First Timers (sort of) Glory Review 03/25/2017

[lazydayz]

Adding my thanks. Only 19 days until we board. :cool:

[pendragonz121]

Great read! Waiting to read more.

Planing to sail on Glory in March 2018

[carnivaladdix120]

Awesome review so far! Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. Can't wait for more!

[podunkhum]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review! Interesting read for sure. Which hotel did u stay in Miami? Sorry if u posted, I read your first part when I was really tired, but had to read it, ya know...sailing the Glory in Sept, will be my 3rd time sailing her.

 

Cindy

 

 

We stayed at the Econo Lodge in Hollywood, FL. Nothing fancy but we got a good nights rest and the staff were actually really friendly. It was cheap at $130 a night. But seriously, that was a very quiet motel. In fact, I slept so well on my vacation and that I thought something might be wrong with me. I usually sleep fitfully when I am away from my own bed, tossing and turning all night.

[podunkhum]

Thanks everyone for your nice comments. And for all of you going on the Glory I hope you all have as good of a time as we did. I really can't think of too many negatives but I will try. I want to be fair and realistic with my review. Actually, I do remember one snafu. The power outage on our return to the ship in Cozumel. More on that later.

[podunkhum]

So on to my thoughts on the food. I already gave my positive take on my Guy's abandoned burger that was relocated and eaten, but to me everything hinges on the main dining room. I am completely food motivated. Ask my wife. Most of my fondest memories involve food somehow. If I had a good vacation, then you can bet I will have remembered the good food. I still remember my favorite steaks, my favorite burgers, my favorite desserts, and just about every Thanksgiving holiday. I'm not a foodie, but I just love food. I'm neither easy to please or hard to please. But although I am not hard to please, I am picky about certain things. I am not a big leftovers type of guy. Probably one of the things that drives my wife nuts is my pickiness (in her estimation anyways) But hey, I think I just drive her loony tunes whatever I do. But if you want to motivate me, you need to involve food. I will admit that that is one of the things that enticed me to book a cruise. All the freakin food I can freakin eat. Yeah, baby! But enough about my food obsession, on to my review.

 

So I read a ton of reviews before booking The Glory. I had narrowed it down to three cruise lines and about 6 different ships. One of my main focuses was the food. How was the food on each one? I couldn't nail it down. There were so many mixed reviews. It was okay, it was fantastic, it was pig slop, it was like eating at Applebys, and on and on. But one of the things that really scared me about Carnival were the negative food reviews and how it had gone downhill and how much the new American Table menu sucks. But on the other hand I read negative stuff about RCI and NCL food as well. I guess you just can't please everyone. I guess I was just going to have to take my chances with The Glory.

 

One other caveat that I should mention, my wife and daughter are gluten free and dairy free. We were concerned about this but I read great stuff about how Carnival does a pretty good job catering to dietary needs. We even got a hold of the maitre d' to inform him of the specifics of their diets. He got back to us right away and assured us that everything would be taken care of for us.

 

So the first night I was pretty excited. I couldn't wait to see how this was done. I vaguely remember dining on our cruise in 95' and I remember liking it pretty well, but nothing too memorable. I think my first night in the dining room was my second best meal of the cruise. Everything was almost spot on. The ambiance, the lighting, the service, the company, and the food were very satisfactory, but we did hit a little snag. We arrived at the Golden upper dining room and we were supposed to have a table for eight, but they only had a table of six ready for us. JD and M had been assigned another table. Whaaaaa? We were a little perturbed since we had been linked together from the beginning and had arranged to have a table of eight. What gives? Well, I think the maitre d' could tell that we were disappointed and he asked if it would be okay if they just added two more plates to our table. Sure why not. We were a little crowded, elbow to elbow and all, but it was nice to be together on our first night in the dining room. We didn't whine or complain or demand anything. The maitre d' just made things right. Like I said, the service was spot on. The next day we received a card in our room that said that our request to be seated at a table for eight had been granted. We had the exact same table only they added a table for two to the 6 top to give us our eight. We stuck out a little but there was still room for the waiters to get around us. I really appreciate that they went out of there way to accommodate us.

 

Later on, we found out JD and M were unlinked from us when they upgraded their cabin to a suite. Funny thing is, they didn't even realize they had been upgraded. We were all wondering why they were getting special treatment and getting to use the priority lounge before boarding, but we just thought they were getting special treatment because M has a hard time getting around. When we went to their room for the first time, we were astonished that their room was twice as big. I figured it out right away and told JD they had gotten a suite and asked him if they had received the upsell call. He said that they had but that he told them not to call him anymore because they were starting to annoy him. He even told them they were considering cancelling their cruise due to M's health concerns. Apparently they then got the upgrade fairy because that is what happened. This is when they became unlinked from us and is why we did not have the table that we had originally requested. But not big deal because now everyone was happy and the grandparents got a "suite" cabin to boot.

 

So back to the food. I ordered the swordfish steak. It was really good. Everything about it. It was sweet, tender, and cooked just right. It also came out to me at a decent temperature. It wasn't exactly hot but it was definitely acceptable. I had to share a few bites to let my family know how good it was. Shellhead and Suz had the chicken and Suz said it was the best chicken she had ever had. She kept talking about it so I know that she was pretty exited. Here is how our table configuration looked after they fixed it. Obviously, this isn't the first night. I didn't get any pictures the first night but we did get some prints from pixels on our first night in the dining room. We ended up spending about $150 on pixels prints.

