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

[ABQrobin]

 

 

The Gangways opened up on both ends of the ship, thank you! Passengers poured out onto the streets running for taxis, tour buses, and excursion signs.

 

 

We could see the Skyride going up the mountain, so we just kept walking that direction. It was maybe half mile through the shopping area.

 

 

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

 

Ticket office right at the street. If you got tickets onboard ship they were $1 cheaper, I think, but it didn't matter really, the $21pp wasn't bad.

 

 

We paid and got our wrist band, good for rides for the day, and up the stairs we went to the boarding area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a short wait, maybe 10 minutes.... but it was early.

 

 

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

The Tram cars do not stop.... you get in them as they move around, but they are slow so it is easy, the doors open and close automatically. An attendant is there to help you in and out.

 

 

 

And up we went. It is maybe a 10 minute ride at most.

 

 

 

And then.... you are at the top, and have this VIEW. Wow wow wow!

 

 

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

We walked around, taking photos for about 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

It was early, around 11am still, so the grill was just getting fired up at the restaurant, and the bar tenders were just getting started serving people as they arrived. I am sure they were annoyed by our late arrival since tourism is the only business on St Thomas.

 

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

Our scuba excursion was cancelled, but this was definitely a GREAT replacement, not quite equal, but Beautiful none the less. Glad we got to do it.

 

 

After a while, we grabbed a table at the bar, and menu. Lunch sounded good here. Sandwiches and a view!

 

 

Lots more people were arriving now.

 

 

 

And so....

 

My Video:

 

To View FULL SCREEN, click on the word Vimeo, that takes you to the website, then click on the lower right corner arrows to expand. Best seen on a laptop or desktop. Video and still photos with my Fuji XP camera and GoPro5 HD.

 

enjoy... more to come.

[ABQrobin]

Lunch Menu.... sorry I cut off the prices, I think the sandwiches were between $8-12.

 

 

 

We ordered cuban sandwiches, good but not huge portions.

 

Passing rain showers continued.... sunny then rain, then sunny again.

 

[ABQrobin]

 

We finished our lunch, then boarded the tram back down.

As soon as we got in, it started to rain hard.

 

 

 

By the time we got to the bottom, the rain was just a drizzle. We went next door to the Pirate's Museum but it was too expensive, so just went into their sales shop for a few minutes. The rain stopped, so we headed down the street to the shopping district.

 

 

 

 

What's this???? A brewery...OMG.... DH had to stop for a beer, and get me a soda. It was muggy HOT outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

On with the Trip Report....

 

We shopped our way back to the ship, and got back on around 2pm. We went to room to drop our bags, then up to the Lido to grab some desserts and bar to grab sodas.

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight was Elegant night for dining room, so we had to get showers and change.

They had extended our port time by only 30 minutes, so at 4:30pm back on board horn sounded. We looked out and saw quite a long line of people waiting to get on.

 

A little after 5pm we did finally leave St Thomas. Our visit was short, but we will definitely come back. It was beautiful!

 

Dinner..

Dh had Shrimp cocktail, I had stuffed mushrooms, he had the filet steak and the waiter brought him and others each a second one as he insisted they were too small. What a waitstaff! I had the terriyaki salmon which was delicious. Desserts - Grand Marnier Souffle and low sugar key lime parfait.

[ABQrobin]

 

 

 

After dinner, we went back to the room to change clothes, then down to the 8pm Comedy Club. We hoped this comic would be funnier than the last dud.

 

Wow....what a difference. This Comedian was HYSTERICAL. No kidding, rolling on the floor laughing kind of guy. The whole room was laughing non-stop. His name is Cee Jay Jones, so if you get a chance to see him on you ship, GO! Wow, he was funny.

 

Because of our later departure from St Thomas, we were told that we would arrive an hour late at Amber Cove tomorrow. So our 10:30am arrival was moved to 11:30am arrival. Dang it. Once again, all the excursion times would be changed, a letter would be delivered to rooms with change times....

 

...more....

[proudpatriot07]

I'm really enjoying your review! We are going on the Magic in a few weeks and going to these same ports, so even though it's a different ship I'm making note of what you guys did. I think I'll suggest the sky ride to my husband because the view looks gorgeous.

 

It sounds like your trip was so crazy with the search and rescue effort and the medivacs. I'm glad you made all your ports but it stinks to have your dive cancelled and have the letter slid underneath the room door. Ugh.

[ABQrobin]

I'm really enjoying your review! We are going on the Magic in a few weeks and going to these same ports, so even though it's a different ship I'm making note of what you guys did. I think I'll suggest the sky ride to my husband because the view looks gorgeous.

 

It sounds like your trip was so crazy with the search and rescue effort and the medivacs. I'm glad you made all your ports but it stinks to have your dive cancelled and have the letter slid underneath the room door. Ugh.

 

Thank you! It was a crazy trip, but we had a great time. No need to fret about things out of our control. Travel is our passion so anytime we can travel it is a good thing. The weather was more of an issue as it was windy every day, and then drizzling rain almost every day.

