Carnival Glory Oct 17 - 23

[bhanback]

This will probably be long......some really cool things happened on our Glory Cruise from Norfolk, I wanted to get started right away, but real life intruded immediately upon our return. Cruising this time were my sister and I. This was my 7th cruise with Carnival and as far as I am concerned, one of the best!

 

Precruise: We left for Norfolk on Saturday, the day before the cruise, headed for the Marriott Norfolk Waterside. It's a 2 hour drive down from where I live, on Chincoteague Island, so by the time we got out onto the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel, Rose was hungry so we stopped at the Seagull Pier ( they gave a new name now, I think, but I am not sure what it is) for those of you who travel through that area, you really should stop and try this place, it was closed for a couple of months while they remodeled, it used to be just a place to get hot dogs, snacks, or a good flounder sandwich, and get a sense of the bay and the bridge.....neat place to watch the big ships go by......anyway, they have changed it....and the menu. It's a nice little sit down restaurant now......Sis ordered a "tuna melt" and was totally startled when she got a huge grilled tuna steak on a fresh roll, she was expecting tuna salad!! She really liked it though, she had never had a tuna steak before, it looked like it was cooked perfectly. I had fried shrimp which were quite respectable and did not taste like they were frozen from a bag. Not terribly expensive, either. After lunch, a few quick snaps of the bay, then on to Norfolk.

 

The City of Norfolk is really a beautiful area, and it is one of the friendliest cities I have visited. This air of friendliness was no doubt enhanced by the fact that the Norfolk Wine Festival was taking place that weekend. The bad part was that the parking garages were full, ut we finally did get a place in the Main Street Garage, which is right across the street from the Marriott. This was to be our parking spot for the week, at 12.00 per night, a little cheaper than the regular cruise parking at the Cedar Grove lot. That afternoon, we walked around the harbor area, took the little passenger ferry around the river and over to Portsmouth, watched the wine festival folks clearly having a great time, and tried to decide what to have for dinner.....there are a lot of really neat places to eat and shop right in the downtown district. Our bags for the cruise were arlready packed so full there was no room for anymore shopping, and ultimately we opted for dinner at Shula's 347, which is located right at the hotel.

 

THAT was a stellar dinner. I had the filet and it was cooked to perfection, with grilled asparagus and a citrus scented jasmine rice. WOW. I was looking so forward to the creme brûlée on the first night of the cruise, but I had seen it mentioned on one of the Glory reviews that they got no creme brûlée.....so I was a little bit worried, and when saw it on the Shulas dessert menu......I went for it. I am sorry to say was disappointed, because it spoiled me for any other creme brulee in the world, it was that good!

 

After dinner we headed up to the room, then back out again to the pool and hot tubs for awhile. They have a nice set up at this hotel, and DS swam in the pool while I found a hot tub overlooking the river, and waited for ourship to come in. This was lovely for about 45 minutes till a couple of drunk guys decided to joins in the hot tub, so as soon as we could make a gracious escape, we did so, and turned in for the night. I was so excited I did not sleep a wink!

 

Tomorrow-our ship comes in! I took some really great pics I hope to share as a part of this review, I hope I can figure out how to do that........

[whendoweleave?]

Have you put your pics on a share site, like Photobucket? That's the best way to use them in reviews.

[bhanback]

I was up and looking out the windows at 5 AM, I just could not wait........woke Sis up about 6, and we gathered our meager overnight stuff and crossed over the third story bridge from the hotel to the parking garage, to offload that. Then we headed back to the hotel for a really nice buffet breakfast, included with the room rate.

 

After breakfast we went back out to the garage, we were on level 9, gtrabbed our cruisin' bags and headed down the elevator to the street. I know, I know, the cruise docs said boarding began at 1:30, but I so love to be getting on to an almost empty ship, and since I knew the Glory was arriving to us from New York empty, I figured boarding would start fairly quickly......besides, the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration center is a lovely area to sit, watch the set up for Sunday Wine Festival, check out the Wisconsin battleship, there is always something to see.

