Glory to Bermuda 10/16/11 Review

[NCTribeFan]

Right, so I haven't actually written the review yet. ;)

 

But I'm starting. I write it in Word so I can copy and paste both here and on the Reviews board.

 

Have to upload my pics to Webshots, too. Didn't take all that many this time.

 

I was keeping a daily diary on my phone but apparently neglected to save a full day's notes and was so annoyed with myself that I didn't keep up with it after that, and things tend to get blurred after a few days.

 

Anyway, I'll post a day-by-day with pics as I go.

[Prairie_Gal]

Looking forward to it. Hope you had a good cruise.

[NCTribeFan]

Background: this was my 14th cruise, 12th on Carnival. I’m a professional in my late 50s. DD no longer cruises with me as she’s finishing grad school and is engaged, so although she would gladly let Mommy pay for her to go on another cruise (she’ll be Platinum on her next), our schedules just don’t work out well these days.

 

I sailed Glory on 5/17/08, a Western Caribbean when she was home ported in Port Canaveral. At that time, I was concerned that she would just be too big with too many people and that I wouldn’t like her, but she really is a nice ship and has a good “vibe” to her. She’s clean, and the crew and staff (for the most part) are pleasant. More on that later.

 

Still, having sailed on HAL's Zaandam on a 14-day roundtrip San Diego to Hawaii last year, I was interested to see how I would feel about returning to Carnival and the Glory.

[NCTribeFan]

Saturday, 6/15/11, drive & pre-cruise night in Norfolk – I was in no big hurry, so left the house at about 10 a.m., after doing some last-minute packing. I had taken out several items from my cases when I realized that I was packing nearly as much for my 6-night cruise as I had taken for the 14 nights to Hawaii I did on HAL last November! I had decided to take a small case, a small rolling duffle, and a carry-on (which had to hold my allowed bottle of wine).

 

The drive to Norfolk was uneventful. I have to get through Durham before I can get on I-85, so that takes a little time. Once I left the interstate, the drive east on Rt 58 between I-85 (South Hill) and I-95 (Emporia) is very nice with beautiful rolling hills and farmland with not a lot of traffic. You’ll see a couple of actual cotton gins along the way.

 

I had done the Cruise to Nowhere on Triumph out of Norfolk two years ago, so the drive into Norfolk wasn’t too confusing. Found the hotel without difficulty. Had a harder time trying to figure out where the main entrance was! Got checked in, asked for a shuttle to the pier at 10, and headed up to my room, which was a nice king room overlooking the projects.

 

 

The ice machine on the 7th floor was broken, so I had to go up to the 11th to fill my ice bucket. I had intended to go out and walk around a bit, but it was incredibly windy, and while the sun was warm, the wind was quite brisk. So I decided to go to the bar for a beer. As I was the only person there, I had a nice chat with the bartender, Robin.

 

I met up with a Roll Call couple and we walked to The Jewish Mother for dinner. While the dinner was good, it wasn’t a jewish deli like I was expecting it to be. I grew up in Cleveland, and really miss getting to go somewhere like Corky and Lenny’s!

 

http://www.corkyandlennys.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=14

 

I had planned on heading back to the bar to watch baseball after dinner, but having had two beers in the bar earlier, and another with dinner, I decided that might not be the best idea. Found myself drifting off and actually went to bed before 10!

[cruiser fanatic]

Saturday, 6/15/11, drive & pre-cruise night in Norfolk – I was in no big hurry, so left the house at about 10 a.m., after doing some last-minute packing. I had taken out several items from my cases when I realized that I was packing nearly as much for my 6-night cruise as I had taken for the 14 nights to Hawaii I did on HAL last November! I had decided to take a small case, a small rolling duffle, and a carry-on (which had to hold my allowed bottle of wine).

