Cruise Logs - 7 Day Western Caribbean Cruise on Glory

7 Day Western Caribbean Cruise on Glory
Posted on : 2009-02-23 by uCruiser

Cruise Line :	Carnival Cruise Lines
Cruise Ship :	Carnival Glory
Cruise Region :	Caribbean Western
Cabin Number :	2342 , 6481
Ports :	Belize , Cozumel , Freeport , Roatan, Honduras
Days :	7
Departure Date :	06/05/2008
Avg. Price per Pax :	800
Tags :	Carnival Glory Caribbean Cozumel Roatan Belize Freeport

Very nice cruise to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Freeport. We had a good time and enjoyed Glory as well as all the other ports.

How did I book?:
We booked through an online travel agent almost 9 months before the cruise. What a countdown! It was too long a time, so we jumped on a last minute 3 day cruise while we were waiting :)

I definitely prefer to book directly with the cruise line though, and do it whenever their price is right. It is so much easier to communicate directly instead of having the TA as a middle man.

Did I get a good price?:
I think our price was pretty normal for that time of the year. It was within the schools vacation and there are fewer Caribbean cruises in the summertime, so we didn't expect any super deal. I kept an eye on Carnival's prices up to the cruise, and there were never any major changes.

How was my trip to the port?:
Our 1 hour drive to Port Canaveral was great.

Embarkation/Debarkation:
Yes, it went as well as it could. I unloaded luggage and family and parked while they were standing in line. We were probably on board within half an hour.

I don't like debarkation too much, but there isn't really any way around it ;)

The ship:
It's a beautiful ship and we all liked it. It was clean and in good shape. I wasn't too crazy about the lido deck, though. It has a stadium kind of layout, with lounge chairs on several levels, and somehow it always felt crowded.

Cabin:
We had the L-shaped cabin all the way aft on the upper deck. You can see pictures of the room in one of my gallery albums. It was a really nice stateroom. The balcony in these rooms are double length compared to the standard balcony size. It didn't have an actual seating area with a couch, like the other staterooms, but it took a couple of days before I even thought about that, and we didn't miss it.
We brought our laptops so we could keep up on our business, and we did not have a good wireless connection all the way back there. One time, I managed to connect and check my emails from the cabin, but all the other times we went up midship to one of the public areas and connected from there.

Dining:
We got our breakfast in the buffet every morning. It was good. The lines weren't too bad and there was a good variety of food.
During the day we usually went for burgers or fish and chips. I love the fish and chips place.
We always went to the main dining room for dinner. The service there was good and the food was delicious.

Entertainment:
We watched the main shows and they were ok.

Ports & Excursions:
We booked private tours for Belize and Roatan, and dedicated Cozumel and Freeport to shopping and just doing whatever we felt like while we were there.

Belize: We decided for cave tubing and booked with Major Tom at belizecavetubing.net.

They met up with us at the port, and we drove about an hour in a bus to the cave tubing place. The guides in the bus were talking about Belize and made the ride very entertaining. We each got a tube, and started a half hour hike to the starting point. We passed a river where we had the opportunity to jump from a cliff into the water. Probably about 15ft. That was fun.

We continued our hike through the woods, and our guide stopped occasionally to tell us about the area, plants and animals, and made it really interesting. I saw several other guides from other tour companies, almost racing by us with their group, without stopping at all. So if you you decide to go Cave tubing in Belize, go with Major Tom.

We got to the river and we all went in with our tubes and started the ride. A lot of the time, we were in pitch dark caves, where the only light was from the head lamps we all were wearing. It was a difficult to stay connected in the tubes, and it was a bit straining on my back, but we had fun doing it.

Roatan: Here we booked "The Best of Roatan" with Victor Bodden tours. On this tour, Victor Bodden's guide will pick you up in a van at the dock, and they will be available for you until it's time to get back to the ship. We told them ahead of time that we would like to get a round trip on the island, with time enough for snorkeling somewhere along the way, and also stop in for lunch somewhere. We also wanted to go and see Victor Bodden's monkeys.

Their driver was there as planned, and he took us around and told as a lot about the island and its history. We stopped in at a place with a beautiful view and some small shops. For lunch and snorkeling we went to a place called Half Moon Bay. It was ok for snorkeling, with the reef pretty close to land. We had a lot of fun there. By the way, don't miss the coconut breaded fish at the restaurant, if you go there. It's awesome!

The monkey place was fun as well. We got to hold them and they were adorable. A word of warning though... Let the guide take care of it if the monkeys becomes to playful. One of the monkeys started pulling on my daughters necklace, and when she grabbed it on the back to pull it away, it turned around and bit her hand. She had to get a series of rabies shots when we came home. Don't let that keep you away if you go to Roatan. You definitely should go there. Just be careful when you handle the monkeys.

Cozumel: Here we were just walking around and looking at all the shops. We went to Pancho's Backyard and got a great lunch and a couple of margaritas.

Freeport: We were on vacation in Freeport years back, so it was interesting to return and see everything again. We took a cab to Lucaya straw market and did a little shopping there. After that we went across the street to Our Lucaya Resort, where we were hanging out until it was time to go back to the ship.

Overall Experience:
We had a great cruise, had a lot of fun, and enjoyed every minute. I would go back on Glory any time again!

Comments

From: Va4lovers said: "Carnival sucks" - 2009-03-11

We also was on the Glory to Western Caribean and had a horrible time got sick and was confined to cabin 5 out 7 days and Carnival won't do anything about it.

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