Ship: Carnival Glory | Sail Date: 08/04/07 | Destination: > Eastern Caribbean
7/31 - Flew Southwest out of Indy to Baltimore/Washington as direct flights to Orlando were non-existant at the time of booking. Rick managed to get himself a padding down by a very FRIENDLY "NOT" security person. A short layover turned into a L-O-N-G layover as storms in the Tampa area delayed our plane departure from BWI. You have to love airports which charge for internet service. Good grief, it's wireless people... the infrastructure is already in place, allow free internet!! Sorry, just one of my pet peeves with airports. Plane finally arrives and we get into MCO a little before midnight. What a FUSTER, because of the storms many plans had layovers and baggage claim was bombarded with leftover luggage, we didn't know what carousel to go to; this should have been a clue for our return trip. Local friends pick us up as we are staying at their house prior to checking into SSR. I stay up until 3:00 watching "300" with the boys as I was wired from the flight.
8/1 – The girls got their nails done and went shopping for cruisewear while I recovered from my youthful exhuberance from the movie watching from the night before (ie. I slept until 1:00pm). After shopping they came back and we loaded up to head to SSR. Dawn called to see if OKW had a 1bdr; she had been trying for week. SURE ENOUGH, they did so we switched from SSR to OKW (Room 2611) and didn’t have to move we got in about 2:00. That evening, our friends introduced us to a fantastic Italian restaurant Maggiano's on I-Drive (next to WonderWorks... the goofy upside down building). I had no idea this chain existed but I can guarantee it will be a stop for us again at Christmas. They specialize in serving family style as long as your party can agree on two appetizers, two salads, two pastas, two meat dishes, and two desserts. The fun is in the bartering on which to choose for your table.
8/2 - I had a round of golf scheduled while Dawn and DD shopped yet again for the dreaded cruisewear. Rain, rain, and more rain impacted this but it was still a good day. Remington Golf Club has a great deal... for $35.00 you can hit practice balls, eat lunch, and play as much as you can. Unfortunately, as much as we tried we got in about three holes before we called it a day. We went to movies at the AMC for the evening.
8/3 - Still raining so we decided to do some more shopping prior to the cruise. During the rainy golf session the day before, I noted my golf shoes had more holes than leather holding them together so we visited Sports Authority on Osceola Parkway (The Loop). DD found lots of clothes for school still no cruiseware, I got my shoes and a new hybrid golf club which I'm sure will lower my handicap in two weeks. :-p The evening was spent getting everything in order to leave for the cruise the next day.
8/4 - Dawn had arranged a stretch Ford Excursion limo (through Magic Touch transportation) to pick us up and take us to the port. I'll give her credit, this was very cool and I think everyone had a blast.
As we were coming from OKW to our friends house where we were being picked up we didn't get to see the FIRST arrival of the stretch. Chris (friends son) was outside and noticed this lost looking stretch driving up and down the street trying to find their house. He said to himself, "man, it would be nice if that car was for us", low and behold the third trip past the house it stopped. He said, "Dang it is for us". The look on their faces was worth every $$$.
Even though it was a little bit more, it sure beat DRIVING and paying for parking at the port's lot. Check-in for the cruise was a patience test for the poor woman who handled our group of eleven. There were so many cabin changes, charging privilege modifications, etc. she worked a full shift just getting us on board! I think we finally were on the ship by 12:30 so we had the standard buffet lunch in the Red Sail restaurant. Carnival is a little more free with it's alcohol as one of the 19 year olds in our group was offered and purchased a Mai Tai, no card check at all. Rooms became available at 1:30pm. We were split on two floors, deck 7, rooms 7224, 7226, 7232, 7234 and the boys were on deck 6, room 6357. We wandered the ship for a while and the kids were very excited about the spa and the club. We were really kind of surprised at the total lack of a sail-away deck party. Just one more difference to get used to I suppose. We wandered through the casino, also a feature you won't find on a Disney ship ;-) I was extremely pleased to find an automated $1/$2 No limit hold 'em table among the games. As we were heading to dinner we ran into the neighbor across the hall Wendy Scoats. She was alone . She was spending the first night of her honeymoon alone, her husband would be joining her the next day. So we invited her to join us for dinner. Dinner in the main dining room was the typical amazing cruise fare. There was a standard variety show which didn't impress me too much.
8/5 - This was Nassau day. We originally had no intention of getting off the ship. We were going to learn about the ship. Our friends had been before and they said the Straw Market was not to be missed. It certainly was a fun day. We purchased fake coach and channel purses and t-shirts. Dinner again was excellent, and Michael Macy was the "family oriented" comedian for the night.
8/6 - This was a sea day. We learned more about the ship and the casino and the dining rooms. We also found out that the pools were filled with salt water, so that was the end of pool and sun days. The red sail was frequented by our family of 4 every day for breakfast and lunch. The others in our party had a few breakfasts and lunches in the dining room they were first come first serve seating. The kids began spending TIME and Money in the Spa!! The dinner menu started to go down hill. Michael Macy performed again tonight, Adult humor. He leaves the ship tomorrow.
8/7 - Today was St. Thomas day, we had jewelry, booze and BEACH on our mind. It was raining and so we thought the entire day would be ruined but it wasn't. We grabbed a 12 passenger van for the taxi. We had our driver take us to downtown Charlotte Amalie for shopping. We had lunch at the local Subway (I know they say not to eat off the ship), but we had asked the driver to come back and get us at 2:30 for a trip to Magen's Bay. He waited for us for the two hours we were at the beach and then took us back to the ship. We would have all be burnt to a crisp had the sun been out in full strength. We had a beautiful day, the boys even rented kayak's. The tour of the island during our taxi ride just hit the spot. I can't get use to the fact they drive on the wrong side of the road. In all the taxi cost about $16 per person for the entire day. This evenings entertainment was again and adult comedian. I don't remember the name. He was hilarious up to a point, but he totally lost the audience about half way through and spent the rest of the evening trying to get us back. He went way over his time limit. But it was fun.
