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

[podunkhum]

We arrived back to the port without a hitch. It is a pretty straight shot down the highway. I don't really think anyone indulged in any shopping at this port. As far as ports go this was our least favorite. We made a beeline for the lines to get on the tenders and it would seem that at this point everyone is doing the same. There is a bit of a line and everyone is probably jonesing to get back on the ship. We sat out on top on our tender and the sun was feeling nice today. We caught a glimpse of a dolphin on the way back but it happened so fast I didn't have time to get my camera out. I think I saw it for a total of one second. Hey, at least I can say I saw one, right?

 

When we arrive at the ship there are three tenders ahead of us so we settled in for a bit of a wait. We probably had to wait about 20 minutes to get moored to the ship. I should note that on our tender out this morning, we were seated in the bottom of our tender and had to exit at the top when we made it to shore. As luck would have it, instead of exiting from the top like the two other tenders next to us, ours would exit from the bottom. Arrrrgh. This just meant about 10 more minutes of waiting. Ahhh well, no beeg dealio.

 

Back on board we had a little bit of a wait until dinner. I think I may have had a short nap. I snapped this shot sometime before dinner. Another Carnival and I'm thinking she might be the Freedom but I'm not sure. I know we would run into the Freedom tomorrow at Cozumel.

 

 

 

 

Here is another shot of the slides and the Lido deck. I want to say something about the slides. I was so worried that we wouldn't get to use the slides because of the issues with putting in the new slides and them not being done coming out of dry dock. A few cruises had to deal with the construction and not being able to use them. I would have been pretty angry if that had been me, one of the passengers that had to do without that amenity. As luck would have it, we were the first cruise to have the fully functioning Waterworks on our ship. Hurrah! But guess what...we didn't use the darned things. I tried to coax the kiddies into going but they were doing the teenage thing of "I just want to be lazy and lay around the cabin". Ahhh come on!!! Suz wanted to go once and we almost got her out there but then we got distracted. I almost went as well. I never saw a big line. Seriously...and I walked up there a bunch going to the Serenity.

 

 

 

 

Dinner tonight was another special experience. Another chance to enjoy good food and conversation. A time to mull over the events of the day and get everyone's thoughts on the excursion. The main course for me was salmon. It wasn't anything fancy or blow your mind out of the water delicious, but just a good solid piece of salmon cooked just right. The dining room just wasn't about the food though, it was about the experience. It was something that I looked forward to every night. Dessert was something that I anticipated each night at well. Always something different, but if I didn't see anything I liked, the WCMC was always available.

 

I didn't see any obnoxious drunks or scruffy dudes wearing wife beaters. Never did I see any questionable dress or behavior that made me gasp in astonishment. We were discussing this last night. I just didn't see very much rude behavior. The kids on the ship weren't running amok, screaming at the top of their lungs. There was one kid however that was down the hall from us that was a screamer, but we only heard him a couple of times. My kids were also flashed by a seven year old boy. My daughter was mortified. :evilsmile: But taking everything into consideration, I couldn't see why Carnival gets a bad rap by the passenger behavior. I didn't see the whole "Walmart" thing at all. If anything, this was more like a Fred Meyers crowd.

 

Here is a shot of one of the bands that frequently performed in the atrium. They played all types of genres of music. One night they did nothing but eighties music and I gotta say I really enjoyed that. But as you can see there were only two kids out there on the dance floor hamming it up. There were never too many people out there dancing that I saw. I saw an older couple quite a few times out there dancing and getting into it, which is always a good thing to see. They looked very happy together. There was always a good crowd gathered to listen to this band, but for the most part, it was a subdued, laid back audience.

 

[GB Chicago]

Love your review! Thank you for taking the time!

[podunkhum]

Day 6: Cozumel and the Tulum Ruins

 

I was always up and anxious to go early in the morning. I had had another good nights rest. I already mentioned that I slept really well on this vacation. Part of the reason for that was that we crammed so much fun into each of our days. Belize would be our most taxing day. The combination of steps we took walking, the time we spent in transit to and from the site, and the amount of time spent in exposure to the sun really does take it's toll. But I felt good about all of this. In my mind, we grabbed a hold of each day and we throttled it. Besides the occasional short power nap, we really did take advantage of each day. I have a Garmin watch that measures how many steps I take a day and I think I was averaging about 15,000 steps a day on our cruise, which is way more than I do at home. Because of this, at the end of the day we were always exhausted.

