Glory Trip Report

A little about us:

We are 2 couples traveling together and this is the second time we have all cruised together. My husband and I have cruised before and this trip we turned gold. This was not the vacation we envisioned but life happens and plans change. One month before our departure, my husband tore his quadricep and two weeks before departure, my arthritic knee acted up. I made a doctor's appoint and got a steroid injection The doctor said I should consider getting a knee replacement this summer. So one week prior to sailing (steroid injection did not work this time), I canceled all of our snorkeling excursions. Don’t feel bad for us, we were going on a cruise and life is good. I was certainly glad we had booked a balcony room. This cruise was more about relaxing and enjoying the ship’s entertainment than the ports.

Itinerary:

4 May--Travel to Miami

5 May--Embarkation

6 May--Fun day at sea

7 May--Grand Cayman

8 May--Roatan

9 May--Belize

10 May--Cozumel

11 May--Fun day at sea

12 May--Debarkation, Miami Everglades Tour

I am just going to touch on our experiences that I have not seen in the reviews here. Also we did not take many pictures but there are some great reviews of the Glory with pictures I recommends firemanbobswife reviews of the Glory.

Travel Day: I have one knee replacement and a brace on the other knee. Going through security was definitely an interesting experience. Going through the scanner is nothing new to me but next 15 minutes were definitely an experience I will not forget. The agent swabbed my hands and they tested positive for a chemical (just a guess, I used Aspercream with lidocaine on my bad knee). Yikes, let’s just say I was triple searched. The rest of the flight was uneventful to Fort Lauderdale.

After landing we proceeded to get our luggage and get Uber XL to the Fortune House Suites for overnight stay in Miami. For those interested, you catch the Uber in the ride share area a good distance from where you exit for the taxis. How far is a good distance you ask, way too far when you cannot walk very well. The Uber XL was $99.00 from Ft Lauderdale to Miami plus tip.

I booked a suite through Expedia and used my points. I only paid $76 plus a $16 resort fee for our one night stay, but beware if you book this hotel, there is a deposit hold placed on your credit card. Our deposit was $100 but I have read other reviews that stated their credit card hold was $400. The suite was an ultra-modern 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. One bedroom had a kingsize bed and the other had a queen size bed. There was a full kitchen and balcony with a city view. Both bedrooms has views of Biscayne Bay. The hotel staff was courteous and helpful and the hotel was very clean. We ask for recommendations for dinner and the desk clerk suggested Havana 1957; the food was great—if you go,try the Mojito South Beach.

After a good night’s sleep it was embarkation day! The hotel staff called us a taxi which was a van big enough to accommodate four adults and 6 bags 2 of which were very large. Our friends have not learned how to pack for a cruise yet. The driver stopped at Walgreens so our friends could purchase their wine and 12 pack Coke. My husband and I decided not to take any drinks because we did not wantto deal with the extra carry-on bags with our bum legs. The taxi to Port Miami was $38 plus tip. I think approximately $2 of that was wait time while our friends made their purchases.

Next up Embarkation.

Great start! I'm going on Glory in November and can't wait to read more!

Following. BTW—-I’ve had bilateral TKRs, so I know your pain, and inability to walk well to the ride share area. It IS quite a distance. But since I’ve had my knees done I walk 3-4 miles daily, and ride a stationary bike for 40 minutes. The TKRs totally gave me my life back. And they allowed me to be able to work until I was old enough to retire, as my job as an RN involved long hours on my legs/feet.

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EMBARKATION:

Our check in time was 11-11:30. This was the first time we had a check in time on previous cruises we just showed up and waited in line. What a mess embarkation turned out to be. We arrived at 11 and were in the terminal and seated by 11:30. The only problem was that no one told us you needed a zone card to embark. Now maybe this is information on the Carnival web page and I did not read it. Also I had not read anything about a zone card on CC. Our friend went to the information desk after we realized our mistake and we were given zone 21. Instead of getting on the ship early we were one ofthe last groups called--it was all most 1:00 pm when we boarded. We were starving as we did not eat breakfast that morning so we headed to the Lido for food.

Lesson Learned: Make sure you get a boarding zone card. Also, found out if you check in at the airport Carnival booth, the zone is printed on your check in paperwork. I am not familiar with the process but maybe some else can answer the question for all you inquiring minds.

Safety Drill “Muster”: It was easy peasy for me due to the knee brace and cane. My husband and I were seated inside one of the lounges. Our friends lined up outside on deck four and said it was easier and shorter than on our last cruise. I think muster was around 3 pm and sail awaywas at 4 pm.

STATE ROOM: We were in room balcony room 7364. This wasa first for us and we loved it and spent a lot of time on the balcony reading and watching the water go by, so it was worth the extra cost. Previously, we were booked on the Fascination out of San Juan but a hurricane changed thatplan. When Carnival canceled our cruise, they gave us a 25% discount off of the original cost of the Fascination cruise to book another cruise along with our full refund. So we got a great deal on the balcony room. I am not sure if I will book another balconydue to the cost (I would rather cruise more) but for this trip it was great. “I Made” (his actual name) was our room attendant. He always had a smile and called us by name when we saw him. We chose evening service as this works best for us.

