Fortnight on Carnival Glory – Review – West/East B2B

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

May 3-17, 2008

 

This was our first time to do a Back to Back (B2B) Cruise, and is my first time to write a review, lets see if we can pull our thoughts together.

Pre-pre-pre-Cruise – My DW and I left home (and snow) and work at about 4 pm (AST) on Thursday, May 1st to drive from Woodstock, NB to Bangor ME where we would fly out early in the morning. After the 2 hour drive and a bit of shopping along the way we arrived safely at the Days Inn at ~ 6:00 pm (EST), checked in, reviewed our documents etc, and had lights out by 11:30 with a wake-up call arranged for ~ 3 am.

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

Pre-pre-Cruise - Friday morning we got up and were at the airport by 4:30 and checked in. I bought some Maple Syrup in the terminal to give to Paradise Tom at Paradise Beach in Cozumel. We cleared security by 5:10 am, and we DID remember our passports (in 2005 we left them in the car at the hotel and had to make a made dash back to get them). Flight left basically on time around 5:50 after stopping to de-ice (it was a cold frosty morning). Flew through Boston and Cincinnati and on to Orlando, arriving at ~ 12:55 (we were please that we did not have to leave the secure area of the airports at Boston or Cincinnati, so we did not have to face any further security check-points). DW got to feeling sick (and claustrophobic) for about 60-90 minutes during that last flight… she was really uncomfortable!!!

Upon arrival at Orlando we found all our luggage… great! Went looking for Hertz Car Rentals and discovered they were not at the airport, and we had to catch a shuttle. This worked quite well, but made note to self to make sure our rental agency is based at the airport next time… this system just added an unnecessary step to getting on the way (and coming back). While waiting in line for our car, we noticed on the TV screens that CNN was broadcasting a special - highlighting the flooding back home in New Brunswick.

Now that we had our car and were headed for Port Canaveral, it seemed all remnants of stress etc. lifted and vacation was really on. The fun was beginning to roll. As we drove into Port Canaveral we saw Royal Caribbean’s Sovereign of the Seas in Glory’s slip at the peir. We made our way to Cocoa beach and checked in at the Courtyard Marriott where we received an upgrade into a suite. Very nice, with a sitting room and balcony separated from the Bedroom.

 

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

[i am experimenting a bit with getting pictures up... please bear with me...]

 

We went to dinner at the Golden Arches in Port Canaveral before going out to Jetty Park Beach. I had known there was a cruise leaving tonight so I had hopes of “wetting our appetite” a bit by watching it leave. We went out on the water break/boardwalk and waited. We watched a fellow windsurfing to the south...

 

 

...and we saw some fishing boats returning from a day’s excursion (to the north)…

 

 

but continued to wait for what we really wanted... untill the Sovereign of the Seas came out of the harbor…

 

 

...until it was finally right in front of us, loaded with happy cruisers...

 

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

They have their "Rock-climbing-wall" on the aft end, but no one was climbing on the back side of it...

 

 

...and then it went out to sea...

 

 

…cannot wait for tomorrow!!!

 

We drove around a bit and found “Grills Seafood Deck and Tiki Bar” where we want to go in the morning to have breakfast and watch the Glory come home, shopped a bit, and went to “Coconuts on the Beach” for supper, but could not find any parking, and ended up eating a lovely supper at the hotel. After supper, a walk to Cocoa beach, a swim in the pool, and back to the room to sort some luggage so we could board tomorrow with just one carry-on. Confirmed that our documents were in the right places for morning. Fell fast asleep while watching a bit of TV.

 

.

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

Pre-Cruise - Saturday Morning – We got up around 5 am and headed up to “Grills Seafood Deck and Tiki Bar” around 5:30.

 

(picture taken during sail-away – later in the day)

 

We knew they would not be open till 7 am, but we wanted to be on their deck to see the Glory come in (I had seen it come in around 6 am – on web-cams). It was late… Grills opened and we went in and ordered… and before breakfast came, Carnival Glory did.

 

 

We went back to the hotel, collected our luggage, checked and re-checked to make sure our documents were with our carry-on stuff (I inadvertently left my passport in the luggage I checked with the port porter last fall – but that is another story), and headed to the Glory for about 10… but because of the late arrival, they would not let us drop off our luggage yet.

We went and played some mini golf, returned our rental call, and they shuttled us to the ship around 11:30.

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

Embarkation – As stated in my last post, we arrived at the ship around 11:30. We dropped of our luggage and basically walked through security/customs to registration/check-in and right on-board. Yes there were some short lines at each point of the embarkation, but they all kept moving right along. We were sitting and eating Burgers and Fries in the Red Sail by ~ 12:30.

Pre Sail-Away – We roamed around the Glory, took pictures, paid on our Sail and Sign and bought our Soda Cards and red Carnival Cups… and were able to get to our cabins by about 1 or 1:30 pm. Muster drill went as usual, and we had time to get back up on deck before sail-away.

Here are a few pictures of the Aft Pool area…

[AMaria1288]

AWESOME review so far! You're getting me even more excited for my cruise on the Glory!!

