Turnaround Day in Miami

Saturday, March 7

The Glory was the last of five ships to arrive at the Port of Miami on Saturday morning as we ended week #1 of our cruise. 

Bob and I had breakfast in the buffet and then texted J & K to find they were still sitting in the casino waiting to debark. We sat with them and watched all of the sad faces of people who knew their vacation was over. It was hard not to be a little smug knowing we had another week ahead in our same little cabin.

The previous Saturday, the shuttle driver had given J & K instructions to get off the ship as early as possible to catch the return shuttle to the airport. That morning when we were being dropped off, there were several people who were VERY irate that had to wait for such a long time to get picked up. The shuttle driver said if they had just gotten off the ship before 9:30 that wouldn’t have happened.  

Knowing that, J & K had requested luggage tags for early debarkation…and were given Zone #2. Even so, they waited and waited for the zones to be called but the self debarkation process (passengers who carried off their luggage themselves) dragged on for a very long time. The decks were being called one by one and towards the end, J & K checked with guest services and were given the go ahead to just get off, even though their zone had not been called. Shortly afterwards the regular debarkation did begin.

By then, it was time for Bob and I to go to the Amber Theater where we were to meet with the others doing back-to-back (b2b) cruises at 10:30. We were given our new Sail & Sign cards for the coming week as we entered. I would estimate about two dozen other b2b cruisers were there, along with quite a few crew members who were also waiting to leave the ship. (Including Ram, the magician, sitting right behind me!!)

After a short wait, all of the b2b cruisers had a group photo taken in the lobby (which they delivered to our cabin the next day) and then lead off the ship by one of the staff from guest services. We paraded past the immigration officials who took our customs form and then we walked right back up to the gangplank. At that point we had to wait for a few minutes until we were allowed to re-board. The terminal was full of new passengers waiting to get on the ship and I’m sure they were wondering why we were getting such special treatment!

As we entered the ship, we “dinged” in with the new S & S cards and then were each handed a glass of cold champagne…we felt like VIP’s! We went directly to the buffet and were the only ones there…except for the crew who were all eager to serve us! (So different from the previous week when there were long lines everywhere!) In our quest to discover different crew nationalities, we met one of the ship’s officers who was from Malta. Turns out he was head of all of the hotel operations on the ship and we had the most lovely conversation as he told us about his country.

After lunch we stopped by our cabin to grab my camera and while we were there a large fruit basket and a bottle of champagne was delivered along with a note thanking us for doing b2b cruises. And what a surprise when the delivery “boy” was I Komang, our waiter from the dining room! He was just as surprised to see us still on the ship!

The weather was much nicer than it had been the previous Saturday and I was able to get photos around the port that the rain had ruined the week before. While I was on the upper decks, I found a chair in the shade and took advantage of cell service to call our kids.

Around 4 p.m. (sail away time) Bob and I went to the secret deck at the front of deck 7. He was wearing a t-shirt with our hometown’s name and wouldn’t you know it…the guy standing next to him just happened to live 30 miles from us! Slowly, the ships began to turn around and head out to sea...but once again the Glory was late leaving Miami. As we waited a storm blew in.

 By the time the Glory sailed down the channel, the high rise buildings near the beach were nearly hidden by the rain. As the ship left the protection of the canal it was like entering the Bermuda Triangle! We hit the wall of water and the ship started to roll and pitch, being tossed around by the waves.

 Neither of us felt like getting dressed for dinner so we went to the buffet. Rather than attend the Welcome Aboard Show again, we listened to some of the live music around the ship and did a lot of people watching. The first week there had been very few children or college students, but there were a bunch of each onboard the second week. It was apparent that the passengers were definitely a spring break crowd. 

This video of the water sloshing out of the pool shows how much movement we were feeling on the ship. The overcrowded hot tub in the background also shows that the party was just getting started with the college students. I counted 22 people at one time in that tub and the drinking was going full force there...and throughout the ship.

Daylight savings time was scheduled to start that night, but since the ship was so late leaving Miami, the captain decided to wait and make the change the following night.