Glorious Glory - Or is it? Let's find out together.

[Jamericannn]

Love your pictures! Your daughter is adorable!

 

 

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Thank you.

[Jamericannn]

Thanks for all the updates, my wife and I are going on the Glory for the Western Carribean on 5/20. We were wondering about the Seafood Shack, is it any good and does it cost extra?

 

I didn't try it. It is located at the aft of the ship and is usually not crowded. I passed by that area all the time and I don't believe I have ever seen more than 3-4 people in line. It's mostly empty.

[Jamericannn]

SO????? How was the KFC?? I always wonder if it is any good every time I see that place. Lol..

I wish Carnival would build a shaded canopy w/ fans for that wait to get on tender! It is very hot standing in the sun.

Cindy

 

When you are hungry everything tastes good. Lol.

It is definitely better than KFC in NYC though. The BBQ chicken was definitely good.

[Jamericannn]

Can you tell me about the priority tender process? We all have FTTF for the first time and with 2 tender ports this should come in handy. What is the process. Can we just go down to the tenders and get on? I see in your Funtimes that there is a scheduled time for "tender stickers" at Alchemy bar. Do you have to go and do that if you have FTTF?

 

People without priority had to go to Alchemy bar in order to get a sticker and then wait around until their numbers were called. We were also told to go to Alchemy but when we went there we were directed to go and sit in the Golden restaurant. We did not get any sticker. We sat in the restaurant for less than 5 minutes then someone came and escorted us to deck 0 to get off. The process was fast.

 

Priority status does not work getting back to the ship so if there is a long line you will have to stay in it.

[tinman1973]

I used the slides on the once and I really loved them. They were fast and a little scarier than anticipated. lol. I brought my daughter to the kids section and she enjoyed it.

 

 

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Thanks for the reply, I'm glad to hear that you used them and they were good. Just another reason to choose the Glory again!

[BALCONETTE]

Enjoyed the review, Jamericannn. Thanks!

 

I apologize if this was asked before and I missed it... What is "Pizza Plus" @ Pizza Pirate from 11pm to 1am?

 

I THINK pizza plus is when the have additional items available. I've read something about lasagna & chicken parm.

[Scrappycruiser76]

Enjoyed the review, Jamericannn. Thanks!

 

 

 

I THINK pizza plus is when the have additional items available. I've read something about lasagna & chicken parm.

 

Ahhhh..... that would make sense! Thank you Balconette :D

[threetocruise]

Subscribing! 74 days until we are on the Glory...can't come soon enough. Hope you have/had an awesome cruise!

[backnine05]

Is the review over? Do you have copies of the dinner menus?

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Enjoyed the review, Jamericannn. Thanks!

 

 

 

I THINK pizza plus is when the have additional items available. I've read something about lasagna & chicken parm.

 

Was just on the Glory the week before this and I think they offer extra things like Caesar salads and sausage hoagie type-things late at night at the pizzeria which I do believe take more time to prepare but are available. That in addition to the regular pizza offerings of plain, pepperoni, white, proscuitto, funghi. As a side note, the lines were never really long at the pizza, even at night after shows. Usually there is a wait of up to a half hour but they seem to really have figured out how to beat that on this ship at least.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

People without priority had to go to Alchemy bar in order to get a sticker and then wait around until their numbers were called. We were also told to go to Alchemy but when we went there we were directed to go and sit in the Golden restaurant. We did not get any sticker. We sat in the restaurant for less than 5 minutes then someone came and escorted us to deck 0 to get off. The process was fast.

 

Priority status does not work getting back to the ship so if there is a long line you will have to stay in it.

 

I was on this ship the week before you were and the tender debark process was a complete mess from what I heard and the general debark at ALL ports was a complete cluster as well. My sister and her daughter missed half of their flowrider excursion (booked through the ship and time assigned for them by excursion staff btw) at Margaritaville in Grand Turk because of massive bottlenecks at the gangways that caused them to take a 45-minute delay in getting off the ship. Not to mention it was slow in St. Thomas as well, neither port required a tender but I heard Half Moon Cay was pretty disorganized as well. I guess it it a new process that they are getting used to but it does have to get better on their part. BTW, great review, enjoying seeing another perspective of this ship on a different itinerary. Can't wait to read more.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I didn't try it. It is located at the aft of the ship and is usually not crowded. I passed by that area all the time and I don't believe I have ever seen more than 3-4 people in line. It's mostly empty.

 

I was tempted to try it but just too much other food choices to choose from that did not cost extra. Besides, I can get great seafood back home anytime anyway. I did hear however, that they sold out of the oysters a little more than halfway thru the cruise. I was talking to someone in the hot tub who said she could not get any oysters because they were sold out. Not sure if they sold out of anything else but I did see someone at the bar with oysters and a lobster tail and both looked really good. Not a huge fan of oysters but like lobster and based on the prices, they did look like they would be worth the extra money in the future. Obviously there is a market for the seafood shack, whether it is large enough to keep the program going on many more ships is still to be seen though I guess.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Day 3 - Grand Cayman

 

This is my least favorite of the four ports we went. The issue was not with GC itself but with the rendering process. I'll explain in the end.