 

The drive to Norfolk was uneventful. I have to get through Durham before I can get on I-85, so that takes a little time. Once I left the interstate, the drive east on Rt 58 between I-85 (South Hill) and I-95 (Emporia) is very nice with beautiful rolling hills and farmland with not a lot of traffic. You’ll see a couple of actual cotton gins along the way.

 

I had done the Cruise to Nowhere on Triumph out of Norfolk two years ago, so the drive into Norfolk wasn’t too confusing. Found the hotel without difficulty. Had a harder time trying to figure out where the main entrance was! Got checked in, asked for a shuttle to the pier at 10, and headed up to my room, which was a nice king room overlooking the projects.

 

 

The ice machine on the 7th floor was broken, so I had to go up to the 11th to fill my ice bucket. I had intended to go out and walk around a bit, but it was incredibly windy, and while the sun was warm, the wind was quite brisk. So I decided to go to the bar for a beer. As I was the only person there, I had a nice chat with the bartender, Robin.

 

I met up with a Roll Call couple and we walked to The Jewish Mother for dinner. While the dinner was good, it wasn’t a jewish deli like I was expecting it to be. I grew up in Cleveland, and really miss getting to go somewhere like Corky and Lenny’s!

 

http://www.corkyandlennys.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=14

 

I had planned on heading back to the bar to watch baseball after dinner, but having had two beers in the bar earlier, and another with dinner, I decided that might not be the best idea. Found myself drifting off and actually went to bed before 10!

 

Good review so far. Just wondering if you still have the funtimes?Thanks Nick.

Edited October 23, 2011 by nrrice
grammar

[jimbri]

Looking forward to your review. We are probably going to Bermuda in May ( might not be till November depending on work ). Not sure what line we are going on but would still love to see and read your review.

[NCTribeFan]

Yes, I have the FunTimes, but since this was a 1-time sailing, I didn't think they would be of interest to anyone so didn't think I would scan them. I might, though.

 

Have been doing laundry and unpacking. And I had to stop for a couple of hours to watch the final of the Rugby World Cup. Yay, New Zealand!!!

 

So I probably won't post more than just the next installment tonight. Sorry!

[NCTribeFan]

Sunday, 10/16/11, embarkation day - I was up early, like 5:30 am early. Had my shower, attached my VIP luggage tags, watched a movie, and finally broke down and had the other half of last night’s turkey sandwich (hoping that turkey with mayo sitting out overnight wouldn’t poison me!).

 

Went down to the business center and posted one last roll call and Facebook message, then checked out. The shuttle wasn’t ready until about 10:15. Roll call friends were already down there for their 11:00 shuttle, so when I was loading, I asked the driver if he could fit them in, too, which he did. It was a quick ride to the terminal (which is nice and new; not the best location for dropping off 3,000+ people, but, hey, you can’t have everything). You have to climb a flight of stairs or take an elevator up one level to the walkway over the water. As we were crossing over, an employee comes out and tells us to have our boarding pass and ID ready. I asked if there was a separate security screening line inside for VIP and she said they had a separate line both inside and outside. Well, since there was only the three of us and one other couple walking down the walkway, that wasn’t such a big deal, but she hands me this blue sign that says V.I.P. on it and walks up to where they have two lines forming for the outside security check. She goes to the roped off area, takes down the barrier and shouts “VIP COMING THROUGH” at which point I turn around and hold up my blue sign for everyone to see. It was pretty funny.

 

 

I was then directed to the right-hand screening line, where I was asked if I had any alcohol. Yes, I have a bottle of wine, and proceeded to pull it out of my carryon (it was in a plastic grocery bag) and she said, “OK, I can see that’s wine. Go ahead.” Once through the scanner, I got my bags and was directed into a separate room to the right. I had to sign in and take a seat to wait for check-in. There were about five desks, but only three were manned at that time. It took considerably longer to check in there than it would have had I just gone to the regular line, but my card was in that area, so I just sat and waited. A family of three plus parents came in. They were told that normally, only the VIP party could check in there (the parents weren’t), since the cabin cards aren’t there, but he’d let them stay since it was so early and there weren’t that many people checking in yet. She had to fill out the credit card form manually. Rather than filling out the health questionnaire, people were being asked the questions. When I inquired why, I was told that it was felt people would be more honest if they had to respond to a person and look at them if prone to lie about being sick. Just as I was being escorted to the waiting area, they were wheeling in water and lemonade. Didn’t see any cookies like in Ft Lauderdale.

