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Glory-NYC to Canada, August 5, 2013 a review in progress

kangaand2roos

By kangaand2roos,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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kangaand2roos

kangaand2roos

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Thanks for explaining that. Do I order this through my TA? Can I get it even if I am already paid in full for my 9/2 cruise on Glory?

 

Ask your TA or look at your booking online. It will be listed as an excursion from the embarkation port. They only sell 15 or 30 per cruise, depending on how many diamond or platinum guests there are on that particular cruise. For some, it is very useful, for others not so much. My TA actually tried to discourage me from buying it for my next cruise because Baltimore is such an easy port, but I told him that the value for me is being able to go right to the room.

 

The other benefit is that you have priority tendering at tender ports, which the glory does not have in Canada.

 

Have a great cruise! What are your plans in ports?

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kangaand2roos

kangaand2roos

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So, we missed seeing Lady Liberty, but we made it to dinner!

 

We returned to our stateroom and quickly dressed for dinner. As I said, we like to take the opportunity to dress for dinner, but neither of us is a big fusser. Annika has crazy-curly hair that can only be brushed wet lest it become a total rat's nest. I just can't be bothered to spend too much time. I don't own make-up and wear little jewelry. So, it took maybe 10 minutes to throw off the day's clothing and throw on dresses!

 

We made our way down to the fourth floor and toward our dining room. We were just a couple of minutes late, like 3 or four, so there was no wait to get in the room. The hostess remembered us from earlier in the day and smiled as we walked ourselves to our table. i asked Annika if she wanted to sit next to or across from me. She chose next to. She took the spot next to the railing, facing the dining room entrance. I sat next to her, and Yudi, our head waiter introduced himself.

 

A minute or two later, a woman and young girl joined us with the woman sitting across from Annika and the girl across from me. They introduced themselves as Barbara (step-mom) and Hailey (sp?) who was almost 12, about 1 1/2 years older than Annika. We sat like this the rest of the cruise. (We didn't see much of our other dinner companions, but more on that later.)

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kangaand2roos

kangaand2roos

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We really enjoyed our dinner companions and were pleased that Carnival placed us together. When, later in the week, we met our third pair, a mom traveling with her turning-10-on-the-cruise son, we were sure that the placement was deliberate. Kudos!

 

 

Annika and Barbara each ordered a soda. Hailey and I ordered ice teas. The sodas came, but, I didn't even notice until the end of the meal, our iced teas never did. No big deal. Annika ordered the chicken tender appetizer and the tilapia. I had the Caesar sald and the Indian Vegetarian. We both very much enjoyed our meals. The Indian meal was very well flavored and hot, but not firey! I would have preferred an Indian meat meal, but it was yummy!

 

For dessert, Annika had the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, and I had the creme brulee. In the interest of keeping my sugar consumption to a reasonable level, I ate only a bite of the brulee part. The creme, on the other hand, was all mine! Annika did taste it after I told her it tasted like roasted marshmallows I also had some decaf. We both very much enjoyed our meals. We said our goodnights to our new friends and headed out.

 

It always feels odd the first when you stand up to leave without paying the bill:D

 

I was very tired. I had been taking bonine twice a day for a couple of days in prep for the trip as I am very prone to motion sickness and I think it was making me a little sleepy. plus, day one is always a little tiring. But, before we went to bed, we wanted to go up to the lido and check out the movie screen.

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kangaand2roos

kangaand2roos

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Oops, before we get to the movies, I forgot about Camp Carnival...

 

Camp was opened for sign-up and orientation that night. We had stopped in earlier and really just wanted to pick up a schedule. We grabbed one and then checked out some of the forward area af the ship. Serenity was completely empty, so we took just a quick peek inside. Annika was very jealous that I'd be able to use the round loungers and she wouldn't! I'm not a rule breaker and didnt want to linger in there with an under 21, so we hurried out. We went to the uppermost deck to look and along came a huge gust of wind, and whoosh! No more Camp Carnival Funtimes!

 

We tried to get another, but they were out at camp. They told us the welcome party for Camp would be starting shortly and we could get one there, so that's what we did. As I said, we were tired, so as soon as the schedules were available, we grabbed one and left.

 

We walked upstairs and out onto the Lido. The most recent James Bond movie, Skyfall, was playing. Annika asked ifit was an OK movie for her to watch and I told her that it was OK, but it didn't know if she'd like it since she had never seen a Bond movie before, but we could stay a little bit. Soon, though, we were both quite cold and pretty tired, so we decided we'd call it an early night and be ready for the next day. I had brought along some blankets for us and if we hadn't been so tired I would have grabbed them from the room!

 

We returned to our stateroom, very excited to see what towel animal was waiting for us. Annika was hoping for a frog like the one we had seen on our cabin steward's cart, but we were greeted by a very cute seal!

 

We got ready for bed, grabbed our highlighters and climbed into our beds for one of my favorite parts of a cruise day...looking at the schedule to see what's next!

 

For Annika, CC looked good in the morning. I was going to check out serenity while she was at Camp. There were some trivia events and in the early afternoon

Bear Cuddly.

