Trip Report From the Glory Oct 10th-17th Lots of Pictures to Come

[jamo951]

Loving the review so far. I will be on the Dream in 14 months, doing the same itinerary, and will probably be down in Orlando 2 days prior to the cruise! Looking forward to the updates coming!

[mnsawyer]

Wow, your review is so detailed! For anyone that loves Orlando, your detail on Islands of Adventure is unbelievable. Years ago we went to Islands of Adventure and did the dueling dragons ride - is that fire and ice with the roller coaster that would make anyone sick? It did me and my husband has teased me for years. No thanks to all of those rides for me but know many love them. Know what you mean about the hotels in Orlando. We have looked for some good rates and they were dives. We've had good luck with Disney All-Sports. Yes, it's budget Disney but much better than some of the ones on I-Drive.

[jamo951]

When I was in Orlando earlier this year, my DW and I stayed at the Wingate by Wyndham, the Orlando International Airport location, and it was one of the cleanest and friendliest hotels I have ever stayed in. We had only stayed one night, as we weren't sure how the weather would be flying from Chicago to Orlando the day of the cruise, so we flew out the night before. It is also right off I-528 (Beachline Expressway), which is the expressway to Port Canaveral from Orlando! I want to say the rates were $100 for the night.

[poundcake09]

[SIZE=4]Can't wait for the rest!!! Come on already!!:D[/SIZE]

[Celandine]

awesome review so far. :D

I'm a huge universal (and Disney) fan...and I so cannot wait to get back there (haven't been to Universal in 7 years and 9 years since Disney)

[Quampapetet]

Oh my, yes, so many things have changed at Disney in the past nine years! You must go back! :)

 

To the OP, I am looking forward to the rest of the Glory review and photos, since I'll be on her soon enough. Thanks for taking the time to write your review!

[Luanne21]

Loving your review.....

[RNdreamfan]

Great review.

But can anyone tell me why can't i see the pictures - the picture window says - "bandwidth exceeded".

Thanks.

[Quampapetet]

Sounds like the OP put the photos up on a site that only allows so much access to the account in a period of time (i.e. one hour). Too many ppl have tried to see the photos in that amount of time, so the photos aren't shown since the OP's acc't is above the limit. You'll have to try seeing them at another time; hopefully they will work then.

[TeknikDC2]

My appologys about the bandwith issues. The accounts I am hosting these photos from also hosts many other photos for the website I own. Tomorrow I may pay to upgrade to a pro account and have much more bandwidth at my disposal.

[TeknikDC2]

ok I upgraded to pro so most of the pictures are back up and working. As well as any future pictures. However since I can't find anywhere to edit my posts the pictures from IOA and Embarkation day will be down tell the bandwith clears up on that account.

 

Anyways I plan to have a new update up tomorrow.

[AndrewD65]

keep it coming

[OrdieJ]

ok I upgraded to pro so most of the pictures are back up and working. As well as any future pictures. However since I can't find anywhere to edit my posts the pictures from IOA and Embarkation day will be down tell the bandwith clears up on that account.

 

Anyways I plan to have a new update up tomorrow.

 

The last two pages arent working for me.

[TeknikDC2]

The last two pages arent working for me.

 

That's cause (as I stated above) they are hosted from a different photobucket account. I only upgraded my primary account so unfortunately the ioa and embarkation day photos will be down until the bandwidth cleans up or I can figure out if I can edit those posts and reload the pictures from the upgraded account.

[TeknikDC2]

Day 5: Nassau, Bahamas

 

Our first Port of call came quickly with it falling on our first day full day of the cruise. We would also be in Nassau for the shortest amount of time of any of our port of calls so it was another early morning so we could be up and off the ship as soon as it docked at 8:30am.

 

After a quick breakfast at the Lido decks buffet we then headed down to the gangways to get off the ship. Apparently everyone else on the ship had the same idea as well cause it was like trying to herd cattle. But after a few minutes of shoulder to shoulder crowds and pushing we made our way off the ship and started making our way towards town.

