Glory Ultra Cruise Review: 7 Day Western Caribbean

[Jeffn57]

Wife and I get on the Glory 01/13/18 can't wait. Count down says 22 days but we leave 3 days ahead of the cruise so we can wonder around Miami with some friend who live there and get a great cuban sandwich from Versi before we leave. This will be our first time on the Glory so your pictures and review have been great. Can't wait to leave!!!

[michiganredrose]

Wife and I get on the Glory 01/13/18 can't wait. Count down says 22 days but we leave 3 days ahead of the cruise so we can wonder around Miami with some friend who live there and get a great cuban sandwich from Versi before we leave. This will be our first time on the Glory so your pictures and review have been great. Can't wait to leave!!!

 

 

 

We are on the same cruise! Can’t wait! I fly down to Florida on January 7th, so I’m down to 2 weeks.

 

 

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[jam19872016]

Thank you for doing this review ! We are sailing on the Glory in May . This will be my 11th cruise (all carnival ) yet first time on the Glory .

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

You are very welcome.

 

Our 11th as well, also in May, 2nd time on The Glory.

 

Have a great cruise!

[jam19872016]

This is the most extensive and complete pictorial review of a cruise ship that I have ever seen.

 

I love reviews that throw in a detailed tour of the ship. That and food porn. :p

 

No worries. I'm totally enjoying your review! Thanks.

 

P.S. It looks like you had great weather!

 

Got pretty lucky with weather. It showered briefly in Honduras but other than that we had pretty good weather.

[jam19872016]

Wife and I get on the Glory 01/13/18 can't wait. Count down says 22 days but we leave 3 days ahead of the cruise so we can wonder around Miami with some friend who live there and get a great cuban sandwich from Versi before we leave. This will be our first time on the Glory so your pictures and review have been great. Can't wait to leave!!!

 

We are on the same cruise! Can’t wait! I fly down to Florida on January 7th, so I’m down to 2 weeks.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I don't want to think about 1/13, that is the day I get off my Vista cruise. Have a great time guys! But don't rush that date ok lol.

[jam19872016]

Day 2: Fun Day At Sea

 

Today was a fun day at sea. I got a free extra hour on this cruise thanks to daylight savings time. My mom the eternal optimist pointed out that our cruise in March could fall on the week we lose an hour. I checked, and it does not. Thanks mom :rolleyes:

 

The casino had plenty of events scheduled today to keep us busy.

 

1030: Snowball Raffle

1130-130: Winners Wheel

400: Matilda The Cash Cow

Midnight: Ultra Cruise Draw

 

Today was also my day to pick my Ultra gift. My drawing was to be held at 2pm.

 

The first drawing of the day was the snowball raffle. It is a pretty straightforward drawing. X amount of money is given away (100 the first day, 200 the second day so on and so on) and if nobody is there to claim the prize, it rolls over (snowballs) into the next days prize. The prize can get pretty high later on in the cruise, especially with a couple days of no winners.

 

The winner's wheel was at 11:30. Every 30 minutes they would draw a name and if you were chosen you got to spin a wheel for a cash prize. Most prizes ranged from $50-$250. This was open to anyone with at least 100 points in the casino.

 

I slept till the last possible minute to make the first drawing. This meant I had to skip breakfast, but the casino did have a few small bites to eat set up for us.

 

 

Just a couple more hours until I got to select my Ultra gift.

 

 

Not sure which ship this is, I can tell it is Fantasy class. Its going the wrong way though, the Caribbean is the other way.

 

 

 

Carlos drawing a name in the Snowball Raffle. It wasn't me.

 

[jam19872016]

I hadn't played yet this cruise on account of being, ummm, not well the day before. I was hoping my losing streak was over. Now I always lose money on these trips. The goal is not to win money, that is just silly. It is a casino, and the house will always win. But if you can stick to your budget and have enough wins to play on for a while - I consider that a win. When you are literally just throwing money into a dark hole, well that is just no fun at all.

 

I had only been playing for four minutes when this happened.

 

 

That was a great start. But it went pretty fast because that was the only hand I hit on. After striking out on video poker, I moved over to slots for a little while.

 

Since the Winner's Wheel was every 30 minutes, we made a dash for some lunch since we missed breakfast. M went to the Blue Iguana. She had a taco salad without the taco. This was her lunch everyday. She was worried she was missing out on stuff but she loved that salad so much.

 

I went to the deli for today's daily special. Smoked pork shoulder.

 

 

This was another very good sandwich. And the bread they use OMG it was delicious and came out nice and crispy.

