Bon Voyage...Embarkation Day on the Glory!

Saturday, February 28

To get to the Port of Miami, I had scheduled a shuttle pick-up for 9:30 at our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. That gave us plenty of time to eat breakfast and reorganize our luggage. Shortly before 9:30, the rains started.

  

The water in the hotel pool was overflowing!

Rain was coming down in buckets…BIG buckets…when the shuttle picked us up at the hotel. Many of the streets were flooded in Ft. Lauderdale. On some the water was up as high as the headlights on the cars! (We heard on the news later that Ft. Lauderdale had gotten 8 inches of rain!!)

By the time we stopped at three other hotels to pick up people and drove the 20 miles or so to Miami, the sun had come out. This was a blessing when we were unloading luggage and trying to get into the terminal.

The check-in process went fairly quickly, but then we had to wait about an hour to board. It was hard not to get impatient when the ship was just right outside those windows!! At some point while we were waiting, the rain that we had left in Ft. Lauderdale caught up with us in Miami.

Once onboard our first stop was Guy's Burgers on the Lido Deck.

As we were eating, the water started pouring in through a door near where we were sitting and running across the carpet like a river…enough that we finally had to get up and move. 

Our reservations should have been linked with J & K’s, but when we checked, we had been assigned to different tables in the dining room. After a visit with the maître d, we thought the problem was solved. We would be sharing a table for four on the upper floor of the Platinum Dining room.

To get the great rate on our cruise, we were required to book a “guarantee” cabin…in other words we let Carnival pick the cabin for us. I knew from looking at deck plans, our room, #7412, was a bit of an oddball…it was turned sideways, perpendicular to all of the regular cabins.

I was pleasantly surprised when we saw our “home” for the next two weeks. The unique layout of the cabin made it feel a bit more spacious than all of the other inside cabins on the ship and we loved the location...right by the stairs and elevators and only two decks up to the buffet and pool. 

While I unpacked, Bob checked out the daily Fun Times to see what activities were planned for the rest of the day.

The next photos were taken later in the week…pardon the mess!

The un-packing was pretty much complete when we heard the signal for the muster drill around 3:30. We managed to land in the front row as everyone was lining up…much nicer than being squished up against the wall in the back.

The ship was scheduled to sail around 4:00 pm and by then the rain was down to an occasional sprinkle. The four of us went to the “secret deck” at the front of the ship to wait for sail away. Ominous dark clouds hung over the skyline of Miami.

There were quite a few other ships also docked in Miami, and it seemed as if they were all running late…most likely due to the foul weather.

One by one the ships set sail…but the Glory was one of the last. It gave us a chance to see the other ships up close as they sailed by. (I think the ropes course and water slides on top of the Carnival Breeze look fun!)

At first we couldn't figure out why a large flock of seagulls kept flying around our ship, but then we realized people were throwing food to them from the balcony!

By the time the ropes were untied and the Glory was ready to sail, it was time for us to go to our assigned dining time of 6 p.m. Unfortunately this meant that we missed watching as the ship sailed past the mansions and high rise condos out into open waters.

I thought it would be fun to keep track of what we ordered for dinner each night. I faithfully wrote down everything we ate...for ONE night. After that I gave up! But...just for the record, here is what I ordered on the first night:

Flatbread with pear & blue cheese

Sweet & sour shrimp with rice

Creamed spinach

Fig & date pudding 

(also shared a Nutella tiramisu with K)

The evening entertainment was the Welcome Aboard Show with the cruise director, Everson Bevelle…or Rev. Dr. E as he was called (funny, funny guy with a GREAT singing voice as well!) Following the show was the first performance of the musical production, “Motor City”. It was also scheduled for the following night so we planned to wait until then to watch, BUT…it started so fast after the Welcome Show that we didn’t have time to get out of the theater! Oh well...we just stayed put and watched the show!