Carnival Glory Review/ 10-31-09/Some Photos

[dkalnas]

This was our third cruise in the last year and second on Carnival in the last six months. Our previous cruise was on the Valor in May 09. Our itinerary was Cozumel, Belize City and Costa Maya. We chose this cruise and itinerary mainly due to the reroute we encountered due to swine flu in May.

 

There was some good moments, good service, poor service and everything in between. I will try and detail it all as much as possible.

[dkalnas]

The ship departs out of Port Canaveral. We live in Orlando near the airport. We left our home around noon and were in our room at 1:30pm. We can only compare the embarkation at Port Canaveral to what we experienced in Miami and I must say Port Canaveral has their act together. They were quick and efficient in their process.

 

After getting on the ship we dropped our items off at our room and headed out to walk around. We met the Maitre D as we prefer a larger table to sit at with others and he accomodated our switch from a Table of 4 to a Table with 10.

 

The muster drill has changed from our last voyage. Lifejackets are no longer needed. Soon after muster we sailed away.

 

We had 8:15pm seating so before dinner I hit up the casino for some blackjack. The dinner was ok. Our waiter introduced himself to us the first night alon with his assistant. This was the most they spoke to us the entire trip. Their service wasn't good either. The first night we each had the Flat Iron Steak. This was the best meal we ate on board the ship the entire week also.

 

After dinner we stopped by the Welcome Aboard Show, watched some of the World Series and attended the Halloween festivities. We dressed up and so did a lot of other people. There were some great costumes including Colnel Sanders from KFC, Three Little Pigs, and SuzyQ :) . It was a fun night.

 

 

Day at Sea

 

We did absolutley nothing. While there were some chair hogs they did not appear to be as plentiful as the Valor. We grabbed some chairs up Deck 10 and fell asleep until early afternoon.

 

Prior to dinner I again went to the casino. I won a little bit but at the same time I noticed the dealers are very quick at the blackjack tables. They are so quick in fact that they miss quite a few payouts. They will also fail to ask for insurnace or miss your call to hit or stand. This ended up becoming more problematic as the cruise went on especially on the final two sea days.

 

Dinner. This was the first elegant night. Everyone that attened dinner appeared to be dressed up. This night was also where out waiters service started its decline. I ordered two of the lobsters and he only brought one. He also forgot the steamed vegetables that I had ordered. I did not make an issue of it and moved on.

 

That evening we went to the show which was decent and watched some of the game in the sports bar.

[thomasina24]

QUOTE:

We had 8:15pm seating so before dinner I hit up the casino for some blackjack. The dinner was ok. Our waiter introduced himself to us the first night alon with his assistant. This was the most they spoke to us the entire trip. Their service wasn't good either. The first night we each had the Flat Iron Steak. This was the best meal we ate on board the ship the entire week also

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Hi There, We were on the same sailing. Were you the people dressed as Super Mario? Also, you say that the flatiron steak was your best meal the whole week. Did you like it or did you think everything else was just worse? I thought the flatiron was awful and Carnival should be ashamed. Our last cruise was in 2006. Always thought in the past that the food was wonderful. This time-not so much. Not impressed at all and thought Outback, Olive Garden, etc. is better. The ribs were good though.

[frito58]

I guess its funny how diffeent sailings have differnet outcomes, we were on the Glory 10/03 and the service and food were the best we have seen in our previous 8 cruises. We loved the all the food and tried a lot of different things.

[sjcruiser]

I had a blast on the Glory, and the food in the DR was outstanding. The waiters brought extra/different dishes for us to try. Since they only had a few tables (rear of Platinum DR), they spent time talking to the guest, which we enjoyed.

[dkalnas]

On Monday we arrived in Cozumel and docked next to the Miracle. It also happened to be the nude cruise but they seemed quite tame. Only one set of boobies :D. We heard others saw much more.

 

 

We had booked the Mayan Ruins of Tulum Tour and as soon as we were off the ship we headed to catch the ferry for our trip to Playa Del Carmen. It was about a 30 minute ferry ride to PDC and then we boarded a bus for an approximate one hour drive south to Tulum. Tulum was amazing. Quite possibly the nicest single beach I have ever stepped foot on. It is necessary to book this tour through Carnival as even with having all transportation waiting for us we still made it back after the scheduled boarding time. This is one time being on a Carnival Tour was worth it as the ship was held for us.

 

 

 

 

 

After we returned we went for a swim up on Lido and again played the casino before dinner. Our waiter again just went through the motions of being unattentive and forgetting items (steamed vegetables).

 

It was also this night that we started to not receive clean glasses in our room. I called room service and they promptly delivered two glasses.

 

Day 4 Belize

 

Our plan was to go snorkeling here in Belize but due to the weather we decided we would just get off and do some shopping. We made some nice purchases and had some food and beer at the wet lizard. The Lighthouse Lager was better than the Belkin IMO. The tender rides were easy.

 

After coming back on board we did the water slide, casino, and dinner again. More forgotten items at dinner again. After dinner we returned to our room and again we did not have glasses. I called room service and this time they failed to show up. I tried to get glasses from the bartender but was denied.

[dkalnas]

Day 5 Costa Maya

 

We arrived around 8am and the Glory was the only ship in port. Costa Maya still bears the effects of Hurricane Dean in 2007 in its landscape. We decided to rent a golf cart and go out on our own. The cost was $60 and they gave us a decent little ride. It was nice to have the freedom to go where ever we wanted.

 

 

We started out at the cruise port and headed south to Mahahual. As we were driving we made a stop at a little corner store and had some empandas. It was then on to the main strip where we ate shrimp tacos at another establishment. Both meals were out of this world. We strolled along the beach and my personal opinion is that the beach isn't one of the nicest nor is it one of the worst. We ended up getting massages $10 for 30 minutes per person plus tip. The massage was good. We also did some shopping and there are deals to be made.

 

After Mahahual we decided to drive out on our own and see how far we could really go. We continued a few miles south down the road and all you see is a landscape that shows scars of a category 5 hurricane and storm surge. There were some secluded spot on the beach that were just nice to hang out at with some beer and no one around.

 

 

Overall Costa Maya was our favorite port of call.

 

On this day I also finally asked our room steward about the situation with not receiving any glasses in our room. He claimed that a rack of glasses had dissapeared from his storage room and he therefore did not have any glasses to give out. We ended up just taking glasses from our dinner table for the remainder of the trip.

 

 

I also was at the bar having a drink before dinner on this evening and Ryan stopped by to check the score of the World Series game. This was my only encounter with him and I have to say he is a nice guy. I did not express any of the issues we had on ou vacation as I am sure he hears enough of that. It was good to just chat with him. He has an interesting job.

[cruznsuzn89]

Great review so far. We are going on the Glory in May to the Eastern Carribean. We loved Costa Maya too when we were there. Can't wait to hear the rest.