Carnival Glory to Canada, July 21-26: A Review

[amcjeep4life]

I recently took my 8 year old nephew on his first cruise. This review is really being written for his mom, so she can see what we did every day, because as is typical with an 8 year old, he has a pretty sketchy memory for things sometimes. :p I'll start off with some pretty basic details, then get into the good stuff. And there will be pictures!

 

Let me start off by telling you a little about the people cruising. I'm Tonya, 42, single. I own a grouchy little dog, a 3 legged cat, and a snake. I work crazy hours as an ACO, and I am a referee for our local Roller Derby League. My nephew is William. He's 8. He is the son of my ex-husband's brother, so we aren't truly related by blood, but my lovely and wonderful SIL (Mairi) ordered me to remain part of his life after the divorce. Will's dad passed away in 2007 when he was only 3 1/2, and my ex and I spent a lot of time with him, so I was very glad his mom insisted on letting me be a big part of his life. I love the little guy, and the thought of losing him was probably the most hurtful part of the divorce. Anyway, we still try to spend a lot of time together, and when I called his mom the end of June and asked to take her child away to Canada, she hardly batted an eye! SO the plan was set in motion!

 

I haven't cruised since 2010, in part due to the divorce and all, but I've had the Liberty booked since June of 2011. I'm cruising with some of the best people on that one! But they all kept booking other cruises before the Liberty, and it was making me crazy! So I started browsing one day, and remembered that Carnival was sailing short cruises out of Boston for a few weeks, and when I searched, I realized they were well within the affordable category for me. I was originally looking at a 4 day the 14th, but when I went to book, the 5 day on the 7th and 21st were the same price. I called his mom, got the OK, booked the 5 night for July 7, paid in full, had not quite 3 weeks to wait, and got really excited. Went in to speak with my Seargent about getting the time off, and was denied. :eek: There is a huge festival here the weekend after the 4th of July, and we get about 15K people thru our town, and this year the Tall Ships were coming in as well. That weekend, no one is allowed any time off, and everyone works double shifts and it's just pure craziness. We all hate it, but look forward to the nice OT check. :D So, 6 hours after I booked the cruise, I'm back on the phone with Carnival, BEGGING them to let me switch the dates. I explained to the PVP (not my normal guy, because he was on vacation!) what was going on, and she put me on hold for what felt like 3 days, and came back on to tell me that they would let me swap at no charge to the cruise on the 21st. So, back on the phone to Will's mom to tell her what had happened, and we were back on track. Pretty stupid on my part, but at least it all worked out in the end.

 

So, now on to the planning. I now had 5 weeks to get it all straight, and traveling with someone else's child is a whole different ball of wax. We go away together a lot, but never out of the country, and not for more than an overnite or 2. I had to make up a packing list for Will's mom, send her the paperwork she needed to get notarized, and get my stuff together. Luckily, being from New England, the weather isn't all that different in Canada, so what I wear at home would work out just great for being up there. I knew we wouldn't be eating in the MDR every night, but I told Mairi that I wanted Will to have one nice outfit for formal night pics. 2 weeks before the cruise, and I'm walking thru WalMart for who knows what, but I passed the boys section, and they had a whole rack of little boy's suit outfits on CLEARANCE!!! I found one with navy blue pants, a navy blue vest with grey pinstripes, a light blue shirt, and a red and blue tie. for $14!!!! Score! I texted a pic to Mairi, she swooned, and Will's formal outfit was done! I walked past the women's section and scored myself a navy blue dress with circles of grey, black and light blue for $11. DONE!!! That was the extent of shopping I did for the cruise. For the next 2 weeks, just imagine a lot of frantic texting going back and forth while I worked 38 hours over 3 days the weekend we were SUPPOSED to cruise, practiced with the Derby team, booked Shore Excursions, listened to Mairi tell me that Will was making her crazy asking every day how much time was left before he could go, thanked my lucky starts I wasn't the one dealing with an excited 8 year old, and got everything settled with the pet sitters. Fast forward to the day before the cruise:

 

Had to go get my paycheck and hit the bank. This was the paycheck with the obscene amount of OT that I was looking forward to. Finished up 90% of my packing, dropped the dog off at grampa's (my dad) for the week, made sure I had enough cat food for my sister to feed my cat for the week, handled no less than 3 calls from Mairi where William was yelling in the background "When are you coming Auntie Tonya?!?!?!" and headed off to a 4 hour shift at work. Finally, some peace and quiet, lol. AFter work, I headed out to pick up my slightly excited passenger, listened (sort of) to 43285 last minute things from Mairi, and hit Wendy's for dinner. We got to my place at about 2130, I repacked his stuff into my bag, made sure he had clean clothes for the morning, and headed to bed about midnite. He was still pretty bouncy at this point, but I figured he'd sleep in the morning until I woke him up, and then in the Jeep for the ride to Boston (about 2 hours). Night every one!

