Glorious Spring Break Review - March 10th-17th

[rdh rules]

Thanks for your review and all the pics and fun times!! We're heading on the Glory in 40 days😁

[italianfemmy]

Do you by chance have the fun times for Monday the 12th? Also.... AWEEEEEEEEE the leopard!!! <3 <3 <3 Major feels!!!!

[tvlworm]

Great review so far. Enjoying all your pictures!

 

 

 

Going on the Glory this October...get to sail with Watermelonqueen99 (her Halloween review was really funny.) But doing this itinerary next October on the Conquest.

 

 

 

That will be so much fun!!

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Thanks for your review and all the pics and fun times!! We're heading on the Glory in 40 days[emoji16]

 

 

 

Thanks! Hope you have a great cruise!

 

 

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[watermelonqueen99]

Going on the Glory this October...get to sail with Watermelonqueen99 (her Halloween review was really funny.) But doing this itinerary next October on the Conquest.

 

Woot woot! 221 days! :D:D:D

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

tvlworm ~ loving your review & the pictures are beautiful. That is one colourful ship but I'm looking forward to sailing on it

a little over a year from now from New Orleans.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[tvlworm]

Wednesday was our 3rd port day, this time visiting Belize, another new port for all of us. Even though I love visiting beaches, and snorkeling we had wanted to break it up so today was our culture day and we booked our excursion with King David Castillo tours to visit the ruins of Lamanai with river boat tour.

 

It was another early arrival in port with a meeting time of 730am ship time for priority tender service. I mention ship time because recently John Heald asked this as a polling question for preference of staying on ship time or adjusting to port time. Never had a problem with this before BUT this cruise with daylight savings time, completely different story!

 

730am ship time was 530am port time. We were slightly late arriving but it was still completely dark out when we anchored. By the time the tendering started it was just barely getting light out and was raining. The shop docks a little over 5 miles offshore and the tender ride is about 25 minutes. Luckily, the rain cleared during the ride over and I know tour operators keep track of ship times but I was nervous about them not being there when we finally got to the port, but they were!

 

Our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable about Belize and what we were going to see and do at the ruins. I see many comments that people are not fans of Belize, that it’s a horribly dirty, 3rd world country with opinions similar to Jamaica, it’s either loved or hated. My opinion was the opposite, we never were harassed while walking out the port to meet our guide. IMO, the roads and overall conditions were better than Honduras. I’d much prefer Belize to Jamaica any day.

 

Back to the day, the drive to the place we boarded for the river boat portion of our excursion was about 1hr. We were joined a few minutes later by another van who would continue the tour with us. The boat ride was pretty fun, the river is winding and narrow in spots. Didn’t see as much wildlife as I thought we would along the way but did encounter a small crocodile and bats sleeping on the backside of a large log near the shore. We arrived to Lamanai after an hour long boat ride.

 

Lamanai itself it very pretty and what I had pictured in my head when thinking of Belize. Very lush and tropical with large palm and other trees everywhere. We saw both howler and spider monkeys along our walks (lots of walking involved!!) Our group was the second to arrive to the site so it was really nice and uncrowded.

 

I’m fascinated with the architecture and amazed at how the Mayan structures were built. It’s hard to imagine just how they did it all by hand. All of the large structures at Lamanai you are able to climb. The tour group that arrived ahead of us was climbing the medium sized one so our group went to the largest which has stairs on the backside for the majority of the climb. This seemed like a great idea until about 200 strenuous steps in LOL and then I turned the corner and the rest was going up the super steep front side. I pretty much crawled because there’s no rails and I have a moderate fear of heights especially open ones like this. Made it to the very top and barely and I mean barely mustered up the courage to fully stand up to take pictures. The views were incredible but after my 3 clicks I had enough and had to sit down. I made the most of the trek down by sitting and sliding step to step.

 

We walked through the rest of the park and I left the climbing to the kids. After a little more than an hour we headed back to the boat landing which seemed to be perfect timing because all of the cruise organized tours had started arriving.

 

The boat ride back to our original starting point went much faster since we had already seen it all on the way to the ruins. Lunch which included chicken, beans/rice, a salad, plantains and fresh pico was provided at our meeting spot and was really good. I’m always a bit skeptical of eating local, especially when it involves rice. You just never know the quality of the water it’s cooked in and absorbs. I learned that lesson the hard way while I was in India and ended up in the ER which was not the most pleasant experience!

 

After lunch we were back in the van and heading back to the cruise terminal. We arrived back around 315p ship time which was an hour before the last tender so did a little shopping before getting in line.