 

I woke up around 5:30am which is usually the time I would have gotten up for work. My internal clock did not allow me to sleep in. I got out the room and went directly to Deck 10 to get some pics of the beautiful sunrise then head straight down to Lido to grab some breakfast

The French Toast was really good I had to go back again for about 3 more pieces.

 

After breakfast I went to the room to take a quick shower and get my things together to get off the ship. Getting off was very fast. This was a tender port so the priority disembarkation came in handy.

 

Heading to shore on the tender boat.

First land pic

 

After just a few minutes ride to land we took a van to 7 miles beach. This is a public beach so it was not as clean as I expected it to be. The water was rough and there were large rocks at the bottom. I still enjoyed swimming in the clear water while watching the little fishes swam around me. Though in her late eighties, my grandma is still very strong and a really good swimmer. However, the waves were too strong for her so she did not stay in the water for too long. As a matter of fact, the wavers shoved her out.

 

Views from the beach

 

We wanted to leave the beach by 12:45pm because this was a short stop. The ship scheduled departure time was 3pm and the last tender was "supposed to be" 2:15pm. The ride was only 15 minutes back to port but we wanted to get there early in order to get some coconut water and some GC KFC which I heard was really good compared to that in the USA. My group was in the bus by 12:30 with another group but there was still a third group missing. We waited until 1pm then informed the driver that we need to go. We waited for another 10 minutes and they still didn't show up. GC is an hour behind he ship's time and we discussed that in the bus before we got out. We were wondering if the other group just wasn't paying attention to their watches or they did not remember that the time is a hour faster than what their watches stated. We had to leave without them.

 

On our way back to the port

 

By the time we got back to the port it was about 1:30pm. We ran to get our chicken [emoji846]but did not want to waste anymore time getting anything else. We did not want to have to take the last boat over. We came to the port with our meal and found a seat and ate while some stayed in the line. The lines were super long. This is the longest line I have ever been in my life. It was a mess. To add to that was it was sooo hot.

 

After standing there for a while with the baby a lady from Carnival came to me and informed me that parents with small children can go up to the gate and board. In informed her that there were 7 of us, including my grandmother whom I didn't want to leave. She said unfortunately only the parents can go. Another lady came to me later and I told her the same thing and she gave me the same answer.

 

While in the line going back in all directions, I noticed a family member walking up to the gate. One of them had a small baby. I got out the line and went up to the gate. The family and I started talking and I told them the other family member will not be allowed to get in. However, the guy at the gate let them all through. I then went to get my family out the line and we all went to the gate and the man at the gate just asked if we were all together and let us in despite what we were told earlier by the two ladies. We were thrilled and a little upset at the same time. Thrilled that we finally got out the chaos but upset that we could have gotten through a lot earlier but we're told otherwise.

 

I was sitting beside the marketing manager in the fun shops and she was telling me that Carnival has a new tendering process is new for so they were still learning.

 

 

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The worst thing about Grand Cayman is that horrible wait to get back to the tenders. At least you made it there though, many times the weather is too bad for ships to even tender and the port gets missed completely. I have gotten to the point where I won't say I "disregard" the times that you have to be back for the last tender at some familiar ports but know that I do not have to get back early because there will still be a long line of pax to get back to the ship and it is not going to leave with those people in line and waiting for a boat. I think they make those times up to give people a guideline on when to begin to make their way back, not a hard time that they are going to leave, lol. I also think they pad the block times from port to port to allow for boarding delays that seem to happen more and more these days because even with a delay leaving most ports, they still make the next one on time or early without having to go too fast to catch up. In most cases that is, in extreme cases, they obviously would go faster to make up time if they were running really behind. The last few times I have left back out of GC, I have either gone to the parrot bar off along the fence in the port area for some local brews and snacks or just walked around the shopping area or sat on one of the benches and peoplewatched until the long lines died down some instead of standing up in the heat for an hour or more. Carnival usually is good about letting senior citizens and those with young kids to the front of the line though at least that has been my experience.

[Jamericannn]

Is the review over? Do you have copies of the dinner menus?

 

 

 

I took a week off CC in order to catch up mentally and with work. I'm going to finish the review in the next few days. No I do not have the dinner menu.

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

Was just on the Glory the week before this and I think they offer extra things like Caesar salads and sausage hoagie type-things late at night at the pizzeria which I do believe take more time to prepare but are available. That in addition to the regular pizza offerings of plain, pepperoni, white, proscuitto, funghi. As a side note, the lines were never really long at the pizza, even at night after shows. Usually there is a wait of up to a half hour but they seem to really have figured out how to beat that on this ship at least.

