Just off the Glory 8/19 trip

[Sue909]

First Carnival cruise and I have to say, it was amazing. Ship was easy to navigate. Sooooo much food. Last day was called, "everything chocolate" and it was.

Seas were pretty calm. Last night on board, it got a little bit wavy but nothing bad.

St. John was nice. We opted to take a taxi which was only $10 one way for 6 of us to the Reversing Falls. Our cab driver was so nice. While there, the kids did the Zip Line. The owner is great. Made sure he answered any questions. Chatted with us while our necks were craned upwards. Then we went back and shopped at the Boardwalk area (near the ship) and indoor markets. Got my Moose Poop. Met someone from here who had family up on the Zip Line at the same time.

If you are doing the Zip Line, if you have a taxi take you there, you can walk down the road to see the reversing falls so you can knock out two sites at once. We were told by a Carnival crew member that the taxi ride is $10 one way to reversing falls so make sure you aren't charged more. Some of the taxis that stopped said, $13 or $15 or $12. We always gave a tip so they got $12 each way.

The crew was so nice. Waiters in main dining room were fantastic. The last two nights, they danced and sang. I had the Chocolate melting cake two nights in a row and it was so good.

My 7 year old loved Camp Carnival. On the last night, they took them to the Disco (it was empty) and let them dance in there for an hour. My son had a ball dancing away.

The Mongolian Wok was so good. Endless coffee was really strong and good.

The teen clubs were never crowded so my other two kids didn't really go in there often. Shame because it was a great place to meet friends. They just hung around with each other.

I thought everything was organized well between getting on in NY and getting off in St. John to getting off in NY. It all went smoothly. We got to NY at 10:30am. GPS directions took us to the terminal and had us make a left but you couldn't get in that way. So we had to turn around in crazy NY traffic and go right which was so backed up getting into the terminal (only one way in) that it took about 20 minutes of just sitting in one spot. We finally got in and my husband dropped us off and went to park. Not realizing he had to exit the terminal and go back around (he was not happy). Took another long time to get through traffic. We got to the seating area around by 11:30am and boarded at noon. Was able to get to our rooms at 1:30pm.

For disembarkation, we decided to carry our own luggage off the ship rather than leave the luggage outside our doors the night before. I think this was the best way to go. Even though we were on the bottom floor Riviera which was supposed to be off at 7:30am, we went to breakfast and walked off with our own luggage at 9:00am before they started calling the zones for checked luggage. That, to me, was the best way to go.

We would definitely do another cruise with Carnival. It exceeded my expectations.

Two things I didn't know. If you book a spa treatment, you have to cancel 24 hours in advance. We called and scheduled something and wasn't told and then came down and decided to cancel and was told we would be charged 50% of the service. We didn't know this was the policy so we talked to the manager and he fixed it for us.

Another thing, when you are on the Lido deck after boarding, a crew member is handing out entry forms for a spa sweepstakes. She handed each adult like 4 forms. We just figured it was one per person. So we each filled out one form and went to the spa intro and to enter the sweepstakes. Well, this one woman won twice so she must have put in more than one entry. She liked the second prize better so she traded up for the better prize. The spa manager let her.

All in all it was a great cruise.

[Sue909]

Oh and another thing.....if you have kids, bring goggles for the saltwater pools and also walkie talkies.

 

Sue

[cruises42]

Thanks for the review, glad you had a good time!

Could you give more information on the driving directions. We'll be going in 4 weeks and I'm nervous about getting to the terminal.

[grammax3]

Thanks for a great review. We will be sailing the Glory on 9/6.

[lnm6170]

we will be sailing on 0ct 17 what where the movies they showed on the big screen ?

who was the cruise director ? do you know who it was ?

did you eat in the main dinning room ? if so did you seat at same table each time ?

thanks

[attitudeda]

Thanks Sue for the great review. We will be setting sail on the Glory on Saturday August 28, can't wait.

[CruisinManiac]

Does the spa have heated tile beds?