 

After a short block and a half walk down the street, we arrived at the pier......PORTERS!!!!! SECURITY!!!!! We are going on a cruise!

 

So I have to take a second here to tell you about the Norfolk Police Department. As we approached the corner to cross to the terminal, we saw a couple come out of the garage closest to the terminal. They had luggage, purses, carry ons, cameras....and a cup of coffee each. There was a police officer directing traffic at the intersection, and he stopped traffic, made sure it stayed stopped, come over and took the coffee from these folks, led us across the street, gave them back their coffee, and then returned to the intersection to let the traffic pass. How nice is that? As we rounded the corner of the cruise terminal, there was the magnificent Carnival Glory nosing gently alogside the pier!!!! We arrived at the same time, a good omen.....

 

Once across the street, we asked a really nice man and lady who were at the entryway to the terminal what to do, they were very informative and directed us to the early porters for drop off. Even our porter was so nice and gave us directions in case we wanted to get another breakfast (NOT!) We tipped himn accordingly and felt assured that even though our bags were the first in the bin, they would be safe. As directed by the friendly Norfolk Events staff at the terminal entry, we chose a bench near where we would start progressing towards the ship, walked around and took some pictures, and poeple watched as other early birds arrived. We'd been told the entry would open up around ten, and actual boarding sometime after that. At a few minutes after ten, we were allowed to walk up the stairs to get into the line for the terminal. There were two lines, and an empty aisle in the middle, Sis and I were the first in line on the right side, looking over towards Nauticus. The line was supervised at the front by two Norfolk Police officers, a Sargeant and a Captain (I think) and various Carnival staff went back and forth to the end of the line assisting people and getting things in order. Besides being HOT, both these police officers were just so nice, funny and entertaining as we waited to get into the terminal. At about 10:40 or so, the terminal opened and we proceeded to the check in lines. Our carry ons were scanned and we were wanded, then on the check in. They were experiencing some computer glitches as well as training some new people on the check in process so there was a slight delay, but since you are not going to do anything but sit in chairs after check in anyway it did not matter miuch. Chairs were ok, I saw Glory waiters taking juice and snacks over to the small VIP area, and began mulling over how to get quickly to VIP status. We had VIP boarding last year on the Pride and I really liked it. But I figured we were so early this time it would not make that much difference, and ultimately, it didn't.......by 11:30 they were calling for special needs passengers and VIPS, then it was time for us....ZONE 1! Had a picture snapped, "dinged in with our shiny new sail and sign cards, and we were finally onboard!

 

So, yeah....I am trying this pyhotobucket thingy and every time I try to put up an picture it says the file is too large even though I have resized them to "tiny", so no pics yet but I will keep trying.

[makeup face]

Please keep it coming....I'll be on the Glory in 95 days!!!!:D

[Clemons1]

I hope we get to hear details about the cruise itself. We are sailing on the Glory in 5 days!

[Cruzinbabe06]

Looking forward to your review. We sail on the Glory in 16 days.

Please give details. Hope you can get those pictures up also. I am so excited.:D

Thanks in advance

[bhanback]

OK....so we are ON THE SHIP!!

 

Now I am reading all this negative stuff about the Glory....even in New York, she did not get the greatest reviews. I know that perception is different for everyone, but I do find myself wondering if I was actually on the same cruise as some others who are posting here. To each his own, I guess...... as we came on board and began our trk on the ship to lunch, it was unbelieveable. We could not pass a staff person, maintenance person, or officer who was not smiling, saying "Welcome Home" (I guess they could see our Gold Sail and Sign.... or "Welcome back" or "Hi, How are you?" Some actually took your hand and shook it, it was amazing, and we loved it. We felt like we really were arriving among our friends!