[RLG1023]

Loving the review!!! Keep it coming!!!

[Love-to-ride]

Great review, love the pictures. We spent alot of time in the aft hot tubs and your pictures brings back lots memory's.

It was great meeting you and Jane, we ran into you guys a few times during the week.

[cv322]

Good job so far! More review please! And the pics are great...keep 'em comin'. I'm living vicariously through your review...waiting for New Year's Eve...:D

[xxjulzxx]

Great review so far!

We sail on her in about 4 months.. can't wait!

[okgirl]

Great review so far. I'll be back on the Glory for my 1st B2B in 98 days.......Love the pics from the Tiki......I'm going to look for that place when we go there......We stay at the Best Western

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

Thank you for your kind words...

 

How you doing Love-to-ride (May 3) and RLG1023 Great to "see" you both again... GREAT cruises, weren't they!!

 

Let us continue...

 

Our Room – “L” Shaped Room, just before the “Wrap” # 6450, Long Balcony. I want to take a few minutes to show the room… before the cruise we often found ourselves searching for information on these rooms and struggled to find it.

Our room was the bottom balcony (Deck 6 – Upper) and the last room on the port side (just before the “aft-wrap”). Here is an exterior…

Inside the ship, you got to the back end of the hall, enter a doorway to a “mini-hall” which has two staterooms off it, straight ahead is the rear aft-wrap and just around the corner to the right is the door to room 6450.

Open the door and you enter the hall with 3 closets on the left, followed by a short wall area with 1 chair and movable table and the fridge cabinet / “make-up counter” / 4-drawer unit and upper safe-cabinet with TV above. To the right is a plain wall (where in the other standard staterooms would be the bathroom). Straight ahead is the first of 2 good size windows looking out to the Balcony (about 4’ x 4’ each).

I walked to the end of the hall, turned a little to the right, and we see the second window and the door to the balcony. At the bottom of the picture you also see the foot of the bed…

I continued to walk in about half the length of the bed and continued to rotate to the right, and now we see a glimpse of the bathroom…

…and from the corner of the bed we turn a little more and see into the bathroom a bit more.

…to be continued…

[TakeMeAway1001]

Great review, can't wait for the rest :) Great news on Grills too, I had no idea they served breakfast.

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

Making our way to the foot of the bed (standing now in front of the first window), I rotate to the right a bit more and we see the head of the bed…

I moved across the foot of the bed to the other side (standing now in front of the second window), I continue my rotation to get a look back at the chair and table, and the desk area. Looking in the reflection of the mirror you can again see the bed and bathroom…

…moving back across the end of the bed and in front of the first window again, this time I rotate back a bit to the left, and we can see full circle, back down the entry hall…

…and again, with the 3 closet doors ajar a bit, showing the full-length mirror on the inside of the first closet door…

I really could not get a good picture of the balcony…

We spoke Saturday night to our steward (Johnny), asking about getting a lounge chair on our balcony. He did not know if he could, but said he would try in the morning. He showed up with it around 11 am, and we happened to be there. We tried together to get it to the balcony, but due to a awkward/tight corner by the balcony door,

there was no physical way to get it out the door (and believe me, we tried from every angle).

For some reason, Johnny left the lounge chair sitting out in the hall for the afternoon. Mid afternoon, we realized we had a group of young guys in the adjoining aft-wrap. DW suggested that I ask them to pass it around the barrier from their balcony. I asked, they agreed, and presto, we had our lounge chair. (I later saw Johnny and told him we got it in, and suggested he not ask how… and I gave him a tip… - I also told him how we got it so he would know how to remove it in 2 weeks.)

 

Balcony size... We placed the big lounge chair at the aft end, with the head towards the aft-wrap and the foot headed towards the front (turned a bit towards the rail), then we placed the round steel balcony table near the foot, then a chair. There was then a few feet before coming to the door to the room. We placed the second balcony chair against the divider to the next "L-Shaped Room - 6448" - it fit there nicely allowing the door to swing open easily (with the chair behind it)... I meant to measure it off with my size 12 feet, but forgot to, but i would estimate that it was about 3.5' x 20'. I hope all that makes since.

 

.

[RLG1023]

Thank you for your kind words...

 

How you doing Love-to-ride (May 3) and RLG1023Great to "see" you both again... GREAT cruises, weren't they!!

 

Let us continue...

 

Our Room – “L” Shaped Room, just before the “Wrap” # 6450, Long Balcony. I want to take a few minutes to show the room… before the cruise we often found ourselves searching for information on these rooms and struggled to find it.

 

Our room was the bottom balcony (Deck 6 – Upper) and the last room on the port side (just before the “aft-wrap”). Here is an exterior…

 

 

Inside the ship, you got to the back end of the hall, enter a doorway to a “mini-hall” which has two staterooms off it, straight ahead is the rear aft-wrap and just around the corner to the right is the door to room 6450.

