15th Anniversary Trip Part 4: Half Moon Cay, The Grand Turk, and a Day at Sea

The incredible staff of the Carnival Sunrise helped us welcome in 2024 with this guy. 

After breakfast on January 1, we tendered into Half Moon Cay, Carnival's private Island. It was a gorgeous day. 

We walked from the dock down the beach until we were past most of the people, but still had a beach chair. 

We swam in the water 

and relaxed on the beach.

It was beautiful, warm, and relaxing. It was strange to think that it was January 1. 

All too soon, it was time to head back to the ship. 

We had another chill night on ship, and the next morning, we woke up in the Grand Turk. 

We rented a golf cart and took ourselves on a self-guided tour of the Island. 

The Grand Turk is part of Turks & Caicos Islands, a British Territory between the Bahamas and the Dominica Republic. It's possibly the the first place that Christopher Columbus landed in the New World, and it is also the first land that Astronaut John Glenn stepped onto after his orbit around Earth in 1962, which is why there his pod (or a replica of it) is here in a little grassy area near the airport. 

The Grand Turk is home to lots of wild donkeys. Apparently they were brought in to help with the salt mining, and now they roam the land as if they own the place. 

We found these big conk shells in the North Creek Grand Turk Bird Observatory. It was a beautiful secluded spot in near the north end of the tiny island. 

We checked out the famous lighthouse and read more about how this was the most likely spot of Columbus's first landfall. We learned about smugglers and pirates. 

And we got to see the water hitting the rocky shores below. It makes sense that there have been many, many shipwrecks here. 

We saw lizards. 

After the lighthouse, we continued our explorations. I loved seeing these rock formations and the sea below. It is just so beautiful there. 

Surprisingly, there isn't much to this Island. There is a town, which is also the capitol of the country, but there really isn't much here. I was surprised to see lots of abandoned or run down homes. This beautiful island's main draw was the salt salinas. 

We stopped near the port to get some food. We walked on the beach a bit and saw that the storm clouds were actually approaching our location, so we decided it was time to head back. 

As soon as we dropped off the golf cart, the heavens opened and we got dumped on! 

Once we embraced the fact that we were just going to be wet, it was actually pretty fun. 

We were greeted by this awesome lobster in our room. We got changed and spent the rest of the day reading. 

The next day was our only Day at Sea, and we soaked up some sun to fill our winter canteens. We enjoyed lounging, eating, and reading, and it was fabulous!