Easter Glory! A detailed pictorial review of the refurbished Carnival Glory 4/15-4/22

[Anthomaniac]

The "warning sign" is put there by the port to try to get you to stop wandering down the beach and stay in the port area. You're not trespassing. (Being originally from South Jersey and going down the shore, I know some of the tricks that get used. ;p) We walk down the beach past the sign to get to Jack's Shack; there are several newer bars along the way.

Yup, there is no such thing as a private beach on GT, every beach is public access. Great being able to get in the water anywhere!

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I always get excited when u post another chapter to your story. This is one port I am looking forward to just relaxing by the beach and unwinding. Do you think it's walkable to jacks shack with two kids? Aged 6 and 8? I think you said half a mile so I did the conversions to meters and feel it may be ok but obviously not sure. Do cabs take you if kids are being rowdy wanting to walk?

 

I am glad that you have had a good time following my adventures here. I haven't been able to update it as often as I would have liked and it has taken me way too long to finish but I am almost there. Probably going to get to our final sea day on Tuesday sometime - too tired now lol. Grand Turk is a very good place to just relax and unwind and do nothing or hang out at Margaritaville or venture away from the cruise port. It has been a few years since I did Jack's but I remember we took a cab there and back. The road that goes that way has no sidewalk and it is uneven surfaces but I think if you are in good shape you could probably make it there on foot. I have heard people talk about walking on the beach to get there but I never tried it. For kids I probably would not walk - forget what the cabs cost but it isn't a whole ton and it is probably a fixed rate if you get it at the cruise port. They will work with you to get a return to the port at a certain time as well if you ask or at least that was my experience. I don't know if the cabs would take kids if they are overexcited however but I am guessing that no cab driver will turn down money from people who want to ride, haha. But Jack's is worth the trip. It is a lot smaller venue than Margaritaville and it is a lot of fun, unique for sure. Whatever you decide to do, have fun.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Our family loves oysters! Can you only get them as appetizer? Thanks same everything in August! Love reading![emoji568]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I didn't purchase anything at that seafood shack but I believe everything is a la carte and maybe some things come as platters but I think the oysters are for a certain price, not sure how many you get or if you get anything else with them. I suppose you could order them as an appetizer for a group or whatever and get your own platters but it could start to get expensive quick. A lot of the seafood prices are advertised as market price so that can fluctuate from sailing to sailing I guess. I forget what the market price was showing on this cruise but compared to my favorite fresh seafood places back home, the prices were not bad at all. Thank you for reading along with me and being patient as I work my way slowly to a conclusion of this review and hopefully it helped you prepare for your August cruise. You will have a great time and it will be here before you know it.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

The "warning sign" is put there by the port to try to get you to stop wandering down the beach and stay in the port area. You're not trespassing. (Being originally from South Jersey and going down the shore, I know some of the tricks that get used. ;p) We walk down the beach past the sign to get to Jack's Shack; there are several newer bars along the way.

 

That makes sense, :D. I never remember seeing those signs before when I visited however. Right past the signs appeared to be some sort of club with DJ and did not look to be affiliated with the cruise port so I figured before I got myself in trouble there or they wouldn't let me back onto the port beach because I had left the premises already for whatever reason, I just turned back and spent the rest of my beach time right in that port beach and at Margaritaville. I did notice as we were sailing away that there seemed to be a few other structures between the port and Jack's as well, guess they are bars or are really nice private homes. LOL about the NJ thing, I know a lot of houses are right up against the dunes and the people in those very expensive houses near the beach entrances don't like people walking through all summer long and you are right, they do whatever they can to shoo people away. This beach (along with HMC to a somewhat lesser extent) reminded me more of Ocean City and a much smaller version of Wildwood however, large and clearly public beaches with clear and easy public access from everywhere. But I definitely do recommend Jack's just for the uniqueness of it and for Topher and his entertaining act as well. :cool:

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Yup, there is no such thing as a private beach on GT, every beach is public access. Great being able to get in the water anywhere!

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

That is how it should be too. :) More fun for everyone. Grand Turk beaches are decent, at least the one right near the port and at Jack's. Not the best but adequate enough for a day of relaxation and swimming and possibly some snorkeling if that is what you are into.