 

The first ultra gift draw of the cruise was at 2PM. This was the time I was to show up for my gift. There were several gifts available to be won. The ones I can remember were:

 

55' 4k UHD TV (shipped to your house, you don't have to lug that thing around with you)

Macbook Pro

Apple Watch

Ipad

Ipad Mini

Samsung s8

Miscrosoft Surface Pro

Cash (300, 400, 500, or 1,000)

 

Ultra draw getting ready to begin.

 

 

Each person would have their name called and get to pick a ball out of the hopper. The ball would have a number on it which corresponded with the cards on the wall. Whatever prize was on the card was the prize you won. If you won cash, you got to spin the wheel and you won the amount of money you landed on. People seemed disappointed to win cash, when did cash become a consolation prize to winning a prize? I was hoping for cold hard cash, I won the Ipad.

 

 

Pretty decent prize and one of the higher retail values but really I have no use for it. I'm not really a gadetey kinda guy. I sold it to M for $300 who will be giving it to her mom for Christmas. I could have sold it for more on eBay but I was just happy to flip it without too much effort. The one downside, I had to fill out tax paperwork on my win :eek:

 

The next drawing was Matilda the Cash Cow. If your name was called you would roll an over sized die and the number it landed on was the number of "spots" you could pull off of Matilda the Cash Cow. Each spot contained between $50-$200. I could be slightly off on amounts, but those are in the ballpark. This is the kind of game I would love to get called for, I love anything that involves rolling dice.

[jam19872016]

After a busy, and unsuccessful day in the casino we made our way to dinner a little after 8. Tonight was cruise elegant night.

 

Tonight's menu.

 

 

 

For my starter I had the fried oysters which were very good as always.

 

 

For my main I had the lobster and the spaghetti carbonara.

 

 

 

The carbonara is my favorite MDR dish and continues to hold that title. The lobster is okay. It is kinda hit or miss and leaned a little closer to miss. It was good, but not worth the fuss. On the Splendor it was served with a risotto that was to die for.

[jam19872016]

Dessert menu.

 

 

I ordered the creme brulee.

 

 

It was also very good.

 

Dinner was very good and we were in and out in about an hour and fifteen minutes.

 

After dinner M returned to the casino and I went back to the room to change into something more comfortable. I finally met my room steward. His name was Scott. He asked if I wanted am, pm, or both and I asked for both unless we slept in (which sometimes happens). He had also left me a friend back in the room.

 

 

 

After changing I headed down to the theater to watch tonight's show. The show was Motor City. They were having some "technical difficulties" and would be performing a concert version of the show tonight. I am not sure what the problem was but they said it was for safety so I will take their word. Safety first. But it was not good. It was not entertaining at all. I think I would try it again to see if it is better with the actual performance, and it may be but this is just not my kind of music. If you enjoy Motown music it may be better to you.

 

The final drawing of the night was the Ultra Cruise Giveaway. This was for a free balcony cabin on the 4/22 sailing on the Horizon along with $500 cash, $500 shore excursion credit, $500 spa credit, and one specialty dining for two. This is a pretty big prize, if you can make that date. In the past it was any premiere cruise, now it is a specific sailing. It would still be nice to win this though, just not sure how I would make it work logistically.

 

After the drawing I was off to bed. I really wanted to stay up a little later, but for some reason I was just exhausted. M stayed out in the casino for a while longer. She did not give room service another try tonight and went for pizza tonight instead. Tomorrow we would be in Grand Cayman.

Edited December 30, 2017 by jam19872016

[jam19872016]

Day 3: Grand Cayman

 

Today we were in Grand Cayman. This is my fourth time here, joining Grand Turk and Nassau as my most visited ports of call. I had no real plans of doing anything today so there was not really a need to be up early. Except M forgot to turn her alarm for work off. Apparently it went off at 6:30 for her to get up, but I slept through that one. Then another went off at 8:30 that she uses as a reminder at work, and that one woke me up. I was not a happy camper.

 

I figured since I was up I would take this chance to do my ship tour. I did my tour then M and I went to the Blue Iguana for some breakfast burritos. I love those crunchy potatoes they put inside them. Yummy.

 

Some pictures of Grand Cayman while I was doing my tour.

 

 

[jam19872016]

After we ate we made our down to Deck 0 to load onto the tender and make our way to the island.

 

Some pictures from the tender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've made it ashore.

