Are we really already on Day 6?
Also, let’s be honest. It’s been like over a month since we visited Beaches Turks & Caicos. So I mean. Already on Day 6? That’s an interesting way to put it.
Really, Wayne?
Lay OFF, inside voice.
But yeah, Day 6 of our super terrific happy hour trip to Beaches Turks & Caicos. It’s like the tail end of the trip but don’t worry readers. There is still A LOT of new stuff to talk about.
Like being in the pool.
Or laying in the sun.
Eating food?
Drinking drinks?
Yeah, it’s a lot of the same for sure. But you might as well just read the post. What the hell else are you gonna do?
Here we go!
Beaches Turks & Caicos 2021 trip: Day 6!
Day 6 began as what, from our balcony in the Italian Village, looked to be a pretty perfect day, no?
Which was something we wanted to see. On account of we had our cruise on Beaches’ “Kitty Kat” Catamaran scheduled for today.
I mentioned before we got a specific package when we booked our trip this time around. That package included a 30-minute massage (which we upped to 60-minutes for an additional charge.) It also included a cruise on the Kitty Kat, which we were all going to be taking full advantage of.
Exciting, right? Hopefully, we can get out on the…
Ohhhhh, Kitty Cat. Catamaran. Now I get it.
Now, as I had mentioned in past posts, the weather was a bit merp this week, specifically the high winds. So it was up in the air (pun intended) whether we would get out on the catamaran or not. And the only way to find out was to be down outside the lobby at the excursions desk when they made the announcement, which would be around 8AM.
Therefore, we were up and out of our room rather early at 7:30 or so. We packed a bag for the boat and headed down. We walked up to the desk to inquire about the announcement, ready for a fun day out on the wate….
…
Yerp. No go. Womp a domp.
The water was just too choppy I guess. Ah well, we still had a private charter to look forward to tomorrow. That’s good right?
Hopefully, we end up going out tomorrow on that boat. I would hate it if we once again got all excited to get out on the water and explore other parts of the island to just be let down once again. THAT would be the worst, huh? Well, you’ll have to wait and see in the next post when if we are once again denied a day on the water.
Phew, that was close. I almost gave away the plot of Day 7’s post. Building suspense is important.
So now, here we were. Up early in the morning for no reason. What to do, what to do?
Oh right. When in doubt? Eat.
Time for breakfast. We decided to have breakfast today at Mario’s in the Italian Village. We were seated outside on the patio. Nickie and Owen approve.
Time. To. Eat.
Mario’s is a buffet restaurant so inside we had to go for our foodstuffs.
While the food was still set up as a buffet, there were servers there to actually get your food for you.
So it was a buffet without the hard work of having to lift the food to my plate. Now THAT is luxury.
Here’s the plate!
As you can see, I got an Omelet, French Toast, Sausage, Breakfast Potatoes, Chocolate Croissant, and some Cantaloupe.
Speaking of cantaloupe, do you know where cantaloupes go for the summer?
…
…
John Cougar’s Melon-Camp.
Ahem.
Anyways, guys? That omelet was seriously good. They had a station in the back that would make eggs any way you wanted. Fried, Benedict, and of course Omelets. I went with mushrooms, peppers, bacon, and cheese.
Omelet? More like Om-let-me-eat-all-of-that.
Yeah, I know. That one wasn’t my best work. But remember that John Cougar Melon-Camp joke?
Hey look…there’s Mia!
Since Mother Nature was being a jerk today and not letting us in her water, we decided to spit right in her face and get into a man-made waterhole. Suck on THAT, Mrs. N!
Look at Mia, she’s really rubbing it in.
We hung out in the pool/hot tub for a little bit. Oh and look – Mermaid off the port bow!
Nickie wants to live where the people are
She wants to see, wants to see em dancing
Also, what’s a fire and why does it what’s the word
But enough lazing around, you guys. Because it’s time for…water aerobics!
Every day at 10:30AM, the Beaches staff leads a water aerobics session in the Italian pool. And for most of the trip, I had kind of poo-poo’ed the whole idea as something that “90 year-old Grandmas do.”