 

[TeknikDC2]

Our original plans for our time In Nassau were to take the water taxi over to Paradise island so that we could do the dig at Atlantis. However due to the fact that there was a storm passing thru at the time with it raining and the wind blowing we decided against the water taxi idea. As we were walking out of the port building we got bombarded with people offering taxis, tours, hair brading, cuban cigars, ect...... All we wanted was to find a way to get to Atlantis to do the Dig. As we were walking away from the building a very nice man came up to us offering tours. He told us his tour was 2 hours long and he would take us around the city as well as to atlantis to tour the grounds for only $25 a person. He wasn't pushy about it at all like the other people so we decided that his tour sounded like fun so we decided to do that instead of the Atlantis Dig. He took us to a waiting area with a few other people and then went and got his van so we could begin our tour of Nassau.

 

 

After driving thru a small part of the city our first stop of the tour was at Fort Fincastle. I'm one who enjoys history so it was pretty neat to me to learn about the history of this fort. It was also the oldest structure I have ever been to. They had a tour guide there specifically for the fort so after listoning to him we were free to roam around and check it out for ourselves. The fort also offered some great views of the island and surrounding areas. However since it was raining at the time we were there you couldn't see much lol. There is also a small flee market set up around the fort with a bunch of bargin suvonieers which Tyler and Rachael spent some time looking at so they could bring some stuff home to there families.

 

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

 

One thing we were dissapointed we didn't see was the Queens staircase. The tourguide told us we would be going there. And I knew that it was right next to the fort from reasearching online. However it seemed like once we were there my mind went blank and we all forgot about it. After we got home I heard that some fellow tourests were robbed at the staircase that same day. I don't know what time it was at but Im very thankful now that we forgot cause that could have easily been us.

After the fort we loaded back up into the van and were on our way to continue the tour. We drove around the city some more and then eventually made it to one of the local beaches.

 

[TeknikDC2]

I must say I was pretty dissapointed with this beach. When you think bahamas you think very pretty white sand beachs and the tourquise blue water. Not this one. Almost every inch of it was covered with seaweed. It was ugly. And the stormy waters didn't help since you couldn't see the tourquise in it. But I guess it is more of a locals beach so they probably don't take as good of care of it as they would the ones the tourists visit regularly. We also found a coconut floating in the water with some wierd snail type bugs on it. The tour guide was also very kind to dust the sand off our wives feet.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

After the beach we loaded back up and were on our way. The tour guide next took us on a tour of there neighborhoods. From the welthy areas all the way to the run down ghettos. It was really sad to see the circumstances these people have to live in. Many of the homes in the ghettos looked they would fall over in a small windstorm. Plus they didn't have water or electricity. They would have to walk up the street and fill up buckets for there water. The guide said most the people in the ghettos have there prioritys backwards. They live in complete dumps but they would rather live in those and have worldly things such as nice cars (one ghetto house had a brand new lexus in the driveway) then to move up into a nicer home. He also told us that many of the goods they buy on the island are about double the cost of what they are in the us. This went for there cars and there gasoline. Baptist churches also dot the island on every corner it seemed like. I don't think I saw any other churches there other then Baptist.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Our next stop would be to head over to Paradise Island and go to Atlantis. We were excited to see this as when you think of the Bahamas this is pretty much what most people think of. And wow. It is amazing. The detail to everything is excellent. Its a very beautiful building and in my opinion was the best part about our stop in the Bahamas.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

The classyness of the resort transfered inside as well. I've been inside almost every major resort in Vegas and Atlantis is right at the top with the greats there. Atlantis is amazing.

 

[TeknikDC2]

Because we took this tour we wouldn't have enough time at Atlantis to do the Dig. However they do have a large aquarium in there main lobby that is open to the public to look at for free. We spent a lot of time here looking at many of the fish, tiger sharks, manta rays, and sting rays that were swimming around in it. Guests of the resort can also go snorkling in this tank.

 

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

 

After the aquarium our guide then took us into the Casino to show us the Moon and Sun statues as well as take us to the backside of the building so we could see the backside of the resort. Seeing the beaches back there now reminded me of what I thought the beaches of the Bahamas would look like. The whole resort is so beautiful.