wait to eat with the kids at 6pm at Camp Carnival. We opted for hotdogs and grilled cheese. Of course once Sakari seen my grilled cheese, she decided she wanted some of it. Sigh. So my lunch consisted of a half a sandwich. Go me.

We were so hungry I completely forgot to take pictures until this...

We went outside to sit for a minute and this immediately happened.

We let her nap for about 1/2 hour and then woke her up and decided to explore a little more. She wanted to go play ping pong and had been trying every day but someone was on them.

She squealed with excitement when she seen there was an empty table.

However, this was not a game of ping pong, it was a game of chase the ball. It was just too windy on the deck and daddy finally gave up.

Our new 9 year old is a shark now.

We decided to head down to the cake shop and the candy store to see if we could find Sakari a birthday cake. No luck at all. Darn. I promised to get her one when we returned home and reminded her that most kids would gladly forego the birthday cake for a cruise.

She headed up to the kids club at 5pm and they went to dinner at 6pm. I sure hope she had better luck than us getting food.

Along the way, we ran into Thrilled and she had a gift bag for Sakari for her birthday. How freakin nice is that? She didn't have to do that or go out of her way, but Sakari definitely loved it.

We headed to the casino to kill some time until the show that night was due. 

Then we headed to the theater for the show: it said it was the 80's pop show, however, it ended up being a Rock Show. I over heard someone say they had cancelled the 80s show due the rocking of the ship. I'm not sure.

After the show, we decided to go check out the food at the buffet before they....CLOSED...at 9:30pm. I feel like I'm starving on this cruise.

They had some spaghetti, baked potatoes, and egg rolls that all looked yummy. I topped it off with a salad, cottage cheese and cheese cubes. I was in heaven. I had finally got a full meal that was all yummy. You would have to roll me out of there after that meal.

Before they closed, I ran up and grabbed a plate of spaghetti and a bowl of cottage cheese to take back to the room for Sakari when she got out of Camp. I knew she would be hungry again and we were determined not to have to eat pizza again.

We picked her up and went back to the room for her to eat.

She was so excited to show me her present from Thrilled...an art set!! How perfect!

Complete with a drawing from her daughter Michaela. She knows Sakari likes dragons and mermaids...so meet the mergon!

We packed our beach bags for port the next day and off to bed we went.

 I almost forgot...here's the glass rock that Sakari managed to find on Grand Turk. She was just at the beach swimming (when we were waiting for the boat for Gibbs Caye to arrive). This island seems to have a lot of this stuff. So if you are a collector...

END OF DAY 3