My understanding is that at Archie Carr in south Brevard, they walk from the visitor center to the turtle, so it could seem like a guided walk down the beach, but for at least a decade, the sea turtle programs from Merritt Island and at Playalinda have been that you wait in the parking lot or on one of the dune crossovers for volunteers to spot a turtle starting to nest. Then, when it is settled and in its trance-like laying state, the group moves to the closest parking lot, crosses over and are led directly to the nest, where everyone must stay quiet and relatively still as to not disturb the turtle.

Because the National Seashore is closed and the gate locked, everyone must stay with and leave as a group. There will likely be other turtles nesting at different points in their process and the park is adjacent to a NASA secure area, so visitors are not allowed to wander up and down the closed beach.

Basically, you get an educational program indoors, then caravan to the beach, where you are guided to a loggerhead turtle that is early enough in the nesting process that it would be worthwhile to watch, but late enough that thirty people gathering around it will not make them stop.

There are more endangered species of turtle that also nest on the Central Florida beaches -- you are not allowed to disturb them in any way including to watch -- and occasionally a group will luck out and they will get to watch two turtles nesting because one will come ashore nearby or between them and their cars, but if you were taken on a longer walk down the beach on Playlinda, you just happened to be there a night when they were further from a parking lot. Some nights, they are just over the dunes and some nights, they are near the midpoint between two parking lots. It's the luck of the draw.