[rksmom]

I love the beggining of this review. Can't wait to hear more.

 

BTW, there is nothing better than pound pets. We have a dog that we adopted from Texas that has quite a few issues and a cat from the local SPCA that lost it's tail during a fight with a car.

 

Sandi

[Eqty]

Can't wait for more. I was on this cruise also and had a great time! I followed the rollcall for a while, but since I was with a group I decided to lurk and never joined in. Hope it was successful.

[nodogkisses]

You're so interesting. Thanks in advance for this good story.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Nice

[daisitroy]

What a great start to your review. Can't wait to read the more!

Dot

[dadof2boys]

You are doing an awesome job! I'm glad you were able to retain relationships with your family after the divorce. My DW was in a very similar situation with her aunt growing up. We just got back from taking our family up to visit her. Cant wait for more.

[chipq]

You got me hooked. Great start.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[vivavegas]

Great review! Looking forward to reading more!:)

[amcjeep4life]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. Had to go out to my dad's for dinner. Monday is family night since my mom passed away in January. I try to make sure at least once a week the poor guy is eating something he didn;t have to cook himself. And of course, I had to get my pooch back. After we got back, I had derby all weekend, so she spent a few extra nights with grampa. She'll be back this weekend too, since I'm off to ref a tournament in Auburn MA. Busy, busy busy!!!

 

But now, on to the good stuff! lol

[amcjeep4life]

I set my alarm for 630, thinking I could actually chill quietly for a few minutes before waking Will up to go to breakfast. I also had to pack his stuffed bear and his blanket into the bag, since he slept with them. I crept out of my room and into the bathroom, where I was greeted with "GOOD MORNING AUNTIE TONYA!!!!! CAN WE LEAVE NOW PLEASE?!?!?!?!?" So much for chilling quietly. LOL We got dressed and packed up the last of our stuff. I made sure I had his swimsuit in his backpack, and all the paperwork, electronics, and money was in mine. We both kissed Cheddar cat goodbye, and headed out to breakfast. We officially hit the road for Boston at 750. It's about a 2 hour ride from here. While we were driving, I was being bombarded with questions about what was going to happen, and when we were going to be where, and on..and on......and....on..........silence. Hmmmm....what happened? This:

 

 

See what happens when a very excited kid doesn't sleep the night before? I turned up the radio a bit and drove for about an hour when I suddenly realized 2 things:

1. I forgot to attach the luggage tag to our bag

2. I didn't have any tape.

Oh hell. I got off in Walpole, which isn't all that far from Boston. Of course, this woke up the sleeping child, but according to GPS, we only had about 15 more minutes to go, so it wasn't too bad. We hit a Big Y, I answered 24 questions about why we were grocery shopping before the cruise, got some masking tape, hopped back in the Jeep, and left for the port. About 10 minutes total out of our trip, but of course, now the 100 questions started all over, because evidently when 8 year old boys sleep, they forget everything you just told them an hour ago. :rolleyes: I followed the GPS into the Black Falcon Terminal. This is the first time I have ever driven and parked before a cruise, so I was kind of bummed that I didn't get that first picture of the whale tail, but let me tell you something; The squealing noise that comes out of an 8 year old who spots the whale tail for the very first time may well have the power to rupture ear drums. The Cirque du Soleil is currently occupying the normal parking area, so we had to follow some signs to the alternative spot. We paid our $60 for the 5 days, and followed the angry orange-vested people's flagged directions over to our spot. We got out, where William pretty much started bouncing. I grabbed the luggage tag and attached it with the hastily-purchased masking tape, then dropped the roll in my bag. After all, you never know when you might need masking tape. We walked over to the waiting are for the buses that were transporting people to the terminal at no charge. We chucked our very-orange-therefore-easy-to-spot bag under the bus and climbed aboard. It was now 1010. Luckily, there were a few other kids, so I didn't have the only crazy child annoying everyone.

 

Hanging on the shuttle bus, waiting to see the actual port.

 

The Glory sitting at the dock.

