Glory Eastern Caribean cruise 1/10/2015

[Cjh1975]

First a Little about me, I’m 30 something, um……..make that 40 something, ( I just had my birthday this week) from southern California. This is my 5th cruise and my second time doing this itinerary. I too this cruise with my favorite cruising pal Diane.

 

This cruise started off with us picking Diane up at her house and we were starving so we stopped at Del Taco. After dinner we drove to LAX and said our goodbyes to my husband and three children. There was no one waiting to check in at the JetBlue counter so check in was quick and easy. Security also wasn’t too bad, we waited maybe 5 minutes. After Security we headed to Gladstone’s for our traditional, “Let’s get this vacation started” drink.

 

[Cjh1975]

After we finished our beers it was time to board our plane. Diane and I got 2 aisle seats across from each other so we could chat and neither of us wanted a middle seat. When I got to my seat there was a guy sitting in in so I said, “Excuse me, you are in my seat.” The lady sitting next to him snapped at me, “How do you figure that?” to which I replied, “I have the ticket with the seat number on it.” At that point the flight attendant looked at my ticket and told the guy he needed to take his seat. Bothe the guy and girl got up and left and I sat down. Once I sat the lady in my row sitting next to the window said, “Thank you for sitting here those other two are crazy.” So I am sitting down and the guy who was sitting my seat goes and sits in Diane’s seat and the girl sits in the empty window seat in that row, which I believe was her assigned seat and the guy’s assigned seat was in the middle next to me. So now Diane has to tell him that he is in her seat and then the man states but we are traveling together and want to sit together. Diane tells him we are together too, and he replies, “Well we are married.” Once again the flight attendant has to come over and tell the guy he needs to take his seat. So he sits next to me and just to be a jerk cause he is unhappy with his seat he starts leaning over on me so I just start leaning back. Then his wife got the lady sitting next to her to switch seats with him so luckily I didn’t have to sit next to him for the flight. The wife was really rude though and says really loudly to the girl who switched seats, “Thank you for switching seats with him, you are a real woman unlike these 2 who wouldn’t switched with us.” Whatever!!!!

So we are still waiting to take off and the guy sitting in the middle seat in front of Diane turns to her and says, “I’m with them too, will you switch seats with me?” Diane told him no because she doesn’t want a middle seat. He said that he really wants to sit with his friends and that he will give her $10.00 for her seat. She declines the offer so he offers $20.00 once again he declines. Finally he offers $50.00 so she accepts. She gets up and only gives her $40.00 but she switches with him. When she sat down the ladies sitting next to her told they wouldn’t have done that but they are glad she did because the guy was annoying. All this drama and the flight hasn’t even taken off yet, it made me weary about what kind of flight this would be. We take off and are in the air and Diane gets up to go to the restroom and a flight attendant thanks her for switching seats even tough she didn’t want too and she tells Diane she will find her an aisle seat so she moves Diane up to the front of the plane to an aisle see so she ended up with $40.00 and an aisle seatJ.

After being in the air for a while there is some commotion a few aisles in front of us. A passenger had gotten sick and the poor flight attendants had to clean it up. So they clean the seat and the man sits back down for a while. Then the man goes to the back of the plane to use the restroom and doesn’t make it so he gets sick again in the aisle of the plane. Once again the flight attendants have to clean it up and they laid down a few towels over the wet carpet. At this point I just can’t wait for the plane ride to be over. Luckily I fall asleep and wake up right before we land in Fort Lauderdale. We get off the plane, grab our luggage, call the Hyatt Place for the shuttle to pick us up and walk over to the shuttle pick up area. The area where shuttles pick you up is a bit confusing to find. I guess they had moved the pick-up spot and where it had been moved to is quite a walk and it’s not marked very well. There were a few people there that weren’t sure if they were in the right place or not.

 

We checked in early at the Hyatt Place grabbed some breakfast at their complimentary breakfast which wasn’t that great but hey it saved us on having to buy breakfast. Then we headed up to our room and took a nap.

