Carnival Glory Review - April 29 - May 6

Hello everyone. I thought I would post a review of our recent Glory cruise. I am sorry to say that I don't think there are going to be any pictures, as I am nowhere near techie enough to manage that, but since there seem to be lots of pictures of Glory out there, I hope this will not detract from your enjoyment.

This was not my first cruise, but it was my first in over 8 years and my first on Carnival. It was my husband Scott's first cruise though and I was very much hoping he would love it and become a cruise addict with me...and let me just say, mission accomplished!

We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise. Our flight was early and we landed shortly after 10:00 a.m. We used Jiffy Jeff Transportation to get to Miami (they came well recommended on these boards) and their service was excellent. We didn't have to wait long to be picked up and the driver was friendly and helpful with our luggage. However, he certainly didn't lose any time once we were on the road. I was sitting directly behind him, so could not really see what was up ahead, but my husband could. He grabbed the seat in front of him no less than 3 times because as he said, he was "bracing for impact." Scott was sure he was going to slam into the vehicle ahead of us...and he is not a nervous passenger. We made it to Miami intact (thankfully) and in jig time! We arrived way ahead of check in time at the Holiday Inn, Port of Miami but there was no problem. Before we knew it, we were checked in and their super friendly, courteous staff had our bags stored for us. Our room was not ready of course, but no worries...it was getting close to lunch hour and the bagel we had at around 6:00 a.m. at the airport in Toronto had worn off long before...so it was off to Bayside Mall for us. It was just a quick walk across a couple of streets. Very shortly after we arrived we were seated on the patio at Hooters enjoying a cold drink, warm temperatures, and beautiful views. We went to Hooters because it was the first restaurant we saw and we were starving! After lunch, we strolled through the mall for a couple of hours, then paused at one of the many bars for a cold Corona. We amused ourselves by people watching and trying to decide which people were obviously out of towners and like us, there for a cruise. Turns out they are easy to spot...and we looked just like them!

We headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest at this point...we had been up since 2:00 a.m. Our room was on the 9th floor and faced the back of the hotel and a large construction site. At first, I was very unimpressed...after all, I had booked (and paid for!) the room a year in advance and this was the best we could do? However, I soon came to appreciate being on the 9th floor...whenever we called the elevator, we never seemed to have a long wait and it was always empty so we never had the dreaded "wait for the next one" moment. And although I would have liked a view, we didn't miss it much at all. The room was small but nice and clean and so was the bathroom. I must say I was surprised that there was no hair dryer in the room but for a one night stay, it did quite nicely.

We went back to Bayside for supper (Chilis 2) and it was delicious. A quick stop at the CVS down the street from the hotel and we headed back to the room. It was an early night for us (remember the 2:00 a.m. wake up) and we wanted to be rested up for our big day on Saturday.

Once we were up and mobile in the morning, we headed around the corner from the hotel to a nearby Mcdonalds for breakfast, then back to the room to get all tidied up ready to head to the port. Glory has staggered boarding times and ours was 12:00 to 12:30. We headed down to the lobby at around 11:20 and found it pretty much full of folks waiting to head off to their ships (the luggage tags were a dead give away!). I had read often on these boards to not bother showing up at the cruise terminal ahead of your boarding time as you would simply have to stand outside and wait, so we managed to show great restraint and sit until 11:45 before heading out to grab a cab...they are all lined up in front of the hotel, just waiting for you. We arrived at the port, handed our luggage over to a porter and headed into the terminal. We were herded into a very long line and I figured "here we go...hurry up and wait." But the line started to move within a few minutes and off we went. First, there was the identification check outside, then security inside. Next, line up to get our Sail & Sign cards (no, they were not delivered to the mailbox outside our stateroom, we had to pick them up), go up the escalator, pause for the welcome photo, walk through the gangway and voila...we are on board and my dear husband hollers "I'm on a boat" as we walk along deck 3. Great, I think: no sooner are we on board that they are going to boot us off for rowdy behaviour. But obviously, this didn't happen and we stroll cheerfully into the Colors bar. The entire embarkation process from arrival at the port to walking on board took between 30 and 40 minutes...no complaints from me here! Will continue in another post...not sure how long these are allowed to be.

I'm on the Glory early next year so I'll be following your review.

Thanks for sharing

I hope to post more soon. I had the entire 2nd installment ready to go a few minutes ago, but when I went to preview it, for some reason I had been logged out of Cruise Critic. I was asked to log back in and when I did, poof! The entire post was gone...to say that I am angry and VERY frustrated is a real understatement. I just wasted over an hour...and a darn good post. Will be doing my next ones in Word, then copying and pasting.