 

I kissed my little girl goodnight and we both fell right asleep...no alarm set!!

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chiapet

chiapet

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Just in time for our sailing on Saturday ... thanks so much!

 

Can't wait to take a look ... to anticipate my activities for the week ;)

 

P.S. I'm just like you ... I love to look at each day's schedule ... highlighting all the fun stuff to do :) I'm even excited now ... thinking about looking at the preview :p

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kangaand2roos

kangaand2roos

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We did not set an alarm. I figured that the one big advantage of an inside room is that it is drk and the rising sun wouldn't also raise us. We had nowhere special to be, so no alarm! I am an early riser by nature, and so is Annika. I am often up well before 6:00 without benefit of an alarm, so I was interested to see what happened. At some point, my bladder told me it was time to get my tushie out of bed, and when I checked the time, it was 7:30!!

 

I know...it's vacation, and 7:30 is not exactly sleeping in, but for me, it was like sleeping the day away ;-) I was trying to be quiet so as not to bother Annika, but when I came out of the bathroom, she was already awake. We started getting dressed, and I started feeling a little queasy. The water was not rough, but I hadn't yet gotten my sea legs and I was feeling it. I took another dose of Bonine and hurried Annika along. She may be an early riser, but she is not speedy. I told her that I REALLY needed to get something in my belly, and she hustled.

 

I thought I had read that the Punchliner Brunch began at 8:00, so we headed to deck 3 aft. Alas, it didn't start until 8:30, so we went upstairs for a small "first breakfast" to just put some food in my belly. I got a spoonful of eggs and a few pieces of bacon and Annika got a pancake, some bacon and a chocolate milk. We sat by a window and watched the ocean. As soon as the food hit my tummy, I felt MUCH better!

 

We went upstairs onto deck 10, all the way aft, for a few minutes to enjoy the outside and watch the wake until it was actually time to go to the dining room for brunch. I am not a sunbather, and usually would rather be in a temperature controlled climate, but something about sea air...It is just so...I don't know...invigorating?

 

We enjoyed the sea air and scenery for a short time and then headed down to the Platinum dining room to enjoy our brunch. We had each gotten a certificate for a free drink to be used in the main dining room for breakfast, lunch, or brunch and we brought them along. As we were approaching the entrance to the dining room, I noticed a woman wearing a Marauder's Map t-shirt. I particularly noticed it, because I was wearing the exact same shirt! Both Annika and I are huge Harry Potter fans and like most real fans (of anything) we love to meet with others of our kind! We stopped to chat with them for a few minutes. The woman asked when we had been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and I told her that, alas, I had not yet. I had purchased the t-shirt at the Orlando airport on one of our Walt Disney World trips. The Wizarding World would happen eventually, but not yet.

 

We said our good-byes and headed into the dining room. I asked the hostess (the same as yesterday) if there was a table by the windows. She smiled, handed us of to someone who marched us right up to a table at the very back of the dining room, right at a window! We sat across from each other and had a beautiful view of the wake! Stitch sat on the little ledge at the window and watched the whole meal.

 

A brief aside...in 2008, our family did the Western Caribbean on the Valor. There were 8 of us including 4 kids ranging in age from 3-6. Our first morning in the dining room we were seated in a table sort of in the middle of the room. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, the kids wandered over to a window near an unoccupied table to look out. One of the kids yelled DOLPHINS! and the other three excitedly joined in. At first we didn't think they had really seen them, and then we noticed a large group of dolphins playfully swimming alongside the ship! Soon, nearly everyone in the dining room had joined us. It was really an amazing, albeit brief, experience, and I would love to have something even close to it happen again!

 

Now, back to our story...

 

Soon after we were seated, we were joined by three additional couples. We placed our orders. Annika ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri, churros and the Funny French Toast (french toast coated with your choice of cereals) with Frosted Flakes. I had a latte and the Carne y Huevos which was a filet mignon with two eggs, bearnaise sauce, spinach, grilled tomato, and homefries. Annika liked hers but didn't love it. I LOVED mine! It was delicious! I was pretty sure I would be repeating my choice on our second sea day!

 

We had some nice conversation with our table mates. I really like the combination of open seating for breakfast/lunch/brunch and fixed s eating at dinner. It is nice to meet and speak to a lot of different people, but have consistent dinner partners. Of course, I have always had good dinner companions. In fact, twice I ended up at tables with people who knew someone that I knew from the real world. I'm guessing i could be converted to any-time dining if I ever ended up with duds!

 

We finished up and headed back to the room to deposit Stitch, as he was not welcome at Camp Carnival (though we had at some point bumped into the lead counselor on deck who told us very emphatically how much she LOVED Stitch and wished he could go to camp. She said she had a HUGE collection of Stitch toys at home!) Of course, our room was already cleaned! Annika was going to go to the Ice Breakers, Balloon Volleyball and Scavenger Hunt, while I crashed my tired (I think the bonine was making me sleepy) tush in Serenity! I grabbed my walkie talkie to keep with me. The other stayed in the cabin so that if Annika got there before I did, she could contact me.

 

We walked up to O2 where they were meeting and said our farewells, agreeing to meet up in the room at noon.

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