 

We didn't feel as rushed today as we had felt the day before, so although we were up early, we had a nice leisurely breakfast at the Lido. I didn't mind doing this because it was quick and easy. The Lido buffet never wowed me but it didn't really disappoint either. There was enough of a variety to be able to find something that you liked. It didn't ever feel crowded to me (except for on the first day) and getting the food was always easy and fast. I'm not sure if we just got lucky or what, but I didn't have any issues with the buffet. It's a buffet so you just need to go in with buffet expectations I guess. We never had a problem finding a good seat. So after a nice breakfast I was feeling happy and anticipating a good day ahead of us.

 

We almost didn't book this tour since we had booked a ruins tour the day before. I almost wanted another relaxing beach day, but I had various friends that highly recommended Tulum. We chose a company that came highly recommended and gave us a pretty good rate at $65 a person. On this tour it would just be my family and no one else. The owner gave us detailed instructions on what to do once leaving the ship. We would have to leave the terminal and take a taxi over to the ferry terminal. The taxi was $15 and was actually a nice ride over to the terminal. I found the island of Cozumel to be much more easy on the eyes than Belize had been the day before. It looked like a very nice island.

 

We were told by the tour operator and the taxi driver that the ferry would cost us $15 a person each way which I thought sounded pretty steep. That would be $120 for our family just to take the ferry. They told us not to get round trip tickets because you might not be able to get the same ferry back to the island on the return trip. We almost didn't book the tour because of this cost alone. We were told that there was a new ferry company though, which would turn out to be a good thing.

 

Once we were dropped off at the terminal we walked up to the ticket counters of which there were three. As soon as we were within earshot all the attendants at each counter started yelling at us to come to them and that they had the best prices. I think it started out at $8 and then it went down from there. I didn't even have to barter, they did it for me. There was so much yelling I almost wanted to put my hands over my ears and scream at them to stop. I didn't of course but I felt like it. I walked up to the counter that offered us round trip tickets for $6 a person. Really? This was going to much cheaper than I thought. As soon as I started to get my wallet out the other companies started shouting, "No, we'll do it for five dollars", another said, "we'll do it for four". Really? Geesh. Mexico...Ahhh but what are ya gonna do? I stayed with the $6 company. I guess the others should have quoted me $4 in the beginning instead of $8. I was ecstatic though, because this would now cost us 24$ instead of the $120 I was anticipating. I wasn't worried about the return trip because I looked at their schedule and they had ferries returning every hour on the hour. Nice. Man the competition was fierce, but it worked out great for us. The seats were actually quite nice and as you can see they had a place to get refreshments.

 

 

The ferry ride would be the roughest seas we would experience. I think all of us got a little green on the way over as it was a pretty wild ride. The tenders we had taken were nowhere this bad. We were all relieved to arrive at the mainland. Once we exited the ferry in Playa Del Carmen, it didn't take us long to find our tour guide at Senor Frogs. He led us to our van in the parking garage and it would be a bit nicer than our transport from the day before. Today our ride to Tulum would be a bit shorter. It was just under an hour to get there and on a much nicer highway.

 

We made one little stop at a convenience store on the way. It wasn't all that different from a US convenience store, except that most of the products were Mexican. I bought the Mexican equivalent of a hostess cupcake, and I gotta say, I thought that they were pretty on par with hostess. I don't often buy hostess, but enough to make that assessment I guess. There was a tray of donuts for sale, except in Mexico they were called "donas". I thought that was pretty funny.