[momof3cruisers]

I am loving your review, but the pictures seem to have gone away. Is there any way you can bring them back?

[pghsteelerfan]

I am loving your review, but the pictures seem to have gone away. Is there any way you can bring them back?

 

I was following along on FlyingCruiserNJ's Glory review and happy to see that it popped up again so I could finish. I also noticed the pictures are gone. :(

 

 

The reason is because Photobucket, which was the main host site for pictures that many of us had used when doing CC reviews, decided to change their terms of use, mainly affecting their 3rd party image hosting. Unless members pay for the premium package, the highest they offer, which is about $400 a year, they will not be eligible for the 3rd party image hosting. I copied and pasted (below) from Photobucket's updated terms of use:

 

"Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting.

Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but does not allow 3rd party image hosting.

Plus 500 Plan: 500 GB of Storage and unlimited bandwidth for $399.99 / Year. The Plus 500 Plan allows for unlimited image linking and unlimited 3rd party image hosting."

 

Sadly, many of the pictures in past reviews will eventually disappear, unless the $400 fee (aka ransom) is paid. I've done a few reviews which have not had the pictures removed, yet, and there are others that still have the pictures showing, but Photobucket isn't able to do this all at once, they are "going down the line", so to speak. Those affected have received emails from Photobucket to notify them that they are no longer eligible for 3rd party image hosting. I know that I will not be paying that amount when they get to me. But there are many reviews here that I have enjoyed in the past, and re-read when I'm going through "cruise withdrawal" or have a cruise planned that will be going to some of the ports so I can look back and get ideas of new things to do. It's a shame that Photobucket is doing this...so many have spent a lot of time on their CC reviews. :loudcry:

 

FlyingCruiserNJ...I was really enjoying your review and the beautiful pictures you include. I saw it come up again today with hopes of finishing and saw that Photobucket has disabled your 3rd party image hosting. I have also enjoyed past reviews that you have done as well. Thank you for the time that you've put into your reviews.

[momof3cruisers]

Thank you, steelerfan. I'm not familiar with photobucket. That is a LOT of money!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I am loving your review, but the pictures seem to have gone away. Is there any way you can bring them back?

 

I truly appreciate hearing from people that they have enjoyed my reviews. It makes me feel good that people enjoy reading them and can glean some ideas for their own cruise vacations from them. Sadly, the pictures are going to be gone forever from these reviews as that photo collection site (won't mention it here as I am upset about what they did) indeed changed its terms of service and now make you pay $400 per YEAR to embed your photos on any site on the web. Ridiculous. A small, one-time fee and a very small yearly maintenance fee would have been reasonable to expect but no way am I paying that ridiculous price to put my pics out on the internets, each year.

 

 

It hurts me really bad that all my reviews on here are now broken and while the stories remain, the pictures will never be able to be seen again in any of them. Unfortunately, this site doesn't allow you to go back and edit old posts so even when I move all my pictures to some other hosting site in the future and can again add pics to future reviews, the old ones will never be whole again. And yes, a lot, a LOT of people are in that same boat (no pun intended), that hosting site made a huge mistake with what they have decided to do but it is what it is. I will be going on more cruises, and beginning with my one to New England and Canada in September, will hopefully again be able to add pictures to my reviews.

 

 

I was going to get to the last sea day and our trip home parts of the review but once I saw that all my pics were gone, and I wouldn't be able to add any more at this time, I figured it would be pointless to write about the last two days without adding pictures to a long review that now has no pictures in it. If you and the other readers want, I can still go back in my notes and funtimes and write about what our experiences were for the last two days (what I can remember 3 months after the cruise, lol), but it just won't have any photos to accompany it. I would still do that as I have never not finished a review but I am really bummed about what happened with my photos on here. But I have learned and hopefully this won't happen again in the future with mine or any other peoples' vacation reviews.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I was following along on FlyingCruiserNJ's Glory review and happy to see that it popped up again so I could finish. I also noticed the pictures are gone. :(

 

 

The reason is because Photobucket, which was the main host site for pictures that many of us had used when doing CC reviews, decided to change their terms of use, mainly affecting their 3rd party image hosting. Unless members pay for the premium package, the highest they offer, which is about $400 a year, they will not be eligible for the 3rd party image hosting. I copied and pasted (below) from Photobucket's updated terms of use:

 

"Plus 50 Plan: 52 GB of Storage for $59.99 / Year. The Plus 50 Plan does not allow any image linking or 3rd party image hosting.

