Glory Days

Clearly I have fallen WAY behind on my updates. My apologies. My original plan was to continue providing daily updates during my travels aboard the Carnival Glory. However, with a lack of internet connectivity – well, the lack of reasonably priced internet connectivity – I ended up taking a week off from blog updates. So, instead of a daily recap of my cruise I’m going with a cruise retrospective. I mean, do you really need to know how many times I stopped for a burger each day? Or how much soft serve ice cream I can eat in a day? (a lot, by the way) The important thing is that I was eating, right?

So, the itinerary for my cruise included stops at Half Moon Cay (The Bahamas), San Juan (Puerto Rico), and St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands) plus a few “Fun Days at Sea” along the way.

With this being my first cruise, I had no reference point as to what to expect from pretty much any aspect of the cruise. However, I was surprised at how noticeable the ships movements were. Up, down, side to side, and combinations thereof were the norm over the course of the week. Especially the first couple of days. That said, it didn’t bother me and I had no motion sickness issues.

When I awoke on Sunday, we had arrived at Half Moon Cay. The port at said location was too small for the boat to take us directly to shore so we had to board tenders that would shuttle back and forth between the Carnival Glory and the island. This process was delayed slightly as the seas were a bit rough and they had to make sure it was safe.

By 10:30, I was on one of the tenders and on my way to officially setting foot on The Bahamas. As has become the norm, the water was a stunning combination of blues. As has been established in previous updates, I’m not one to just sit on a beach and relax, or go swimming, so upon arriving on the island I set out on a mini-hike. I’ll admit that on more than a few occasions I resisted the urge to stray off course and stayed on the roads or beach. I may have strayed once though.

The most noticeable part of the stop at Half Moon Cay was that I actually ended up going in the water. Just to be clear, not completely in the water. But almost up to my knees which is pretty bold for me. Of course, this wasn’t entirely intentional. I was using my tripod to take a photo of myself with the Carnival Glory in the background when a rogue wave attacked me. Good thing I was wearing sandals instead of my hiking shoes. Surprisingly, the water was actually rather nice. So much so that I actually considered going swimming, but I didn’t. I mean, no need to get carried away.

Consider this a teaser. More to come later.