Glory days - my review with photos

SUMMARY -- Just recently cruised the Carnival Glory 7-day eastern Caribbean cruise that departed Miami on 06/27/15. We hit Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk. Lucked out with the weather. Lots of sun; calm seas. Funny, fun-loving cruise director (Mike). Two elegant nights, some great shows. Won a few bucks in the Casino and at Bingo (which I hadn’t played since the 70s – I live in Las Vegas). The ship was ship-shape. Had a great cruise. I’ll give it an A- just because no cruise line or cruise is PERFECT. That’s sums it up, folks. If that is too short a review please keep reading.

WE ARE -- We are wife, over 30 and under 60 -- that’s all you need to know ‘cept she’s still really pretty (a half Korean half Caucasian beauty) – and I’m a 61-year old kid at heart who occasionally annoys my wife with my exuberance during vacations.

This was cruise #7 for us, Princess 1st (in the 90s – dang, there were a lot of old fogies on that one, though I’m their age now! OMG!) - Here's a photo from that 1st cruise...

then Conquest, then Glory, then 3 with Royal Caribbean and back to Glory. Never had a bad cruise, by the way. (Something to do with attitude, perhaps?). We booked this cruise because friends of ours -- four couples – booked this cruise and invited us to join them. Seemed like a great idea. It was. Here is a photo from that long ago Conquest cruise. Taken, I think, in Grand Cayman during a stingray excursion.

ME? … FUN, FUN, FUN -- Age 61 be damned. For me vacation time is PLAY time. That’s MY relaxation. There’s no snoozing for me during a cruise. You snooze, you lose, as they say. I rise around 4:30 a.m., -- ridiculous, I know, but the body won’t stay asleep – I search out a cup of coffee and stroll the decks in the darkness before dawn, just soaking in the ambiance of the ship and the sea. A deserted Lido deck at 5 am in the pre-dawn darkness at sea is a sight to remember (and to capture in photos). A few photos from that pre-dawn darkness...

Seeing a sunrise at sea is pretty cool, too. Awash in self-indulgence…ahhhhhhhhh! That’s me. Honey, will ya massage my feet? They’re not stinky today. Hmmm, maybe I’ll hit the gym at 6 am and walk a couple of miles. Maybe not. Just go with the flow.

SCUBA -- I like to snorkel and scuba dive, hence the odd username that sounds like a Great Dane cartoon character. Had an incredible scuba dive in Grand Turk, by the way, at “the wall.” What a rush! My favorite dive, ever! Check it out on Youtube. Search there for something like, “dive the wall grand turk.” Amazing! Breathing underwater, so cool! Swimming amongst the coral and fishes at about 40 feet below and then seeing the ocean floor suddenly PLUNGE 7,000 feet. What a rush! All you see as you look down is a deep, dark blueness. It evokes feelings of...loneliness, maybe? Whoa! Deep! Kind of eerie, but more fascinating than frightening. Honey, for Christmas I want a Go-Pro! And another dive at the wall. Okay, sweetie? Kissy, kissy. You’re the best! ... More to come

As I said, we cruised with four other couples and two of their over-21 daughters who also had a great time. One of them brought two girlfriends along. One of those two performed in the booty shaking competition in the White Heat lounge one night. That was the only night I stayed up THAT late – past 10 is late for me nowadays -- ‘cuz it started out as a 70s disco dance event & wife and I wanted to dance. Seriously, folks, I did NOT stay up to watch booty-shaking! The competition was a little risqué, but, from a purely anthropological, observational standpoint, she and a couple of other gals had, uh, “talent.” Sorry, no photos of the talent. Probably wouldn't meet CC guidelines. :D

Now, back to our cruise companions…. One couple had cruised once before. Others were cruise virgins. They were in for a treat.

Me being the cruise planner – and a detail-oriented one at that – I ended up being our little group’s cruise director/guide: My duties as guide?... suggesting they read the Fun Times every morning and mark the things they wanted to do for the day; telling them about, or showing them, the cool things on the ship such as… the sorta hidden sauna and steam room by the Spa, the nearly hidden whirlpool by the gym and the whirlpool way up top and forward in the Serenity deck area, the outside deck viewing areas far forward on decks 6, 7 and 10, the Fish & Chips area above the Lido buffet that serves good seafood at lunchtime and is never crowded. Few seem to realize that this spot even exists…which is okay by me.

