DAY 4 GRAND TURK Wednesday

I was up at 6:45 and ready to go...with my arm asleep and numb and my back aching from the hard bed...but hey at least my room was no longer cold (they claim to have "fixed" it, but I think it was because we were now in warm weather-wink wink).

DING DING DING...GET UP!!!! 

I got the crew up, called Kendra to make sure she was up and informed her for the 50th time I would not be waiting on her late butt to get off the ship and we were on our way to the buffet area for breakfast.

Same old, same old for me.

We were due in at Grand Turk at 8am...and we were pulling in at 8am right on time.

Hey, they have a wrecked boat just like Mahogany Bay.

I was really looking forward to this port. It was something new for me, a place I had never been to before, a place I had seen shows on the travel channel about, a place I just knew I was going to like and others on the boards raved about.

We met up with Kendra and Brayden, one last photo of the port and we were heading back down to our rooms to grab our beach bags.

To see our day of hanging out at the beach, snorkeling and pool time, click the following tab:

As we pull out of Grand Turk, I reflect on my thoughts of this place I had waited years to visit.

We headed back to our rooms, took showers and out to my balcony to "whale watch" LOL. Now I know it's whale season...well the END of whale season at the time we were on the Pride and I know that a good place to spot them is around the Grand Turk area. I looked and I looked and I prayed and.....nothing. Ugh. I had really hoped to see something. To this date I have never seen a THING from my balcony other than some flying fish. How disappointing. Everyone always says they see dolphins from their balcony and so on, but not me. Sigh

We headed upstairs to grab something to eat...once again, nothing open. Double sigh. We were back to picking between pizza or the deli. At this point I was beginning to get a little disappointed in this buffet schedule versus my schedule. It just didn't click.

To satisfy my craving for a variety of foods (buffet) I had both the deli AND pizza! So there!

My first shot at the pizza and it wasn't burnt and it was ok. Not the best, but it would do.

We headed back to the room to rest for awhile. It was a big day of swimming and walking. Then it was time for the Dr Seuss photo session. I knew Sakari wanted her pictures with the characters, however, I hate how they did it. The had, I believe, Thing 1 and Thing 2 and a blank backdrop at 5:15pm. Then you had to wait until 7:15pm for the Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am pictures. Why not just have them all together?? That was a big wait!!!

We headed down for pictures while daddy napped (no rest for me sigh) and they were setting up the backdrops.

Sakari had a few pictures done with the "Things" and another picture done with the plain drop and no character.

Then it hit me...why isn't she dressed up in her Thing 1 outfit for this? I talked to the photographer and ask how long he would be there and we raced back to the room to get her dressed.

All the door slamming, tearing up the place pulling the costume out and getting Sakari dressed and he didn't open an eye...he was OUT!

We headed back down and had her pictures redone.

We then pretty much had to kill time for about 1 1/2 hours waiting on the rest of the characters to come. (I did see the people with the costumes in the bags head in to get dressed and it was (at least 1) of the girls from Sakari's Camp Carnival kids club. hehe

As we waited....

Sakari with her mini Dr Seuss ears and hat (they provided this along with several different props for the kids and adults to use for the pictures...they had the blue hair, gloves, tiny hats, grinch green beard, cat in the hats hat among other things).

At 7:15pm out came the Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am...picture time was back on.

Just a few odds and ends here.... 

When you purchase pictures, you get a card that they punch to earn free "gifts"

For the first gift, you get a halogen Carnival luggage tag. It has the ship on it and when you move it back and forth, there's dolphins that jump out of the water and a postcard...which happens to be the crappiest picture I've ever seen.

The next gift that they advertise is a cup that you can "personalize" they say...but the catch is, THEY don't personalize it...you have to do that on your own...as in buy a picture that would fit it and put it in there.

The next item I was really excited for...A usb flash drive. So cute.

It comes with all the ships preloaded onto it...but of course they are not updated...or at least the Pride wasn't.

I have to say that the pictures on the ship are OUTRAGEOUS in prices. Any of the pictures you buy with a backdrop in it will cost you $21.99 each. For shots they do around the ship (like when eating or hanging out pool side and the photographer stops and snaps a picture) it is $14.99 and this also includes any gangway pictures.

Back to the room to wake up daddy and drop this munchkin off at the kids club for the night...well at least until pick up at 9:45pm.

We headed to the casino to donate some more money to the Carnival cause. 

We played our "normal" liked games with no luck. Win some, put it back in. Then Kendra decides to go off in the corner and play something new. I sit on the slot beside her. She hits the button twice and says "I don't know what just happened but I won something".

I looked around the corner and the screen is throwing money in the air. We all know how you can win $5 on a penny machine and it will appear like you've hit the jackpot counting pennies as if they were dollars and taking forever. But it kept going and going. I'm trying to figure it out. Gosh Kendra, it looks like you just hit for like $193. No wait, $240 no wait...it says 53200. DOES THAT MEAN YOU JUST WON 53 THOUSAND AND 200 DOLLARS??? No wait, it doesn't. LOL She actually won $532.00. Hey not too shabby and I wouldn't live it down the rest of the cruise either.

Her developed Miley Cyrus face...

We picked Sakari up at 9:45pm and headed up to the buffet to see if we could find anything for a late night "snack" (or should I just call this dinner #2)?

Of course the deli and pizza were our choices and we really didn't want that.

I had read that they were having a Mexican Fiesta at the Blue Iguana that night and I sure could go for some Mexican food about now. We would wait until 10:30pm and go to that instead.

I was really looking forward to that. Then it started and all there was really were different types of chips and salsa. Well, I made a meal out of it!

See that bright read orange nacho cheese on my plate?? WELL IT'S NOT NACHO CHEESE!! It's the fire pit from hell I tell ya. OMG! Like seriously. My mouth was not only on fire, it was flaming like a dragon on a hot summer night. Oh EM GEE! I curse you orange sauce.

Everything else was super delish! All the chips (homemade and all).

I had 2 plates and it hit the spot...except my spot now had a huge hole in it from the fire.

We headed back to the room and this was our towel animal for the night:

Once again, I packed for the following day at Half Moon Cay and off to bed we went.

***Tonight for some reason when we returned to our room, we had no beach towels. Our room steward had taken our wet ones after returning from GT, but didn't leave us any. This would result in a call to housekeeping and a delivery of fresh towel so that I could pack.***