A First-Timer's Experience on the Glory, 5/24/11 (LONG, w/ photos)

[kmflutist]

Hi everyone!

 

This will be quite lengthy and will have a lot of photos. For those who don’t like the reviews that are more like a “journal” of the trip, then you may want to move on. I read a boatload (like the pun?) of reviews before we went and enjoyed the long, picture filled, detailed ones so decided I would return the favor.

 

A little about us: DH (Andy) is 33 and I am 32. We have 2 children ages 2 and 3 who stayed behind with their grandparents. We sailed out of Norfolk, VA on the 5 day to Nassau and Freeport. We booked 9 months out so there was more than enough of time for me to practically live on Cruise Critic learning everything I could. The kiddos brought home a cold a couple of weeks before we sailed that they kindly shared with me. Problem is, mine turned into pneumonia the week before. We were concerned we wouldn’t be able to go but a great doctor and awesome antibiotics saw me through a speedy recovery just in time to cruise!

Alrighty. Here we go!

Embarkation Day:

Although we live in Central VA we actually drove to the port from the Eastern Shore of MD since we had to drop the kiddos off there first. It was a quick 2.5 hour drive down, and traffic was practically non-existent. Due to all of my research, I knew that the Glory was repositioning from Miami and was sailing up with crew only. Although the cruise documents said to arrive between 1:00 and 3:30 (something like that), we had a hunch we MAY be able to board early (thanks Host Mach and the others who clued me in on that one). We arrived at 10:15am and got our first look at her...

 

 

 

There were about 4 small groups waiting to get into the terminal. We hopped in line and were told they would open the doors at 10:45. They opened the doors right on time and by then the line had grown quite a bit.

Security was quick and easy. They did look through our carry-ons . We carried on 2 bottles of wine and a 12 pack of soda. No problems there. We were given a Zone 2 card (yee haw!) and then checked in. That part was only slightly painful as the person checking us in must have been in training and had no earthly idea what she was doing. The person training her finally got fed up and hurried it along since the crowd in the terminal was growing. Whatever… I don’t think the smile ever left our faces. We were gettin’ on a cruise! Here's a picture of the inside of the terminal with the Glory outside the window...

 

 

We found a seat to get comfortable and wait but that didn’t last long. Around 11:15ish (close to that) they started boarding the VIPs. They announced that we were allowed to go straight to our cabins as they were ready early. Bonus! After the obligatory boarding photo (I was a bad girl and sneaked a blurry photo of it in the photo gallery)… can you tell we were excited?!

 

 

[kmflutist]

We were on the ship and in our stateroom by 11:45. We had a standard balcony cabin on Deck 7 (Empress) Aft (#7419). It was very clean and just what we expected.

 

Pros:

1) In the back of the ship so we had very little foot traffic coming by.

2) We like to exercise so having to walk a long way to get to a lot of places on the ship was actually a plus for us. We wound up using the stairs about 95% of the time.

3) There was less movement in the back compared to the front when we were at a show in the Amber Palace.

 

Cons:

1) Slight vibration from the engines. I am light sleeper, though and it didn’t keep me awake.

2) Some folks may not like to walk so far to the main areas of the ship.

 

Since I’m on the subject, I will finish commenting about the stateroom. The beds were disappointing, in my opinion. I’ve read many reviews where people comment about how comfortable they are but they were a bit too firm for my taste. To each their own, I suppose – It wasn’t bad enough to lose sleep over…. Literally. :p

Our cabin steward (can’t remember his name now) was very good. He saw us in the hall on Day 1 and went out of his way to introduce himself and let us know he was just a phone call away if we ever needed anything. Our room was always made up early in the day, was kept very clean and our ice bucket was filled twice daily.

 

After unpacking, we walked on up to the Lido deck. I couldn’t indulge in a DOD since I have some strange physical aversion to Vodka and all of the DOD’s throughout the cruise seemed to have that. I tried a Kiss on the Lips instead. Good stuff.

Andy's not pouting -- he was just concentrating on his food a little too much. We hadn't eaten in a while. After grabbing a light lunch, we were off to explore.

 

You're not just seeing things in the last one.... all of a sudden the deck was wet, right? We had a storm come through just before I took this photo. More on that later.

[kmflutist]

On to sail away and the storm.