 

 

 

Yes the lines were super short if any every time I passed around there

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

I was tempted to try it but just too much other food choices to choose from that did not cost extra. Besides, I can get great seafood back home anytime anyway. I did hear however, that they sold out of the oysters a little more than halfway thru the cruise. I was talking to someone in the hot tub who said she could not get any oysters because they were sold out. Not sure if they sold out of anything else but I did see someone at the bar with oysters and a lobster tail and both looked really good. Not a huge fan of oysters but like lobster and based on the prices, they did look like they would be worth the extra money in the future. Obviously there is a market for the seafood shack, whether it is large enough to keep the program going on many more ships is still to be seen though I guess.

 

 

 

To add to what you said, it wasn't even really about the extra cost. I wanted to eat as many things as possible that I don't eat regularly. I prefer to get those than get pizza that I eat for lunch sometimes.

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

Day 4 - Roatan

 

This was the port I was looking forward to the most because we were planning to spend the day in paradise at Little French Key. A few people from the FB group also agreed that they would do the excursion as well. The night before the trip my family changed their mind about going even though this was the one thing I was looking forward to the most. [emoji22]. Sad thing about group cruising is that majority rules. Also, a couple people from the FB group also informed me that they changed their mind.

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

We planned to spend the day at the nearby beach so we got off the ship amongst the first set of people in order to try and find them place to catch the flying chairs to get to the beach before the crowd in order to get a good spot.

 

View from the flying chairs

There is the tail

People walking below to the beach

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

The beach was awesome. The waves were a lot calmer than in GC and there was not as much rocks in the water. I had a lot of fun walking up and down the beach. For those of you who love snorkeling, this is a great spot to come as it is not faraway from the ship. One thing I craved before this cruise was to drink the coconut water out of the husk. There was a little place on the beach selling them for $6 and we got about 5 of them. I must say that I wouldn't have gotten these ones if there was anyone else on the beach selling them. These ones were really tiny but because no one else was around selling we had to go with what they had.

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

As you can see, the ship is pretty close to the Mahogany Bay Beach

 

Check out grandma acting like she is a teenager. She is more agile than a lot of young people so it's hard to believe she is in her mid 80s. I am so happy to have finally taken her on a cruise with me. That's the coconut shed behind her

 

The day was well-spent even though I did not get to visit LFK. By the time we got back to the ship it was time to get ready for dinner.

 

View of where we were from our cabin window

People getting back on the ship

 

Again the ship was late leaving because some people decided to venture far away and did not make it on time. We could see the frustration on the faces of the workers outside as they wait for the latecomers to get back on. The closed 2 of the three entrances and waited and waited. By the time the ship left we were already at our early dining and the ship was moving a few knots faster to catch up and we could definitely feel the rocking.

 

Dinner was awesome. I have read quite a few reviews about the food on the Glory not being hot or tasty. From my own experience that is so not true. I had a cup of soup and you could see the steam coming out of it. It was very hot and exactly what I needed. As a Jamaican, we love our food well-seasoned. I did not have a problem with the amount of seasoning/spice that was on the food at all. The mashed potatoes was Awesome with a capital A. It was the natural potatoes and not the packaged nonsense some restaurants serve.

 

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

I brought my daughter to the Camp Carnival after dinner and she was happy to get away from us adults and go amongst her peers

 

Spent the rest of the afternoon at the Amber Palace followed by the Alchemy and Casino bars. When the night was over we and I got my daughter we went home to a special guest

 

 

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[firemanbobswife]

Glad to see you're picking back up with your review. I have a tendency to take a little time off myself once getting back. Actually, I'm not even sure if I ever finished my thoughts on Vista. I'll have to go back and check! :D

 

So how does the ship rank amongst the others you have been on? Anything stick out as either really good or not so good? Looks like they had the waterworks leak fixed for you guys. That's a big relief. No other issues with it?

[firemanbobswife]

Oh, and I forgot. Did they remove the hot tub in the Spa/Gym area? Thanks :)

[Jamericannn]

Glad to see you're picking back up with your review. I have a tendency to take a little time off myself once getting back. Actually, I'm not even sure if I ever finished my thoughts on Vista. I'll have to go back and check! :D

 

 

 

So how does the ship rank amongst the others you have been on? Anything stick out as either really good or not so good? Looks like they had the waterworks leak fixed for you guys. That's a big relief. No other issues with it?

 

 

Thank you firemanbobswife. I know it is your ship but I borrowed it for 7 days. I may borrow it at some other point.

No issues with the waterworks at all. It worked well for all 7 days. The only major issue with the ship occurred on day 6. Stay tuned for that experience.

 

 

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[Jamericannn]

Oh, and I forgot. Did they remove the hot tub in the Spa/Gym area? Thanks :)

 

 

 

I peeked in the gym for a brief moment but did not actually go inside to see if those are still there. From a video I've seen, I would need to go I. The gym to see it. I am the only one in the group who did not use hot tubs at all.

 

The two on serenity are still there, the two below waterworks are still there and the back is still there.

 

 

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