 

The bus dropped us off, we grabbed our bag, and went walking to the front door. There were a lot of people there. William asked if they were all coming with us, and I explained that they were actually just getting off, and this would be us on Thursday. He just watched the sad people while he skipped along beside me. The next thing I knew, my friend John darted out in front of me! John had cruised with me on the Triumph in '08, and was supposed to be with us on the Freedom in '09, but had to back out last minute due to deaths in his family. He is cruising with us in October on the Liberty, but it was great to see him again. We stood and chatted for a bit, while William bounced next to us, then started chasing a pigeon. After about 15 minutes, John and I said goodbye, had a hug, and William and I kept walking to the door. Willaim said to me "I was very patient when you were talking to your friend, but I'm sooo glad you stopped!" Poor little guy. I handed William $3 and told him to give it to whoever took our bag and make sure to say thank you, or our bag wouldn't end up on the ship. A nice lady grabbed it from us, he politely told her thank you and please make sure his blanket got on the ship, then handed her the money. She just sort of giggled, said "I will, you make sure to have fun." We walked into the terminal, went directly thru security, and straight to the counter. William pretty much stood quietly next to me, because at this point he could actually see the ship. The nice lady at the counter took all of my paperwork, looked at William's letter and handed us our cards. We were handed a Zone 3 tag, had our boarding picture taken then we walked over to the windows to take a seat. It was now 1035.

 

I love the Whale Tail.

 

William can't wait to get ON the ship!!

[nybumpkin]

Really enjoying your review! We just took our nephew (a bit older - 17) on his first cruise. Our sons (and now our nephew) still get a kick out of seeing the whale tail at the port.:cool:

[amcjeep4life]

 

William was really excited, and getting him to sit still was slightly challenging.

 

 

After we sat down, William noticed that my card was a different color. That prompted a conversation about the different color of cards, and what they meant. I told him that he needed his card for everything, and that if he lost it, he would have to stay on the ship forever. We hadn't been there 10 minutes when they started calling zones to board. When they called Zone 3, William pretty much bounced his way to the gangway. I told him that he wouldn't be back on American soil for 5 whole days, and that the next time he touched ground he would be in a different country. We walked up the gangway, and as we rounded the last turn, I said to him that as soon as he crossed the yellow line, he would officially be on the ship. I'm pretty sure his feet didn't touch the ground until we actually got on the ship! We walked out onto Deck 3, and stood in line for a few minutes to actually get into the Atrium. I told Will that he would have to use his card to get on, and to listen to the person running the machine. He held his card tightly, and we walked up to the machine. He put his feet on the mat, sort of smiled for his picture, plugged his card into the machine for that lovely "BOING" and walked into the atrium. He turned to me and said "Is this really it?!?! We are finally here!!!" At this point it was 1055 and we were on-board. Less than 45 minutes from parking the Jeep to officially being on-board. And Carnival sent me a letter telling me not to get there until after 1330. :rolleyes: We roamed around a bit, enjoying some time with a very empty ship. The next post will pretty much just be pics of my nephew all over the ship, so feel free to skip it.

[amcjeep4life]

The Guardians of the Camel Casino.

 

 

The camels of the Camel Casino.

 

 

The tables on the Promenade.

 

 

One of the bars. Can't remember the name. I just liked the tables.

 

 

The White Heat Disco. We were never near it again.

 

 

The adults-only pool at the aft of the Lido.

[erewhon]

Enjoying reading your review.

You are very kind to take William for his first cruise.

[jbhcw]

Great review..we are doing the Glory and Canada next year! We took our then 8 year old grandson on the Liberty a few years ago...so I can relate to an excited 8 year old...but we had a ball...also loving your pictures:):):)

[tiggerman101]

Nice. I am glad to see you doing this. I will see you soon!

[Crazy4Koko]

whooo hooo!!! Been watching for your review!!

 

 

Still can't believe no picture of you and John, tho!! :)

 

 

Will has that 'first time cruiser' look that always makes me smile!

[amcjeep4life]

Sorry for the late start today everyone. The battery died on my tablet, which is where all my notes are, and I couldn't remember what we did when, so I had to wait for it to charge. Back to the cruise!

 

I will admit I didn't take nearly as many photos as I usually do, probably because I was generally trying to keep track of a kid. There are plenty of pics of the Glory out there, feel free to check out Mikeysomenumber's review for truly incredible pics of the ship.

 

William's grandfather (Jaja, and my ex-FIL) is a crazy Norwegian boat guy. He grew up on boats, his kids all grew up on boats, and William is getting all the stories. Jaja is 82, and not in the best of health, but he has tales (usually very TALL ones, lol) to tell, and he and William talk boats all the time. Needless to say, William has a profound love of boats, which will come in handy on this trip. William wanted to see the Whale Tail, and I was happy to oblige.

