Trip Report From the Glory Oct 10th-17th Lots of Pictures to Come

[TeknikDC2]

We arn't one's for pictures. We don't line up for all the photo options they have like so many other people. However this night we saw they were doing those old fashioned type pictures so we decided to get some done even though we had no intention of buying any. We just figured it would be a good way to kill some time and have some fun dressing up. Theres no pictures of all of us but I did manage to take this one of Kiera.

 

 

We next decided to hit up the Kariokee Bar for a little bit. I love watching people drunk off there butt getting up at these things and trying to sing. I find it pretty funny. We had a good time watching and then we decided to play a small joke on our cabin neighbors. There was 1 room between Kiera and I's and Tyler and Rachaels rooms. These people were so extremely loud. Yelling all the time and constantly slamming there door all night long. they also must have had friends in the room across the hall too cause we could hear them yelling loudly in the halls as well back and forth. So we decided to leave this nice little note sitting on a table in Kariokee bar when we left. We don't know if anything ever came of it or not though. But we got a laugh out of it.

 

 

The last event of the evening that we attended was the ships Mardi Graw event. We had some fun standing in the crowd in the main lobby trying to catch as many mardi graw beads we could. I thought we did pretty good hahaha.

 

 

It was well after midnight when we decided to call it a night. We went up and I grabbed my Pizza and this night we just took it back to our room. We also stayed up and watched a movie before we finally decided to go to bed. Tomorrow we would be in St. Maarten. However we didn't have anything planned so we decided we would sleep in some before getting off the ship.

[AndrewD65]

Awesome day it seems you had "beside the mis-hap at the beach " I look forward to even more of your review.

[TrqoisWtrs]

Love some of the scenic pics of the ships docked in St. Thomas.

 

 

as a snorkeling tip - its easier to walk in backwards with fins on. :)

[Giggles2007]

I was just on this exact ship, exact itinerary early part of this year. Man, your review and pics are bringing back soooo many memories. In fact, I had such a great time on the Glory that I have booked it again for 2011.

[beautifulblueii]

I'm am the type of peson who usually just sits back and takes it all in, not saying much. But, I started reading this at work today and couldn't wait to get home and continue on. This is an awesome review, I love the pictures of the ship and of your trip. This is quite the cliff hanger you have going!:)

 

Libby

[kjeanne2001]

Loving your review! Your pics are amazing especially the night shots at St. Thomas. I loved St. Thomas! What type of camera do you use? Can't wait to read your review of St. Marten. We, unfortunately, missed St. Marten due to TS Erica.

[vol3820]

Hurry!!! We're leaving in six days for this same cruise! Your review is awesome!!!

[mathgeek1978]

I just looked at my watch and realized that I've spent almost an hour reading your report. What an AWESOME report with some of the best pictures ever!

 

I concur what another poster said: "This is photo-journalism at its best." Thanks for sharing! :)

[tandtmk04]

Was on the Glory this past September and LOVED it! MEGAN'S BAY in ST THOMAS was by far my favorite..... we spent the whole day there snorkling.... water was calm and beautiful!! Didn't know though until I saw your picture that it was a "heart shaped island"...... would love to have a copy of that picture if you don't care! Can't wait to see the rest of yor review.:)

[cbsorenson]

What a small world. Never did I think I would recognize someone that I saw on a cruise critic cruise review forum. Nice talking with you on Saturday at your work. Great review! Did you grow up in Farmington? It's a great place. Have a good one!

[TeknikDC2]

Thank you for all the remarks everyone. Before I continue with this recap I thought I would answer some of your questions. Thanks again to all following and reading my recap.

 

Loving your review! Your pics are amazing especially the night shots at St. Thomas. I loved St. Thomas! What type of camera do you use? Can't wait to read your review of St. Marten. We, unfortunately, missed St. Marten due to TS Erica.

 

My camera isn't anything too special. Its a 6.0 megapixel Samsung Digimax L60 that I bought over 3 years go. Its been quite the tropper but I think i'm going to have to upgrade soon as She is showing her age. It started giving me problems for the first time ever on this trip.

 

Hurry!!! We're leaving in six days for this same cruise! Your review is awesome!!!

 

I'm hurrying as fast as I can. Your going to have a wonderful time on the Glory.

 

Was on the Glory this past September and LOVED it! MEGAN'S BAY in ST THOMAS was by far my favorite..... we spent the whole day there snorkling.... water was calm and beautiful!! Didn't know though until I saw your picture that it was a "heart shaped island"...... would love to have a copy of that picture if you don't care! Can't wait to see the rest of yor review

 

Sure you can have a copy. If you want the full size image just send me a pm with your email and I will send it over to ya.

 

What a small world. Never did I think I would recognize someone that I saw on a cruise critic cruise review forum. Nice talking with you on Saturday at your work. Great review! Did you grow up in Farmington? It's a great place. Have a good one!

