ATV Excursion

By this day I was tired of getting up early. I tried to get up early as we had an excursion today. Actually, we got in earlier than originally scheduled, 7am, and also had to leave earlier than scheduled. Not sure why exactly, perhaps it was weather related. I went to eat at 7am. Our last ship we were on, Carnival Magic, was also docking so they warned us as that ship was about to dock they would have to shut down debarkation for a while.

So I had to stop eating and get ready and get off the ship so we can make it to our excursion in time.

I got ready and apparently everyone in our group had already left. We were not aware and we got a message asking where we were. So we get off the ship and about that time they were chasing people off the dock so they could prepare to dock the Magic.

We had to get ourselves to Tent #1 where they got our name and we wrote down our license number and age. You had to be over 18 to be able to drive the ATVs. Once they had us all there along with a few other people that joined the group, we took a short little walk to a parking lot nearby. There, we got our instructions and helmets.

We all had a tough time figuring out the strap on the helmet so needed a little help the first time. We then were able to separate into our ATVs. The parents took the ATVs in the front of our group and at the rear. Leighton and Ella rode together while the 1s went with the 3s cause the 3s obviously were not allowed to drive.

They took us around some sandy terrain and areas where there were plenty of big, wash-boardy ruts. It became difficult to keep the gas pedal steady as we went over the ruts which actually made it even more bumpy.

As we were driving we noticed a plane that had crashed as we were near the airport. It looked like it had been there for some time so its interesting they never removed it.

After some sand time we actually spent a good amount of time on the road. We would get stuck behind some traffic and slow down for a while then be able to speed up. He would point at things that we were all supposed to point at along the way so he could talk about them once we stop at the lighthouse, but it got confusing when he was pointing and at what.

We drove through a quarry and took a little side tour there and up the banks and back on the road and then ended up at the lighthouse.

Once we killed our engines and got a look at a donkey with a massive erection, our guide talked a bit about the lighthouse and the things that we passed along the way. At the end of his talk he said we only had 15 minutes before we had to go so we took off quickly to get some pictures of this beautiful area we were at.

These are not power lines overhead but rather zip lines. That was not part of our excursion.

After going to the bathroom quick and some of us switching drivers, we were off again.

This time, we took a much more scenic drive back.

We were on the north side of the island and we could see our ship off in the distance.

Notice the absolute gorgeous turquois waters!

This was a fun area, you can see on the photo above there was a steep grade ahead. The picture below is as we are going down. It looks like the picture doesn’t do it justice but it was quite fun!

Then back up again!

Now it was at about this point, people got lost, or I should say, some of OUR people got lost. I believe Chris was still leading our group and somehow took a wrong turn during a fork in the road. Ella was behind them and followed but somehow everyone else after managed to take the right path. All of a sudden, we are not sure who is ahead of us exactly or who is leading us.

Apparently the lead guy radioed to the back guide to see if they could find them and head them off. Sometime during this however, Ella managed to see where the rest of the group was and fell back in line but Chris and Linda were still lost. We were getting closer to our end point when we look behind and see Chris and Linda behind us. Of course we are very confused because we had no idea at this point that they did get lost. Funny story and confusing how Chris didn’t lead us all astray. At any rate, we all made it back.

After a debrief of what happened, we decided to head back to the ship to change. Here is Magic. She looks good with her new paint since we last saw her.

That completed our ship tour. We saw Disney Fantasy and Norwegian Escape before we left Port Canaveral, now here on our last stop, we see the Magic.

Swimming

We went back to the room to change. There was some issues so all I’ll say is, “I can shove this up but I can’t swallow an aspirin.”

We got our swim suits on and headed down the beach. I couldn’t remember exactly where we sat down last time but we walked down a ways sort of like we did before but this time just threw our towels on the beach and put our stuff on top of them.

Kate wanted to shop a bit first so Linda and Chris stayed back with her and I kind of gave them an idea of how far down we would go. So we got in the water and I kept an eye out for them and eventually they came down and found us.