 

[jam19872016]

We had no plans just sorta walked around a little bit. We stopped into a few shops just browsing. We stopped into the Dairy Queen and got a few treats. I guess that is not any better than coming here and going to Burger King, but we love stopping in this place when we come here, our guilty little pleasure.

 

After our ice creams we continued walking and stopped at a bar whose name I can't remember. It wasn't very busy but the drinks were good and there was a pretty nice view of our ship.

 

 

We had a couple drinks then made our way back to the ship. The line was pretty crazy and we couldn't even really see the front of the line from where we were so we had a seat and waited until the line died down.

 

Some booze along for the ride with us.

 

 

While I was out today, the casino sent some goodies to the room.

 

 

For lunch I went to the deli to continue to journey through their new menu. I did not go for today's special and went instead for a meatball sandwich.

 

 

I was not real crazy about this sandwich. The bread was again fantastic, but something was too salty. I am not sure if it was the sauce or the meat but it was far too salty to my liking. I would be willing to try it again to see if it was perhaps a bad batch.

[jam19872016]

This afternoon there were again many drawings in the casino.

 

4PM: Matilda the Cash Cow

430-530: Fireball Raffle

8: Snowball Raffle

12: Ultra Cruise Giveaway

 

The Fireball Raffle is much like snowball but there is a drawing every 15 minutes (usually 30 but it was shortend since it was only an hour) and it goes up by $50 each round instead of $100. This was open to all casino players and was a good way to keep me glued to the casino :D

 

I was still not doing to well in the casino. M had found a slot machine she liked. It was called Sinbad and she was doing pretty well on it. She is usally strictly blackjack and may play a little on the slots but she was enjoying this one. It ate up all my money - wasn't as kind to me as it was her.

 

Pretty much every slot machine I tried was gobbling up my money then M gave me a bit of advice that seemed so obvious. Why don't you play Video Poker and stop playing slots. Looking back to when I first started playing, I only did Video Poker and I was able to play and have fun. Then somewhere along the way I started doing more and more slots, and started losing too quickly.

 

I wish I had my camera with me. I sat down this afternoon, and hit the four of a kind for $250 not once, not twice, but three times!! I was back and in a big way. I will be sticking mostly to Video Poker from now on and may dabble in slots from time to time.

 

After the Snowball Raffle at 8, I excused myself from the casino (only once I was sure I was not gonna hit another 4 of a kind) and went to see tonight's show. Tonight's playlist production was Getaway Island.

 

 

This show was very entertaining and I would definitely not mind watching this one again. I would say its among the best shows I've seen on Carnival possibly the best. Very nice improvement over last night.

[jam19872016]

After the show it was off to dinner. We just made it in tonight before they closed, it ensured we had quick service tonight, almost like we were being stalked.

 

Tonight's dinner menu.

 

 

 

 

For my starter I had grilled beef skewers from the port of call menu.

 

 

This was sooooo good and if memory serves me correctly is also on one of the other port of call menus, possibly St.Kitts? Either way these things are fantastic.

 

For my main I had the seared talapia and the portobello mushrooms.

 

 

 

The talapia was good and the mushrooms were fantastic. I hate wasting food though, and I don't eat the huge mound of squash that it comes with. I probably won't get it again for that reason, but that sauce it comes in is so...darn...good.

[jam19872016]

Dessert menu.

 

 

I had the chocolate tres leche and the praline cake.

 

 

 

Both were great new additions to the dessert menu.

 

Dinner was great tonight and service was quick. Maybe even, dare I say, too quick. The staff was ready to close and had us in and out in under 45 minutes. I am a fan of quick service, but they tended to hover waiting to clear for the next course. Still had a very nice meal though.

 

Towel animal friend waiting in the room.

 

 

After dinner we returned to the casino. I was able to play late into the night. We closed down the casino a little after 3. Notice I said "we". I managed to not crawl into bed after the midnight drawing tonight. Tonight's late night choice would again be pizza but I was not really hungry so I didn't eat any. We retired around 4 after a long and fun filled day.

[luvcruzing]

Waiting patiently for more.

[pooksma]

Loved the Glory! Enjoying your review!

[jam19872016]

Waiting patiently for more.

 

Posting some more now :)

 

Loved the Glory! Enjoying your review!

 

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it!

[jam19872016]

Day 4: Honduras

 

Today we were in Honduras. This was my third time here. We stayed up pretty late, till around 4 so we slept in pretty late as well. It was a little past noon before we dragged ourselves out of bed. I was still tired, but you gotta get up sometime, right?