 

Haha I know. I never thought i'd run into someone from here as well. It really is such a small world. Thanks for taking the time to say hi and introduce yourself. I'm glad to see other users from Utah here lol. I lived in Farmington from 96-02 thru Junior High and High School. After wich we moved way far to Kaysville lol. Now I just work in Farmington as I have a house out in Clinton. Farmington is really a excellent place to live and to raise a family.

 

Anyways stay tuned everyone. The St. Maarten portion of this recap will be up ether late tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

[tandtmk04]

Thank you for all the remarks everyone. Before I continue with this recap I thought I would answer some of your questions. Thanks again to all following and reading my recap.

 

 

 

My camera isn't anything too special. Its a 6.0 megapixel Samsung Digimax L60 that I bought over 3 years go. Its been quite the tropper but I think i'm going to have to upgrade soon as She is showing her age. It started giving me problems for the first time ever on this trip.

 

 

 

I'm hurrying as fast as I can. Your going to have a wonderful time on the Glory.

 

 

 

 

Haha I know. I never thought i'd run into someone from here as well. It really is such a small world. Thanks for taking the time to say hi and introduce yourself. I'm glad to see other users from Utah here lol. I lived in Farmington from 96-02 thru Junior High and High School. After wich we moved way far to Kaysville lol. Now I just work in Farmington as I have a house out in Clinton. Farmington is really a excellent place to live and to raise a family.

 

Anyways stay tuned everyone. The St. Maarten portion of this recap will be up ether late tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

 

Sure you can have a copy. If you want the full size image just send me a pm with your email and I will send it over to ya.

 

My e-mail address is: jennyt34_2004@yahoo.com (Thats an underscore between the 34 and 2004)

 

Thanks!

[TeknikDC2]

Sorry I didn't get this finished last night like I was hoping to. But here is the latest installment of our final Port St. Maarten. As always comments are always welcomed and I'd be more then happy to answer any questions. Thanks for reading.

 

Day 8: St. Maarten

 

The 8th day of our vacation found us in our final port of St. Maarten. We decided to sleep in for a little this day because unlike St. Thomas and Nassau we didn't have anything planned for St. Maarten other then shopping. Kiera and I were already well over budget. I really wanted to go see the beach thats right next to the airport. But unfortunatly that wouldn't happen due to being low on money. Infact I had to get more cash out of the ships ATM. After grabbing breakfast on the Lido deck we soon unboarded the Glory crowd free and started our day.

 

[TeknikDC2]

From reading and planning things a head of time online I found the easiest way to get to the main part of Philipsburg would be to take the water taxi. So thats what we did. It costs $6 a person for a round trip ticket and sure beat walking or trying to get to the city from the port on our own.

 

 

Once in the city we didn't know where to begin. As I said before we didn't plan (well Kiera and I anyways) anything to do in St. Maarten other then shopping. Multipule people back home recommend to us to do our shopping St. Maarten cause thats where we would find the best deals. So we just started walking the streets looking for a flee market since Kiera wanted to find a Purse, I wanted to find some sunglasses, and we needed to find some gifts to take home to our families.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Eventually we found the cheap flee market type stuff. However St. Maarten had a horrible selection of items here. This is why I stressed that Nassau had the best selection of the cheap knockoff type stuff. Even St. Thomas had a better selection. Kiera and I found many gifts for our siblings here. But we didn't find anything for our parents or ourselves. We really wished we would have bought them when there was a huge selection in front of us in Nassau.

 

So the search continued for what we were looking for. We wondered down a some more streets before finally finding a shop that sold knockoff purses that Rachael found. We thought that because the purses were actually in a shop and not the cheap flee market places that they wouldn't barter at all. We were wrong. The workers wheeled and dealed and did whatever they could to make sure we walk out of that store with a purse. Which we did. Kiera got a Chanel Knock Off perse with a matching Wallet for only $55 bucks. Not bad considering they originally wanted $69 for the purse alone. This place had alot of knock off purses. But it still didn't have the variety that the flee markets had in Nassau.

 

 

We walked down the beach front after the purse shop and before we knew it we found ourselves at the dock where the water taxi dropped us off. At this time Tyler and Rachael left us because they decided they wanted to go do parasailing (sorry no pictures of them doing this). I'm deathly afraid of heights and so is Kiera so we decided to pass on the Parasailing idea. Plus we were already over our budget so we couldn't really afford it even if we wanted to.

 

 

With Tyler and Rachael off to go parasailing we now had a few things on the agenda. Find gifts for our parents. And find me some sunglasses. We headed down the way we came looking for any small shop that looked like it could sell knockoff sunglasses. When we were in Mexico last year on our cruise I picked up a pair of knockoff Oakley sunglasses. Knockoffs or not I love these glasses. Unfortunatly my pair from mexico accedntally got broke a month before the trip. So a new pair was needed. Knockoff Mens sunglasses are very difficult to find in the Caribbean. I didn't find any any Nassau or St. Thomas and I don't know how many shops we looked at before we found them hidden in the corner of a shop in St. Maarten. We had no problems finding the Knockoff glasses for females though. So keep that in mind. Its not like Mexico.

