MITSUGIRLY sails off into the HORIZON-review & pictorial

[mitsugirly]

Immediately Sakari was ready to morph into a mermaid and daddy was ready to carry her down. I'm not sure why this cruise she all of a sudden decided that putting on her tail up on the beach and being carried down was going to happen every time. Usually, she just walks down to the water and puts it on herself and goes out.

 

 

 

A DAY OF GROUPERS, BARRACUDAS AND TONS OF EELS:

 

Of course, I immediately headed out for some snorkeling. As I said, we've been here several times. I have never thought the snorkeling was good here (at least from the beach). But I did read that others said the snorkeling is good by "the wall", which is a drop off out a short way and you can tell by the color of the water of course. It's right in front of the ships. This time I was going to make sure that I checked this out because I have been super disappointed in the past by any snorkeling. The only other wall is only accessible from a boat and on the other side of the ship. They have ropes up at the beach that you can't pass, so I wouldn't think that's the wall that others have referred to. (You can go down to the end of the island and snorkel and I hear it's awesome but very tricky getting into the water with tons of coral and it's pretty unpredictable with the waves)

 

Immediately we saw a lot of barracuda's in the area. We would see them everywhere that day.

 

 

 

We started seeing a lot of flounders. Big ones, small ones, they were just everywhere. These are the weirdest fish with both eyes on the top of their head and they are flat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few damsels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby flounder

 

 

At the dropoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We arrived at this so-called drop off at the ropes and there wasn't really anything to see.

 

 

 

 

 

There's an anchor down here.

 

 

 

Sorry, sometimes my fingers slip and accidentally change the settings on my camera and I end up with some greenish pictures that remind me of the disposable camera's I used to use snorkeling back in the 80's.

 

 

 

I absolutely love filefish. The shape of them is so neat and you don't see them too often.

 

 

There really isn't a lot of coral in the area either. It was a huge disappointment from what I was expecting to see after reading others state the snorkeling was good in this area. And here I thought I had just been missing out in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

AND THEN I SEEN IT....MY FIRST EEL OF THE DAY!

 

I squealed with excitement only to pop up out of the water to notice that Sakari had decided to swim back to shore and hang out with Brayden. She was missing it! I'm always in search for eels. They are so cool to watch. I had noticed this entire snorkel adventure that these eels hang out with one of these black fish. Every time I would see one of these black fishes acting like they were protecting something around a hole, there would be an eel. What type of relationship do they have? Are they like the watchman goby that protects the blind pistol shrimp in home saltwater tanks? They are an odd pair and the pistol shrimp is blind and digs a hole and works non-stop while the watchman goby stays outside and protects it. The goby lets the shrimp know if danger is approaching and they are never far apart. The shrimp reaches its antennas out to make sure the goby is there.  So fun to watch. Maybe this fish and eel have the same relationship.

 

These black fish have reddish fins. Anyone know what they are and what the relationship is? I would love to know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This would be the most fish I seen during the day. A group of blue tang surgeon fish and yellow tailed.

 

 

 

 

Another flounder...

 

 

 

 

And another...

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pair of banded butterfly fish. You will always find these in pairs.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

This is the area I was snorkeling in and this close to the ship all the way out to the buoys.

 

 

Stoplight parrot fish

 

 

 

I spotted another eel! It was yellow and beautiful.

 

 

It also had its buddy protecting it too.

 

 

 

 

 

Feather duster

 

 

Several Palometa fish showed up.

 

 

Then I spotted this little devil! Not a fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar at all. We learned our lesson about these years ago in Roatan.  They are fireworms that will sting the heck out of you and leave little bristles in your skin.  Just feet away were unexpecting cruisers bobbing up and down in the water with their feet. I shudder at the thought.

 

 

 

 

Another feather duster

 

 

 

I spotted another eel. This time a moray with it's black fish friend, but this one had blue tips on the fins.

 

 

 

Is this not the coolest anemone? The rainbow reflection in the water made this picture turn out so neat.

