Glory eastern review Apr 28-May 5...long!!!

[finoky]

This was my 9th cruise all with Carnival. Traveling in our group was 8 adults mostly in our 40’s and 4 teenage girls. Overall, it was a wonderful cruise. Can’t wait for our next one when we achieve platinum status.

Precruise travel and embarkation- We flew in on Friday night with Airtran and had no problems. Had booked three rooms on Hotwire and got the Holiday Inn Select. Called the shuttle and they were there in minutes. Rooms where nice and clean. Good deal for $72 per room. Had arranged for Art’s Shuttle to pick us up at 10am for transportation to the port. At 10:05 I called to see what the delay was. Said they were running late and would be there by 11am. They got there at 11:10 which had everyone slightly annoyed. We made it to the port at noon sharp. Dropped the luggage, tipped the porters, and walked right in. Embarkation went very fast as we were on the ship by 12:30. So maybe Art’s did us a favor.

Cabin- We had five balcony cabins, 9272, 9274, 9276, 9278, and 9288, all on lido deck. It was a great location being so close to all the action and food! Noise from the glass elevators was a slight problem to the girls room the first night but they made no mention of it after that. We could hear it in our cabin, 9274, during the day but it did not keep us awake at night. Laundry room was right across the hall and had no noise problems from that. I don’t remember our steward’s name, as we rarely saw him, but he did an excellent job.

Dining- We only at three meals in the main dining room, the first night and the two formal nights. Had second early seating, table 183, lower section of the Golden. Team waiters were excellent. Only negative was tons of fat on the prime rib cuts. Lobster was excellent and most fell in love with the melting chocolate cake. Casual dining was excellent as we always found something to our liking. Had a few ruebens, which were excellent. Never tried the fish and chips. Coffee cups can be hard to find on lido in the morning. We had all breakfasts in the Red Sail Restaurant and lines were never a problem. They got rid of the hockey puck hash browns. Great improvement with the new style hash browns. Hooray for Carnival.

Entertainment- Wee Jimmy was the cruise director and he was ok as far as cruise directors go. We don’t care either way as they have little influence on us. Lido deck band, called Caribbean Soundtrack, totally sucked! We spend tons of time on lido sunning and relaxing and always love the band. Not this one. Only two of them, couldn’t sing, bad mix, played along with canned music, they were terrible. Get rid of them Carnival!! Also when they weren’t playing they played the same cd over and over every single day. Got pretty old after the first 5 times we heard it. The main broadway shows were enjoyable. Ours was at 9pm which was after our early sitting dinner. The female singer was terrific but the male singer was really bad. Flat, off key, no range, they really need to replace him. He was ok at harmony but that’s about it. Saw two comedian shows. JR McCollom was not funny at all. Some in our party left halfway through. Greg Ray, the other one we saw, was hilarious. Spent some time chatting with him after the show up on lido and he was very personable. Went to karaoke only one night. The girls were ages 13-17 and all loved going to Club02. There was very few that age group on the ship so they had no problem getting in.

Casino- Dealers on this ship aren’t as friendly as on past ships. They use the Shuffle Master on the blackjack tables now. Changes everything and I saw nobody really winning. Most would lose and walk away or plop down some more cash and lose that too. The usual crazy play, which I am used to on the ships, and never make snide remarks or looks. Craziest one was a guy stayed on 6! Dealer asked twice to make sure. Slots tight as usual. Of course you do see some people hit some jackpots. I think we ended up $200 down for the week. First losing cruise ever on a Carnival ship. Played the slot tournament and was out in two hands. That’s about how my week went anyway! Hold’em is now all video. The table was hardly used except for the tournaments. They use Poker Pro Video screens and a big screen embedded in the middle for the flop, turn, etc. Go to the cage to setup an account. Most of the time it was $3-$6 limit.

Ports- Nassau we just went to the Straw Market. Way too crowded and barely any room down the aisles. As far as I’m concerned I don’t care if I ever go to Nassau again. When we arrived in St Thomas it was pouring down rain. Going through customs was no problem as the line moves very quickly. The rain finally stopped around noon and we grabbed a cab to Sapphire. The surf was quite rough with the wind so we headed over to Secret Harbor. Got chairs and an umbrella for $5 each and enjoyed the day there. Later in the afternoon we headed back for some shopping at Havensight. Finished up the evening at the top of Paradise Tram. Bit expensive at $18 a person. Few of us paid $25 which included a bushwacker. Next was St Maarten. We just grabbed a cab and headed to Orient Beach. Got chairs at Kakao Beach Bar. They are cheaper at other places closer down towards Club Orient. The beach was beautiful and the water was so gorgeous. Had a $9 burger for lunch, expensive but good. Plenty of topless there which didn’t bother us at all. Had our taxi driver pick us up at 2:30 so we could shop at Philipsburg. This is by far the best port for shopping I think. The prices were really good. We all loaded up. Took the water taxi back to the ship. Funny thing happened though on the way back. Myself, Mike, and Kevin were pulled by some mysterious force to Sharkys. They make the best drinks there. We had our share including some shots of some blue stuff that I’m still not sure who paid for cause it wasn’t us. They’ll add an extra shot to your drinks for a buck. They never measured anyway and was already quite liberal with the pour. We managed to get quite plastered in the hour we were there and staggered back to the ship.

Sea Days- Had a few spotty showers on a couple of them. Chair savers of course were always out in force. But we never had a problem getting ours upon the next level overlooking the lido. We love the sea days, hanging out on lido, and usually stayed till sunset. Found a good bartender named Imade that hooked us up with great 7 and 7 all week. Of course we hooked him up as well.