 

 

 

I wish that I would have taken some more shots of the dining room and the chandelier and decor of the dining room, but I was so caught up in the moment and the fun we were having, that I didn't think to take too many photos in there.

 

General consensus of night one in the dining room...everyone was pretty happy. I think Suz and I enjoyed our meals the most. The two sets of grandparents were satisfied, but not overly impressed on night one. I think everyone had a couple of nights where they were wowed and then everyone had one or two off nights. And when I say off night I only mean that maybe the food was a little too bland or a little too cooked, or maybe we just weren't hungry enough to enjoy it because we had stuffed our faces too much throughout the day. No major complaints from me though. My overall experience in the dining room was very favorable. And for those who say the the food is on par with Applebys, well, I think they are just being daft. Hey, I get it. It's not exactly fine dining. Nevertheless when you consider the unique dishes, the service, the presentation, the ambiance, and the overall vibe of the experience, you can't tell me that that is like going out to eat at Applebys. That is just plain preposterous.

 

All things considered, the Golden Dining Room exceeded my expectations. Hats off to Edward and our waitstaff. We ended up tipping him extra, especially JD, who left him a pretty nice tip. Very good people and always very on top of things. They were always there to ask us how things were, fill up our drinks, and even take some time for small bits of conversation. Way more attentive service than you would get at a local Applebys. Edward even performed a magic trick for us. A very special person.

[podunkhum]

I just want to finish off day one. There wasn't a whole lot going on that interested us on day one but Moose really wanted to go check out the dive in movie at the pool on deck 9. This night they were showing Central Intelligence. I had seen it before but Moose hadn't. We both skipped out on dessert and ran down to the pool to get our seat. We were lucky and got two excellent seats. We were both in good spirits so we really enjoyed the movie. A lot of lol moments for sure. A nice girl who sat next to us brought us some popcorn and since the first night was a tad chilly, we checked out a couple of blankets to keep us comfy.

 

Now I will say that in the beginning it was a little hard to hear because we were right by the pool and there were some kiddies having fun, but it was no big deal because they had subtitles up. Later, it seems like they turned up the volume and some of the screaming kids went back to their rooms and so it was easy to

hear. The picture looked great and it was a very enjoyable experience. We would watch two and a half movies on this cruise.

 

After the movie Moose went back to the room to play on the Nintendo Switch with his sister and Shellhead and I wandered around the ship. We went to the piano bar to kick back and listen to Clay take requests. I liked him. I love the piano and he was pretty good and had a pretty decent voice. I was just utterly relaxed and enjoying the freedom of not having to worry about any schedules or to have to drive anywhere to go find some entertainment. Chances are you could walk around and stumble onto something interesting that you really weren't planning on doing. That happened a lot with me. I would be walking around and I would stumble into the casino or the pool deck or maybe the atrium and there would be some good live music or a good DJ or something. I didn't get to do everything that I wanted but I enjoyed everything I did. I did not waste any time, unless that was my plan, to waste time. Some times wasted time is planned so it's not really wasted...especially if you are relaxing.

 

Shellhead and I eventually wandered back to the room, thoroughly exhausted, and we crashed pretty hard. Now remember, this was the first day and one of two very windy days. And with winds, comes rough seas. No one really got sick but some were a little queasy. Sometimes on day one I felt like a drunk trying to walk straight down the halls but failing. Once I hit the hay and I was laying there in the dark I seemed to notice it more. The swaying and movement of the ship on the water. I thought it might bother me but it didn't at all. It lulled my right to sleep.

 

So here is a pic I snapped on my I phone of one of our other dive in movie nights. The seats were actually a lot better than they look in this picture. This night we watched Moanna. I hadn't seen it before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This night the whole family was there to watch it.

 

[meatloafsfan]

This is an absolutely fantastic review. Thank you for sharing your trip.

 

I too really enjoy the American Table menus - I think the food on Carnival is good to great to excellent - same with the service. I also find they have some of the greatest variety of foods available throughout the day (and especially the "made for you" or customizable options).

[podunkhum]

Ahhh the "fun day at sea" day. I just want a relaxing day at sea. I figured I'd wake up and try to watch the sunrise, read a book, participate in brunch, and kind of find a spot to lay out somewhere. So first things first. Lets get up to deck 10 by the running track and see what I can see. First morning on the ocean and I was looking forward to just drinking it all in. I think I was up at about 7 am and sunrise was at about 7:20 I think. I got dressed in my gym clothes and headed up to the track. It was fantastic. Hardly anyone was out and it was a gorgeous morning.

