Miami Port – Boarding Seven day West Caribbean / South America Cruise – On Carnival Cruise’s Ship – Carnival Glory – Sailing tonight at 5.00pm. Known as the Fun Ship, a luxury floating hotel.


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March 2nd 2014
Published: March 15th 2014
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Fun Ship Facts statistics: Valued at $500 Million – Made in June 2003 – Top speed 22.5 Knots – 1160 crew – Nationality of Officers, Italian and Croatian – Nationality of Hotel and Cruise Staff: International : 110.000 gross tonnage – 952 feet in Length – 116 feet Beam – 27 feet maximum Draft – 3,700 total guest capacity across 13 Decks. 2,900 guests were on board during our week.

Today we head out on our very first cruise. This was a trial to see if we like cruising.

We have booked a seven day western Caribbean cruise through Carnival. It looked ideal for us as it did not have too many long periods at sea, just has two thirty six hour periods of continual sailing time. The cruise takes in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Mexico, Belize and Honduras, Mahogany Bay, Roatan, before returning to Miami.

The internet site for the Ramada Inn stated that they provided a courtesy shuttle service to the port in the mornings. We had been unable to get a response from the hotel via email to confirm that this was still possible, so had booked with Carnival for transfer from Miami Airport direct to the Miami port. This proved to be a good decision.

We caught the hotel shuttle bus back to the airport and went in search of the Carnival check in desk now set up in the basement.

At the Carnival check in desk, there was no queue and only a ten minute wait for the bus to the port. We were issued with our room keys and completed all the formalities whilst still at the airport.

When we arrived at the port, after identifying our suitcases, we were able to proceed through customs etc, and our bags were taken away by the porters for delivery to our room on board.

When we arrived at the check in room at the port we were directed towards the boat as we had already done this. The room was full of about several hundred people all queuing to check in. We are so glad we chose to do this at the airport where there was no queue. The extra transfer cost was serious value for money.

When onto the boat, our first stop was to the bar and purchase our bottomless bubbles soda drinks package. The cost was $6 each a day to cover all our soft drinks. Think we will be getting our monies worth out of this.

Then off to our first taste of cruise food in the lido restaurant on deck 9. Pleasantly surprised at how good and plentiful the food is. Will have to be careful we do not eat too much. The boat has many restaurants and eateries, and each day, the food theme is different. Every possible type of cuisine was on offer.

Last stop our cabin. We knew we had an inside room, but were expecting something pretty small with two single beds. We actually have a fairly spacious room with a large king sized bed in the middle of it. Our suitcases did not arrive to the cabin till about 6.30 pm. A quick unpack operation then off to the deluxe steakhouse for our first meal.

As the holiday is for Theresa´s 50th, we will be using this as a very special reason to occasionally do some things that we would not usually do. Tonight is the first such thing.

There is an additional charge of $35 each for our meal tonight, but we left feeling that we had got good value for money, and may even try it again. Michelin star standard food and service.

At the beginning of the meal, one of the senior servers brought a tray around with all the cuts of meat, and explained in detail what each one was. George opted for a savoury shrimp cocktail followed by prime New York rib. Theresa had crab cake followed by surf and turf – Lobster and Mignon Steak fillet. We could not fault either of these in any way. Before they served these though, they brought out two other dishes. These were additional starters courtesy of the Chef. Thank you very much. For Theresa there was an intense rich mini tomato soup with garnishing and for George, a mini beef burger. These were very original and unique. Also, as it was the first day of sailing, we had a free bottle of wine, which Theresa had to her herself. This was a Chardonnay chosen exclusively by the on-board restaurant Sommelier. We told our server we could not make desert, but he convinced us to try the fresh fruit between us. We were glad we did. This was fine dining at its very best. John, Greg and Michelle would be proud of this. Theresa left the restaurant with remains of the Chardonnay too.

We think we are going to enjoy this cruise very much. We are sailing at sea overnight at a steady 19.5 knots with warm head winds looking over to Cuba on the East.


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