Our Awesome 20th Anniversary spent on the Glory 4/28-5/5 Eastern picture review!

[rdh rules]

It was cool to wake up and be able to walk out to our balcony and see what it was doing outside. We were at Half Moon Cay in November and were on the first tender off the ship. We decided that we didn’t have to be the first ones this time so we slept in and enjoyed our first port breakfast with the new menu. It was a very good menu with very tasty food! The homemade granola was my favorite and I had it every port day but once. I would have it with plain yogurt instead of milk. They took the smoke salmon off of the deli [emoji53]. I used to just get it without the bagel at the deli so I got it every morning without the bagel for breakfast. The port breakfast and seaside brunch is in the Platinum dining room which is 3 aft. Since you can’t walk from the forward to aft on deck 3 or 4, we found the easiest was to walk aft on our deck 8 and then down to 3. My husband got the breakfast board and it was different than we had expected. It had two hard boiled eggs still in their shell on the board LOL. After breakfast we headed back to the room and got ready. We had instructions to go to the Golden restaurant for priority boarding for FTTF. We arrived and was the only people at 9:30. She walked us through to the back of the restaurant and then left us at a bank of elevators where a guy met us and walked us down. We felt special but still had to wait for the tender to fill up before we headed to the island. Last time since we were first we walked all the way past the cabanas and found two hammocks to hang out in all day. Since we knew we were not going to be first I didn’t know if the hammocks would be available or not. So we decided to actually walk around the island and explore . We took the road that said stingray adventure and it walked around a vegetable garden. We looked in the garden and a nice man come out and greeted us and said to come on in he would show us around. He did have a Holland America shirt on and said that he was one of the 40 people that lived on the island temporarily and he grows vegetables for the other people so they can have some fresh food. He had asparagus already ready to be picked and gave us a piece which was so good and fresh. He had corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and different apple trees. He had a chicken house with some chickens in it that were separate from the wild chickens that you saw everywhere walking around. It was a very nice experience and I would highly recommend it . We continued our walk and found the stingray area which was kind of sad as the stingrays are in a net area held captive so you can go out and swim with them. There was lots of fish close to them and a starfish and a conch shell too. One of the workers went out in the water and was fixing the fence and all the stingrays started moving towards him as to get fed. We continued to walk and saw a ATV rental area and then we took a path and ended up by the pirate ship. We took a right and went past the cabana towards the hammocks and saw that they were all full but they were still lounges under the shade. We hung out there a while and played in the water. We were not impressed with the barbecue last time so he didn’t even bother with this time. We headed back Around 1:30 and there was a long line to get back on the tender. Once they moved us through security it was quick to leave. We headed to our room to drop our stuff off then decided to head to Lido for lunch.

[jimbri]

Great review and photos. Looking forward to the rest!

[rdh rules]

Breakfast board

Smoked Salmon

Sunday morning

Sunday morning

Our room is 3 floors above the “C”

Island chickens

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This was the road we walked that was behind the beach

Here’s the map of the island

Entrance to the garden

The garden

Pretty random flowers

Stingray area

[zabnee]

Wow that would be an awesome trip!! Is it b2b?

 

 

Nope! It's an actual 14 day sailing! Journeys cruises are all longer in length, and feature one seaday full of throwback activities!

 

I'm really looking forward to it. :hearteyes:

[rdh rules]

Nope! It's an actual 14 day sailing! Journeys cruises are all longer in length, and feature one seaday full of throwback activities!

 

 

 

I'm really looking forward to it. :hearteyes:

 

 

 

Wow that would be wonderful!!!!

[evandbob]

We have never run into hot rooms before either. Never found out why. The fan helped us sleep better but during the ports you would start sweating if you were in the room as there was NO air flow then. We took showers in the spa so it wouldn’t heat up our room. You may want to go ahead and ask for a fan as soon as you get in your room. Then if you’re fine, you can give it back.

 

 

I had a cabin temperature on the Glory 4/21 - 4/28 that registered at 80 degrees F. I called guest services twice in a 2 or 3 hour span on the 1st sea day, after which an A/C engineer showed up. He had to do something up in the ceiling through the AC vent to get it working properly, and then it was fine for the rest of the cruise.

[BigCruze]

Great info thanks

[rdh rules]

I had a cabin temperature on the Glory 4/21 - 4/28 that registered at 80 degrees F. I called guest services twice in a 2 or 3 hour span on the 1st sea day, after which an A/C engineer showed up. He had to do something up in the ceiling through the AC vent to get it working properly, and then it was fine for the rest of the cruise.

 

 

 

I’m glad they fixed it. Ours was never 80 but maybe 75-77 with humidity on port days. I’m used to the rooms being around 70-72 with no humidity.

[rdh rules]

Great review and photos. Looking forward to the rest!

