Glory Western June Review

[Kat1613]

Glory - June Western Caribbean

I'm 39, husband 39, kids 5, 12, 15 plus extended family up to 70 yrs old -total of 12. 1st Carnival cruise - cruised Mariner of the Seas Last Summer and

Disney Cruises twice.

Embarkation -according to the answers I received to arrive at port before 11 & we did (drove from Gainesville-go gators!) arrived at 10:45 however there wasn't a huge line to drop off luggage but the luggage/parking attendants didn't seem to have it together and it took about 20 minutes or so to get to drop off our luggage -off to park car was told we couldn't park in the garage so parked in the lot. Security wait - 10 minutes, the man screening noticed I had 3 large bottles of wine & said to the other screener "is that booze" and she said no it's wine so no problems there. Only 5 minute wait to check in and then off to get room keys and then to the line to wait to get on the ship.

We weren't allowed to board till about 12:20 ish.

 

GLORY SHIP- a beautiful ship with many lounges and very nice show room just remember only Deck 5 & 9 go all the way across and you'll be fine in getting around. We were never bothered with smoke, thought it was always kept cool, & didn't feel overcrowded at all. Plenty of seating inside the buffet and outside table & chairs meant we could always find a seat to eat unlike the Mariner. Unlike what I had read, this ship rocked no more than any other ship & we were on one of the top decks. One night we crossed over Storm Arlene & he was going full power and it was choppy waters but all 12 of us never took any dramamine and didn't have any problems at all.

 

DINNER - Platinum early 5:45 had requested 6:15 but just happy that all 12 of us were at one table. I wouldn't recommend this very early dinner as we were always rushing to get dress and always 10 minutes late.

Food in the dining room was very good, food service was great, the desserts were not a lot of variety and were NOT very good at all.

LIDO BUFFET- usual for breakfast, alot of the food wasn't very warm and tasted somewhat artificial although the omlettes were great by the last days I was just going for the cold cereal.

Lunch & Dinner buffet was not very good in our opinion -lots of salt

Again the desserts were not very good here either.

but the Grill for hamburgers, dogs etc. was delicious and the Deli was also serving up Great sandwiches and don't miss the Pizza or Fish & Chips.

Had a hard time many times finding clean silverware in the buffet area-no biggie.

 

CABIN - Lido deck balcony - 4 cabins in a row for our group opened the balconies on 2. Great Location -very convenient. Great Room, spacious, lots of closet space and shelving space in the bathroom. Air conditioning worked great too all night it kept the room very cold for us. Our room steward cleaned our room beautifully and always gave us fresh ice twice a day.

 

ENTERTAINMENT - I thought Carnival lacked here - they advertise the FUN SHIP it started with a disappointingdeck sail away party (there is an incredible sail away party with live music, horns, commentators, dance songs, entertainers in costume & streamers on the Disney Cruise & Mariner had a livelier sail away party also). Also the 1st sea day there was very little fun and activity, group dance etc by the pool. A calaypso band began playing around 12:30 but there were few fun activities happening on deck -I didn't see the kind of party atmosphere that many talk about. One nite, we and one other couple were the only ones in a lounge watching a singer and band and the disco didn't really rock much according to the 19, 21, 23 year olds in our group. THe production shows and magic show was marginal according to our opinion. They had one night that there was a great performer -singer other than that the shows lacked. THe midnight buffet and deck party was not much mostly kids (don't they go to sleep by midnight) doing gymnastics in front of the stage -no band- and a few drunk people trying to dance. On the other cruise ships the midnight deck party rocked big time - on the mariner they had bartenders doing a show on deck with bottles, live dancing, etc. & on Disney they had confetti shot up, fireworks, & great dance songs.

So overall we all were a bit disappointed with the entertainment and fun on the FUN SHIP. Our opinion was that the other cruises seemed to be more fun.

MEDICAL EMERGENCY

- passenger had a massive heart attack on the lido deck by the pool and it was very disheartening to see how long it took for the medical crew to respond and they were very disorganized. Fellow passengers, a doctor, anesethiologist, and Emergency Room Nurse cared for this passenger-administering CPR & the RN kept yelling for a defib. In fact, even after the emergency personnel arrived the passengers were more in control as the passenger nurse even started the IV - Once the medical team arrived they should have taken control of the situation but they didn't. That was hard to see.

 

CHILDREN - there was approximate 1000 children under 18 on board but overall they seemed very well behaved - never saw many running or fooling around, playing with elevators etc. Mostly they seemed to form groups and sit and talk and walk around the ship and gather in their lounge. My own son of 15 met many friends and although we would make him check in every so often, usually only had breakfast & dinner with him and he was off with his new teen friends.

 

The Last Sea Day it Rained and so there was not alot to do but EAT!!! THe buffet was always crowed all day long!!! It also was cloudy and rained a bit in Belize. However all the other days were hot and sunny!!

Dembarkation -held up due to rain and then fire alarm, we were one of the first decks to be called and got off about 11:15 am .

THese were our experiences and opinions, overall a vacation is always great and coming home is always lousy (all that laundry and going back to work)

the Carnival Glory had its pros and cons for us. Any questions, I'll try to help.

[kari333]

We were also on the same cruise june 4-I do agree with much of your experiences. The ship is great, clean, beautiful. I also felt that the fun ship lacked some fun - i know the rain on the last sea day contributed to lack of activities but maybe they could have added more indoor activities as you couldn't even go out on the higher decks as they were roped off due to wind.

The 1st sea day there was not even music by the pool till the afternoon & very few activities or party like atmosphere.

The main shows were okay if you like mediocre singing and dancing. The servers in the dining room for dinner were wonderful but for breakfast in the dining room it was terrible-kind of like they were perterbed that we came in there to eat. The purser also had some attitude when I wanted to take off the tips on my credit card (i had put enough on my charge) and had more than enough cash the last day to leave tips in cash. Food was really good except we didn't care for the buffet food either besides the salad. but we always had plenty of good food to eat and the ice cream was great. Its a beautiful ship and a great vacation but cruising is not cheap - when all was done we paid much more than we ever had on a week vacation -oh well it was worth it!!

[OCruisers]

Kat1613 & kari333 .... Thanks so much for the honest reviews/comments on your Glory sailing!

 

You really hit a button with me on the "rainy sea days" situation! Just can't understand WHY :confused: cruise lines don't add some additional indoor activities to keep us entertained .... :rolleyes:

 

So ... what did you both end-up doing that last rainy day at sea???

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[shabcruzn]

Thanks for the review--you answered most of my questions!!

[nailz]

Glad to see you back on board. Got good news from our TA. Email me.