Plus 100 Plan: 102 GB of Storage for $99.99 / Year. The Plus 100 Plan allows for unlimited image linking but does not allow 3rd party image hosting.

Plus 500 Plan: 500 GB of Storage and unlimited bandwidth for $399.99 / Year. The Plus 500 Plan allows for unlimited image linking and unlimited 3rd party image hosting."

 

Sadly, many of the pictures in past reviews will eventually disappear, unless the $400 fee (aka ransom) is paid. I've done a few reviews which have not had the pictures removed, yet, and there are others that still have the pictures showing, but Photobucket isn't able to do this all at once, they are "going down the line", so to speak. Those affected have received emails from Photobucket to notify them that they are no longer eligible for 3rd party image hosting. I know that I will not be paying that amount when they get to me. But there are many reviews here that I have enjoyed in the past, and re-read when I'm going through "cruise withdrawal" or have a cruise planned that will be going to some of the ports so I can look back and get ideas of new things to do. It's a shame that Photobucket is doing this...so many have spent a lot of time on their CC reviews. :loudcry:

 

FlyingCruiserNJ...I was really enjoying your review and the beautiful pictures you include. I saw it come up again today with hopes of finishing and saw that Photobucket has disabled your 3rd party image hosting. I have also enjoyed past reviews that you have done as well. Thank you for the time that you've put into your reviews.

 

I am totally bummed about this and pretty upset. Yes, what you describe is what they did and they did it with absolutely no warning whatsoever. To go from free to that price is just bad. Perhaps even if they would have grandfathered already-posted pictures to stay where they were on the web or offering a reduced price to allow existing photos on forums like this one before just going for the money like they have, would have gotten me and many other people to pay up. But I won't pay that, no way. I feel bad because I know people do love reading these reviews and I love writing them but the photos are going to be gone now, like it or not. I don't know what the opinions of others here who have also used that site to link their photos to here are but I bet a lot of reviews like this are going to be forever broken because of this. I will move my pics over to another site (plenty to choose from I think) in the future but I can't go back into these reviews with the new links anyway, so in the future I will get back to my picture heavy reviews but everything done up to now has been wrecked. Sad.

 

 

I said it in my last post that I would write up the last few days based on what I remember (it being 3 months past sail date now, lol) if people still wanted to hear my thoughts on it, if you are interested I will get to that in the next few days and at least finish the review, albeit without any new pics being posted. I hate not finishing reviews and I know people like reading them but I just had that hopeless feeling when I saw what happened to this review with the photo linking and kind of abandoned it. I truly appreciate everyone's kind words that they enjoy my reviews, it makes me feel good to know that other cruisers see value in what I put on here. This site is all about sharing experiences and helping make others' vacations better if we can in any way help, and that isn't going to stop me from doing future reviews once I get the photo hosting issues sorted out in the hopefully near future. So thanks for reading along with me and looking forward to each new addition I put onto these reviews and again, if you want I will at least add my thoughts and a summary of the last few days of the cruise when I get the chance probably this weekend. Happy cruising and have a great summer.

[firemanbobswife]

I upload my photos directly here from my phone using Tapatalk. It's simple and easy.

[pghsteelerfan]

I am totally bummed about this and pretty upset. Yes, what you describe is what they did and they did it with absolutely no warning whatsoever. To go from free to that price is just bad. Perhaps even if they would have grandfathered already-posted pictures to stay where they were on the web or offering a reduced price to allow existing photos on forums like this one before just going for the money like they have, would have gotten me and many other people to pay up. But I won't pay that, no way. I feel bad because I know people do love reading these reviews and I love writing them but the photos are going to be gone now, like it or not. I don't know what the opinions of others here who have also used that site to link their photos to here are but I bet a lot of reviews like this are going to be forever broken because of this. I will move my pics over to another site (plenty to choose from I think) in the future but I can't go back into these reviews with the new links anyway, so in the future I will get back to my picture heavy reviews but everything done up to now has been wrecked. Sad.

