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AIDAmar anchored in Cayman harbor, from CARNIVAL GLORY.

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Tender views after a short stay on Grand Cayman.

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George Town, Cayman Islands. With a late excursion and in need of supplies  we head up into the town, which is just waking up, but there are things to see, trees and stairways to climb. We have no idea that this trip runs on ship’s time, not local, and we’re missing our snorkeling excursion.

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Grand Cayman, GLORY’s first port. We are being joined by AIDAcara, a German vessel owned by Carnival.

Tendering means a couple of free boat rides, and opportunities to photograph the ship from very close up. Cons include a limited number of return trips and subsequent foreshortened land time as well as one’s random placement in a crowd. Here I had to defer any real shooting unless I wanted to clamber over very crowded spaces.

On our return the light would be better and the tender almost empty.

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Our first sea day over, GLORY heads into the night, the full moon risen over the water.

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Dining rooms and happy times. Sabine tried to dress up as best she could to match the waiters’ outfits.

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The Alchemy Bar is new on GLORY I believe since her March 2017 drydocking. Formerly the Burgundy Wine Bar, we’ve upgraded to a custom-cocktails concept. Despite the inviting warmth and a menu that lit up when you opened it, the space seemed to be quiet much of the time, or used as meeting point to transition to other venues.

When it comes to drinking, I’m an elemental guy (think beer to quench, martini gin of course to mellow, and wine red usually to eat with), so the $10 custom concoctions weren’t going to get my Sign-and-Sail swipin’. But for those who like experimenting with different essences, these were cocktails to savor, in a good spot for watching humanity in its many flavors passing by.

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And Bar Blue, one of the prettiest rooms on CARNIVAL GLORY, stood empty every time I came to its seductive cool.

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GLORY had several intriguing smaller spaces aft on Deck 5 (Promenade); Cinn-a-Bar had a classic piano bar setup, with the guy in the middle taking requests, no doubt with a gigantic snifter for the tips, and plenty of green going in it. The red via my phone comes across perhaps as too much, but in truth it was a cozy vibe, and by voyage’s end had evolved into the kind of friendly and intimate room that felt rude to snap a picture in.

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Sunset views from the Azure Lido. Sabine enjoying a hot tub which before this month had been adults-only, along with the pool, which was livelier by day.

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The White Heat Disco. I imagine the place was packed to the walls after 11 or so, but I had several chances to photograph the space empty and lit for cleaning.

Any cabin in the 6400 range on GLORY would be one deck immediately above this seething cauldron of boogie.

We were in 8336, where the only complaint for the early riser might be the happy sounds of children and an occasional scraping chair on the Torquoise Lido one above when the afternoon nap is nigh. These didn’t keep me or Sabine awake for long. On Verandah Deck, anyone booking staterooms 8280-8021 and forward will sleep the sleep of those who sleep under people eating. Quietest sleeping deck on GLORY overall must be Empress Deck, or 7.

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The ship’s orientation was readily available from this monitor along Kaleidoscope Boulevard, an indoor transition space linking GLORY’s main nighttime hot spots on the deck they call Promenade, one deck higher than Atlantic deck with lifeboats shown below.

The Casino and Colors Lobby bars are where I came when I wanted to drink from glass, not plastic or aluminum can.

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It was delightful to wander the bright spaces then come to this open deck for a nice stretch of teak, the dash and play of ocean sounds, and (the observant viewer will see) the night dark but for the light of a distant ship, one of three vessels I could see leaving Port Everglades to the north as we sailed out of Miami.

Wild hunch has me thinking it is HARMONY OF THE SEAS, the world’s largest passenger ship.  She left PE that day, and we were to encounter her later in Cozumel.

Night into day: I came to this space again and again. As from the balcony, here the simple contemplation of water as one passes through it induces bliss.

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The Black & White Library, sometimes a quiet space, and sometimes more like the atrium life outside its doors.  Here Sabine played chess with a proud and boastful boy maybe 3 years older than her.  She hung in there and gave a good game, keeping calm and content even as the winning kid jovially dissected her moves post mortem rex.  Wise ass.

The ad in closeup announces the merger of Great Britain’s premier shipping lines in 1934, to create a legendary fleet, with no fewer than three liners which had held the rank of the world’s largest.  QUEEN MARY, pictured, was very nearly a fourth with that distinction.

As for today, a credible list has CARNIVAL GLORY tied with sisters CONQUEST and VALOR as the 59th largest passenger ships sailing.  Beguiling REFLECTION is 39th while sweet DIVINA is 22nd.  Of the four ships we saw or boarded on sailing day only NORWEGIAN ESCAPE is in the upper reaches at number 8.

Still, by gross tonnage, this modest quartet of modern cruisery, leaving a single major port on late-season 7-days, represented more total cubic space than the entire Cunard-White Star Line at its North Atlantic apogee.

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The Amber Theater, GLORY’s main show room, and the only public space on the ship that Sabine actively disliked, saying it was gaudy. When we were made to wait there at the beginning of the ship’s tour (more later on that) I tried to engage her on the historical aspect, but the causes of Bolshevism and the fate of the Tsar and his family was a wrong tack to take. Nonetheless, Sabine endured quietly.

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The duty-free pitch, premium Scotch division.  Now that I look at these prices I wished I’d grabbed a couple of those Deveron 16s ... at least.  But I would have had to ship them or lose them at the first TSA checkpoint at the Miami airport.

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Begone dull care; it’s on sale.