 

 

 

 

 

Sea urchin in cognito...only I spotted him anyhow.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Here's a small video of the eels, flounder and filefish that interested me. Now while some may claim I'm a decent photographer, I will NEVER claim to be any good at videos. LOL  I'll be brutally honest, I suck. I don't know how people manage to get awesome snorkeling and scuba videos with the water swishing you back and forth. There's just no way to keep you stable for a good video. Maybe some day I'll figure it out. Until then...here's my crappy video. I hope it doesn't make too many of you nauseous with the waves. 😉

 

 

 

[rs45thompson]

 Thank you for taking the time to do your review.  Can't wait to read the rest of it.

[JaniceB]

Wow great pictures of the ship and snorkeling.  I am terrible at identifying the fish I see, you are awesome.

[mitsugirly]

4 hours ago, rs45thompson said:

 Thank you for taking the time to do your review.  Can't wait to read the rest of it.

 

 

You are welcome and thanks for the comments. 

 

3 hours ago, JaniceB said:

Wow great pictures of the ship and snorkeling.  I am terrible at identifying the fish I see, you are awesome.

 

Why thank you. I appreciate it. 

[mitsugirly]

IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING MAJOR ISSUES WITH CRUISE CRITIC AND GETTING ERROR MESSAGES? 

 

I had this problem on the first day I started this review. I was getting an error and page wouldn't load. Something wrong with the icloud server they use? 

 

Then in the middle of my review (from yesterday), it went down again and gave another error. 

 

Is something wrong with the boards since they updated? This is getting irritating. I end up losing all of my work during a post. 

[mitsugirly]

No sooner than I got back to the chairs, Kendra decided she wanted to go out and do some snorkeling herself and insisted I go out and "show her around". There's no rest for the weary in my family. So, out we went again...no kids in tow. 

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Horizon-2018/GRAND-TURK/i-p5VnmCr/0/852fd127/L/PC170643 copy-L.jpg

 

 

Well, now it looks like the pictures aren't inserting anymore and only putting in a link? Can anyone see this picture inserted or is it just a link?

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

 

More barracudas

 

 

 

 

 

Our first squirrel fish seen today. 

 

 

 

 

The drop off, which is very small in this area. 

 

 

 

Hey I think the Carnival Horizon chef lost his rolling pin...

 

 

 

 

Then Kendra was able to see her first moray eel for the day

 

 

 

 

Now this is a significant picture. Kendra seen something down here and dove down. She said it hurt her ears and she wasn't but maybe 5' down from the top or so. Well, her right ear would continue to hurt during the cruise and even after coming back home. She said it felt like water went in it and it wouldn't pop.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I was also diving down to the ledge and trying to get close up pictures of what very little coral we did see that day. It's a hit or miss on whether or not they will turn out clear for me when diving down. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

We were swarmed by a bunch of fish in this area. 

 

 

 

Another yellow spotted eel and it's black fish friend. Still, anyone know what these black fish are?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now this is what I call a devil caterpillar. You may think it's all nice and fuzzy and cute, but they sting like a devil and insert their bristles in you, which is full of poison. Their actual given name is a fireworm for a good reason. You'll feel like you are on fire when they get you. Sakari and I know first hand! The bad part was, there were a bunch of cruisers/swimmers right next to it bobbing up and down on the rock it was on. You just never know what's under there unless you are looking and there were more than this one in the area. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flipper styling

 

 

 

Another neat anemone capture

 

 

 

 

 

[deedle7544]

26 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING MAJOR ISSUES WITH CRUISE CRITIC AND GETTING ERROR MESSAGES? 

 

I had this problem on the first day I started this review. I was getting an error and page wouldn't load. Something wrong with the icloud server they use? 

 

Then in the middle of my review (from yesterday), it went down again and gave another error. 

 

Is something wrong with the boards since they updated? This is getting irritating. I end up losing all of my work during a post. 

non stop problems today!  I was starting to think work caught on blocked it!

