Quick Cruise overview--Glory Dec 11, 2011

[jzygail]

Overview:

 

Had a great time, but not particularly impressed with Carnival itself. There were certainly good points and the bad points absolutely did not “ruin the cruise”--but they were certainly sufficient that given the choice, I would prefer to sail with another line in the future. That being said, if some friends or family wanted me to join them on a Carnival cruise, I probably would, because a good group of family or friends is what makes a vacation, not the venue, and if they are insistent on Carnival then fine. But as I said, if it’s 100% up to me, I’ll find another line. Prior cruise experience was HAL’s Maasdam out of Norfolk, VA in November 2006 to the Southern Caribbean.

 

We sailed on the Glory (12/11-12/18) to the Western Caribbean, leaving out of Miami. Also, we flew in the day before and stayed at the Fortune House Hotel (we got an internet deal on a 2 bedroom condo for $158/night—split 5 ways, it was a great deal). The hotel isn’t particularly convenient to the port—it’s located in the financial district, just off Brickell, and right across SE 14 Terrace from the Four Seasons Hotel. Our room was on the 17th floor, and had a nice balcony that overlooked the Four Seasons’ pool deck, so we got to watch the set up of and ceremony for a very swanky Jewish wedding—we were not the only ‘gatecrashers’, and the bride and groom waved to all of us when, at the end, we all cheered. I think they were surprised, but happily so at all the uninvited well wishers :)

 

Miami was a very efficiently run port—absolutely all good things to say about that. Both coming and going were troublefree and well organized.

 

The room steward. Well, from the divider situation we know we had one, but aside from that, we might otherwise never have known. At least twice, he showed before I had left the room for the day and because of that, my room never got cleaned until we were at dinner (late seating). The other couple went 4 days without ever getting their room cleaned, bed made or towels exchange. My son and DIL didn’t get turn down service, but twice the entire week. Aside from the prepaid tips on our account, we did not tip the stewards at the end of the cruise. The bed was comfy, as long as you didn’t want to sleep in the middle—the mattresses had obvious hallows from being used as singles. But when pushed together as a king, it created a lump in the middle. I live alone and have for over a decade, I’m used to having the whole bed :)

 

The food. The buffet was fine enough—certainly edible. The fish and chips were okay—nothing to write home about. But again, edible and on par with any fast food fried fish one could get. The coffee wasn’t atrocious. The dining room was a disappointment. Again for the cheerleaders, my cruise wasn’t ruined, but I couldn’t help comparing the menus on this cruise to those of my previous experience (on HAL). Most nights on HAL, the difficulty was in deciding which of several choices to make because everything sounded so good. On Carnival, at least twice the difficulty was in finding anything at all that appealed. And that’s quite a shame. From the everyday stuff, the salmon was universally acclaimed as very good. The fried chicken (my son’s choice one night) was universally dismissed as not worth the effort. The pot roast (one of the comfort food choices) was well received. The melting chocolate cake was extremely good, particularly on the first night, but by the end of the week, it was little more than melting chocolate cake batter, with a tiny thin crust of ‘cake’--still tasted fine, but it needed more time in the oven in my opinion. (I should note that the vanilla ice cream served with it makes that entire dessert). The steakhouse was excellent and well worth the extra money, imo.

 

Onboard entertainment. The guys talked about going to the casino, but I don’t think they ever did. I accompanied them to the comedy club early in the cruise, but I’m an early bird and we had late dining so most nights I was ready to hit the sack after dinner and the “younguns” went off and did their thing (and reportedly had a good time doing it :) I heard no complaints and I enjoyed the comedians the night I accompanied them.

 

The staff were mostly enjoyable and all very professional and courteous. Some of the cruise director/entertainment staff were ...annoying. I seriously could go my entire life without having “The Saga Of Why I Say Jelly Doughnuts Every Other Second And Isn’t That Hilarious????” story told again. (and it wasn’t terribly amusing the first time either). But as my son said, “Everyone has to have a schtick.” If he says so :) Josh was okay, although he’d get a little longwinded in announcements. A couple days into the cruise, the Assistance Cruise Director left to join his wife on whatever ship she’s on and we got Missy. Missy was, bar none, my absolute hands-down (to the point I even remember her name, and I’m craptastic at remembering names) the best of that whole bunch. Funny, lively, sarcastic (which endeared her to me instantly). I may have to make a provision that if I sail Carnival again, it will have to be when Missy is onboard.

 

And as much as I loved Missy, I loved the Serenity Deck. It was always the best place to sun, to read, to snooze (if the sun was too strong on our balcony). Good bar, great staff. And if the wind was too strong, then the aft pool area was my 2nd favorite spot. Much quieter (or maybe just less frenetic) than the Lido deck.

 

Had a great time, good ports, good company and even with chocolate cake (batter) every day, I lost 1.5 lbs on the week. But I prefer a cruiseship that’s a little less Vegas and a little more .... Hmmmm, not Vegas, I guess. I’m thinking my next cruise will be a quilting cruise (Feb 2013) with Royal Caribbean out of Baltimore—depends on how much they’re going to soak me for a single cabin :)

[jzygail]

Doh--Iseem to have misplaced a paragraph about our rooms. I could have sworn it was there before. Anyway, we had ghree adjacent balcony rooms on the 10th deck. The steward was able to open the dividers, even though the divider between two cabins blocked the door and had to be latched at night, but we weer able yo do the latching and unlatching.

[crusinpsychRN]

That's terrible your cabins weren't done twice a day. Did you say something to the purser?

[jzygail]

I think 'terrible' is overstating the severity. It was annoying. And a rather sharp contrast to HAL, although given the five years between the cruises, it's completely possible that service on HAL is not what it was then either. I 'solved' the matter by leaving the automatic tips in place and not tipping beyond that.