Carnival Glory 5/15/04: A REVIEW

[PhilipNTx]

I offer this review as my opinion and only that. One can use it as they wish. It does lean toward the negative, but I do point out the good things.

 

Philip

*****************************

 

Our first Carnival cruise was on Celebration in September of 2002. That having been a quite old ship, we expected Glory to be much better – better thought-out ship, better quality of everything. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Granted, she’s not a bad-looking ship, but just as a ship she could have been better.

 

The quick review:

 

Ship: good

Itinerary (Eastern Caribbean): excellent

Service: very good

Food: good

Entertainment: fair

 

Carnival Glory is just not a passenger-friendly ship, in my opinion. To get to dinner each night – easily – we had to take only certain stairways. Because of the ridiculous way the dining rooms are laid out and split, it was awkward finding the dining room from different locations. I guess Carnival hasn’t learned anything there. No where did I find that inside the ship you could get from one end of the ship to the other without having to go up or down one or two flights of stairs -- very frustrating at times. Add to that that at times a lounge or bar was closed off, you then had to find alternate routes to get anywhere.

 

Speaking of lounges and bars there are too many on this ship! Now before anyone thinks I’m some teetotaler, what I mean is that because there are so many bars/lounges, each one is too small for any great function. Perhaps Carnival thought this would lend intimacy to these areas, but it’s hard to achieve intimacy when you’re packed into a small area with a bunch of loud, drunk people. Even the Amber Palace, the ship’s theatre for shows, is on the small side.

 

The shows were ok. Nothing spectacular. They were not very well performed. Either the dancers were new or just not that good. Too many times it was obvious that they were focusing more on getting their steps right than actually dancing and performing. The singers, on the other hand, were great – at least the female singers. Great voices.

 

Something that makes the Amber Palace even smaller is the fact that if you sit in the balcony close to the stage, you can’t see anything that is done behind the plane of the curtain line. We made this mistake one night and could see the performers out near the edge of the stage, but we couldn’t see the performers that were towards the back of the stage.

 

Having been on other ships with beautiful open atriums, we were hoping Glory’s would match that kind of space. It doesn’t come close. The atrium is ok, but it’s dark and not very open. There are very few windows that let natural light in, and that doesn’t help the dark colors in the atrium. The few windows that are there were usually covered. As a result, instead of being a space that was an inviting gathering place we just avoided it. Most of the time there were hardly any people sitting at the quite large bar there.

 

Upstairs from this bar, opening to the atrium two levels above, were the onboard shops. Again, the layout failed in helping this area be a better space. The stores faced the open atrium, but there was maybe only 8-10 feet in front of the stores before you reached the rail overlooking the atrium. As a result, when you had to walk past the stores to a show in the Amber Palace, there were frequent logjams of people. Add to this the times when various sale tables were out in front of the stores with people browsing the items, and it becomes a messy mélange of bodies trying to squeeze by one another.

 

If I’m going to point out the lows regarding onboard space, I must point out the high points. The area where Carnival Glory shines is her deck space for sunning. These areas are expansive. If you couldn’t find a chair to lay out, you weren’t looking very hard. Granted, many were not near a pool, but there were still plenty. One thing that I wish other ships had were the showers that were available at almost every deck area that wasn’t near a pool. Even the adult-only deck up top had one. That was nice not having to go all the way to the pool to cool down. The rear pool was nice, and it was also nice to see the sliding roof actually being used to shield it from the elements (we had one half-day of rain once).

 

The sports court area was a waste of space. Sure, there was a basketball half-court, but why they bothered to shoe-horn in a much-smaller-than-regulation-size volleyball court is beyond me. Better to have just made a full-size court and use it for both.

 

Another awkward layout example: in order to access the gym, you had to enter the spa and then go through the men’s or women’s locker rooms to get there. Once you got there, the equipment was good. Modern, with the minimum number of weight machines, 6 or 7 cardio machines, free weights, and about 10 treadmills.

 

The food on Carnival Glory was ok. It was not at all what I’d been led to believe by some online postings on different cruise websites. Carnival, from what I’d read, was supposed to have the best food. In my opinion that’s false. It was nothing better than other cruise lines I’ve been on. I’m talking about dining room dinner food. As for the buffet-style Red Sail Restaurant/Cafeteria, the food there was fair. Not that good. And the layout of the Red Sail was awful. You had to stand in long lines just for its mediocre food. A layout that I think is superior is the one that has different stations of different types of food (salads, hot sandwiches, carving station, etc.) where you could browse around and find what you want without waiting in long lines.

