Glory Disappointment

[SandiLynn]

34 minutes ago, TheJayCat said:

My wife has the same issue with the muster drill. Simply go to guest services after you board and explain to them and they will have you sit in a comfy lounge area close to the life boats for the muster drill.

 

Hope this helps.

Oh yes, thank you for the information. I have crowd and personal space issues. It is rarely a problem but when crammed into close quarters with strangers touching me from all angles, l do not Handel it well. Then factor in that at the end of July it will feel like 100+ degrees. Thankfully elevators are not to full or if they are it is only for a minute or two. 

[bettyboop16]

On ‎5‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 7:34 PM, Sparky2 said:

 

We were on a 12-day Journey's cruise on Glory while still in Miami this past Feb. just before they moved Glory to NO.  We're Platinum and our luggage tags were left in the cabin.

We were on the same cruise & we are "Gold" our tags were left in our cabin.

[Sparky2]

1 hour ago, bettyboop16 said:

We were on the same cruise & we are "Gold" our tags were left in our cabin.

 

I do remember walking on one of the decks (5?) near where they had public computers and saw they had the rack with luggage tag #s.  The only ones left were really high #s.  We'll probably ignore our #1 tags next Feb. & pick up later luggage tags because we're staying at a hotel & flying home the next day.  No need to hurry off the ship to just sit in hotel lobby till we can check in.

[Stacie.]

17 hours ago, SandiLynn said:

We have a Glory cruise for our 25th Wedding Anniversary in late July. We love the Dream and hope to love the Glory also. I have heard that the Muster Drills are all outside, I am hoping that is not true. We were on the Triumph a few years ago and I thought I was going to need meds to get through being on the deck with people to close for comfort. It is the only bad part of the cruise,well other than it ending. 

Oh, did you happen to see where the sushi is sold?

Muster is outside. 😞

 

Sushi is situated on one side of the grand buffet...it's just a window you walk past if you walk from the main lido pool to the adults only pool at the back of the ship. If you go on one side you'll see the deli in a window, the other side will be the sushi window. 

[SandiLynn]

35 minutes ago, Stacie. said:

Muster is outside. 😞

 

Sushi is situated on one side of the grand buffet...it's just a window you walk past if you walk from the main lido pool to the adults only pool at the back of the ship. If you go on one side you'll see the deli in a window, the other side will be the sushi window. 

Thank you!

[Squadleader]

We've done the Glory once and her sister Conquest twice.

 

I happen to hate lines, like really, really hate lines.

 

For someone like me, research and lots of practice (around 20 cruises on different lines now), has given me the ability to actually enjoy almost any cruise. In my early days of cruising, that wasn' t the case. 

 

Cruising like almost everything else in life is a series of small obstacles. I've learned small tricks that make huge differences in successfully overcoming those obstacles on the cruise.

 

I've stressed this with my children, the difference between having a 5-star experience on a cruise and a nightmare is the very small differences in how you go about things, like being early for everything, not on time or late. Yeah, it means I've had to adjust my nature (on time, or even late), but that little difference, is what I look on as being the cost of having a great experience, as opposed to a nightmare, 

 

We get to the Main Dining room for breakfast when the doors open, and I love having that leisurely breakfast with my children dearly, we actually talk. 30 minutes later there's a line at the main dining entrance, and if you wander up to the Lido buffet, a group my size may end up at different tables. And to make it even better (rolls eyes), everyone is bouncing up and down to get this, get that, and wolfing down the food. Ok, I get it, some people just want to hit things hard and fast, and move on, perfect for them, but just shoot me (head-shot please) if I that's how it's going to be. 

 

Young people usually have a lot harder time getting up and moving, I recognize that I was the same way. However, the reason I pay thousands of dollars for this experience is to enjoy my kids company. I make it a condition of even booking the cruise that everyone agrees to get up at 7:30 and get moving. They don't have too, they can stay home, but if I'm paying for it, that's what it costs them to go.

 

I really liked what one poster said earlier,  you avoid crowds and lines, by avoiding crowds and lines. He's right on the money. You can do anything, eat anywhere, and still avoid lines and crowds, by doing it when others don't. 

 

That's the art of cruising well, it comes with knowledge. 

 

The reality is there are several thousand people on this cruise with you. If you choose to ignore that fact and think you can breeze around the ship and get what you want, when you want it, you're going to have a very disappointing cruise. The experience you desired was available to you, you just didn't know how to get it.

 

I happen to love Guys Burgers and going to the Comedy Club with my kids. Between those things and the main dining room, I love the experience on Carnival ships.

