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

[Mrs.C05]

You're review was wonderful!!! I always enjoy detailed reviews with pictures! Makes ya feel like you're right there on the ship....question though....your wife Kiera tends to have problems with her toes on cruises. LOL! On your honeymoon didn't she stub one of her toes on the back of your shoe?

[TeknikDC2]

Wow i'm getting really bad with this review. And i'm so close to the end. anyways i'm typing up another recap as we speak so watch for it in a couple hours.

 

Nice lightning shots!

 

From your photos, it looks like certain areas of the ships are really bright with different colors, neons, etc. Are they super bright? Or does the camera just make them appear super bright?

 

Thats just my camera. I tried to do time delayed pictures in alot of the photo so they turned out brighter.

 

You're review was wonderful!!! I always enjoy detailed reviews with pictures! Makes ya feel like you're right there on the ship....question though....your wife Kiera tends to have problems with her toes on cruises. LOL! On your honeymoon didn't she stub one of her toes on the back of your shoe?

 

Haha yeah my wifes poor luck. On our honeymoon cruise she did break one of her toes by walking into the back of me. I told her she is just going to need to wear steel toed boots next time hahaha.

[TeknikDC2]

Alright as I said here is the latest recap from our vacation. Only 1 more left after this one :(

 

Day 11: Debarkation Day

 

The time had soon come where the cruise was over. When we awoke in the morning we were just pulling into Port Canaveral. Due to the rescue efforts the night before we were a couple hours late getting into Port Canaveral. But that didn't bother us anyways. I didn't reserve our rental car tell noon so we would be killing as much time on the ship anyways. We went up and grabbed some breakfast and then waited until the last moment to get off the ship. I was really suprised that for being so late how quickly they got everyone off of the ship. They were very quick about it. Alot quicker then the pride was in Long Beach and that ship was on time. Both Disney ships were next to us in port this morning as well.

 

 

We waited until the final groups were called to get off the ship and so we decided to go then as well. It was just pass 11am so we figured going thru customs and all that would take us awhile because it took forever in Long Beach. We were wrong. We got thru Customs very quickly and were on our way to the rental car agency by 11:30. Today Kieras toe from the Sea Urchint sting looked the worst out of all the days. So we took a picture of it while waiting.

 

 

We were soon at the Budget Rental Car agency and we still had about 20 minutes tell we were suppose to get our car. We were all sick of waiting so I went to talk to the people and they let us take the car a little early with no extra fees. At first we thought we got the same car that we took to Port Canaveral as it was another Maroon colored Pontiac G6. But once inside we soon realized it was an older one. Not anything like our brand new one we had heading to the Port. After getting our car we were soon on the road and waved goodbye to the Carnival Glory which was a wonderful ship to spend our vacation on.

 

 

We now had another full day to spend in the Orlando area. When booking plane tickets we found it would be cheaper for us to fly home on Sunday instead of Saturday so thats what we decided to do. Since we had lots of time and nowhere to be we decided to drive out by the Kennedy Space Center. Kieras brother is going to school right now to be an Aerospace Engineer so we figured he'd enjoy any photos we could get. We didn't actually stop at the space center though. It was way to expensive and we didn't have enough interest to justify spending the money.

 

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

 

After driving around the spacecenter for a bit were back on the road and heading towards Orlando. We decided to head to the Orlando LDS Temple to do some work while were there. Kind of a way for us to give thanks to God and Christ for watching over us and protecting us on our vacation. So we punched the address into Google Maps on my Blackberry and were on our way.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

The direction that Google Maps told us to go took us right thru Downtown Orlando. I was actually suprised to find that the city itself is pretty small. The route it told us to go also took us thru many tolls. So once again remember to take a bag of quarters with you to Florida. Unless you tell your phone or GPS to give you a non-toll route.

 

[TeknikDC2]

After just over an hour of driving we finally arrived at the Temple. We ended up being there for almost 3 hours doing work. It was a great experiance and we are happy that we took the time out of our vacation to spend time there and to feel of the spirit. Had we not been starving by this point we may have stayed there longer. We were very suprised by the weather in Orlando this day as well. It was pretty cold with the highs only in the high 60's. Quite the change from before our cruise where they were having record heat in the mid 90's with high humidity lol. I think I liked the slightly cooler weather and almost no humidity much better hahaha.

