Carnival Glory (Aug 2018)
Around Ship/Random Stuff:
⚓ Glory is ofcourse part of the Conquest class (Conquest, Glory, Valor, Liberty, Freedom). We’ve been on all those ships plus more, and enjoyed the ship as did the others. Food options available (besides lido and MDR ofcourse): Guy’s, Blue Iguana, Seafood Shack, Steakhouse, Ol’Fashioned BBQ, Deli, Sushi on lido (opposite side of Deli), Pizza. It doesn’t have Cucina, JiJi’s, Bonsai, or Guy’s Pig & Anchor BBQ. No biggie for us.
⚓ Glory has 2 slides (a yellow open one, and a blue enclosed one), plus a small Waterworks area with kiddie slide.
⚓ Our CD was Brittany and she is full of energy! Especially at deck parties and anything dancing. You’ll break a sweat if you try to keep up with her pace! lol.
⚓ Our cabin was a Balcony on lido, right between (across) from the fwd Elevators and the Atrium Glass Elevators. Let me tell you the cabin location was VERY convenient as it was on lido and taking the fwd or glass elevator it was a few steps away, but it came with a price of hearing EVERY ding of the elevators….. at all hours of the day and night. Plus the music and Atrium Trivia parties and other can be heard in the cabin with the door shut. Sometimes we left the door open, and just listened to the music or parties from our cabin, lol. This was not our first choice cabin since we initially had an Interior on deck 6 Aft, but couldn’t pass up a great Balcony offer.
⚓ Being out in own private Balcony, seeing the open water, islands, and sunrise/sunset is priceless.
⚓ Strawberry icecream….. love them. While there is ofcourse Chocolate and Vanilla (and swirl) for both Soft-Serve and Frozen Yogurt, with Strawberry only option is Frozen Yogurt. From my previous experience on prior ships I almost always see the Strawberry ice-cream only on last Sea-day, but I saw a crew member stocking the ice-cream machines day 2, so I asked him about the strawberry flavor on this ship/sailing, and he said it’s every other day (so day 2, 4, 6) and it sure was… I lost count how many I had, lol.
⚓ Made my own Iced Coffee Chocolate Ice-cream, simply by filling a third of those lido cups with chocolate ice-cream, then pour coffee till about half or two-thirds, add ice, and stir. Tasty and free!
Other unique experiences on our sailing:
⚓ We had 2 medical drop offs during our cruise….. first one was on Monday (8/6) in Grand Turk around 4pm right around the time we were set to leave port. Was watching from our balcony where they brought an Ambulance, then nurse/ship doctor and security walked down the gangway, followed by a guy in a stretcher with one of his legs wrapped up (not posting pic for privacy of person). The other was on on Thursday night (8/9) in late evening after we had already left Amber Cove. First we heard an announcement for Crew Alert Medical Assistance in cabin ____, then later an announcement that we have to go back to Amber Cove to drop off a guest there for medical and expect a short delay back in Miami. We got back to Amber Cove around 11:30pm (see picture I took at 11:20pm, speed of 0.7 kts as we were pulling in), as felt the thrusters in gear while in adult comedy (11:30-midnight), before back a cruising speed back in Miami short afterwards. It delayed our arrival time back in Miami yesterday by just an hour (9am instead of 8am) and Carnival was kind enough to open up the phone lines for guests to call family/friends etc if anyone needed for transport arrangements. Prayers and thoughts to them and their families.
⚓ One of the last nights, lido was packed for the 80’s Rock-N-Glow Party. DJ started the music, staff was hanging out the glow sticks a couple of mins before start time, and all of a sudden, it started pouring rain like a monsoon in a matter of seconds… we were all drenched and chaos scrambling for cover, lol. It was a sight to see. Because the lido deck was soaked, for safety reasons ofcourse, they couldn’t hold it there anymore, and moved the party to the Dance club on deck 5.