 

So I haven't mentioned it before but I'm a runner. I wasn't really planning on running today because I wanted to take it easy...you know...vacation like a pro. I want to think that I can relax with the best of them. I will admit that at times I can get to be little uptight but it usually takes a trigger. Once that trigger has been pulled, it is harder than heck to get it back to good. But there I was on the track and people were running, so not to be outdone by other runners, I decide to run a little. Man I knew this would happen. I mean why else would I put on my gym shoes. :confused:

 

So I set an easy pace at first but then I started to pick up the pace. It felt good. It was only a little breezy and partly cloudy. I did about 18 laps around the track which equals 2 miles. It was kind of a pain in the butt counting but I knew my Garmin wasn't going to give me an accurate read out there. It was really easy to navigate through the runners and walkers. I never saw it get too crowded up there. I really enjoyed it. The sunrise wasn't spectacular but it wasn't too bad. The clouds obscured it some. What thought was cool though was that you could see Cuba off in the distance. I knew Cuba was big but it looked so much huger (yes huger) than I imagined it to be. I couldn't help but wonder what life is like for people over there. Later on down on the balcony, I used my binoculars to scope out the area. I saw factories, towns, and all kinds of structures. I started becoming more curious about Cuba. Maybe someday a Cuba cruise will be in the books for me.

 

So after the run I went downstairs to shower and see if everyone was ready for seaday brunch. We took our time getting down there and spent some time on the deck looking at Cuba before we went down. We kept seeing these tiny flashes of something skimming across the water really fast away from the boat. We tried looking at them with the binos but they were too fast. I think we finally decided that they were some kind of flying fish because we had seen something similar in Alaska on a wildlife cruise. I was still doubtful however because of how long they could stay above the water.

 

So we went down to brunch and we got a seat right by the window. The platinum is deck three aft so we were down there watching the wake on a beautiful morning. We all got pancakes but Shellhead and Suz got gluten free pancakes. Well Shell didn't like them...one bit. I mentioned this earlier. Because of the complicated instructions on the diet the chef decided to stay away from soy although that is not what we had asked for. Long story short...really bland crappy pancakes. I won't go into detail here but this was the darkest moment on the cruise. Shell wasn't happy and I wasn't too sympathetic about her plight. I wasn't trying to be a jerk about it but to her it came across that way. We left the breakfast table on non speaking terms.:(

 

The service wasn't as good at breakfast. It didn't have the same flow as the dining room. I didn't get everything I asked for and we had to ask for our orange juice more than once. They didn't return to ask us how things were going and almost seemed indifferent to me. The pancakes however were quite good. Moose and Suz enjoyed theirs as well. But the mood was somber and I felt bad because of our little spat. I will take the blame though. We have always been at odds because of her diet, and though I am supportive of her choices, sometimes I still get annoyed at the restrictions. I was perturbed about the complaints of the "disgusting" pancakes. To be fair to Shell though, they really were quite bad. She had high expectations about the food because of everything she had read up on, and so when she took that first bite and the taste didn't even come close to her expectations, she was upset. She ended up talking to the head chef about it and she did so in a very respectable manner. Some things were cleared up with the diet restrictions and the head chef made everything right. The next time she had the pancakes she loved them. The head chef even sent a really nice fruit basket up to our room, something that he did not need to do.

 

So after breakfast I was persona non grata with the wife so I went off to find a nice spot to read. It was about 10:30 at this point. Surely I would be able to find a spot out in the sun. I am not picky. I did not need to be by the pool and I didn't have any special place I had in mind, I just wanted a deck chair in the sun. I walked all of the lido and went up to the serenity deck. By my estimates, about 60% of the chairs were being used and 40% were being saved. But still, I should be able to find one right? As I continue to walk around with towel, water bottle, and book in hand, I began becoming more perturbed. The trigger at breakfast that set me off put me in a somber mood, and at this point I just wanted to sit down and read. I had a good Jack Reacher novel I wanted to dig into. I finally found a chair that had nothing on it and proceeded to sit down when some yo you about 5 chairs over informed me that that chair had been saved. I said, "Well there's nothing on it, it doesn't look saved to me", and he replies, "Well it is." I had a few choice words I wanted to say but I restrained myself. I didn't want to start a confrontation with a stranger on vacation. I had already played the role of jerk this morning and I needed to calm down.

 

I finally gave up looking for a chair on decks 9 and 10 and went down to deck 3 which I guess isn't even really a deck. It was outside and it had chairs so it looked good enough for me. At this point I was seething anyways. All those empty chairs with no bodies in them really ticked me off. Well, lets see if I can calm down and enjoy this book now. I knew at some point I was going to have to make amends with Shellhead, I just needed to give it time. I did calm down and I did enjoy the peace an quiet down there. Absolutely no sun though. I was under the lifeboats and none of that friendly Caribbean sun could reach me. I was now on the non-Cuban side and there wasn't much to look at except the open water and the occasional ship.

 

Later on I found Mason and we hit the BBQ place on 10 that I mentioned earlier. It was pretty good. The sides were also pretty satisfying. They had a few different BBQ sauces to try and I think I tried two of them. The rolls that they had to put the meat on were fresh and perfect for the meat. Of all the different venues for lunch I think that this was my second favorite place. Guy's would remain my number one lunch spot.

 

After lunch sometime things got better. I was talking to Shell again and I think we wandered off again to explore the ship. Once again, we enjoyed the various artwork as we wandered around, some pretty decent works in my opinion. We found ourselves in the shops and also checking out the pixels area searching for our pictures. I didn't think I would spend any money on the overprice pictures but like I said, we ended up spending well over 100. We just liked a lot of the pictures that were taken. Here is one on our elegant night in the dining room.