Look toward the skylight in this photo. Just below is the sign for Fish & Chips. Mmmm, they served a delicious Bouillabaisse.

I especially like to go outside on deck 3 (Panorama) to spend a few moments watching the ship’s bow slice through the water and throw out clouds of foam and sea-spray.

It’s even better when there is a little bit of a sea. My thoughts and feelings as I watch: Powerful ship; amazing what humankind can build; the sea can be so beautiful (when it isn’t angry). Love that sound. Ahhh, nice to be at sea…on a big ship.

BACKTRACKING A LITTLE…

Thanks to recommendations on CC and Tripadvisor, we chose to say at the Intercontinental Hotel pre-cruise. Spent 2 days there. It didn’t disappoint. Nice place. A view of the lobby...

Asked for a room with a view of the bay, waited about an hour for one to open up and GOT ONE! Yes! 21st floor, so I could get up EARLY and watch the ships arrive Saturday morning, which I certainly did. The view from our room...

Saw the Glory arrive before sunrise; saw an NCL ship docked in front of the Glory – the Getaway, I think, a monster ship – and saw the Carnival Victory arrive, too. That got my cruise juices flowing. Gonna be sailing in just a few hours! “Sailing, takes me away…to where I’m going.” Those lyrics courtesy of that long-ago sailing song by Christopher Cross. Nice tune for the occasion. Here is the Glory, docked EARLY on the day of our cruise. That's a NCL ship to the right. If you look carefully, just beyond the NCL ship the Carnival Victory is pulling in.

We walked over to the Bayside Marketplace, just 5 minutes from the hotel. Okay place, though nothing spectacular. Food court food is cheaper than at the Intercontinental. Later I (sorta) made the mistake of accompanying the girls to Macy’s, I think it was, for some shopping just a few blocks away. I spent a lot of time sitting, waiting for the girls to check out one sale rack after another. But, my Kindle app on my phone entertained me enough to keep me even-keeled. I stayed patient and didn’t complain. Played my cards right. My wife was so pleased with me not grumbling about shopping this time that she agreed to eat sushi that evening. Tried a place just a few blocks – maybe 3 – from our hotel, called Kone sushi. Their ceviche was delicious. The other stuff wasn’t half bad, either. Five of us ate to our heart’s content and the bill came to just short of $100. Not bad. More coming...

Here's a photo of two orders of their ceviche sampler...

BACK TO THE CRUISE -- I booked the cruise about 7-8 months out. Waiting for it to arrive seemed like an eternity. All of our prior cruises have been balcony cabins since we – I should say, “I,” – got hooked on balconies with our first cruise – on Princess – way, way, long ago, when I had substantially more hair on my head and fewer gray ones on my chest. Woke up one morning on that cruise when we were already anchored in Jamaica Bay. Got me a coffee and sweet roll, plopped myself into a chair on the balcony and just soaked it all in. If I could have heard sum Caribbean steel drum music at the moment it would have been perfection. But, even without the music, sitting there in a tropical bay was a moment I’ll never forget.

So, there I was on Carnival’s website looking to book the cruise and what should I see but ...whoa!...an aft wrap balcony cabin available for the taking! Really?! #8455 to be specific. This is one of only six cabins, I believe, with the wrap-around, colossal balcony. This had three chairs, three tables, two loungers and room to spare, plus a view directly aft and forward from the starboard side. Here's a photo...

I’d heard about those cabins here on Cruisecritic and saw videos of them through Youtube. I couldn’t believe it was available. It was pricier than the other balcony cabins but my heart said, “seize the moment” and “grab that cabin!” Should I? Shouldn’t I? I thought it over for all of about 4 seconds.

Knowing that if I booked this cabin I would get that familiar disapproving look from my wife, as well as a good tongue-lashing, I went for it anyway. I would endure the husband-abuse for that cabin! Booked! Yes! … After the tongue-lashing I suggested that it would be a great party-balcony for our cruise companions. I was right, a rare phenomenon, my wife would say. We celebrated a cruise companion’s birthday on that balcony the first night of the cruise.

We were off to a great start. Wifey got over my cabin choice once on board. See? :D Doesn't look even a bit peeved...