[mitsugirly]

I had mentioned to Kendra that I wanted to go "on the other side", meaning when coming down the port dock, to the right. I knew that it's an area that most people don't go to or hang out at and last time we were there, they hardly had any chairs on this side...for a good reason. The area is quite rocky going into the water. So, I figured there had to be good snorkeling there right? However, they now have a bunch of chairs and even clamshells on this side and there were a lot of people there believe it or not. 

 

We asked the kids if they wanted to come and they were having fun in the water and decided to stay.

 

 

One of the issues is, you are not allowed to walk under the bridge to get there. They have signs there and locals sitting under the bridge. I'm not sure what the issue is walking under it in the sand??? That meant we had to gather our things and walk around the shopping area and back down to the beach.

 

Once we got there it was quite dangerous trying to get in. We searched for the best area and found that there really wasn't a "best" area to go in. It's ALL rocky! The waves are crashing and it seemed like it was a lot wavier than the other side. It took us a hot minute to get up enough courage to try to make it over the rocks...step by step, inch by inch, we made it out only to find that there was NOTHING in that area and the water was so stirred up that it was hard to see. So, you won't get any snorkeling pics from here, unfortunately. Take note, don't go to this area for snorkeling! There were a lot of people attempting to get out to swim and complaining the entire time about it. Why not just go to the other side? I bet they'll be the cruisers that come back and say they Grand Turk is terrible at the beach and not worth going to because that's what they think the beach is like. 

 

I did manage to get a shot of the ships in port while out there though. 

 

 

And other on the other side

 

 

 

 

Since it was a bust, we headed back into port and over to the other side again. 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

When we got back, everyone decided to head to the pool for the rest of the day. We only had a few hours to go before we had to get back on the ship.

 

The great thing about the port pool is that it has an easy entry in one spot and that's great for those non-swimmers like Kam. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One new thing is that they have put in tables and umbrellas in the water to hang out at. Did they redo this port pool at some point over the last year? I also don't remember the color of the water being this green last time. I'd have to go back and look at my previous pictures. 

 

 

 

 

 

We met some people that had a daughter who had been begging for a mermaid tail. Sakari let her try hers on and the girl just lit up. We talked to them for quite a while and then Kam wanted a chance to play mermaid as well. Some day that girl is going to inherit a lot of mermaid tails when she gets older. 

 

 

 

 

 

The ending of this next picture was so hilarious...although I didn't catch it and should have been recording. Kam lifted the tail and it was so heavy that it hit her in the back of the head. It was so unexpected but so funny. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I misplaced my scuba girl on my last vacation and didn't get to bring her, but this time...she's in tow and it was time to get a few pics before I forgot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JaniceB]

Hope Kendra is feeling better.  

[mitsugirly]

When I got back, Kendra was doing the ice cube challenge with Brayden and Sakari...caught them both off guard. LOL  Brayden is used to me doing this to him every cruise, but he wasn't expecting his mom to do it. 

 

 

 

 

It was getting late and we decided to head back. Time for some pictures along the way. 

 

It's always like pulling teeth to get Sakari out of the water. I told her to grab her stuff and we were heading out. I look back and she's no where in site....only to find this...her carrying her things IN the water until the very end. Such a water baby. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by mitsugirly

[30scruiser]

30 minutes ago, deedle7544 said:

non stop problems today!  

On the report a problem board people are saying it’s happening with a bunch of the cruise line groups, especially Carnival.

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

Carnival has really stepped up their game and are doing things like NCL has been doing for years. They are playing music and welcoming you back and serving drinks. WTG Carnival. There's nothing like making you feel welcome to come back to the ship and continue your cruise with them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

While we were in port...a photographer came along the beach area and was taking pictures. He took several of Sakari. I only purchased one of them (there were just too many). 

 

 

But I did do a screenshot of a few of them to show you what your pictures look like when viewing them on your phone or on the ships ipad in the pixel studio. They put their logo across them so that they are unusable. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew that Pig & Anchor was open on port days during certain hours and I wanted to take advantage of this so we headed there to eat lunch. 

