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Glory to New England & Canada Synopsis 10/8/2011

crisperjr

By crisperjr,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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We were on the Glory the week before you,

. You had much better weather than us.

 

 

Our cruise director (Josh?) mentioned at our past guest party that our cruise had had the best weather of any of the other cruises during the season. I had read many reviews here telling of cold or foggy, or rainy ports. I really was dreading that. Really glad for us, so sorry for all of you who couldn't enjoy all the ports.

 

Oliver

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Crusin Karen

Crusin Karen

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We have done the St. John/Halifax cruise 3x (didn't go to Boston or Maine) and ALWAYS had stinky weather. :mad: And we went in the SUMMER! :rolleyes: So it's nice to see how pretty the area can be. I went to college in Beverly, MA (Endicott) near Boston and I always loved the area. Thanks for sharing this with us. :)

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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We re-boarded the ship at about 5pm. Time for a celebratory bottle of champagne! Wife and I each brought aboard a bottle of the bubbly in our carry on bags. We also purchased one bottle of Tequila from Bob-Voyage which was in our cabin when we boarded in New York.

For those of you who have taken this cruise before and visited Halifax then you can recall that the ship sits real close to the cruise terminal. Maybe 20 ft from it. On our deck (deck 6) we were about 2 stories above the roof of the terminal building, so we could see the city. My wife took her bottle of champagne, and while standing in the balcony doorway popped that cork. It traveled waaayyyy over onto the roof of the terminal building. :D What was so funny about that? The huge thundering applause and hoots & hollers we heard from other passengers who all saw it!

In addition to the champagne, we also brought a few small bottles of Coke Zero (for me) and some flavored water (for wife) which were in our checked baggage. We use a small inflatable "cooler" which holds, 1 champagne, plus 1 water bottle, and about 2 coke bottles. Our room attendant dutifully kept our cooler filled with ice twice a day.

We also brought 2 empty bottles of orange juice. Each morning after breakfast in the main dining room, I would order 2 large glasses of OJ, and take them back to the room where wife would pour them into the empty bottles. We kept those as mixers, in the mini fridge. (Main dining room OJ is much better then the buffet OJ!)

As we began pushing away from Halifax, our bagpiper AND his snare drum "attendant" gave us a farewell serenade. It is now dark, and the ride out of port is almost pitch black. But ahead we can see one lone light. It's revolving! It's the lighthouse from Peggy's Cove! We cannot see the shore line at all, its just too dark, but you could sure see that light!

Our dinner was great! Now using anytime dining, depending on what time you choose to sit, you may miss those singing and dancing waiters. In our case, arriving at about 7:30, we had missed the early seating "performance". The next one was at 9pm (we asked). So even though we had finished eating by around 8:45, we waited to watch. Yeah, it's kinda of hokey (the dancing) but it's still fun to watch.

When we got back to our cabin I think we scared our last towel animal to death!

DSC09269.jpg

Our last sea day next....

Oliver

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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Thanks for your review!

 

Do you have more pics of your room and balcony? We'll be on the Glory next week in a balcony on deck 6 so would love to see them!

 

 

I have a video of the cabin #6429. You are welcome to watch it. It is posted on Photobucket, which I have not yet opened to the public.

 

But, since you are leaving next week, send me your e-mail, and I'll send you the invite from Photobucket.

 

 

Oliver

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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Friday, our final full day, and a day at sea. Nasty, nasty, nasty day. Rain, and lots of it! Really raining hard, and windy too. And we were pitching and heaving too!

We ordered a light breakfast from room service this morning. had hoped to eat out on the balcony, but it's soaked, the chairs are soaked, and unfortunately, the Carnival towels we left out there are soaked too. :(

Played some more hearts up at the Fish & Chips later in the morning. Apparently, this was the place to go, as we had many, many other folks playing cards, domino's, or board games.

After lunch, in which we ate in the dining room (I had a great burger there!) I headed to the aft pool area, to read. My wife settled in to watch The Green Hornet in our cabin. Around 2pm, it looked like skies were brightening up a bit, so I returned to the cabin, dried off the balcony chairs, and read some more. Ahead of us I could see the RCCl ship Jewel of the Seas. They had visited a couple of the same ports as us, the last being Halifax. In front of the Jewel was a massive dark line of storms. I figured I had maybe, an hour before it would start raining again. Just then the Jewel disappeared! I mean, Poof -- gone! Like in that movie Final Countdown, with the aircraft carrier that goes back in time. They had entered that dark storm cloud. :eek: About 30 min later, we entered it, lots of HEAVY rain.

By 4:30 though, the clouds parted, and the sun came out! We had a real nice sunset.

After our final dinner aboard (we all had the prime rib, mmmmm) we returned to our cabin to pack. We elected to do the self-debark, after looking over the projected debarkation schedule in the Fun Times. If we set our bags out and wait for our zone to be called it would be in the 10:30am time range. If we self -debark, it would be around 8:30am. We'd rather get on the road then sit around and do nothing. So we kept the bags in the cabin.

In the morning, I awoke around 6am and watched us sail up the river with the New York skyline all lit up. We docked right at 7am, and we were in the car by 8:30am

Debarkation was very smooth. We just stayed in our cabins until our Deck 6 was called. Then went down to deck 3, encountered no line, and proceeded to security. No line there either.