 

 

I said it in my last post that I would write up the last few days based on what I remember (it being 3 months past sail date now, lol) if people still wanted to hear my thoughts on it, if you are interested I will get to that in the next few days and at least finish the review, albeit without any new pics being posted. I hate not finishing reviews and I know people like reading them but I just had that hopeless feeling when I saw what happened to this review with the photo linking and kind of abandoned it. I truly appreciate everyone's kind words that they enjoy my reviews, it makes me feel good to know that other cruisers see value in what I put on here. This site is all about sharing experiences and helping make others' vacations better if we can in any way help, and that isn't going to stop me from doing future reviews once I get the photo hosting issues sorted out in the hopefully near future. So thanks for reading along with me and looking forward to each new addition I put onto these reviews and again, if you want I will at least add my thoughts and a summary of the last few days of the cruise when I get the chance probably this weekend. Happy cruising and have a great summer.

 

If you have the time and want to finish your review, I'd like to finish reading it. The pictures are gone, but you still write good reviews. But that's totally up to you. I know they take a lot of time. I've done three in the past and SO MUCH WORK goes into them. I enjoyed doing mine, as they helped with the "post cruise withdrawal".

 

 

I agree with what you said about Photobucket 100% and also feel that anyone with current pictures should be "grandfathered". And I don't mind a minimal fee, but $400 is insane. As of right now, my pictures are still showing. I'm seeing mixed comments about when they will all be disappearing. Someone did post that those currently paying for one of the plans (I'm on the lowest/cheapest one) will have 3rd party image hosting until December 31, 2018. When working on my 3rd review, almost 2 years ago, I knew I was going to exceed the maximum amount for the free storage, so I upgraded from the "free" to the next plan up. I think it's about $39.99 ($40.00) a year. My renewal for my current plan will be coming up in September or October of this year. Knowing that my pictures will only be there for another year after that, I'm debating whether I should renew it or cancel. That would mean that I'd lose all of my pictures in the reviews as soon as I cancelled, but those reviews are now obsolete anyway. I may reconsider, I still have some time to think about it. But there is no way I'd pay $400 just to keep my pictures showing in the reviews. There have been other comments on other boards about this and the thing that many say is that it's really a shame because so many have put time into reviews, there are some great photo threads in the "Photography" discussion boards, and a lot of CC history that is disappearing.

 

 

Firemanbobswife mentioned Tapatalk and I know others use that one to post pictures to CC. I have an account (free, unlimited storage) with Shutterfly, but used Photobucket since I wasn't able to get Shutterfly to work for me when trying to post pictures to CC. Others had the same issue getting Shutterfly pictures to post, but a few people gave great, detailed instructions on how to post pictures from Shutterfly to CC. I tried a test picture and it worked. So that is another one to consider. I think there are several more, but I don't know what they are.

 

But again, thank you for taking the time to put together so many great reviews. I don't know if I've commented before on your reviews or not since I don't comment on every review I read, but I have enjoyed all that you've done that I've seen.

[Jamman54]

We would love it if you could finish your review, with or without pictures. Now we are so glad that we didn't use PB for our picture hosting site. What they are now charging is simply extortion!!! :evilsmile: We, and several other reviewers I know use SmugMug, and I am very happy with them. :cool:

[Froufie]

No site is safe LOL - I used to use Webshots for free hosting - then that disappeared - I then started using Photobucket and we know how that story ends.... May try Smugmug and I have friends that use snapfish as well!....but again this could all be 'temporary'!!!!

[beshears]

That's a shame that they have deleted the pictures out of your review, as I was enjoying it as well. Your review just "took me back" to March, when I took my family/friend (8 of us) on the Glory. It was all of our first time on this ship, and most of my family had never cruised, so that made it even more memorable. :)

[Ziggy7]

This is great! Thanks for sharing!!!!

[beshears]

Thanks for letting me know what the "American Table" is all about. Yes, in my over 15 some cruises, we have always eating in the MDR. Very seldom, did we ever find where the menu did not have something that we could eat, or want. :)

[BallFour4]

Looks like a fun vacation. We sailed the Glory to Canada in 2014:

 

and again on the same route you did:

 

Conquest class ships are our favorite!

 

.