Welp, let me tell you something. I WAS WRONG. This ain’t your Grandma’s water aerobics class. I mean, unless your Grandma is Grandma Arbuckle from Garfield.
But I mean, she drove a motorcycle so.
Anyways, though, once we saw the instructor set up his equipment at around 10:30AM, we all hopped in the pool.
And proceeded to jump, splash, move…all that aerobic nonsense. And like, yeah, it was much more work than anticipated. I thought it would be akin to a spirited game of Marco Polo. Instead, it was more like a spirited game of…um…erm…NOT Marco Polo.
Ha. Nailed it.
Point is – this was a lot of work.
At one point, he had us all get out of the pool and sit on the edge so we could do some bicycle kicks or scissors or whatever it was we were doing. I kind of blacked out.
And I mean, there technically is video of this out there. But no one wants to see that. Especially me.
But we did it. We made it through the entire workout. Which means we earned some morning cocktails.
Frozen Mojitos FTW.
I know I mentioned it before but this drink was just a lovely bit of awesome. I like both mojitos and frozen things. So it kind of works out.
The plan moving forward was to first head over to the Pirate’s Island waterpark.
Sorry, Pirate’s Island waterparrrrrrrrk
These little buccaneers approve.
Onto the waterpark.
At the waterpark, Myles, Jeff, and I wanted to catch some radical waves on the surf simulator. Tubular.
Before tasting some of those sweet, sweet waves we had to sign a waiver to, I don’t know, promise not to break up any beach dance parties or bully Frankie Avalon in front of Annette Funicello. That’s what surfers do, right?
Also, just an aside. How did they not call it a wave-er? Missed opportunity, Beaches.
First up was Myles.
He’s legit hanging ten. Kid even falls gracefully.
Next up was Jeff….
These two obviously made me super nervous to jump on there. Looking all surfy and what not.
But out I went. And I held my own. At least I think so. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of said surfing and the video of me is a little grainy.
Also, fortunately there are no pictures of said surfing and the video of me is a little grainy.
Since what I could see wasn’t the most flattering. While Myles and Jeff looked like Surf Ninjas or whatever, I looked more like…I don’t know. Champ from Anchorman?
In its stead, though, check out this video I recorded off my TV of Brandon Walsh “surfing” on 90210. It’s pretty much the same thing. Make sure you watch until the end. The effects are incredible.
Obvs squad, all that surfing and for some, watching surfing, made us hungry. Nickie was in the mood for some chicken nuggiez from Bobby Dee’s so we picked some of those up first.
And yeah, first off, there are more than 2 in an order so chill out. And secondly? I have said this before but I will say it again – Beaches Turks & Caicos kind of slays the chicken nuggs game. They’re super good.
But…a bunch of us wanted a little bit more than chicken nuggets. So we walked over to the Mr. Mac truck for, well, for some mac and cheese obviously. Come on, keep up.
I ordered some Deep Fried Mac Balls, because they’re both fun to order and eat.
Heh, balls.
And like, obviously the mac and cheese balls are delicious. Crispy, cheesy. They’re obvs the star of the dish. But I want to take a moment to recognize the unsung hero of Mr. Mac’s Balls (lulz) – the onion rings! These are like really good onion rings. Nice and crispy with some real flavorful breading. Get them. Is what I am saying.
I also ordered up a helping of Mr. Mac’s Blazin’ Buffalo Chicken Mac (Macaroni, Chicken, Buffalo Sauce, Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Bleu Cheese Crumble).
Probably my favorite of the mac and cheeses here, but be warned – this chicken is spicy, my friends.
Then it was off to hang in the hot tub in the French Village.
While there, Mia made some new friends and they played some sort of shark-based version of tag or hide and seek or something? I am not sure. Honestly, the rules for their game were harder to follow than those for Settlers of Catan.
Anyways though, they had fun.
It’s so cool watching little kids make friends with one another. It’s like…
None of them even asked anyone who they voted for in the last election.
While we were at the pool, Owen said he was in the mood for some crepes. Which is a pretty specific thing to be in the mood for.