 

[TeknikDC2]

After finding my glasses we continued stopping in shops looking for ideas of what to get our parents. But there was also another shop I wanted to find that I heard about. I'm a big Star Wars fan so when I heard about the the Yoda guys shop I knew I wanted to stop by there. We soon found it and the shop is pretty cool. It would be really cool to be able to walk thru the museum that he is building. I'm sure that if he charged for that alone he would make a lot of money. Anyways the shop is really neat and a must see for anyone into Star Wars.

 

[TeknikDC2]

We stopped in a few more shops after the Yoda Guy and finally finished the shopping that we needed for our parents. We decided though we should at least check out the beach before we headed back to the ship so thats what we did. The water hear is just a pretty as it was in St. Thomas. I really liked the look the beach had with the city in the background as well. Kiera also had a good time finding sea shells in the sand.

 

[TeknikDC2]

We next headed to the side of the beach on the other side of the water taxi dock. Hear Kiera hit the sea shell jackpot. I've never seen anything like it but there were piles on piles of sea shells right next to the dock here. Kiera found many cool looking shells and also some coral. It was pretty neat.

 

[TeknikDC2]

After finishing at the beach and being done with shopping we decided to head back to the Ship. We headed up to the dock and boarded the water taxi and headed back to the cruise ship docks. Although St. Maarten had a horrible selection of cheap knockoff type stuff it is easily the best place if you are looking to do expensive shopping. Things like Diamonds, Electonics, luggage, and other large expensive type items are diffenitly the best prices here then they were in Nassau or St. Thomas. And it showed on the water taxi as we saw many people carrying huge boxes of goods back to the ships.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Once back at the cruise ship docks we decided to just head back to the ship instead of looking around. Just like in St. Thomas we were very tired by the time we got back to the ships. Not because we were busy doing things all day but we did alot of walking in St. Maarten. The St. Maarten pier is being expaned right now as well so it will be a pretty neat little shopping district when they finish (if there adding more shops anyways).

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

We were back on the boat. And our final port of the cruise was finished. Tyler and Rachael still weren't back from there parasailing adventures and we still had over an hour tell dinner so we went up to the top deck to look at the beautiful island of St. Maarten and also to get some views of the other ships in dock with us. I'm not sure what the names were but they were both Princess ships. The one behind us was huge. I really liked how it had a walk around deck all the way to the front of the ship as well.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

We had a great time in St. Maarten. However it ended up being the regret of our trip. Not because we regreted going there. But because we regreted doing something more then shopping. St. Maarten with half the island being dutch and the other half french probably had the most to be viewed culture wise there any of the other islands we went to. We really wish we would have taken a tour so we could have seen more of the island and especially the french side of the island. You can bet that if we make it to St. Maarten again we will be doing a tour for sure and going to the French side of the island. I don't thing we will be visiting any of the beaches on the french side though seeing as womens tops are optional lol. I really would like to go see the beach thats right next to the airport as well.

 

It was soon dinner time and we finally met back up with Tyler and Rachael. They said that Parasailing was a blast and that it wasn't scary at all. They had a lot of fun and hope we will try it next time we go on a cruise. We told them we will see lol. They said it was great and the views were amazing. We had another wonderful dinner in the main dinning room and the dinning staff put on another great little show for us.

 

[TeknikDC2]

This night of our cruise was the Mexican buffet and late night deck party as well. However due to catching the main show that evening in the Amber Palace and then having tickets to the 10:45 show at the comedy club we would miss out on pretty much both events. We still looked around though as they were setting up for this. I guess this kinda replaced the old Gala buffet as there were many fancy food items done up for it.

 

 

The show this evening in the Amber Palace was a comedian Juggler and he was very good at what he did and pretty funny. They had the early dinning go to the later main show so after that was over we headed strait to the Comedy club to watch the show there. This guy was pretty funny as well. However almost his whole show was based around making fun of people in the audiance. So this got really low in my opinion many times and started to not get very funny. But overall it was pretty good too. He was also the longest of any of the comedians as his show ran for well over an hour where everyone elses lasted only around 45 minutes. With it being late when the show got out we wondered around the side deck for a little bit before heading back up to Lido to grab some midnight Pizza.

 

 

After Pizza we just sat and chatted with one another. We had a good time and soon realized it was well past 1am so we decided to head to bed. We hadn't even been back to our room since before dinner. Man we had a busy night. So we said our goodnights and retired to our rooms where we found our towel animal for the night. We quickly fell asleep and again looked forward to sleeping in tell whenever we woke up tomorrow. We now only had 2 full days left of our cruise. Both of which were sea days.

 

[AndrewD65]

aaawww such a great review.. I go on my first cruise in about 58 days. and since I started reading your review I felt like i was right there with you..

[jamo951]

Sorry for your disappointment in St. Maarten! I haven't been there yet, but will be in 14 months! So you have talked me out of shopping there, but you said that many people were walking around with large boxes, I'm assuming electronics. Did you see any stores that sold cameras? If you did and remember the store names, I may be able to find them online to see if it would be cheaper to purchase a camera in St. Maarten or at home! Thanks for the help, can't wait to see the rest of the review.