Glory

[Reva_Dearchi]

Let me start by saying...don't judge me! :) I just realized that I hadn't written a review and wanted to share just a few things. We were originally scheduled to do the Eastern Caribbean cruise but due to a storm they changed the entire itinerary to a Western Caribbean cruise. We are not really fans of Belize but hey it's vacation so we just rolled with the itinerary change while some folks were completely annoyed. We traveled as a family of 8 with 2 balcony cabins for the parents and 2 interiors for the "kids". I am pleased to say that I arranged for my niece and nephew to join us as a 40th anniversary surprise for my sis and bro-in-law. They were shocked and extremely happy so needless to say, I got the MVP award for the week. :) We had a great time.

 

Food: The food was your typical Carnival choices and I can almost recite the menu as it doesn't seem to change much from year to year. I am not a "foodie" so this is not a complaint, just as observation although I thought both the food and the service in the steakhouse was not as good as it usually is.

 

Entertainment: I haven't been overly impressed with the entertainment since they stopped letting the guests choose their own songs in what was the "Guest Talent Show". I find the ship singers to be mediocre at best. I do however love the deck parties as they are a lot of fun. They thing I REALLY miss is the Caribbean music that they used to play on the decks all the time. I can remember walking around singing "hot hot hot" for months after my cruise :(

 

Ship: well maintained and no issues.

 

Islands: Don't judge me here either :) We absolutely LOVE Cozumel. We've been there several times and could actually go there every year as a port if it weren't for Belize usually being a part of that itinerary. I will say, they are improving Belize as the "kids" (all young adults) took a bus tour and had a good time while we hung out in port. Get this...my sis left her very nice camera laying around and realized when we were getting on the tender that she left it. She and my nephew got off the tender and tried back tracking to find it...a fruitless effort but... a fellow passenger came up to my niece and nephew the next day saying "hey I know you and I know you"...come to find out he found the camera on Belize, looked at the pix, saw the Glory in the back ground and took it with him back on the ship. Now wasn't that nice. So refreshing to know there are still good people in the world. OK I said don't judge me because I recall us going to Roatan but not the last island we visited. Nonetheless they were all fine and we had fun!

 

All in all we had a great time on the Glory and will likely book her again this year, hoping to get the Eastern itinerary!

[boaterette]

Thank you for your review. I will be on the Glory in April with this same itinerary and i enjoy reading reviews.

[k2excursion]

Thanks for your review. No judging here. I feel the same as you on probably everything you mentioned that I also have experience with. If this was a 4-port itinerary, the 4th stop was probably either Grand Cayman (another tender port) or Costa Maya. Good luck on getting the Eastern itinerary next time.

[dogchopper]

My husband and I were on the glory last week. We did the eastern itinerary, I LOVED the itinerary! ! Sorry you missed out on that.

We have a great time. They didn't have a talent show on our cruise and I wish they did, I enjoy them.

The shows were a bit of a disappointment to me. I really look forward to the shows but they seem to have changed them up. Instead of a male and female singer and the group of dancers they now seem to have a bunch of singers that dance, or is it a bunch of dancers that sing. Either way the quality wasn't the same. I'm not sure if it was just a poor sound system or just that the singers were just good singers not great singers . What ever it was I just didn't enjoy them like I usually do.

 

Maybe it's a work in progress and it will improve with time? ?

 

But other than that the cruise was great! Loved the CD!!

[neoncandle]

Good job rolling with the flow. I am sure that helped you enjoy your trip the best way possible. I know I would have had a hard time letting go of what might have been with all the planning I have done, but I will remember your story for when this type of thing happens. Thank you for sharing.

[k2excursion]

The shows were a bit of a disappointment to me. I really look forward to the shows but they seem to have changed them up. Instead of a male and female singer and the group of dancers they now seem to have a bunch of singers that dance, or is it a bunch of dancers that sing. Either way the quality wasn't the same. I'm not sure if it was just a poor sound system or just that the singers were just good singers not great singers . What ever it was I just didn't enjoy them like I usually do.