 

We headed up to Lido for lunch where I once again hit the deli. I got the daily special which was the Korean BBQ beef and a pastrami for M.

 

 

My sandwich had potential. I am not sure what sauce they used but it ruined it. It tasted like a liquid brown sugar glaze. It made it way too sweet and I could only eat about half of it. M could only eat half of hers, and gave me the rest. This was the same lower quality pastrami they used before and M didn't care for it. I still found it to be a little better than the previous version because that bread was so yummy.

 

After we filled our bellies we headed into port. We walked around a bit then I returned to the ship for a little bit to take part in the country music trivia. I won last time with a score of 29 out of 30. I am like a walking encyclopedia on country music at least up until the modern stuff. I won the trivia with a perfect 20 out of 20 score. But before I was given the coveted ship on a stick, I had to dance to "Chattahoochee" by Alan Jackson. All I can say is thank goodness nobody pulled out a camera to evidence the scene. A dancer I am not. I had fun with it and did the best I could until he took pity and gave me my shiny new Ship On A Stick.

 

After my victory I returned to port and joined M at Fat Tuesday where she was enjoying some drinks and the WiFi. Then we hopped on the Magical Flying Chair which was $14 each for an all day pass to ride. We rode a couple times to make sure we got our money worth. It is very peaceful up here and you get some great views. I don't have any photos though because I did not carry my camera. Today was a beach day, and I am just not comfortable leaving it on the beach while I go in the water. I'm sure it would be fine, I just can't bring myself to chance it.

 

Once we rode the chair lift a couple times, we headed down the beach a ways until there were not as many people. What can I say about the beach? The water was not as nice as most Caribbean islands and after we got in for a couple minutes there was a lot of ... something stirred up in the water. Not sure what it was, probably just sand but it looked gross and it was everywhere.

 

We hung out in the water for a bit then rode the chair lift a couple more times until it was time to go back. The beach was a bust. I'm not really a beach person but M enjoys it and this just did not do it for her. All in all it was a good day though but I do hope to one day actually make it out of Mahogany Bay and see the real Honduras.

[jam19872016]

Some pictures of the island from the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

The drawings in the casino tonight started at 8, so we opted to eat earlier than we usually do and headed to the MDR around 6:15.

 

Tonight's dinner menu.

 

 

 

 

For my starter I had the chicken pastelitos.

 

 

It was very good.

 

For my main I had the linguine and the fish from the port of call menu.

 

 

 

The linguine was good. The fish was not bad, but it was kinda bland. It needed something to kick it up a little. I would probably not get this again.

[jam19872016]

Dessert menu.

 

 

For dessert I had the bitter n blanc and the s'mores parfait.

 

 

 

The bitter n blanc was excellent. For those who miss this dessert, it is back on the 7 day rotation on the new dessert menu. It is also on the rotation on 8 day cruises even with the old menus. The s'mores was not as good as usual, the fudge was way too thick making it too rich. I still ate it though :evilsmile:

 

Dinner was very good again tonight and even though we ate at a busier time our dinner was still just over an hour from start to finish. Impressive.

 

The events tonight in the casino:

 

8PM: Snowball Raffle

8:30-10: Fireball Raffle, open to everyone

12: Ultra Cruise Giveaway.

 

I did not win any drawings, but M did have her name called for $150 on the fireball raffle. Lucky. I had my own share of good luck though as I won another four of a kind, still no camera with me though. Things have really turned around for me in the casino this trip. I was down quite a bit of money but I am now up which never happens this far into a cruise. I will definitely be sticking to video poker going forward - mostly.

 

With another good run I stayed in the casino with M until closing around 3am.

 

Tonight's towel animal.

 

 

After closing down the casino, we retired to the room for the evening. I grabbed us some pizza from pizza pirate and we unwound with some pizza and some tv and went to bed a bit after 4. Tomorrow we would be in Belize.

[jam19872016]

Day 5: Belize

 

Today we were in Belize. This is my third time in Belize. I was up pretty late last night and really was hoping to sleep in. Carnival had other plans. The doors are pretty thin, but I run a fan to block most noise in the hallway. That cuts down the noise somewhat, and if things are still too noisy, I also pack ear plugs. Today's noise was not from other guests in the hallway, and they were not from M's alarm (I checked with her every day, you don't have any alarms going off tomorrow, right).

