Carnival Glory - Canada from Boston - Review - Parts VII to XI: Everything Else

[CaribbeanBound]

Due to the length of this review, I have broken it up into several parts. This is the last installment.

 

Part VIII - Tipping

The service personnel on Carnival receive meager wages (about $70/month) and rely on your tips for income. We prepaid our tips prior to cruising, as well as some additional tipping. The Carnival guidelines total $100.00 per couple on an 5-day cruise. The tip guidelines break out as follows (per couple): Dining Team Service $50, Bistro Service $10, and Cabin Services $35. Here's a really handy Cruise Tip Calculator covering all major cruise lines.

 

You'll also tip for room service, bartenders (a 15% gratuity is already included in all bar drinks), Spa Personnel, baggage handlers, taxi drivers, tour drivers, and any other personnel who you wish to tip.

 

Part IX - Carnival's VIFP Club

If you have taken a previous voyage and are not a member of the Captain's Club, sign up. It's free. Benefits include a CC express line at Embarkation, priority Disembarkation, casino and spa discounts, cocktail parties, and more. VIFP Club benefits.

 

Part X - Disembarkation and Customs

A. Disembarkation

On the final sea day, we watched a disembarkation video that played on a loop all day on a tv channel in our cabin. This worked great. On the morning of disembarkation, a full buffet breakfast was available in the Red Sail Restaurant. The omelet stations, Blue Iguana Cantina, and the full-service restaurant were also open.

 

Numbered disembarkation luggage tags were issued to all cabins, and passengers were instructed to place the tags on their luggage and set them outside their cabin before going to bed if they wanted a "Relaxed Debarkation". However you also had a "Self-Assist" option of keeping your luggage and simply carrying it off yourself. Those that carried off their own luggage were instructed to take their luggage to Decks 5 or 9 and wait for an announcement. Passengers who stayed in cabins on Decks 1 and 2 were dismissed first, followed by the upper decks. The first disembarkation announcement was made at about 8:00 am. After all of these folks departed, announcements were made for all other passengers to depart in an orderly fashion. Bags were laid out in the terminal in numbered sections were they could be easily claimed. Clearly those folks needing to catch plane connections chose to take advantage of the early carry-your-own bag option. We did, and thought it was great (We had a 11:10 am flight, and as it turns out we easily could have caught the 9:50 am flight).

 

As you depart the ship, you clocked out with your cruise card one last time, handed your customs declaration form to a customs official and exited the terminal.

 

We had no prearranged transportation back to the airport. Upon exiting the terminal, we walked to the extreme right to grab a taxi. We paid $25 including tip to get to the airport for our party of 4 with 6 bags. We were at the airport in 10 minutes.

 

If you prefer to take a bus from Black Falcon Cruise Terminal to the airport, there are about 6 stops near the Black Falcon terminal (the bus basically encircles it). Take Silver Line 2 (SL2) to World Trade Center (WTC) station and transfer to SL1. Use the escalators or elevators to transfer up and over the track to pick up the SL1 going in the opposite direction. Take SL1 to the airport. It'll stop at terminals A, B, C and in front of terminal E. Bring cash. The cost is $2.50 pp or $2 Charlie card. Depending upon time of day, it should take a total of about 20 to 40 minutes. If looking up schedules on the MBTA website, you'll find them under Subway > Silver Line. You won't find it under "Bus".

 

B. Customs

According to the U.S. Canadian Embassy, each U.S. citizen traveling to Canada is permitted $800 worth of Duty Free goods including 1 liter of alcohol per person. Smokers are limited to 200 previously exported cigarettes and 100 cigars. All you needed to do was to declare the total value. Anything greater had to be itemized (declared) and a duty paid. These limits haven't changed in over 5 years.

 

Part XI- Praises and Gripes

A. Praises

1. Embarkation and Debarkation can be a sore point. Not so with Carnival Glory in Boston. We practically walked straight on the ship after entering the cruise terminal, and departure was swift as well. 2. Carnival Glory's personnel are very attentive, friendly and helpful. Our waiter spent a good amount of time at our table, and we got almost daily visits from the Maitre'd. Our cabin attendants were quick and efficient. Our cabin always looked better than we left it. 3. The food was actually pretty darn good when you seek alternatives away from the buffet. 4. The ship was clean and in very good shape. 5. The 2.0 upgrades were indeed impressive. 6. We only needed to contact maintenance once and they promptly took care of our problem. The vacuum flush system in our toilet failed one morning. We called guest services before breakfast and it was fixed before we returned to our cabin a couple hours later.

 

B. Gripes

We certainly didn't have much to gripe about, although if you got any group of folks together, similar themes emerged: 1. Smoking in the casino and verandas was excessive. The casino absolutely reeks of smoke and you don't have to linger long before it becomes uncomfortable to breathe, and your clothes capture the smell as well. (The good news is we didn't lose much money in there as were couldn't stand to stay in the casino for more than 10 minutes at a time). Trivia contests should not be held in the casino. It's also unfair to non-smokers who have verandas to have to cope with other passenger's smoke. Not a good deal. 2. The entertainment in the Amber Palace theater was disappointing. There is no live music and no Broadway style shows. 3. My parent's suite had a constant sewage smell after day 2, which grew a little fainter over time. (We understand a cabin down the hall had a problem that effected several cabins around it). 4. The layout of Decks 3, 4, and 5 could be better. Some featured rooms are almost hidden and it's difficult (and sometimes impossible) to walk from the back of the ship to the front on Decks 3 and 4 due to the Golden Restaurant amidship. Instead you have to do over or under the restaurant to get where you need to go.

 

 

You can read also the review in its entirely, with images, at http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/carnival-glory.html, but you won't be able to enjoy the input from fellow cruisers like you can on CruiseCritic. Feel free to post your questions and comments below.