 

[TeknikDC2]

We soon found ourselves back on International Drive were our hotel would be located. As I said before we were starving by this point so we were trying to find food. We eventually decided on a Panda Express which hit the spot perfectly. After eating we then drove back down International Drive to find our Hotel. As with before the cruise we booked a Days Inn for our hotel and would be sharing the room with Tyler and Rachael. This was a different Days Inn though then the one before our cruise. This one seemed to be much nicer then the other one. It had had updates done and it looked nice and the rooms were in much better condition. However it was still pretty ghetto. the wall that sperates you from the outside was very then. We could hear people all night talking and yelling at each other. When you closed the door it seemed like that whole wall was going to come down. Then to add to the ghettoness of the hotel the location was in a much more ghetto location then the first hotel. Needless to say this pretty much put the nail in the coffin with teaching us to not book cheap hotels ever again when in Orlando lol.

 

After getting settled into the room we decided on what we wanted to do for our last night in Orlando. If theres one thing that the Orlando area does well (with the exception of theme parks) its there Mini-Golf Courses. And International Drive is dotted with them. We so many cool and different looking themed Mini-Golf Courses while driving around so thats what we decided we wanted to do. We ended up choosing Congo River Golf. We chose this course because they also had live aligators on site that you could feed. This course was the best Mini-Golf Course I have ever been to. You really think it should be at one of the theme parks its so themed and detailed. These Mini-Golf Courses are pretty pricey. But I think it was worth it for 18 holes of detailed fun.

 

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

After Tyler and Rachael beat Kiera and I at Mini-Golf we decided it was time for dinner. Since we had so many different things on the cruise that we wouldn't eat back home we decided to just do something simple for dinner and just eat at Chilies. We had a good time there and couldn't belive that in less then 24 hours our vacation would be over and we would be home. We couldn't belive how fast time had flown. Located next to Chilies was this fun park place that had a few thrill rides. We watched from the parking lot but there was no way I could most of the stuff there due to my fear of heights. It was pretty cool to see the rides going though.

 

 

After dinner we returned to our hotel where Kiera was going thru Ice Cream withdrawls and I was having Midnight Pizza withdrawls lol. We fell asleep quickly as we had a big day of traveling home ahead of us to look forward to. Our Vacation would soon be over.

[AndrewD65]

aaaww what a great review, you have inspiried me to wrtin one just as detailed in January when I get back from our cruise.

[AndrewD65]

aaaww what a great review, you have inspiried me to wrtin one just as detailed in January when I get back from our cruise.

[Quampapetet]

Thats just my camera. I tried to do time delayed pictures in alot of the photo so they turned out brighter.

 

Oh good; I was worried I was going to need to wear my sunglasses inside the ship! :D

[TeknikDC2]

question though....your wife Kiera tends to have problems with her toes on cruises. LOL! On your honeymoon didn't she stub one of her toes on the back of your shoe?

 

yes that is correct. She broke her toe on our honeymoon cruise and then this time she was stung by the sea urchan. Needless to say on our next one I think she plans to wear steel toed boots everywhere lol.

[TeknikDC2]

Well its taken me long enough. Its been over 2 months now since we've been home from this trip and now i'm finally posting the last update of this recap. Due to the holidays and other projects it has prevented me from finishing this sooner. But now i'm finally gonna get it done.

 

Day 12: Travel Home

 

We woke up early as we had to be at the airport to drop our car off by 11:30am. Our flight wouldn't be leaving tell 1:30 so we would have some time to kill at the airport. It was going to be another long day of travel just as it was when we left SLC for Orlando. Luckly we survived the night in this ghetto hotel room so we got all our stuff together and packed and we loaded up an headed out.

 

 

After checking out of the hotel we took one last drive down International Drive before heading to the airport. We stopped at the shell gas station next to the huge Mcdonalds to top the car off before returning it. We also decided to grab breakfast at the Mcdonalds. I would have loved to go in it as this Mcdonalds was one of the fondest memorys I have of when my parents took Me and my siblings to florida 16 years ago. Unfortunatly time wouldn't allow it so we grabbed our food and were on our way to the airport.

 

[TeknikDC2]

We were soon at the airport. We found the rental return and quickly got that all taken care of. Kiera and I weren't looking forward to the first part of our flights this day. When we originally booked our flights back in July they had our seats together. About a month before our trip I got an email saying our flight details had changed and Kiera and I weren't sitting together anymore. So when we got to our bag check in I was very suprised when the lady asked if we wanted to sit together and be next to an emergency exit. Of course we would. We weren't expecting to sit together anyways. So we were happy about that. However Tyler and Rachael were now a little confused. There seats never changed fromt there original booking. However when they checked in there person told them to go to the gate and they would get there seating arrangements there.

 

We also found that our departure time had changed. Where we were originally suppose to leave orlando at 1:30. Instead we would now be leaving at around 3:30. So now we had 4 hours to kill in Orlando before our flight leaves. So before heading to the gate we decided to look around at all the different shops they have in the Orlando Airport such as the Disney Store, Universal Store, Harley Davidson, ect......