We were due to leave at 5:00pm but around 4:15, we noticed the sunny skies start to darken. Before we knew it, we were in the middle of a pretty nasty thunderstorm. Lots of lightning all over the place, a lot of wind and heavy rain. When the wind started, all of us in the Red Sail noticed the ship moving a little. We found out later from a new cruise friend that they pulled the gangway away from the ship and stopped boarding until the storm passed. My friend was one of the ones stuck in the terminal. I was surprised they were still boarding at that time anyway since we were all supposed to be on board by 3:30. The storm passed quickly and boarding resumed. We didn’t pull away until around 6:15-6:30. We missed our dinner in the MDR that evening since we selected early seating. DH wanted to go but I wanted to see sail away. I won, I guess.

We ate here right after we booked the cruise many months ago and the waiter told us it was always really cool to watch the ships come in and turn around.

Terminal from the ship

[HappyHappy1]

Thanks Kate...Cant wait to read more!

[kmflutist]

More sail away photos:

 

This is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We've gone over/through it many times but seeing it from this point of view was a first.

It was the buffet again for dinner which wasn’t bad at all. Throughout the cruise I found all of the buffet food to be very good overall. Hot stuff was hot and cold stuff was cold. They did repeat things throughout the week but we’re not too picky so it didn’t bother us.

Later that evening, it was off to check out karaoke in Bar Blue with Victoria. Andy loves to karaoke so I knew we’d wind up there a lot throughout the cruise. There was a good crowd (almost no seats left) and they were all in a good mood and ready to have fun. DH sang two songs and was received very well. He really likes to play to the audience. :cool:

Victoria told us all that this was her first time as a karaoke host on the ship and everyone was very supportive of her. You could tell she was a little nervous but she did a good job, worked hard and was a real sweet heart. Afterwards, we did some more exploring and then returned to our room to see the first of our towel animals.

 

Since I read so many reviews before our cruise, I knew all about the towel animals, but I never told DH, so it would be a cute little surprise. It was great. He laughed so hard and was almost like a little kid when he saw it. I’m glad I kept my mouth shut.

Next up, Day 2! ... most likely tomorrow -- gotta start dinner for the family.

[silkhair1]

I am so excited to see/read your review!!!!!! I am going on my first CCL cruise and it is on the Glory so I can't wait to see/read more!!!!!!!!!

[kmflutist]

silkhair, wow, you're going soon! It was absolutely awesome! You will have such a good time.

 

I hope to get all of day 2 up tomorrow. :)

 

Meanwhile, if you (or anyone) has any questions, I'm more than happy to answer if I can.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

Great start. I will be on her next April. Different ports but I'll still read all things Glory in the mean time!

[LisaT12]

Your info is great and very interesting.....I like the way you write!! We are going on the Glory in Aug.....how is the entertainment??

[msheep]

I love detail review with photos, thanks alot for doing this!! I will be on the Glory on 8/4!

[billnheather]

Great review so far!!! We sail on the Glory in 22 LONGGGGGGGGGGGGG days. Can you put more pics of the room we are on the same deck!!

 

Thanks!

[kittychick78]

Thanks SO SO MUCH in advance for doing this--Please feel free to post as many detailed pics of the ship as you feel hehe! I'd love to see them...my best friend and I are booked for a West. Caribbean next January on the Glory and it's both our first times cruising...we are just a wee bit giddy with anticipation already and chomping at the bit for all things Glory--especially from another first-timer!!!

 

A question--I've been reading lots about chair hogs on here, and it's something I'm a bit concerned with having to deal with--my best friend and I are big sun worshipers, so on sea days we'll most likely be spending hours in Serenity...but would like to not have to get up at the crack of dawn. I have no problems politely removing someone's shoe etc that has been saving a chair for hours so I may have a turn, and I would never think of using something to 'save' my chair--my philosophy is if your butt isn't in it and isn't going to be for a considerable amount of time, it's free for the taking...but I'd rather not have to if possible to avoid any drama. Did you notice the Glory crew enforcing the Carnival policy concerning chair saving etc?

 

Thanks! :)

[pomm1972]

Excellent start. I loved detailed reviews and seeing it through a newbies eyes. Looking forward to read more.

[babyblue78]

Great job so far, enjoying this review!