 

This ship has changed over to what they call Playlist Productions, a major downgrade in the shows, in my opinion, and it seems that an overwhelming majority (but not everyone) agrees. They are dancers, and some of them kind of sing. They are asked to do too much, and the quality suffers. And you may not have noticed that instead of the normal 30-50% piped in music, Playlist has 100% piped in music. No live music at all for the shows. It's called Playlist because they have a list of songs, and they press "play". No props, half the performers, and only have the duration of the old shows. They are trying to improve on this format, as a couple of the shows have gotten better reviews than the bad ones I saw on Breeze. Most Carnival ships have switched over to this format, including on your upcoming cruise. Only a few ships still have the good shows. Currently, Dream still has them.

[dogchopper]

This ship has changed over to what they call Playlist Productions, a major downgrade in the shows, in my opinion, and it seems that an overwhelming majority (but not everyone) agrees. They are dancers, and some of them kind of sing. They are asked to do too much, and the quality suffers. And you may not have noticed that instead of the normal 30-50% piped in music, Playlist has 100% piped in music. No live music at all for the shows. It's called Playlist because they have a list of songs, and they press "play". No props, half the performers, and only have the duration of the old shows. They are trying to improve on this format, as a couple of the shows have gotten better reviews than the bad ones I saw on Breeze. Most Carnival ships have switched over to this format, including on your upcoming cruise. Only a few ships still have the good shows. Currently, Dream still has them.

 

Ahh, that explains alot!

I told my husband it seemed like a corporate decision. 'Let's save money on the shows, ditch the live band (and yeah I did notice that ) and hire dancers that can sing, kill 2 birds with one stone. It was a major letdown.

I usually am a huge fan of only carnival but I told my husband i may consider RC again. They seem to have better shows and that is one or my favorite things about cruising.

I just got the comment/survey email today and I will definitely mention that.

 

And major letdown that my next cruise will be the same :(

[k2excursion]

Ahh, that explains alot!

I told my husband it seemed like a corporate decision. 'Let's save money on the shows, ditch the live band (and yeah I did notice that ) and hire dancers that can sing, kill 2 birds with one stone. It was a major letdown.

I usually am a huge fan of only carnival but I told my husband i may consider RC again. They seem to have better shows and that is one or my favorite things about cruising.

I just got the comment/survey email today and I will definitely mention that.

 

And major letdown that my next cruise will be the same :(

 

Yes. Whenever my next cruise will be, if not on the Carnival Dream or one of Carnival's great itineraries, it will probably be on a Royal ship that has added waterslides or on one of NCLs newest ships. Great waterslides for the daytime, great shows for the nighttime.

Edited December 23, 2015 by k2excursion

[Reva_Dearchi]

Wow... I didn't pay attention to the fact that there was no live band. The shows were so mediocre that I didn't even notice the lack of a band. @Dogchopper... you should have said...they hire dancers that can kinda/sorta sing a little. lol

 

Now I know what Simon from American Idol meant when he said someone should be singing on a cruise ship. I see the insult in it now :( The singing has not been good at all lately.

 

I'd like to start a campaign now to get CCL to at least pipe through some Caribbean music when they don't have a deck party going on...I miss that!!!

[nybumpkin]

Not a Playlist fan either - tried three of the shows on Glory when we sailed last year (DH gave up after the first) and found only one of them okay. This past year on Breeze we skipped the Playlist shows altogether - but there were several entertainment options available, so we didn't miss the shows.

[cruiseonthebrain]

Excellent attitude about dealing with the changes and very refreshing. Thank you for sharing!

[dogchopper]

I enjoyed the computer animated backgrounds, I thought they were cool. The rest of other not so much.

I just can't understand why Carnival would lesson the quality of their shoes when every other cruise line seems to be upping theirs.

[Santaa]

We were in Cozumel next to the Glory