Thankfully, Café de Paris was legit right there so off we went to get us some really thin pancakes.
I went for a chocolate crepe with powdered sugar and cinnamon on top.
And it was deeeee-licious.
OK, let’s switch gears for a second.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Siggins (Suzanne, Artie, Liam, and Ayla) had moved off-resort to an AirBnB and explore the rest of the island. I mean, honestly, Beaches has like 10 different kinds of macaroni and cheese. What more is there to explore?
But yeah, they were off exploring. And today, they were out exploring Osprey Rock on the southwestern tip of the island. Suzanne took some amazing pictures, of which I will share with you right now.
It DOES look pretty amazing. I mean, mac and cheese is amazing too. But still. Really nice. Plus, it looks like there are a bunch of carvings in the rock like this…
And thanks to Google, I learned that this specific carving is referencing a wrecked ship called the St. Louis that was supposed to have sailed from Boston to New Orleans but wrecked and burned on August 30, 1842. There were 24 sailors aboard that were saved by a ship called the Impulse.
However, the Impulse then later wrecked itself on September 3rd, carrying all 24 sailors.
Now you can never say you didn’t learn anything on this blog. Or I mean, I guess you can say that. I really don’t care either way.
So fine, there is more to Turks and Caicos than just Tito’s and sodas and karaoke.
However, a little bit of bad news. When they were off exploring, Suzanne fell and broke her wrist. Yeah, sucktown. She ended up just wrapping it and waiting until she got home to get it checked out, but it was for sure broken.
I also can’t believe she just walked around with it broken for the next few days without getting any sort of cast or wrap or sling or anything. Suzanne is pretty much Rambo.
“To win a broken wrist, you gotta become broken wrist.” – Rambo (paraphrased)
Back at the resort, we were dealing with our own little bit of catastrophe.
When we returned from Café de Paris, we noticed the pool was empty and the rest of our party was toweling off at the lounge chairs. Which is so unlike them.
Come to find out the pool was evacuated because of an “accident.”
…
…
I mean. I think we all know what that means.
Yup. Doodie.
These things happen. And thankfully, it was no one we knew. Unless…
Tony?
Nah.
The staff members did a really good job of getting everyone out of the pool and putting up signs and what not. But there was no going back in the French pool for the rest of the day.
Yep, that’s what I have for you today. Poo. Howdy-ho.
Thankfully, no one pooped on the bar. Another Tito’s and Soda, please.
Back to the rooms!
On the schedule today, the Falzones and us were getting our professional pictures done. We had an appointment with the always awesome Romaine for a little later in the day but the Falzones were going a little bit earlier than us so they got their fanciness on and headed down to the water.
They got some really nice pics for sure. Those Falzones are quite the photogenic bunch.
As I said, we were also scheduled to get our photos today, so we got our fancy on and what not. But our appointment with Romaine was a little later. And ermmmmm…the weather wasn’t looking great for us. The skies were looking rather ominous so it didn’t seem promising. We still went down to the water and hemmed and hawed with Romaine, trying to figger out if this was gonna work out today.
Spoiler alert – it didn’t.
But eh, we looked good. So I mean, we still needed to get a pic. We can’t let all THIS…
…go to waste.
But yeah, the weather you guys. Mother Nature legit hates us.
So we rescheduled with Romaine for the following day, hopeful we could get some good pictures on our last day. On account of it was our last chance.
Back to the room, I guess.
And the rain did eventually stop.
We decided to keep the photoshoot vibes going.
For dinner tonight, the kids and the adults were once again splitting up. Owen, Myles, and Mia ended up hopping around, taking Mia to Bobby Dee’s first (I believe she was adamant about making pizza happen) and then heading over to The Cricketer’s to round out the night.
Sheila was unfortunately not feeling great so she was gonna hang back for dinner (womp) but Jeff, Tony, Larissa, Nickie, and I had an adults-only dinner at Sky in the Key West Village.
Prior to dinner, I realllly wanted to go to Soy in the Caribbean Village for sushi but when we got there, the wait was kind of crazy bananas. So no sushi happening this trip. Which is a bummer. I never got to try Soy last time and was really hopeful we would get there this time around. But nope.