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

After killing some time looking at the shops we decided to head to our gate. We hopped on the tram again and we were soon there to kill another 2 hours or so. We spent most the time watching football on tv or browsing the internet on our Laptops or Phones.

 

 

After being bored almost to the brink of insanity our Plane finally arrived. They gate workers announced that the flight was overbooked and thats why not everyone got assigned seating. So we waited and waitned and hoped that Tyler and Rachael would have seats on the plane. luckly they were within the first people called to come claim there seats so we were in the clear. We soon bored the plane and prepaired to leave sunny Orlando. The whole time they keep asking people if they would give up there seats for a $300 credit per seat towards another American Airlines flight as well as a later flight to Dallas (where we would be connecting). If they would have offered us a flight strait to SLC we would have been all over this. However they would only offer it to Dallas. And our connecting flight would have already left had we done that. So unfortunatly we missed out on a great oppertunity.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

We were soon in the air and on our way to Dallas. The flight wasn't anything too exciting. We took some pictures of the passing land below us before finally flying over Dallas, Texas and landing at the Airport.

 

 

Once in Dallas we had around an Hour layover to get to our next flight to Salt Lake City. The Dallas airport is very large. Upon arrival we found that our connecting flight was in a completly different terminal from where we landed. Luckly the Dallas/FW Airport has a tram system that takes you around all the different terminals. So within 15 minutes of when we got off our plane we were in the terminal and at the gate we needed to be at for our SLC flight.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Since we still had some time to kill before our flight left we found the restrooms and grabbed a quick bit to eat in the food court. We got back to our gate right after they started boarding so we pretty much walked on to our flight. Before long we were back in the air on the final stretch before we would be home. The sunset was amazing to watch from the air and I found it so interesting to see the sunset still in the air and total darkness down below.

 

 

We landed in Salt Lake around 8pm MST. It felt so weird to be home after being gone for nearly 2 weeks. The other big shocker was that SLC was warmer then Orlando was when we left. Something that would last long when our first snow storm came thru 2 days later. Gotta Love Utah Weather. Tylers dad picked us up and before long we were home.

[TeknikDC2]

This vacation was easily our best one yet. So great that it looks like we may be doing almost a repeat of it again next fall. A few weeks after we got home another set of friends told us they were planning on going on a Western Caribbean Cruise for there 5th wedding anniversary and asked if we wanted to go. Of course we would so that is in the early planning stages now. From what it looks like we will be going on the Cruise October 10th-17th again this time on the Carnival Liberty out of Tampa. We chose Tampa over Port Canaveral Cause the Liberty is cheaper then the Dream. Yes the Liberty is more then the Valor as well which goes out of Miami. We chose the Liberty because we are going to go back to Universal Orlando again to check out the Harry Potter stuff which will be opening this spring. So now we have a long 10 months to go until our next big adventure. Expect another recap such as this from that trip as well.

 

So untill then farewell everyone. Thanks so much for reading and following this trip recap. Its been fun putting it together. For any more long reads please feel free to read my past trip reports posted below. Thanks again everyone.

 

Honeymoon Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Carnival Pride:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1060691&highlight=

 

California Christmas 2008 Trip to Disneyland, Universal, Knotts, and Vegas:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2071198

[oraki]

What an awesome awesome awesome review!!!!! Me and DH plan on taking our first cruise ever on the Glory this year and your review made me feel like I was there!

:D

 

I've never been on a cruise ship before so could you elaborate some about navigating the Glory? It sounds like it may be difficult to figure out how to get around the ship. :o

 

Thank you so much for posting such a detailed review.

[tandtmk04]

Hi Again! GREAT Review. I have a question, I noticed that you went to Vegas........ My husband and I are looking to go Vegas next month, where would you recommend staying? Thansk!:)

[TeknikDC2]

Hi Again! GREAT Review. I have a question, I noticed that you went to Vegas........ My husband and I are looking to go Vegas next month, where would you recommend staying? Thansk!:)

 

Wow I should check this more often. Sorry for the late reply. Anyways I love Vegas. Seeing as how i'm only a 5 hour drive away we got quite regularly. Anyways it all depends on what your budget is. I would recommend staying on the strip if you can. That way almost everything is within walking distance. I ask what your price range would be cause theres cheaper hotels such as Imperial Palace all the way up to super fancy like the Wynn or Palazo. If you don't care to be on the strip theres a really nice newer hotel about 3 miles south called South Point. I stayed there a couple years ago and it is very very nice and reasonably priced. If you wanna stay in downtown Vegas around Freemont street alot of the hotels are cheap but are old and rundown. The only one I'd really recommend is the Golden Nugget but I have stayed at the cheaper ones as well. They just make a good place to sleep at. Anyways if you have anymore questions just let me know.