[Cjh1975]

We woke from our nap feeling refreshed and ready to go. We decided to walk down the street hop on the water taxis and go to the beach.

 

Views from the water taxi

 

 

This yatch belongs to Charles Wang owner of the New York Islanders

 

 

And here's Steven Sprilbergs yatch

 

 

If you are in Fort Lauderdale and haven't don't the water taxis I recommend doing them. They take you through the waterways of FL and you get to see lots of HUGE mansions and yatchs. If you get a good employees on the taxi they will point out who some of the houses belong to such as Sonny & Cher, Scotty Pipen and others. They also sold some really good margaritas on the taxi for 5.00.

 

We got off the taxi and decided to go to the Bahia Cabana for some lunch and drinks.

 

A cool hotel we saw in our walk over to Bahia Canana. I believe it was the Sheraton. It's shape reminds me of the front of a ship

 

 

Out view from our table theBahia Cabana

 

 

I've been here before and loved their margaritas so I ordered one and a sandwich which was pretty good too

 

Enjoying our drinks

 

[Cruisegirl6]

Enjoying....I know that Yacht well lol.

[Cjh1975]

I realized I posted the wrong pic for Steven Speilbergs yatch.

Here is the correct one

 

[nayr30]

Thanks for doing this review! Looking forward to reading it. ;)

[Cjh1975]

After we ate we decided to look around the hotel a bit. It seemed more like a motel but I would love to stay here sometime. The place had a really fun retro vibe to it and it was just a fun place to be. A housekeeping staff we stopped and talked to said the bar is really good to be at during the night. Definitely need to stay here some time before a future cruise.

 

Some pics around the hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jenny in TX]

Looking forward to your review! We are going to be on the Glory in April. We are booked at the Hilton Garden Inn in Dania. I had not heard about the water taxis. I will have to check it out so we can try the margaritas at Bahia Cabana!

[Cjh1975]

After the Bahia Cabana we wanted to go to the beach but the weather was a bit cold an cloudy so we decided to walk down to Oasis Café and get a drink and enjoy the view. I love the Oasis café the tables on the patio are gliders so you can rock them back and forth and the view there is spectacular. I ordered a Bahama Mamma and people watched for a while.

 

Can’t beat this view

 

 

 

 

Since we really had nothing else to do we stayed at the Oasis and watche a couple of ships sail out of Fort Lauderdale

 

 

 

 

After spending quite a while at the Oasis we decided to walk back to the water taxis. Luckily we didn't have to wait long because a taxi was pulling up right when we got there.

This is a sign by the water taxis that I found to be funny

 

 

After the taxis we went over to the Embassy Suites for their Manager reception hour. Embassy suites is my favorite hotel and it is where we usually stay but weren't able to this time. After the managers reception we went back to the hotel and called it a night

[PC Cruisin]

After the taxis we went over to the Embassy Suites for their Manager reception hour. Embassy suites is my favorite hotel and it is where we usually stay but weren't able to this time. After the managers reception we went back to the hotel and called it a night

 

 

Isn't the managers reception only for hotel guest that are staying at that hotel? :eek:

[Cjh1975]

We woke and looked out the window to see if there were any Ships in port

 

Our hotel window view

 

 

Then we ate breakfast and headed to the bank to get some money and over to Publix to get some drinks for the cruise. Them we went back to the room packed up our stuff and checked out. Hyatt Place is an ok hotel. It does have free shuttle from the airport and breakfast. I would stay there again but it wouldn't be my first choice.

 

SAS called to say they were running a bit behind. They were supposed to pick us up at the hotel at 11 but showed up around 11:20.

 

On the shuttle headed to Fort Lauderdale

 

 

First view of the port

 

 

And our first glimpse of the Whale tail

 

 

 

We pulled up to port, paid the driver, dropped off the luggage and headed to the platinum check in area. Check in was pretty fast and we were on the Glory by 1:00. We went straight to out room and checked it out. This was the first time I had a balcony room so I was excited to check it out. It did not disappoint. Next stop was the Lido buffet. I went straight to the fish and chips and got some ceviche and calamari, Diane got a Guys Burger.

