Glory review w/pics 10/4-10/11

[TakeMeAway1001]

In Roatan we booked a driver for the day through Victor Bodden, we requested Tex after reading some great things about him and that is who we got. For $30 per person we met him at the port and off we went. Going through the downtown area was interesting, it was chaos and DD was a bit overwhelmed by all the poverty. DH said it reminded him of Fallujah Iraq with all the poverty, trash, sickly looking animals, burning trash etc.

 

View of port area~

 

 

 

Tex was great offering up all sorts of info on the area and about him and his family. Once we got outside of the town we headed towards Anthonys Key Resort where we walked out to a pier and were able to take pics of the lagoon in front of where the do the dolphin swims are held. Tex told us that on days when the ships aren't in port it only cost $40 per person to swim with the dolpins.

 

 

 

 

 

From there he asked us if we were interested in stopping by Victors to see the monkeys. In my initial inquiry I had asked about it but decided against it after speaking with a fellow CC'er while we were in Cozumel. She had been bitten by some random animal they referred to as an anteater. I told him my concern and he assured me that animal wasn't out in the open and DD pushed me to go so we went.

 

It costs $2 per person to view the animals and they were cute, but not overly clean. As soon as we entered the cage they hopped onto us and played around, one reached into DH's pocket which was buttoned and grabbed his money clip, lol. Another ran up DD's sundress, that was interesting trying to get him to come out.

 

Their tails were quite wet and dirty and it was pretty hard to avoid touching the tails so we did get a little dirty in the process. One did nip at my ankle and I started feeling a little nervous so we left the cage.

 

In the next cage we were told the monkey was shy, well it hopped on DD's shoulder but when DH put his hand out to touch him he quickly bared all his teeth in a not so friendly manner. So I decided we were done visiting the monkeys. They were cute but I wouldn't do it again, I really wanted to wash with soap/water but there wasn't any so we opted for the bottle of sanitizer I brought.

 

DH tipped the young boy who showed us around and then he led us into a little store they have where he pushed their wares. We bought DS a small mahogany box for $12 and then headed out.

 

Our next stop was some sightseeing through a little town area, very pretty along the water. There were some really quaint stores and restaurants but we decided head towards West End or West Bay, can't remember which but it was where Tabanya Beach is. Here Tex led us through a walkway at the hotel and down to the beach, we were directly next to the Carnival excursion @ Tabanya Beach.

 

We rented snorkel equiptment for $5 per person and headed out, the coral and water were amazing. DD wasn't too keen on trying snorkeling yet she did awesome. We couldn't get her to come out of the water. She saw some beautiful fish and a small stingray too. According to DD it was "the best water so far", we snorkeled and sat on the beach, we weren't allowed to use the hotel loungers but that was fine. It didn't cost us anything to use the beach and Tex sat with our stuff while we snorkeled. The hotel was beautiful and we would consider staying there in the future for a land based vacation.

Reached the picture limit in this post so I will post more in another one

[TakeMeAway1001]

Pier by Anthonys Key Resort

 

 

 

 

 

[TakeMeAway1001]

Monkeys @ Victors house~

 

 

 

 

Pics of village area~

 

[TakeMeAway1001]

 

 

 

 

Carnival Tabanya Beach area~

 

Where we were~

[TakeMeAway1001]

Ok so that pretty much wraps up Roatan, it was beautiful and we had a great day. It was well worth the $30 p/p we paid to have a driver to ourselves and to be free to do as we pleased :)

 

 

Our next stop is Belize where booked with cave-tubing dot com for the second time. Last year we did cave tubing and this year we booked a ATV Jungle Excursion. Let me say that my family had no faith in me whatsoever and according to them I totally shocked them on this one ;) I will be back later today to post on our day in Belize.

 

Have a great afternoon~

[boatdoc]

My Marine just made it home from his 5th deployment and we are heading out on the Glory in late December.

 

Will you be on the 13Dec sailing? If so, I'll buy the first round!

[TakeMeAway1001]

I can't wait to read the rest of your review - especially Roatan Island. So sorry your room steward and wait staff were less than perfect. Sounds like you enjoyed your cruise nonetheless.