 

 

 

 

Elegant night in the dining room was great. The scenery was better and pretty much everyone I saw in our section was dressed nicely. Even the few people that I saw in shorts had on nice collared shirts and looked good. I didn't see anything that resembled some of the descriptions that I read about on here. Nothing distracted from our evening and everyone enjoyed the food. I had the prime rib and I ordered the lobster tail. The food came out in a timely manner and once again everyone was in good spirits. Even JD and his Mickey Mouse tie were having a good time.

 

 

 

For dessert I had the creme brulee and this was the best dessert that I had by far. I should have asked for two. I'm kicking myself for that one. It was that good. I didn't have the WCMC until night 3 and that was my second favorite. They only had the creme brulee on this night and I was disappointed.

 

After dinner we hit the comedy show. It was the 8:30 PG comedy show, or so we thought. The introductory music for the comedian was some hip hop song sling out the F bomb left and right and the whole time the comedian was making the "kill it, kill it" sign to the sound crew but by then it was too late. That was probably in place for his next act. There were plenty of kids there, including mine, so I don't know if anyone got in trouble over that or not. The comedian seemed to be genuinely embarrassed. I kind of felt bad for him. He was pretty funny though and we ended up enjoying the show. We would go on to see 4 different comedy shows and we found it a good way to end dinner. Here we are on the first night of comedy.

 

 

 

We really enjoyed the lounge. I forget the name of it already. There was always plenty of seating for the PG shows. I don't know if the lines for the later R shows were longer, but we never had a problem getting into the earlier comedy shows. The comedian we saw on the third night was by far the best one. He made me laugh so hard it actually hurt. I'm glad that there were so many entertainment options each night.

[nicole9s]

Love your review, thank you!

 

Stinks about the pancake snafu, and ensuing spat. I get the reality not meeting expectations thing. You are a better person than I, though, when it comes to the chair hog. I think I would have had a hard time hearing with that open air and background noise, lol.

[beachgal58]

We stayed at the Econo Lodge in Hollywood, FL. Nothing fancy but we got a good nights rest and the staff were actually really friendly. It was cheap at $130 a night. But seriously, that was a very quiet motel. In fact, I slept so well on my vacation and that I thought something might be wrong with me. I usually sleep fitfully when I am away from my own bed, tossing and turning all night.

 

 

 

Thank you!

[podunkhum]

Love your review, thank you!

 

Stinks about the pancake snafu, and ensuing spat. I get the reality not meeting expectations thing. You are a better person than I, though, when it comes to the chair hog. I think I would have had a hard time hearing with that open air and background noise, lol.

 

 

I could have avoided a half morning of grief had I shown more sympathy to my wife. I know better than this and I paid the price. It took me half a day to get over it. How hard would it have been for me to just say, I'm sorry about that, let's see if we can get you something else. Easy right? Naaaah. I always have to do things the hard way. We are all human but life would be so much better if we could all just learn to be a little more patient, a little kinder, a little more forgiving, and a lot more charitable. I have lots of work to do, but doing a little self evaluation over the years I think I have gotten a lot better. Self improvement is a lifelong process and we could do ourselves a world of good if we could consciously work on something each day to improve ourselves.

 

Fortunately, this would be the only time this happened on the cruise. We get a long quite well as a family. Moose and Suz are really close and get along like good friends. Shell and I have a great relationship. She is the only person in the world who truly gets me. I have a really off the wall sense of humor and at times I can be pretty immature. I was goofy from day one. She still remembers all my weirdness from our first date, and fortunately for me, she digs it.

[podunkhum]

Day 3: Grand Cayman Island

 

We had nothing planned this day. I looked at all of the excursions and most of them had to do with stingrays. I don't really care for stingrays. I mean they killed Steve Irwin for crying out loud. Think about it. We all thought he would get killed by a croc or something and some stupid stingray kills him? How many people die from stingray attacks each year? I looked it up...it's like 18...in the history of mankind. So it's not that I am afraid of the things, I just can't forgive them for having killed such an awesome human being. I loved Steve Irwin.

 

So we woke up at a decent hour. We weren't in a huge rush to get off of the ship, but we wanted to get in a good day as well, so we made it down to the Platinum dining room right around 7 or maybe a little before. Shellhead had to see if they fixed the pancake dilemma. I was just as anxious as she was to find out and if it didn't, there was no way I was going to provoke her anymore. Still, I was on pins and needles waiting for her to take that first bite. The look on her face after she put the pancake in her mouth said it all. "Mmmmm, much better." she exclaimed. Eeeeexcellent. Everything was off to a good start. I had french toast, bacon, fruit, and a pastry. The french toast was great and the fruit was pretty good. The bacon on the ship is all the same, whether in the buffet or dining room. It is that really thin stuff that is more chewy than crunchy. I like my bacon thick and salty with a little fat on it. I actually think that the bacon that was on the topping bar at Guys Burgers is probably more my type of bacon. The pastries are about what you would expect to get from the breakfast bar at a standard Hilton hotel, just OK. I thought the service was much better this morning. All righty then, off to a good start. Let's go have some fun.

