Carnival Glory vs. NCL Spirit

[jlabs03]

I wrote a post in March about Carnival vs NCL but that was before I sailed on what’s I would consider a more equivalent ship to the Glory on NCL. I am currently in the NCL Spirit, this is the oldest ship in NCL’s fleet and has been in commission since 1999 and holds a little less than 2000 passengers. The Glory has been in service since 2003 and holds about 2900 passengers. Yes the Spirit is a little smaller but both my cruises were sold out and at Max a capacity. I am also not going to compare passengers and crowdedness since my Glory cruise was to the caribbean during spring break which had a lot more children than my current which is a 14 day to Ireland, Iceland, and Norway.  I believe there are about 20 kids on the ship and since it is cold no one is using the pool and only one or two people are in the hot tubs at a time. Which was quite different from the Glory. Also the average age on this cruise is probably 60 something, so a completely different population. 

 

Both cruises had really nice people and I never saw crazy drunk people on my Carnival cruise not to say that they did not exist, I just never saw them. Most likely since I am not a late night party person. 

 

The NCL Spirit is in way better condition the the Glory. The Glory was clean for the most part. But the Spirit does not show its age, not even close to the Glory. I think NCL just does a better job maintaining the interior of their ships.   The Glory has many lose tiles, was more worn in places, and carpet coming up in our room just to note a few. Nothing that would deter me enough if the price is right from sailing carnival but the difference is noticeable. 

 

I am am not a foodie at all but NCL has better food with the exception of Guys and the pizza on Carnival. The buffet on the Glory is a extremely limited and not very good. Even with a smaller ship the buffet on the Spirt is about 2-3 times the size of the Glory’s buffet and has many more options that rotate more. Also they offer a NY strip every night plus one other steak cut in the MDR one NCL and Carinval did offer a prime rib once but most nights the steak choice was a flat iron steak. If I am going to spend over an hour eating I want something better than a flat iron steak.   I also like the causal dress code of NCL. I do not want to dress up for dinner I am extremely causal and wear jeans and t-shirts to work. 

 

I had a balcony on both ships the room on the Glory was much bigger than our room on the Spirit. Even though we do have plenty of space on the Spirit (it is only my daughter which is 12 and myself). I do like the shower on the Spirit better it is a little larger and has a sliding glass door. I also hated the non-sliding balancing door on the Glory. I like to sit in my room with the door open but on the Glory this is not possible. Also every time someone closed there balancing door in an adjacent room you hear the door slam and the wall rattle (I guess a lot of people just let them slam instead of closing the door).  This was also true of the hallway doors on the Glory. Every time someone near by left their room or entered their room they would let the door slam and we could hear it. On the Spirit either everyone is closing there doors or you just do not hear them slam. Also you could hear the hallway announcements in the Glory clearly in our room without opening the door. We had many announcements. On all my NCL cruises you can hear that there is an announcement but you have to open your door to hear it clearly which I prefer. I  not if this would be the case on a newer Carnival ship. 

 

The internet on the Glory is a joke and they should not be able to charge people for it. I did pay for the premium internet service and could barely use it. I mean even with email, sending a text, or reading Facebook. I know I probably could of gotten a refund but I read reviews before I went did I kind of knew what to expect. The internet on the Spirit is awesome as awesome as ships WiFi can get. I have to work while on this cruise (for all those that do not think I should be working while on vacation, I spend 1-2 hours a day working while on most vacations and get to go on 3-4 cruises a year with over a month at sea, which I would not be able to do if I did not work while on my vacation) so it is imperative I have good internet. I even played a multiplayer game the other day and it had not issues connecting to the server. I also uploaded a 10 minute YouTube video I recorded for my class. So Carnival is only an option for me during spring break when I do not have to work. 

 

My my daughter was in Circle C on Carnival and is in the kids club on NCL. Once kids turn 13 they go to the Entourage on NCL instead of the kids club. She can check her self in and out the NCL kids club but if she checked herself in she could not check out for two hours. She really liked Circle C because of the more freedom. The kids go in and out as they please. She would meet her friends there and they would go about the ship, she actually spent very little time in Circle C. She did say that they never ran any of the planned events in Circle C which she was disappointed about. As a parent I think she actually likes the NCL kids club more because she spends every waking moment in there (even in this sailing with 3-4 kids her age on the ship) whereas in Circle C 12 year olds are not that great at organizing meet ups and do not always know there parents plans, so sometimes she would go and come back after a little bit because none of her friends showed up.  She would also be back by 9 pm while on NCL she stays until they close at 10:30 pm and would stay later if I would pay for the late night care. 

 

The casino on the Glory is 100x better than on the Spirit for slots. I do spend a lot of time there and the Glory has much better and newer slots. Also on Carnival you can use your on board account to take money out on a slot machine without the 3% cash advance penalty so you do not necessarily need to carry the cash with you. 

 

The spa is way better on the Spirit. The whole experience you feel like you are at a spa. On the Glory that feeling was lacking and for the prices you pay on ship that feeling should be there. 

 

We did get asked when we wanted our room cleaned on Carnival. This did not bother me and I like that he gave us a card with his photo and number. I have never had a bad room steward on any cruise line. Staff on both ships are super friendly but a I have seen way more officers on the Spirit. During busy times I have also seen officers helping out in the buffet and cleaning off tables. 

 

I did not not go to any of the shows on Carnival and I do not plan to go to any shows on this NCL cruise but on the larger NCL ships were you reserve your seats I always go to the main theater shows and have always enjoyed them. 

 

I will sail Carnival again and have a cruise booked for next March on the Valor so I expect it to be similar to the Glory but for the price and the OBC the casino gave me I cannot beat it. I am actually paying less for the same cruise I took this March and then I am getting a $500 OBC. I will also probably sail a newer Carnival ship in the future because I am not a brand loyalist but the price will have to be right (besides Carnival and NCL I have sailed Royal Caribbean and Holland America).