 

Around 10:30 (which is not sleeping in when you were up so late) the cabin phone started ringing. It was the steakhouse calling to confirm my reservation for this evening because they had not heard from me. What? What is there to confirm? I made the reservations because I wanted to go, it is not a placeholder. We got in port at 8, most people would be off the ship by now what would you have done if I had not answered. And wouldn't a letter in the cabin asking to call and confirm be better than ringing into the room yourself? Not a happy camper. I felt like they were looking for an excuse to cancel my reservation, but the place was dead so that was not the case. I have no idea why they felt like they needed to call me.

 

I was pretty peeved off about this. In fact I was in a pretty sour mood for most of the day. To make matters worse, I was getting sick. It was a combination of the smoke in the casino (It does not offend me and I deal with it, but the smoke does start to make me sick after a few days if I spend a lot of time in the casino, which I have been since I'm holding onto my money) and just not getting enough rest.

 

I was awake now so I got up and got ready for Belize. First we headed up for some lunch where I ordered a toasted tuna sandwich.

 

 

This was very good. M got the grilled cheese sandwhich. I meant to get the special of the day, but they gave me the regular grilled cheese. M gave me a piece and I thought it was great also. It would make a perfect late night snack.

 

Pour Your Own Beer station that I missed on my tour, located in the back of Lido restraunt.

 

[jam19872016]

After we put some food in our bellies, we headed down to Deck 0 to board the tender to the island.

 

Along the way I saw this ship that I did not recognize.

 

 

 

It was called The World and when I asked about it, all I could find out was it was "for wealthy people" whatever that means. So I asked my very smart Uncle Google who knows just about everything and apparently this is a literally a floating condominium.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

"The World is the largest privately owned residential yacht. The residents, from about 45 countries, live on board as the ship travels, staying in most ports several days. A few residents live on board full-time while most visit periodically throughout the year.[1] It is operated by ROW Management, Ltd., headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States.[2]"

 

A studio apartment starts at $825k. It may be something to consider if I ever find myself with a spare million laying around.

 

The ride to shore is a long one, but the weather was nice making it a somewhat enjoyable ride. Once we made it to land we walked around a bit and stopped at a couple bars. We found a small casino but I do mean small and it was completely deserted. It was kinda eerie so we turned back around.

 

Then we did something I have heard many warnings on here not to do. We walked alone through the streets :eek:. I was a bit uneasy because I have heard Belize is not safe plus a local offered to walk us to the grocery store we were looking for. She also mentioned she braids hair. We said no thanks, but was expecting her to pester us for helping us find the store. But we were being cynical, she really was just being nice and there was no further mention of hair braiding.

 

We did not find what we needed so we headed back for a tender back to the ship. I was not feeling well and was glad to be back on the ship.

[jam19872016]

The first event in the casino this afternoon was Matilda's Pyramid of Cash. This was a new game created for the Ultra cruises. I'm a bit foggy on the details of how the game was played now but remember it being a bit too difficult to win. It was cute with lots of silly different cows on the game board and you could tell some thought went into it, but it was too hard to be much fun. Perhaps some tweaking to the game could make it better.

 

We had plans for the steakhouse tonight but we asked the casino host if we could have it comped. We were politely informed that we did not qualify. O well, no harm in asking.

 

We played for a little while and then headed to the Steakhouse. I have been wanting to go to the steakhouse but never book ahead, and then by the time I call to book there are no reservations available. So I booked ahead this time. Lesson learned though, confirm your reservation once you board. I guess I can see why they would want you to confirm if the place was full and they had people on a wait list, but it was pretty quiet in here.

 

Now full disclosure, I was not feeling well at all and my taste buds were a bit off. Nothing I ate tonight was particularly good, in fact most of it was bland. But, I can say with absolute certainty that it was because I was not feeling well.

 

The glory still uses the old steakhouse menu which can be found here. https://www.carnival.com/~/media/Images/explore/dining/menus/steakhouse-menu.ashx

 

Compliments of the chef:

 

 

I don't remember the fancy name it came with, but it was Ox. I was a bit hesitant, but ate it. It was actually pretty good.

 

For my starter I had the escargot and the tuna tartare.

 

 

 

For my main I had the filet mignon.

 

 

For my dessert I had the cheesecake.

 

 

If there is one item I am sad to see off the new menu, it is that cheesecake. OMG. M ordered hers to go to give to me cause she does not really eat desserts. I put it in the fridge to eat later, but sadly I never did find a spare spot in my tummy for it.

 

Service was a little slower than the MDR which is to be expected. We were still done in just over an hour and a half leaving us plenty of time for the next drawing in the casino. As I mentioned, I was not feeling well and it caused the food and experience to just be blah to me. I would not hesitate to go again. In fact...