reno3

I (female) do everything. My husband and son just come along for the ride.

Ditto....if I left it up to my husband we would never leave the backyard:rolleyes: Next up...Getaway...

I think my boys (13 and 16) and I may enjoy this as I am kind of at a loss on what do do in AC!

I have a few questions- hope you dont mind! :o)

How long were you at the beach? We had about 2 hours, including lunch. We would have had more time but we lost time (I would guess we lost one hour) in getting into port late and going back for the family (as mentiond in my review).

 

What was the "welcome drink" and what was for lunch? Drinks...water, fruit punch, soda, orange juice. Mixed drinks were rum drinks...also a couple of different beers. Lunch was buffet style, salad, fruit, slaw salad, pasta, chicken, fish, rice and veggie, rice and beans, roasted veggie, roasted potatoes, beef. The food was good and plenty of it.

 

 

Were you able to shop at all besides the little family places you stopped at? There was a little shop at the beach also. The only other shopping was at the port which we had time to do.

Not sure if this has been answered....

I would have three adults in one balcony cabin....

on the new promo is the UDP for just the first two?

Is it for the entire cruise or just 4 dinners?

I know the UBP is for the first two, does the third get the soda package for free?

I think I read that the third person does not have to buy the UBP, true?

Mega Truck review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2307767

Myself (55) DH (63) and DS (21). We decided to book the Mega Truck excursion once we were on the ship. We had never been to the Dominican so we thought it would be nice to see. Our ship was over one hour late getting into port. We were told where to meet and after about 15 minutes we were lead to the truck. We boarded and waiting for about 20 minutes. Our guide told us we were waiting for another family. The family did not show and we left the port. We got about 10 minutes on the road and we turned around because the family had shown up. Back at the port we waiting again…..we were all starting to grumbly by this time (we were already late into port so we were going to lose excursion time already). The family finally showed up and boarded the truck. Off we went, now losing about 40 minutes off of our already late departure. The roads were very bumpy and the country side was beautiful. We passed a lot of houses, people, animals. The people were very nice and would wave as we passed. There was also a lot of garbage and trash in areas. Our first stop was at a house that the men were making cigars and this was a bathroom stop also. You could purchase cigars if you like. Our next stop was at a little stand where you could purchase “trinkets” sample some local run. This was a family run operation. It looked like parents, children and older man. Again very friendly. I had some cookies (still packaged) and I offered them to the little boy and he shared them with his brother, grandfather and parents. They all seemed very happy to have them. Back on the truck and off to the beach. Included in our price we each had a lounger and umbrella which they set up for us. Lunch buffet was also included. The excursion description said we were to get a “welcome drink” also. The food was good and we had three drinks each and it was never questioned. We did have a wristband on. It would have been nice to have more time at the beach which was nice. The water was rough. We were told what time to meet at the truck and we headed back to the port, no stops on the way back. Again this is a very bumpy ride. We were also given water or soda on the truck if we wanted it. Another thing I really liked about this is the guide and driver never asked or made any reference to a “tip”. We did tip and I did see others tipping also. I don’t like when we are pressured into giving a tip on excursions. We had a good time and wish we could have had the entire 5 hours (more time at the beach). I do think it was a little over priced.

I am interested in the same excursion and was curious to read a review.

Sorry :o Getting back into everyday life and planning my next cruise :D I forgot about the review. I will do it this weekend and post the link to this thread.

Thanks for the review! Was the pool/bar/restaurant a Margaritiville? Was there a public beach to use right at the port? We will be in AC for only 6 hours and I am trying to plan what to do. I'm not paying for an overpriced ship excursion for a few hours at the beach. Thank you.

By the time we got back from our excursion it was very quite at the pool. I don't know how it was during the day. I don't think it would be as crowded as Margaritiville. I think if you want to lay by the pool, swim, go down the waterslide, zipline, walk around and shop in the few stores that are there I don't think you will have a hard time spending 6 hours at the port. BTW no public beach at the port.

We lucked out - got 3 of the last 5 passes. Must say, a person in front of us bought 16 passes. This may not happen often, so likely a few less in line than usual got passes for the week.

We were on the Breakaway in May and got Vibe passes. In order to get the passes each person had to be in line. Were all 16 people in line??

Glory and Pride in GT last week.

Grand Turk: Was too crowded. Didn't book excursion but definitely would next time.

Agree 100%. I was on the Glory in port with you. I have been to GT two other times and was the only ship each time. I could not beleive the crowd :eek: We did not book an excursion either.

We did go to the beach on the right side of the pier, which was a lot less crowded and had plenty of natural shade. The beach was not as good, very rocky to get in and out of the water, not easy. I think if we were to go again I would reserve a cabana at MV if there are two ships in port.

Thanks so much for posting the photos!!!!

 

Glad you were still able to snorkel with all the delays. BTW, what was the quality of the snorkeling and can you describe the boat you went out on. How large, number of people, etc.

Sorry, our tour was a land and beach tour, no snorkeling.

Thank you for posting. I'm amazed how very few Amber Cove reviews there have been so far. Did you notice if any of the cabanas were rented? I've yet to see the inside of any of the cabanas or one review. Not even one on Carnival's website either!

