Alexv500

If you are trying to make me jealous... well... it worked! :D

 

 

 

OP.. Great review so far, looking forward to more. I remember my first cruise at age 16, and I fell in love with ships every since. 24 years later and I still get a giddy as you... every time!

I took my first cruise at 16 too!! My love continues to grow for these ships, just such an amazing way to not only vacation, but to travel as well! These ships are amazing and a destination within themselves! :D

I remember reading your Mexican Riviera cruise review. Happy to see you back on another with your grandma! :) And what a great surprise you planned for her!

 

Can't wait to see more of your review.

Hey!! Thanks for finding me again and reading my review! So nice to see someone who read my first review, it means a lot! :) Grandma was definitely VERY surprised! It was such a great cruise and my addiction continues to grow, the Ruby really sparked a big addiction for me!!

Great job. Your review is awesome. I feel like I'm with you!!

Thank you so much!! Glad you're enjoying the review and thank you for taking the time to read it and keep up with me!! :D

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Had been reading about Guys burgers forever and I watch him on tv too....actually saw him win The Next Food Network Star! :eek: Anyway, tasted my lst on the Liberty last January and ate them for 2 weeks, then on Pride last May for 2 weeks, then on the Pride a few weeks ago for 2 weeks, and tho I LOVE them, I am kind of "homesick" for the old burgers and fries (not a fan of the flavored fries at Guys and wish they'd offer them plain or loaded! ;)) and I especially miss the chicken fingers they had at the Grille...with cheese sauce....:cool: Man, I am making myself miserable now! :p:o

They're so yummy!! And chicken tenders are my FAVORITE food in the entire world!! I was very lucky they offered chicken tenders everyday at lunch in the buffet and I would definitely enjoy my unlimited chicken strips, soooo good!!

We're finally setting sail! Caribbean here I come!

Before I knew it, we were getting underway and ready to set sail! This is really happening I thought, It felt like a dream but this was reality, wake up Alex it's time to take in the views! Sailaway party started right after the muster, and everyone was just in such great spirits, you could feel that great vibe of energy from everyone, just all the excitement and relaxing environment-everyone was just ready for a great vacation, and I love that feeling! Cruise life is the best, this is why I love cruising so much,well one of the many many MANY reasons!

I wanted to take in and enjoy all our views as we set sail from Miami, so I headed on up to my newly discovered spot on deck 10 forward to watch sailaway from there. Many people were up here too but nowhere near as crowded as lido was, that's where all the action was! I was up here with my mom, brothers, and stepdad and they were all super excited to see we were getting ready to go! We watched as they untied the ship from the dock and before you knew it, the thrusters kicked in and we were moving!! Half Moon Cay here we come! My family was thrilled and were already enjoying the cruise life! We took lots of pictures up here as we set sail and posted a few on social media before we lost reception out in the ocean. I was also very busy filming on my GoPro! Speaking of my GoPro, I filmed ALOT on this cruise, and all that footage I put together and separated it by day, so if anyone is interested in seeing this review come to life and see everything I experienced on this cruise, I will happily give everyone the link to each day! So later on in this segment, I will put the link for Day 1 for you all to enjoy!

I simply cannot explain enough how beautiful it is setting sail from Miami, the views are just incredible!! I love this city and this port!! I think all my cruises will have to be from Miami from now on just because of how much I fell in love with this beautiful city!

I walked around the ship, and then I finally saw my first sunset of this cruise! One thing about me on cruises is my favorite spots where you can always find me is at the aft part of the ship taking in the view of the wake, out and about strolling on the promenade viewing deck on deck 3, and also deck 10 forward-all were my favorite places to take videos and pictures! Here are some of my favorite pictures I took of the sunset from the aft part of the ship:

After enjoying my views around the ship, it was around 6 o'clock and me and my mom headed on down to the buffet to get a quick snack before dinner which wasn't till 8:15! I got some watermelon (my favorite fruit!) and just continue to enjoy the view! This cruise was already off to an amazing start!! Afterwards, I headed on down to my cabin to see if the luggage was there, and it was so I quickly unpacked and got ready for my first dinner onboard. I was so excited for dinner, couldn't wait for all the yummy food and to meet our waitstaff this cruise, and of course to see where we would be eating our meals all week.

Next up: Our First Dinner and First Night Onboard!

