Glory, May 12-19th...Trip Report with photos and videos!

[ABQrobin]

Awesome

 

Thanks!

[ABQrobin]

Dive #1.... max depth 65' for me, DH 70'.

 

After a nice surface interval, we headed to one of the first moorings and the boat was gone, so we hooked up and in we went again.

No need for a weight check, just down to the sand, then follow the leader to the wall.

 

 

DH with his camera.... screencapture from my video

 

Once again, deep blue, spectacular wall, and 5 minutes in the water a few more eagle rays came swooping by us. Then another one came by ! Then a turtle!

 

 

tons of fish - butterflyfish pair

 

 

all types of parrotfish

 

..more..

[ABQrobin]

male stoplight parrotfish

 

a coney, with an isopod attached to his face...poor baby!

 

DH got to try out the macro setting on his camera

feather duster worms and christmastree worms

 

[ABQrobin]

Lots of Flamingo tongue snails, too

 

DH found a peacock flounder

 

his photo

 

more spectacular coral formations

[ABQrobin]

 

 

 

and several barracuda..... check out the hundreds of garden eels in the background, heads sticking up from the sand

 

a close up of a garden eel

 

these guys are very very shy and recoil back under the sand when you approach!

 

and

 

My video:

 

Once again....view it full screen!

 

..more...

[smurfm69]

Great pics and videos! Enjoying your review!

[ABQrobin]

Great pics and videos! Enjoying your review!

 

Thank you!

 

more coming.....

[ABQrobin]

After Dive #2, our boat returned to Jack's Shack where they dropped off the rental gear, and allowed us to take a "refreshement" break for 10 minutes. DH and others ran up to the bar, gotta have an official port beer!

 

 

 

 

 

[ABQrobin]

more at Jack's Shack...

 

 

 

 

 

After our short break, we got back on the boat for the run back up to where they are allowed to stop and drop us off.

 

Dive #2 ...max depth 51' me, DH 54'. Dive time was almost an hour. Really nice relaxing dive, no current, tons of fish and a great big dropoff wall. Can't beat it.

 

It was around noon, and we wanted to take the gear back on the ship to our room, rinse off, then have lunch. Our back-on-board time was 3:30pm so we didn't think we had enough time to visit the port shops at all, so on the ship we went.

 

 

...more...

[ABQrobin]

Others were starting to wander back to the ship.

 

 

there was already a line, but not too long

 

 

we made it to our room, rinse off our gear, and took quick showers.

gear was put in our window to try to dry in sun.

 

 

and up to the Lido we went for lunch...

[ABQrobin]

One of the buffets had "caribbean" theme, so jerk chicken, rice, stuff...yum yum yum. We sat by the window to eat, then went up to the rail to get a selfie.

 

 

 

Tonight we have Steakhouse reservations....

 

...more to come...

[Silent Penguin]

Thank you for sharing your dive excursion photos and video. I definitely need to get re-certified before our next cruise.

[ABQrobin]

Thank you for sharing your dive excursion photos and video. I definitely need to get re-certified before our next cruise.

 

Thanks! If it has been more than 3 years, you can just do a refresher course and a dive with a DM. Have fun!

[miss tea]

So far great review

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[sjn911]

Thanks for great review..wonderful and awesome dive pictures...wow.

[ABQrobin]

So far great review

 

thanks

 

Thanks for the report.

 

thanks

[ABQrobin]

Thanks for great review..wonderful and awesome dive pictures...wow.

 

Thank you! Diving is a real passion for us, so it is great to able to do a little bit of it in addition to doing a cruise. We were scheduled to dive at St Thomas also... but that wasn't going to happen. More coming.

[jimbri]

Great review. Photos and videos of Grand Turk are wonderful!

[ABQrobin]

Great review. Photos and videos of Grand Turk are wonderful!

 

Thanks, yes it is a great port with a gorgeous beach. We definitely plan to return. Jack's Shack seems to be a nice funky place to hang out, too.

[ABQrobin]

Trip Report continues...

 

We had originally booked this online, hoping it was the NEW menu, but unfortunately is was still the old menu. We asked and they said it wasn't getting rolled out to all the ships until fall. Oh well, the old menu was still good.

 

Emerald Steakhouse

 

Since we had not received the confirmation of our Steakhouse reservation, we called to make sure we had the right day and time. Yup, we had reservations....odd. We have always gotten something delivered to our room the day before to remind us of the reservation. Hmmmm..... could this be related to our room change?

 

We were seated by a window, but the Steakhouse looks out onto the walking area around the ship, and of course there were people out there taking selfies and more selfies and .... you get the picture. It was kinda distracting and annoying.

 

We ordered, and the Chef's gift arrived, a little potato soup in a bread bowl.

 

It was too small to eat like a regular bowl of soup, but too big to pick up. We finally both just cut it in half and ate it in two bites instead of one. It was very yummy.

 

Our appetizers arrived....

 

I ordered the crab cake... it tasted good but fell apart as soon as I touched it. Not like crab cakes I have had before, but still good.

 

DH ordered the trio of escargot. OMG... it was fantastic!

 

He said it was good enough to be a main course.

 

 

For Main course, I got the fish - Sea Bass with citrus and spinach salad.

 

It was delicious but very heavy and rich. I am guessing they poached the fish in butter as after eating half of it I felt a bit overwhelmed. The citrus and spinach were fantastic sides for the rich fish.

 

He ordered the ribeye.... and it was huge.

 

He said it was very yummy, he gave me a bite and I agreed, but it did have quite a bit of fat, but that is normal for that cut.

 

...

[ABQrobin]

We had both ordered sides, baked potato for me and broccoli for him. Both good but huge serving sizes.

 

Dessert....

 

DH of course, ordered the Chocolate Sampler. He had been looking forward to this since I had gotten it last time.

 

I can't even remember all the different things in each of the 4 glasses, but two had the ice cream of the day with the other two having a sorbet or custard with the chocolate cake or crumble.

 

 

 

I was stuffed, but decided to go with one of the ice creams of the day.... date or honey! I went with honey.

It was delicious!

 

The dinner was great, but the Steakhouse was rather dead compared to other cruises. Not sure why. By the time we left, it was barely half full.

Service was fantastic as usual.

 

After dinner we headed down to the Comedy Club for the 8pm, family friendly show. The comedian was John Campanera... and the place was full already but we found seats. Oh my... we normally love the comedy shows, but this guy was horrible. He was so bad no body laughed at a single joke, except for a kid that was seated up front with his family. No kidding, it was dead quiet. The guy then started trying to heckle people complaining that we didn't know comedy, the kid was the only one who understood the jokes. No, the jokes were bad and the kid was only 6 and thought everything was funny. It was like a funeral... you could hear a pin drop quiet. Wow. We should have walked out, but like everyone else, we just sat there wondering if he would say something funny.... uugggh. He said one thing that made us chuckle, not laugh, just chuckle...just ONE. At the end of the show you could hear the rumbling of everyone in the crowd. No one was happy.

We left the Comedy club shaking our heads.... what a horrible show.

 

We decided to walk around for an hour, then fill up our water bottles on the Lido and then head to bed. It had been a long day with the diving, and we were both pooped.

 

Tomorrow....San Juan PR

port time 1-9pm.

 

....

[mustangmandy]

Thank you so much for this detailed review along with the pictures! I sail on the Glory on July 14th and I cant wait!:D

[Alaskan Joe]

Awesome under water pics, thanks for the review.

[ParrotRob]

Thanks for the great review so far. I got on the weekend you got off.

Extra thanks for the picture of the crab cake. I'm glad I didn't order it now!