Glory 6/28, Boston-Saint John, mini-review

[stargate fan]

Here is my review in a nutshell:

I’ll start by saying that this was a “Sibling Cruise” with my DH’s mom, his sisters, and their hubbies. At 51 and 52, we were the youngest of our party. (Woo hoo!!) We live about an hour north of Boston and not having to fly to the port was fantastic. I am GREEN WITH ENVY of anyone who lives within driving distance to a cruise port.

 

We received an email from Carnival asking us to arrive at the port at 1:30. Poppycock!! We left the house at 7:00, hit a bit of traffic on 128 and 93, and got to the parking garage right before 8:30. We did find a spot, which was lucky considering it was Tall Ships and Navy Fleet Week in Boston.

It was a gorgeous day in Boston. We walked across the street and were told by port employees that the porters were busy taking off people’s luggage so they wouldn’t take our bags until 10:00. We were surprised because in Florida, our bags are taken as soon as we arrive, which is usually around the same time. No biggie. We found a bench upon which to sit and made friends with people waiting for rides and Carnival staff. One of the Carnival gals with whom we made friends came up and told us how to know when the porters would be ready for us. As soon as they were, she signaled us over and our bags were the first ones on the carts.

 

We were then pointed to a line in which we should wait. Not five minutes later, we were up the escalator and getting our Sail and Sign cards. Since two siblings are past Carnival guests and two are not, we booked our rooms with one in each so all would get the past guest rate. More on getting cabins switched later. Oh, we got the new gold VIFP cards. Not as pretty as the old cards but so what-we were going on a cruise.

 

Segue-we own Carnival stock. We submitted the proper documents online in order to get our $50 OBC. Since DH and I were booked in separate cabins, we submitted said docs twice, once in each name. Do you how nice it is to start off a cruise with $100 in OBC? It is very nice indeed.

 

At 10:50, assisted and VIP guests, all five of them (seriously!) embarked. A few minutes later, Zone 1 was called. (Yup, that was us.) At this time there were fewer than 100 guests in the terminal. We were the first peons on board. This was the earliest we had ever embarked. So take that, Carnival, trying to tell us to arrive at 1:30! (Imagine tongue sticking out here. :p)

 

DH and I have our cruise routine-we grab a map, head to the highest deck, and check out each deck in its entirety until we hit the first bar. Mmm, Twilight Zone was delicious. We continue until we reach food then grab lunch and go until we have seen the whole ship.

 

Now to getting our cabins switched. We had to wait to go to Guest Services until our whole group had arrived. Then DH and one of his sisters gave their S&S cards to the nice young man who re-swiped the mag strips. (I was booked with that sister and DH was booked with her DH.) It was over and done in less than two minutes.

 

The ship is beautiful and we had no idea she was nine years old.

The food venues: buffet, deli (extra-thick corned beef and pastrami on rye was the perfect first meal!), burrito bar, Mongolian stir fry, pizza, fish & chips, two grills (wish one was a Tandoori.), ice cream machines. I hope I’m not missing any.

 

That’s it for now-we are soon off to an Independence Day party. More to come. (OK, so maybe not so much of a mini-review. :o)

[trvlqueen]

We got the same email before our 6/14 Glory cruise. I'm not sure what is up with that - I called Carnival and they said the ship was delayed due to fog, but I still had my doubts, so went ahead and drove into town and saw the whale tail ... therefore we went ahead and boarded, but I think most listened to the e-mail because boarding was ridiculously easy (even at 11am) and the ship was relatively empty until close to 2pm.

[stargate fan]

We got the same email before our 6/14 Glory cruise. I'm not sure what is up with that - I called Carnival and they said the ship was delayed due to fog, but I still had my doubts, so went ahead and drove into town and saw the whale tail ... therefore we went ahead and boarded, but I think most listened to the e-mail because boarding was ridiculously easy (even at 11am) and the ship was relatively empty until close to 2pm.

 

Our sailing was also mostly empty until about 2:00 or so.

[vivavegas]

Welcome Back! Looking forward to reading more of your "mini" review!:)