 

I didn't realize they had gotten rid of the Gala Buffet. :(

 

I know it was sad, we never actually ate the food but the pictures we took were always impressive.

 

Roatan was a favorite for me on this cruise :) Can't wait to go back and do more exlporing, I am sure we missed so much.

 

I was really bummed out about the room being messy and the fact that the staff seemed so blah on this cruise. We have always had really good luck with the staff and missed not getting to know them this time around. Oh well there is always the next cruise right?

[TakeMeAway1001]

Which nights were the formal nights and the Past Guest party?

 

They were on Sunday and Thursday, past guest party was Thursday in the Amber Palace :)

[TakeMeAway1001]

For not posting some of her favorite Roatan pics that she took, she loves taking pictures hence the reason she took almost 1000 :)

 

 

[magictam]

We leave next Saturday on the Glory. Your review and pictures are a wonderful way to pass the time.

 

Thanks again for sharing. Can't wait for the rest and especially the capers!:o

[TakeMeAway1001]

[TakeMeAway1001]

On to our day in Belize, here we booked with Yhony from cave-tubing dot com. This was our second time using them, we used them last May for cave tubing and this year for their fairly new ATV Jungle Tour. We met Yhony himself outside the port area where the tours/taxis are, he had a large sign with our name on it. I have to say we were a little skeptical about going because it was raining pretty hard when we were set to leave the ship, what a bummer but we went anyways and are so glad we did.

 

Once on the bus Yhony came on and made a little speech, he is a great guy!

 

The bus ride is probably about an hour long, out of the full bus we were the only ones doing just the ATV tour, most were doing just cave tubing or the combo tour. The guide Evan gave us a great informational tour as we drove and let us know we would be stopping to pick up some Cashew Wine to sample. The ride goes by quickly with all the info and questions/answer session, it was fun! The guides pass around a small sample of the wine to taste and before you know it your there.

 

We got off the bus with those doing the combo tour, those who were doing both headed out before us so that they could have enough time to do both excursions. We waited for a few minutes and then we were off!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TakeMeAway1001]

 

Our tour was amazing, I had never been on an ATV and like I said in an earlier post my family had little faith in me and DH wanted me to ride on the back of his, not fun!

 

It was a crazy tour, we all managed to get stuck a few times but our guides Evan and Leron were great! It was such a fun, personal tour seeing that it was just DH, DD and I along with the two guides. We saw some neat turtles, a little crab like creature, learned a lot about the jungle etc. The guides were fun and took our cameras for us and took pictures.

 

Once we were done we washed up and planned on waiting for the bus carrying the cavetubing folks. Instead we washed up and were offered some complimentary tamales that the local ladies had made, DH and I had some but DD wouldn't give them a try. Once we were done Evan said he would use Yhonys car to take us back to the ship so we didn't have to wait around. We heard a lot about Belize and Evan even took us the scenic route through a little downtown area. He stopped and bought some fresh fruit slices for us, we tried mango, papaya, pineapple, melon and bananas, it was SO GOOD.

 

Evan and Leron dropped us off and we settled up and think the day was well worth the $55 per person we paid. Yhony runs a top notch business and we highly recommend them :)

[TakeMeAway1001]

Hope this works~ I tried the preview and it shows black X's on my album but it looks like if you click the first one it brings it up and then you can arrow through them even though the next one appears to be blank.

 

I hope this works, I am beat and ready to go watch Desperate Housewives. I will be back tomorrow~

 

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2033209100104170056Yoduaw?vhost=good-times

 

 

[marinewifeandproud]

Hubby appreciates the offer of "first round", but we are sailing on the December 27th cruise.

I'm so ready to just enjoy some quiet and alone time away from work, the Marine Corps, and his blackberry.

We are scuba diving in Cozumel, reef fishing in Belize, and swimming with the dolphins in Nassau. It can't come fast enough for me.

[MTcruiser]

Great review! Could you tell me what nights the formal nights were?

thanks

[LRene]

Maybe I missed it in your Capers but did you ever change time from Eastern to Central?

[Froufie]

The Capers are looking mighty fine - thank you so much! :D

[TakeMeAway1001]

Great review! Could you tell me what nights the formal nights were?

thanks

 

Sunday and Thursday :)

[TakeMeAway1001]

Maybe I missed it in your Capers but did you ever change time from Eastern to Central?