 

So we figured we would just wing it. I did just enough research to know that we wanted to go to 7 mile beach and have a nice relaxing beach day. Getting off of the ship was cinchy. I liked that. I figured it would somehow be more difficult and that everyone would be trying to push and shove to get off the ship at the same time. I didn't know quite what to expect but I guess I envisioned some kind of Black Friday scenario, door busting style. Gotta be the first one to get that souvenir shot glass or set of spoons. Maybe I gotta stake out that primo spot on the beach. I dunno, maybe I just want to maximize my time on the island.

 

We make our way through the crowd and after looking for just a little bit in the gift shops, we decide to take a Taxi to one of the beaches. One of the Taxi drivers offered to drive us to Royal Palms Beach Club for $4 a person. There were 6 in our party (JD and M weren't coming with us), and 4 more. I thought that sounded reasonable. So we piled into this beat up van and my daughter goes for the seatbelts, but what's this...there don't seem to be any. Huh? OK...well the traffic here doesn't seem to be too nuts. Our driver doesn't waste any time and aggressively pulls out into traffic. Suz has never dealt with taxi drivers in a different country so this is new to her. I think she was terrified and thrilled at the same time. It was also a new experience to be driving on the left side of the road. I think both kiddos got a kick about it and they would bring it up on more than one occasion.

 

So we drive for a couple of miles and all of the sudden we are there. What...really? That was fast. Now that I think about it that was kind of a lot of money for such a short little jaunt to the beach. Oh well, no big deal. Not gonna go all cheapskate about it now. I gave him a $20 for the four of us and then we head over to the entrance. It was only 2 bucks a person to get in. Cool. That gave us use of the facility. The bathroom was really nice and they had private changing rooms. There was also a shower to rinse off the sand. Once we got changed we headed down to the beach. There was a really nice bar right at the top of the beach and the resort had some add ons. They had jet skis to rent which D would look into much later, but by then they were all booked up. You could also rent a lounge chair on the beach but they were $15 a chair. Naaaah. I guess I am going to be a cheapskate after all. I was planning on swimming anyways, not lounging. We brought our Carnival blue beach towels and we headed down the beach a little ways and staked out a beautiful spot with some available shade. We weren't the first ones there, but it wasn't at all crowded.

 

So let's check out the water. Man it is beautiful. That beautiful Caribbean color is so unique. Ahhhh and the water is superb. The waves were minimal and the ocean floor here is sandy and not rocky at all. So far this is perfect.

 

 

 

The sand is so fine. I have never seen a beach with such fine sand.

 

 

 

 

In fact, the sand is so fine you can sink your arm right down into it.

 

 

 

 

And look The Glory is just a stones throw away. Well...OK, maybe a Thor's Hammer throw away. But there it is. Can you see it? Next to the ship with the creepy lips? :evilsmile:

 

 

 

 

Okay, I'm a little ticked off in this picture. First of all, this guy photo bombs my shot, but he also completely ignores me because I am almost drowning out here. I actually had swum out a ways and was trying to wave at Shellhead. You know...the ol' "look at me mom, look at me!" schtick. Problem was, I tried waving with both hands and started sinking. Lesson learned. You still need your hands to swim. But still, that guy.

 

 

 

[crazycruzer68]

Can't wait to read more!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[heffy2]

Great review, thank you!

[podunkhum]

So while grandma (Mohmar) and grandpa (D) lay out relaxing and the kiddies play in the sand. Shellhead and I take a good long walk down the beach. It was a beautiful day, not too breezy and not too hot (yet). It was a great walk, and as it got later in the day, many more people started coming out. There were many runners and walkers along the beach and it was a friendly place. Everyone was smiling.

 

After we turned around and got back to the resort, we decided to go get some drinks at the resort. Everyone got daiquiris, except for dumb ol' Moose who got ....I'm not sure what he got. I think he got his without alcohol though.

 

 

 

 

I think we spent about 30 bucks on drinks. They were pretty good and extremely cold. They made my chest hurt. I was really enjoying the beach but it was getting time to go back. I thought Royal Palms was a pretty good option. It really worked out for us. Well, lets get going. We wanted to hit the souvenir stands and give the locals some more of our money, so we got dressed and went out to find us a taxi. Hey, there's the same guy that brought us here. So this time I ask him if he can take us back for twelve instead of sixteen bucks, and he tells me "No can do. No negotiations. The fare is set in stone." Well hey, at least I tried. So we take the short ride back to the port. We could have easily walked but we wanted time to hit the stores.

 

I found the prices in the souvenir shops to be fairly reasonable. I got a hat that I really liked for 14 dollars. I think we also got some t shirts for under $20. Yeah, yeah...I know. Big spenders. We weren't really planing on breaking the bank on our first port day.

 

Here is a shot before we got back on the ship. It almost looks fake because of the colors. I believe I had it on the vivid colors section. We didn't really get that baked on this sunny sunny day. Suz is really happier than she looks. She is sporting a new hat she just bought.

 

 

 

Another shot of the fam as we are waiting to get on the tender that would take us to the ship. It was a really short tender ride. No big dealio.

 

 

 

Back on the ship I got this shot of the island. I would have liked to explore it more. I actually had a much better time than I thought I would have. It was an awesome beach day.