 

 

 

Thanks!

[rdh rules]

The sting ray enclosure

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We headed to the Lido deck and I wanted something lighter like a salad. Sad to say I never did get a guys burger the whole week. I kept saying I would and didn’t want to have grease laying heavy on my belly. On my last 5 day, I only ate it once without the bun and it was awesome but if you haven’t been used to that grease, it sits hard. The lunch buffet is open till 3:30 on port days and until 2:30 on sea day. But you still have the deli, guys, sushi, seafood, pizza and room service to choose from. They have a little cheese area with different kinds of cheese and some deli meat. The cheese and salad was good. The dessert options at the buffet were not very tasty. The desserts in the MDR were delectable. We walked around and decided to head to the sauna/steam room. I went to the gym 1st and then the steam room then the sauna. They don’t have the steam or sauna working on the 1st day. We tried out the showers in the spa too, so much bigger with a rain shower head from the ceiling. The handicap shower’s spray is adjustable to a jet. The spa has several lockers with push button combination lock or you can get a key from the reception desk at the entrance.

 

We decided to eat dinner early so we could watch Commuter at 7:30. We got to the MDR around 6:30 and got seated by ourselves all the way in the back next to the spinning doors. I forgot to mention Saturday’s dinner was a table for 2 too but Sunday’s breakfast was with at a shared table. For breakfast and lunch I don’t care about sitting with people but for dinner I want us to be by ouselves. But to order a table for two is a joke because there’s only about 4 inches between you and the table next to you. Sometimes I will talk to the neighboring people if they want to, but if we see that want to be by themselves then we will leave them alone. It took 50 minutes from start to finish without dessert. I probably could have ate dessert that night but wanted to get a good spot for our first dive in movie! And I knew that buffet would just be within walking distance if I was really craving something, lol. Tonight I had seared tuna, shrimp cocktail, and portobello mushroom. My husband had the shrimp and flatbread and mushrooms. We split the Caribbean pepper steak. The mushroom is so good as I remembered from our last cruise. It was probably one of my favorites, an explosion of flavors.

We headed up to Lido and found a spot for the movie and I got two blankets for us and 2 cups of hot chocolate before it started. The chairs that we got right in front of the water slides were the most uncomfortable chairs. My husband didn’t want to sit in the lounges so he chose that. When we did it again we choose the rockers on the side, they were much more comfortable. After the movie, which was great, we walked around and listened to some music and people watched.

When we went to our room, we found a bottle of sparking wine, chocolate covered strawberries and a ship on a stick delivered from John Heald. I had wrote on his page 2 days before I left and gave my room number and asked him to make our anniversary special. One of his staff replied and said that they forwarded it to him and to make sure that we told Carnival too. He had just got off of the Horizon and was taking a holiday so I didn’t know if we would get anything or not. When we got back home I did post the picture and thanks to his page and he replied, you’re welcome. I know a lot of people don’t like him but I Kinda do :-)

We went back up to Lido for the deck party. It was fun but short! This cruise had mixed generations with a average of 30-50 years with some younger and older mixed in. My complaint here is that all the beverage areas are closed except for the one all the way in the aft across from the seafood shack. All I wanted was a glass of water when I was dancing and had to walk all the way back there to get it. When they know that there is a activity like a movie or party, why wouldn’t they keep them open up front?

After the party, we headed to pizza so we could see what “pizza plus” was. They had 4 people working with 2 prepping, 1 baking and 1 serving. It was fast service! On the Elation in November, there was only 1 poor guy working it and he burned our pizza twice. I had a Caesar salad with a slice of Quattro Formaggi and chocolate chip cookie for dessert. I forgot to take a picture of the “plus” menu but the plus Sunday night was chicken parmigiana sub or meatball sub. I saw everyone getting pizza. We normally don’t stay up so late but a few nights and this one ended around 1!

Next is bed to sleep in for 1st sea day!

[rdh rules]

[rdh rules]

Mushroom

Pepper Steak

From glass elevators

 

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The orange chairs are we we sat.

Deck party

Pizza line moved fast

Regular pizza menu

[momof4girls]

Great review! That stingray enclosure is sooooo sad! I didn’t even know it existed there.

 

P.S. I’m another that enjoys JH, and I love his british humour.

[rdh rules]

Great review! That stingray enclosure is sooooo sad! I didn’t even know it existed there.

 

P.S. I’m another that enjoys JH, and I love his british humour.

 

 

 

Thanks! I think JH is funny too.

Here’s the excursion to swim with the stingrays at HMC.

https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions/half-moon-cay/stingray-adventure-420012

It was sad! Someone in the excursion reviews says they are rescue sting rays that were injured. Hopefully they just didn’t take them from the wild and shove them in a small fenced area!