... I'll be back with more later.

Looking forward to more! We will be doing the same itinerary on Splendor in December.

Scubadoobie2, loving your review. We've been on the Glory one other time, but this year we are doing one of the 14-day Journey's cruise on her. Every review helps the days go by.

DH would love to have one of those wrap-around balconies, but has settled (as usual) for an aft-facing balcony cabin. Like you, he is an early riser and can be found out on the balcony every morning enjoying the sights and sounds when I drag out of bed at more respectable hour.

FASTER TO THE FUN – Did I mention that I also lucked into FTTF? Got it at the old $50 price. It came in handy a few times when I had a question for Guest Services and the regular line snaked back toward the elevators. I felt a little guilty going up to the desk ahead of all those other poor souls, but not guilty enough not to do it. Besides, I just had a quick question each time. I wasn’t holding up the line.

FTTF also got me off the ship ahead of most when we were tendering onto HMC. That was great. I wanted to make sure we reserved a few clamshells for our group. Gotta be careful of that June Caribbean sun, ya know. Did that; got 3 reserved. I asked for 2 “Reserved” signs and they obliged. Put a “Reserved” sign on two of the clamshells. That worked well. Several passers-by were about to grab those clamshells only to see the “Reserved” sign, sigh and walk away. I felt a bit selfish and a bit sad for them, but my sympathy dissolved surprisingly quickly. I forgive myself for being a little self-indulgent on a cruise.

Don, Gregory and Leah enjoy their "Reserved" clamshell.

At least I don’t reserve loungers on the Lido deck with a towel two hours before actually using the chair. Not cool. So, with the clamshells secured I laid back, sat up, rubbed some sunscreen on, jumped in the water, laid back some more, had a cocktail and snapped some photos as I awaited the arrival of my cruise companions. I passed the time trying to get some good photos of the beautiful beach with the Glory in the background. That was tough. Every so often a shapely young lady in a bikini would appear in my camera’s viewfinder and block my view of the water. Imagine how annoying that can be. Fortunately, my wife and the group arrived before cocktail #2 and before I had too many inadvertent photos of bikini-clad girls.

Beautiful HMC...with my toes intruding into the picture.

About FTTF: Just as they promised, we got on board quickly at embarkation. The cabin was ready, too. But, I, yes I, messed up. Because I had a scuba dive excursion booked I (unthinkingly) put my scuba-diving knife in our large suitcase. Can you guess what happened? I had completely overlooked the fact that a knife was a “prohibited item.”

We were on board about two hours when I got a call from…dum, da-dum-dum, DUM…SECURITY! The all-business voice on the other end of the line said that I was to report immediately to Security. Oh, ship! (close enough). “Why? Is there a problem,” I asked? The reply was curt, like you would expect from SECURITY: Go to (where you first enter the building, where they scan your luggage).

Holy, moly, I shuddered. What could be the problem? Remember, I had totally forgotten about the dive knife. By the way, the knife is a 6-inch titanium blade with teeth. It rests in a sheath. That sheath is attached to a couple of rubber straps that allow the diver to strap the knife to the diver’s leg. The knife is a wise safety precaution for scuba divers. If you should happen to get caught in something, like a fishing line, for example, you’ll want a to be able to cut yourself free before you run out of air at 40 or 50 feet below the surface. I love to scuba dive, but I like to reach the surface alive when I’m done.

Here are a couple of photos of my diving knife...

At SECURITY several officers led me into a room. This wasn’t looking good. “Is that your suitcase, sir?” “Sure looks like it.” “Please open your suitcase, sir.” (I hate it when they are so formal). I opened the suitcase and there it was, my dive knife! The light finally goes off in my head. Oops! I let out a half-hearted chuckle as I looked around at the officers surrounding me. I was met with silent stares. C’mon, where was their sense of humor?

They confiscated the knife. I hope I’m not under arrest, I’m thinking to myself. That wouldn’t be a good thing, especially for me. You see, I’m a Deputy D.A., a law enforcement officer. This would not look good on my resumé. I asked if the knife would be returned to me after the cruise. It wasn’t cheap, after all. One security officer took pity on me after I explained WHY I had the knife. She said I could pick it up at SECURITY at the conclusion of the cruise.

