September 12 - September 19 Carnival Glory Cruise

Index:
Day 1-3
Day 4-5
Day 6
Day 7-8
Cruise Ship Tour

Day 4

Our first day at Sea!  I'll take this opportunity to talk a little about the cruise activities and service.  At first I was worried about being bored during the 3 full days at sea. However, I quickly learned that one has to be more concerned with setting aside time to relax than be bored.  In fact, on the last day at sea we purposely started skipping activities so we could just lounge around, read books, play with Ashlyn and relax.

Activities.  All day there is music and activities going on all over the ship.  There is sports (basketball, volleyball, etc... competitions).  There is art, shows, music, dancing, lessons, and other activities all day long.  Each day you get a schedule placed on your bed with hour by hour activities on board the ship.  They also make announcements over the intercom.   This day, I did a bean bag toss tournament and watched the infamous "hairy chest contest" among other activities.   Honestly, I don't remember all that we did during the first day at sea, but I remember it went by really fast and we had a great time.

Service: I don't think I ever had service like this before.  The staff (state room, diner, and other) are all extremely polite and cater to your every need. For example, our waiter noticed that Mayuko was particularly enjoying her lobster one night, so he just brought her a whole other plate (delicately garnished of course).   Our state room was cleaned twice a day and the crew would take time to talk to you and answer questions or play with Ashlyn. In fact, Ashlyn was a highlight for both passengers and crew.  For example, our state room person Mariana and our head waiter Ulysses both have babies (1 y/o) at home and are on the ship 6 months before they can see their children.  They work 7 days a week 10-14 hours per day and their pay consists entirely of tips(:  Sometimes other crew members would walk away from their area just to play with Ashlyn.  The other guests seem to love her as well, and someone was always offering to hold her if we wanted to dance.  

Honestly I have never experienced the service like I did on the ship in my entire life.  Everything was taken care of.  They would help us walk our trays with food to the other side of the ship.  And you don't leave tips until the end, so it is just daily service without having to pay for it per basis.   One day at dinner I saw two interesting appetizers that I wanted to try.  I said, "Can I order two appetizers today".  Our waiter said, "Of course Mr. Hayes, you are on vacation, you can have as many appetizers as you like".  Often crew members would remember our names even though I didn't know their names. Our stateroom person even helped me change Ashlyn a couple of times.  I think she missed her baby though... 

Another nice thing is that cell phones and computers don't work on the cruise, so you are completely free to relax!:)

Day 4 First day at Sea (Note: Click on the image to for high-resolution)
Bean Bag Toss Competition - Mayuko Download Video	Bean Bag Toss Competition - Tim Download Video
Carnival Glory Deck during day at sea (you can see the water slide on the right)	Bean Bag Toss
Ashlyn with Sun glasses	Ice Carving
Mayuko having the Guest mixed "Drink of the Cruise"	Ashlyn taking alook over the side
Ashlyn hanging out with Dad

Day 5

We arrived at St. Thomas at 8 AM, but decided to sleep in until 12.  St. Thomas was more of an adventure than anything else.  We packed up my backpack with snorkeling gear packed Ashlyn and tried to figure out how to get to St. John. We spent the first hour walking around completely lost.  Finally we found a "Taxi" that took us to the other side of the island where we then took a ferry over to St. John.   After arriving at St. John, we then took another taxi to Trunk Bay.   Trunk Bay was beautiful and had wonderful snorkeling.   We also met up with our table mates from the cruise - Zoe, Shane, and Marina from Vancouver BC.  Zoe was one at the time and was very cute, she always had this look like "whoa" when she looked around at everything.   I know a lot more about St. Thomas now, and would probably do things a bit different, but we had fun.  It was a little difficult trying to carry Ashlyn and all of our gear on 4 busses, taxis, and ferries.  

Another note, Ashlyn started having diareah and a bad diaper rash almost the moment we stepped on board.  It wasn't the ship food or water because we brought bottled water and her food.  It got so bad that we ended up taking her to the doctor. They have an entire basic hospital on board the ship with two doctors xray machines, medical rooms, the works.  The Doctor gave us some medicine for the diarrhea and we stopped by a pharmacy on St. Thomas to buy more diapers and wipes.   

Day 5 St. Thomas (Note: Click on the image to for high-resolution)
AVI of the ferry to St. Johns Download Video	Tropical Paradise Download Video
Mayuko REALLY enjoying her steak! Download Video	Eguana on St. Thomas
Mayuko with Cruise ship in background	The lagoon that we snorkled in is in the background
Trunk Bay Lagoon, St. Johns Island	Daddy's tummy i sooo cumfy!
Mayuko Snorkling	Mayuko with Zoe
Shane and Marina	Whatup Dad!
Main Course tonight	Apetizer
Mayuko's Filet Mignonbut Mommies face seems more interesting	Desert, the rasberry sorbet was awsome!
Tonight's Towel Creature

Brief tour of ship -->

Index:
Day 1-3
Day 4-5
Day 6
Day 7-8
Cruise Ship Tour