 

The next thing is I have completely removed any pressure around port days like I used to have because I no longer want anything from any port except warm weather, warm water, a great sandy beach, and an umbrella or shade. All the crazy jazz on the islands the tourism people and cruise lines dream up,  are things I completely ignore. 

 

I enjoy the resort, entertainment, and fine dining aspects of the ship, and at every port, we go have a wonderful beach day. We usually cruise in the winter, so we appreciate the beach days more. 

 

Last, in general, you're going to find that older ships are going to be doing the shorter cruises, so I never book a cruise shorter than seven days anymore. Plus all that turnover is harder on the crew and it shows.

 

In my old age, I've also come to realize there are fixed costs to me in time and aggravation associated with travel in general, and cruising in particular. 

 

We drive 14 hours to get to our most common port, the packing, the embarkation process, unpacking, then packing to leave, then the disembarkation process. There's no way I'd do all that stuff for an experience less than seven days long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jsglow]

Well written Squad.  I see it much the same way.  Although we do still very much enjoying exploring the ports with beach days sprinkled in.  Hoping that with the increased time available in retirement, that we'll venture further away on longer cruises.  So far, our longest is 8 days owing to the limitation of traditional vacations.

[DaisyGirl55]

So sorry the OP had a bad experience on The Glory.  We have sailed on this ship three times, most recently last summer for our family cruise with a group of 15.  We had an absolutely great time!  Windjammer was mostly breakfast and lunch, but the food was always good and lots of choices.  Lines were not too bad except for Mongolian Wok which is always a wait.  Dinner in the dining room was awesome!  Great service, great entertainment, delicious choices and great table.

 

The kids enjoyed the slides, and yes - the pools are crowded on sea days but we always found a place to sit.  I don't go looking for broken things, but I do notice when a ship shows it's age.  Then again, so do I   The Glory has some fun shows and entertainment, and the grandkids loved Camp Carnival.  We had balcony rooms, cove balconies, and outside cabins and one inside cabin.  No issues with room maintenance, and we all compared our towel animals each morning. 

 

Our cabin steward told us about the luggage tags, so no issue there either.  I hope the OP gives Carnival another try.  Perhaps the OP would be more comfortable on a new ship.  Happy cruising!

[grandmarnnurse]

1 hour ago, Squadleader said:

We've done the Glory once and her sister Conquest twice.

 

I happen to hate lines, like really, really hate lines.

 

For someone like me, research and lots of practice (around 20 cruises on different lines now), has given me the ability to actually enjoy almost any cruise. In my early days of cruising, that wasn' t the case. 

 

Cruising like almost everything else in life is a series of small obstacles. I've learned small tricks that make huge differences in successfully overcoming those obstacles on the cruise.

 

I've stressed this with my children, the difference between having a 5-star experience on a cruise and a nightmare is the very small differences in how you go about things, like being early for everything, not on time or late. Yeah, it means I've had to adjust my nature (on time, or even late), but that little difference, is what I look on as being the cost of having a great experience, as opposed to a nightmare, 

 

We get to the Main Dining room for breakfast when the doors open, and I love having that leisurely breakfast with my children dearly, we actually talk. 30 minutes later there's a line at the main dining entrance, and if you wander up to the Lido buffet, a group my size may end up at different tables. And to make it even better (rolls eyes), everyone is bouncing up and down to get this, get that, and wolfing down the food. Ok, I get it, some people just want to hit things hard and fast, and move on, perfect for them, but just shoot me (head-shot please) if I that's how it's going to be. 

 

Young people usually have a lot harder time getting up and moving, I recognize that I was the same way. However, the reason I pay thousands of dollars for this experience is to enjoy my kids company. I make it a condition of even booking the cruise that everyone agrees to get up at 7:30 and get moving. They don't have too, they can stay home, but if I'm paying for it, that's what it costs them to go.

 

I really liked what one poster said earlier,  you avoid crowds and lines, by avoiding crowds and lines. He's right on the money. You can do anything, eat anywhere, and still avoid lines and crowds, by doing it when others don't. 

 

That's the art of cruising well, it comes with knowledge. 

 

The reality is there are several thousand people on this cruise with you. If you choose to ignore that fact and think you can breeze around the ship and get what you want, when you want it, you're going to have a very disappointing cruise. The experience you desired was available to you, you just didn't know how to get it.

 

I happen to love Guys Burgers and going to the Comedy Club with my kids. Between those things and the main dining room, I love the experience on Carnival ships.

