So this post is about a month late, but I wanted to share some photos from our recent cruise to Grand Turk and Amber Cove (in Dominican Republic). We went with a group of friends and had such a good time, so I wanted to just share what we loved, in case you ever find yourself going there too!
We cruised with Carnival (my first time doing so), and ported out of Port Canaveral. Kind of a drive from Charlotte, but we decided to add an extra day in Orlando before our cruise so we could go to Universal Studios. We arrived to Orlando on a Saturday and went to a Brazilian steakhouse called Fogo de Chão for dinner. It was amazing and I highly recommend it! The next day we woke up early and went to Universal. We tried butter-beer in Harry Potter world and stayed in the park from open to close!
On Monday, we woke up early and made the short drive to port. The ship started sailing that night and then we had a day at sea on Tuesday. We had actually great weather at sea (and at our ports!) for being February. It was very mild, sometimes a little chilly at night from the breeze, but I didn’t pack anything heavier than a jean jacket and I was fine!
The first stop was Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. I wish I had taken more pictures there, but we didn’t do any excursions. We found a bar in the port and hung out at their pool the whole day. The weather was amazing! If you ever go on a cruise and go to Amber Cove, I HIGHLY recommend you do an excursion. It’s our biggest regret of our trip! They had an excursion available where you do any easy hike to some waterfalls and then go to a place called “Monkey World” where baby monkeys climb all over you haha! We met some people on the cruise who did that excursion and they said it was AMAZING, so we wish we had done that. If you don’t do an excursion, there is pretty limited shopping in Amber Cove or overall things to do, which is why I think that doing an excursion at this port is a must.
The next day, we landed in Grand Turk which is the biggest island in the Turks and Caicos. We hung out on the beach a bit, did some shopping, and then hired a taxi to show us all over the island. We literally saw the ENTIRE island. We went from the bottom of the island (where the port is) to the top where there is an old lighthouse and a ton of wild donkeys haha!
The beaches in Grand Turk are very nice, so I think just hanging out there is the way to go. We came across a bunch of random island dogs that we probably should not have pet, but they were just so sweet haha
(P.S. if you’re wondering where Garrett got his stunning avocado hat, you can get it here LOL)
I got a recommendation from my friend Sarah over at The Carolina Wanderer that we needed to check out Jack’s Shack in Grand Turk and I’m so glad we did. It’s about a 10 minute walk down the beach from where the cruise ships port. I got a drink called the “sandy vagina” (lol) and G and I split some jerk chicken. The drinks and chicken at this place are no joke. Amazing seasoning and the most tender chicken you’ll ever try. I highly recommend checking them out if you find yourself in Grand Turk.
Then the last full day of the cruise was another day at sea! I finished a great book called Where the Crawdads Sing by the pool. It’s a great summer read– or just book in general, if you’re looking for a good book! We went to a couple shows on the boat during the trip including some comedy shows, a “Love & Marriage” show, a Hasbro themed show (that G actually got called up for as a contestant!); we did plenty of karaoke, ate way too much food, etc.
Overall we had a really good time! Our staff was lovely and we had a great time getting out of town to somewhere warmer for a week!
[…] sea-sick in my life before this trip, so I didn’t even think to bring Dramamine. I have been on a few cruises before and never got sick on those, but I think because this ship was so much smaller, I got really […]