⚓ Two awards were given for the ‘Youngest Platinum/Diamond Cruiser’ onboard at the VIFP party, one of which (youngest Platinum) one went to my 10-yr old daughter 
But what was really impressive was the other award (youngest Diamond) went to another 10-year old girl! Wow! We chatted with her after the party, sweet girl. Carnival dropped off the Platinum/Diamond Reunion photo in our cabin. My daughter also won the closest person to guess the ‘Candy Count in the bag’, with her award being the entire bag of candy!
Ports (what we did in each):
⚓ GRAND TURK: Since we’ve been here before and done Jack’s Shack, Governer’s Beach etc, this time we decided to reserve a Golf cart and adventure on our own touring the island. It did not disappoint! We went all the way up to the Lighthouse, stopping to pet the donkeys on the road, touring around the lighthouse area. It’s $3/adult, $2/child to get in, and they give you voucher to use those amounts in their gift shop or buy a drink. One $2-3 ‘voucher’ per drink though, cannot combine (I tried). We saw a “Chukka Shipwreck Adventure Course” (includes zipline) there next the lighthouse and when I asked they said it was only for those who booked thru the Cruiseline (we didn’t want to do it, I was just curious). Afterwards, we drove to Pillory Beach and it was great! Not super crowded, beach and water was beautiful. After spending couple hours here we started to head south, and saw some locals hanging around a food truck on side of the road. Decided to stop and order some authentic local Jerk Chicken. Delicious! Continued to drive down towards ships and stopped at Jack’s Shack to meet up with Topher again and Calypso but sadly they weren’t there at that time. We did see some other dogs including this really young pup (guessing around 3 weeks old). He’s so cute! He must have taken a liking to us or something since he decided to hang around us and our stuff on the beach, lol. Afterwards, dropped the golf cart and walked back to the ship. Great day! Oh my daughter lost one of her flip-flop while on the Golf cart lol, so she walked back to the ship with just one flip flop, lol.
⚓ SAN JUAN: We were here from 1-9pm. Walked up to El Morro fort first, flew our own kite that we packed with us (winds there make great kite flying weather). Then after touring the fort we stopped at Cafe Don Ruiz (at Cuartel de Ballaja) for some delicious coffee, then walked to San Cristobal fort where met up with a Park Ranger (a friend), toured some more, before getting back on the main street (Calle Marina) to buy a flip-flop for my daughter at CVS lol, and some local sweets, before back to the ship. Cost of fort entrance is $7/adult (children 15 and younger are free) and the receipt is valid for both forts for 24-hours.
⚓ ST THOMAS: Gorgeous views of the island pulling in and out here. We really wanted to go to Trunk Bay beach again in St John, but since we were here only until 3pm (back on-board time 2:30pm) we figured not worth all the transportation to/from especially since we’ll be back on another cruise to this island (from 7am-7pm), so we decided to take a taxi to Lindquist beach close to the East side of the island ($10/person each way) and we were the ONLY ones at the beach for about 2-3 hours until more people showed up then (still wasn’t crowded). A few dollars per person to get in. A good alternative if looking for alternative to standard places like Magen and Coki’s. Snorkeling wasn’t bad either, saw a 4 foot barracuda fairly close that scared the bejeebers out of me, and school of fish. Seaweed was pretty heavy during morning hours but in early afternoon somehow most got cleared up. No restaurant or food shack there. $5/lounge chair rental, and a restroom/showers available.
⚓ AMBER COVE: We hanged out by the port area- huge pool, 2 slides, and zipline. Free lounge chairs, but no shade anywhere, except along the wall between the Men/Women Restrooms (half shade). You can rent an umbrella for shade ($20 each). Those slides were fast and fun! Zipline they had sign that says 14 years old minimum. $10 for one-time zipline, or $20 unlimited. I did the $20 unlimited, and one tip is after you’re done with your zipline and go down the steps where they have someone to help take off the gear, you can just walk past them (not required to take off there) and walk all way back to the zipline (up the hill and around the curve etc) to zipline down again, without having to wait in line to gear up again. Time saver. Did about 5-6 ziplining in a row this way. Afterwards, we stopped at the El Cibao Cafe (close to the Duty free entrance/exit) for some local coffee and ice-cream, before back to the ship.