 

 

 

 

 

I made him sit with me to take a pic, but it didn't come out very well. I still like it, but it's fairly evident that he just wants to keep moving.

 

 

 

It was at this point that William found the water slide. He asked very nicely if he could go on it, since the kids-accessible pool was netted over. He said he wasn't hungry yet, so I agreed. We found a restroom and he went in to change. We walked over to the slide area, which has a small pool next to it where a few kids were splashing around. There were a few kids already on the slide as well. I dumped all our stuff on a chair at the bottom, walked Will over to the steps and showed him how to get to the very top of deck 12, and off he went!

 

 

 

 

I swear he must have went on this thing 20 times. Personally I was exhausted just watching him at this point! He finally said he had enough, and at this point he noticed some kids walking around with golf clubs. He asked if there was a course, and I told him it was a small one, but pretty fun. Did he want to play? Of course he did! So we went down and put our name on the list for equipment checkout, and I grabbed him a towel to dry off too, and we wandered around to find the mini golf course. There are a total of 9 holes, 4 on one side of the Whale Tail, and 5 on the other. It was pretty slow, so we ended up playing 14 holes, and the little snot finished the game with 3 HOLES IN ONE!!!! I barely managed 1! He was gloating, and I told him we would so have to have a rematch in the future. Here he is celebrating his victory.

 

[amcjeep4life]

He finally decided he was hungry, so we went up to the Red Sail Restaurant, which is the buffet area on the Glory. If you couldn't guess, it has a sailboat theme.

 

 

 

He had a hot dog, and I had a cheeseburger, both with fries. By this point, the ship was finally starting to really get full, so we headed for a walk around to see the people coming on to the ship. I have no idea what this is, I just liked the skyline.

 

 

After lunch, it was about 1400, so we decided to head to our room and check it out. We were located on deck 7, Inside room 7260. It was a pretty cool place to be, because all the balcony cabins across from us were suites. Not a ton of noise throughout the cruise. Before we went there, we walked out to our secret deck, and looked around. We walked down to deck 6 too, and when we looked down the ship, this is what we saw.

 

 

This immediately lead to 452 questions about the lifeboats, and how you got on them, and were they safe, and how many people, and how many boats, and....well, you get the picture. I answered them honestly, but without being too scary. He's not stupid, and he knows enough about boats and disasters. He's seen Titanic and the Poseidon movie, but I told him it would be fine, that these ship sailed all the time with no problem. I pointed out that the Captain of the Titanic had never sailed her before, and that he was also sailing in December. We were sailing with a very experienced captain, and it was warm, so there wouldn't be any icebergs to worry about. He seemed fine with that answer, so we walked back up to Deck 7 and went to our room.

 

(OK, so this was actually taken after sail-away and stuff. When we first got there, the beds were together, but the steward came along soon after and we asked him to please separate them. He said he would do it while we were at dinner. He also reminded us that we had to attend the mandatory muster drill at 1530. No life jackets required!)

 

The closets are to the right, the bathroom is to the left. We had more than enough space for all our stuff. William took the drawers under the TV and I took the closet with the shelves. We also kept our backpacks in there, and we hung exactly 2 things. Once we got our bag, it fit under my bed with no problem.

[LisaT12]

Love the review.

[Tennessee Rose]

Can't wait to read all your review! My boss, his wife, and younger son were on this sailing, which happened to be their first ever cruise. He came back to work this morning. I've told him I want to see pics when he gets them ready, and to hear all about his first cruise. In the meantime, I get to read your review!

Thank you!

[Zolor23]

One of the bars. Can't remember the name. I just liked the tables.

 

I think that was called Ultraviolet along w/ the arcade.

[JohnSpo]

I will be on the Glory in less than 2 months for the Sept 22 Canada/New England sailing. I look forward to your review.

 

My first cruise was 9 years ago with my family. I was just as excited as your nephew on my first Carnival sailing and I was 39 years old at the time.

 

You are a super nice auntie.

 

Thank you for the review.

[dad son team]

Love reading the reactions of your nephew. It takes me back to when my son was 6 and I took him on his first cruise. He looked at the ship and argued with me that what he was looking at was not a ship because ships move and this thing was too big to move. He was wrong. Now he's moody 15 and going on #7. I think he still gets excited when he first steps on board, but he needs to act cool and not show it. I on the otherhand smile from ear to ear.