Oh also here is that link to day 1 of my Youtube video/GoPro video I put together!

Not my best video, but I promise the next ones do get better!

The Fun continues!

After checking out our cabin, we headed on up to and do some more exploring! It's something that I must do on the first day of each cruise is familiarize myself and get antiquated with the ship and where everything is, I just love exploring the ship, and I had plenty of time before muster drill and while waiting for our luggage to arrive to our cabin. The whole family was dispersed all over the ship at this point, they were so lost without me LOL but hey I can't take care of everyone at once, I gotta do my exploring! I headed on up to deck 3 to check out the Promenade and it's something I admire about every cruise ship-just being out there and enjoying the views = Priceless! Especially since we were still docked in Miami, I had such amazing views of the city on both sides of the ship, Miami is just so stunning! Afterwards, I headed on up to deck 10 in my little secret spot I had throughout the cruise. Tip: head on up to deck 10 forward to get great views of the front of the ship, it's such a great spot to take in all the views, definitely recommend it if you're on any Carnival ship that has these viewing decks in the front!

I'm telling you guys, the views from deck 10 are amazing!

So I did a lot of my exploring around the ship, and afterwards I headed back on up to lido to checkout what was going on up there, and everyone was settling into cruise life when suddenly MUSTER DRILL TIME! Ding-ding-ding-dinggggggggggggggggg is what you could hear, and some people looked quite surprised! Luckily I knew what this meant and it was time to head on down to deck 4. What was really different on Carnival was that they make you actually go to muster station itself, and this was going to be interesting for sure, LOL. We were all packed like sardines and keep in mind it was very hot and humid day in Miami and then add in the body head of hundreds of people and well yeah that was an interesting combination and muster drill! I just wanted it to be over with already and get on with my vacation! I have no problem with doing the drill because I know it's critical for our safety in the event of an actual emergency, just it would be nice to do it inside, this is probably the ONLY complaint/thing I didn't like this cruise, but hey what can I do, it was for my safety!

It was over now, and now the fun really begins, VACATION TIME!!! And it was almost time for sailaway, let's get this show on the road!!

Gotta love seeing that whale tail!

Next up: Sailaway!

Everything has been pushed back a year. Miracle isn't going to China until 2018 now and Splendor in 2019. The rumor I've heard from a cpl different people at Carnival is whichever port Vista 2 calls home, will send a ship to the west coast. My PVP is thinking it will be a Conquest Ship. I'm personally hoping for a Dream Class. Vista 2 to Port Canaveral and Magic to long beach.

Really hope we get at least a Conquest class ship! Just got off the Glory 2 weeks ago and I LOVED that class of ship, and I think a ship that size would do great here in Long Beach! It'd be nice to have the Glory from here, she's a beautiful ship!

I love that your Grandmom is your cruise buddy!! [emoji173]️

 

I am sailing the Glory in September on the other itinerary. [emoji2] My husband is a huge Guy's burger fan as well. I don't think I could book a cruise now on a ship that doesn't have it LOL

 

Can't wait to read more about your trip. [emoji106]🏻[emoji106]🏻

Awww thank you so much, that means a lot :) !! I love having her as my cruise buddy too! Believe it or not, but getting her to go on her first cruise was a huge struggle, she was MORTIFIED of the idea of being on a cruise, but once we did our first cruise last year, she ended up LOVING cruising and that's why it was super easy getting her to go on this one, she's already talking about the next one for next year, looks like we might be sailing on the Vista!!

Those burgers are soooo good I don't blame him! I don't think I could go on a ship without one either now after being spoiled with Guy's for a whole week, LOL!

Do you think you got seasick? Or was it just a cold or something? I'm also on riviera deck on my next cruise and wanted to know if you felt motion a lot. Was it noisy?

It was a cold, no seasickness from me! Just a mini cold that thankfully went away within a little less than 3 days! And on the riviera deck, I didn't feel that much movement, we were toward midship and didn't have any problems on that deck, very quiet where we were at. My mom's cabin was on deck 6 aft and when I would go there, you definitely felt movement, especially when we experience somewhat a little bit of rough seas when sailing from San Juan to Grand Turk, but back down on riviera deck, not a problem with movement! You could of course feel some of it but not as severe as on other parts of the ship, I would definitely stay on riviera deck again!

wow nice review! I sure would have hard time to keep that kind of secret for many months. i would have been scared if it was my grandma, that she have a heart attack with that kind of surprise! I know the feeling when you're saying in your head, get off my ship !! then you have to chase the one that says, it gonna be me in one week!! Nah its never gonna end!! Keep it coming.

