First Stop - Grand Turk (Southern Caribbean - July 15, 2014)

Our first port on this cruise was Grand Turk.  We had been to this port before.  It is a small and flat island.  It has some nice beaches.  We had snorkeled down by the boat you can barely see in upper left-hand corner of the picture beyond the pier.  We had to take a taxi there, and this year we didn't really have a plan to go anywhere.  We decided to disembark and see if anything struck us.

The port is a very pretty.  There are many shops just down the pier.  There are always taxis and people trying to sell excursions.  Nothing really did strike anyone, but we noticed a huge pool right behind the shops.  It didn't look like it was associated with any particular business.  It wasn't enclosed at all.  So, we decided to just see if we could find a chair so we could hang out for a while.  Fortunately, we found a couple of chairs and just stayed at this pool for a while.  It was really nice and was just free.  There were bars around it and some events that could be done for a fee, but the pool area and chairs were free!  This area was just down the pier and behind the shops but close to the ships.  As you can see from the picture of the pool with Adri and me, there was another Carnival ship in port at the same time.

The panoramic picture show just how huge this pool was There was a pool just as big behind Alex who was taking the picture.  There was an island in the middle of all this with walking bridges all around.

After some time at the pool and walking though the shops, the girls decided to head back to the ship.  Alex and I wanted to at least cool off a little and get in the water from the beach.  There are beach areas on both sides of the pier.  Heading to the left, there is a better beach area, but that can get a little crowded.  Turning to the right was not as busy but it was a little rocky, which was fine for Alex and me.  We took the picture of the ships with the girls on the pier.  It is always amazing to see how huge these ships are.