Review: Carnival Glory to Canada - 7/17/10 - 5 days

[Dave0311]

After some more exploring I headed back to our room. Our room, as I’ve said before, is on deck 7. You know what else is on deck 7? Some secret doors! :D They’re in the very front of the ship.

 

Approaching the front of the ship, it appears to be a dead end.

 

 

Keep walking and you’ll see this sign:

 

 

Hmm. This sign looks like a fun sign, and they do say please. I guess that means it’s not mandatory. ;)

 

Looking across the hallway, there’s a secret door on the other side as well.

 

[Dave0311]

Let’s go through, shall we? Looking back toward the door, from the outside:

 

 

There’s a nice view looking forward.

 

 

The secret deck on deck 6 has a similar view, without the big white thing in the middle of your view. However, deck 7 gives you a great look at the bridge. In fact, an officer on the bridge waved to me after I took a picture.

 

 

Some pictures from deck 6 secret deck:

 

 

 

Thanks CC for pointing out where to find the secret doors! I noticed only a couple other people out there on the secret decks the entire cruise. They must be CCers too. :p

[Dave0311]

We were docked right near one of the graffiti ships (any John Heald fans here?). She left before us, so we got to take some pictures of her pulling out and sailing away. Goodbye Norwegian Jewel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright, enough of that. Back to the Glory and our sailaway.

[Dave0311]

As you know, NYC has some great sights to capture. On the way out I got a couple of them on camera.

 

The Chrysler Building is somewhere in this photo.

 

 

The Empire State Building, towering over her neighbors.

 

 

 

Statue of Liberty way out in the distance. We still have some time before we see her up close.

 

 

If I’m not mistaken, here’s the World Trade Center complex.

 

 

 

If it is, you can see the new tower under construction in the middle of the buildings.

[Dave0311]

Everyone loves some pictures of the Statue of Liberty. Here she is from several different views.

 

 

 

 

 

Without zoom, this is the view:

 

 

Next up: dinner (no pics) and a great sunset…

[Dave0311]

Here’s the timeline of our NYC sailaway:

 

5:00 – begin pulling out

 

Around 5:30-5:45 – pass the Statue of Liberty

 

(5:50 – begin walking back to room, but stop to take another funnel picture :p)

 

 

Dinner began at 6:00.

 

Around 6:15 – pass under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

 

From what I remember, dinner the first night was good. As I mentioned before, I’m going only by memory, and mine definitely isn’t the best. I wish I could remember what I had, but I can’t and now my head hurts from all the thinking. :p The only thing I remember ordering was a cappuccino with dessert. To me it tasted exactly like the regular coffee, but with some foam on top. Needless to say, I didn’t order it the rest of the cruise. And for those wondering, the cappuccino and espresso in the MDR are free.

 

Our head waiter wasn’t present for the first night. I noticed our assistant waiter, Agus – pronounced “a goose”, (who we got to know better than our head waiter) was serving us and taking our orders. I was wondering why I only saw a waiter in an assistant waiter outfit. Next thing I know, another assistant waiter, Gerald, came by and started helping out. From this point forth, we now had two assistant waiters the entire cruise, even after our head waiter returned the second night. I can’t remember the last time we had three people waiting on us at dinner. :)

[Dave0311]

I have to go right now, but I have three more posts typed up and ready to go. I'll post them in a little while, and they will conclude day 1.

 

Any questions or comments in the mean time are appreciated. :)

[01Sweetpea]

I'm going to try adn find the "secret" door on our upcoming cruise!

 

Keep the review coming!

[Chrislynn55]

Dave, I'm really enjoying your review and photos. We'll be sailing the Glory at the end of September and the excitement is starting to build!

[Dave0311]

Back for some more.

 

----------

 

After dinner I went back up on deck to see the sunset. The first sunset of our cruise was also the best.