 

 

 

Open the door and you enter the hall with 3 closets on the left, followed by a short wall area with 1 chair and movable table and the fridge cabinet / “make-up counter” / 4-drawer unit and upper safe-cabinet with TV above. To the right is a plain wall (where in the other standard staterooms would be the bathroom). Straight ahead is the first of 2 good size windows looking out to the Balcony (about 4’ x 4’ each).

 

 

I walked to the end of the hall, turned a little to the right, and we see the second window and the door to the balcony. At the bottom of the picture you also see the foot of the bed…

 

 

I continued to walk in about half the length of the bed and continued to rotate to the right, and now we see a glimpse of the bathroom…

 

 

…and from the corner of the bed we turn a little more and see into the bathroom a bit more.

 

 

…to be continued…

 

You guys werent far down the hall from us. We were in 6458 far aft...bet we ran into each other sveral times and didnt even notice it. Hey was the karaoke in the Ebony loud in your room?

 

OOOO and wasnt Johny a great steward???

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

Great review, can't wait for the rest :) Great news on Grills too, I had no idea they served breakfast.

 

Breakfast was good there... you can see their menu on their website at http://www.visitgrills.com/menu.php

 

Good size servings...

[Georgiagolfer]

Hey JanesCruisingBuddy, just wondering when you would start your review. I can't wait to read as I'm sure it will be quite long with all of the details.:D

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

... We spent alot of time in the aft hot tubs ...

 

We went there several times in the evenings too...

 

... I'll be back on the Glory for my 1st B2B in 98 days....

...the Tiki......I'm going to look for that place when we go there...

 

You will love the B2B experience... I will share later about the middle Saturday, and how that was handled...

 

Use the link above to get to Grills' web-site. You can find their address there. I had used a mapping program I have to create directions to get there, but you could google-map it too. It really is not that hard to find, you could just drive around the area and you will come to it.

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

Hey JanesCruisingBuddy, just wondering when you would start your review. I can't wait to read as I'm sure it will be quite long with all of the details.:D

 

Hi Georgiagolfer! Yeah, some times I do tend to ramble on... anyone can feel free to try to rein me in some if I get carried away.

 

I do not know if I will have time to write any more today or not, need to get some work done here :( ... if I cannot get back to it here at work, I will have to wait till Monday as my home computer "disappeared" :rolleyes: while I was cruising... eldest son took it... (tecnically it was one that he had discarded and I took it over...) ...not sure yet why he took it or if it is coming back... :confused:

[Georgiagolfer]

Hi Georgiagolfer! Yeah, some times I do tend to ramble on... anyone can feel free to try to rein me in some if I get carried away.

 

All I can say is ramble on and get carried away, because "Inquiring minds want to hear it ALL".:D

[Cruisinini]

All I can say is ramble on and get carried away, because "Inquiring minds want to hear it ALL".:D

 

 

LOL, I agree! Keep it coming, love the details (words and photos). Thanks for sharing!! :)

[sjcruiser]

Great review, thanks for the pics also.

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

You guys werent far down the hall from us. We were in 6458 far aft...bet we ran into each other sveral times and didnt even notice it. Hey was the karaoke in the Ebony loud in your room?

 

OOOO and wasnt Johny a great steward???

 

6458... opposite corner from us... Yeah, we probably did... many times... we used to alternate which hall we walked so we weren't always walking into the same stewards (getting in their way etc.).

 

No, I would not say the karaoke was that loud. We heard it occasonally, but not at all disturbing... maybe we were out most of the time. DW did notice the night when the dancers did the show in the Ebony that they were quite a bit louder... but I missed that somehow (I went to it the first week, don't know where I was on the second week).

 

Johnny was good... he seemed to struggle a bit more (not getting things done without us around) with our schedule during the second week when we had early seating.

[JanesCruisingBuddy]

– After Muster Drill we had sufficient time to return our life vests to the cabin and to get out on deck. We chose to head for the front end on decks 9 and 10… many of our roll-call group planned to ‘meet and greet’ at this location. It was nice to spend a few minutes with so many that we had spent so much time with planning the cruise.

Something that will always amaze me is how cruising levels the playing ground. Having shared with each other for months on the roll-call, you knew we all came from extremely varied backgrounds, but on a cruise, as you cross paths with people, I very seldom have the feeling that one person is “better” or “worse” than me in any regard (financially, morally, environmentally etc.). We are all simply “cruisers” experiencing a common past-time. I like that! (Thank you May 3’ers and May 10’ers…)

Although one misses some of the crowd (and sail-away party) when you are up on these front decks, I like the view…

(from the wing out over the bridge, looking back to the terminal on the starboard side)

… honestly, I enjoy the quiet peaceful nature of it too.

We watched them release the last lines…

And soon we were off on our adventure…

(and another couple shots of “Grills” as we sailed out - Grills is just a bit ahead of/beyond the larger casino ship you see above on the left edge of the waterway)

After we passed Grills, we made our way back to central Lido for a while (saw a manatee off the port side), roamed back to the aft end for a bit and then went down to our cabin to sail-away on our own spacious balcony. All of our luggage was waiting outside our stateroom for us, so we were able to get it unpacked before supper. As we had late seating for supper, we even had time for a little nap.