Glory 7/25-7/30 Review

[hunniebee724]

This was a very special trip for us. When I was planning my wedding on the Miracle last year, I told my dad about the Glory cruise to Canada. He thought it was cool, but said he'd love to drive up to Canada some day. I was married in August, and we all had an amazing cruise on the Miracle. Just two months later, my dad was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. His doctors gave us false hope, and told us not to worry about how much time he had left. For Christmas, I gave my parents and brother a road trip to Canada. We were going to take that trip the week of my 30th birthday (July 24th). My dad ended up with a serious infection while in the hospital at the end of February, and despite being moved to one of the best hospitals in NYC, he passed away on April 7th. We knew the road trip would be too hard on us, so we booked the Glory cruise in his memory. My husband was in the middle was switching jobs, and couldn't join us, so it was me, my mom and brother.

 

We arrived at the port about 11:30 and went right through to check-in. We had to wait about 15 minutes to board, but that was faster than when we had VIP boarding because of the wedding last year! The man who checked us in was in training, and scanned our passports multiple times before they went through. This turned out to be a problem when we went to guest services to put cash on our sign & sail cards (we use cash accounts & each wanted a separate account). First, my name wasn't showing up at all, and my mom's name was on the room twice. Then, my card worked fine and my mom & brother ended up needing new sign & sail cards because the cards given to them at check-in didn't work. That was quickly settled and we were on our way to the Lido deck for lunch. By the time we finished lunch, it was around 1:30, so we went to check to see if our room was ready. It was, and our luggage arrived soon after. We brought 2 bottles of white wine, and I had ordered another bottle of wine, a bottle of Bacardi and the Corona cooler. I also ordered the Chocolate Delight and the Canape tray from BV.

 

 

It was POURING during sail away!

 

 

Here we are going under the Verrazano!

 

 

 

Our room steward was wonderful, and cleaned our room twice a day. He kept our cooler and ice bucket filled with ice, and made sure we had clean wine glasses. We had "Your Time Dining," so he asked us what time we would be going to dinner so he could come clean the room. We knew we wouldn't be going at the same time each night, so we just put the "Cruisin" sign on the door when we left.

 

"Your Time Dining" wasn't great. We used it 3 of the 5 nights, and on 2 of those nights, we ended up waiting about 30 minutes for a table. They did send a treat to our room the next day both times as an "I'm Sorry" gift. We liked having our own table and being able to choose our own dinner time though. My hubby and I are going on the Miracle next summer for our 2nd anniversary, and I'd rather have a table for 2 than have to share a table with people we don't know, so we may give it another chance.

 

The food in the dining room was great. We loved the Fish & Chips on the Lido deck, but didn't get to try the Burrito bar or Mongolian Wok. We found the Glory much harder to navigate than the Miracle.

 

We went to the Welcome Aboard show and the Justin Illusion show. Justin Illusion is fabulous! We also went to the R-rated comedy shows on the first night they were showing. We liked them so much, that we went back for the 2nd night, but found out that it was a repeat of the first night. Bill McCarty's show was a repeat anyway...we didn't stay to see if Marc Theobald's show was a repeat as well. That was disappointing.

 

We were considered past guests this cruise, but we didn't receive an invitation to the past guest party. :confused:

 

My brother loved the sports bar, "On the Green" since he's a sports fanatic. It was empty most of the time....guess there weren't too many sports fans on this cruise.

 

We went to the steakhouse, the Emerald Room, on the 4th night. My brother and I had the crab cake and the Cesar salad and my mom had the beef carpaccio and the spinach salad. I had the Filet Mignon with Bernaise sauce and my brother & mother both got the 24 oz Porterhouse. We all had the chocolate sampler. Everything was delicious and cooked to perfection. I'm not a big steak eater, but I had lobster on formal night and in both ports, so I wanted something different at the steakhouse.

 

I'll be back with more pictures of the ports!

[september2010]

So sorry to hear about your dad. It is good you were able go with your mom and brother, a good time to bond. We are going on the Glory in September to celebrate our 25th wedding aniversary so I am looking forward to the rest of your trip and pictures.

[LBumb]

nice purchases from bon voyage

[Capecodbeachfront]

H-bee,

Thank you for posting info re your Glory cruise...

I had been awaiting your followup after you posted reply to my thread asking about excursions in Halifax and St John. My daughter will be sailing Labor Day. Hopefully she will have a little sunnier sail away than you had. Any help with excursions would be helpful. They are determined to do the bar crawl in Halifax... I told them the port isn't really that big that they would need a bar tour? Sounded like you were happy with the dining room dishes? I'll definitely advise them of the evening shows...:)

[yogimax]

Thank you! Looking forward to more!

[njmomof2]

My sister, BIL and niece are currently on the Glory and we're doing it on August 27th. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

So sorry about your dad.

[seriouscruiser]

So sorry about your dad

 

we also are cruisin w/glory,-9/17-9/24

1st time on the glory,1st time to canada/new england

 

7th cruise though

there will be 5 of us

myself,my dh our friends for over 30 yrs and our single male friend

this is our 3rd ccl cruise

its awesome cause we get to have a cd who we have sailed with in the past..he is awesome

 

looking forward to new friends/new adventures

 

any input on any excursions

 

 

look forward to more of ur reviews

[boaterette]

I am sorry to hear about your dad. My childrens stepmom whom they were close with found out she had stage 4 colon cancer in December and passed away in April. It is a tough disease.