Because of that knife each time I was getting off the ship at port when I inserted my Sign & Sail card into that slot this weird alarm would go off. (a bit embarrassing) Each time that happened a security officer asked if I wanted to take the knife off the ship. No, I said, only when I do my scuba dive at Grand Turk, I’d say. Happy ending: They DID hand me the knife as I stepped off the ship at Grand Turk to do my dive. Never had to use it during the dive but I was glad I had it…just in case. I gave it RIGHT back to SECURITY as I re-boarded the ship. Got it back at the end of the cruise. There’s a lesson here, folks: If you buy FTTF, don’t put a knife in your luggage, at least, not unless you’re going scuba diving with your trusty dive knife and you enjoy special attention from SECURITY.

ENTERTAINMENT ON BOARD – The cruise director, Mike, was a real cut-up. We all loved the guy. High energy, friendly and make the cruise just that much better. Here he is hamming it up for my photo just before a show.

And here he packing all three decks in the atrium lobby as he puts on a post-show party...

We all thought the shows were good. Loved the Motown show and Epic Rock. Of course, the company, the booze and the fact that we were on a cruise made it all seem that much better. I missed another show that the others said was pretty good. Missed the hairy chest competition … on purpose … as well as the Ms. Glory competition (inadvertently). Mike the cruise director was thoroughly entertaining, a high energy guy with a great sense of humor and definitely not too proud to act silly. Bingo seemed kinda dull to me -- remember, I live in Las Vegas -- ‘til I won $100. It’s a good thing ‘cuz I was starting to feel like I’d wasted $60 bucks buying the cards for my wife and me to play. Went to Karaoke one night; considered wowing the audience with my rendition of an Elvis or Johnny Cash song. But, I took pity on my wife (easily embarrassed) and the audience and stayed in my seat. Heard three excellent singers and a few who should stick with their day jobs.

THE FOOD – I’m no food-a-holic. Did 3 years in the Army back in the EARLY 70s. I can eat anything. Just a side-note: I guess my daughter takes after me when it comes to culinary delights. One evening at a restaurant in Korea she was eating fresh squid. This was REALLY fresh, I kid you not. It was so fresh the leg was still wriggling as my daughter was chewing it. It didn’t seem to want to get swallowed ‘cuz it used its suction cups to hang on to her lip for dear life as my daughter tried to swallow. Ew! Got it on video. That’s a bit much, even for me.

As I was saying, if someone is gonna cook for me I’ll eat without complaint. So, to me, the food in the buffet, while certainly not exciting, was not bad. Standard buffet stuff... ‘cept I probably ate too much bacon and sausage. The food in the dining room was, for the most part, good, especially the appetizers (of which I consistently ordered TWO). Had a fine waiter (Ronald) and assistants. Had early dining. When we wanted to finish dinner quickly so we could get good seats at a show I asked Ronald if he could speed up the dinner service a little. He came through both times we asked. What a great guy; I don’t care what his momma says.

Not to be forgotten, Guy’s Burgers and the Blue Iguana on the Lido deck. Great burgers; sloppy eating if you load it up, but dignity be damned. It was good. My wife loved getting the breakfast stuff at the Blue Iguana. She really liked the salsa bar. Me, too. Oh, the pizza way at the back end, pretty good. The service is fast, too.

In next post we'll look at the cabin and ports of call/excursions.

OUR CABIN – #8455. It was comfortable. Seemed a little roomier than most balcony cabins, though the shape of it might have just made it SEEM larger. I dunno.

Here are a few interior shots...

Loved the location, though. We got plenty of exercise walking to our cabin way at the aft corner of the ship.

Being on Deck 8 was no problem, either. Never heard chairs scraping above us on Lido deck, though it could be because I was already up and wandering around the ship before crew members starting moving the chairs. I’d brought along some ear plugs just in case, but never had to use them. Wifey never complained about noise from above, and she sleeps in.

One other great thing about the cabin’s location. Each morning I like to bring my sweetie a cup of coffee (aren’t I sweet?) – or latté during the cruise – to help start her day right and motivate her to unass, oops, “rise” from, the bed. The place where I could get the latté was just one deck up, right around the corner from the stairs. Really, convenient. I should’ve taken a photo of the latté girl. Very nice young lady, engages you in conversation. The first day she gave me a frequent drinker card that would make the 7th latté free. I consistently forgot to bring that card with me each morning. But, the nice young lady said, “no problem.” She’d seen my face often enough. She pulled out a new card, punched a bunch of holes in it and gave me the 7th latté free of charge. How nice is that?

