Glory Be 03/30 Review

[jenjay1210]

Great review. After reading this I have decided on Paradise Beach for our day in Cozumel. Can I use a credit card there or is it cash only?

 

You can use a credit card at Paradise Beach. Let me know what you think of it after you go~ we loved it obviously.

[jenjay1210]

So once we got to Lamanai we had a quick bathroom break and a hike to the first temple. And it is a bit of a hike, maybe 1/2 mile at most but uneven and rocky. We didn't have any problems but this is not a wheelchair/walker friendly type of place.

 

The first temple was the Mask Temple and we posed for photos.

 

 

[jenjay1210]

The next temple was the High Temple. I climbed the first section but that is it for me! The steps are steep and I have a fear of heights- The guys climbed to the top but I forgot to give them my camera :mad: - beautiful to see whether you climb or no....

 

 

 

 

 

While Trevor and Jay were climbing Erika and I spotted this little guy...

[jenjay1210]

The last temple was the prettiest but no climbing which is probably a good thing to preserve it. So pretty and amazing to think of how these were built so long ago with no modern technology.

 

 

 

 

We walked back to the giftshop area and I bought a couple snickers bars and some postcards. As I had in Mexico and Cayman, I got my change in local currency as an additional souvenier. We loaded the boat to return

[jenjay1210]

I just wanted to post a pic of you guys sailing out of Cozumel from the beach!

Not hijacking your thread, just thought you could take it for your own :)

 

[ATTACH]309619[/ATTACH]

 

Enjoy!

 

 

That's cool! Thank you!

[jenjay1210]

I have mixed feelings about Belize. First, this country is poor, POOR and this is evident from the time you get off the boat. So I am glad to give some tourist dollars to a country that clearly needs them. But, I'm not sure I want this reminder on vacation. I'm glad we went to Belize but if we don't return I'm ok with that too.

 

School in Belize:

 

 

Topography outside of the city:

 

No fast food, Belize is not Americanized like some other ports, but I saw this...

 

 

 

 

We technically got back to the port late but there was a long line to board the beautiful Glory and I had time to get a couple souveniers, or at least look, I did not buy here. There is a bar at the pier and some music, and we boarded for the ride back, which I think took 30 minutes.

[jenjay1210]

We caught the sunset and went to the comedy shows I think this night. I need to keep a journal or something so I can remember what nights we did what...the sunset was pretty nice from our balcony this night.

 

 

These guys enjoyed the cruise too!

 

Edited April 16, 2014 by jenjay1210

[framerman]

Too bad your trip to Lamanai was sub par. We went in 2011 with Island Marketing also. We were the only two on our trip. Small speed boat....saw lots of wild life including aligators. Spent two hours or more at the site. Our driver(van) left the lights on and drained the battery in the van. So when we returned to the boat dock we had a little bit of a situation. Got that resolved, had no time to eat lunch so we took them to go and drove back to the port at 80 mph passing everyone. We made the last tender as it was boarding. WE CUT IT WAY TOO CLOSE

[jenjay1210]

Too bad your trip to Lamanai was sub par. We went in 2011 with Island Marketing also. We were the only two on our trip. Small speed boat....saw lots of wild life including aligators. Spent two hours or more at the site. Our driver(van) left the lights on and drained the battery in the van. So when we returned to the boat dock we had a little bit of a situation. Got that resolved, had no time to eat lunch so we took them to go and drove back to the port at 80 mph passing everyone. We made the last tender as it was boarding. WE CUT IT WAY TOO CLOSE

 

I would have been worried then! I had some anxiety leading up to the trip, but the day of, I was not worried about the timing. I do get the impression they cut it close pretty much every time.

[jenjay1210]

Our last port was Roatan and we woke up early and I got some nice sunrise pics as we came into port:

 

 

[jenjay1210]

The topography of Roatan is just beautiful as you pull in. Not flat like Turk or Cayman, it reminded me more of St. Thomas but not as developed. For landscape, definitely my favorite.

 

For Roatan I'd booked our only Carnival Excursion, Anthony Keys Dolphin Swim & Snorkel.

 

We received our tickets the first day aboard and I actually remembered to bring them when we headed out after breakfast. As you walk up the ramp in Roatan there were attendants with signs for the various excursions. I found ours, we were given bracelets and we waited for the start time.

 

We drove about 20 minutes by van to the resort. You drive through some poor/tough countryside but I never felt unsafe. At the resort, you take a small boat over to the dolphin area.

 

 

[jenjay1210]

The resort provides a shared cabinet area to put your things, I think it locked but don't recall, and you get outfitted with snorkel gear and get a briefing on what to do with the dolphins.