[CruisingAgain]

I also love the way you write AND your pictures. Can't wait to see the rest of your review.

[pacarolinagirl]

Excellent review so far!! I love love love tons of pictures. :):):)

[Payd]

Wonderful pictures - and a great review.

 

Looking forward to more!

[Crusin Karen]

Love reviews with pics. Thanks for sharing. We always cruise out of Manhattan since we live 20 mins. from cruise terminal, but we went to Norfolk many times when our DS was in the USMC stationed down there at the Naval Base and enjoyed seeing the pic of the tunnel/bridge! ;)

[flutist14_99]

I'm loving reading this! We'll be sailing June 27th and have different ports of call, but same ship and I'm a first-timer and I can't wait for your point of view and pictures. :D

[Delta Dear]

We will be sailing on the Glory for the first time in October from Norfolk to Bermuda. I am enjoying the photos and your reveiw. Keep it coming, it is making me more excited than I already am.

[kmflutist]

Thanks, everyone for the kind words. :) The cruise was a blast and I'm enjoying re-living it through this review.

LisaT12 - We went to several show-type things and found the quality of the entertainment to be very good. I will go into more detail coming up as the review goes on. One thing I did forget to mention is on Embarkation Day, they had the 2 man band playing "island music." For a two-man crew, Andy and I thought they were very good.



billnheather - I'm sorry but I'm sad to report that somehow, when Andy downloaded the pictures, the rest of the ones I took of our cabin were lost in the shuffle. If I come across anymore, though, I will be sure to post them. We found the cabin to be more than adequate for the two of us. Plenty of storage... so much so that we didn't even use all of it. Deck 7 is a good choice with cabins above and below. We were originally on Deck 6 and when I realized we were above the arcade, we switched.



kittychick78 - it seems like yesterday I was in your shoes. I was about to burst with excitement in the weeks leading up to the cruise and it sure didn't disappoint!



Cruisin Karen - Yeah, it was really neat to see the bridge/tunnel from that perspective -- especially since we had just traveled over/through it. :)



Delta Dear - I'm a little jealous you're going to Bermuda. I really want to go there some day!



Thanks again everyone. I'm so happy folks are enjoying this. I'll be posting Day 2 very soon. I'm at work but it's slow so I should be able to get to it!

[kmflutist]

Day 2, Sea Day

We woke up around 7am (I was pretty P-O’ed at that since I was hoping to sleep in). I guess it’s not so easy to get out of your sleep/wake routine when you’re used to two little ones waking you up at 6:00am on the weekends. We ordered a carafe of coffee from room service and it was delivered within 20-30 minutes. Then we plopped down in the chairs on the balcony and sipped our coffee while watching the ocean go by. That was heaven! I took a few short videos during the cruise and this is where I would like to insert one, but they're on the home computer. I will either post it tonight when I get home or just post a link to all of the videos at the end.

Then we got ourselves together enough to go up to the buffet for breakfast. They had lots of fruit, toast, bagels, cereal, milk, as well as breakfast potatoes, eggs, a sausage combo thing, bacon, pancakes (liked those a lot) grits, oatmeal, and some other stuff I can’t remember. We found everything to be very good for buffet food. Andy hates buffets but he enjoyed everything he ate. The eggs were the only thing that left a little to be desired but from the reviews here, I was expecting it. They were certainly edible, though. I wanted an omelet, but as expected, the line was crazy. I passed.

I then went to the aft pool and Andy went to work out in the gym (I decided to take a break on my vacation but vowed to take the stairs a lot :o ). I was actually able to get a lounge chair right by the pool. The chair hogs were out, though. Kittychick, in answer to your question, I did see security people walking around the pool areas but they weren't moving people's things. They seemed to be on top of other rule breakers, though so I would imagine if someone asked them to move a chair hog's stuff, they would have. A young couple came and put their stuff on the chairs next to mine and didn’t come back for the whole 2.5 hours I was there. Andy came back from the gym ready to lay out with me and we moved to the upper deck. I wanted to move their crap, but he wouldn’t let me. There were always more than enough open chairs on the upper decks AND it was much more peaceful up there. We never went to Serenity during the day because I just assumed it would be crowded. The decks above the aft pool were (IMO) probably just as peaceful, if not moreso than Serenity and half empty even on sea days.