 

 

 

The last cruise we were on, we didn't find it to be too good (with the time before that, it was awesome). I'm not sure what happened. But, this time it was wonderful...so wonderful that we all went back for seconds! LOL  There really wasn't much of a line either and they had lines going in both directions (which they always do).

 

They do have tables outside along the P&A area to eat at as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't too long before we were pulling out and I caught the reflection of the whale tail on the other ship. We arrived on time but didn't get off the ship for 2 hours after we were supposed to because the Oosterdam ship was coming in, and we still have to pull out on time and they get to stay. Go figure. 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

1 hour ago, singinalot said:

 

yes it's happening constantly for me and quite annoying

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one. This is very annoying and makes me just want to stop the review and say screw it. You don't know how many times I have typed and inserted photos only for it to go down and I have to do it all again. Ugh!

 

1 hour ago, deedle7544 said:

non stop problems today!  I was starting to think work caught on blocked it!

 

 

I was starting to think they weren't liking my review or I was posting too many pictures within one post and took me down. I'm glad to know it's not just me now. 

 

 

48 minutes ago, JaniceB said:

Hope Kendra is feeling better.  

 

 

She is much better now. Thanks for asking. 

 

32 minutes ago, 30scruiser said:

On the report a problem board people are saying it’s happening with a bunch of the cruise line groups, especially Carnival.

 

I wasn't aware there was a report a problem board. I'll have to check it out. I wonder why it would be "especially Carnival" since it's the entire board that keeps getting taken down? (At least for me). It seems to be their server issue. Either way, it's irritating during a review in progress. Blah

[mitsugirly]

Ok, I seem to be missing some pictures of the rest of the day so I'll have to check for them when I get home. Then I'll resume the review. I have the rest of the day ready to go once I find those pictures I didn't upload to my account yet. 

 

Thanks to everyone here enjoying the review. 

[300dtc]

1 hour ago, mitsugirly said:

IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING MAJOR ISSUES WITH CRUISE CRITIC AND GETTING ERROR MESSAGES? 

 

I had this problem on the first day I started this review. I was getting an error and page wouldn't load. Something wrong with the icloud server they use? 

 

Then in the middle of my review (from yesterday), it went down again and gave another error. 

 

Is something wrong with the boards since they updated? This is getting irritating. I end up losing all of my work during a post. 

Yes, constantly...not loving our "upgrade"🤔

[GMRPHRN]

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

I had mentioned to Kendra that I wanted to go "on the other side", meaning when coming down the port dock, to the right.

 

One of the issues is, you are not allowed to walk under the bridge to get there. They have signs there and locals sitting under the bridge. I'm not sure what the issue is walking under it in the sand??? That meant we had to gather our things and walk around the shopping area and back down to the beach.

 

Once we got there it was quite dangerous trying to get in. We searched for the best area and found that there really wasn't a "best" area to go in. It's ALL rocky! The waves are crashing and it seemed like it was a lot wavier than the other side. It took us a hot minute to get up enough courage to try to make it over the rocks...step by step, inch by inch, we made it out only to find that there was NOTHING in that area and the water was so stirred up that it was hard to see. So, you won't get any snorkeling pics from here, unfortunately. Take note, don't go to this area for snorkeling! There were a lot of people attempting to get out to swim and complaining the entire time about it. Why not just go to the other side? I bet they'll be the cruisers that come back and say they Grand Turk is terrible at the beach and not worth going to because that's what they think the beach is like. 

 

I did manage to get a shot of the ships in port while out there though. 

 

 

And other on the other side

 

 

 

 

 

Since it was a bust, we headed back into port and over to the other side again. 

 

 

 

 

 I've done the other side when there were multiple ships present. If you have good water shoes and get out to where you don't have to touch and float it's not bad.

 

I've always thought the pool belonged to Margaritaville. I feel like I need to spend money when I'm there. We were there last Christmas and the pool was really to cool for my taste.

 

Awesome pictures of your daughter by the ship's photographer.

 

My cruise is still 38 days away and sitting here at work you have really transported me to the Carribean with your pictures and review. Thanks so much.