Review of Carnival Glory - August 11 to 16, 2012 - The post Noro outbreak cruise

[kimcheeboy]

Just got back from the 5 day Carnival Glory cruise out of New York to St John and Halifax. My girlfriend and I are avid cruisers with experience on almost all the cruise lines (RCL, Celebrity, Norwegian, Disney, Carnival). Now that I've finally had some time to collect my thoughts, here are some pros and cons of the cruise from how I experienced it.

 

Pros:

 

- The cruise immediately before us experienced a large Noro virus outbreak which delayed out departure. Good news is that I didn't notice any signs of a continued Noro issue. Crew did a good job cleaning the ship up.

 

- Though visibility overtaxed, our MDR waiter and assistant waiter did a great job. Took a bit to time to take and serve our orders, but it's was understandable.

 

- Spectacular illusion show on the last sea day. Best I've seen on a ship.

 

- Hilarious adult comedy shows.

 

- I got engaged to my girlfriend on this cruise =)

 

Cons:

 

- By far the worst sail away I've ever been on. Because of the delayed boarding (1:30PM), the muster drill took place at 5PM. After cramming onto deck 4 with all the other cruisers, we stood through what must've been a 30 minute muster drill. Specific attendence was not taken, but a manual count was performed (inefficient and inaccurate). Unbelieveably, the ship started pulling out of port half way through the muster drill, so by the time we were released, the ship was heading down the Hudson already. Literally got back to my cabin balcony with 5 minutes to spare to see the Statue of Liberty pass by.

 

- Line-ups everywhere. In the breakfast buffet, to get into the MDR. Although, the line-ups in the first few days were forgiven as the crew was serving in the buffet instead of letting passengers do it themselves (Noro prevention procedure).

 

- Recycled food in the breakfast buffet. Of all the cruises I've been on, this breakfast buffet had the most limited selection by far. Didn't even have smoked salmon, which I thought was surprising. The worst was the breakfast sausages. On the second sea day, the breakfast sausages were cut into smaller pieces and sat in a meat chili sauce (likely from the previous night's chili leftover). On the third sea day, the breakfast sausages were again cut into smaller pieces and stir fried with onions, hot dogs and italian sausages (again likely from leftovers). Finally got straight up normal breakfast sausages on the debarkation morning. I guess they finally ran out of leftovers to mix in.

[chipq]

Congratulations on your engagement.

 

I have basically written of the buffet quality to just an OK, nothing to write home abou. My last couple cruises, and especially this past June on Valor, the MDR food more than made up for the buffet inadequacies. How was the MDR food? I did eat lunch technically i the buffet area but had eithe the Burrito Bar or the Mongolian Wok and stayed away from the warming bins and the typical buffet items.

 

Welcome back.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[kimcheeboy]

Regarding the MDR food, it really wasn't that bad. Nothing fantastic, but nothing terrible. No escargot still (I assume from the worldwide escargot shortage stil). One thing I appreciated was the Maine lobster tail during the formal night. Not that it was that great, but it was nice not to get a Caribbean rock lobster tail like my previous cruises.

 

One thing does stand out in my mind regarding the MDR. On the first night, they served this amazing fresh dinner roll. It basically looked like a regular roll, but was made with pretzel dough. A bit salty, but delicious. I bake a lot of bread at home so I was pleasantly impressed and now have to try and copy their recipe.

[vivavegas]

Congrats on your engagement! Hope you were able to have some fun on your cruise!:)

[nukester]

congradualtions to the new couple.........................

 

God bless you both

nukester

[kathy884]

We were on the 8/6 cruise with the virus. DS had it for 24 hours, and silly me (I thought he was seasick until I heard the annoucements about it and remiders to wash hands etc. the next day.) By then he was on the mend.

 

This was our first cruise in five years. I had read all the reports about poorer quality of food and have to say I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the food. DH who is kind of a foodie really enjoyed the food too, which was a huge pleasant surprise. And there were things for DS a very picky eater to eat too (Still having our own kitchen at a house or condo is what works best for him.) He had plenty to eat, but doesn't when eating out eat enough fruits and vegtables.

 

For breakfast, though, I just got yogert and fresh fruit. The breakfast buffet didn't look great. What I just loved for lunch were their big yummy hot dogs. I don't know where they get them, but I'd love to get some. Wouldn't have even tried them except DS didn't finish the second one he went back for and after taking a few bites of that I was hooked. I sort of sticked to what I found that I liked. Other buffet food was definately edible, but nothing to write home about. We were all pleasantly surprised by the main dining room for dinner // found things on the menu that we enjoyed every night. And I'm not a dessert person, but on three of the five days tried a dessert from the buffet later in the evening, and boy were they good (not too sweet). On these three days I went for a second dessert at the buffet too. And good news too. I'm trying to watch what I eat / loose a little weight and this cruise only set me back 1 pound.

[ZoeyVictoria]

One thing does stand out in my mind regarding the MDR. On the first night, they served this amazing fresh dinner roll. It basically looked like a regular roll, but was made with pretzel dough. A bit salty, but delicious. I bake a lot of bread at home so I was pleasantly impressed and now have to try and copy their recipe.

 

You can purchase a bag of pretzel rolls from Costco. Sixteen in a bag for $6.49. I had a sample (spread with spinach dip) that was absolutely wonderful, but I made the mistake of looking at the nutritional info before I purchased some. 200 calories and 37 grams of fat in each one of those little things :( I will have to wait until my next cruise to enjoy another pretzel roll - I eat anything I want on cruise ships, but not at home.

[mibarron]

I'll be on the Glory on Monday. I probably shouldn't have the Cons portion of this post. Now I'm starting to worry a little...