The water was good and clear, again, much like last time. Perhaps a little cooler this time around. After a bit, some people left their chairs so we moved our stuff up to them. I tried snorkeling but just couldn’t find any good spots at all. My girls decided they wanted to go shopping and I wanted to search for a better snorkeling spot. We agreed to meet at the entrance area at a certain time. So, I walked farther down the beach and tried to get to an area that looked dark from the beach. Turned out to be just a grassy area so didn’t see much again. I did forget that the current would fight me coming back and I did not have my flippers because I broke them in Curaçao so it took me a bit to get to shore.

After I got back, Augers were ready to leave except for Alley, she wanted to stay on the beach and read so we all left her there.

I got back to the shopping center area and waited for my family. In the mean time I noticed the Augers kids stopped at Starbucks. My girls came and we went to Starbucks to wait for Augers and I sat down. Once they came out we took off but I come to realize later that I left the swim bag I was carrying on the bench. I didn’t realize this until we were about to board and all that was in there was meds and Carnival towels so we left it.

We are not sure what to do of if Alley has slipped past us and gotten on already so not really sure what to do, we get on the ship and hope Ally is there. As we walked we came across drug sniffing dogs. People would have to wait in a certain line and when there was a line, the dog would be taken down the line, sniffing for drugs. For some reason we didn’t have to get in that line, I guess we didn’t look like the drug smuggling type.

We walked to the ship some more and Vanessa was approaching so Ella says to Leighton, “Say Oi Vanessa” so Leighton says to her as we pass, “Oi! Vanessa!” and she says, “Oi” back. We are in line to board the ship and our CD, Lawrence passes and Leighton says, “Lawrence!” and he stops and says, “Heyyyy family. I was with you in line this whole time, right?” So we say of course you were and he gets in line. He talks about some shows he watches and how he watched Ozarks during Covid so that got us talking about that.

Turned out, Ally did indeed just walk the beach and jump up along the wall and get on the ship, much like Chris predicted she did so we were all aboard safely once again.

We went up front again to watch sailaway.

And then head to the aft to watch us pull away and head north again.

We went to get some food as we really hadn’t eaten much at this point. Again, we were leaving early, I think 3ish, so it wasn’t super late. We then decided to shower, take a nap and finally get a game of Wizard in. We grabbed some drinks at the Pub and sat out on Deck 5, outside. It was getting dark and the outside lights came on but as we were finishing, for some reason they went off for our last two hands and so we had to use our phone lights to finish. I believe this was also the game Chris bid some ridiculous number like 10 and easily got it. It was crazy. Obviously he blew us out of the water.

Evening Entertainment

We get ready for a fairly early dinner once again.

We had a really good waiter this night. He kept bringing us more food. The selection this night was pretty good so he would suggest, “Oh, you want this entre too? I’ll bring you that as well.” He brought extra deserts, I think bread as well. He kept it rolling tonight. When he would serve us he would talk in a Texas styled southern drawl. Good stuff after a nice day in Grand Turk

As we were leaving dinner, there was even dancers for our entertainment.

And the 3s even joined in!

Went to the comedian and this time even got the 3s snuck in. He was pretty good and afterwards we went to Family Feud After Hours. Well…it actually wasn’t that bad when it came to the After Hours part. We had seen or heard far more just during the show performances. So we were a little bummed about that part.

Once again, we visited the Vista Rock Band and decided to play more games at the Red Frog pub. There was a guy, big guy, and we noticed him before with his wife and kid. Now he was big but he also knew he was big and seemed to take his steroids to heart when he would meet people because as we were playing games he was heading…apparently to the bathroom…and as he approached us he said, “Make a hole” so I made a puzzled look and stepped aside. His wife passed behind him and said somewhat sheepishly, “I’m with him” to which we are all thinking…oh…lucky you.

Tonight we managed to sneak Leighton into the club finally. We went passed the club and got ourselves lined up. It was Ella in front in case they asked for ID she could hand them hers as we went by. Followed by I think Moms, me, Leighton, 1s and Chris. Well, the security girl had walked in and as we came in and blew by her she quickly jumped up but didn’t say a word. So us parent stuck around a while to not make it look too obvious and then left them to dance the night away.

Parents decided to turn in early this night. I think Ella actually came back a little before Sophie tonight. For some reason, she just wasn’t feeling it at the club. She said it got a little boring and she thought her older sister was being annoying.

Oh well…

Tomorrow……One Last Sea Day

<——Yesterday….Sea Day