Thanks! And LOL yeah I was worried my grandma was going to freak out too! Haha! And oh I know those disembarkation thoughts are the worst, my grandma would ask me "so when we get back to Miami, what time do we need to be at the airport to go back home?" And I would be like "shhhh We don't think or discuss that dreaded day when we gotta go back home to California!!"

Loving your review so far. We are doing Western Carribean in August on the Glory. There are so many negative reviews out there that I was beginning to get nervous about our choice in ships so I'm so happy to see such a rave review so far.

 

BTW - It's been 7 months and we still miss Guys Burgers :(

Aw I'm so glad to have made your worries go away!! Before my cruise I was reading negative things too and it also made me nervous, but I'm a very open minded person and I don't judge until I've actually tried something out! And in this case, I went on the Glory without a care and wasn't going to let bad reviews ruin my excitement! Everyone has a different opinion/point of view when going on any ship! And I can tell you this, Glory is AMAZING!! Not a single problem or complaint from me, I loved every single minute of it and everything about the ship, couldn't have asked for a better cruise!! And I also couldn't have chosen a better ship for my first cruise to the Caribbean and first on carnival :) if you got any questions don't hesitate to ask either!

I am on this cruise next weekend so thanks for taking the time! I've been to all the ports before but my nephews are coming as well as my mother-in-law, my wife, my wife's sister and her hubby so a full house! My oldest nephew is your age and will be graduating high school in June. So I'd love to hear more about what you did every day - were you on your own or with family the whole time? Did you make friends, etc...

 

Thanks again!

Hi Jenn! You're going to have a great time, such a great cruise I would definitely do it again! I'll write more in detail about what I did each day later in the review, but basically what I did each day was just walk around, have fun and participate in as much activities as I could. I did a lot of filming on my GoPro, so I was busy filming shots around the ship. I did spend a lot of time on my own, mainly because I just loved exploring and going out on deck to film videos on the GoPro! And of course, EATING! Haha! Also spent a lot of time in the hot tubs, waterslide, and being lazy by laying out on deck. However I did do a lot of activities with my family, mainly with my grandma but I also balanced time with my family as well. It's a huge ship so everyone is all over the place doing their own thing and that's how everyone in my family spent their time just doing whatever they wanted when they wanted and it worked great that way! Of course we all had dinner together and spent time there together enjoying all the delicious food offered in the dining room. We had lots of fun on this cruise! :)

Great review so far! We were on this cruise also and had a great time.

 

 

 

The ports were great, service was great and the ship was a lot of fun.

 

 

 

BTW..,my daughter got sick towards the end and we had to visit the Medical Center. The dr was great though. Apparently, a viral illness was going around (high fever and cough).

Thanks! Nice to see that people on the same cruise are reading this too! It was such an amazing cruise!

I noticed a lot of people were sick on this cruise and I could tell something was going around, but thankfully no one in my family got sick except me, however I think I picked up my sore throat/ mini cold on the plane! There was one point (the evening after HMC) where I felt very sick! I had a fever, super bad sunburns, and the chills that made me feel super cold no matter where I was, I really thought I was going to have to make a trip to the medical center, and that was the LAST thing I wanted! Luckily, I pretty much bring an entire pharmacy in my suitcase wherever I travel, LOL! So I had medicine with me to help me out, even vitamin C, so luckily by the first sea day after HMC, I was feeling so much better, just pains from sun burns! It was an interesting start to the cruise and thankful by St. Thomas I was feeling back to normal again. Also I think what made me recover a lot faster from this little cold I got was the salty air from the ocean and just the warm humid air, it helped me a lot!

Still curious to see who'll replace her here in Long Beach. Anyone got any possible ideas? Would love to hear you guys think would get sent here! I hope they send us a Conquest class ship!

Finally Getting on the Ship!

Let's see here where did I leave off? Ah yes boarding the ship!