 

Nothing says vacation better than a picture like this:

 

 

OK, throw Billy Joel onto the big screen and maybe this one does a better job. ;)

 

 

Hmm, how about all three (Billy, whale tail, and sunset) in one shot?

 

 

Now that’s what I’m talking about! :D

[Dave0311]

Some more sunset/whale tail pictures for your enjoyment.

 

(FYI, I do have full size versions of all these pictures. So if there’s one you’d like from any point in the review, just send me a message.)

 

 

 

 

Wow, this is the best sunset I’ve ever seen!

 

 

 

[Dave0311]

I meet my parents at the shops for the free liquor tasting. We try the coffee cream liqueur (the one that mixes as it pours out of the bottle) and the amerula cream. My mom and I love the amerula and buy a bottle for us to take home. We also buy my sister and her fiancé a bottle of mango vodka for when we get home.

 

The liquor tasting a great thing, but there are some people who take advantage of it. While we were in line, there was a lady standing by the table asking for samples of every bottle. After she tried every drink, she’d start up again. Granted, she was buying several bottles. But didn’t the staff realize she was holding the rest of the line up? We must’ve waited in line for 10 minutes waiting to get our first taste. In that time she must’ve had at least 10 samples. Had she not been there, we probably would’ve had a wait of less than 5 minutes. There was one man serving the samples, so he couldn’t keep the line moving while serving this woman. I realize they wanted to keep giving her samples because she kept buying more bottles, but at least give other people their first tastings before offering her thirds or fourths!

 

The lady did not stop us from enjoying our free samples, nor did she get us mad. We just laughed at her rude nature. I just feel there should be a limit on how many samples one person should be entitled to.

 

Okay that’s the end of my rant for the day. :)

 

Back in the cabin, I am greeted by a friendly, uhh, walrus? Penguin? Your guess is as good as mine!

 

 

It’s still early, and I don’t want to throw away all my money in the casino just yet. So I go back up on deck and watch the end of the Billy Joel show. Because it’s my obsession, I have to get another picture of the Gloryous whale tail.

 

On this cruise, the rope lights were still present. I know there was a lot of talk about this recently, so here’s proof they’re still up:

 

 

See ‘em?

 

Now it’s off to the casino. I usually play roulette, but the numbers aren’t calling my name so I stay away. I watch my parents play some craps while my grandmother is at the poker tables. I donate some money to a couple one-armed bandits. I try to play more slots than usual in hopes of making it into the Ocean Players Club. I remember someone on CC saying it takes 1000 points to get in. I know I won’t get up that high, but I would try anyway. Being the frugal person I am, I decide I’ve lost enough money for tonight and I’d have more fun watching other people lose their money! After a couple more hours we call it a night and head up to bed.

 

Next up: a day at sea, and the fog rolls in…

[Dave0311]

When we wake up the next morning (Sunday), we’re surrounded by ocean! Don’t you just love this view?

 

 

One of the reasons I love a balcony is for those moments when you just forget about everything and take a few quiet moments to watch the ship sail through the water. Nothing but you, the ship, and the ocean. It’s a very relaxing environment. Being able to do it in private without people walking by and talking makes it even better. I’m always in awe when I watch the ship sail over the water so smoothly and gracefully. How can such a monstrous ship ride smoother than any land-based vehicle? One of my favorite views:

 

 

Our private balcony: the true Serenity area on board. :)

 

Snap out of it, Dave. It’s time for breakfast! We make our way up to the buffet for breakfast this morning. This would be our one and only breakfast upstairs. For the rest of the cruise we’d eat breakfast in the dining room. Ironically, my breakfast at the buffet was also my smallest breakfast. All I got this morning was a bowl of oatmeal, a peach yogurt, chocolate muffin, and some coffee.