I hope to post more soon. I had the entire 2nd installment ready to go a few minutes ago' date=' but when I went to preview it, for some reason I had been logged out of Cruise Critic. I was asked to log back in and when I did, poof! The entire post was gone...to say that I am angry and VERY frustrated is a real understatement. I just wasted over an hour...and a darn good post. Will be doing my next ones in Word, then copying and pasting.[/quote']

Ctrl z might get your stuff back

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Looking forward to more........:)

Great start!!! Patiently waiting for more. ;)

Following too. I'm booked for 2018 on this ship

Thanks for the review.

Nice start. Good idea to use Word and paste it into your post here.

Following along.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Great start! We enjoyed Glory in February.

Betty

We were on this same cruise and i'd agree with the short time it took from checking into the terminal to actually being on the ship.

We had a great time on this cruise. Looking forward to reliving our cruise through your review :-)

If I do a review I type it out in MS Word first. Copy and Paste. Dont know if there is a limit to how long a single post can be but I know its a lot longer then your firt post. I've seen single posts on here that where a novel. You are limited to I think 6 pictures per post though? right? anyone confirm? I think that includes emoji's also.

Any pictures of your cruise? Where going on Glory next April for a western cruise.

Thank you all for following along and for the kinds words and encouragement to keep going. As I mentioned, I have no idea how to post pictures but I am sure that Scott will take a look at how to do this for me and hopefully, I can include some pictures as I go along.:)

FYI just got off the glory from the 5/13 cruise. Sail and sign cards were delivered to the mailbox outside the staterooms. We didn't mind it all and found that it made checking in at the port very smooth.

Part Three:

And we’re back!

After dinner we went right back down to the room and did our unpacking, a chore I always like to get over with as quickly as possible. We had plenty of time before the Welcome Aboard Show started so we decided to visit the casino. We are not heavy duty gamblers…penny slots are fine for us and Glory has lots of them. On this particular evening, Scott made a donation and I came out ahead, which was exciting for me, as the opposite is usually true. Through out the week, I put $40 into the machines (as I said, not heavy duty) and ended up with $97. Good enough! We did have some excitement one evening, as the gentleman playing on the machine next to me won $2,000!! Next cruise is paid for I guess. We happened to be in the casino several times during the week when they were announcing big (which I am assuming is anything over $1,000) winners.

We were able to get pretty good seats in the Amber Palace for the Welcome Aboard Show. Prior to the show starting, they had a show with towel animal puppets on the video screens and to be honest, we found it more irritating than anything else. But it was short and the main event started promptly on time. This was our first introduction to our cruise director, Eric Brouman. Yes, he was running the sail away show, but we were standing forward on Deck 10 and could hear but not see him. From what I have read on these boards and on a social media site we belong to, he has a polarizing effect on people…either you love him or you hate him. And we loved him! He had us laughing so hard we were nearly crying at this show. We thought he was great…very dedicated to his job, funny, honest and helpful. He was the epitome of what a cruise directory should be. Let me put it this way…I don’t remember any of the cruise directors from previous cruises on RCCL (OK, the last one was over 8 years ago, but still) however, I will never forget Eric. It was also his last week on Glory. After some time off, he will be joining Ecstasy in July. His joke was: I’ve always wanted to say I’m on Ecstasy and now I can!

After the show we decided to call it a night, as it had been a pretty busy day and we wanted to be well rested for Half Moon Cay on Sunday. This was when we discovered what we thought was a really nice feature in our state room. There was a light switch for the room lights just above our headboard. So, if you are like us, you can get into bed, read for a few moments and when you are sleepy, just hit the switch. We did have bedside lamps, but unfortunately they were not bright enough for me to read by, so we needed to overhead room lights on. Incidentally, if you don’t like sleeping in a pitch dark room or if you tend to get up for any reason during the night, you should bring a small night light. It gets pretty dark at sea. We were happy that we brought one.