So once our zone was finally called, we proceeded on up to the gangway, and it was approximately noon when we started to board. Boarding is the best part of embarkation day, just finally being able to get on the ship, after soo many months of waiting, here is it- the moment you've been waiting for for so many months! I was literally on cloud 9 (heh see the reference I did there to the cloud 9 spa on some of Carnival's newer ships haha!) Once I am on the gangway, I am just so happy, like this is finally happening!! I have seen countless videos of people's vacations onboard many of the other carnival ships and I always see them boarding their ship here in Miami, but never did I imagine that I would too be going up that same gangway, boarding a ship on the vacation of a lifetime for a week in the Caribbean Islands! A dream come true!! Finally!

So once up the gangway, I finally set foot on the ship for the first time-nothing better than your first step onboard any ship! Let the fun begin I am on vacation!!

Almost thereeeee hurry up people I wanna get on already!

Once onboard the ship my first order of business- GUYS BURGERS ASAP! No one knows how long I had been waiting to try a burger from Guy's, I had heard nothing but how amazing these burgers were and I had to try it, forget the buffet, I gotta get to guys! So immediately I headed up to the lido and so did the rest of the group, since our cabins weren't going to be ready until 1:30 we had time to kill and eat, what sucked was having to carry around all our stuff we had with us, and with my big family, we had ALOT of carry ons LOL. I quickly got in line to get me a Guy's burger and the one I got was the ringer and it was AMAZING!!! Here in California, burgers are a big deal here and we have so many burger joints here that are unique to California such as In N Out and Habit Burger (which I love with all my heart) so we Californians are pretty picky with our burgers and Guy's was SOOOO GOOD, they got my stamp of approval, way better than In N Out, that's how good they were!! Oh and the fries, OH THE FRIES from Guy's don't get me started...I miss them so much!!

We finally arrived at our cabin, and it was just two cabins away from the elevators and I actually loved the easy access we had to the elevators, very convenient! I just LOVE walking into my cabin for the first time and looking for it, just one of the many things I love about embarkation day! We walked into our cabin and everything was very nice, neat, and clean! They even had the beds separated like I had requested! No complaints about the cabin!

http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y348/Al300/Carnival%20Glory%20Cruise/A4078D5E-9C73-428A-9C18-2981247C668F_zpslck9woeg.jpg' alt='A4078D5E-9C73-428A-9C18-2981247C668F_zpslck9woeg.jpg'>

My home for the next 7 days! Excuse our bags, we immediately got in there and just dropped everything LOL!

Grandmom and I dropped off our bags in the cabin, and then headed back on up to explore the ship and admire the Miami views! Just waiting for our luggage to get here, but I was in no rush, I understand the crew has thousands of pieces of luggage to deliver so no biggie for me! Now time to go and explore this beautiful ship!

Up Next: Embarkation Day Fun & Exploring the Ship!

I also want to thank the time to thank every single one of you for taking the time to read my review! It means so much to me and I just love doing these reviews and sharing my amazing experience aboard the Glory! If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask me! Thank you all so much!

Such a nice start!

Looking forward to following along.

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Chass

No problem! Thank you for taking the time to keep up and read along :)

I love that you surprised your Grandmother aka Grandmom for this cruise! I am looking forward to the rest of your review. You're doing a great job!

Thank you so much! It was so fun surprising her, definitely worth keeping that secret in for so many months haha! :D

I am really looking forward to the rest of your review! We did this exact itinerary on the Glory in April 2015 and to date it was my favorite cruise! I loved the ship and all of the ports were just amazing.

 

 

 

I love that you took a cruise with your Grandma and surprised her with the whole family coming along. These are memories that y'all will have forever!!

I totally agree! This has been my favorite cruise so far, all the ports were just AMAZING! And the ship was perfect, couldn't have asked for a better cruise!

They are great memories, this will definitely be a memorable cruise! :)

I'm really enjoying your adventure. My family and I (including my mother and sister) will be going on that same cruise in June. This will be my first cruise. I'm feeling nervous and excited at the same time.

You are going to LOVE IT! Cruising is amazing and you will be hooked after your first cruise! You picked a great itinerary- I loved each and every port, so much fun!!

