Jim & Kellyn's Carnival Glory B2B 2011

[luv2go1]

Wonderful review...we are planning our first cruise and your report really provided some great insight and tips. Thanks so much for posting.

[noel94]

Thank you so much for your post. We are first time cruisers and will be on the Glory May 1st. Are there any tips for disembarkation? We have an early flight and I am nervous we will miss it. I have no problem carrying off our luggage. Thank you again for all your advice.

[pepperfeet]

Great review. We were up onstage with you guys at the past guest party. We made it thru three rounds. Congrat on your ship on a stick. We had a fabulous cruise also.

[pepperfeet]

Thank you so much for your post. We are first time cruisers and will be on the Glory May 1st. Are there any tips for disembarkation? We have an early flight and I am nervous we will miss it. I have no problem carrying off our luggage. Thank you again for all your advice.

Early flight cruisere are off the ship first. We were off the ship by 8 AM.

[pepperfeet]

Thank you so much for your post. We are first time cruisers and will be on the Glory May 1st. Are there any tips for disembarkation? We have an early flight and I am nervous we will miss it. I have no problem carrying off our luggage. Thank you again for all your advice.

Early flight cruisers are off the ship first. We were off the ship by 8 AM.

[Nann]

Jim & Kellyn,

 

Thank you for sharing your pictures! We are considering the Carnival Freedom for March 2012, Southern Caribbean. We are a family of 4 (children 13 & 17) and have never cruised before. I'm only looking at the Freedom because of the Ports (Grand Turk, La Romana, Curacao & Aruba. I get a much better idea of what to expect in Grand Turk due to your pictures. We are deciding between the Freedom and Epic, not an easy decision to make.

[julescruisin]

What a wondeful review and I loved the pictures and videos, we will be on the Glory in June to Canada, not quite the Caribbean but it is our first cruise without our children and we don't want to be away from them too long. We are celebrating our 20th Anniversary and are dining in the Steakhouse the very first night, that porterhouse steak looks amazing and my dh will get that for sure:D So glad you had a wonderful b2b I read this to my dh and said for our 30th we are doing a b2b, I probably won't wait that long, I agree 7 nights is not enough. Thanks for a great review now we are more excited than ever:p Happy cruising

[LBumb]

i am stealing this idea. six years away from my first b2b. great review.

[flounder315]

Hi Jim & Kellyn, Wonderful review and pictures. Thanks for posting.

I was amazed by the fact that we have the exact same digital cameras. I love my Canon T2i and my Olympus waterproof digital. I got the Olympus before we went to Hawaii in June 2010, it is good to 16' deep water. I bought a floating strap that tightens around your wrist, so that if I dropped it, I would not lose it. I know that doesn't help with the one you lost cave tubing, but I want to make sure you get a floating strap for the next one, I know you are going to replace it. They are perfect for water lovers, cruising, snorkleing, and fishing. I got my Canon in Oct and absolutely love taking pictures with it. My daughter dances with the high school drill team and I took some awesome action shots, during football games and competition season. Although I do not have the 100-400 zoom lens yet. They are soooo expensive.

I do have a question. Did you shoot the video's with the T2i? I haven't tried it, I am always to busy taking still shots.

Congrats on making platinum, I'm trying to get there. :D

[crusinpsychRN]

Fabulous review. I did cave tubing and zip lining in Belize and almost missed the ship. Nothing to eat all day. Got to ship at 5:30pm, starving!

 

How's your wife's foot doing? Sorry to hear about that.

 

Did you have Maitre D' Ken? He sang every night and he could really sing. He was the only MD I've ever tipped.

[vegasnine]

Hey Jim,

 

Just saying "hey". Noticed your post here - I guess this is my other guilty pleasure (cruise critic) besides your spaniel forum. Take care,

 

Tracey

[crusinpsychRN]

Host Mac, watch out! This gentleman may be our next Host! Remember it was after a delightful review Mach did that he became Host.

 

Was the turtle farm something you just got a ride to or a paid excursion?

[marti222]

Loved reading your report and seeing your fantastic pictures,we were on The Glory May 2009,and will be sailing again on her June 13th 5 nights from NY to Canada and looking forward to returning,the week before we are cruising the Islands of Hawaii on The Pride of America then after a stay in Honolulu we fly to New York to board The Glory,have also cruised on Carnival Liberty another fab ship:)

thanks for sharing:)

[FallingSilver02]

 

 

The Low Point Of Our Cruise

 

It was an absolutely fantastic cruise... but yes, there were a few things that we'd like to forget! The big one was a day in Belize, where we went cave tubing.

 

 

In my pre-cruise research, it seemed like cave-tubing was the classic shore excursion that everyone visiting Belize talked about. I also have a friend at work that has been on many Carnival cruises and she told me that I absolutely MUST go cave tubing on the Western Caribbean portion of our cruise. So, it seemed like a no-brainer that we would have fun cave-tubing. It didn't exactly work out that way!

