About us: This was my DW and I's 3rd cruise, all on Carnival. We previously sailed the Miracle and the Fascination. We booked this cruise with some friends and day 3 on the cruise was our 7th wedding anniversary. We left our two DS's at their grandparents for the week. Yes we missed them....... but not until day 6!

Day 1: I was lucky and got a van and a driver from work so no parking fees! We arrived at Canaveral at about 11:30. My DW and I had VIP boarding and they let a couple of our friends that we were traveling with get in line with us. Not that this was any benefit because there was no line at all getting onto the ship. We were checked in and on the ship by noon. We got a couple of the funship drinks and made our way up to the Lido deck, sampled a little bit of everything from the buffet and made our way upstairs to the Fish and chips where there was plenty of seating. From there we took a quick tour of the ship, confirmed our dinner reservations for the supper club (The online reservation site does work), and went to the spa for a raffle (didn't win) and my DW made her appointments for the week. After the spa we went to check out our cabin and get ready for muster. Muster went very quick (of course we were the last ones to arrive). Our cabin was very nice. We had a cat. 11 suite which was plenty enough room for our 7 bags of luggage! We did smuggle in a couple bottles of liquor and a couple bottles of wine with no hassle. Soon after sailing the casino was open so we went and started the donating process! Dinner the first night was nice, nothing to write home about, but it was ok. After Dinner is was back to the casino for more donations! Ports of Call Day 2, Nassau: The ship was only in Nassau for about 5 hours so we didn't make any plans. We got off the ship at about 9:30, made our way through the 5 million taxi drivers all trying to pitch us on a ride to every place that we don't want to go. From there we were off to Starbucks! After our Starbucks tasting excursion we just walked the streets. We did venture into the Straw Market (There is a half hour of my life that I will never get back!) We did go to this great little Greek restaurant that some friends of our told us about called Athena. There we had the best conch fritters I have ever had. We were back on the ship at around 12:30 and hung out on the lido deck the remainder of the afternoon. St. Thomas: This was by far my favorite port yet. We got through immigration and off the ship in about 15 minutes (not bad). We first went over to Yacht Haven for some lunch. We found this great little bar and grill on the water called the" Fat Turtle". I had a snapper sandwich with fried plantains on it that was just fantastic. We then walked around and checked out the shops and yachts. From there we got a cab ride (more like Mr. Toad's wild ride!!) to Megan's Bay. What a beautiful beach! We rented a couple of floating mats and laid in the turquoise water for hours while waitresses swam our drink orders out to us! After several hours of that we caught another wild ride back to the dock and took the cable car up to Paradise Point (well worth it!) We sat up there for about 2 hours drinking buschwackers (very good), listening to the live band (horrible), and watching the sun set over the mountains (the prettiest I have ever seen!) Then it was back to the ship where we opened a bottle of wine and sat on the balcony sailing away and watching the remainder of the sunset! St. Maarten: After such a wonderful time in St. Thomas, I was a little disappointed in St.Maarten . We spent the day with a couple of friends that were cruising with us so that was nice. We got off the ship and took a cab to Marigot in search of crepes and good coffee for breakfast.  We did find a nice little outside cafe where we had banana nutella crepes and very good coffee. Though expensive, the crepes were well worth it! We then walked around Marigot for about a ½ hour before deciding to put this part of the island behind us. We caught another cab and went to downtown Phillipsburgh. I only made 3 mistakes this whole trip, and this was number two! As we were driving through Phillipsburgh we decided not to even get out of the cab and instructed the driver to take us back to the ship area. The area around the ship was nice; we hit the shops, and parked our butts down on a few barstools for some cocktails. On the walk back to the ship we happened to pass another little bar and it was time for a chilled shot of Patron! Next time I go to St. Maarten I'll explore the other side of the island; it has to be better than the parts I saw. Dinners: We ate in the Golden Dining room where the highlight of the room was the Maître D (Joseph!!) This guy makes Richard Simmons look like Dick Butkis. The most flamboyant person I have ever met! But he did a great job, gave us thousands of laughs and you could tell he really enjoyed doing his job. Sometimes the food sucked, sometimes the food was good, but mocking Joseph was well worth the trip to the dining room! On Monday night we ate upstairs in the supper club for our 7th anniversary. This was fantastic! We had the escargot, steaks, lobsters, a great bottle of wine, yummy deserts and fantastic service. We were going to go ahead and book it again for another night but the lost and found dept. in the casino told me that just because I lost all my chips, does not mean that I can make a claim! Darn them! ; ) Shows: We saw both the late night (R rated) comedy shows and they were both very funny! We also went to the magic/comedy show and it was entertaining, worth going to. We attended the captains cocktail party and the past guest party. They were pretty much the same thing, free meatballs and free cocktails!

Days at Sea: We had a couple of cloudy days but the rest of the week was perfect weather. We spent our sea days lounging on the Lido deck, losing our money in the casino, and over eating/drinking! One day we did attend the art auction, we're really not too into art work but it seemed like a fun thing to attend. It was interesting and even a little educational. We ventured into the cigar bar one night, very impressed with the room. We sat on some comfortable chairs and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine, a good Cuban, and a very pleasant 3 man band. Cabin: Our cabin was nice. We had 7271 which is located just adjacent to the main elevators on deck 7. Yes you could hear a lot of lobby noise but it really didn't bother us as we were up late every night anyways. Our cabin steward was marginal at best. We only had 3 towel animals all week and we would constantly have to remind him to fill the ice bin. But he still worked hard trying to keep our room clean (DW and I are both slobs!) so he got a good tip anyway. Casino: OUCH! We kept coming up dry in the casino, we played every game at every table and still no luck! That was until Thursday. Thursday night I dropped my drink on the casino floor and broke glass all over the place. (I still blame the coconut monkeys for that one!) Instead of feeling embarrassed, I looked at the dealer closest to me and told him that I will be breaking a glass every hour until I win something! He got quite the chuckle out of that as 2 hours later he handed me my $700 in winnings on the roulette table! I still went home in the negative……just not as bad! The casino staff was very friendly and enjoyable to be around and the casino itself was big for a cruises ship and comfortable. There was a lot of smoke, but I'm a smoker so it did not bother me. Misc: Creams coffee bar was ok. The sushi place was great but don't get into a wasabi eating contest with a friend (mistake #3). Pools and hot tubs were always crowded but always clean. The chair hogs were out in force but we made the most of it by playing a game of "See how many blue towels you can collect!!!" Take that chair hogs!....and thank you for the towel collection!! Piano bar was ok, we went there once and the crowd was very tame. Food at the Gala buffet was horrible! Fun to look at, not fun to eat! Tip of advice…Dissect your room safe! On Friday night as we were packing up our bags I emptied our room safe and found $100 bill under the felt mat. We didn't put it in there, but we sure took it out! Thank you to whoever sailed the week before us! My DW quickly took the money and bought more photos. I told her to take it to the casino and double it, but she's too smart and knows better than to listen to my ideas. In closing, this trip was fantastic! We really enjoyed the ship and had a lot of good laughs. I would go on the Glory again tomorrow if I could! If you made it this far……..Thanks for tolerating my review!!