Cruise ship calls at hurricane-damaged Grand Turk could resume as early as this week

Cruise ships could be back in Grand Turk as early as Tuesday — three weeks to the day after the island's only cruise pier was damaged by Hurricane Fiona.

In an email to TPG on Monday, Carnival Cruise Line spokesperson Matt Lupoli said the line's 2,984-passenger Carnival Sunrise was scheduled to visit the island on Tuesday and that, as of late in the day, the call remained a go.

The line has canceled nearly a dozen cruise calls at Grand Turk over the past four weeks due to at first the approach of Hurricane Fiona and then the lasting damage caused by its passage over the island.

Carnival operates the Grand Turk Cruise Center — home to Grand Turk's cruise ship dock — and sends by far the most ships to the island on an annual basis.

The cancellations to Grand Turk calls in recent weeks have affected the itineraries of Carnival Sunrise as well as Carnival's 5,282-passenger Mardi Gras, 2,124-passenger Carnival Legend and 2,974-passenger Carnival Freedom.

Also canceling all calls in Grand Turk over the past four weeks was Celebrity Cruises. The line's 2,170-passenger Celebrity Infinity, which operates regular sailings to the island, hasn't visited it since Sept. 7.

Related: The ultimate guide to Carnival cruise ships and itineraries

The last cruise ship to visit Grand Turk was the 2,052-passenger Carnival Ecstasy on Sept. 16.

Grand Turk is the capital of Turks and Caicos, a grouping of 40 low-lying coral islands southeast of the Bahamas that draws more than 1 million cruisers a year.

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The dock at the Grand Turk Cruise Center suffered damage on Sept. 20 as Hurricane Fiona slammed into Turks and Caicos as a powerful Category 3 storm, with the eye of the storm passing near Grand Turk. Videos of the 200-foot-long pier posted on social media sites after the storm showed pieces of its infrastructure broken off and washed up on a nearby shore.

The cruise ship pier at the Grand Turk Cruise Center is the only one in Turks and Caicos. At the southern end of Grand Turk, the 13-acre center is home to a pool, a spa, shops, and restaurants and bars including the largest Margaritaville in the Caribbean. As many as three cruise ships can dock at the center in a day.

About 1.1 million people arrived in Turks and Caicos by cruise ship in 2019, the last normal year for cruising before COVID-19 caused cruising to shut down. In a typical year, cruisers account for nearly 70% of all visitors to the destination.

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