 

 

We headed down to the entry area for the meet and greet portion of the excursion. The resort takes pictures at the beginning that are staged, and then you are also allowed after to take your own pics.

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[jenjay1210]

The resort photos were 85 for the four of us. Which I suppose is a lot but I like the idea of supporting this place and we may never do this again, so I purchased. Our dolphin was Bailey, which made us smile because one of our dogs is named Bailey too. Like our dog, Bailey the dolphin is known for being sweet but a little stubborn. We did the kiss, greet, and tricks then we were allowed to grab our own cameras for candid shots. The first pic here is from the resort cameraman, the others are mine.

 

 

I'll admit I had a little concern coming into this because after recently watching Blackfish I didn't want to participate in something where these creatures were captive and miserable. I'm not an expert, but what I observed was a huge natural open habitat. I also learned that they take dolphins with them for a scuba adventure and they come back. Most were born in captivity there and appeared to my eye to be very humanely treated.

[jenjay1210]

After this came the most amazing part of my trip really. You get to snorkel in the open area with the dolphins. The dolphins can swim around you, or not, it's up to them. You are not allowed to bring your camera lest a dolphin mistake I to for something, so I don't have pics of this but it is AMAZING. I really don't have proper words to describe how wonderful it is to be snorkeling along and a dolphin swims under you or to your side and around. Or, to hear them clicking and talking to each other as you swim. They encouraged us to dive down and get a bit of grass to play with them. I did this, and when I came up, I popped my mask off to take some deep breaths...a guy goes "Miss..." I look to my left and there's a dolphin staring at me...I look to my right and there's a second dolphin! So of course I flipped and dropped the grass but boy was that cool! :p

 

I think this excursion must be a well kept secret or it would sell out immediately. Swimming with those dolphins is one of the most special things I've ever done.

 

 

 

If we are ever blessed to return, we would definitely repeat this excursion.

 

I didn't time it, but I think we snorkeled for about 40 minutes, then time to finish, and they provide outdoor showers and a changing room. Boatride back to the main resort area and we purchased photos and a couple trinkets. I also got a beautiful salad bowl set.

 

When we returned to Roatan port I looked in the shops a bit, made sure to get some local currency and was pleased to see the bowl I bought at the resort was more expensive in the port than at the resort, by about 8 bucks. We had one more hour but everyone was a little tired, so we went onboard and got lunch and watched the pier runners.

 

One thing I don't get is why this is such a short port for Carnival. We left I think at 2:30 and the beach area they have looks really nice. And, we drove fairly slow on the return to Miami...Carnival should make this a longer port day.

[jenjay1210]

 

 

The view of Roatan as we pulled out:

 

 

That night was the second formal night but we just weren't up for it, so we did the buffet. I remember doing some laundry and this was the first night the new Comedian Macio was on board. His first show was his best and I'm glad we caught it.

 

A word about the comedy - for reasons known only to Carnival, Carnival puts on cheesy dance shows and Bingo in the main lounge and stuffs many more people 5 Aft in the Ebony cabaret (? I think that was the name) for comedy. Word gets out over the course of the week that the comedy is decent and pretty soon there are long lines. They need to move these shows to the main lounge every time, as they did the final comedy show we saw.

 

There are usually two comedians on the ship. For the second half of our cruise one of the acts didn't make it aboard, so we had one Macio and he did every show. His first show was very funny, and while I enjoyed each that I watched, I thought his first was his best. I thought at times, like other comedians, they are vulgar just to be vulgar but I enjoyed just the same. The family shows were ok too. My husband really likes the comedy shows, I like them enough to go but usually I'm ready for some Zzzz's by the time the adult comedy rolls around.

[jenjay1210]

Our last sea day I got a massage 20-20-20 for 99 and avoided their offers to buy skin products. When I booked the massage I requested around 3, and they tried to book me at 8 or 9:30 and I had to say nevermind before they found me an afternoon appt. I also enjoyed the steamroom and gym whirlpool and sauna on this day.

 

Jay and I gambled a little too much on this day and started getting that down, vacation is almost over feeling. We paid for two of our bags to be auto-checked to our flight so we would not need to tote them around Miami on Sunday, and packed up, leaving enough out for Sunday.

 

 

Coming into port Sunday morning I got up early enough to take a few pics

 

 

[jenjay1210]

Because we were FTTF, we were zone 1, but we didn't rush off the boat. We got dressed and went to breakfast around 8:30 and they'd called several other zones. I liked this because when we did disembark, not as much of a line, and our bags were already off the transport thing and waiting for us - the ones we had not auto-checked.