On final thought relating to the cabin. Thanks again to CC suggestions we did bring one of those inexpensive (cheap) clear shoe-holders from Wal-Mart to hold all our little toiletries and nick-nacks to avoid cluttering up the bathroom. It took me a moment to figure out where best to hang it, but found the place. Just when you walk into the cabin, on the wall directly ahead are two thing-a-mobobs (knobs) on the wall on which you can hang two hooks for the shoe-holder. Worked great. We threw just about every small thing we had in those pockets: toiletries, meds, small binoculars, notes, whatever. Kept the bathroom uncluttered.

This is the view when you first look into the cabin. On the wall directly ahead are two knobs onto which you can hook the hooks for the shoeholder.

PORTS OF CALL – Half Moon Cay was beautiful. Great beach day. Only unpleasant part was it ending and at the very beginning, sitting on the top deck of the tender, for a LONG time, in the hot sun, waiting to go ashore while Carnival loaded it up with passengers.

In the foreground you can see the later-arriving passengers going down the stairs to the lower deck.

Seems to me that they should fill up the bottom deck before seating people on top. Common sense, kind of thing, ya know? Not a huge deal, just an annoyance that passes once you step into that beautiful water.

The buffet served at HMC is hidden amongst the bushes about a minute’s walk from the beach. Nice enough. You can eat there at a nearby table or bring your food back to your spot on the beach. Some people rent those cabanas there despite the exorbitant price. Sheesh! I don’t see any fun in blowing hundreds of dollars for a wooden half-shed for a few hours. To each their own, though. Whatever floats their boat, I say.

Thank you SOOO much for taking the time to do a review for the Glory! Subscribing! We are going on the 14 Night Journey's Cruise on Halloween and we are SOOO excited :D :D

Can't wait to read more ;)

I'm enjoying your review! Can't wait to read the rest. I'll be on the Glory next year. [emoji4]

St.Thomas was our second stop. Gorgeous place. I had booked the Champagne Catamaran snorkel excursion that takes you out to St. John. Did that through Carnival ‘cuz it didn’t appear any more expensive than alternatives I’d seen. Had fun. All of our cruise companions, none of whom had booked it in advance, were lucky enough to book it while on board ship.

Some of the group on the catamaran...

We snorkeled where it was about 30 feet deep. The view was nice in places. Companions saw a turtle or two; we followed a stingray around for awhile. Enjoyed the trip back to port on the Catamaran. The rum punch and rum and coke – included in the cost of the excursion -- were flowing and I wanted to get my money’s worth. Besides, hey, I was on vacation, in the Caribbean, on a catamaran, on a cruise blessed with good weather. If ever there was a time to party a little this was it.

San Juan, Puerto Rico. I didn’t book an excursion here. Two couples in our group did the jungle zip line. They loved it. The others of us toured the fort and took photos. Our favorite part was finding a Starbucks. For the price of an iced frappuccino we were able to use their Wi-Fi to text our kids back home. All was okay, ‘cept my son said we had an ant invasion in our kitchen. No big deal, ‘cept for the ants who were gonna DIE once I got home and bought me the right ant bait.

Some of our group posing in front of our ship in San Juan...

Beautiful view of San Juan as we departed...

Next stop was Grand Turk. Need I say more? I did my scuba dive here. Best dive I ever had.

A fellow diver gets ready to jump into the water. Don't be scared; it's only 7,000 feet down if you should happen to sink to the bottom over there where the water is dark blue. ;)

As for the others in our group, some hit Margaritaville; (said it was crowded/popular). Wife and at least one other gal stayed on board and enjoyed having the ship nearly to themselves.

