HELLO EVERYONE I WAS WONDERING IF ANYONE KNOWS ABOUT THE
BIG CHANGE THAT MIRACLE JUST DID I AM VERY UNHAPPY WITH THIS. INSTEAD OF TORTOLA WE ARE GOING TO GRAND TURK I HAVE BEEN
TO GRAND TURK BEFORE AND I THINK IT IS NOT WORTH IT .

AS A PAST CARNIVAL GUEST I AM REALLY UNHAPPY IF IT WAS LESS THEN
30 DAYS I WOULD CANCEL

                                                                                KAREN

My family is upset too. Planning on swimming with the dolphins in Tortola. As of now, Carnival is still trying to arrange the shore excursions in Gran Turk to see what might be available for Miracle passengers. Carnival will not be posting available excursions on their website until Friday. Really poorly handled.

My husband was concerned about the "propulsion" system not working??  Not really sure what it is but I sure hope we don't need it.... I did have a nice excursion planned for that day :-(  But I am sure it will still be very nice, although I have not seen any of the new excursions

Does anyone knows when the change was made,  will this be for all the Miracle cruise itinerary from now on?  I will be traveling the 8/29/08 and I didn't know anything about this change.

Change In Itinerary

If Carnival Cruise Lines (“Carnival”) has adequate notice prior to sailing that a vessel will deviate from the published itinerary, it will promptly upon making the itinerary change notify passengers of the change through their travel agents or directly, in the case of a direct booking (the “Notice”). The Notice shall offer passengers an opportunity to cancel their booking without penalty within 24 hours of the delivery of the Notice.

 Howdy Cruiser's

From what I've been told by other's, the change was made to help with Fuel, since Grand Turk is closer than Tortola

Kinda sucks cause we have a grp of 8 ppl going out on Sept 6th, and we were all lookin forward to playin in Tortola

Hope that dont change the itinerary for our Freedom cruise next Jan 31st, cause Tortola is one of our ports then too

We received the news on July 3rd and many a things went through my head.

First of all, we are getting married the day before in St Thomas and the ceremony was to take place at 5pm... looks like that won't be happening now that the time that we leave port has changed from 6pm to 4pm. We loose 2 hours in the only port for duty free shopping (or so I thought, correct me if I'm wrong).

Second, my entire group (19 of us) planned on participating in the dolphin excursion. That's out the window too.

Thirdly, will our trip be safe if we have to outrun a hurricane or tropical storm without this propulsion to make the ship go at maximum speed?

 We definitely don't want to cancel our trip and since I've never been to either port, I'm non-biased but it would be nice if Carnival quelched our worries (a cabin credit wouldn't hurt either lol) a bit about all of this.

      I HAVE BEEN TO GRAND TURK 3 TIMES AND IN MY HONEST OPINION IT
SUCKS IF YOU LIKE BEACHES OR JIMMY BUFFET THERE ARE NO SHOPS AND
JUST A LITTLE WORD OF ADVICE DO NOT TAKE THE HORSE AND CARRIAGE TOUR
I TOOK IT LAST YEAR HAD TO WAIT 2 HOURS TO GET THE TOUR BECAUSE THEY DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH HORSES TO RUN THEY TOLD US THAT ONE OF THE HORSES DIED BECAUSE  OF THE HEAT

I heard that it was because of engine problems not fuel.  But the general belief is that it is to save on fuel.  I recall that our origninal itinerary said that we were going to be in Tortola from 7am to 2pm and that was changed to Grand Turk from 1pm to 7pm.  I am very happy about this time slot because I was very nervous about booking an excursion and missing the ship.  Now I will have time to relax (I am on vacation) and get up at a more leisurely pace.

I found some info about Grand Turk to share:

As you can see, there's easy beach access on each side of the pier;



The Flowrider and pool are right by the pier and the ship makes a nice back drop for enjoying the day;



Where else can you swim and snorkel this close to the ship?;



The beach is a little rocky right next to the pier, but softer sand is just down the beach;



They also have a duty free shop at the end of the pier that you walk through to get to the port shops, pool, and Margarittaville;



As the other posters have stated, I too would prefer they just say that the port arrangement is to save on fuel costs instead of a 'top speed' issue. Regardless though, I'd not be at all upset over a Grand Turk port visit vs any of the Eastern ports other than Half Moon Cay.

I am upset, too.  I was  booked to dive on the famous Rhone Wreck and that is all I talked about for the past year.  My family was going to visit The Baths.

Thank you for the pictures of Grand Turk......... I had no idea of what to expect. What did you do while you were there? We are leaving out of New York on Sept.22

Katie

Last year when I was on the Triumph I booked a snorkeling excursion through Carnival.  We were picked up at the pier and taken further down on the beach and given snorkeling equipment.  It was a disappointment because there wasn't alot of fish or reef to see.  So this year I am sticking close to the ship and I am going to try the Flowrider.  I think it is $35 per person for an hour.