Two trips to Beaches and no Soy yet. You know what that means….
Since Soy was a no-go and our dinner reservation at Sky was a little ways away, we decided to grab some drinks at Turtles, the bar in the Caribbean Village.
On the way, we passed this super duper cool sign.
Oh, we live in Boston! 1419 miles? That’s wicked fahhh, kid.
You know what’s not fahh away? Turtles!
Yerp and as you can see on the door – Adults Only, you guys. But don’t make the same mistake I did. That does not mean you should take off your pants immediately upon walking in the door. Which like, whatever. It was an honest mistake.
…
Turtles is a cool little place. It’s got a super chill vibe to it.
And yeah, as you can see it was really empty in there. And one might assume this was simply because of COVID but I remember it being this empty last time we were at Beaches as well. It is a super relaxing place to grab a drink. So COVID times or not…
Being that we were in a bar, drinks were in order. Jeff and I ordered a couple Old-Fashioneds.
The bartender said they were out of oranges, but she ended up replacing the missing orange-ness with some extra cherry flavor. So I mean. Eh. I guess this was more a Manhattan. But we kept calling it an Old-Fashioned. Once we’ve named a drink, it’s hard for us to pivot and call it something else.
I guess we’re old-fashioned like that.
Larissa ordered an Espresso Martini, which looked all kinds of delicious.
Nickie got her usual – a Cosmopolitan.
Look at those two. It’s like an episode of Sex and the City up there.
Oh and Tony got a margarita. If you can tear your eyes away from the handsome that is happening in the center of the picture below, you may notice it down there near the lower left corner.
Look at those three. It’s like an episode of Sex and the City up there.
The bartender also took a few pictures of our entire group but the lighting wasn’t…the best…in there. So it actually more looks like she painted a watercolor of us rather than took a picture.
Good times at Turtles.
But we must move on. Dinner was nigh. Nigh, I tell you!
First off, let me just kind of give you guys a lay of the land here. So we were at Turtles in the Caribbean Village, which is (if you are looking at Beaches from the beach) all the way on the right side of the resort. And we had dinner in Key West at Sky, which is all the way on the left side of the resort. And Jeff was having a bit of leg pain at this point in the trip so that walk definitely did not have Jeff written all over it.
So we asked the guy at the front if we could get a cart to take us over. Which he said was no problem. He called over a cart and within minutes, we were whisked through the tunnels underneath the resort over to the Key West Village.
Have I mentioned how awesome the service is here? Because it is. Awesome.
Time to go to Sky.
Sky is a restaurant we visited on our first trip to Beaches Turks & Caicos, but we only did so for breakfast. Dinner is an adults-only affair (again, leave your pants on). And the cool thing about this place is that it’s actually on top of Bayside, a restaurant we have already visited a couple times on this trip for breakfast – here and here.
To get to Sky, you go through the same entrance as you do for Bayside and walk up a circular staircase to reach Sky. And I love these little birdie decorations leading us up the stairs.
You come out of the stairway and into this amazingness.
Thankfully, the weather had switched and things were pretty nice tonight. Because, as you can see, we are just sort of our there under the night sky.
Our meal started with some bread and oil…
…which is always a nice way to start a meal.
When the server asked us what appetizers we wanted, it was turning out to be a really tough decision so he suggested we just order two of everything. This server was amazing, obviously.
So we got the Grilled Pork Belly on Butternut Squash Risotto.
The Avocado and Lump Crab Salad with Crostini.
The Hand Dived Scallops (with Green Pea Puree, Prosciutto & Apple, Lemon Saffron Aioli, Pickled and Roasted Carrots.)
And the BBQ Gulf Shrimp with Barbecue Butter and a Buttermilk Biscuit.
Seriously, guys. EVERYTHING was delicious. If I had to choose my favorite, I think I actually liked the Avocado and Lump Crab Salad the best. Super fresh, super creamy, super good. But the Pork Belly and the Scallops were both very, VERY close as well.
For my main, I ordered the Braised Short Rib (with Ginger Scented Carrot Puree & Southern Succotash.)