 

Carnival coffee is another hot subject on these boards. The overwhelming opinion on our ship was that the coffee in the dining room was far superior to the coffee of the buffet area. I have to agree. I brought coffee and danish back to our room just about every morning before breakfast for my parents and myself, and every morning we said the same thing. The lido coffee just wasn’t as good as the MDR coffee. We had said we were going to try the premium coffee at the Creams café, but we never made it there. My guess is it was also better than the lido coffee. (It better be since you have to pay for it!)

[Dave0311]

9:30 am, time for TV theme song trivia. We love trivia on the ships. And TV theme song trivia is one of the better ones. They play mostly older TV shows. It was the newer theme songs that stumped us (myself included). If I remember correctly, our final score was 17/20. The winning family scored 19/20. Not bad! After trivia I meet my grandmother on the promenade deck for Sudoku and puzzles. On our previous cruise (Legend, 2009), the Sudoku started out easy and got harder as the week progressed. This cruise, they started out hard. My grandmother gave up rather quickly, and she’s usually pretty good at Sudoku. So she went off on her way and I finished some of the other puzzles. There was a lot more variety with the puzzles on this cruise than last year. Last year it was just a crossword and Sudoku every day. This year, the puzzles included word scrambles and those brain games with letter and numbers (example: 6 in H D = 6 in a half dozen).

 

At some point – I forget when, and I can’t find it in the Capers, err, “Fun Times” – we went to the raffle in the shops to win a free bottle of liquor. We were entered because of our purchase yesterday.

 

 

Can you guess the outcome? You probably guessed right. We were losers. :rolleyes:

 

With some free time ahead of me, I went outside to people-watch. This is always a favorite activity of mine. :p When I stepped outside, I discovered we were enveloped in fog!

 

 

Would you believe there’s an ocean out there?

 

 

Based on the next photo, you’d be surprised if I told you we were surrounded by thick fog.

 

[Dave0311]

Okay, maybe the fog isn’t too thick yet. I mean, you can still see the funnel.

 

 

As well as chair hog droppings! :eek:

 

 

More proof we had a good turnout of kids on this cruise. Check out the hot tubs:

 

 

The aft pool area is just as crowded, not necessarily with kids though:

 

 

 

Up next: the fog gets thicker, and lunch at the Mongolian wok!

[Dave0311]

Our Gloryous whale tail is slowly disappearing.

 

 

So is our wake:

 

 

I’m getting hungry. It must be time for lunch. I look at my watch and it’s around 11:40. Check the Capers, I mean “Fun Times” (I’ll get it eventually), the Mongolian wok opens at noon. I have just enough time to get to the main pool area and stake out a spot near the front of the line. Armed with my knowledge from CC, I wait for the wok to open and immediately step into line, knowing all too well hordes of people will soon jump into line as well. I was second in line! Hooray for me!

 

A big thank you again to the folks here at CC for informing us about the lines you can anticipate at the Mongolian wok. You were all right! The lines did get long, and quickly too. They opened the wok early (around 11:50), and by noon the line was already stretched out.

 

Here’s the Mongolian wok before the mad rush of people:

 

 

At the Mongolian wok, you choose your noodles and vegetables. Then you hand your bowl over to the cook and he’ll wok it up for you. You can add meat if you want. I got chicken, but they also have (correct me if I’m wrong) pork, beef, mussels, and clams available. There are three “flavors” of sauce available to choose from:

 

 

It goes without saying that I got the Szechwan sauce. ;)

[Dave0311]

I watched the guy cook up my meal right then and there.

 

 

Mmm…

 

As I mentioned, it didn’t take long for the line to fill up.

 

 

What a delicious looking lunch! Wouldn’t you agree?

 

 

As a side note, I should point out that the food at the Mongolian wok should typically be cooked. I guess it’s safe to eat the noodles and veggies cold, but why do that when they can cook it up for you? I saw several people walking around with the “raw” noodles and vegetables on their plates. I don’t think they understood the purpose of the Mongolian wok. ;)

[Dave0311]

After I finished my lunch, I met my mom and introduced her to the burrito bar. She also had nothing but praise for the burrito bar. The food there was so good, I’m surprised it never got as popular as the Mongolian wok (which, in my opinion, wasn’t as good as the burrito bar).