 

We made it through Customs with our salad bowl and magnets (I know, thug life) and grabbed a taxi. Our flight wasn't leaving FLL until six, which gave us time to visit with Jay's Aunt Pam. Pam and Tom live in Pompano Beach and Big Pine Key. Tom is a big-time fisherman and was in the Bahamas but we spent the day with Pam. They live on the Intracoastal and after chatting for a bit we walked down and had lunch. After lunch we went over to the beach and Trevor got one last swim in before we headed to the airport.

 

[jenjay1210]

We live in Ohio, and most of our family lives in Maine, with some also in Texas and Florida. I'm so glad we were able to visit with Pam as we'd not seen her in a year. We will be together in Maine this summah!

 

Our flight back was uneventful, maybe 20 mins late, we got into Columbus, grabbed our car and drove home. It was midnight Sunday night when we returned.

 

Luckily I was able to work from home, but Jay had to go into work and the kids had school. Our butts were dragging all day for sure, all week to be honest. I don't think I'll do a Sunday-Sunday trip again until I'm retired.

 

Monday morning first thing, I went to the kennel to pick up the rest of our family:

They were very happy to see me! They received a good report card and got a special snack that night, peanut butter toast :-)

 

Next I'll give some final thoughts on the trip~

[jenjay1210]

Well first, money. This trip cost a lot more than our first cruise because we did two cabins and more excursions.

 

Our cabin 2300, kids 1100, flights 1600, FTTF 100, dolphin swim 600, other excursions, 700, cash spending, 900, carnival account close 1100(includes, tips, gambling, drinks, games etc and OBC.) Parking 80, Gas 100 and Kennel 465. Pretty close to nine thousand for a one week vacation. I may cruise again, but I will return to one cabin, maybe not a wrap, and plan to read more and gamble less! I paid for this trip over the course of a year, but that's a lot of money.

 

Ship - I like the look of the Liberty better than the Glory, my husband likes the Glory better. Layout works well for us.

 

Room (s) - Having the aft wrap was AWESOME, but I'm not convinced that we spend enough time there, versus maybe a regular aft, to justify the expense on future cruises. That would be a spot to cut. They only sleep three too, so I had to get a second cabin for the kids if getting an aft. The kids were ok with having their own cabin, but they are only in the cabin to sleep and shower and were fine with an inside room. I could see us sharing a balcony cabin again maybe.

 

Lido Pool - I can cruise the entire week and not spend ten minutes at the lido pool. It's so crowded, loud, and there were a lot of drinkers on this cruise and a few that I just didn't want to be around. Now people can flame me if you want, but as a 40 year old, I want more out of my vacation then stories about how drunk I got. I've got those stories from my college cruise :D The aft pool is where it's at for me!

 

Entertainment - We were a little bored at night which led to more gambling by us. Point-set-match Carnival. I should have brought one more book to read. Nobody in our family cruises with us, so maybe next time we'll meet up with friends so that we can be more social at night...especially now that the kids want to do their own thing at night.

 

Next cruise? Maybe. Trevor graduates next year from high school so our lives will all be different - as our first kid will have flown the coop. Jay wants to go to Alaska. If any, the next cruise we will aim for is Alaska in Summer 2016.

 

I hope you enjoyed my review and that it can help you plan or re-live your own trip. I go back and read my Liberty review every once in a while and may add the photos back to it (facebook photos don't work anymore) because it's like having a diary of the trip~

 

My advice to cruisers would be to enjoy your vacation and don't get wound up in the details - its a vacation and a bad day on vacation is better than most any other day! I'm happy to answer questions anyone has. Thank you for reading.

[pghsteelerfan]

I just finished reading your review, not for ideas but to "relive" our trip on Liberty, which was also a western itinerary the week after your trip on Glory. We had rougher weather and missed Grand Cayman, but when we zoomed in with the cameras, we could see the waves crashing over the gates where the tenders would be. I love the pictures you got of the Mayan ruins in Belize. I never heard of that Mayan site, how did you hear about it? We did a Carnival tour (River Wallace/Ultun Ha Mayan ruins). We do plan on another western someday and I'll be writing down the tour company you used. I really liked Ultun Ha, but the Lamanai looks spectacular.

 

On our first night out of Miami at about 10:30PM, I think we may have passed you (Glory). We were going to go to bed since we were tired after along day of traveling but went out on our balcony and noticed we were passing a ship. I don't know which ship the first one was but we noticed another. As it got closer, we used the zoom lens on the cameras and noticed the Carnival "Whale Tail" and are guessing it was Glory since Glory was due back in Miami the next morning. We only knew that because we were thinking about booking the same Glory cruise you were on but chose Liberty a week later due to better airfare. I did get pictures of the ship we think is Glory, but they didn't come out great since it's hard to get nighttime pictures from a moving ship of another ship that is also moving. :)

 

Thank you for taking the time to do a review, I really enjoyed it.