 

Once we arrived at Tulum I was amazed at the large number of people around the park. It was crazy. It was almost like being at Yellowstone at Old Faithful during the peak tourist season. Our guides for the day was Jonathan. He was outstanding. We were comfortable with him from the get go. He had good energy and put off a really good vibe. He walked us around to all the different sites at Tulum and gave us a good history lesson of the people that had once lived there. He was very articulate and explained things in a way that had me fascinated and hanging on his every word. The Mayan culture is actually pretty fascinating and a lot more advanced than I could have imagined. Here are some shots that I took throughout the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wanderer26]

You did 2 of the same excursions we've planned for next week, so I'm really enjoying this review!!!

Thank you for taking the time to share!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[podunkhum]

You did 2 of the same excursions we've planned for next week, so I'm really enjoying this review!!!

Thank you for taking the time to share!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Hope you enjoy them. You'll have to tell us about them. :cool:

[podunkhum]

Here are a few more shots of Tulum. After the tour, Jonathan told us we could walk around on our own for about 40 minutes.

 

 

 

 

This shot is one of my favorites. I never get bored of that awesome blue color of the Caribbean.

 

 

 

We saw so many of these iguanas at Tulum. We probably saw at least 50 of them. The feeding must be plentiful for these guys as this one looks very well fed.

 

 

 

Since I was a young boy I have always loved seeing animals in the wild. I think I got that gene from my grandpa. In the summertime when we were in the mountains camping with grandpa, he would always tell us grandkids to keep an eye out for the deer or elk. I remember one time we were riding down a dirt road in the back of a truck and grandpa was driving. One of us shouted that they saw a deer and grandpa practically slammed on the breaks, propelling all of us into the rear window of the truck. When grandpa found out that whoever said it was just joking, he was pretty mad. But if we really did find one on our own and pointed it out to him, he would make us feel like we were some kind of hero. I would often spot big game and point it out to grandpa, and he was always calling me "Eagle Eye Littlehumps", because back then I was much smaller you know. It made me feel special to have grandpa give me recognition though.

 

We saw a lot of exotic animals on this vacation. This guy we saw right outside of the Tulum entrance, a coatimundi. I recognized this right away as I had seen many of these animals in various zoos. This dude was pretty chill. We were pretty close and it showed no signs of stress or fear.

 

 

 

After hopping back in the van we were pretty hungry. We had a little over 2 hours until we had to be back at the port. Normally on this tour they provide a box lunch from Subway, but since we had two that were gluten free, we had to come up with a different plan. Jonathan is the son-in-law of the owner of this operation, and he told Jonathan to stay away from the local food places when feeding the clients. I think his view was that Americans don't feel comfortable eating at some of the more humble establishments. Jonathan however, wanted to find us something good and fast, and he knew just the place. He warned us and told us that if we didn't feel comfortable, to just let him know. It was a roadside taco stand, about as humble as you can get. I wasn't scared, I was exited to try this place out. The guy that ran the stand really hooked us up. We all decided on the carnitas, and the cook prepared a huge plate of carnitas, along with tortillas, salsas, and sodas. All you can eat. There was a ton of food.

 

Here we are waiting for the food to come. Our great tour guide Jonathan at the head of the table. Good call my friend. I love trying out places like this.

 

 

 

 

 

This would turn out to be one of our favorite places where we ate lunch. The carnitas were delicious and all of us walked away completely satisfied. Jonathan paid for the lunch but we left a nice tip for the cook. I think he was very appreciative. My daughter collects bottle caps and he saw my daughter collecting some. He had a stash of them in a bin that collected them at the bottle opener. He gave my daughter a big bag full which made her very happy. Now it was time to head back to Playa Del Carmen.

[Brad1972]

Stingrays at stingray city have never killed anyone that i've ever heard of or found in searching. they are used to people daily and come to the sand bar because they get fed. Squid, dog bones or fish from the tour guides and people. You dont know what your missing swimming with the amazing creatures.

 

from what i've found only 17 reports of people have been killed by a stingray world wide. Theres way more deaths from sharks each year. Driving your car is probably 1000 times more dangerous.

 

I searched if anyone has ever died swimming with stingrays at stingray city and I cant find even 1 or any news of someone being seriously hurt at stingray city.