That day I did notice a security guard standing off in a corner watching the pool. During my time there, I observed a mom and her two children (ages ~12-13) start to get in. He was over there before they could get in to their knees to tell them it was adults only. I felt kind of bad for them since the sign was pretty small and they were obviously embarrassed, but it was also good to see the staff enforcing the rules.

 

Before we knew it, it was time to go get cleaned up for our Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. It was held in the Cinn A Bar and we all paid Carnival in advance to have 1.5 hours of open bar and dry snacks. There were a couple of drink waiters walking around with trays of all different kinds of drinks (Rum punch, wine (white and red) and several other kinds of mixed drinks. Beer was available if we wanted it. It was really neat getting to meet all of the people I’d been talking to all these months. Everyone was so nice and we had a really good time. I’m fairly confident we got our money’s worth in drinks too! Here's a group photo. I'm in the middle towards the back) wearing pink.

[kmflutist]

Since we had early seating and it was elegant night, it wasn’t long before we had to get ready, so back to the room we went. We just sat out on the balcony for a while, talked and read. Then it was time to get all fancied up. I'm sad to say I have no pictures of that evening. We posed for the photographers but none of them came out real well (my hair was REALLY not cooperating!). The one of me alone was actually the best but I wanted one with both Andy and I. We went to the Captain’s reception. Got to meet the Chief Engineer (I think that’s what he was called), some other officer and finally the Captain. He was very nice and chatted us up for a bit. I wanted to make the joke, "Who's driving the ship?!" but decided he'd probably heard that just a few times. :p While we waited to go to the MDR, I went to get in a round at the penny slots. I’d never set foot inside a casino before so I wanted to gamble 2 whole dollars. Big risk-taker, I know. In the end, I won 13 cents! Woo hoo! :cool:

Off to the MDR we went. I was so disappointed when I saw we were being seated at a booth for 4. DH and I are very social people and were looking forward to sitting at a large table with other people. We were told that another couple would be sitting there as well, so that made me feel a LITTLE better. The kicker? They never showed….. not once the whole cruise. :( DH suggested we ask if we could be moved to a new table, but it was already the second night and I didn’t want to be a bother. We just made the best of it and enjoyed each other’s company. Our head waiter (Yuli) was just ok the first night. She was professional and efficient but didn’t seem to have a lot of personality. One of the Asst. waiters was sweet as he could be – the smile never left his face. The other looked like someone had run over his cat. He was pretty grumpy for the duration of the cruise. Yuli warmed up to us (and vice versa) the following nights and we grew to really like her a lot.

Before we received our appetizers, the hostess came over to Andy and handed him a small piece of paper and said, “Sir can you sign this please?” He starts signing it without even looking at it! I said, “Ummm, what are we signing?” I mean... after reading the recent threads about people being banned for life for having an eyelash out of place, I was a little paranoid. Then she hands us a little coupon book with $50 worth of bar coupons! She said, “Someone thinks kindly of you both.” J It was my dad. He’s so sweet!

 

Service was fast and the food was ALL excellent! Up next.... food porn.... yeah baby. ;)

[kmflutist]

As an appetizer, I had the shrimp cocktail. Sure the shrimp were small, but they sure were yummy! I read that lately, people were only getting 4 but I was given 5 each night. Wonder if they're changing that. ?

 

I don't remember what Andy had as an app and apparently I didn't get a picture of it.

 

As my main course, I chose the Corn-Fed Chicken. It was very very good. Yuli questioned my choice since it was elgant night and they were offering the "good stuff" (i.e. lobster) but *gasp*.... I'm not a fan of lobster OR prime rib.

 

Andy had the lobster and shrimp which he said was excellent.

 

For dessert, I had .... drum roll please..... the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake! What a shock, right? Oh. My. Goodness. It was amazing... better than I imagined. I also read on a person’s review not long ago that she would always get 2 ice creams with hers so I decided to do the same. I was glad I did. The WCMC is SO rich and the ice cream really helps to even it out. I had to have a little bite of ice cream with every bite of the WCMC and they only give you one tiny scoop of ice cream. Gotta get two! Oink, oink.

 

Andy had the cherries jubilee. Booooooring. He said it was great.

[spideyfam]

Glad you had a great time (so far) on your cruise. Thank you for posting a review.

 

ps.. when is your next cruise??