Morning arrives and after causing my first bathroom flood, we get on our way to the breakfast buffet in the Red Sail. I know that many people don’t enjoy the buffet and say the food is simply not good. I guess we are the exception to the rule because we enjoyed the buffet. I didn’t mind the scrambled eggs at all and I always enjoyed whatever type of potato they had, whether it was cut up potatoes with some peppers, little hash brown coins, or thinly sliced, almost like potato chips…they were always well cooked and crispy which is how I like them. And here is another hint for anyone cruising soon: if you want an omelet, you don’t have to join the long lines at the omelet stations. At the end of our buffet line, there was a chef manning an egg station…you could get an omelet (there were lots of fillings) or you could get eggs cooked any way you liked them. I had a cheese omelet one morning and it was fantastic! Another thing we enjoyed on the buffet were the bowls of chopped walnuts, sliced almonds, cranberries and raisins to add to your cereal or oatmeal. We enjoyed it so much, we have started doing it at home. The only thing that confused me was that I couldn’t find any bacon the first morning. Interestingly enough, the bacon was in the centre of the two buffet lines (just after the egg station) and it was being served by a member of the crew. I have no idea why the bacon is handled that way, but it must work for Carnival and after I found it on the second morning it worked for me too! I didn’t have toast (I can have that at home!), I headed for the pastry table and grabbed a croissant. I love croissants and very rarely eat them at home…they are a guilty pleasure for me, and these were good.

Once we had our breakfast selected, we headed for one of the two staircases that face on another at the back of the buffet. They will take you up to an additional seating area on Deck 10 that is never crowded. We got a great table at the window every morning we went there. There is a drink station up there too, so you needn’t try to juggle a full plate and a cup of coffee or glass or juice while you are walking up stairs. As I am sure you can tell, we were quite pleased with the breakfast buffet overall.

As mentioned, we did not purchase FTTF and we didn’t have a shore excursion either so since those groups would be given access to the first tenders over to Half Moon Cay, we took our time over breakfast then headed off to some higher decks to get some shots of the Cay from the ship. We also finally found the Serenity area. I guess I had expected it to be closer to the pools, not so far forward up on Decks 11 and 12. We really liked the area, the seating was comfy and it was a little quieter…my only 2 wishes are that it could have had a pool and that maybe it could have been on a lower deck because of the wind. Maybe we just had a particularly windy cruise, but of course, the higher you go, the windier it gets. Once you got seated in Serenity, it wasn’t too bad, but if you wanted to walk around you had to make sure you were hanging on to your stuff and your hat (if you were wearing one) or it would be gone in a flash…we did see only woman lose her hat over the side when particularly strong gust hit.

We went back down to our room to change into swim gear, slather on the sun block and pack up what we would need for our time on Half Moon. We had to go up to the Alchemy Bar to get our tender tickets and we were given number 31. No problem we thought…they were calling tender numbers fairly quickly so we didn’t think we’d have long to wait…an hour later we are still waiting! Well OK, there were a couple issues that could have slowed things down. It was rough out there and we didn’t realize how rough until we were bobbing up and down on the tender. And we had a little rain shower, which I am sure caused the tender loading to slow up…you don’t want anyone to slip and fall. But they finally called our number and off we went. By this time the shower had long past and the sun was shining beautifully again. The tender ride was pleasant and I enjoyed going through the little channel they have made at the docking area. The water there was crystal clear and so lovely.

We got off the tender and headed for the beach and the water…and off came my water socks as fast as possible. We walked along the sand, letting the waves froth over our feet and ankles. We were finally here, on a Caribbean island walking on a beautiful sand beach in the sun and the waves. This was an infinitely special moment for us. I’m not going to bore anyone with details, but this was our first vacation in 3 and ½ years and those years had been very tumultuous and stressful for us both, so yes, we were extremely excited and grateful to be on that beach!

The sand is so fine on Half Moon Cay, like icing sugar or corn starch. And like both of them, it sticks to everything. But really, we didn’t care…it was all part of the experience for us. We wandered up the beach quite a ways before locating 2 free loungers located in just the right combination of sun and shade. We got all set up there, then hit the water and it was great. Cold at first of course, but lovely after a few minutes. The water is amazingly clear, the bottom is soft and sandy and the salt water helps even bags of cement like me float easily! Carnival has photographers roaming about in the water and we had our picture taken with a waiter carrying a tray of champagne and two glasses…lots of fun!

After our swim, we laid on our loungers for a while then decided to hunt up some lunch. We found the giant food pavilion and loaded up our plates. Scott had a hotdog which he said was NOT good at all but we both enjoyed our burgers. I tried the chili fried rice and a cous cous salad, both of which I enjoyed. After picking up a cold drink, we headed back to our loungers for a bit more relaxation, another quick dip and after drying off a little in the sun we decided to head back to Glory. We did not want to be stuck in the giant lines for the final tenders.