 

So I was then sent out to the regular waiting area. They were still setting up the embarkation photo stations, so I found my roll call friends and sat with them. They had #8 boarding cards, but he had a cane and they were told they’d board after the VIP group. I only sat there a couple of minutes and then they called the VIPs. Since I was in the middle of the “other” people, I stood, held up my blue card, turned in a circle and stated “VIP here!!!” I’m sure there were some who thought I was being obnoxious, but I was just playing. Just having a laugh at my sudden self-importance. :p

[NCTribeFan]

Sunday, 10/16/11, embarkation day – continued – I skipped the embarkation photo, and rolled my bags up the gangway, beginning to wonder why I had thought it would be a good idea to carry on all my stuff. Stopped for the S&S card photo, then walked up to a young lady wearing one of the Ask Me t-shirts and said, “so, we can go straight to the cabins, right?” “Oh, no. They aren’t ready until 1:30. You can go up to Lido deck 9 for lunch.” “But, why aren’t they ready? You sailed here without passengers! There’s no reason for them to not be ready!” “I’m sorry, but the cabins aren’t ready.” Grrrr. So, I thought, hmmm, maybe I’ll just sneak down one deck (another reason why dragging my stuff on wasn’t so brilliant). I went around the corner in front of the glass elevator and thought I’d try again. There were two “Ask Me” folks; a guy and a gal. Same response. “But, there’s no reason why the cabins aren’t ready!” I explained that I really wasn’t trying to give them a hard time, and that even if the cabins weren’t ready, I was solo and dragging those bags up to Lido, then parking them somewhere, then leaving them unattended while I stood in line just wasn’t going to work for me. The young man then walked over to the Service Desk and started talking to someone. After a few minutes, he came over and quietly said that I could go to my cabin.

 

I was in 2217, all the way forward, in one of the 1As that have portholes. Every door was closed as I walked down the hallway, which tells me the cabins WERE ready. No, maybe every one on every deck wasn’t, I mean, I wouldn’t expect them to fill the ice buckets at 8 am, but I was pretty sure they would have done all the really necessary work the day before when the passengers disembarked in NYC.

 

Anyway, I checked out the cabin and saw that I had two large bottles of water as a gift. Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to the Platinum threads, because I wasn’t expecting that and had packed a couple of small ones in my bag.

 

 

 

 

I was up at the Fish and Chips by 11:45. When I went back to the cabin, my Deluxe gift from the Players Club was there. Nice! I unpacked and went up to the Spa to enter the drawing.

[NCTribeFan]

Sunday, 10/16/11, embarkation day – continued – I wandered around some more, and checked out the Serenity area, since that was added since I last sailed Glory. Decided I needed one of those great hot dogs at around 3 pm. I’ll tell you, whoever designed the buffet was having a bad day. There were some salad type things, then the chips, then the toppings, which included things one might want to put on a hot dog, then the hot dogs, then the separate container with the chicken strips and THEN the hot dog buns. So, all week, when they were behind with the burgers, the line stopped, and if you wanted just a hot dog, you got to stand there and wait and wait and wait. And even if the wait wasn’t long, how are you supposed to put things on you dog when you don’t have the bun yet? Nuts.

 

 

 

Decided I’d try the Thirsty Frog beer, which I quite liked. I don’t normally hang out at the lobby bar, but I was enjoying watching the mobs of people still boarding. I saw lots and lots of blue S&S cards. Don’t know if that’s because we sailed from Norfolk, so people who wouldn’t normally cruise could drive there easily.