And Nickie ordered the VERY BLURRY Grilled Filet of Beef (with Foie Gras Butter, Cauliflower Puree, and Spinach Garlic Cream.)
Now. The plan was for Nickie and I to do a whole splitsies thing. I would give her some short rib and should would pass over some filet.
But ugh. So that Short Rib was AH-MAY-ZING. And I had also had a few Old-Fashioneds. Also, I am some sort of monster.
So I sort of scarfed it all down right before remembering this whole deal we just made. Like seriously, I took my last bite and was like, “oh man.”
I am literally the worst.
And she, being the awesome wife she is, still gave me some of her filet. Though, to be honest, she still holds it over me. Like every time she asks me to do something around the house and I act put out, she simply whispers, “filet.” This is what it has all come to.
Also, thankfully, Jeff also got the Short Ribs and is not as disgusting a person as I am so he offered Nickie some of his. And I scooped some of my filet onto his plate. So everything worked out in the end. Especially for me. Since I still got a whole plate of Short Ribs to myself.
Oh and out of the two dishes? I think I preferred the Short Ribs. In case that wasn’t obvious yet.
While we were sitting there, our friends we met at Beaches – Steve and Diane – walked over to our table since they were also enjoying dinner at Sky that night. Steve offered to take a picture of our table. And look how attractive and full we are.
I mean, we weren’t too full. We still got dessert. I went for some sort of Banana-Chocolate situation.
This was…pretty good. It wasn’t my favorite dessert of the trip but it also wasn’t my least favorite. And I mean, it’s included so obviously you should order it.
After Sky, we walked back over to the Italian Village and met up with the kids in Tony and Larissa’s room. The plan was for them to watch a movie in Tony and Larissa’s room using the Falzones’ Disney+. Initially, it seemed Myles and Owen were pushing for Lady and the Tramp but Mia said they could only either watch Frozen II or Zombies 2. Apparently, she’s a big sequel fan. The boys even asked if Frozen was an option, but nope. It’s sequels or nothing.
So Myles and Owen relented and chose Frozen II out of their two choices. To which Mia answered, “Zombies 2.”
Sooooo…Zombies 2 it was.
And then came the fun part. Getting it to show on the TV.
You see, the Wi-Fi isn’t like…the best…at Beaches unless you pay for the Premium access. Tony spent, well, a while trying to get everything to work. The laptop. The tablet. Plugging it in here. Plugging it in there. Pretty entertaining stuff.
Eventually, he could only get the first Zombies movie to play and even then, it was buffering constantly. But eh, I mean. It was Zombies. Does it really matter?
Enjoy, kids.
Also, fair warning….that was the last picture I took tonight but we still did some stuff. So get ready to read.
Should be boring fun.
Jeff, Tony, and I had cigars to smoke. Both Tony and I brought some cigars to the island and Tony brought some Basil Hayden and Bulleit Bourbon so we brought all of that down to the Italian Village bar to get some glasses with ice and inquire about the best place to smoke a cigar.
She told us we could simply walk over to some chairs outside Mario’s and light them up but when we walked over there, it just felt like we would totally be smoking in peoples’ faces. We walked over near the hot tubs, near the pool…none of it felt right.
But I mean, necessity is the mother of invention or whatever and, guys.
Guys.
GUYS.
We found the best place to smoke a cigar at Beaches Turks & Caicos.
Like I said earlier, I have no other pictures from tonight but I do have pictures of this spot from other times during the trip. So here is where we had our cigars…
…just imagine it less, you know, sunny. On account of it was nighttimes.
And yeah, this was such a great place to have a drink and a cigar. There was no one up there and there were couches and chairs and a table as well. Plus the view. It was a great time up there…we smoked and drank and talked and all that. Male bonding FTW.
Soooo…that was Day 6 you guys. Some adversity here and there but overall, a super fun day.
And stay tuned for the next post. That one will be (womp-a-domp) the last post of this series. I know. But don’t cry just yet. We still have a lot of fun to get through.
Last post – Day 5
Next post – Days 7 & 8
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