 

I am glad you had this cruise with your mom and brother.

 

Thank you for posting your review.

[ZooTycoon223]

I can sympathize with your touching story. My father passed away last July, and being 16 at the time it was pretty traumatizing. My mom decided it would be best if we didn't spend the holidays home so she booked us a Christmas cruise on the Glory. Then this year we went on the Miracle, and his one year anniversary was during the cruise as well. Both cruises were in honour of my father, because I knew how much he would have loved traveling with his family on a cruise.

[hunniebee724]

So sorry about your dad

 

we also are cruisin w/glory,-9/17-9/24

1st time on the glory,1st time to canada/new england

 

7th cruise though

there will be 5 of us

myself,my dh our friends for over 30 yrs and our single male friend

this is our 3rd ccl cruise

its awesome cause we get to have a cd who we have sailed with in the past..he is awesome

 

looking forward to new friends/new adventures

 

any input on any excursions

 

 

look forward to more of ur reviews

 

Thank you. This was our 1st time to Canada too. My brother now wants to move there! Josh was awesome! We had a fill-in CD on the Miracle last year...not Malcolm...I don't even remember his name, but we weren't impressed. We loved Josh! We did the Trolley Round Saint John and the Duck Tour. We wanted a short overview of both places and time to walk around, and enjoyed both tours.

 

I am sorry to hear about your dad. My childrens stepmom whom they were close with found out she had stage 4 colon cancer in December and passed away in April. It is a tough disease.

 

I am glad you had this cruise with your mom and brother.

 

Thank you for posting your review.

 

Thank you. So sorry for your loss as well. Yes, it is a tough disease, and such a nightmare to watch someone you love go suffer through it.

 

I can sympathize with your touching story. My father passed away last July, and being 16 at the time it was pretty traumatizing. My mom decided it would be best if we didn't spend the holidays home so she booked us a Christmas cruise on the Glory. Then this year we went on the Miracle, and his one year anniversary was during the cruise as well. Both cruises were in honour of my father, because I knew how much he would have loved traveling with his family on a cruise.

 

So sorry for your loss. I can't imagine being so young and losing my dad. It was hard enough at 29.

[hunniebee724]

My sister, BIL and niece are currently on the Glory and we're doing it on August 27th. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

So sorry about your dad.

 

Thank you.

[hunniebee724]

So sorry to hear about your dad. It is good you were able go with your mom and brother, a good time to bond. We are going on the Glory in September to celebrate our 25th wedding aniversary so I am looking forward to the rest of your trip and pictures.

 

Thank you. It was a great time for us. I know it was really hard for my mom, but I'm glad she was able to have a good time.

 

H-bee,

Thank you for posting info re your Glory cruise...

I had been awaiting your followup after you posted reply to my thread asking about excursions in Halifax and St John. My daughter will be sailing Labor Day. Hopefully she will have a little sunnier sail away than you had. Any help with excursions would be helpful. They are determined to do the bar crawl in Halifax... I told them the port isn't really that big that they would need a bar tour? Sounded like you were happy with the dining room dishes? I'll definitely advise them of the evening shows...:)

 

We were happy with the dining room dishes. The food on the Lido deck was good too. I even heard someone on the Lido deck say that Carnival's food was better than the food on Celebrity. I've never been on another cruise line so I can't compare.

 

Halifax is really easy to navigate, and there's a line of bars on Argyle Street they can walk to from the ship. They don't need to pay for a tour to check out the bars. There are also a few bars along the waterfront, which are also walking distance from both the Argyle Street bars and the ship. They'll be able to see everything in the time they have in port. Here's some pics of Argyle Street:

 

[hunniebee724]

Saint John, NB

Here are some pics arriving in Saint John (always spelled out "Saint" to distinguish it from St. John, Newfoundland...something we learned on our excursion).

 

We choose the Trolley Round Saint John tour, because it would give us a general overview of the city and still give us enough time to explore on our own, do some shopping and eat lunch in port. I had been reading on the Canada boards here on CC, and had some recommendations for some places to eat.

 



The tour took us to various places in Saint John, including the reversing falls and Fort Howe.

 





 

[hunniebee724]

The excursion gave us the option to be left off at Old City Market or to be taken back to the ship. We decided to get off at Old City Market and walk back to the ship.

 



After walking through the city market, we started walking back towards the ship, where we found Barbour's General Store and Museum. They have AWESOME chocolate donuts in there for $1! I wish I bought more!

 



Across the street from Barbour's General Store and Museum is Market Square, where you will find stores, the New Brunswick museum and Grannan's, where we decided to eat lunch.

 

[hunniebee724]

Our family loves lobster, so we decided we would be trying lobster in both ports. All 3 of us had the North Atlantic lobster roll at Grannan's. On our excursion, we learned that Moosehead beer was the popular beer in Saint John, so we had to try it. Mom & I had the Moosehead Light, and my brother had the regular Moosehead.

 



If you eat at Grannan's, you can walk downstairs and go out the back to get back to the ship.

 



 

Here's another seafood place, Steamer's. This was also recommended on the Canada board here on CC. This is right across from the ship.