First Sea Day...and Formal Night!

Sunday, March 1

Bob's morning started at the gym in the front of the ship, mine started at the adult only pool at the back of the ship. While he was working out, I grabbed some fruit and a muffin and enjoyed my breakfast poolside. When I got too warm, I would jump in the water for a bit to cool off. Sun…water…repeat. This is what vacation was meant to be! Bob eventually joined me and we stayed until around 11 a.m.

J & K showed up at about that time and since all of the loungers were occupied, we turned over our chairs to them. When we got back to the cabin, I was excited to see a little “gift” from the cruise director. I had sent a note on Facebook to John Heald, Carnival’s brand ambassador, and he must have relayed the message to the ship.

Bob and I took showers and put on real clothes so we could go to the cooking demonstration at the steakhouse at noon. J & K didn’t spend long at the pool and met us for the demonstration as well. Several different dishes from the steak house were prepared and then samples were handed out for everyone to try. It was really just a glorified advertisement to get folks to make a dinner booking…but it was delicious so I didn’t care! Here is a photo of the tiramisu they made.

  

We sampled the stuff they cooked and then went directly to lunch at the fish & chips restaurant. :-) Ceviche, fish, fried oysters...and then back to the cabin for a nap!

Once nap time was over, Bob and I went to the spa and sat in the huge indoor hot tub. Most people didn’t know it was there so while all of the Jacuzzis out on deck were packed, the one inside was usually empty…and much hotter. (Getting to the hot tub required going through the bathrooms in the spa so it wasn’t apparent how to enter.)

Our dining assignment mess took an unexpected turn again. After thinking everything was straightened out, J & K got a card in their cabin saying they had been reassigned to a table in the OTHER dining room…but not us. We were still supposed to stay at the table we had the night before…but just the two of us?? After standing in lines AGAIN we seemed to have it straightened out. Our waiters, I Wayan and I Komang seemed just as confused as we were.

That evening was the first of two formal nights for the week…and that meant LOBSTER! Here is a the menu...

A first for us…a magician stopped by our table and did some tricks that were totally unexplainable. We watched every move and still couldn’t catch how he pulled them off!

After dinner we went to one of the “family friendly” comedy shows in the Ebony Lounge. The comedian was Kelly Terranova…not the greatest in our opinion. I know the later “adult” shows were very popular (based on the lines to get in), but I just do not like to sit through a barrage of 4-letter words.

The early show was Motor City which we had seen the night before so instead we spent some time in the lobby listening to the music duo, Bilateral. They used “looping” to record snippets of music and then kept replaying and layering the music until it sounded much like a full band. J & K took advantage of the opportunity to do a little dancing as well!

After not sailing on Carnival for three years, we definitely noticed a cut in the evening entertainment. The musical productions no longer featured a live band or sets, but instead used taped music and a video background. (The shows were part of Carnival's switch to "Playlist" productions.) Out of the four shows, Epic Rock was the only one we could really say we enjoyed. Also, some evenings the entertainment consisted of game shows or karaoke. In the past those evenings would have featured a magician, juggler, singer, hypnotist, etc. 

Here is a rundown of the evening entertainment options for the first week. Note: this schedule shows we are in Costa Maya on Thursday...WRONG. It should be Grand Cayman. I was hoping the schedule had changed since we have never been to Costa Maya, but no such luck. 

Each evening before going to bed, I would do a re-cap of the day’s activities and post it on the “FUNville” forum on the Carnival website. Getting access to the site did not require purchasing any internet minutes and our kids at home could check in and see what we were up to. Likewise, they could also post so that I knew all was well at home.

Our daughter-in-law is a junior high geography teacher so she gave us a mission…keep track of the nationalities of the crew members that we meet. This actually created some of the best memories of the trip as we went out of our way to meet the staff and learn about their countries of origin. In each evening's post, I would include a list of the nationalities of crew that we had met that day and then she would have her students locate the countries on a world map at school. She said they were very surprised to see how many countries were represented on the staff! (For the record...there were staff from 52 countries onboard the Glory that week.)

In one of her reply posts, our daughter in law said she had asked our nearly three year old granddaughter what she thought we had packed in our luggage. Her reply? Snacks, clothes, socks, a cucumber and a picture! Ha! Funny how little minds work!

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!

Traveling to Florida

Friday, February 27

After partaking in the slightly above average continental breakfast at the hotel we hopped on the 7 a.m. shuttle to the airport. I checked the weather app on my phone as we were on our way and this is what I saw:

Seeing almost no lines for check-in at Southwest Airlines was a positive way to start the trip…especially considering what an insane amount of luggage we had between the four of us. Thank you SWA for not charging extra for bags!!

I was concerned about our flights because we had a very short layover in Atlanta...but everything went smoother than I could have imagined. Our flight was 30 minutes EARLY getting into Atlanta and we were relieved to watch the baggage handlers putting our luggage onto the plane. We even had time to eat the Subway sandwiches that we had bought in Minneapolis (thinking we wouldn't have time to get anything later.) 

Besides free luggage, I like that SWA has free live TV on their flights. It requires downloading an app prior to your flight, but then there were about a dozen different channels that I could watch on my iPad. Sure helps pass the time! I also had some TV shows that I had downloaded from iTunes. I have a splitter that allows two sets of headphones to be connected so Bob and I both could watch. 