I am really enjoying your review so far and looking forward to the rest. Your pictures are beautiful! I'm glad there is someone else besides me who takes pictures from the airplane. :D My excuse is that it's not just about the destination, the journey is part of the trip. :) We were on Glory in 2010, same itinerary out of Miami, and I always enjoy "reliving" past cruises through reviews. We loved Glory and all the ports. I'm looking forward to the rest and thank you for taking the time to do a review.

Thank you so much!! I love taking plane pics! And I definitely agree with you, the journey to the cruise itself is part of the trip! Thank you for following a long and taking the time to read the review! :)

We were on this cruise and aldo had a great time, though on the Sunday and Monday I was sick with a fever and battled the cold for the rest of the cruise...

It was a great cruise! I also got a little cold too, had a mild sore throat on embarkation day but luckily it went away the next day but I also got a fever the evening after half moon cay accompanied by some really bad sunburns. I think that evening was probably the worst that I felt and the next day I felt much better, not fun being sick especially on a cruise! :( I was so glad I brought along medicine with me!

Embarkation day continued!

So once we finally went inside the terminal, they scan your passports, check your boarding passes, and then you proceed through security. Carnival's terminal in Miami was amazing and very modern, I was very impressed! After security, we went up the escalator to the check in counters, and wow this terminal was amazing ( I cannot express that highly enough, LOL!) The line went by pretty quick and we received our sail and sign cards and got our zone number (zone 4) and we went to sit down and wait for boarding. Getting my cruise card is one of my favorite parts of embarkation day, it just makes me so happy to finally have my card in hand! Not sure if anyone else feels that way! Personally, I love Carnival's new staggered check in, and I was super impressed with the whole check in process, very easy and everything went very smoothly and quick, love it!

After reuniting everyone, we waited to get our zone called to board, and a little after 11:30 they started boarding! Of course diamond,platinum, FTTF, and so on boarded first and then they called zones. My family checked in at the airport, so they got called after the priority people and they got to board before us! Shortly after, zone 4 was called and I was super excited to finally board the ship, we grabbed our stuff and off we went to get onboard the beautiful Glory!

Get off my ship!!

Up Next: Finally onboard!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the review, I got lots of pics onboard the ship!!

The day I have been waiting for has arrived: Embarkation Day!

The day I had been anxiously waiting for for many months had finally arrived! I woke up at around 7am, and quickly checked my phone to see where my mom was and if they had arrived yet. My mom, 3 little brothers, and stepdad were also going on this cruise with us (not sure if I mentioned that earlier) but here was the catch: Grandmom had no idea that they were coming with us, she thought the entire time that they were going to spend a week at a resort in Punta Cana! But in reality, we sneakily planned this whole surprise, and keeping this a secret for so many months was not easy at all, so I was super excited to surprise her later in the day at the terminal! So when I woke up, my family was already at the airport and their red eye from LAX went smoothly!

Thankfully, Carnival offers check in right at the airport in Miami, so my family checked in there and all they needed to do was take a taxi to the cruise terminal. So if anyone is flying in the day of the cruise, MIA airport has Carnival check in- and they also give you your sail and sign cards there too, so just a little helpful hint!!

Grandmom and I got our things ready, and we got ready to head to the port! Our scheduled check in time was between 10-10:30am due to the new staggered check in (which I loved-more on that later). We called an Uber around 10am and headed on down to the terminal, I just can't explain how excited I was like this was really happening, AHHH!!!

Glory!

I apologize in advanced for not getting so many pictures of the ship on embarkation day- It's just so much goes on at once and embarkation day is crazy! Wish I could've taken more pics but don't worry I got plenty once I was onboard! That and it was hard to get pictures from the car haha!

As always, embarkation is crazy!! So much hustle and bustle! This is the first time I ever arrived to the port this early-last year we didn't get to our ship till like noon and all the previous passengers were all gone. Today, the Port of Miami was crazy! With so many ships in port and passengers arriving and departing, it's crazy! We went to drop off our bags with the porters and proceeded to check in. We arrived at 10:30am and immediately were allowed in- and they do check the time on your boarding pass that you selected!

Next up: Check in time and getting onboard!

Thanks everyone for following along! Means a lot! About to start working on embarkation day and that'll be up very soon, thank you all so much and for the kind words as well! :)

Can't wait to read the rest I'm going on the Glory next month!

 

 

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Glory is an amazing ship!! She has a special place in my heart now! You're going to love her, so jealous you'll be on her!!