Once back on board we went back to the room and I attempted to wash all the sand out of our water socks in the shower…an absolute exercise in futility. I was never going to get all that sand out of there. I did however, make a sandy mess in the bottom of the shower and there was still sand in there after both of our showers as well. Carole had the whole thing sparkling clean for us though the next morning (we tipped her well for the trouble we caused her).

That evening as I mentioned, we met our table mates at dinner and had a nice time getting to know one another. I believe that both Scott and I had the always available chicken breast for dinner that night, as none of the main dishes on the menu appealed to us. I know for sure I had the chicken breast one night and I enjoyed it…sorry everyone, my memory is not what it used to be!

We spent a bit more time in the casino after dinner and for some reason, decided against going to the show, which was Getaway Island (60’s music). I think we misread the start time and by the time we were finished in the casino, realized it had been underway for about 20 minutes…oops. We headed back down to the room to catch one of our favorite TV shows and decided when it was over, we would check out the Pizza Pirate. Well, of course you know what happened. We started to watch the show and suddenly, it was 11:40 and we were sitting there blinking at each other like owls. Ever the intrepid diners though, we shook off the sleepies and went in search of pizza. Many others had the same thought I guess and the pizza line was much longer than I had expected. However, it didn’t take too long and I had a couple slices of 4 cheese pizza while Scott had pepperoni. The pizza was fabulous. It was thin crust and it was cooked perfectly, with just a nice crunch to it and it was good and hot. A great way to end our first full day.

I’ll be back!

I also want to mention that if anyone is interested in reading Scott's unique take on our vacation, he is blogging about it and you can read it here: (and he has pictures!)

themindofscott.wordpress.com

Great write-up!

Here is part two. Hopefully admin won't feel the need to remove it for a third time for inappropriate language. Sorry that it is now out of order.

Here we go with Part Two!

The Colors bar area was super busy and noisy with everyone boarding and trying to figure out where to go, so we headed for the stairs and zipped up to Deck 5. Scott was particularly excited to get his first look at the Skybox Sports Bar. He is a sports nut and that is putting it mildly. He was a sports reporter at a local paper for 16 years…if it’s a sport, he knows everything about it. This knowledge would come in handy later in the cruise!

We didn’t purchase Faster to the Fun so we knew our room wouldn’t be ready for a while. And since it was lunch time…you guessed it, we were starving! We made our way up to the Lido deck (later rechristened the Eato deck by a fellow passenger!) for a look around. One of the first things we spotted was the line to purchase the Bubbles package, a definite must for us. We each bought one of the insulated Carnival tumblers (with lid) that were available also. They worked out fantastically well for us. Because they are double walled, they don’t sweat in the hot weather, so none of those annoying drips all over your clothes when you take a drink and we have a great reminder of our cruise now that we are home. I use mine all the time.

We decided to brave the line and get a Guy’s burger for lunch. Although it was long, the line moved quite quickly and we soon had our burgers in hand and were checking out the amazing selection of toppings. We were able to find a table in the Red Sail and sat down to try the burgers that we had read so much great stuff about on these boards. Well, let me say that they did not disappoint…they were fantastic. And we were both given a generous portion of fries…also excellent! They were the first, but not the last, Guy’s burgers that we enjoyed on our trip.

After lunch, we wandered around a bit more and explored the Azure pool area, checked out Deck 10 and got some great shots of Miami. By now, we figured the room should be ready and we headed way down to Deck 2 (Main) to check out outside state room 2280, our home for the next week.

When we opened the door we were very surprised to see four sets of mobile style Carnival decorations hanging from the ceiling around the bed, a lovely Carnival beach towel spread out on the bed, a Carnival picture frame set up on the dresser and 4 individually packaged giant, gorgeous chocolate chip cookies on a plate. I had no idea what was going on as I had not ordered anything like this. Then we found a little note tucked under the cookie plate, telling us that these little treats (and some cruise cash) had been sent by my brother and sister-in-law to help make our cruise extra special. I found myself doing something I had hoped not to do on our trip…crying! What a wonderful gesture from an incredibly loving and caring couple.