 

 

Muster drill was at about 4:30 and was fairly painless, but I guess I just really don’t understand why people go to these, especially so many newbies, and then chat (loudly) with their neighbors through the whole thing. And the crew just stands there and let them ignore them. So, I went straight to the Azure bar (lido aft) for our Roll Call sailaway party. I got my one and only fruity drink of the week, the Funship Special in a regular glass and waited. And waited. At about 5:10, Josh came on and said they were still loading luggage and we would sail shortly. So I waited some more. Finally, we slowly started to pull away from the pier. And no one showed up who looked like they were trying to find a Roll Call Sailaway Party. I eventually gave up and went up to Deck 10 to watch us pivot and head out to the bay.

 

 

 

Had sushi at 6:45 which was quite good. Really thought the sushi was the best on this sailing of any, given the limitations of what they can provide. Then I sat and watched people on the Promenade and tried to escape the blasting bad pop music that was everywhere at all times.

 

I had late seating, Platinum dining room, table 330, all the way in the back portside corner. They had squeezed 9 place settings at what appeared to be an 8-top. There was a family of three (mother and her young adult son and her new husband), a solo gentleman and a solo lady. The other three seats were empty that night. We were there 20 minutes before the our head waiter appeared, and then he kept mixing up our orders. That was something I wasn’t used to. I ordered my usual tilapia, which was rather small and dry, and I thought the crème brulee had a bit too much sugar on top. I had brought two wine package tickets from my last cruise, hoping I could use them. The packages have changed, but the wine I get (the Pinot Grigio) is still on the list. I had stopped in Formalities and asked the young lady if I could still use them and she said I’d have to ask the Maitre d’ but I figured that would be silly. I’d just hand it to my assistant waiter and see what happened. No problems.

 

Went to the casino, found Alex, the casino hostess (I’ve had her before, maybe on my first Glory cruise) and thanked her for the gift basket and told her I had a casino cash voucher. She told me to go to the cashier window and get my cash, which I did. I then turned that $75 into $200. I had some luck early, but it certainly didn’t last the entire week.

 

I was in bed by 10:45.

[BettyPC]

I was in Durham today! Thanks for sharing your vacation with us. Look forward to reading the rest!

[Delta Dear]

Wow ! Wow ! Want to guess who ELSE is a Clevelander ????

When Tyna told me about dinner at the Jewish Grandmother, it took my taste buds back to Cleveland, home of the BEST corned beef, pastrami and chicken liver you can ever hope to eat. I KNOW we would have been comparing the food to Cleveland deli food, too.

Morgan loved corned beef when he lived in Cleveland. Back then, there were Jewish delis on every other corner. That was the late night snack after a Friday or Sat. on the town. I looked at the Corky and Lenny's photo and started drooling. LOL, and let's not even begin to talk Jewish bakeries !

When I grew up the butcher shops not only had meats, but they also had fresh chickens in crates so you could pick out your dinner chicken. ( I was born in 1942, so that gives you an idea of how things changed.)

You and I MUST compare Cleveland notes. Email me sometime at janelschool at aol dot com.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying your review. I can see what we missed out on.

For those who don't know, my husband and I were to be on this ship, but he ended up in the hospital for emergency surgery and an very bad infection. He was admited on 10-11- and just came home tonight.

[NCTribeFan]

I didn't know you were from Cleveland! I do miss the Jewish delis and the real Italian pizza joints.

 

Hope to write more tonight. It takes me forever to write these things because I really try to be thorough, and since I "lost" my extensive notes, it will take some time to try to get things straight. It does all blur together after a few days!

 

But I'm back at work, trying to get back to normal. :(

[jt_83]

Fellow NE Ohioan here, cruising the Glory in January to the Western Caribbean. Looking forward to seeing pics of the ship when you get them uploaded.

[NCTribeFan]

jt - I didn't take many pics of the ship, since I sailed her before; mostly just the cabin and the Serenity area.