 

Once onboard, we knew where we were headed, straight to Lido for lunch and fish and chips! "They are so greasy!", people whine. I found the F & C to be just delightful. Yes, they are battered and fried.......therefore, one needs to wipe ones fingers on a napkin while you eat.......but it is not like there is grease running down your chin or coating the inside of your mouth greasy. Every time I had these, they were fresh and hot with a wonderful lightly seasoned batter that just crunched when you bit into them. The fries are not really traditional "chips"....being of a slimmer cut, but they were still very good. Fried oysters were also avalaible, I did not have any, they seemed smallish and appeared to be breaded rather than battered. Also offered up there was a ceviche type sald of seafood, a seafood soup/stew, and the cured ahi tuna on a watermelon cube.

 

Checked out the lido buffett just below....for those of you who do not know, there is a moderate sized seating area where the fish and chips are located and it is always peaceful up there, never a big crowd, most of the tables are window tables. If you can't find a seat downstairs, head on up, theres always plenty of space.

 

I did try the roast beef, it was very flavorful, also picked up a couple of desserts, some strawberry mousse cake was pretty tasty, it looked like cheescake but was really gelatin based, but the topping was good. Iced tea was clearly from concentrate and it was ok. Got quite a bit better when mixed half and half with the lemonade.

 

It was about 12:15 or so when we headed up to Spa deck, to see if our cabin was ready. We had been told while boarding, "no cabins till 1:30" but, we knew the ship had been empty from Ney York, so we took a chance and peeked in, we were all set! I also hear a lot of bad stuff about the Spa Deck (Deck 11) cabins, but I chose this location having done the same deck on our Valor cruise in 08. I love this location! It is very easy to navigate from, just straight down the stairs to Promenade deck if you want to go straight through the ship, or the same way for Lobby Deck or the Amber Palace. Just our of our stateroom and turn right, walk about six steps and go out the door at the end of the hall, and you are standing on the outdoor Lido Deck, the water slide and observation decks are one flught up the stairs, and the pools, hot tubs, Red Sail restaraount, and Steakhouse are just down some short (three step) flights and across the deck. The sliding glass doors on these balconys are just beautiful, you do not have a "door" and a "window" , you just have an expanse of glass to get a panoramic view of everything. Hint: Each room has a doorstop, and we used that in the track to keep the slider open at night to get the sea breeze and hear the ocean whispering by the hull.....heavenly!

 

Anyway...the cabin....was immaculate. Having read all the bad reviews, I immediatley had to smell the robes and check the towels. All were fresh and clean. Nothing was broken, chipped, cracked or burned. Carpet looked clean. Checked the matresses and no telltale dark specks. Watched the boarding process from the balcony for a bit, there was at this point a long line snaking up to the terminal entry, but buses were arriving it seemed every five minutes and disgorging 60 or 70 people at a time. From what we could see from our perch up above, the line was moving all the time, though. Almost as soon as I had finsihed my stateroom inspection (even the TV had a great picture!) There was a knock on the door and we got to meet our room steward, Lenora. What a gem! Carnival has some wonderful people working for them! Lenora explained to us everything we would possibly need to know...the dining times, the steakhouse, how to reach her at any time, the muster drill coming up, she covered it all. I need to remember to mention that we were called by name throughout our cruise by Lenora, hero, her assistant, as well as our dining team. My sister had sent a bouquet of flowers for me through Bon Voyage, and they were waiting for me as we had entered the cabin, very fresh and pretty. Muster drill was easy especially without getting our lifevests on, and went pretty quickly. When we returned from muster drill, we had our two large suicases waiting in our stateroom for us, but that prompted another visit from lenore, who seemed to know that we were still missing two bags. She took notes and was fully prepared to follow up on this for us, so we were not terrible worried about it, as it was still pretty early.

 

OK, so I have tried and have a couple of pics up with this one, let's see if it all works!

[CowboysCoach]

Can't wait to read you review. I too have read recent reviews with some concern and we sail on the Glory in 24 days.