 

 

[podunkhum]

Since we were back on the ship before 2 we had decided that we would take advantage of another day of lunch. I hadn't tried the Blue Iguana yet so this seemed like a good day to go there. This was the longest line that I would have to wait in while on board The Glory. I probably waited for about 15 to 20 minutes. I stood in the burrito line and planned out what I wanted to put on the burrito beforehand. I also saw many people getting taco salads in this line. The thing I liked about this place, was that you could choose not only your meats, but a whole bunch of different toppings. I even asked them to add more steak to mine which they did with a smile. I loaded up with cheese, beans, rice, pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream. It was a solid 7.5. Pretty darn good but definitely not the best burrito I have ever had. After eating the burrito I think I got something from the sweet spot. I usually did this every lunch. I know I had cheesecake a couple of times which was just decent, but the best thing I had from the sweet spot was the key lime pie. If I hadn't been so stuffed from my huge burrito I would have had two. Good stuff.

 

So I hadn't had me enough sun. My skin probably would have disagreed with me but I was in a very chill mood. It was a beautiful day out and I wanted to take my book somewhere and read. The beach really put a hypnotic spell on me. I have been to so many beaches but never had I been so mesmerized by the water and the sun of that particular beach. I wanted to maintain the vibe I was experiencing so I headed to the room to grab my water bottle and put my swim trunks back on. I was a little worried that I might run into the same problem I had on day 2 with the chair hogs but I decided to channel all of my positive energy into finding a good deck chair. Shellhead was with me and we went right out to the Lido. It wasn't nearly as bad as day 2. There were actually quite a few chairs. Maybe not down by the pool but I could care less about that. I actually wanted some solitude so we headed up to the Serenity deck. There were some chairs available here and there and we actually managed to find two unclaimed deck chairs up top. I took some pics but there was too much skin and other people. I couldn't even crop it up to make it look good. :eek:

 

It will suffice to say that I got my daily dosage of sun. Even after using sunblock I still got nice and burned. This will be evident in our pics that I will post tomorrow of Roatan. This was probably close to one of my favorite days of the cruise. I was in a great mood and the overall vibe was just pleasant. Down on the Lido the guy with the keyboard was playing and singing his Caribbean tunes. He performed almost every day and I really enjoyed him. I don't exactly remember his name, but I think it was something like Gerrant. It drifted up to the serenity and it created the perfect mood. Ahhhh. I actually wished that I could have had some more days like this one, but due to our busy schedule I was never able to replicate this experience. The last sea day was just too windy and overcast. I was able to lounge some on that day as well, but it just wasn't the same. I don't mind a stiff breeze, but for those of you that were on this sailing you know what I mean when I say that Friday was just flat out windy.

 

So tonight in the dining room I had a pasta dish with sausage. It was pretty good. I think it was also my first night of warm chocolate melting cake. I requested that with 2 scoops of ice cream. It wasn't as good as the creme brulee on elegant night, but it was pretty darn good. My wife had the gluten free version and I had a taste of hers. I honestly could not tell the difference. I thought maybe Carnival was trying to trick us. How could this be gluten free? But Shellhead didn't get sick and neither did Suz, and they would end up having this almost every night because they loved it. Actually, the two of them would share as one would get the chef's choice, and the other would get the WCMC. I was so glad that they both loved them so much.

[podunkhum]

After dinner we wanted to see if we could catch a good sunset. That was on my bucket list and I was determined to be up on one of the outer decks for a good one, but it was too cloudy and we were too late. Here is a lame first attempt at trying to catch a good sunset. I think I was about 7 minutes too late. I learned my lesson and I was about 20 minutes earlier on my next attempt. Even though we missed it, it was still incredibly peaceful. We enjoyed standing up there on the deck for a while, watching the light fade and enjoying the ocean breeze. The wind really wasn't much of an issue this day which is why it was one of my favorites.

 

 

 

Coming back to our room at some point in the day we found this towel animal lounging on the bed. I was somewhat amused by this one. Is this supposed to be a sexy bunny? It's kind of laying there in a suggestive pose. Should I be scared or turned on...? Hmmmmm.

 

 

So we finished off the day at the comedy club for the second night in a row. This time there was no introductory music snafu. This comedian was a complete spaz but we loved him. He had energy to spare. I'm not sure if he was over caffeinated or maybe had just taken a hit of meth. He was that over the top. I probably laughed so hard it hurt though. I wish that the comedy acts lasted a little bit longer. I don't know if the PG shows are shorter than the R rated shows, but the standard running time was a half an hour.

 

Moose looking pretty content after a good day in the sun. I don't think I heard one complaint this entire day. It was fantabulous.

 

 

The sun had me pretty baked today and we were all worn out. I wanted to go back to my room to sleep already and it was only 9:00. We walked the kids back to the room but Shell and I headed out to wander around again. I was determined to get my 4th meal in today as I had not tried out the Pizza Pirate to this point. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not because I had always heard how long the lines were at night. There was a line, but it wasn't all that long. I probably stood in line for less than 10 minutes. I wasn't that hungry before, but after getting a look at all of the slices I was now starting to feel the pangs of hunger...well maybe it wasn't exactly hunger, but I wanted to get my mouth on a slice of that pepperoni. It looked and smelled great. I had high expectations. So I grabbed my two slices and we found a quiet seat in the corner. Not a lot going on back here on the lido aft deck tonight. Plenty of seating. The pool wasn't being used and one of the hot tubs was open. This would be the only time that I was tempted to use the hot pool, but because our room was on the opposite side of the ship and I was dead tired, I opted out. I kind of wish I had now just so I could say that I had experienced it. Again, I think part of it was all of the negative stuff I had read on here about the hot tubs that I was already a little turned off by them.