 

You can find my first Glory review by clicking on my name, then stats, then threads started by me. Near the end should be a link to my & DD's Webshots albums. There are more ship photos there.

 

Actually, I have uploaded all I'm going to for this cruise to Webshots, but I'll post the link to the album when I'm done with all the narrative.

[framerman]

Looking forward to it

[golfadj]

Wow ! Wow ! Want to guess who ELSE is a Clevelander ????

 

When Tyna told me about dinner at the Jewish Grandmother, it took my taste buds back to Cleveland, home of the BEST corned beef, pastrami and chicken liver you can ever hope to eat. I KNOW we would have been comparing the food to Cleveland deli food, too.

 

Morgan loved corned beef when he lived in Cleveland. Back then, there were Jewish delis on every other corner. That was the late night snack after a Friday or Sat. on the town. I looked at the Corky and Lenny's photo and started drooling. LOL, and let's not even begin to talk Jewish bakeries !

 

When I grew up the butcher shops not only had meats, but they also had fresh chickens in crates so you could pick out your dinner chicken. ( I was born in 1942, so that gives you an idea of how things changed.)

 

You and I MUST compare Cleveland notes. Email me sometime at janelschool at aol dot com.

 

Meanwhile, I am enjoying your review. I can see what we missed out on.

 

For those who don't know, my husband and I were to be on this ship, but he ended up in the hospital for emergency surgery and an very bad infection. He was admited on 10-11- and just came home tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

Hope he is doing much better and you can cruise again real soon.

[TheCalicoCat]

I head to Bermuda in 12 days - Keep up the good work!

[JaniceB]

Really enjoying your review, still chuckling over the VIP embarkation.:)

[NCTribeFan]

The VIP thing was pretty funny. At least I thought so. There were probably some of those suffering from Platinum-envy who thought I was just being a jerk. :p

 

More to come! Soon!

[NCTribeFan]

Monday, 10/17/11, at sea – I slept until about 7 am. I had read that there could be some noise from waves hitting the hull, but I was a little surprised at how it sounded. I expected more of a slapping sound, but it was like someone beneath me had slammed a huge iron door – big BANG then a side-to-side shudder. Took a couple of times waking up to realize that it wasn’t actually some inconsiderate drunk slamming their cabin door! So I started my hike to the Lido for breakfast. I make every attempt to take the stairs the entire cruise. It’s the only way I can eat all that food and not gain weight. And, believe me, it is a LLOOOOONNGG walk from the forward cabins to the stern. I look down the hallway, and the exit signs on the ceiling just looked like they went on into infinity.

 

So I’d take the stairs from Deck 2 to Deck 5, then walk back to the aft staircase and on up to Deck 9. Whew! Once again, I think everyone realizes by now that the buffet layout on this class ship isn’t the most brilliant design ever. The omelet stations are in the middle of the two buffet lines, right in front of the stairs up to the supper club. The omelet chef (I think his name was Georgio), was great. He was so pleasant. I know I’m getting old, but am I the only person who walks up to a counter – anywhere – and says “may I have…”? All I ever hear from people these days is “yeah, gimme…” with no please, or thank you, or really anything other than a demand to give them more more more.

 

I’d like ham, cheese, tomato and mushrooms, please, well done. Oh and with about a half-pound of bacon on the side. Drank my cup of tea and headed up to the Serenity area to read. Settled into one of the regular loungers on the starboard side, forward of where they have the seating areas. I was the only person up there except for two couples way down by the “wall” where the Serenity meets the regular deck area. Now, I realize that when people are together, enjoying themselves, that sometimes they get a little loud. But these four people where just hooting and laughing and bellowing at each other as though they were the only people on the planet.

 

NOTE: you’ll read a lot of complaints from me about the noise level on this cruise (and everywhere from everyone these days). Yes, it annoys me. No, it isn’t necessary.

 

After a bit, I went back down to the cabin and put my swimsuit on and climbed all the way back up to get some more sun and read some more.

