Dock or tender Grand Turk?

[richnorto]

I could have posted this in the cruise port section, but my question is more HAL specific.

We are traveling on the Maasdam in December. Our itin. lists Grand Turk as a tender port but I have read that Carnival has built a new cruise dock. There are only 2 other ships - Island Princess and Braemen (something like that) in port. I'm assuming you should be able to dock 2 ships and other than Princess, the other would be the Maasdam as they are both owned by Carnival. Anybody been to Grand Turk recently to know if indeed there is parking for 2???

I'm really tempted to not make plans to get off the boat or book excursions if this is truly a tender port.

Thanks!!

[misterX]

Check this out: www.grandturkcc.com

 

There is only one pier at the Cruise Center in Grand Turk, ships can dock on both sides. If there is a third ship in it will have to 'drift' and tender. Anchoring is not allowed/possible.

Carnival Companay ships get preference (Breamar = Fred Olsen is non Carnival)

[richnorto]

WONDERFUL!!! Sounds like "tender" was just not updated on the HAL website. Thank you so much for the info! Guess I'll start shopping excursions!

[noblepa]

As misterx reported, there is a beautiful, nearly new pier in Grand Turk, with a capacity of two ships.

 

You can check on http://www.cruisecal.com, to see if there will be more than two ships in port on the day you're there.

 

The other site that was mentioned, http://www.grandturkcc.com, also has a calendar, showing cruise ship arrivals.

[Liv4cruzin]

My 2 previous visits to GRT since the pier was opened were onboard Crystal ships. We anchored both times. Both times there were 2 ships tied up to the dock. They were Holland America & Carnival ships. So, it does appear that since Carnival footed ther bill for the pier, any ship in their "family" would have priority docking privileges.

[O2B@C]

Grand Turk is listed as a tender port for my upcoming Westerdam cruise as well - even though there are only one or two ships in port that day. HAL told me we are definitely tendering; the Grand Turk Cruise Center told me HAL had the dock reserved for Westerdam. :confused:

 

The mystery will not be cleared up until we actually get there on Nov. 27 - and even then, we may not know WHY we were getting two different stories. I'll try to post whatever information I have after we return.

[cnvh]

We just got back from our cruise and we were at Grand Turk this past Wednesday; we were the only ship in port. The pier can accomodate two, as others have posted-- but I question whether or not the ISLAND can handle more than 2 ships at a time. Grand Turk isn't very big, and with two ships in port, the cruise center at the end of the pier would be pretty crowded-- and forget finding a chair on the beach right at the dock! :eek:

 

A word of advice (well, two actually)-- skip lunch at Margaritaville (absolutely awful) and if the pier beach is crowded, try Governor's Beach, just down the road; hubby and I went there by taxi ($3 each) and we were the ONLY people on the whole beach!!