The itinerary is really great and we love the Magic, so have a great time!

 

robin

[ABQrobin]

Thursday, May 17th --- AMBER COVE

 

Our usual morning routine - up at 6am, DH to gym for an hour. I headed up to the Lido at 7am for coffee and a muffin. It was dead, of course, since we weren't scheduled to arrive until 11:30am. Our excursion was the Mega truck with beach break and had been 11am meet time, but with out late arrival we knew it would be changed. DH joined me for the hot breakfast, omelettes and fruit, then we made little sandwiches (ham, cheese, on buns) to take back to the room for a quick lunch before our excursion.

 

If you have never been to Amber Cove, I do suggest you get out on the top decks to watch the sail in. It is breathtakingly beautiful, so green and lush with rolling hills. At breakfast we could see the coastline of Dominican Republic, but we didn't come to the port area until around 10:30, when the ship turned towards land. The ship sails in closer and closer and closer...then just went you see the port buildings and pier, the ship stops and does a 180 flip to back in. It is really stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sheet with the port excursion changes did not arrive at our room....again.

 

So DH went up to the old room AGAIN and found the Room Steward and asked him to open the door....there it was, under the door AGAIN. Sheesh..... something to remember for future cruises! If you move, they don't seem to know where you are anymore.

 

Our excursion was a 5 hour truck tour of various small establishments on the way to Coconut cove beach for a lunch break. With our late arrival, we expected it to be cancelled for changed.....nope. Meet time was at NOON, so an hour later. Surely that meant it would be shortened to a 4 hour tour, right???

 

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[Alaskan Joe]

Thursday, May 17th --- AMBER COVE

 

The sheet with the port excursion changes did not arrive at our room....again.

 

So DH went up to the old room AGAIN and found the Room Steward and asked him to open the door....there it was, under the door AGAIN. Sheesh..... something to remember for future cruises! If you move, they don't seem to know where you are anymore.

 

...more...

 

I'll bet if you were the type of people that would have trashed the new room they would have known where you were staying.

[ABQrobin]

I'll bet if you were the type of people that would have trashed the new room they would have known where you were staying.

 

Yeah, I agree. We laughed about the fact every drink we ordered showed up on our bill, yet they can't even deliver paperwork to us.

[ABQrobin]

Back to the report....

 

We exited the ship pretty quickly and started the looooooooong walk down the pier. There are pedicabs waiting for those who need them.

 

 

 

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

At the end of the pier begins the Shore Excursion meeting area. There are huge signs everywhere, but there are also people stationed there greeting people and then pointing to their excursion meetup area.

 

 

 

 

It was blazing hot,, but a breeze..... actually it was Windy again, story of this entire cruise.

 

[ABQrobin]

We found our guide, and stood in line waiting for everyone to arrive. In fact, so many people showed up with tickets that they called for a second truck. We were then broken down to two groups, and let out to the parking lot.

 

 

For those doing Independent excursions, you walk past this parking lot and down the road, it is quite a walk.

 

The Mega Truck was exactly what we expected.... Huge and Rugged, no windows, seat belts on most seats that worked. Our guide encouraged everyone to sit towards the front as the back was much more rough ride.

 

Our FANTASTIC Guide for the day, Ramon.

 

Off we went....down the paved road, turn to the right, down the paved road, then ..... dirt road. Bouncing, bouncing, bouncing down the road we go!

 

The truck stopped at various points, for Ramon to point at plants or trees and explain how they are important to the Dominican culture. It was really interesting and we learned about everything from schools to religion to food and jungle.

 

...

[proudpatriot07]

Loving the Amber Cove posts. We went there on our last cruise, but we didn't leave the cruise port area. It's neat to see this excursion and where it's taken you. I guess we need to look up something to do there when we go in a few weeks, too.

[ABQrobin]

Loving the Amber Cove posts. We went there on our last cruise, but we didn't leave the cruise port area. It's neat to see this excursion and where it's taken you. I guess we need to look up something to do there when we go in a few weeks, too.

 

Thanks! Amber Cove is wonderful...more to come about it.

 

So, back to the bouncy ride on the Mega Truck....

 

We bounced along until we came to our first stop. It is a small shop on a hill, with several open air rooms. The first room is a demonstration of cigar making. We piled out of the truck and up the hill to the demo. There was another group doing the demos when we arrived (the ATV tour) so we had to wait a few minutes. After they moved to the second room, we went in to watch the demo.

 

 

Ramon explains about the pineapple farms of his country while we wait

 

Cigar making, rolling, and pressing demo

 

 

After the demo, the men were offered cigars to smoke and the ladies offered the smaller lady-sized cigars. About half the people took one and lit up. We had to wait again for the other group to finish in the second room.

[ABQrobin]

here are the earrings..

 

Sorry the photo is blurry, so hard to photograph.

