Phil Ladden . com

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

My Carnival’s Eastern Caribbean Glory Cruise Part 5

After living in Colorado for over 38 years, I find myself often thinking about the friends, places, and scenery there. Waking up on the first morning on the Carnival Glory, look at what was on the morning news!

This was a kick. It was 47 in Colorado Springs. It was about 80 in the Caribbean that morning. All week we enjoyed the satellite feed of the Denver television stations.

Leaving the beach on St. Thomas I was waiting for a cab. I shared the ride back to the ship with a friendly couple. I asked them if they were on the ship and they said yes. I asked them if they were enjoying it and they kind of looked at each other. The young woman said that actually, they worked on the ship. I thought cool. I asked what they did and found that he (Scotty) ran sound and lights for the shows and was from New York City. She, (Adriane), was the lead entertainer/singer/dancer for the main show room, the Glory Dancers.

Talking further, Adriane asks if I had seen any shows, and I hadn’t! So she invites me to her Thursday evening show as it was the main one of the week. She must have sensed my hesitation as I am not a big show goer. So she says, “Phil, it will only be 45 minutes out of your life!” I had to laugh and of course, went. It was a great show with fantastic props and songs, sung by her and a lead guy, whose name I can’t remember!

Adriane is the one second from the left in this picture in the floor length dress, which was taken after the show Thursday night. She has been doing this for a number of years, and I hope to be able to share her story in the future. Both her and Scotty were some of the nicest people I met on the cruise.

Anyone who has cruised looks forward to the towel animals found in your room each evening. It’s a fun touch. I have to note that the cabin stewards we had were outstanding. Sentana knew both Beth’s and my name by the end of the first day and was there to take care of anything we needed. It was like having a butler, much like some cruise lines offer in their suites, for additional cost.

I had asked Scotty and Adriane where the best beach to visit on St. Maarten would be. (Pointer: Ask the crew for recommendations on things like this as they know the best spots to check out.) They said Bikini Beach, which is on the French side would be perfect, and it was. The whole group went there and it was beautiful. I overdid it in the sun that day and the peeling on my shoulders is only now stopping!

Here’s a shot of the area we hung out in that day. Two chairs and an umbrella was $18 bucks. I sat ON the beach that day or was in the water. That $18 went toward a few Presidente’s! a beer from Santa Dominica. They are only sold in the Caribbean, from what I understand. Julian introduced me to them.

For those of you who missed me, I did try to call as I was thinking about all of you, especially those back in cold Colorado. From the beautiful Bikini Beach. By the way, you didn’t find many bikini’s to the far left or right of where we were. Up the beach a ways was topless and down aways was — . Noooo, I can not confirm that, but other’s did. I’m just sayin’ I stayed where I belonged! (Look at the color of that water — it really is that stunning.)

I can’t say my kids don’t have a sense of humor. Beth took this picture. I couldn’t put the side view up — this kiddo had a gut that would put a summo to shame. I think maybe that Ginger beer might have just been taken from him and he was looking for it.

Lastly, we said our goodbye’s at the pier. My kids headed out for a long drive back to Louisville and I to the Orlando airport for a flight that would take me to Charleston and then on to Phoenix.

It was a fantastic trip.