 

I have to mention that our dining room wait staff was excellent. Ksenia and Sergei, both from Estonia, were terrific. We enjoyed their service as well as their company and conversation every night. The maitre d we never met. Each night he just announced eating times for the next day.

 

As for other staff, well, it was a very disjointed affair. I say this because only after midway through the cruise did we realize that Mark Price, the Cruise Director had not made any appearances since day one. We asked some staff who said he had gotten ill. But it was never announced. Something else kind of strange was that the captain was replaced midway through the cruise with another captain. For all I know that could be a normal occurrence, but it just seemed a little strange.

 

I think something that set the tone for a not-so-great cruise occurred at sail-away -- that is if we had seen it. It would have been nice to be able to go up top and do the usual partying with friends as we embark on our week-long adventure. Instead, the muster drill was held at the same time! So, while we were packed together with others, sweating in our life jackets, we were sailing away and missing a chance to wave at the people watching the ships leave. We heard more than a few comments made about that.

 

A couple of Carnival’s on-board policies – at least it’s what they say in print – are that no smoking is allowed on the port side of the ship, and that pool chairs are not to be saved. Apparently Carnival chooses not to enforce these, or there were a lot of illiterate people on board.

 

Some staff had said that “some of the stabilizers†were not working properly on Carnival Glory. There was some motion, but I didn’t think it was that bad. It was a little more than normal, but not enough to ruin anything.

 

Lastly, debarkation was horrible. We were told the day before that if we had a flight at “1:00 or earlier,†we should ask for luggage tags to debark early. Two people in our group had a flight at 1:30, so we didn’t bother getting these early tags. On earlier cruises we’d gotten off the ship in plenty of time. This wasn’t going to be one of those times. We were finally called to debark at just past 10:00am. We were still standing in lines 30 minutes later when I told a Carnival rep that our friends had a 1:30 flight. She led us to the front of a line, which only resulted in waiting in another line. When we finally made it to the luggage carousels, we waited over 35 minutes(!) for our luggage to appear. During that time I was told by one Carnival rep that all the luggage was unloaded; another one told me that our luggage might be on one of the other carousels (unloaded incorrectly); and, lastly told by someone else that not all the luggage was out yet. By the time we actually got out of the terminal it was past 11:30am. Since we still had to catch the rental car shuttle to the rental car place and drive to Orlando, our friends went ahead and took a cab to Orlando. They weren’t very happy about it, and neither were we.

 

A cruise, like any vacation, is what you make of it. Overall, we still had a very good time. It’s just that the ship could have added so much more to the experience, and it failed to do that.

 

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Norwegian Sea 4/00

Vision of the Seas 3/01

Explorer of the Seas 9/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 12/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 5/02

Celebration 9/02

Brilliance of the Seas 3/03

Mariner of the Seas - Inaugural 11/03

Carnival Glory 5/04

[Ms Belvedere]

Thank you for your honest review Philip. We heard from another couple some of the things you've said here but are still sailing on the Glory in September. It was the way our vacation time worked out.

 

We'll have a blast since we'll overlook the bad side of things, but it's good to see ahead of time what to expect. The ports are great, too, and that helps when you have some place new to see every few days.

 

Thanks again for your review!

[PhilipNTx]

Howdy,

I'm sure you'll enjoy it, too. This one worked out for our schedules, as well. And we did want to try Carnival again. I think our first one was just an aberration. And, probably if the price was really excellent, who's to say we wouldn't go again?

 

Have fun!

 

Philip

 

-----

Norwegian Sea 4/00

Vision of the Seas 3/01

Explorer of the Seas 9/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 12/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 5/02

Celebration 9/02

Brilliance of the Seas 3/03

Mariner of the Seas - Inaugural 11/03

Carnival Glory 5/04

[BADBUOY]

Thanks for your review Phillip,

 

I'm sure like any other ship or cruiseline there are the gooda nd bad associated with layout, design, activites etc. Sounds like the small problems you encountered won't really bother me too much as I don't mind walking through the spa to get to the gym etc.

 

I'm glad that you had a good time overall. I'm guessing you'll try out another ship on your next cruise which to me is fair.

 

Thanks again for sharing your valuable information with us.