Once we were off the ship we went right to meet our exercusion so I did not go to the pool area until we came back which was about 45 minutes before we had to be back on the ship. By that time there were about 20 people wondering around (including works). It looked like a ghost town. I think there was one or two people in the pool. As you can see from the pictures not many people. One of the photos has my son in it! By this time if the cabanas had been rented the people had all left. I walked up the stairs to the pool cabana but I couldn't get into the cabana and could not get a good picture. I wish we had more time to spend at the pool after the excursion. I had figured we would have 2 hours once back but that did not happen since we were late by one hour to port and then had to wait on a family for the excursion and wasted another hour. We had acutally left for the excursion after waiting 20 minutes and had to turn around (10 minutes out) to go back and get the family. Then waited another 10 or so minutes for them and then back on the road.

I'm back from my Glory cruise. I want to thank everyone again for all of your help with self assist. I figured I would give my experience with it.

I booked with SAS for a shared shuttle from POM to FLL. I also had FTTF. So with FTTF I received a letter in my cabin for self-assist to meet in the golden dining room at 7;15 am. We got up at 6 and was at the buffet at 6:20 (which the fun times said would not open until 6:30) and it was open (the buffet in the aft of the ship). We ate and went back to our cabin to get our luggage and headed down the the golden dining room. As we got to the lobby we were told we could leave the ship....did not have to go to the dining room...no line to get off. This was at 7:10 and customs was very quick and we were at the curb calling SAS at 7:15. SAS picked us up at 7:20 and there were already 4 others on the shuttle. We circled twice to pick up a party of 2 each time. The driver did ask what time our flight was and what airline. We were on our way out of the port at 7:40 and on our way to FLL. We arrived at SW at 8:10 checked our luggage at the curb (no line). We then went in and through the security line and was at our gate at 8:40 for a noon flight. I made sure I wrote all of the times down so I would not forget. Not sure if this is the norm and I'm not suggesting to book flights before noon. Just telling my experience.

Bar at the pool. I did not go in to take photos. Not sure what they serve as for food.

Swimup bar part of the pool

Where zipline ends

About 5 or so of these

Couple of "zippers"

People have asked it the pool is a "lazy river" it is not but you can see at the top, middle of the photo the pool goes into a type of narrow canal (for lack of a better discription) under bridges. You can see one of the bridges in the photo (top center).

I guess that is all I have. As you can see not many people still at the pool at this time. I don't know how busy it was during the day. As I mentioned we only had about 45 minutes once we returned from our excursion to shop and walk around. There were a few shops open, about 8 or so. There were enough for us to look in and buy a few things before we had to get back on the ship.

Photo from the pool bar area (there is one more of the four cabanas not shown to the left)

Pool bar (swimup) you can see how close the pool cabanas are to the pool.

Cabana deck to the right in photo.

Two of the hillside cabanas above the pool cabanas

Hilltop bar and two more hillside cabanas overlooking the port not overlooking the pool.

This photo Carnival sent me when I asked how big the hot tub was in the hillside cabana. Not very big. I guess enough for one person.

Slide

First (or fourth pool cabana) see the zip line right over this cabana. I think it would be an issues with people "zipping" all day over you. There were people still zipping while I took these pictures and it was noisy.

Pool cabanas 1-4 (top of photo to lower right corner) #4 is the one with the zipline over it.

Hammock under each pool cabana (note RESERVED sign hanging under the hammock

Lounge chairs in the pool

Lots and lots and lots....of loungers (100's)

Kids water area

Front of cabanas on the water

Back of cabanas from shore

Pricelist

We were on the Glory last week and stopped at Amber Cove. When we booked this cruise we were going to Half Moon Cay so when the port was changed we were a little disappointed. I didn’t know what we were going to do at this port, we thought about a cabana but decided the cost was too much. Once we were on board we decided to book a Carnival excursion, Mega Truck Adventure (I will post a review on the excursion on another post). We were to be in port from 7am-4pm. We did not have a lot of time after our excursion to spend at the port since we arrived over one hour late to the port and lost another hour waiting for another family to board the Mega Truck (more on that in my excursion review). Here are some photos I took before we got back on the ship about one hour before we sailed at 4:00.

Pedicab - the dock is long and they will take you from ship to shore (and back) for a fee. They don't have a set amount. Whatever you want to pay (they said).

Any idea if Westjet or AirCanada are included in the "most popular" airlines?

Sorry, I don't know for sure. I do know that when I signed up it showed icons for facebook, twitter, etc and I did not see anything for airline icons but I did type in SW website and it came up.

Why do you say this?

Peeling paint in elevator, sagging seats in booths in dining room, rust, broken draw in cabin, tiles on floor in buffet popping.

Nothing major just noticed since we were on the Glory back in 2013.

Mike Pack. He's great, very high energy and fun, IMO. 70s trivia tonight was a hoot!

Yes, he is a lot of fun and he is very high energy :D He was great New Years Eve!

Have not been on the Splendor. Just got off the Glory and she is in need of some TLC.

Glad to know it worked well with the computer! How was my favorite ship? Did you have a good cruise?

Yes, we did have a good cruise. We were also on her for Christmas 2013. She is in need of some TLC though.

Got off the Glory yesterday....no live music on lido. They did have a DJ.

Just returned from the Glory and I bought the Social Package for $5.00 on the last sea day to log onto SW to get my boarding passes. I logged on at 11:45 to get boarding passes at noon. It took a few minutes to load. I was on an waiting within 5-7 minutes. When your boarding passes show up don't click on the print button in the top right corner (it did not work for me) instead, right click and they printed right away.