Just Back From the Glory

[LegalEagle1]

I tried posting this a few days ago. Not sure if it worked. Here goes again. We had a wonderful time on the Glory. I wouldn't call it the "WalMart" of cruising, but it isn't up to the same level as HAL. With that being said, the Glory is a beautiful, well maintained fun ship.

 

We spent Friday night at the Radisson and took their shuttle to the port. I wouldn't do this again, because of the utter chaos trying to get on the 11:30 shuttle. We wound up going at 12:30 to the port. This resulted in longer lines once we got there. The Radisson didn't appear to have enough buses or they were overbooked. My advise, find a cheaper room in the area and drive yourself to the port. From what others have said, this was very simple and less time consuming. The parking is $12 per day. Well worth it for less hassle.

 

Embarkation. Once we arrived at the port, very easy. We arrived at about 1:00 and were on board by 1:45. The lunch on the Lido is lovely.

 

Cabins. There were 5 in our party in two OV rooms on the Main Deck. The rooms were adjoining, which worked out great with the 10 and 6 year olds. Grandma stayed with them in the adjoing room. The rooms seemed bigger than on HAL or NCL. The showers were definitely bigger. CCL provides liquid soap and shampoo dispensers. My DH, kids and Grandma used them. I brought my own. There are also hairdryers and nice bathrobes in each room. These rooms were in a great location to the DR and the activities on Deck 5. We were pleasantly surprised having been in balcony rooms on our previous cruises. The room steward was pleasant, nothing extraordinary.

 

Food. The food was good. It wasn't fine dining, but you can't expect that on a Carnival ship. The dining room food offered a variety of options, presented very nicely. OUr waiter and assistant, Bernard and Alex, were fantastic. I can't say enough of how great they were. They knew our names before they brought the appetizers on the first night. They knew what we liked to drink and had it on the table before we arrived for dinner each night. They were great with the kids, always making up special foods for them. The kids menu is limited to pizza and burgers and I didn't want them eating that every night. The food in the REd Sail buffet is wonderful. Always good selections, clean, appealing to the eye. The fish and chips upstairs is not to be missed. The Oriental station is great, as was the deli. My kids loved the pizza and burgers on the back deck. The 24 hour ice cream and yogurt is also quite good.

 

Ports. We went on the Western Carribean route on Dec. 18. Key West my DH and son went Kayaking. They loved this excursion, through the mangroves. They saw and touched a lot of wildlife. Warning...if you want this excursion, book it as soon as you get on the ship, from your room. Some friends tried to get it on SAt. evening from the shore excursion desk, it was sold out. ONly 30 spots. My Mother took the conch train tour on her own for $22. The ship transports you right to the middle of town where you can pick up the train tour. Don't pay ship prices. This is an easy one to manage on your own. My 6 year old and I went to the little aquarium in town. A short walk from where the trolley lets you off. I think that it was $9 to get in. It is small, but has a lot of interesting tanks and a touch tank. Worth the visit. One note, we tried booking the kayaking with a local company. Unfortunately, they have to transport you 18 miles away up US 1. Not worth saving the money to worry about getting back down US 1. There is only one road in and out of Key West. That road gets backed up with accidents all of the time. Too much of a risk to save a few bucks.

 

Belize. My advice, take the ship's tour. Yes it is $30 - $40 more, but you have peace of mind. We have been to Belize two times on cruises and each time we made the decision to use the ships excursions. The reason is that you have to be transported so far away from the port on back roads, we are always afraid we won't make it back. If you don't think it happens, you are wrong. People sweat it out all day, worrying about getting back on time. It is worth it to us to ruin the day worrying. I have read a number of horror stories of the bus breaking down or the tour being cut short. Just our preference. My son and DH took the cave tubing tour. They loved it. They didn't feel overcrowed because the ship limits the number of participants. It worked out great for them with no worry about missing the ship.

 

Cozumel. We took a cab $10 each way to Chankanaab Park. This is a beautiful, well maintained park. The snorkeling is great there. We brough our own equipment, but you can rent it there. It was like swimming in an aquarium.