 

Overall, I did enjoy the day and can mark the ruins off of the been there, done that list but it was my least favorite excursion of this cruise. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, it was but it was a very long day with more sitting than actual touring. If future cruises bring us back to Belize again, we would definitely find a different way to spend our day.

 

After all the climbing and lovely wind blown hair we gained from the boat rides we all looked a mess. Once we were back onboard it was straight to the cabin to clean up and head to the dining room for dinner. I don’t have any pictures of the menus because they are all available online via the Carnival Hub app which I highly recommend. We didn’t use the chat features but it was nice to check out the menus and activities going on around the ship.

 

After dinner we watched the nights Dive-In movie and later I joined the fun at the lobby music trivia party. I didn’t stick around to watch the lip sync mini battle since it was only determining the order for the final show. After a very long and tiring day, it was time to retire for the night and get ready for the fun in Cozumel the next day.

 

Pictures from our day in Belize -

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Hi all!

 

 

 

tvlworm ~ loving your review & the pictures are beautiful. That is one colourful ship but I'm looking forward to sailing on it

 

a little over a year from now from New Orleans.

 

 

 

Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

 

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

 

 

Thanks Jo! It is really colorful but I thought it was beautiful, especially at night. I thought it was neat how each main public space had its own color scheme [emoji4] made it easy to remember them!

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Fun Times for Wednesday/Belize

 

 

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[jas1178]

Do you have Monday's Fun Times?

[tvlworm]

Do you have Monday's Fun Times?

 

 

 

Sorry, no somehow Mondays Fun Times didn’t make it home with us.

 

 

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[Saint Greg]

Sorry, no somehow Mondays Fun Times didn’t make it home with us.

 

 

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[tvlworm]

 

 

 

Ha—that’s pretty much how I felt about it too [emoji23]

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Thursday was our fourth and final port day of our cruise, visiting Cozumel. I love Cozumel! There’s such a variety of things to do and it’s very easy to get around with plenty of taxis ready and waiting with best of all, flat rate prices.

 

Today’s plan was going to Paradise Beach. Since this was a “Cozumel Plus” sailing, our time in port was longer, arriving at 8a with back onboard at 430p. This meant no alarm clocks and no rush to get off the ship! We all enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and getting ready before heading off the ship around 10am.

 

We’ve been to chakanaab park and Mr Sanchos (which we loved!) on previous visits. We were 99% set on returning to Mr Sanchos but changed our minds after seeing reviews of paradise beach.

 

Another deciding factor was the price difference, at $55 per person plus the extra cost to use the inflatables, Mr Sanchos wasn’t exactly cheap. While I enjoy the occasional fruity cocktail, there was no way we got our money’s worth with the food and drinks. Paradise beach is a $3 entry fee per person and to add on the inflatables, snorkeling gear, use of paddleboards etc brought the total to $21. Even after the cost of what we spent on food and drinks, it was still a significant savings.

 

We were all immediately impressed and happy with our choice to spend the day here! Super clean, huge, heated pool with a sun deck in the water and a pretty large beach area with tons of trees and umbrellas for shade. The water inflatable park had a ton of toys. The best for watching was the catapult type, a few people were tossed up pretty good!

 

We had no complaints with the service or food/drinks, everyone enjoyed what they ordered.

 

The snorkeling was just ok, only saw a few fish but the sea floor was mainly sand and with so much action going on, I wasn’t really expecting to see much.

 

We left to return to the port around 3p, giving us time for shopping and beating the long lines to get back on the ship. It was the second cruise elegant night, after straightening up we went to deck 5 near the casino to grab a drink and people watch.

 

Dinner for us was at the lido with the DS taking his to-go pretty much to catch the dive in movies for the night which were all Marvel movies. They had 3 movies that night so it started earlier than usual.

 

I did my usual which was heading to the lobby for the music trivia party. It was Motown night and fun as usual and called it a night from there. It was a long few days with busy back to back port days and I was really looking forward to a very lazy and relaxing sea day.

 

Pictures from Cozumel followed by the Fun Times.

 

 

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Fun Times for Thursday/Cozumel

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Friday / Final day at sea

It’s a battle of wanting to relax and wanting to do as much as possible around the ship on the last sea day for me. I look forward to being home but it’s sad knowing the fun is ending and the packing is coming! So much more fun packing to go on vacation than coming home!

 

The day started with breakfast at the lido. Everyone else onboard must have wanted to soak up as much sun as possible this last day because it was only 8a and very busy. The pool decks also were filling up and I quickly went back to the cabin to get ready and catch some rays.

 

By the time I got back, the immediate pool areas were full so I headed towards the back which was actually a bit better because it was a bit breezy-just enough to give a slight chill and definitely masked the intensity of the sun.