 

In truth, the actual cave-tubing itself wasn't bad. Personally, I enjoyed the lazy river at the Atlantis water park a lot more... but I can't say that cave tubing was bad. What was bad was the hours and hours spent in getting there and back! We left our cabin at 8:15 AM and didn't get back to it until 3:30 PM... so that's over seven hours spent on this adventure... and only about one hour of it was actually on the tube going down the river through the caves. Over six hours spent to get there and back! It starts with a long ride on the tender to get to shore... and then a really long bus ride (over bad roads, through some particularly un-scenic countryside) to the tour company's base camp near the caves... and then a hike of about a half hour through the hills until you reach the starting point of your tube ride. And between each leg of the journey... lots of waiting. Mercifully, when the tube ride down the river and through the caves is finally over, there's only about a one minute walk back to the base camp... and then there's some food and drinks to tide you over on the multi-hour journey back to the ship.

 

Spending over seven hours to achieve a one-hour tube ride through some fairly plain-looking caves is bad enough... but two things made it even worse for me and Kellyn. During the 30 minute hike from the base camp to the beginning of the tube ride, Kellyn (who has very bad osteoporosis, which makes her bones brittle and prone to breaking easily) set her foot down a bit wrong on the rocky path and fractured part of her foot. And later, as we were getting out of the tubes at the end of our cave tubing, I somehow managed to drop my waterproof digital camera in to the river... without realizing it. By the time I realized my camera was no longer in my pocket, I couldn't get back to the river to look for it.

 

If we ever get back to Belize on another cruise... we definitely won't go cave tubing again! In retrospect, we should have gone on a nice snorkeling excursion. It would have been a lot more enjoyable and we wouldn't have wasted so much time getting there and back.

 

Spaniel, did you do the tour through the ship, or with a private company in Belize? I have heard mostly positive reviews of cave tubing with private companies, and mixed reviews when the tour was done through Carnival. I am booked for cavetubing in May with cavetubing.bz and would be interested to know. I hope Kellyn was treated well once she was injured, and that she is healing up nicely.

 

Also, I am L-O-V-I-N-G your review. The pictures are wonderful - you have an obvious talent for photography - and the details you provided are great as well! Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into sharing your experiences (both good and bad!) with us.

[SANJOSEGAL]

Spaniel, did you do the tour through the ship, or with a private company in Belize? I have heard mostly positive reviews of cave tubing with private companies, and mixed reviews when the tour was done through Carnival. I am booked for cavetubing in May with cavetubing.bz and would be interested to know. I hope Kellyn was treated well once she was injured, and that she is healing up nicely.

 

 

FallingSilver02 last Sept we did the cave tubing in Belize with cavetubing.bz and we had a great time. Though I have to agree its a lot of work just to get to the excursion. Using this company it includes lunch and its so much more personal you also go a little further through the caves then Carnivals tour. I heard many complaints from the people that used Carnival saying they were starving when they returned and were only offered a small snack bar. Don't forget your insect repellent :D.

I actually did a review on Trip Advisor for this excursion.

[FallingSilver02]

FallingSilver02 last Sept we did the cave tubing in Belize with cavetubing.bz and we had a great time. Though I have to agree its a lot of work just to get to the excursion. Using this company it includes lunch and its so much more personal you also go a little further through the caves then Carnivals tour. I heard many complaints from the people that used Carnival saying they were starving when they returned and were only offered a small snack bar. Don't forget your insect repellent :D.

I actually did a review on Trip Advisor for this excursion.

 

Thanks so much sanjosegal!! The reviews on Vitalino Reyes on TA are what caused me to ultimately go with this tour. Glad to hear you had a great time, this excursions is one of the reasons I chose a western itinerary!

[ampleiwb]

The best review ever! I cant wait to read more!

I also have a rebel..the t2i and love it:) for those of you who have a dslr for great pics for yourself and your family i suggest buying a joby gorillapod. the one for a rebel t2i is only $30 retail. It is like a tri pod but the arms can swirl around and attach to practically anything (think rails on cruise ships). google joby and you should find it. Thanks again for the review, please keep it coming!

[Spaniel Lover]

Thank you so much for your post. We are first time cruisers and will be on the Glory May 1st. Are there any tips for disembarkation? We have an early flight and I am nervous we will miss it. I have no problem carrying off our luggage. Thank you again for all your advice.

As long as you do the self-disembarkation... you'll be fine. They actually are the first off the ship... even before the people with early flights. Because you are first time cruisers, let me just mention something that will be obvious to all the experienced cruisers but maybe not to a first time cruiser: if you are going to do the self disembarkation and haul all your luggage off the ship yourself, make sure you don't put ANY luggage out in the hallway the night before. You'll see a lot of your neighbors put their luggage out in the hallway... don't put anything out there if you are going to do the self disembarkation! You have to haul it ALL yourself. So, pack appropriately light.