A wrap up next......

 

 

 

Oliver

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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We took in as much of the Glory as we had time (and energy) to do. We spent time in the Serenity hot tub, had drinks, and snacks a couple of times mid deck in front of the big screen. Ate in both the Red Sail (buffet) as well as the main dining rooms (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the fish & chips.

We shopped the shops. Well, I didn't but the ladies did. Even bought some of the photographs Carnival took. (We NEVER usually do that)

Also went up to the forward section of Glory thru the "secret door" (on decks 6 & 7)

This was the view from this area looking out in Saint John

DSC09205.jpg

 

This is a great place to go at night (if it's not rainy, of foggy) to stargaze. There are no lights out here to interfere with your view, plus, almost no one ever goes up here, so it's usually empty.

This was a cruise that almost didn't happen. The four of us had already book a cruise out of Baltimore on the Pride for Nov 2012 (did that back in Dec 2010). We were not planning on cruising in 2011 as our DS was getting married, plus we had other obligations to follow through on during the year.

Wife had suggested that we might take a long weekend early fall trip to the beach (We live about 4 hours from Ocean City MD). So I looked on line for info. Well, after adding up, hotels, meals, transportation, and other incidentals, my wife said, Shoot, might as well take a cruise then. ;)

How about Canada, Eh?

Thanks for reading!

Oliver

Two brothers up on the Serenity Deck (I'm on the left)

DSC09211.jpg

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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I thoroughly enjoyed your review also, and it really makes me excited about doing the same cruise in October 2012. I have heard about "secret doors," and I'd love to know more about the secret doors you found on decks 6 and 7. Nancy

 

 

The "secret" door on the Glory is an exit to a forward viewing deck.

 

On decks 6 & 7 walk all the way towards the front of the ship (Yes, all along the cabins in the hallway) When the hallway ends you will see a door on your right (or left, depending on whether you went up the even or odd side) Exiting out this door puts you on an observation mini deck below the Bridge. There are no chairs, or anything else up here.

 

Note: When you are sailing it is VERY windy! Be careful, I about had by arm ripped off going out there when we cruised on the Freedom last year! :eek:

 

 

Thank you everyone, for reading my review!

 

 

Oliver

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luvdmouse57

luvdmouse57

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I've enjoyed reading your review. I picked it out because we are taking the same cruise on the Glory in September of 2012. I'm going to read through it again later when I have more time.

 

I noticed that you drove to NYC & parked at the port. We are driving to NYC from Kansas & have lots of questions about where the port is, driving in NYC, motels around the NYC area, etc. Being from Kansas, we're a little (make that a LOT) nervous about driving in NYC. Any help that you could give us would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Karla

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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I've enjoyed reading your review. I picked it out because we are taking the same cruise on the Glory in September of 2012. I'm going to read through it again later when I have more time.

 

I noticed that you drove to NYC & parked at the port. We are driving to NYC from Kansas & have lots of questions about where the port is, driving in NYC, motels around the NYC area, etc. Being from Kansas, we're a little (make that a LOT) nervous about driving in NYC. Any help that you could give us would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Karla

 

 

I can't help with you about motels as we drove straight up from DC. But I'm sure others here can help.

 

We stuck with our GPS, and it took us directly to the cruise terminal. As for driving in New York, well there are LOTS of people everywhere, and LOTS of traffic everywhere. What can I tell ya. The approach to the turn off for the cruise is clearly marked. Once you go up the ramp to the parking area, you are greeted by the "gatekeeper" who will collect your money for parking. They then ask what cruise line you are sailing, and will direct you to the correct parking area.

 

Once in the parking area, there is a drop off zone, where my self and the ladies got all the bags off, gave them to the porter, and waited for my brother to park the car.

 

Oliver

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luvdmouse57

luvdmouse57

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Knowing that the terminal is well marked helps. It sounds like that part will be easy enough for us.

 

We went to Seattle for an Alaskan cruise with HAL in September. This is probably part of the reason that we are so nervous about driving to the port for the next cruise. The terminal was not listed in the GPS so we used the address for the terminal. It sent us to a residential area. There were no signs telling us where we needed to go. We could see the ship, just couldn't get there. We finally found a Starbucks with free internet (they're on every street corner in Seattle EXCEPT for the area we were in), unpacked the computer & went to the website for directions. All 4 of us (DB & his wife went with us on this one) were so frustrated when we finally got there. Thank goodness the cruise was great! It made up for the frustration of getting there.

 

We're hoping to find a hotel that has a parking & ride program to park the van & take a shuttle, taxi or service to port but haven't had much luck yet. I still have 9 months for my research.

 

Thanks for the help.

Karla

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crisperjr

crisperjr

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Loved your video! it's making us more excited about the cruise next year! Well except for having to drive in NYC.

 

Moegr, If you decide to go on the September 8-15, 2012 cruise, there is a roll call set up. It's the one that we are going on.

 

Karla

 

 

I am not a big fan of driving in New York (Or, DC either - and I live here!) But using the GPS was quite painless, and we had NO problems reaching the terminal.

 

 

Oliver

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