 

Lounged around until the fun on the lido started at noon with the very, hairy chest contest and groove for St Jude. While it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I love the hairy chest contest and find it hilarious! This year was no exception! One contestant fit the bill perfectly with ample amounts of hair and obviously planned his participation in advance because he had shaved a big lightning bolt on his stomach! After that fun subsides, I too enjoy the groove party as well.

Followed our deck fun with lunch at the Ol Fashioned BBQ which was our first time trying it the whole week as they have somewhat limited hours and is in and off the path location on deck 10 above the aft buffet. While it’s not Guy Fieri branded, it only carried his bbq sauces. It was really tasty! Followed lunch with a sampling of the chocolate extravaganza happening downstairs. Yummy [emoji39]

 

The dreaded task of packing crept back into mind and I set off to check how busy the laundry rooms were. The ones on deck 9, the soap machine was broken so off to 8. Too soap was not working but someone in the laundry room had an extra pod that they gave us. [emoji4] Set back off to get our clothes and encountered this on 8291. [emoji15]

 

 

 

 

 

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[italianfemmy]

The suspense!! What was going on in that cabin?? :D

[Saint Greg]

The suspense!! What was going on in that cabin?? :D

 

Someone probably died.

[Froufie]

Someone probably died.

 

From what I understand there was a death in the cabin - an older gentleman - died of natural causes - guess they still have to 'seal' the room for some reason?

[italianfemmy]

From what I understand there was a death in the cabin - an older gentleman - died of natural causes - guess they still have to 'seal' the room for some reason?

 

Oh no :( That is so sad. We had someone on a previous cruise that needed to be removed by helicopter and we heard they didn't make it. I guess there are worse ways to die than on the caribbean sea but that is sad.

[tvlworm]

Sorry for the cliffhanger, was expecting to pick right back up last night.

I was trying my hardest to join the scooby-doo gang of detectives but failed. There was a few days worth of announcements in the cabins mailbox but held back on snooping through it but the room attendant was nearby so I did stop and ask what happened. He said he too didn’t know and had even asked his supervisor who he claimed also had no idea. He went on to say that it was 3 younger guys staying in the cabin, so hopefully none passed away. Was just a shock and definitely unexpected to see.

 

 

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[tvlworm]

After our cabin discovery and speculation, returned to get some packing done and headed off for dinner and the main show for the night which was the lip sync battle. The two finalists were really entertaining during the audition process and being that one was from MN, we were excited to watch and cheer her on. It was such a fun show! The other contestant ended up being better and deserved his win. Ended up learning it’s quite the commitment to participate, they have multiple mandatory practices, photo shoots and costume fittings. I sure hope after all that, the winner earns more than just the award!

 

Went to the lobby immediately after, listened to the band followed by the final farewell music trivia. It was packed so getting drinks was next to impossible but enjoyed a few last pirate punches.

 

Returned to the cabin around 1030p for last minute packing to get our bags out by 11p. Had a slight scare because all other nearby cabins luggage was already gone. Luckily they were in the hall on the opposite side of the ship so I let them know I’d have ours out in just a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Friday Sea Day Fun Times

 

 

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[tvlworm]

Cruise Summary -

Loved our cruise pretty much start to finish onboard Carnival Glory! The weather was perfect except for embarkation day and we had a great time in each of the ports. Our room fit our needs for the week and outside of the Serenity party, had no issues with noise throughout the week. Food too for the majority of the week also was good, a few personal dislikes but didn’t encounter hot foots that weren’t hot or anything like that. Overall food on Glory was a big improvement compared to last year on Sensation.

 

The biggest problem we ran into the entire week happened the day it was time to leave. Our priority debark meeting point was the Golden dining room on deck 3 at 745a. We left the room to head down at 730a to find an absolute madhouse. You couldn’t even step out of the elevator it was so packed. Of course there were lots of people trying to get through to make their way to guest services (with full luggage) but there was not an inch of space to give. It didn’t take long to see the level of patience evaporate! You couldn’t even escape up the stairs near the theater because they were blocked off, it really was a mess. Even through it probably wasn’t all that long that we were standing there like sardines, it felt much longer before we started finally moving. Once we did, the rest was smooth sailing until customs which too wasn’t all that bad. Soon enough we were out of the building and getting in a waiting taxi to head to the airport. Tried using the Lyft app as that’s my preference but had a had a hard time getting it to connect at the port. The taxi flat rate was $27 which for 4 people, isn’t bad at all.

 

Thanks for following our journey and happy cruising!!

 

 

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[krismas_tina]

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Glory in July. It will be our first time on this ship, and we haven’t been to these ports in years, so it’s always nice to read what others have enjoyed!

 

 

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