 

No we stayed on ship time/EST, the only time I thought it was tough was when we arrived in Belize, it was 530AM their time.

[TakeMeAway1001]

Our last stop was in Freeport, this is the port where I was truly undecided of whether or not we were even going to get off the ship. I had read so many bad reviews on Freeport and was having a tough time deciding what to do.

 

One of our considerations was horseback riding on the beach and let me tell you it was the best decision we made the whole trip. We booked with Leo from Trikk Pony and we were scheduled to meet her in front of the Westin @ 12:30. We took a taxi for $5 per person from the port to the Our Lucaya area, I thought the whole area was beautiful, it was clean and the locals were very friendly. We were only asked once if we wanted to get our hair braided, no one else pushed anything on us.

 

I enjoyed browsing the little shops and watching the locals making their wares, it was really cool. I stopped at a pharmacy to buy some Cortaid for the mystery bites on our legs, more on that later on.

 

After poking around we headed to the Westin to check it out...WOW! What a beautiful place, we walked right up to the front door where the doorman opened it and greeted us with a big smile and a good morning. We walked in and used the restroom and walked through the back door to see the most beautiful view. The grounds were amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around, took some pictures and enjoyed the scenery. The staff we encountered never once questioned us. We walked over to the water, by the pools and store and just basically killled some time. As it got closer to 1230 we headed out front to wait for Leo.

 

At just about 1230 we saw a big while truck pulling a huge horse trailer coming our way. Leo pulled in to the Westin lot to drop off some of the people from the early tour and drove back around to get us.

 

Leo was super nice and you could tell she LOVED her horses. Leo told us about life on GBI and asked us about our lives back home. We took a short ride, maybe 20 minutes or so to a secluded beach area where she unloaded the horses and briefed us on what we were going to do.

 

Neither DD nor I had ever been on a horse so I was a bit nervous but Leo quickly calmed my nerves. She chose horses for us based on our skill level and such. One of the horses kept peeking around the truck at my daughter and making these funny, chomping sounds with his huge teeth. Low and behold that is the one DD got, he was white and very cute.

 

Once we were all situated on our horses we left for the beach. I couldn't believe how beautiful this beach was, throughout the 90 minute ride we saw only a few people scattered about. The horses love the water and seemed so happy to be out there on this beautiful beach. Leo was kind enough to take one of our cameras and snap a bunch of great photos for us.

 

Once our ride was over :( We loaded up the horses for our ride back to town. Leo recommended we try some Conch Salad at Rum Runners so we glady took her suggestion and she dropped us off in the shopping/restaurant area. We changed our clothes and headed to find Rum Runners, it was pretty busy but we found a seat after about five minutes.

 

A friendly waitress came and took our order, no Conch Salad today :( I ended up ordering Conch & Fries, DH got a club sandwichs and DD got a cheeseburger. The food was simple and very good! We also ordered drinks, DH got a Goombay Smash, I got a strawberry daquiri and DD ordered a virgin strawberry daquiri served in a fresh coconut...YUM~ Let me just say after two of those drinks I was feeling it, the drinks on the ship are ok but I never once felt any effects on anything other than the mojitos.

 

After lunch we shopped a bit and headed for a cab to take us back to the ship. It was bitter sweet knowing that our trip was coming to an end.

 

I am going to try to attach a slideshow of Freeport :)

http://slideshow.snipergal8541.imageloop.com/

 

 

Pictures of our excursion are coming soon.....

[TakeMeAway1001]

http://slideshow-2.snipergal8541.imageloop.com/

 

 

Things I really liked about this cruise:

 

* I loved flying into MCO.

 

* I loved the Radisson.

 

* The Glory, although getting pretty worn I would sail her again.

 

* The food, anything that I don’t have to prepare always tastes good.

 

* The comedians

 

* The mojitos specials

 

* Having a balcony on the Lido deck, very convenient

 

* The nice people we met, the ones who actually take the time to say hello and smile.

 

* Being able to relax, there are so many escape spots that I really took advantage of this cruise.