[AmBear]

Great photos!

Sorry about your troubles in the MDR (mdr staff didn't talk to you)!

We went after the 830 pm rush almost every night, cause the MDR staff are so busy earlier.

It seemed to us, most with 'my time dining' want to eat within an hour of each other between 7-8pm, and the MDR was much more crowded.

This might have been why they had more time to socialize, when we dined, there was almost no one there after the rush! We saw the same on the Conquest last week.

About the cabins being warm, my wife who's thin thought they were comfortable, I'm overweight ( ok I'm fat), and thought they were warm, we have this same difference of opinion at home too with setting the AC temp.!-)) So those who are heavier, you'll feel warm on the Glory, the skinny people not so much!-))

[Cruisefun86]

Congrats on 20 years! Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

[Woodfaerie]

Your pictures are awesome. I love the Glory, she is the perfect size ship for me. We bonded permanently when I was "stuck" on her for an extra week due to hurricane Irma last September. These pictures make me feel like I am home again! (Hello, my name is Deb and I am a cruise addict)

[rdh rules]

Ok sorry for the delay.....1st Sea Day

 

At home, my husband wakes up before me. On this cruise, I woke up every single morning before him. I believe it was the light coming around the balcony curtains. It came above and on the sides. I am a very light sensitive person and a couple of nights his charger woke me up making different colors dancing on the ceiling. I missed our interior room as I love that about an inside room- complete darkness!! I got up around 9 and just knew we had slept the day away since I’d been fighting the sun for a while. LOL. I tried to sneak off to go work out while my husband still slept, but he woke up. He uses a CPAP machine and just to let you know there was only one outlet in the room. So we had our multi plug plus an extension cord across the room to get to his CPAP next to the bed. That is definitely a trip hazard. I did tell Carnival on the survey about that situation and recommend that they get a outlet next to the bed for such devices. In the smaller rooms, the outlet was on the same side as the bed so the extension cord didn’t have to go across the room. I am a very clumsy person and made myself aware of it when I got up in the middle the night for a potty break so that I wouldn’t fall across the floor. Well I went up to the gym knowing that it would probably be crowded on the first sea day before we went to brunch in the MDR. I was correct as there was only one elliptical and two treadmills available. I’m one of those people that like to get up early on a sea day and get my spot on the Serenity deck in a clamshell or a nice lounge. But since it was already 9:30 I knew they were all taken. After my work out and shower we headed down to the platinum restaurant 3 aft for the sea side brunch. They have yet to change this menu like they did the Port day, but it still has some of my favorites: the filet and eggs, the fruit and cottage cheese, the smoked salmon and of course dessert. We sat alone this time but in a very busy section. It took a while for the food and then after our last course we never saw the servers again to get more water or coffee. Normally the filet and eggs comes with home fries served in a little cup to the side but this time the filet was on top of the fries which kind of made them mushy. I had forgotten to order dessert in the beginning so we flagged somebody down 15 minutes after we were done eating and I asked if we could have it to go and they accommodated us.

 

We brought the dessert back to the room for later and then headed to the Steakhouse for the tasting/cooking demonstration. It was at 12 and I was ready to go outside and read my book and fall sleep but remembered from a cruise a couple years ago that it was really good and only 30 minutes. We were one of the last four people allowed in as they were full capacity. They have one of the members of the entertainment team describe the cooking lesson. You are given a little booklet with the actual recipes. It was very scrumptious and the recipes looked pretty easy. We had plans of visiting the steakhouse for our anniversary which was Tuesday St. Thomas day. But I read on here several different people talking about it not being so good or worth it and especially not good on the Glory. $70 plus tip to some people is not a big deal. But I would have hated to be disappointed. We did both the specialty restaurants on Princess the Italian and the steakhouse and they both were awesome with great ambience. We decided that we would just wait and eat in San Juan at a local restaurant to get mufongo. After this we headed back to our rooms to and see how the balcony would be with the chairs in lounge position. We were given a $50 off spa gift certificate for our anniversary, but if you know anything about the spa it’s still heavily elated prices. My DH wanted a haircut and we asked if we could use it towards that but they said no. A man’s haircut is $35 and a beard trim is $15. Or he could pay $75 or $100 and get A full scalp massage and some kind of facial etc. He really wanted to get that haircut and called and made a reservation. Yes I know he could a got it cut cheaper at home by a barber but he is special like that and wanted to be pampered LOL.