Edited April 17, 2014 by pghsteelerfan

[Momma1980]

We live in Ohio, and most of our family lives in Maine, with some also in Texas and Florida. I'm so glad we were able to visit with Pam as we'd not seen her in a year. We will be together in Maine this summah!

 

Our flight back was uneventful, maybe 20 mins late, we got into Columbus, grabbed our car and drove home. It was midnight Sunday night when we returned.

 

Luckily I was able to work from home, but Jay had to go into work and the kids had school. Our butts were dragging all day for sure, all week to be honest. I don't think I'll do a Sunday-Sunday trip again until I'm retired.

 

Monday morning first thing, I went to the kennel to pick up the rest of our family:

They were very happy to see me! They received a good report card and got a special snack that night, peanut butter toast :-)

 

Next I'll give some final thoughts on the trip~

 

 

LOVE this picture:) I can see personality in each of their faces.

Thank you for posting this review. I enjoyed it very much!

[jenjay1210]

I just finished reading your review, not for ideas but to "relive" our trip on Liberty, which was also a western itinerary the week after your trip on Glory. We had rougher weather and missed Grand Cayman, but when we zoomed in with the cameras, we could see the waves crashing over the gates where the tenders would be. I love the pictures you got of the Mayan ruins in Belize. I never heard of that Mayan site, how did you hear about it? We did a Carnival tour (River Wallace/Ultun Ha Mayan ruins). We do plan on another western someday and I'll be writing down the tour company you used. I really liked Ultun Ha, but the Lamanai looks spectacular.

 

On our first night out of Miami at about 10:30PM, I think we may have passed you (Glory). We were going to go to bed since we were tired after along day of traveling but went out on our balcony and noticed we were passing a ship. I don't know which ship the first one was but we noticed another. As it got closer, we used the zoom lens on the cameras and noticed the Carnival "Whale Tail" and are guessing it was Glory since Glory was due back in Miami the next morning. We only knew that because we were thinking about booking the same Glory cruise you were on but chose Liberty a week later due to better airfare. I did get pictures of the ship we think is Glory, but they didn't come out great since it's hard to get nighttime pictures from a moving ship of another ship that is also moving. :)

 

Thank you for taking the time to do a review, I really enjoyed it.

 

Thanks! I know a couple people that were on your cruise and missed Cayman, that is a bummer. In Belize, I found out about Lamanai from researching here on CC in the Belize section and trip advisor. There is no Carnival excursion to this site...you have to go private. While that day wasn't everything I was hoping it would be, it was still very good and the site itself is incredible in my opinion. You think you are in the middle of nowhere, and you are, and here are these temples built thousands of years ago.

[jenjay1210]

LOVE this picture:) I can see personality in each of their faces.

Thank you for posting this review. I enjoyed it very much!

 

Thank you! They are definitely our babies and we missed them. All three are rescues and the little one in the middle is our foster failure. We were fostering her but couldn't give her up! They do all have different personalities and they cried from excitement in the truck ride home from boarding. Unconditional love for sure!

[wb3690]

Loved your pictures. I really loved the Glory. We cruised the week prior to you. We had a rowdy spring break cruise and I'll admit sometimes I was right in the mix. LOL. But I did enjoy that I could go to the aft area or serenity and get away from the loud lido area (but I kind of like that!)

 

Your dogs are so cute! I thought our dog was going to burst out of her kennel when we got home. We leave her at home and have someone stay with her. So lucky for that.

 

This is the best advice you gave:

 

My advice to cruisers would be to enjoy your vacation and don't get wound up in the details - its a vacation and a bad day on vacation is better than most any other day!

 

SO TRUE! first cruise so many tips/pieces of advice and info got in my way a few times. This time I was able to relax a bit more and just go with the flow. We had a blast.

[jenjay1210]

Loved your pictures. I really loved the Glory. We cruised the week prior to you. We had a rowdy spring break cruise and I'll admit sometimes I was right in the mix. LOL. But I did enjoy that I could go to the aft area or serenity and get away from the loud lido area (but I kind of like that!)

 

Your dogs are so cute! I thought our dog was going to burst out of her kennel when we got home. We leave her at home and have someone stay with her. So lucky for that.

 

This is the best advice you gave:

 

My advice to cruisers would be to enjoy your vacation and don't get wound up in the details - its a vacation and a bad day on vacation is better than most any other day!

 

SO TRUE! first cruise so many tips/pieces of advice and info got in my way a few times. This time I was able to relax a bit more and just go with the flow. We had a blast.

 

 

Thanks~ I can over-plan at times, especially with how much info is available to everyone these days, but sometimes the best things happen when you just go with the flow~