 

We climbed back onto the Megatruck and off we went down the dirt road again. Finally we reached the hill up the beach club, Coconut Cove. It was still WINDY, like knock-you-off-your-feet windy. We were all hungry for the lunch buffet though, so as soon as we all got off the truck, we ran to the bathrooms then the food hut for eats.

 

Food is very subjective.... but DH and I are big foodies and want to experience local foods everywhere we travel. The excursion description said "authentic lunch" ... not really sure that was true.

There was a cold salad buffet, some bread, a warm buffet with rice and stuff, then a person at a grill who gave you fish or chicken or both. After that, there was a person at a table with rice pudding in cups for dessert.

The food was decent, but it just didn't scream Authentic...it didn't even whisper authentic. But it was food and we were hungry.

 

 

 

 

We sat at the picnic tables overlooking the beach to eat. DH grabbed us drinks at the bar (not included, pay extra).

[ABQrobin]

There is a zipline at the beach which goes over the people sitting in the chairs, as well as by the food hut. Not really what I call a zipline adventure, just maybe a fun thing to do. People looked like they enjoyed it.

 

 

We were due to stay here an hour and a half.... which was about an hour too long in my opinion. It was too windy to enjoy the beach at all.

 

 

There were at least 6 trucks in the parking lot... our two Megatrucks as well as others that were just the Coconut beach break trucks. It wasn't too crowded though, lots of beach chairs and line at bar wasn't too long.

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

Plenty of shade at the beach also.

 

 

if it wasn't windy, this would have been a nice beach destination, to me at least.

 

 

 

 

After sitting on the beach for awhile, and enjoying our drinks in the shade, we headed back up the hill. There is a gift shop there.

 

Most of the trucks were starting to fill up.... and we were the last to arrive. So of course we were the last to leave.

Our excursion was originally set to arrive back in port with over an hour left before the back-on-board time. But with our hour late arrival time, it looked like we would be pulling in with ZERO time to spare.

 

 

We bounced and bounced our way back down the same way we came... dirt road bounce bounce bounce.

 

We pulled into the parking lot with 10 minutes to spare...but we had to go through the port area, stop at restrooms as it had been an hour of bouncing since we left Coconut Cove, and then walk down that long long pier. We had no time for shopping, most of the stores were shutting down anyhow. So we dashed...

[ABQrobin]

We made it onboard, and dashed to our room to change clothes for dinner. It was already 6pm, same time as our assigned dinner time. We made it running into the dining room only 10 minutes late and apologized to our table mates. We explained what had happened with the excursion and that we had just gotten back. One of the couples at our table told us they had a very rough excursion as well - a man died on their bus. They were on the tour where a gentleman had gone to sleep, everyone thought, until they got to the first stop and he didn't wake up. The tour guide called 911, and the lady at our table was a nurse, and she did CPR on him while they waited for the medical from the city. He was taken to the local hospital, along with his family, and the tour went on with only skipping one stop due to the time lost. Apparently he didn't make it, and they returned him and family back to our ship. I guess they decided to transport back that way rather than flying home.

 

Dinner was good, I got the swordfish and DH got the pasta.

 

 

 

After dinner we went to the theatre to try to catch the Epic Rock show, but it was half over by the time we got there. It was still good. After that, we went out to the Lobby to the 80s Trivia show with CD Dustin.

 

I haven't mentioned much to this point about the Fun Squad, CD Dustin and his gang, particularly Leo and Michelle. Let me say now they were fantastic. We really enjoyed their activities and Dustin is INSANE when he gets going, especially this type of activity, sing-along in the Lobby. He was dressed in his 80s wacky outfit, and danced and sang along with every song. The lobby was packed.. every deck and the stairs, packed. It was so much fun. We love this stuff every cruise.

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Cruises/2018-Carnival-Glory/SeaDays/i-CPc3PQX/0/39d07ddf/1280/20180517_212742-1280.mp4

 

 

hope this works...

Edited June 11, 2018 by ABQrobin

[proudpatriot07]

That's so sad about the man dying on the excursion. It sounds like a sad cruise overall with so many medical emergencies.

 

I'm glad you guys had fun in Amber Cove, even on the bumpy bus. That food doesn't seem authentic, but I guess they have to tame everything down so that others won't complain about it being too adventurous. I do hope to get some authentic food in some of our Caribbean ports, but probably from a restaurant (I wouldn't count on an excursion for it).

[ABQrobin]

That's so sad about the man dying on the excursion. It sounds like a sad cruise overall with so many medical emergencies.

 

I'm glad you guys had fun in Amber Cove, even on the bumpy bus. That food doesn't seem authentic, but I guess they have to tame everything down so that others won't complain about it being too adventurous. I do hope to get some authentic food in some of our Caribbean ports, but probably from a restaurant (I wouldn't count on an excursion for it).

 

I don't think most people onboard the ship were aware of the death there at Amber Cove. We probably wouldn't have known if the lady at our dinner table hadn't been there. He wasn't that old either, I think in his 50s.

 

We didn't book the excursion just for the food, but we had hoped the description was accurate. I am sure it was toned down to appeal to the less adventurous cruisers.