 

Progresso. In a word AWFUL. Don't get off the ship unless you want to go to the ruins. You are in port such a short period of time that it pays to take the ship's tours. One guy we met rented a cab for $180 and had him take his group to ChiChinitza and back. They barely had any time there because it takes a few hours each way. He said that he sweated it all day and would never do that again. You have to be back on the boat by 2:30. Two ladies actually missed the boat and had to be brought out to the ship way out in the water. Lucky for them that we were only about 30 minutes away. About Progresso. This was a nasty little town with nothing but junk to buy. WE waited 30 minutes in line with Costa passengers to get the free shuttle to town. They drop you in the middle of this nasty town at a market selling pure crap. We walked around and then waited 20 minutes to board a bus back to the port. Totally gross. EVeryone who went couldn't wait to get out of there. Carnival should be shot for putting this on their stops.

 

Overall we loved the cruise. Would definitely consider CCL again. It isn't the Fraternity Party At Sea that we were predicting.

 

Oh, Camp Carnival was great for the kids. The water slide is a blast.

[SoccerMom#3]

Thanks for your review. We are on the Glory in June and I can't wait!

 

Elise

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Thanks for the reveiw, we are on the Glory in April but doing the Eastern ports and looking forward to it.

[ricthemic]

What did you think of the stadium type lounge area around the pool? Do all the new carnival ships have this? We did not care for it.

[mbisson]

Thanks, we're considering this ship/cruise in Feb 06 (business meeting in Orlando the following week) and I'm eating up everything I can find.

 

-Monte

[LegalEagle1]

I never really thought about this before, but I imagine with the number of passengers on the ship, it is the only way to give people any semblance of being around the pool. We never really had any trouble finding lounge chairs, even on sea days. I will say that people do get out there early and save chairs. Carnival actually makes you take your pool towels from your room. You can also sign for them on the pool deck (when that station is manned.) If you loose the towel, you pay $22. You would think that this policy would discourage folks from reserving chairs with these towels, but it doesn't. Just plan ahead. Don't be afraid to move lounge chairs from across the pool deck to where you want them. I needed to be close to the children's pool and water slide. I carried lounge chairs to where I wanted them. No problem. YOu can even get someone on staff to help you. They are very friendly.

 

Some other things of note on the Glory. I didn't find the waiters/waitresses pushing hard to sell drinks. I found it much worse on the Zuiderdam (HAL) and the Sun (NCL). One waitress told us that they aren't even paid a salary by CCL. All of their income is from tips. I felt bad about not ordering much after that. Also, when they have "drink of the day" specials, you can order them for much less if you don't get the souvenier cup. I think it is $2.95 vs. $6.25. Basically you can get two drinks for the price of one, if you don't want the glass. CCL also uses plastic "pool" type cups and coffee mugs on the Lido deck. (Like you would use in your backyard.) There is free ice tea, lemonade and fruit punch. You can fill up any time that you want. Consider bringing along sports water bottles from home. You can fill up and have it last a while. Our kids wanted the soda bands for $30 each. It turned out to be a good value, considering how many sodas they drank during the week. Some said that the fountain drinks were watered down, buy my boys didn't complain.

[LegalEagle1]

That was in response to the question regarding the stadium type lounge area. One other note (I can't stop myself), the pool on the back of the ship is usually much less crowded than the main pool. You can also find lounge chairs and cool off showers all over the upstairs. This is great for those seeking peace and quiet.

[Cruising89143]

What did you think of the stadium type lounge area around the pool? Do all the new carnival ships have this? We did not care for it.

The only ships that have this type of decks are the Destiny, Triumph and Conquest class ships. The Fantasy, Holiday and Spirit class do not.

[Fredrik]

Hi,

 

We´ve finally gotten to it and booked our first Carnival Cruise. We´ve been on five with RCCL in the past year and a half and we think they are great company with fabulous ships, but we need something to compare them to...

 

It´s really exciting because we don´t really know what to expect. I guess there is a lot of bashing between the diehard fans on both sides, and I must say I haven´t heard many positive comments about Carnival from people onboard RCCL that also have sailed with Carnival.

 

We´ve had such a great time on all our RCCL cruises, but on our last one we didn´t have the mixed crowd we´re used to. Maybe it was Ocotber, or the it. taking us to Canada, but few people were under 70 onboard. It´s not a joke, it is really true. I have absolutely nothing against old people, but 2000 people and all of them 2-3 times as old as you are is a strange feeling. Since we wanted to get away from that we booked on Carnival.

 

We chose Glory because of it size and we really wanted to go back to Orlando this year.

 

Also in these very troubled times I want to extend all my love and thoughts to all the people around the world who are affected by the Tsunami in Asia. We still have 3500 swedish tourists not accounted for.

 

May 2005 bring joy and happiness,

 

 

Fredrik Olsson

Sweden