 

Oh yeah, the pizza. How was that? Well, it was a thin crust which is what I liked so that was a win. I thought the crust was done just about right. The cheese and pepperoni were good as well but I didn't think that they put quite enough sauce on, although the taste of it was all right. Overall, it was a pretty good pizza and it satisfied my craving. Here is a shot I took as we were just sitting there. It was so quiet and it was only about 10:30 or so at this point. It is the lido aft and the swimming pool is to the left with two hot tubs at the back of the pool. They were elevated above the pool and looked to hold about 12 people each. I'm not sure of the exact capacity. The pizza pirate is on the port side. We were sitting on the starboard side here in this picture. You can see we are sitting next to the seafood shack. We never ate here as it was one of the few places that charged extra for the food. JD and M ate here once and thought it was worth it. I think they may have even eaten here twice.

 

[podunkhum]

Day 4 - Roatan, Honduras

 

Ahhh, another beautiful morning. Hey, look at this. A preview of our next stop. I was pretty excited about today because this was the one excursion that I had anticipated the most...Little French Key. We weren't supposed to dock until 10 am which was fine by me. I snapped some photos, put on my running gear, and up to the running track I went.

 

 

 

 

Once I got up there I decided I'd hit the gym first. I wanted to try it out. Not too shabby. It wasn't that crowded and although there were a lot of treadmills and cardio machines, there were not many free weights. The section where the dumb bells were kept was very small. There was a separate room in the back that wasn't being used which I assume is for yoga and spin classes and such. There was a decent mix of weight machines and all in all, it wasn't bad. I got in a decent enough workout.

 

So after a bit in the weight room I decided to finish up with a run out on the track. It was windy up there but it didn't deter me. The weather felt great and I hit a pretty good rhythm. I think I did about 2.5 miles, so something like 23 or 24 laps. It was hard to keep count. It turns out that I liked the track a lot more than I thought I would. You would think it would get boring up there running around and around, but the views were wonderful and it never got too crowded. I ended up talking to a guy from Indiana after the run and we were cooling down. I was impressed by all the friendly people aboard the ship. I guess everyone was just in a good mood enjoying there vacation.

[podunkhum]

Day 4 - Roatan, Honduras

 

Ahhh, another beautiful morning. Hey, look at this. A preview of our next stop. I was pretty excited about today because this was the one excursion that I had anticipated the most...Little French Key. We weren't supposed to dock until 10 am which was fine by me. I snapped some photos, put on my running gear, and up to the running track I went.

 

 

 

 

Once I got up there I decided I'd hit the gym first. I wanted to try it out. Not too shabby. It wasn't that crowded and although there were a lot of treadmills and cardio machines, there were not many free weights. The section where the dumb bells were kept was very small. There was a separate room in the back that wasn't being used which I assume is for yoga and spin classes and such. There was a decent mix of weight machines and all in all, it wasn't bad. I got in a decent enough workout.

 

So after a bit in the weight room I decided to finish up with a run out on the track. It was windy up there but it didn't deter me. The weather felt great and I hit a pretty good rhythm. I think I did about 2.5 miles, so something like 23 or 24 laps. It was hard to keep count. It turns out that I liked the track a lot more than I thought I would. You would think it would get boring up there running around and around, but the views were wonderful and it never got too crowded. I ended up talking to a guy from Indiana after the run and we were cooling down. I was impressed by all the friendly people aboard the ship. I guess everyone was just in a good mood enjoying there vacation. I don't normally strike up conversations with strangers but we did meet some cool people on our cruise. I'm not exactly an introvert, but I'm definitely not an extrovert. I guess I would fall somewhere in the middle. It would depend on my mood.

 

We would have breakfast at the buffet today. I didn't eat at the buffet for anything but breakfast. If I can find some good french toast or waffles, I'm good. I think I tried some other things as well, and about all I can say is that it is what you would expect from a breakfast buffet. It's not going to wow you, but you are going to be able to find something that will satisfy. It was always easy to get a glass of juice and we never had a problem finding a table. I liked the options that were available and I liked how easy it was to get in and out so we could get down to the island.

 

Back at the room we got a few shots of the port. We could hear the birds in the trees. There was so much vegetation. It was almost magical. This was going to be fun.

 

 

 

Had to get a shot of the flags.

 

 

 

 

So getting off was easy...again. Never did we have any problems getting off of the ship. Barely any waiting at all to get in line to swipe your card. Only once did we have a problem, but that was boarding the ship, and that was two days away.

 

So once off the boat I made a bee line for the shuttle. I had watched the video on how to get to Larry, the Frenchy's guy that was supposed to get us our shuttle. It was a bit of a walk and I wish I would have slowed down some to take some pictures. There were street performers and all the locals were dressed up in bright beautiful colors. Everyone seemed very lively. I didn't have time to soak it in. I think I was scared to get to Frenchy's and have to wait in line to get on the island, which in turn would cause us to lose time on the island. I didn't want that. I wanted to maximize my time on Little French Key. I was proud of myself though. It was about a ten minute walk or so and I walked right up to Larry. I was so happy, I shook his hand. I think Mohmar and D were a bit annoyed with me because I was leaving them in the dust. I never let them out of my sight though, I'm not that cold. I just wanted to be sure that I secured us our shuttle, that's all.