 

Was the turtle farm something you just got a ride to or a paid excursion?

That was a Carnival excursion. One nice thing about doing a Carnival shore excursion at ports where there is no dock and the ship has to tender you to shore is that you basically have priority boarding for the tender. You are told to meet in a certain lounge at a certain time and they just lead the whole group down to a tender that is reserved just for the Carnival shore excursion people. So, there is minimal waiting and zero chance you will be late.

 

Did you do the tour through the ship, or with a private company in Belize? I have heard mostly positive reviews of cave tubing with private companies, and mixed reviews when the tour was done through Carnival. I am booked for cavetubing in May with cavetubing.bz and would be interested to know.

Several problems would still exist even if you took a private cave tubing excursion: it's a heck of a long way from the ship and will take you hours to get there... the scenery out the window of the bus is not beautiful... and it will take you a long time to get back. Now, maybe on a private excursion (depending on what company it is with) you would avoid that one mile stretch of horribly pot-holed road that we had to go about five mph on... and maybe you wouldn't have to do the 40 minute hike from the base camp to the beginning of the tube ride. I guess that would just depend on where the private excursion starts and stops and how they get you to and from the start and stop point. But no matter what... it's a LONG way from the ship and you will be looking at spending about six or seven hours to experience something like a 60-90 minute tube ride. And if you're imagining some action packed ride down a river... you've totally got it wrong. Your tube travels at approximately one or two miles per hour. It is the most gentle river you could possibly imagine. The fun to time-spent ratio was just way too low for me! What I learned too late was that off the shore of Belize is one of the greatest reefs in the world... with world-class snorkeling and diving. So, on my next visit to Belize, you can be sure I'll be spending time in the water at the reef... not heading inland for cave tubing!

[jillmom2]

This was one of the nicest reviews I have seen in a long time..Great job!!..So appreciative because we will be on the Glory this Sunday...your timing was perfect:)

[ashd8970]

I am LOVING this review! I'm sailing on the Glory in May (Western Caribbean) so I can't wait to glean some tips and tricks from your posts about the second half of your trip!! Enjoy your break but please come back soon!!! :)

[loma linda ca a & j]

after reading this incredible review the other day, we booked an extra segment to our b2b so that we could see nassau and go to san juan & grand turk twice - we'll have 21 days on glory east-west-east again from 11/6- 27 this year !:)

thank you so much for all the detailed info and marvelous photos -

almost feel like we have been there already !!;)

[hayesktrm]

Can't wait to hear more!

[bragstarr]

Well it's a cold icky night here on Long Island and I was bored, nothing on TV, so I decided to check the CC boards. Came across your review and passed a lovely half hour reading through. Going on Glory to Canada for 5 nights in September right out of NYC...I wrote all the hints down, especially the hidden jacuzzi.

 

I had Jorge Solano a number of years ago on Imagination (my only Carnival cruise as you will see if you read my signature) and he was hysterical! I really liked him, so maybe the guy is burnt out. I know he's going off Glory before I go on it.

 

I'm ready for the buffet now--thanks for those nice pics. I will tell you we were on NCL Gem in December (I'll take ANY line going out of NYC!) and their buffet area is lovely. The newer the ship, the nicer they seem to make the buffet areas!

[beach410]

On the way back to the ship, with my two 8-packs of Coke in hand, we were approached by a middle-aged gentleman that looked American and who asked us if we spoke English. When I told him we did, he was visibly relieved. At first I thought he was just going to ask for directions, but then he launched in to a speech about being a tourist visiting Puerto Rico with his elderly grandfather and I sensed I was being given some kind of sales pitch. About this time I was noticing that he spoke in a manner that indicated extreme stress, and also that he had some cuts and bruises on his face. It turns out that he and his father had been mugged, and that he needed $8 in cab fare to get back to his hotel. You may be thinking that this was some kind of scam, but I'm pretty good at reading people and this guy's story rang true with me... and the cuts and bruises on his face would have been hard to fake. I took a few steps away from him so that I had some maneuvering room if he made a move towards me, and then I took out my wallet and gave him a $20 bill. The look of relief and appreciation on his face was priceless. He gave me his email address and asked me to email him so that he could get our address and repay us.

 

 

I havent read the rest of your review yet, so I dont know if anyone alerted you to this, and I am sorry to tell you this, but I think you did get skammed. If you do a search you may be able to find the posts and even a picture of the guy who is famous here on these boards in PR who is making a very nice living off of trusting tourists like yourself. See: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1157250&page=3

was his name John Ripka? I am so sorry, you and your wife seem like very nice genuine people!

 

Really enjoying your review, your perspective and your pictures! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

[beach410]

Just read the part about your vow renewal, teary eyed..how sweet, congratulations on your reconcilliation and heres to 30 more!