 

Go out on the tour boats and just watch from the boat and see for your self. you'll end up in the water eventually. they are not going to hurt you. The are several trained tour guides out there in the water with you and they wont let anyone handle them wrong or miss treat them to where they get aggressive.

Edited May 7, 2017 by Brad1972

[podunkhum]

Stingrays at stingray city have never killed anyone that i've ever heard of or found in searching. they are used to people daily and come to the sand bar because they get fed. Squid, dog bones or fish from the tour guides and people. You dont know what your missing swimming with the amazing creatures.

 

from what i've found only 17 reports of people have been killed by a stingray world wide. Theres way more deaths from sharks each year. Driving your car is probably 1000 times more dangerous.

 

I searched if anyone has ever died swimming with stingrays at stingray city and I cant find even 1 or any news of someone being seriously hurt at stingray city.

 

Go out on the tour boats and just watch from the boat and see for your self. you'll end up in the water eventually. they are not going to hurt you. The are several trained tour guides out there in the water with you and they wont let anyone handle them wrong or miss treat them to where they get aggressive.

 

Thanks for the correction on Steve Irwin's death. I honestly thought it was a sting ray. That makes a lot more sense. I've seen two sting rays in my life now that I think about it. One at Freeport and one at Nassau in the Bahamas. One of them I saw while snorkeling and I got pretty close. Seems preposterous to me to think that one of those little creatures could actually kill someone.

[firemanbobswife]

Thanks for the correction on Steve Irwin's death. I honestly thought it was a sting ray. That makes a lot more sense. I've seen two sting rays in my life now that I think about it. One at Freeport and one at Nassau in the Bahamas. One of them I saw while snorkeling and I got pretty close. Seems preposterous to me to think that one of those little creatures could actually kill someone.

 

Steve Irwin did die from a stingray, just not one at stingray city in Grand Cayman. I have heard that they had their barbs removed there, but I don't know if it's fact or not. What I can tell you is that I have scuba dived at my local aquarium on a regular basis in the shark tank to clean it which also has intact stingrays. Just be careful not to startle them and shuffle your feet when walking on the bottom as to not accidentally step on one and you'll be fine. They are naturally pretty chill creatures.

[mrsfuzzmo]

Steve Irwin did die from a stingray, just not one at stingray city in Grand Cayman. I have heard that they had their barbs removed there, but I don't know if it's fact or not. What I can tell you is that I have scuba dived at my local aquarium on a regular basis in the shark tank to clean it which also has intact stingrays. Just be careful not to startle them and shuffle your feet when walking on the bottom as to not accidentally step on one and you'll be fine. They are naturally pretty chill creatures.

 

The stingrays at Stingray Sandbar (commonly called Stingray city) do have barbs. They are wild animals and have not had them removed. That being said, they are very tame from all the tourists and fishermen that feed them, now hold them, etc. While they are wild animals, they are tame in aggression. Been there two times and heading there for the third in June! NOT TO BE MISSED!! It's really an amazing day!

[Brad1972]

Sorry i had to correct myself on that post and run. I thought it was a small Mantaray that killed Steve. When the news hit that Steve had been killed by a stingray original reports said it was a small Mantaray. I had always thought this cause it made sense because Manta rays are much bigger and the tails have barbs that come out on each side of the tail making it easier to whip its tail and impale someone. Stingrays barbs point straight back and and they are always in motion swimming and its just hard to imagine how they can impale that barb into someones chest hard enough to hit their heart and kill them. Non the less. Swimming with the Stingrays at Stingray city is still VERY safe. Podunkhum dont miss it next time, its an experience not to miss and when you've done it you'll be telling everyone in your family about it and your friends. chance of you even getting hurt is EXTREMELY slim. Yes these stingray have their barbs. The tour guide showed us. The stingray didnt even care or trying to swim away. He just continued to munch on his free squid and fish from the guide. The Stingrays at Stingray city are very tame and way more relaxed then ones i'm sure Steve was around. Maybe the one Steve was around wasnt used to people. Stingray city stingrays have been around hundreds of people daily for years and just simply accept it as part of their natural environment and neighbors. These Stingrays are used to being touched, handled, held, grabbed, stepped on, and bumped into and still no one has ever been killed at Stingray city that i can find on the internet. Just listen to your tour guide and he will keep you safe.