 

After lunch we went exploring the ship.

 

[Cjh1975]

 

 

This is the teen club I thought it was I cool

 

 

 

 

 

[Cjh1975]

One of my favorite places to go during the nights usually

 

 

The Victory docked behind us

 

 

We went to fun ashore talk with the cruise director because they were giving away 8 shore excursions. This is where we first saw the CD Rev Dr E. The show was fun Diane got her named called and was all happy because she thought she had one a shore excursion but unfortunately she just won a bottle of champagne. She was so disappointed :)

 

After the show we went to the Buffett grab some desserts and sat on our balcony til it was time for the muster drill. We met our cabin steward Elmer when he was checking to see if we have left the room or not.

 

After the muster drill we went to the Lido deck for sail away. First we watched the Celebrity Reflection sail by and we waved at them as they went by.

 

 

 

[MisterMom]

Subscribed! Sailing her in 38 days.

[Cjh1975]

Then we watched the Norwegian Getaway sail away in front of us

 

 

It was cool watching the ship move sideways away from the dock before it started sailing away

 

 

 

The Goodyear blimp was out

 

 

 

Finally it was our turn!

 

 

2 of my favorite things on the ship the whale tail and a shade-ade.

 

 

[Cjh1975]

As you can see from the pictures the weather for sail away was not too great. It was gloomy and SUPER windy!

 

 

 

 

 

[CasinoQueen]

Looking forward to more of your review..

[PathfinderEss]

Nice review, looking forward to more. Great photo's, thanks for posting.

[gizmo911]

Looking forward to review, nice start.

[G&TQ]

I am enjoying your review and looking forward to the rest.

 

I can't believe the jerks on the plane. When does an error on their part (not booking the seat the way they wanted or wait so late to book they couldn't) necessitates a solution on your part? as you put it whatever.

 

A couple of questions if you don't mind. Which ports did you hit and do you have copies of the funtimes?

 

 

Thanks!

[Cjh1975]

I thought this was a cool shot with the 2 ships and Goodyear blimp in front of us.

 

 

Sail away deck party

 

 

After sail away we walked around the ship some more. While walking along the promenade we came across this sign

 

 

My goal is to one day be able to say I've been on every ship in the fleet :)

 

There was some big football game on that Diane wanted to see so she said she was going to go to the EA Sports Bar to go watch it so I decided to go play some slots in the casino. After about an hour and $40.00 later I decided to go back to the room and was surprised to find that Diane had decorated it.

 

 

 

We were taking this cruise to celebrate my big 40 and it was a nice surprise to have it decorated.

[Cjh1975]

We sat on the balcony for a bit then got ready for dinner. We had anytime dinning which I prefer because you are not tied down to a schedule. We always asked to be seated with others and this night 3 other couples and had a fun time. After dinner we went to the piano bar which is usually our favorite thing to do at night on the ship. Our piano bar performer was Kyle and he was disappointing. He was a nice guy and he was funny but he played a lot of slow songs and never really got the crowd going. We didn't stay too long then we went to the comedy show. The comedian was Kim Harrison and I didn't care for her too much. I realize it's an adult comedy show but she was way too raunchy for me..... Just wasn't my cup of tea.

After the show we went back to our room say on the balcony for a while watched a ship sail past us. Then called it a night

 

[Cjh1975]

Half Moon Cay AKA paradise on earth. I absolutely love this place and it was the port I was looking forward to the most. We woke up early ate breakfast at the Blue Iguana. They have really good breakfast burritos, it's my favorite place on the ship for Breakfast. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and we were on the first tender over to the island

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruisegirl6]

Enjoying

[Cjh1975]

Once on the island we grabbed some chairs and went down to the water. The weather wasn't that great but it was ok it went back and forth between Sunny and cloudy, but the water was COLD! I slowly got in to about waist deep then retreated back to my lounge chair, relaxed and enjoyed the scenery and sun.