With almost a 90 degree increase in temps since leaving Minneapolis, stepping outside in Ft. Lauderdale felt incredibly wonderful! We were on VACATION!!

Although our cruise would leave from Miami, we flew into Ft. Lauderdale in order to fly on Southwest. And even though the prices were still exorbitant, I found hotels to be slightly less in Ft. Lauderdale as compared to Miami.

Using the hotel shuttle, we checked into the Sleep Inn and Suites where I had booked our rooms using an AARP discount. (Gotta get the best price, remember?) After sitting all day, the four of us just wanted to get out and walk…and look for a spot to grab some dinner.

Palm trees and tropical plants sure looked better than the snow we left behind in Minnesota!

Several blocks from the hotel we found a place called Pollo Tropical that served organic grilled chicken with all sorts of special sauces and side dishes like rice & beans. Wow…do I wish we had these in Minnesota! The food was great…and very cheap. The bill for Bob and I together was less than $12!

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped in at the Walgreens next door and bought a 6-pack of pop to take on the ship. In retrospect, this probably wasn't necessary. We rarely drink pop at home and only drank about half of what we purchased in the two weeks we were onboard. I was most happy just drinking water like I usually do or an occasional glass of ice tea. One pleasant surprise was that the coffee wasn't too bad! 

Let's Get This Show on the Road

Thursday, February 26

Living so far away from ANY port, I always plan to arrive a day early for a cruise. There are just too many things that can go wrong…especially in the winter…and missing the ship is not how I want my vacation to start. But…since we fly from MSP which is three hours away, our travels usually start two days ahead.

We drove up to Minneapolis on Thursday morning and took advantage of being in the city to do a little shopping before checking into our hotel late in the afternoon. Our son had used his connections to get us two rooms (for us and J & K) near the airport for a very good price. Even better…the stay also included parking for the duration of our trip. He had taken care of all of the arrangements and all I had was his email saying that everything was set.

The hotel was very busy when we checked in and customers were being turned away because there were no rooms available. I gave the girl at the front desk our confirmation numbers and she searched, and searched, and searched, but couldn’t find our reservations. I showed her the email I had printed from the general manager and she was even more confused.

Eventually the front desk manager was called into service and it turned out that the general manager had made our reservations for the same dates in January…not February. My head was spinning as I tried to think of what we were going to do. We could probably find another hotel, but not one that was willing to let us leave our car for 16 days!

I am happy to report that the story had a happy ending. In spite of the hotel being “full”, she found us two connecting rooms overlooking the pool! Their long-term parking area was at capacity, but we left our keys and they would take care of moving our car when space was available.

Disaster averted! By the time J & K arrived, everything was right with the world and we were ready to start our vacation! After dinner at TGI Fridays and hanging out around the pool, we were off to bed knowing the next day would be starting early.   

A trip to paradise with special friends...life is good!

Prelude to the Carnival Glory Cruise

I fully admit it...I am addicted to trip planning. At any given time I may have two or three different journeys being planned in my head...on a spreadsheet...or on little scraps of paper floating around my desk. Only a tiny percentage of these ever evolve into "real" travel...but that doesn't stop me from planning. For some that would be a disappointment, but not for me. To an addict, research is almost as fun as the trip itself AND I can make the process last for months. The actual trip is over in a blink of an eye.

So...as soon as we returned from our Alaskan trip in June, it was time to start looking for the next cruise. My criteria for searching this time? 1. It had to be cheap. The Alaska trip was planned as a “trip of a lifetime” so I didn’t worry too much about costs. (Although I am already thinking it would be fun to go again!) 2. Schedule the trip so that our friends J & K could join us. J is a farmer and trying to plan around planting season and harvest and hog breeding cycles, etc. gets tricky.

Multiple spreadsheets were created showing various itineraries, costs, ship design, etc. and eventually the choice was narrowed down to one we all agreed on…a Carnival cruise to the Western Caribbean the first week of March.

Besides planning, my other obsession is getting the best possible price on ANYTHING! So…we waited…and I watched the prices. At Halloween, Carnival ran a special for 36 hours with fantastic prices. I was ready to book until I realized that airfare and hotel costs in Florida are outrageous for that time of year…SPRING BREAK!

So…as long as we were going to be stuck with expensive airfare, there was only one logical choice. Book TWO cruises back-to-back! J & K would join us on the first leg and Bob and I would go it alone for he second. Yay!! 

The cruises were booked on the Carnival Glory which alternates routes between the Western and Eastern Caribbean. Eight ports in two weeks. Only two of the ports would be "new" to us, but I was excited to take J & K to some of the places that we have enjoyed in the past.

Week #1 (February 28 to March 7)Western Caribbean

Week #2 (March 7 to March 14)Eastern Caribbean

You can click on the links below to go to the posts for each day:

Let's Get This Show on the Road

Traveling to Florida

Bon Voyage: Embarkation Day on the Glory

First Sea Day...and Formal Night

Cozumel

Belize

Roatan

Grand Cayman

Last Sea Day of Week 1

Turnaround Day in Miami

Half Moon Cay

First Sea Day of Week 2

St. Thomas

San Juan

Grand Turk

Our Last Sea Day...and then HOME!