THE LESS THAN PERFECTs – VERY FEW… No major complaints but, IMHO, Carnival could do just a skosh better in a couple of ways on a Caribbean cruise. Put a live, steel drum band aboard. C’mon, it’s a Caribbean cruise! If Carnival wants us 50-60 year olds to spend more money on board it would do well to provide a lounge for dancing to music from the 50s, 60s and 70s at least one or two nights from, say, 8 or 9 pm to 11 or midnight. At least, that’s my opinion/wish. Load the tenders at HMC from the lower deck, up. Or, at least serve some ice cold water to those on the top deck while waiting for the tender to load. That’s it, folks. The imperfections were so minor as to have almost no impact on an otherwise great cruise. Carnival deserves a nice A- for that cruise. And someone upstairs gets an A for providing good weather and calm seas.

The ship in all its "Glory" as we tendered onto Half Moon Cay...

Thirsty? At HMC they deliver.

No complaints from me about the dining room. This dessert tasted as good as it looked.

Lido - sea day - good times.

The early morning towel-animal take-over before the invasion of the sun worshipping cruisers...

The adults-only pool and whirlpools at the stern. Whirlpools were luke-warm at best. The pool water (salty) was comfortably cool. This is a good place to bring your breakfast to eat while watching the ship's wake.

Another view of the aft wrap balcony. I just couldn't get over how roomy it was.

The shaded area of the balcony around the corner, plus the lounger. Nice place to read a good book.

San Juan and the Glory from the fort. It is an easy walk to the fort for those without mobility issues. But, once you hit that fort and start walking uphill you'll feel it.

Thanks for the great review. Looking forward to his itinerary in December. You have provided some great tips :)

Thx for the review. Wife and I will be on same ship, same itinerary in Sept. We are looking forward to doing a couple of dives along the way as well, St. Thomas and Grand Turk. Did you use the cruise ship dive excursion?

BTW, I've made the same dive knife mistake, TWICE! lol. Both times security held on to the knife and gave me the option of picking it up during disembarkation at any port. No biggie.

Great review! We had the same aft-wrap cabin in January for the same itinerary! Was Andi your room steward? We thought he was absolutely fantastic. We sure enjoyed that balcony too!

Great review.

Keith

To El Pistoffo: Yes, I used Carnival's dive excursion. I'd never done an Eastern Caribbean itinerary and I just wanted to feel comfortable that I would be back at the ship in time since the excursion length seemed to me to cut things a bit close. Glad I did. I'm still amazed over that dive. (I like your name, by the way.)

To 1stTimeCruiserAmy: Our room steward was a guy named Arnel. He was polite, greeted us by name and kept our cabin clean and stocked. We made no special requests of him, so I figure we were pretty easy customers.

To El Pistoffo: Yes, I used Carnival's dive excursion. I'd never done an Eastern Caribbean itinerary and I just wanted to feel comfortable that I would be back at the ship in time since the excursion length seemed to me to cut things a bit close. Glad I did. I'm still amazed over that dive. (I like your name, by the way.)

Thx for the info Scubadoobie2. Would you by any chance know what dive sites you hit? Was it the northern or southern part of the island? I believe the dive op used by Carnival is Oasis.

Here is a photo of that shoe-holder I mentioned. (photo from Mediterranean cruise we did on Navigator of the Seas, in a Jr. Suite):

Watching the sun rise.... It just puts a nice accent on a cruise.

Our waiter, Ronald and his assistance. A great trio:

Forgive me for including this photo, but I couldn't help myself. :D That's Riley, our little Blue Merle Sheltie. Missed the little guy during our cruise but our 26-year-old son, took good care of him.

A mystery photo -- 'cuz I'm having fun learning to use Shutterfly to store and load my photos -- Can you guess where this beautiful beach is? Hint: Not from this cruise.

For you west-coasters: If you're thinking about a non-cruise vacation, to somewhere like Hawaii, if you go to Oahu (Honolulu) be sure to visit Kailua Beach. About a half hour from the city; one of the best beaches we've ever visited.

Thx for the info Scubadoobie2. Would you by any chance know what dive sites you hit? Was it the northern or southern part of the island? I believe the dive op used by Carnival is Oasis.

Sorry, I didn't even THINK to ask about the location. Maybe this photo will help you figure out our approximate dive location. We did two dives, by the way, both with the Glory still in sight.

Yes, it was Oasis Divers that the cruise line used. I read reviews about them and about Blue Water Divers. Blue Water seemed to come off better, though I can't be sure. For me it came down to knowing that the ship would wait for us if we happened to get delayed. I liked that comfort factor to leave me with no worries.

