Grand Turks, Turks & Caicos

November 22-24, 2015

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Sunday the 22nd we returned the rental car to the Fort Lauderdale Airport. From there we took the the Port Everglades Express Shuttle to Port Everglades. For $7.00 a person they take you from the airport and drop you off in front of your ship. A fraction of what a taxi or the other shuttles would have cost.

After checking in our baggage and ourselves we were able to get into our room. This is a two week trip, or more accurately two one week trips. The itinerary is as follows:

Cruise Itinerary

Sun Nov 22 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, US 4:00pm
Mon Nov 23 At Sea
Tue Nov 24 GRAND TURK, TURKS AND CAICOS 8:00am 3:00pm
Wed Nov 25 SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 1:00pm 11:00pm
Thu Nov 26 ST. THOMAS, U.S.V.I. 8:00am 5:00pm
Fri Nov 27 At Sea
Sat Nov 28 HALF MOON CAY, BAHAMAS 8:00am 3:00pm
Sun Nov 29 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, US 7:00am 4:00pm

Mon Nov 30 HALF MOON CAY, BAHAMAS 8:00am 4:00pm
Tue Dec 1 At Sea
Wed Dec 2 GEORGETOWN, CAYMAN ISLANDS 8:00am 4:00pm
Thu Dec 3 COZUMEL, MEXICO 11:00am 11:00pm
Fri Dec 4 At Sea
Sat Dec 5 KEY WEST, FLORIDA, US 8:00am 5:00pm
Sun Dec 6 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, US 7:00am

We find that Holland America is really a higher end cruise line. The room stewards meet you at your room and know your name. We chose to have a balcony room on this cruise because the weather would be warm and we would spend more time outside. We are in cabin 7091 on the Rotterdam deck. This deck has more suites which also has the "better" stewards which is why we went with this deck.

Cabin 7091

Here is the reverse view of the room. The leather band across the bed is there to put the suitcases on. The stewards remove it later.

Verandah Room

After checking into the room we went to lunch. The food is excellent on Holland America. Holland American ships are generally smaller then the other "brands" which we really prefer. The other thing we really like is that the buffet's are NOT self serve. You tell the servers what you want and they put it on plates for you, it is still as much as you want, but they serve it for you. We really like that because frankly people don't understand what ladles and tongs and forks and spoons are for!! They think I want their fingers and hands in MY food! For this reason alone I will sail on Holland!!

This is the middle pool. It is the family pool. The top can be closed during bad weather to make it a covered pool.

Middle Pool

We are sailing away from Port Everglades. You can see the rear pool here. Most of the other cruise lines use salt water in their pools and hot tubs. Holland America has a huge desalination plant and reverse osmosis system on their ships so they make all their own drinking water. They use the same water for showers and even the pools. I mentioned earlier that the middle pool is a family pool, this rear pool is for adults only so you can get some quiet here if you want.

Rear Pool

On the "at sea" day they had an Indonesian lunch day. The staff wore Indonesian clothes and the food was Indonesian food. It was interesting.

Indonesian Dress

The diner options in the main dining room are always good. Patty and I chose to sit at a two person table. We had wonderful wait staff who remembered what we wanted to drink (iced tea and water) and always had it waiting for us when we arrived.

Dining Room

Our first port was Grand Turks on Turks and Caicos. We were able to dock here.

Grand Turks

We took this picture and thought it came out really nice. Holland should use it in their promotions. LOL!

Nieuw Amsterdam

We met up with the tour operators and headed out to our first snorkel site. We actually went to two. We took our own masks and snorkels, but they made us wear these vests. We also used their fins.

Patty Snorkeling

I bought a waterproof pouch for my cell phone so I could take these photos. Here are some from our group swimming among the fish.

Fish

I was able to break away from the group here.

More Fish

There was some Coral here, although it was not very pretty. I thought these sea fans were interesting.

Sea Fans

Here I am in the boat. We actually did two dives. It had been a while since we had snorkeled so it was fun.

Brian in Boat

The water has a turquoise hue to it. It is also so clear! Really beautiful! It is really amazing. Here we are in November and the water is so warm, like a heated swimming pool. No wet suit needed here.

Crystal Clear Water

After drying off and getting back to shore we walked back to the ship for lunch. The port was setup for the ships so there was really no place to go but the very commercial (high prices) places. That evening after dinner when we went back to our room the towel animals started. Here is one with chocolates on its arms.

Towel Animal

It was a great day in Grand Turks today. Tomorrow is Puerto Rico. We have nothing planned for tomorrow, but you know us... we will figure it out!!!!

God Bless you,

Love you,

Brian and Patty