 

I headed up to Serenity and found one lounge open. The sun was at full speed now and I was really wanting a clamshell but no one was leaving. They have plenty of seating underneath the shade covered but it’s chase lounge type seat and sofa and a few chairs. I got a couple towels and ended up falling asleep with one over my face and woke up to some loud music playing. I looked around surprised and then heard a girl singing to the music. I fell back asleep and shortly after was waking up again with a different song and the same girl four chairs down with a boombox choosing different songs. I’m one of those people that gets cranky when I get woke up and I wanted to so bad to walk up to her and say do you know how to read the sign that says “Serenity”? Do you know what it really means? If you want to listen to loud music then I suggest you go down to the Lido pool where there’s multiple lounge chairs and plenty of opportunities to play your music. But I took a deep breath in and out and said I need to get out of the sun and I got up and left. I went to the other side of the ship next to the ping-pong table and it’s not necessarily in the serenity deck but it is still the padded lounges and it happened to be in shade and QUIET!

 

WMy DH finished his haircut and was very happy. It looks good , but his beard didn’t look as well as I thought it should. He said the guy didn’t spend that much time on the beard as he did the hair. The spa adds 15% automatic gratuity as the bar does. We hung out up there for a while and enjoyed the quiet as everyone left to go get ready for formal night. I knew it would only take us 15 min to get ready so we just waited. Now we have not had one picture taken yet by Carnival, we just kept saying no thank you. Our goal was not to have 1 picture taken on the whole cruise by Carnival![emoji15] We did have a crew worker take our picture outside our door by our banner. We had never seen him And he was just walking down the hall and we asked him to take our picture. Being on 8 fwd means no one is walking by us unless they’re going to the room. It was very quiet and we hardly saw anyone the whole week.

 

We headed to dinner with no wait and was seated by ourselves. We did see the hostess lady send a couple off that were not dressed appropriately. The guy had shorts and flip-flops on. We witnessed this both formal nights. My husband just wore a pair of khaki pants and a button up shirt and I had a black dress on. Our last cruise he packed a tie and wore it but he said he did not want to this time. I had a spinach salad and shrimp cocktail for appetizer. I normally get prime rib and lobster but this time I decided to try the striped bass and it was very good and the lobster times two. Now if you remember we did not have dessert the past two nights in the MDR. Now yes I did have that chocolate brownie sometime today [emoji57]. So tonight we decided to have dessert. I had the chocolate melting cake,which is my favorite, with chocolate and vanilla ice cream. My husband had cream Brulé and Melted chocolate hazelnut cake. I should’ve gotten since it was a little different with some dark chocolate. Dinner was awesome along with service.

 

We headed back to the room to change into more comfortable clothes and then listen to some music. Then we headed to enjoy the Azure pool and hot tub aft. It’s open till 12 o’clock and they close the roof if it starts to rain. I knew the pool would probably be a little chilly since they use salt water and fill it up daily. I didn’t want to slowly walk into it and chicken out so I jumped gently into the pool and came back up. We I heard a guy yelling “hey ma’am! you can’t jump in the pool! You’re not allowed to jump in the pool”. I said, “I didn’t dive and I’ve never heard of not jumping”. He said, “No jumping!” My DH says so how am I supposed to get in the pool? I said I guess you walk down the stairs. The pool was pretty darn chilly and didn’t take me long to get back out and head over to the hot tub. The pool monitor stayed there the whole time and walked back-and-forth to let us know he meant business. I never remember seeing a pool monitor in the adult pool at 9:30 at night! It started to sprinkle a little bit and they closed the roof while we were in the hot tub. Now I really enjoy hot tubs and normally go 1 to 2 times a trip. These tubs were rough, it constantly splashed me in the face. I don’t know if it was because I’m shorter or if the water was higher but the bubbles were on my face and I had to sit up on hump. They use chlorinated water in the hot tubs. Next is bed and St. Thomas.

[rdh rules]

Great photos!

Sorry about your troubles in the MDR (mdr staff didn't talk to you)!

We went after the 830 pm rush almost every night, cause the MDR staff are so busy earlier.

It seemed to us, most with 'my time dining' want to eat within an hour of each other between 7-8pm, and the MDR was much more crowded.

This might have been why they had more time to socialize, when we dined, there was almost no one there after the rush! We saw the same on the Conquest last week.

About the cabins being warm, my wife who's thin thought they were comfortable, I'm overweight ( ok I'm fat), and thought they were warm, we have this same difference of opinion at home too with setting the AC temp.!-)) So those who are heavier, you'll feel warm on the Glory, the skinny people not so much!-))

 

 

 

Haha well we’re both fat so there you go! Ambear, I took your advice and got a fan 1st thing! We had an awesome time and would love to have experienced it for 3 weeks like you!!! I haven’t read your Conquest yet but hope you had a great time there too! We’ll have to do southern sometime! We went at several different times with once being at 8:30 and we did find the servers never had time to chat. But we found our favorite ones on Tues and kept with them, Eduardo. It was the best food imo!

[rdh rules]

Congrats on 20 years! Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

 

 

 

Thanks!!!