 

My dad decided he wanted to try the Mongolian wok for lunch. That poor guy. He wasn’t aware of the lines to expect there. I warned him, “get to the Mongolian wok early or else you’ll be waiting in a long line.”

 

“I’ll be fine,” was his response. I bet he was regretting his decision when he had to wait quite a long time to get his lunch! Thanks again to everyone at CC for your information. I hope I too can help a future cruiser out with this tip.

 

At 12:30 we went to the slot tournament. I did well (87,000 points), but it wasn’t enough to make the 100,000 cutoff that had been established earlier. This slot tournament used the timing setup, where you have 5 minutes to make as many points as possible. I much prefer the setup where you’re given a set number of spins and can play them at your leisure. Sometimes the reels would stop spinning on someone’s machine and it took several seconds for them to start spinning again, and at the same time another person could get them to re-spin without any problem. Those seconds could cost someone the tournament. That’s why I feel this setup is unfair. If someone gets a slow machine, they’re at a disadvantage. If everyone is given the same number of spins, however, then everyone has the same number of tries to earn points. That seems like a fairer setup to me.

 

Despite our losses, we were to return at 3:30 to find out if we made the wildcard spot.

 

At 1:30 I had a choice of activities to attend, and I couldn’t decide what I wanted to go to. It was either super trivia round #1 or the hairy chest competition. Sticking with cruise tradition, I went to the hairy chest competition. A good time was had by all, as usual.

 

 

 

The competitors lined up.

 

 

After the hairy chest competition was over, Fun Ship Freddy made an appearance on deck. I saw him more on this cruise than on any previous cruise.

 

 

I bet you forgot it was still foggy out, didn’t you?

 

Up next: a sequence of photos of the whale tail disappearing in the fog.

[Dave0311]

Ahh, there’s the fog again! Or is it hot Caribbean haze?

 

 

No, it’s fog.

 

 

Yeah, no doubt about it at this point. You might think we were in an airplane flying through a cloud. Ever wonder what the Carnival Glory looks like without her funnel? Take a look.

 

 

Let’s look over the side of the ship to get another view. Are you sure we’re not in a plane?

 

 

Whew, the funnel has re-appeared.

 

 

Up next: a couple more foggy pictures and a foggy video, a sunset, and the rest of our evening.

 

I promise only a couple more posts until we get to St. John. I know some people are looking forward to hearing about the ports. :)

[cherishrwil]

What a great review and pics!!! Can't wait to read the rest of it. I'll be on the Glory in Oct. and it can't come soon enough!

[cruisefam1234]

Hi Dave! Our family was on the same cruise. In fact, the GS photos look like our room! I was one of the crazies who stayed at Serenity even though the fog horn was blowing every 10 minutes! Maybe it was all the DOD's in me. We had a really great time. Really nothing to complain about. I may write a review later; I really enjoy reading them.

Great job on the review, its bringing back all great memories.

[lackistar]

Wow, great photos of the Sunset, and talk about that fog!!

It made me feel like the ship is flying in the sky because of the fog looks like clouds.

 

Keep coming as your review is so much fun to read!

[Dave0311]

Thanks for the comments everyone. :)

Hi Dave! Our family was on the same cruise. In fact, the GS photos look like our room! I was one of the crazies who stayed at Serenity even though the fog horn was blowing every 10 minutes! Maybe it was all the DOD's in me. We had a really great time. Really nothing to complain about. I may write a review later; I really enjoy reading them.

Great job on the review, its bringing back all great memories.

Glad to see a fellow cruiser found the review. Feel free to share some of your own photos if you want! :D

[01Sweetpea]

Really enjoying this...keep it coming!

[Dave0311]

Sorry for the delay! I'll make a couple more updates tomorrow before work. :)