[EAZYLIVING]

Before we got to the large temple in the last shot we stopped at the ball court. Javier explained the game to us and how they played it. How in the world could they have figured all that out? It seems like it was a pretty tough and brutal game to play. Just like soccer, the players weren't allowed to use their hands. Again, how could they possibly know this? This ball court is very small in comparison to other ball courts all over Central America. Similar ball courts exist at most of the excavation sites apparently but are much larger. I was intrigued. It would be pretty cool to go back in time and watch a match. This picture shows the center of the court. There was some sort of chamber underneath this stone and it seems that it was sort of a mystery as to what the real purpose of the chamber was. That's what makes this place so interesting. So many mysteries. Scooby Doo would've loved it. That would be awesome if this place was haunted.

 

 

 

So on we go to the main attraction. So did I mention that it was hot? And now you're asking me to climb this thing? Ouch. It looked brutal. However, we wouldn't be climbing up the front. I guess someone got hurt or worse a while back falling down the steps going up the front. Double ouch! They built some stairs around the side that led part way up the pyramid. After about halfway we were able to use the steps that you see on the front. It was steep but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I believe that this one was called the high temple as it was the top dog of all the temples in this city.

 

 

 

It actually didn't take too long to get to the top. Another bonus is that we timed it just right. There were many groups here this day and there isn't much room on the top. We got there just after a big group was coming down and right before a much larger group was coming up the trail. We had the whole place to ourselves and the view was pretty amazing. I was damp from head to toe as I was definitely sweating, but it really wasn't as miserable as I thought it might be. Still no flying insects. Weird. I took a few shots once we were up on top. Not everyone was feeling up to the challenge of the mighty ascent. I wonder what lies underneath my feet. Javier talked about there being a chamber and that there was some treasure found in the chamber. I'm pretty sure it was jade, and jade is nowhere to be found in this region. This probably means that there was commerce between the different tribes and regions.

 

 

 

The mighty victors! Yes, we did indeed conquer!

 

 

 

The descent was easy and we were off to the last temple. Here is a look coming down the stairs that I mentioned.

 

 

We did this tour but on RCCL and walked the long trail up the pyramids with a few other couples. The Lamanai safari ride and site excursion is one of the best if you're adventurous.

[Sunmist]

Great review! Following!

[cmptrwiz]

Did you book your tour of Tulum with Heleman tours? That's who we used and really enjoyed ourselves!

[podunkhum]

Did you book your tour of Tulum with Heleman tours? That's who we used and really enjoyed ourselves!

 

 

You got it. Helaman Tours. I really have no complaints with this company. We had an excellent day and Jonathan was a great tour guide. Out of all three excursions we did, I would have to say that this one was my favorite. And the best part was the price. The cheapest excursion that we did.

[podunkhum]

I really wish that we would have had more time at Playa Del Carmen. Heck, I wish that we would have had more time at Cozumel. Although it was a great day, I only wish for a couple more hours in each port. I was really in the mood for shopping around for some souvenirs, and although we had about an hour and a half left, minus about 45 minutes for the ferry and taxi, it wasn't nearly enough.

 

Jonathan dropped us off about two blocks from the port. There were so many places I wanted to check out but I knew that we didn't have time. We did stop at a couple of stores real quick like and did some whirlwind shopping. I found a pair of knock off Oakley sunglasses that I really liked and I tried to barter a bit with the shopkeep. He wasn't having any of that. Oh really? I used to haggle all of the time with the merchants in Juarez and I know that they jack up the prices in the touristy areas. He could have come down a few bucks but he must have seen that I really wanted them. If I would have had more time I could have walked away and acted like I wasn't interested and he would have come down then, but I didn't have the time. That being said, I was still happy with my purchase. Man, I wanted to buy more stuff but we had to get on our ferry that was to leave in 15 minutes.