 

At about 11:30, I went down to shower, then headed to the casino to get my free entry to the slot tournament. My first try on Miracle was a disaster; I had the lowest score of my qualifying round. My second try on Fantasy, I finished as runner-up. Well, I was in the next-to-last round, and I had a terrible score. Oh well. Maybe next time!

[NCTribeFan]

Monday, 10/17/11, at sea - continued – If you’ve read any of my other reviews, you may have heard me complain about how Carnival’s ships don’t have deck chairs on the outside Deck 3. Well, recent reviews had mentioned these chairs, so I went out to see for myself if there were any. Port side had bunches, but it was in the shade and quite cool, so I crossed the lobby and went out into the sun on the starboard side. The chairs were all stacked up at the forward end, but there was a lone chair sitting there, so I plopped myself down in the sun and read some more.

 

I was getting toasty, and didn’t want to burn (even though I’d reapplied SPF 50 after my shower), so I decided it was time for my afternoon Thirsty Frog. Unfortunately, it was then time for Karaoke. I will say that I wasn’t fond of them having karaoke in the lobby in the middle of the afternoon. It just seems like a strange venue. And if you are navigating the ship, it’s hard to avoid the singing. There were actually some very good vocalists that I heard (and several not-so-good). But I was already beginning to get tired of NEVER having any peace and quiet ANYWHERE on the ship! So I took my glass of beer back up to Serenity and sat in the shade.

 

After having my mid-afternoon hot dog and fries, I decided I needed a little nap. Now, I’m not a napper. When I go to sleep, my brain wants to sleep for at least seven straight hours. But, for some reason, when I cruise, I can take that little catnap and feel refreshed. So I did. Then I decided to waste some time in the casino and see if I could resume my winning from the prior night. I did pretty well on a penny slot.

 

I went back to the cabin to get dressed for our first formal night. The phone rang – it was room service wanting to deliver my canapé tray. I had planned on having my usual pre-dinner appetizer of sushi, but figured the canapés would do quite nicely. They were very good – some smoked salmon on bread and some shrimp on something. Poured myself a glass of wine and headed up to the promenade deck to check out the folks in their fancy dress. Yikes! Some of these gals need to watch “What Not to Wear” because there were some really unfortunate outfits! The men looked a lot nicer, overall, imho. Of course, I was dressed impeccably and I’m sure I was the talk of the ship in my beautiful long dress that I bought at Nordstrom Rack for a bargain price! LOL!

 

I ate way too much. I had alligator fritters (ok but not great), stuffed mushrooms, strawberry bisque, and the lobster with shrimp. I think I was the only one at our table who didn’t have seconds of lobster/shrimp. Oh, and two more people showed up at our table – an older English lady and her younger friend. I won’t comment too much about them – everyone seemed enthralled at this woman and her stories, but I’m rather skeptical and found much of what she said to seem very unlikely to be truthful. But they were both nice, and their appearance livened up the dinner conversation considerably.

 

I decided I’d go to the comedy show at 9:45, but when I got there, the place was packed. I stopped at the lobby bar because there was a good latin band playing. Finally! That’s another thing I’ve whined about ever since my 2nd cruise (on RCI) where they had a latin band. I’d much, much, much rather listen to some latin music than the awful reggae stuff that’s played on Lido. But, naturally, just as I got my wine, the band was done for the night. So I went to bed!

 

[TheCalicoCat]

When do you get to Bermuda?

[gelo7]

Nice start.

[NCTribeFan]

When do you get to Bermuda?

 

Not until Wednesday! We took it really slowly going out and came home really quickly.

 

I know that they have to plan these things way in advance, but I really don't understand why we couldn't have arrived in Bermuda by noon on Tuesday. Yes, dock fees in Bermuda are very high, which is part of the reason why Bermuda cruises are so expensive, but Pride can get from Baltimore and back and spend 3 days there on a 7-night cruise. You would think we could've done at least two full days on a 6-nighter!