 

The next thing is I have completely removed any pressure around port days like I used to have because I no longer want anything from any port except warm weather, warm water, a great sandy beach, and an umbrella or shade. All the crazy jazz on the islands the tourism people and cruise lines dream up,  are things I completely ignore. 

 

I enjoy the resort, entertainment, and fine dining aspects of the ship, and at every port, we go have a wonderful beach day. We usually cruise in the winter, so we appreciate the beach days more. 

 

Last, in general, you're going to find that older ships are going to be doing the shorter cruises, so I never book a cruise shorter than seven days anymore. Plus all that turnover is harder on the crew and it shows.

 

In my old age, I've also come to realize there are fixed costs to me in time and aggravation associated with travel in general, and cruising in particular. 

 

We drive 14 hours to get to our most common port, the packing, the embarkation process, unpacking, then packing to leave, then the disembarkation process. There's no way I'd do all that stuff for an experience less than seven days long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bravo! Well, said! I agree totally! 

[mtvagirl]

On 4/25/2019 at 8:40 AM, scoobikins said:

 

I'm glad to hear some different and more positive perspectives on the ship, and am looking forward to seeing her for myself. This is my first visit to New Orleans, and I've been scouring the N.O. board for information of all kinds, trying to figure out what I want to see and experience in our short time window before the cruise. The info has been really helpful. I'm pretty excited about this trip.

New Orleans is one of my favorite places to visit, although I have only done one cruise out of there!  Cat's Meow and Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar are my two favorite places on Bourbon St..  Lots of fun places to go that are not on Bourbon as well!  Have fun! 

[haply]

The Glory does NOT have a Mongolian Wok

[welshy74]

In 3 weeks I fly from London UK to NOLA and this is my first time on Carnival Glory, in fact my first time on Carnival!  Usually sail RCL and figured it will be similar, being an American brand.  Is it? 

Nearly every review I read is negative so getting a bit worried..  how garish is it? 

Oh and I honestly don’t care about a Mongolian Wok so that’s one less thing to worry about.  

Still... very excited and keeping my expectations low.. so it can only get better, right? 

 

[NauticalNeophyte]

12 minutes ago, welshy74 said:

In 3 weeks I fly from London UK to NOLA and this is my first time on Carnival Glory, in fact my first time on Carnival!  Usually sail RCL and figured it will be similar, being an American brand.  Is it? 

Nearly every review I read is negative so getting a bit worried..  how garish is it? 

Oh and I honestly don’t care about a Mongolian Wok so that’s one less thing to worry about.  

Still... very excited and keeping my expectations low.. so it can only get better, right? 

 

I’ve never been on the Glory.  I’ve only been on one ship, but I will say take the reviews with a grain of salt. If the reviews were an accurate account of all Carnival cruises they would have gone belly up years ago. Some complaints are valid, but there are a lot of people out there with completely unrealistic expectations who complain about everything.  NOLA is a fun place, so you’ll have lots of friendly folks on the ship looking for a good time.  

 

As for the decor, yeah it’s bright and “different” than what I’d choose, but it’s not that noticeable to me. I refuse to let tacky decor make or break my vacation.  Most hotels had butt ugly bedspreads for years, yet we still stayed in them.  Some people will complain about Carnival’s decor and how bothersome it is, but then comment on how much time they spent in the casino.  What’s tackier and cheesier than casino decor?  Yet they still played.  

 

You may find that you like RCI better, or Carnival may surprise you.  Have a good trip and try to get to Cafe du Monde while you’re in NOLA. 

[SandiLynn]

17 minutes ago, welshy74 said:

In 3 weeks I fly from London UK to NOLA and this is my first time on Carnival Glory, in fact my first time on Carnival!  Usually sail RCL and figured it will be similar, being an American brand.  Is it? 

Nearly every review I read is negative so getting a bit worried..  how garish is it? 

Oh and I honestly don’t care about a Mongolian Wok so that’s one less thing to worry about.  

Still... very excited and keeping my expectations low.. so it can only get better, right? 

 

I think  Squadleader made a great point. If you are looking for reasons to not have a great time then that is what you will find. I believe its my responsibility to make the most of  my vacation. I can choose to find fault in things or I can be happy that I am able to have a cruise vacation. For example, a bad experience at the Spa. The issue was resolved and I know that I do not need to go to the Spa while on future cruises. I will not let me ruin my vacation.Keep and open mind and all should be fine. Hope you have a great cruise!

[grandmarnnurse]

43 minutes ago, welshy74 said:

In 3 weeks I fly from London UK to NOLA and this is my first time on Carnival Glory, in fact my first time on Carnival!  Usually sail RCL and figured it will be similar, being an American brand.  Is it? 