 

* Most of all it had to be the ports this cruise, I loved Freeport and Roatan.

It’s funny because before we left those were the ones I was least looking forward to.

 

* Limited announcements, it was nice not hearing a blaring announcement every five minutes.

 

* Gebby and Edwin two of the Lido deck bartenders, they made us laugh and are true assets to Carnival.

 

* Auto sensor Purell dispensers around the ship.

 

Things I really didn’t like on this cruise:

 

* The majority of the staff seemed cranky in my opinion. On the Legend last year the staff was amazing. Rarely did a staff member pass us on the Legend and not say hello and smile. We didn’t see that this time, not sure what is up but a smile and a hello goes a long way.

 

* The fact that my cabin was so dirty, we have never complained about our cabin but this cruise holds the cake for having the dirtiest cabin we've had. We found the balcony to be very dirty, the table and chairs had all sorts of food/sticky stuff on them. I don’t think the table out there had been washed in weeks.

 

*Areas in the bathroom that haven’t been wiped in some time, GROSS!

 

*The random bites we had all over our legs, every day. We itched and itched all night, every night. We could never figure out what was biting but thankfully now that we are home they aren’t appearing anymore.

 

*Rude passengers, it blows my mind how rude people can be. We saw finger snapping at the staff, people saying “hey you” or “get me this”, I just don’t understand where common courtesy goes for some once they board.

 

*Seat savers, not just one seat it was entire rows.

 

* Unsupervised little kids in the hot tubs.

One night, I think it was our last night we were up on the Lido/Adults pool/spa deck and watched as a family hung out. Mom and Dad resting in a lounge chair while DD & DS played in and around the pool. I think it was close to 11pm, both of the children were scooting on their knees picking the small 1X1” decorative tiles off of the pool sitting wall. Granted the ones they were ripping off were loose but what is up with that? The kids were pulling them off and handing them to Mom & Dad to hold for them. I don’t understand what would possess an adult to think that is alright to do. Oh yeah I forgot they paid for their cruise, lol.

 

* Wasted food, mostly by children loading up huge plates and take a bite or two. Where are the parents when this is going on, teach your kids to only take what they plan on eating. Seeing all the wasted food was truly a shame!

 

* Kids running around like animals, trashing the ice cream area, leaving food/drinks on stairs, in elevators, dropping food and leaving it for someone else to clean up. Yelling and being obnoxious at shows, you know you see them on most every cruise, it’s not all kids but a good majority.

 

* Adults who act like idiots, give them a few drinks and it really comes out. We had a choice few on this cruise, seems like no matter where we were they were there. Hell one of them was even on the plane going home with us, YAY!

 

* Smokers on the non smoking side.

 

Would I sail Carnival again, absolutely! I know the things I didn’t like are going to happen and I know there isn’t anything I can do about it except be thankful that my family/children don’t act like circus animals while on vacation.

 

We're sad it's over :( But I am very glad I have today off from work. Funny how ATV'ing and horseback riding can wreak havoc on your body days after the fact. I feel like I am 80 years old today :)

 

Time to plan another~

 

 

[Boomermomma]

You mentioned the Avis shuttle from the hotel. Is that the regular hotel shuttle, or did you set this up with Avis? The hotel told us the earliest they could start shuttling was 11:30.:confused:

[TakeMeAway1001]

You mentioned the Avis shuttle from the hotel. Is that the regular hotel shuttle, or did you set this up with Avis? The hotel told us the earliest they could start shuttling was 11:30.:confused:

 

TakeMeAway1001 says:

>>We had a reservation on the Avis shuttle for 10:30AM and couldn't wait to leave.

Once at Avis we waited for the shuttle to arrive and let off people who were just off of the Glory and then it was our turn.<<

 

No the shuttle was from the Avis drop off location down the street from the Radisson. We reserved it when we rented the car, it was free and very organized, there were only six people on it. If you have a car rental you can just call and add the shuttle on :)

[littlemeagain]

Thanks for the great review!

 

We are sailing on the Glory on Valentine's Day and are in Cabin 9270 on the Lido deck. Now I am starting to worry about the condition of our cabin and the cabin stewart not doing his job. Were you also on the port side?

 

TIA

Liz