What I do know is that our dive master knew his stuff. It had been about four years since I last did a dive. In fact, I had to prove that I had recently taken a refresher course so that they would let me dive. On my first dive I discovered that I wasn't carry enough weight. Our dive master fixed that right up and the second dive was perfect.

Sorry, I didn't even THINK to ask about the location. Maybe this photo will help you figure out our approximate dive location. We did two dives, by the way, both with the Glory still in sight.

 

 

Yes, it was Oasis Divers that the cruise line used. I read reviews about them and about Blue Water Divers. Blue Water seemed to come off better, though I can't be sure. For me it came down to knowing that the ship would wait for us if we happened to get delayed. I liked that comfort factor to leave me with no worries.

 

What I do know is that our dive master knew his stuff. It had been about four years since I last did a dive. In fact, I had to prove that I had recently taken a refresher course so that they would let me dive. On my first dive I discovered that I wasn't carry enough weight. Our dive master fixed that right up and the second dive was perfect.

Thx so much for the info. Yes that helps determine the location being the southern portion of the island.

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed your dives.

No complaints from me about the dining room. This dessert tasted as good as it looked.

OMG, what is that dessert? We've had the new menu, but I don't remember that one. Only 111 days until we are on the Glory for 14 glorious days.

Scubadoobie2,

Love your revue, can you tell me if there was a Latin Band on board? we will be on there real soon the same itinerary.

Great review...thank you. I'll be sailing on her in September and am so looking forward to it. I do have to say, however, that your putting the "Reserved" signs on the Clamshell covers on HMC upset me, just because you didn't want your group to be exposed to that Caribbean sun. What about others out there, like the elderly, children, or handicapped? That's very rude, as well as when people come out very early to put their towels down on the loungers around the pools on the ship...or anywhere while on vacations. Lucky for you that I wasn't there, because I have no problem whatsoever in removing those towels/homemade signs. If it's in the "rules" of the ship/hotel/resort that guests are not allowed to reserve chairs with towels, then I remove them. What's fair is fair and what's right is right. Just saying...

Scubadoobie2,

Love your revue, can you tell me if there was a Latin Band on board? we will be on there real soon the same itinerary.

Hi, jst. Yes, there was a Latin band on board. I forget their name, but they were quite good, at least in my opinion. They performed in the Ivory Club Lounge on Deck 4. You can access that lounge either from Deck 4 or, if you are on Deck 5, there are stairs leading down to that lounge from about where the Creams Café is located.

Here is a photo of the band....

As for Seagull7 flaming me for reserving 3 clamshells for my group.... I agree that it is a bit selfish on my part, on behalf of my group. But, most were on their 1st cruise and I just wanted to make it as nice for them as I had the power to do.

I don't see that as being the same as reserving loungers on the ship with a towel. I don't do that. Those loungers on the ship are free to absolutely anyone on board. The clamshells must be paid for, and to my understanding, can only be rented once on the beach. I don't feel morally obligated to refrain from renting three clamshells (to be shared by 11 people) -- when there are MANY of them on the beach -- on the chance that someone with children will be deprived or that a person with a disability will be deprived of a clamshell.

Given your logic it was rude of me to rent even one clamshell when I am perfectly healthy and gooped up with SPF 70 sunscreen. That one clamshell could have gone to a child or a disabled person, too. There are areas with shade provided by trees. And, there are other choices that people with children or with disabilities have as well. I believe that they all have the opportunity to reach a status with Carnival that entitles them to early debarkation at ports or to buy FTTF (as it becomes available) to assure early debarkation privileges at ports. Or, they can line up early to be the first to get off among cruisers who don't otherwise qualify for early debarkation at ports.

I hope that other viewers/posters don't turn this review -- meant not only to share my vacation fun with others but to help them with info, too -- into a morality discussion. They can start their own thread for that if they want to do that.

Having said that, I am glad to see posters who are concerned for their follow cruisers. It would, indeed, be a nice world if we would all show such concern and consideration for others in all instances...with maybe just a little slack given to those of us who are on a much needed Caribbean cruise vacation. Until such concern and kindness is a universal given, however, I will forgive myself for being just a wee bit self-indulgent during vacation.