We knew when we booked on Glory that she is considered an older ship and we had read some reviews that said despite her recent drydock, she was really showing the wear and tear that comes with age. We hadn’t noticed this so far in the public areas but what about our room? I am happy to say that other than a lamp shade that had seen much better days and a few marks and scuffs on the headboard, our room was terrific. Yes, the colour scheme is dated but we didn’t care. There was plenty of room for the two of us with loads of storage for clothes and accessories…so much that we didn’t use it all! The bathroom was quite large, clean and had plenty of storage. The only thing I would add is a little shelf in the shower for shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc. but overall, we had no complaints. Something I do want to mention and this may be something that is completely unique to me, because Scott didn’t have this problem. Every time I took a shower, I caused a mini flood in the bathroom. No matter how I fiddled with the shower curtain, made sure the water flow was directed into the shower and not out or how speedily I managed to get in and out, I ended up with lots of water on the floor. I am sure our wonderful room steward (Carole) was glad to see the last of us and our sopping wet towels at the end of the week!

Our Fun Times told us that the muster drill was at 3:30, so at 3:25 like good little sailors we head up to Deck 4 for the drill. When we opened our door, we nearly tripped over the gentleman that was delivering our luggage. Holy cow! Luggage delivery before 3:30! I think that is amazingly quick. We tossed our suitcases into the room and continued upstairs.

The muster drill is the only thing we took issue with during our cruise. It was a total mess. We arrived at 3:30 and went out onto Deck 4, where a Carnival staff member told us we had to wait inside until told to proceed out to the muster station. So we went back in and stood at the atrium railing watching the goings on at Colors bar and the neat ceiling that changes color every few seconds. We waited there until 4:00, then came the announcement to go to the muster station. Out we went, where we stood…and stood…and stood. A staffer came by and scanned our Sail and Sign cards. They made 2 announcements politely asking for quiet so the crew could work on the count. Finally, just after 4:30 they started the drill and we listened to what to do in case of an emergency. At least, we tried to listen. By this time, people were so tired of waiting that they started chatting away and didn’t bother stopping for the drill announcement. We were released at 4:45. I know that the muster drill is extremely important, so I was surprised at how disorganized it seemed. After all, do they not do it every week?

Oh well…at least it was now over…woohoo! Scott and I scurried up to Deck 10 for sail away. I LOVE sail away. For me, there is nothing like hearing the ship’s horn sound over the loud, happy vacation music being pumped out and that sudden small but unmistakable shift that tells you…we’re moving! It is one of my favorite cruise moments and I was so excited to share it with Scott, hoping that he would find it as thrilling as me…and he did! And then we’re off, sailing past beautiful homes that back onto the water, folks waving from their cars and honking the horn and floating by Miami condo towers that we know we’ve seen on House Hunters.

We checked the time and it was 5:40. Although I was reluctant to leave our spot at the rail, we decided to pop downstairs for a quick freshen up before dinner in the Platinum dining room at 6:00. Then we began the walk down the endless hallway to the back of the ship. Although our room was officially classed as mid-ship, I think it was the last one before they drew the line and said “OK everything from this point on is forward.” Making that long walk gives you a very good idea of just how large Glory really is. Once at the dining room, we were shown to table 416, an interior booth for 4. Scott and I slid into one side of the both, both of us a bit concerned about who Carnival had decided to seat with us. If you are seated at a large table and don’t “click” with one of the other couples, there would be other folks you could chat with. At a booth for 4 however, if you don’t find common interests to discuss it can make for one long, drawn out meal, sitting across from one another with nothing to say…awkward! We needn’t have worried though…our dining companions did not make an appearance until the next evening and they were a truly lovely couple. We got along right away and conversation flowed well for the entire meal.

But how was the food, you ask? It was excellent. We started with warm bread and buns with butter and we both had the Caesar salad…we were given a choice of romaine lettuce or kale and we went with the romaine. For our main course, Scott chose the flatiron steak which he said was excellent, baked potato and broccoli. I had…well, I can’t remember the name exactly, but it was strips of tender, flavorful beef with a lovely sauce served over root vegetables, corn pudding and broccoli. It was delicious, except for the corn pudding…there was nothing wrong with it, I just don’t think corn pudding is my thing. For dessert, Scott kept it simple with some butter pecan ice cream. I had to have the Carnival chocolate melting cake, since I had heard so many good things about it. It was lovely, super chocolatey without being overly rich and the vanilla ice cream added just the right touch of creaminess.

So overall, our first dining room meal was a big win.

I will continue later with our first evening on board and the next day at Half Moon Key, which was another big win!

Also following along and enjoying it so far!

Enjoying your review!

I am sorry that I have not been able to get more posted. Work really does get in the way of everything. I will get the review done, but it will be on a slow but sure basis. Hopefully another installment or two this week.

Subscribing. Great review.