 

Bud

 

Carnival Glory December 2004

[PhilipNTx]

Hey Bud,

Yeah, I do like the look and layout of the Spirit-class ships -- at least what I've seen in the brochure. I wish they'd bring one of their newer ships to Galveston. That was one reason we tried Celebration, as it was close by.

 

Philip

 

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Norwegian Sea 4/00

Vision of the Seas 3/01

Explorer of the Seas 9/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 12/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 5/02

Celebration 9/02

Brilliance of the Seas 3/03

Mariner of the Seas - Inaugural 11/03

Carnival Glory 5/04

[PhilipNTx]

Someone was asking me about the cabin, and I realize I didn't say anything about it.

 

It was an ok size. We had an inside cabin, 2455. It is almost all the way aft. It was a good spot. Sometimes it's good to have no outside light, too. Makes for loooong naps.

 

Closet space was huge, while overall storage for smaller items was very limited. This was obvious in the bathroom, where everything had to be left out in the open.

 

I don't understand why they have the mini-fridge locked. Sure, the stateroom attendant could have opened it, but why not leave it unlocked? And the safe required the use of a card with a magnetic stripe, like an ID or credit card. You couldn't use your Sail & Sign card. So this meant keeping track of another card.

 

Philip

 

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Norwegian Sea 4/00

Vision of the Seas 3/01

Explorer of the Seas 9/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 12/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 5/02

Celebration 9/02

Brilliance of the Seas 3/03

Mariner of the Seas - Inaugural 11/03

Carnival Glory 5/04

[PhilipNTx]

This thread keeps disappearing from the main page. Can someone tell me why that would be happening? I know my review isn't that positive, but there are others that are worse! Is it something else?

 

Philip

 

-----

Norwegian Sea 4/00

Vision of the Seas 3/01

Explorer of the Seas 9/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 12/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 5/02

Celebration 9/02

Brilliance of the Seas 3/03

Mariner of the Seas - Inaugural 11/03

Carnival Glory 5/04

[dickinson]

Threads move on down the line. When a thread is updated it moves to the top of the list knocking someone to the page before.

 

sorry you did not enjoy the layout of the ship. I have never been on the glory although I must say the ships I have been on have all had you go through the spa and locker room to get to the gym. I don't know if there are ships in Carnival's fleet that are not designed that way.

 

If things are right try another cruise on a different ship. From what I read on these boards one ship and cruise should not form a hard and fast opinion of a particular cruise line. No cruise line is perfect in every area to every person. You sounded very open minded which is good. I enjoyed reading the good and the bad. Thanks for the review.

 

Mardi Gras 4/1988

NCL Norway 8/1990

Sensation 8/1996

Sensation 4/9/2000

Paradise 2/1/2002

Triumph 1/31/2004

 

9/5 Paradise- Panama Canal

[PhilipNTx]

Hi Dickinson,

I know the threads move down, but this one goes away completely. I've made note of the "last post" date and time, and it has gone away even when no one has responded. Just strange....

 

I agree about trying a different ship. That's why we went on Glory after being on Celebration. Seemed like a good time to try again. Unfortunately that's now 2 bad experiences. My gym experience is the opposite from yours: never had to go through the lockerroom to get to the gym. Not even on Celebration, but that gym was barely a gym. LOL

 

I do like the look of the Spirit-class, and on paper it looks like the layout is better. We may try one of them sometime if they move one to Galveston.

 

A question for you: Are you sad to see Paradise lost its distinction as the only non-smoking ship? I would have tried her just for that. It's too bad.

 

Philip

 

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Norwegian Sea 4/00

Vision of the Seas 3/01

Explorer of the Seas 9/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 12/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 5/02

Celebration 9/02

Brilliance of the Seas 3/03

Mariner of the Seas - Inaugural 11/03

Carnival Glory 5/04

[gatour]

Philip,

 

Thanks for your review, I am glad you mentioned about the dining rooms, I have been both the Celebration and Holiday back when they were new, the one thing I disliked was the rear dining room. People would pile up in the stairwell to get to it, looking at the deck plans, on this size/class ship they have retained this feature. On other cruiselines they have gotten away from this on similiar size ships. I just got an invitation to join a group on the Glory in a year and this one additional thing to contemplate.

 

BTW, I will be on the Jubilee at this time tomorrow.

 

Princess Coral

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