Nearly every review I read is negative so getting a bit worried..  how garish is it? 

Oh and I honestly don’t care about a Mongolian Wok so that’s one less thing to worry about.  

Still... very excited and keeping my expectations low.. so it can only get better, right? 

 

Don’t worry. You will be fine. I’ve sailed Carnival, RCCL, and NCL. The RCCL ships I’ve sailed really “wowed” me, and I loved the Freestyle Cruising of NCL and their food, but you know what? We found Carnival to be way more fun. I am on the Glory in February, and looking forward to it. I know it’s an older, smaller ship than most of the ships I’ve sailed in recent years, but I will enjoy it’s differences. The decor is that of their old designer, who often had some over the top themes on the ships, but all very interesting and fun. The Glory added some great features during their drydock, and they are all our favorites, Guys Burgers and Blue Iguana to name a couple. I will miss the Red Frog Pub, though, but will get my fill of that on my April Magic cruise. 

[Organized Chaos]

58 minutes ago, welshy74 said:

In 3 weeks I fly from London UK to NOLA and this is my first time on Carnival Glory, in fact my first time on Carnival!  Usually sail RCL and figured it will be similar, being an American brand.  Is it? 

Nearly every review I read is negative so getting a bit worried..  how garish is it? 

Oh and I honestly don’t care about a Mongolian Wok so that’s one less thing to worry about.  

Still... very excited and keeping my expectations low.. so it can only get better, right? 

 

 

If you're basing much of your assumptions about the Glory on this thread alone, don't. This is the most negativity I've ever seen about Glory in a single thread on this forum. Admittedly, I'm not a big review reader, so maybe there are a lot of negative Glory reviews floating around, but as far as general conversation over time, Glory talk hasn't really been overly negative.

 

The designer that grandmarnnurse is referring to is a man named Joe Farcus. He has designed a lot of the decor found on Carnival's ships. Some people love his work, some hate it. You used the word "garish." That's what I'd call it. To me it's gaudy. But that's just me. With that said, we were on Conquest, which is one of the Glory's sister ships, a few years ago and Farcus' work is really prominent on Conquest. I didn't like that decor at all. But that didn't stop me from having a great time. Last year, we sailed on the Glory and it is much more subdued. I liked it's decor a lot more than Conquest.

 

Hope you have a great time. Try not to let the negative opinions get to you too much. If one thing's certain, it's that not everyone feels the same about certain things while on a cruise. What's terrible to one person, another person won't give it a second thought.

 

[RW_MI]

I sailed on Glory last November, and it was by far my least favorite ship, but I still had a great time. 

 

The decor was definitely not my taste (to me it looked like someone's bad "I did it myself" basement decor from the 1960's), but I got used to it.

 

The MDR room food was my favorite of any ship I've sailed. The buffet had a lot more greasy food than any I've encountered, but OTOH I could scout out enough food I liked that I could make it workable.   

 

It was my first solo cruise, and I met a lot of very nice people.  But, by a multiple of ten times, there were more super-loud people roaming the hall at all hours than on any cruise before or since - not the ship's fault though. 

 

The ship felt very crowded, mostly by its design (small spaces to squeeze through in various places) rather than because of super long lines.  There were, however, VERY long lines at guest services for much of the cruise, but I had FTTF so it didn't affect me.

 

Cruise excursions were more disorganized than others.

 

The cruise director and activities were great. I liked having a lot of comedy shows.

 

The cruise fare for the sailing I did was a great deal.  I reminded myself of this when encountering some of the minor "challenges."

 

All in all, I had a great cruise, and while the Glory wouldn't be my first choice, given the right itinerary, price and expectations, I'd sail on it again.

[Djptcp]

We sailed on the Glory on a 7-day cruise out of a FL port a few years ago and also were disappointed and said we would never sail on her again. What we found odd was navigating the ship. It seemed you "couldn't get there from here" type of difficulties. The whole vibe of the cruise seemed off. We were not newbies by any means, but were used to easy navigation on other Carnival ships we had cruised on.

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, Djptcp said:

We sailed on the Glory on a 7-day cruise out of a FL port a few years ago and also were disappointed and said we would never sail on her again. What we found odd was navigating the ship. It seemed you "couldn't get there from here" type of difficulties. The whole vibe of the cruise seemed off. We were not newbies by any means, but were used to easy navigation on other Carnival ships we had cruised on.

 

Have you sailed on other Conquest class ships? If so, what did you think of those?