Next will be dining unless I change my format. Stay tuned to find out.:D

Thanks for the report.

Thank you for sharing, I look forward to reading more as we sail on the Glory in 2 weeks.

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Will be boarding in about 6 hours!

DINING:

We had my time dining in the Golden Dining Room. We ate dinner there every night except one and were satisfied with the food. I ate some type of sea food every night except one that I had the stuffed mushroomswhich were excellent. By the third night,we were seated with a wait staff that we really liked and requested them for the rest of the cruise. The head waiterwas Shriniwas “James” he made excellent dinner suggestions and did not try to upsell us on adult beverages and steak house selections—more on this later. One night we ate salad on the Lido deck as we napped late into the evening and just did not feel like eating much.

BREAKFAST: We ate in the Platinum Dining Room on all except two mornings. I loved the omelets, yogurt parfait and blueberry pancakes. The yogurt parfait is a must try, so yummy. We also ate Sea Day Brunch there although I liked the variety of the regular breakfast menu better but both were good.On two morning we ate at the Lido breakfast buffet. It was nothing special and the same foods elections every day.

LUNCH: Can you believe we only ate lunch three times during this cruise. Two times on at the buffet and one time room service. Lido lunches were ok but most options were fried (chicken, fish, shrimp). On our last day, was the chocolate extravaganza. The white chocolate cake was the best dessert I had on the entire cruise.

OTHER DINING OPTIONS: We did not eat at any of the other dining options during this cruise. The lines were just too long for me to standand wait.

ROOM SERVICE: Our coffee and muffins were deliver at the time requested. Also, ordered lunch one day and was told it would be 20 minutes but came in 10. I ordered the roasted turkey sandwich, chips and chocolate chip cookies. My order was correct and the food was good. In fact, I have been on a low carb diet for a year and that sandwich tasted amazing to me.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: Our dining experience was overall very good. Although, we were very disappointed with our wait staff the first two nights of the cruise. Service was slow and food was not hot and some dishes were cold. We attributed this to them spending so much time trying to up sale alcoholic drinks and steakhouse selections. We were asked at least 5 times during dinner if we wanted an alcoholic beverage.

These is just my thoughts; yours may differ.

I am copying and pasting from Word and noticed in my previous post there were some spacing issues. I hope I have fixed them all in this post.

PORTS

7 May--Grand Cayman: Originally we were doing the Sting Ray City and Starfish beach tour. Our friends did it and said it was great but would probably not do it again. We did a private excursion city tour. The tour was $20 each and went to Hell, a quick look at 7 mile beach,the Dolphin Center, stopped for some rum cake and rum tasting and just drove around looking at the school and hotels. We were supposed to go to the Turtle Farm but when we got there the driver said it was $15 per person extra so everyone decided to skip it. Originally the diver stated the Turtle Farm was included but did not mention the additional cost. Be careful taking with one of the tours just outside the port. This was a last minute decision for us and I did not research companies—my bad. I had read on CC that the City Tours with the places listed above were not worth the money but for us it was ok due to our mobility issues. I would not recommend this tour if you want to see Grand Cayman.

8 May—Roatan: We did the beach break at Mahogany Bay. For our fee (don’t remember the price) we received two covered chairs, unlimited chair lift from the port entry and two float mats. We enjoyed our time on the beach and the setting is very beautiful. The sand is powder soft and made walking very difficult. Our friends did the Jolly Roger Catamaran sail, snorkel with lunch and loved it.

9 May—Belize: We stayed on the ship and tried to explore it some. Our friends did the snorkeling with nurse sharks and stingrays. They were a little freaked out by the shark feeding frenzy and said they would not do it again, once was enough.

10 May—Cozumel: In Cozumel we basically just looked around at port. We took the bicycle taxi to and from the ship as the pier is very long. This service is provided for a very good tip—this is the answer we got when we asked for the price. Our friends went to the Mayan ruins and highly recommend this excursion if you are interested in this type of history. They said this was their favorite excursion.

12 May—Carnival sponsored Everglades tour with drop off at the Fort Lauderdale airport. I really enjoyed the hour long airboat ride and saw alligators and nesting birds. The tour was an enjoyable way to spend the morning as we had a 4:00 pm flight. We weredropped off at the airport at 2 pm.

Thanks for posting!

How was the entertainment on board? Any recommendations? Thanks

SHOWS:

I just wanted to mention that Carnival has a new show in the Amber Theater I think itis called Amore Cuba. This show was one of my all time favorites. We also went to the Welcome A board Show, the family comedy, Love and Marriage, and listened to music as several venues around the ship. As others have stated you need to get to the comedy shows about an hour before they start if you want a seat otherwise it is standing room only.

SHIP:

The ship was in great condition and the crew was always cleaning. I was somewhat disappointed in the ship because I was unable to access the sports and serenity decks. I thought that we would be able to play mini golf and enjoy the serenity deck while others went ashore, but that was not the case. We ask the several crew members about the elevator to access the desks and were given directions. Although none went high enough and stairs are the only way to get to them.

All things considered, it was a great vacation just different than prior ones. I definitely want to sail this itinerary again when I am able to be more active. We are considering the New England/Canada or Hawaii cruise for our next adventure.

If I can answer any questions, please let me know. Thanks for reading along.