8/8 - Today was St. Maarten day, MORE jewelry shopping, and beach. Oh the story!!! The party of 11 turned into a party of 8. The boys decided to do the following, one had a excursion to snorkel, another a regatta sailing, and the third TO SLEEP THE DAY AWAY. 19 year old want to spend to much time partying into the night. Our son Brian was the sleeper. We had called down to his cabin to tell him we were leaving the ship and going to the beach. There is a beach that you can see from the ship. We didn't think to tell him this. It becomes important later in the story. So off we go. Brian sleeps in until about 1:30 and then decides to get up grab a taxi like we told him and join us. Well, we should have told him the water taxi, again, important to the story. Brian grabs a car taxi to take him to the beach "downtown". Taxi driver says, "that will be $16". He knew it should only be $5 at the most, but paid it anyway. He gets to his beach, only to find all NAKED people. Orient Beach! Realizing he is at the wrong beach, he starts walking to see if he can find the beach where people had clothes on. After walking from one end of the beach to the other he determines he is in the wrong place when he goes to ask someone for help and they say, "Bonjour". Too Funny isn't it. He yet again, hails another taxi to take him back to the ship….. He has $13 in his wallet. By now he has the taxi driver feeling sorry for him and he takes the $13 and takes him back to the ship. Brian did not make it to the beach to enjoy the fun that day. We can only hope he learned a valuable lesson; albeit to ask more questions or summer the consequences and go with the family even if you don't want to. Dinner was much the same. We were too tired for entertainment. We spent some time in the casino. In all I think our group took home about $1500. Rick did well at the poker table, ~$456.
8/9 - Day at Sea
8/10 - Day at Sea Well the adults closed the casino at 2:00 a.m. Knowing that we weren't going to be picked up by our limo until 11:00 we knew we had time to sleep in. This was actually the first night Dawn could stay up past 10:30. I don't know if there is a middle ear problem for cruising or if it was just too much food. The most fun the adults had together other than dinner was playing in the casino tonight. Five of us were huddled around this coin pushing game. You put in quarters and the shoot inward and up into the machine, when they land this little arms push the pile of quarters, and prizes towards you. I think we put $56 into the machine, but had 2 hours worth of fun. You can't even go to a movie in Orlando that cheap!
8/11 – Return to Port Canaveral. Leaving is always the hard part. Beings that we were on two floors we had two different call numbers for debarkation. WHAT A MESS! Deck 7 was number 8, the boys on deck 6 were number 28. We could not disembark together until their number was called. We had extra #8 tags and should have thought about using them for the boys' luggage. Hindsight! We finally got off the ship at 11:15, our limo driver (Extravagance Limo) had been there since 9:30 (I told them 11:00). A normal 12 passenger van was reserved for the trip home to Orlando, BIGGGGGGGGG Mistake. Won't be doing that again. We needed the extra room we had in the excursion. We had 11 people, 2 wheelchairs and 13-15 suitcases. We were all squashed on top of one another. The driver had no personality at all, didn't say word one. This was the part of the trip that was cheaper than driving and parking two vehicles at the port and hit showed.
We got back to our friends house borrowed their car, said our goodbyes and headed for one last night at OKW in a studio. We got room 4210. We were a big exhausted, our room wasn't ready so we hung out at the pool. Rick had spent so much time in the casino that he didn't get any sun and decided he needed to look like he'd been to Florida and beyond. We rested and then went to a movie.
In all it was a lovely trip, something I'd love to do again (like every summer). I hope everyone else had a great time as well. We decided that we would not do late seating again. The majority of the activities were during our dinner time. Other advice:
1. Ship photography. 8x10 portraits are $21.99; 5x7 were about $10.99. The embarkation picture was $8.99. They don't give any discounts on quantity or even on the last night of the cruise.
2. Attend the jewelry shopping talks, but you don't have to live and breathe their advice. We were able to get better deals from jewelry shops that were not on the Ships guaranteed list. For example, Azura in St. Maarten. Also, in St. Maarten right off the ship there is an electronics store. We bought Ipods for $187 each, and a new digital Panasonic camera for our DD for $220, that included a hard case, memory card and the battery charger. The alcohol shopping was best in St. Thomas at A.H. Reise.
8/12 – Orlando departure. It seems we just couldn’t get rid of our little black rain cloud. At 8:30 a.m. we had a tap, tap, tap on the door, it was house keeping wanting to clean the room. DANG check out is at 11:00 people. We needed to be on our way anyway. We left the room about 9:15 head back down Osceola to get our friends for breakfast. Our flight was at 12:20. We got to the airport a little before 11:00. The lines were unbelievable. We waited curbside for about 10 minutes and then went inside thinking the lines would be shorter. NOPE. At 11:30 I decided to get out of line go to the self check station to get our boarding passes, I had pre-checked the day before we had boarding "A". Plus, I figured if we had problems they would know we were there if we had boarding passes. Boy, was I wrong. Still in line at 12:00, DAWN is FREAKING OUT. We finally got our 8 bags checked at 12:12. We ran to security only to be stopped by another line. And then ran to the tram only to see our plan being pushed away from the gate. OH, Dawn is not a happy camper. The kids had dates. We went to the gate agent and there wasn't anything she could/would do. We were 2 minutes late in getting to the gate. They rerouted, with plane changes, in Detroit, Midway to Indy.
