Brief Carnival Glory Review--11/12/2016

[michigyrl]

Thought I would give a brief review of the Carnival Glory we took that left from Miami on Nov. 12th. We were a group of 10 friends/family with 5 rooms--several were first time cruisers.

 

We all flew in the day before-each taking different flights but all stayed at the Homewood Suites Miami-Airport/Blue Lagoon. The hotel was nice and clean. I would stay here again if I cruise out of Miami. The hotel offers free shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

 

I reserved Jiffy Jeff Transportation to shuttle us all to the port the morning of. They were very prompt and the driver friendly--I would recommend them but be prepared for them to revise your pickup time based on their timing that morning. They picked us up sooner than originally requested. We arrived at the port around 9:30. We all had Faster to Fun and check-in was a breeze. They gave us our key cards while checking in, and we were able to throw cash into our account as well. We also each had a bottle of wine in our carry on and they were never questioned, inspected, etc.

 

Our group mainly split up during the day and dined together in the evening. I won't go into a play-by-play of the entire cruise, but will comment on some of the particulars for my "now" fiance and I--I say "now" because we got engaged on this cruise! :)

 

Room:

We had room # 9249 which was a balcony room. Love having my room on the Lido deck since we spend our Days at Sea sunning by the pool. Room was standard. Our steward always greeted us by name when he saw us in the hallway and our room was maintained twice a day (no card asking how many times we wanted service).

 

Note: I put a dry erase board on our door as well as a picture of us. I was prepared to have them taken down given the new Carnival rule; however nothing was said about it and they remained on the door all week.

 

Food / Dining:

We ate breakfast in the Lido every morning. I know many people complain about "same food every day"--and I would say that's accurate; however they do have lots of options to choose from. My go-to was the omelet station which was always good, and my fiance enjoyed the Salmon Benedict.

 

Lunch was either Guy's Burgers or the Lido. Fiance LOVED Guy's burgers!

 

Our entire group had Any-Time Dining. About half the group met for dinner every night and a few joined in occasionally. We had Chandler for our waiter--very nice and personable. We enjoyed our dining experience and almost every meal was good / tasty.

 

Entertainment:

Fiance and I didn't see any shows except the Motown show which was just singing due to the rough seas (understandable) and the Epic Rock show--which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 

We also enjoyed a couple of the comedy shows--these were hit or miss. Some we really enjoyed and others not so much.

 

Ports of Call:

Half Moon Cay: always one of my favorite ports. A day spent soaking in the sun and quick dips in the ocean.

 

St. Thomas: did the Carnival excursion Extreme Zip Lining...first time Zip Lining and we do the "extreme"? Very fun and would highly recommend this excursion. The people that run this excursion were super friendly and I always felt safe.

 

Puerto Rico: walked around town and checked out the forts. Beautiful photo ops in this port.

 

Grand Turk: we parked our butt at Jack's Shack. It was overcast and a bit drizzly, but who cares? We stayed on beach and enjoyed ourselves with a few local beers.

 

Other notes:

Wine Package: this is the first cruise that I've bought the wine package. We really enjoyed having a bottle of wine with dinner and we will probably purchase the wine package on future cruises.

 

Bar Staff: this is the first cruise where I did not see a lot of bar waiters by the pool or in the lounges--not that it affected our cruise but just something we noticed. Past cruises they were much more noticeable.

 

Birthday gift: I turned 50 on this cruise!! :eek: I know there has been discussions / threads on gifts by Carnival. My room steward left a card in the room for a free 5x7 photo, and wrote a birthday message on the mirror.

 

Ship Condition: overall the ship was very clean and in good condition.

 

Always hate leaving the ship--with Faster to Fun we were off the ship, through customs and on our way to the airport in no time.

 

Overall we enjoyed our cruise and love the great ports!

 

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them if I can.

[Jamericannn]

Great review. Thank you.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

[easyboy]

Thank you for your review.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[tandemcruzr]

Thanks for your review.

 

However, rather than just a short sentence to add to my post count :) How did you get to Jack's Shack?

 

DW finds it difficult to walk in the soft sand at Grand Turk. We have done a couple of excursions in the past and have a cabana reserved at Margaritaville coming up.

 

Can we grab a cab outside the port to Jack's Shack?

[michigyrl]

Thanks for your review.

 

However, rather than just a short sentence to add to my post count :) How did you get to Jack's Shack?

 

DW finds it difficult to walk in the soft sand at Grand Turk. We have done a couple of excursions in the past and have a cabana reserved at Margaritaville coming up.

 

Can we grab a cab outside the port to Jack's Shack?

 

We walked the shore line to get to Jack's--the sand was harder along the shoreline and much easier to walk on. I've been to Grand Turk twice and both times have walked to Jack's. My apologies but I can't answer your question about the cab.

[louanne93]

However, rather than just a short sentence to add to my post count :) QUOTE]

 

Lol!!!!! This is great! I have always thought that. Thanks for saying it!!