Debarkation- We did self assist and found it quite painless. Just waited in our cabin till they called our deck. We were off the ship by 9:15. Walked outside, across the street, and Art’s Shuttle was right there to take us to our hotel in Orlando. Booked it on Hotwire as well and got three rooms for $64 each at the Holiday Inn International Drive Resort. We stayed the extra day to spend it at Sea World. Got in free with our Busch Gardens platinum passes. Enjoyed the day and was a nice way to end a good week. Our flight back to Virginia was nonstop on Airtran and had no problems at all. We were home by 4pm on Sunday and began the fun process of unpacking and doing laundry.

[firsttimmer]

Just in case anyone sees the pictures from SHARKEYS the sun was in my eyes.......thats my story and i am sticking to it......

[finoky]

Haha, see it's like this. I can't incriminate you without incriminating me!

[primetime1]

hey carnivalcruisejunkie, nice report, my question is about the daughters/girls that came along, do you know if there were others for them to hang with and havefun with? I am looking for group late teens early twenties... i am not sure if you meant early teen like 13-15 that is too young for me but could you give me any insight as to the crowd demographics on your cruise? (lots of young, old, or whatever?)

[kml2000]

Thanks for the report, sounds like you had an enjoyable cruise. I have two early teens - age 14 - going with me. I am somewhat worried about the activities for them. They are both mature and think the 'arts & crafts' stuff will not be their thing. I know they will have a great cruise, but have just been concerned about the activities.

[unicorn1075]

Thanks for the great review! I will be on Glory in August...if August ever gets here!

[Hartleydawg]

Thanks for the review carnivalcruisejunkie. I will be sailing my first Carnival Cruise in November and it will be the Western Glory Cruise. I love hearing about the ship, people's experiences and any good tid bits of information. I am looking forward to my cruise!

[kml2000]

I have a question....just thought of it. Can you tell me if there is a difference in ship time and port time in the ports???

 

THANKS

Karen

[finoky]

I have a question....just thought of it. Can you tell me if there is a difference in ship time and port time in the ports???

 

THANKS

Karen

 

I know we kept our watches on ships time. All the taxi drivers we used in each port also had the same time on their watches as we did. I asked them so as to make sure we were all talking about the same time.

[finoky]

hey carnivalcruisejunkie, nice report, my question is about the daughters/girls that came along, do you know if there were others for them to hang with and havefun with? I am looking for group late teens early twenties... i am not sure if you meant early teen like 13-15 that is too young for me but could you give me any insight as to the crowd demographics on your cruise? (lots of young, old, or whatever?)

 

I saw a little of each age group. However, it did seem that the majority was over 40. Not many kids at all and hardly any low to mid teens as well. Our daughter and her friends found a few "hot guys" as they called them and they all sort of hung out all week. They loved Club02. The normal age group for that club is 15-17. With so few on board they allowed most all teens in there.

[finoky]

Thanks for the report, sounds like you had an enjoyable cruise. I have two early teens - age 14 - going with me. I am somewhat worried about the activities for them. They are both mature and think the 'arts & crafts' stuff will not be their thing. I know they will have a great cruise, but have just been concerned about the activities.

 

That is definitely an overlooked age group IMHO by the cruise lines. There will be very few scheduled activities that they will be interested in. Our girls just made friends on the ship and had their own fun. They hung out in Club02 all week and really enjoyed it.

[ohmslaw]

Thanks for the review, we are looking at that cruise for next year. Glad you all had a great time...now get back to work!

 

Looking forward to hearing the stories you won't post online.

 

152 days til my Legend western caribean.

 

Chris

[finoky]

Looking forward to hearing the stories you won't post online.

 

Now Chris haven't you heard that old saying "what happens on the ship stays on the ship":D.

[firsttimmer]

Just to add a little bit to what carnivalcruisejunkie said we opted to take the horse and buggy ride in Bahamas. It was not worth the money. It only lasted what seemed like 5 or 10 minutes. The only thing he showed us was some fruit trees, a hospital, some banks and some lawyers office. He acted like it hurt him to talk.If you decided to take this ride be careful of somebody wanting to use your camera to take your picture. Afterwards they ask for a tip.

[firsttimmer]

Now Chris haven't you heard that old saying "what happens on the ship stays on the ship":D.

 

Yes!!! my sentaments excately..........

[sallwee]

great review!

We are sailing on Glory in November and we have cabins 9274, 9278 and 9280. Did you have the dividers taken down between your cabins on the balcony? Was noise from the Lido deck a problem when you were sitting out on the balcony?

[finoky]

great review!

We are sailing on Glory in November and we have cabins 9274, 9278 and 9280. Did you have the dividers taken down between your cabins on the balcony? Was noise from the Lido deck a problem when you were sitting out on the balcony?

 

No we didn't have the dividers opened but they can certainly do that for you. Noise from the lido deck itself was not an issue at all.

[JMP1973]

Great review! I will be on the Nov cruise with Sally! Thanks for taking the time to let us in on your vacation!

 

Jackie

[Lisa NJ]

Great Review! We will be sailing in June.

 

Question: What time did the shows end in the Lido? :confused:

[finoky]

Question: What time did the shows end in the Lido? :confused:

 

Most of the lido deck games ended by 2:30. The deck party at night was over at 12:30.

[kkw1043]

Thanks for the info. We will be sailing on Oct 27 to the Eastern Caribbean. We are in cabin 7339. My DH booked a balcony cabin for my 40th b-day! We are excited! :D I wish we were leaving tomorrow!