[podunkhum]

We all enjoyed the ride to Frenchy's. It was about a 20 minute ride and there were lots of cool sights. We saw lots of shops and shopkeepers out in front of their stores. Some were cleaning and some were sorting merchandise. It was very third world, but not in a bad way. Some of the buildings looked run down and needed maintenance, but business seemed to be humming along. We saw quite a few men in the street selling their wares. They would stand right in the middle of the street, usually next to a speed bump in the road. Most of them seemed to be selling fruit or fish, but we saw many other interesting things. As we continued down the road we enjoyed how green everything was. After we got out a ways from the port the countryside became a little more rural. It was beautiful.

 

Before we knew it we were pulling up to Frenchy's 44, where we would pay for our excursion onto the island. There was no line...I couldn't believe it. It didn't take us long at all to choose our packages for everyone, wait for the ferry, and be on our way. I snapped some photos during the short wait.

 

 

 

I wonder how this boat looked in her hey day. Ayyyy, she's still a seaworthy vessel.

 

 

 

Hey, is that where we are going then? Man I could swim across that.

 

 

 

Mohmar and D pulling up the rear again. Come on grandma and grandpa, let's go already.

 

 

It was a real short trip over to the island. A word of warning though if you ever choose this excursion. Bring lots of tip money. By the end of the day, we were tipped out. Luckily we brought enough, but I didn't anticipate all the tips. I sent a text to my buddy and he asked me if I had gotten pick pocketed by some street urchin in Honduras, and I replied that the only ones picking my pockets were all the excursion people. We had to tip the shuttle driver (twice), the ferry boat driver (twice), our server Albert, the guys who showed us the monkeys, and the guys who took us out for the snorkel tour. It was the most we had to tip on any excursion. We planned on tips, just not quite that much. But with that being said, everyone who had a part in making our day a good one, did an exceptional job. Albert was very attentive from the get go. Extremely friendly and extremely accommodating. We never had a hard time finding him, and he always had our back. He met us upon our arrival to the island and gave us the short tour, let us know all that we could do, and then let us go off on our own to do our own thing. Whenever we needed him, he was not hard to find.

[txskier]

Excellent review!!

[KPfromCT]

Such an awesome review!!!!!

Thank you!!!!

[mrpayroll]

Just read pages one,two and three. Enjoyed them and will be looking for the rest.:)

[podunkhum]

So after the short tour we stake out our spot. It is actually the spot I had in mind when I was doing all my research. I wanted a place away from the loud music and also a place that provided ample shade when the sun got to be too much. Funny thing is, I didn't even use the place. It was more like a staging area where we kept all of our stuff. I think that Mohmar and D used it to relax a little, but man...there just wasn't enough time. I think we were there about 5 hours but you wouldn't believe how fast that time goes. Here are some shots from where we set up shop.

 

 

 

Here is Moose getting treatment from Shellhead. I'm not sure how effective the sunblock was today. I think the sun won. It completely beat us into submission.

 

 

 

It was quite windy and the water was choppy. Albert let us know not to go out too far snorkeling due to the choppy water and high tide. Suz and Shellhead decided to try snorkeling right away and I would try out the kayak. There wasn't a whole lot to see around the island as far as snorkeling goes, but Suz, Shellhead, and Mohmar still got to see some pretty cool stuff. I think Suz had the most fun.

 

 

Mohmar didn't want to be left out of the fun, but I don't think she fully submerged herself like Suz did. But I've gotta hand it to Mohmar. She did go out of her comfort zone and she did try some new things. She used to not even venture out of the state of Idaho. Since she married D though, she has done and tried a lot of new things. I didn't think she would get in the water. I thought she would be afraid of sharks or something. Her big phobia though...bears. She actually claims to have a phobia for bears. Is there a word for that? Bruinaphobia? Did you know that more people die from cow attacks each year than they do from bear attacks. It's true. Look it up!

 

 

 

Everything so far was going pretty good but we had some decisions to make. We just had to make sure that we could get in the snorkeling tour and the monkey photo op, and somehow fit in lunch and our drinks in the meantime. I was starting to get a bit of a headache so I ordered my first drink. Man it was so cold, it made my head hurt worse. It was good though. I didn't get anything fancy, just a strawberry daquiri.

 

So one thing I noticed about the island was that it wasn't crowded at all. There was hardly anyone here. I thought with it being spring break and all, that it would be overwhelmed with spring breakers and obnoxious drunks. Not so at all. It almost felt like we had the place to ourselves. Here is a shot of the bar area. There was another bar on the other side of the island and I don't think they even opened it. We went over there a couple of times because they had wi fi over there, but there was only a handful of people on that side. I was so wrong about how I envisioned this place to be. With all of the positive reviews I seriously thought it was going to be party central. There was one smaller rambunctious crowd that was hootin and hollerin, but they weren't a problem at all. They were just having a good time.