Our Carnival Cruise

   Last week, my husband and I went on a second honeymoon cruise aboard the Carnival Glory, to celebrate our 3rd anniversary.  Ports of call included Nassau, Bahamas then St. Thomas and finally St. Maarten.  It was a much-needed vacation for us!

   The boat itself is just gorgeous, full of beautiful shades of color, with themed lounges such as the Ivory Bar, Cafe Bleu, The Green Room and so on.  The lobby is a black base interspersed with solid-color tiles, all of which is speckled with glittery accents.

   For each port, we chose a basic tour.  At Nassau, we visited the famous Atlantis hotel and casino, which features a large aquarium and a fictional but fun excavation of the lost city itself.  The hotel also features several of the hand-blown glass sculptures by the artist Chihuly, including the sun, moon, and sea creatures, among others.

   At St. Thomas, we took an open-air bus tour.  We were able to visit several of the most popular tourist spots, albeit briefly.  We rode to Mountain Top, the highest point on the island, from which you can also see neighboring islands as well as much of the landscape below you.  We also saw the St. Peter Great House & Botanical Gardens, where we sampled some rum punch and got to see some of the local plant life.  We got to look down at some of the popular beaches, but did not get very close to those.  Since we already live in a coastal area, that wasn't high on our list of priorities!  We were hoping to get in some shopping at St. Thomas, but a tropical rain fell just as we were heading to the shopping district after the tour was over.  At least we got to do all our sightseeing in the warm sunshine!

   Our favorite port of call was St. Maarten.  Our bus driver was well informed and passed on so much interesting information!  Half the island is owned by the Dutch, and the other by the French.  The people of the island have renewed a pact each year for centuries to keep peace, even if their mother nations declare war upon each other.  In fact, they do this on the same day we celebrate our Memorial Day.  We did get to pick up some souvenirs on St. Maarten, including some tee shirts for the kids, a doll for my international collection, and some other small things.  This island was one of the hardest hit by the series of hurricanes a few years back, and is still recovering.  But it was also one of the cleanest and friendliest stops on the cruise.

   Hope you enjoyed hearing a bit about our trip.  I'll be posting more photos little by little.  We had a terrific time and am already eager to plan our next cruise, maybe in about 3 years from now.