 

 

We started walking down the pier towards the ferries and my wife and son told me that we had to go upstairs and over the top. Huh, why? Nonsense. Why would we need to do that? The ferry is right there. So we kept walking and sure enough, we got turned back. We did have to go upstairs. Oops. They were right and dad was wrong. It was a good thing that we gave ourselves a few minutes because that killed more than 5 by my count. We made it onto the ferry with only a few minutes to spare. It wasn't very crowded and we picked seats on the second level this time. Remember that on the way over, some of us got a little sick. I wanted to avoid that and I figured that the open air would help combat the nausea.

 

Here is our ride back to Cozumel. It was actually a pretty nice vessel. It seemed pretty new to me. Ultramar was the name of the company.

 

 

It ended up being a pretty pleasant ride back. Little did we know, we would have some live music. These guys were entertaining and pretty talented. They made the time go by pretty fast. There was a fourth guy in this picture but this was towards the end and he was walking around collecting tips. We happily obliged. They took our mind off of the rough seas and no one got sick on the ride back.

 

 

 

 

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but as we were on our way back, a ferry from a rival company tried to overtake us. The captain I swear kept maneuvering to cut off the other ferry. The other ferry kept changing positions to what I would assume to be a passing position, but our captain continued to stay ahead of this other ferry. I don't know...maybe it was my imagination. Hmmmm.

 

Right before we got back I saw this and took a picture. Curious. Anyone know what it is used for? It doesn't look like an ordinary vessel. It looks more like a toy ship to me.

 

 

Once back at Cozumel it was easy to find the taxi line and grab a ride back to the port. Once again, we only have about 30 minutes to shop, maybe a smidge more, but it wasn't enough. I could have easily spent another few hours here. I was in the mood to spend money and eat more treats. This port area was about as clean as the port area in Honduras but much larger. There were a ton of stores and restaurants in the port area alone. I definitely want to come back here. I wish I would have snapped some pics of this place but I felt rushed. We did manage to buy some knick knacks and so I was mildly appeased. On the way back to the ship we saw quite a few street performers and I would have loved to have been able to stay and linger a bit longer, but of course there is that huge fear of being left behind. Man, I can't even begin to imagine how badly that would suck.

 

When we arrive back at the ship there is a line to get on board. Huh? We hadn't ever encountered this problem before. The line didn't seem to be moving much either. Man, I could have lingered back there at the shops after all. So as we wait in line I snap a few more pics.

 

Actually, this pic was taken from this morning but it was in Cozumel. I took the picture because at one time I thought we would be booking with the Freedom. In the beginning we thought we would be leaving from Galveston but that changed. I think I would have liked the Freedom but I saw that it had a lot of problems earlier this year. Hmmm. I wonder how different things would have been had we decided to book with her instead. Ahhh well. No regrets.

 

 

Now this picture I did take while waiting in line. It is a huge ship. I think that is something like a 10 story waterslide or something like that. RCI's the Harmony of the Seas. I'm pretty sure that this would be one of the other two ships stalking us over the next 6 hours or so as we left Cozumel. I'm not sure I would enjoy being on a ship that big. Does it dazzle? Sure it does. Lots of glitz and glitter. But is bigger really better? I already had to walk a ton on the Glory, how many steps would I be taking a day on this monstrosity?

 

Edited May 16, 2017 by podunkhum

[podunkhum]

We continued to wait in line and would soon discover that the power had gone out on the ship. I don't know how long the people in front of us had been waiting, but I think we waited somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 minutes. Hey, I know things happen, but dang...we could have spent that time wandering around Cozumel. I really would have liked to put that time to good use rather than standing around in some line. I almost let this affect me, but I chalked it up as one of those uncontrollable circumstances that pop up every now and then. The worst part about this was having to wait in line next to some boorish drunks that were cussing and smoking. I did have a difficult time reining in my dark mood that was about to overtake me, but once back on the ship, I let it go and moved on. Here is a picture of the line from our balcony. I think we were about an hour late of pushing off from the dock.

 

 

 

 

Here is another shot of right before we got in line to wait.

 

[Tawny00]

I'm sailing with my husband on the Carnival Glory in October for my first cruise. I've loved your review and keep checking back for more. Can't wait to hear how your cruise ended!