Glory-NYC to Canada, August 5, 2013 a review in progress

[serene56]

 

It is about a 30 minute walk from the ship to the Citadel so a car might not be necessary depending on your overall plans. The walk will take you through the marina area and through the City of Halifax so you may not even need a car. It was fun and safe walk.

 

not with an 85 year old dad and my 7 year old Grand daughter who has a leg issue

[serene56]

I read on another post about taking your daughter to the piano bar.

Did you do that this cruise? how was it.

 

People are saying its too rauncy and the lyrics are too old for a child.

 

Did you find this to be the case>?

 

Never visited the piano bar but was thinking about it this cruise

[plk40atmc]

I am anxious to hear how FTTF works at embarkation out of NY.

[Silverspringcruiser]

I read on another post about taking your daughter to the piano bar.

Did you do that this cruise? how was it.

 

People are saying its too rauncy and the lyrics are too old for a child.

 

Did you find this to be the case>?

 

Never visited the piano bar but was thinking about it this cruise

 

James is amazing! He starts at 9:00 and it's kid friendly until 11, but he's playing songs for people who know songs from the previous century. After that it most certainly is not (that's when he brings out his very special bottle opener :D)

[BallFour4]

James is amazing! He starts at 9:00 and it's kid friendly until 11, but he's playing songs for people who know songs from the previous century. After that it most certainly is not (that's when he brings out his very special bottle opener :D)

 

"All Clear!" "Snot Clear!"

 

"Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, little ball of fur, Happy Kitty, Sleepy Kitty, purr purr, purr".

 

My pics from the Glory: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeusry/sets/72157634737480650/

 

 

.

[littlesnit]

Love your pics, BallFour4!

[kangaand2roos]

Looking forward to your review. We are on Glory Sept.2nd. I have been looking over past posts about how the entertainment is not that good on Glory.Please let us know if the Cruise director is "Active" with guests. Thanks

 

The entertainment was OK. We only saw the Divas show and the Hasbro show. We saw Jacques (CD) out and about quite a bit, but I think he will be off the ship by the time you sail.

[kangaand2roos]

James is amazing! He starts at 9:00 and it's kid friendly until 11, but he's playing songs for people who know songs from the previous century. After that it most certainly is not (that's when he brings out his very special bottle opener :D)

 

Annika did go with me twice and he kept it mostly clean (he did accidentally slip once and apologized profusely!) There was some innuendo and some pointed substitution of cleaner lyrics, but all implied stuff went over her head!

[kangaand2roos]

This may be broken up a bit because the real world (darn it!) is intruding into my post-cruise bliss...

 

OK then, where were we?

 

On Monday morning, we woke up before our alarms and I posted the description of our dinner at Harold's. We got up at a leisurely pace as we didn't want to arrive too early. We threw our stuff in a tote bag that would be left behind in the car, and loaded our suitcases back in the van. I pulled up my Starbucks app to find one as close to as along the way as possible, and to my delight, there was one right along our route to the Metropark station.

 

I got my last dose of crack...er, um...Starbucks before five days of abstinence. A Venti Iced Coffee for me and a protein snack pack and a chocolate chip cookie for Annika.

 

We got back in the car, and in 3 or 4 minutes, we were at the station. Because it was Monday, the parking garage was very full and we had to go up to the fifth floor, but eventually did find a spot. We unloaded and looked for an elevator. At first, we didn't find one and I was picturing us trying to get all of our luggage down five flights. Luckily, someone who knew the garage pointed us in the right direction.

 

We went down to the first floor and I got in a line to buy our tickets. It took a few minutes, but I got them and we made our way up to the tracks. I didn't find an elevator this time, but managed to get the bags up with a little help from another passenger. Our train was a bit late and we waited about 20 minutes.

 

We made our way onto the train and were able to get seats across the aisle from one another but there were none side by side.. I managed to get our suitcases up on the overhead racks. The train ride was uneventful and about 40 minutes long.

 

We disembarked the train at NY Penn Station and made our way up several escalators until we saw an exit to Eighth Avenue. We stepped out and immediately spotted a cab line and got in. It took a couple of minutes for our turn, and the cab driver helped us put our bags in the trunk. He was a little confused as to where I wanted to go, so I have him the exact address and we were on our way. Even in midtown traffic, it was a fairly short drive and we soon spotted our ship! He pulled into the drop-off area and helped us unload our bags. We headed toward the ship, and then we saw the name of the ship...

 

Splendor!!

 

Oops!

 

No big deal though. The Glory was docked just on the other side of her. We had a bit of a walk, but all of our bags were wheeled, so it wasn't a problem. We handed over our bags to the porters and big FTTF stickers were placed on our tags! We stepped into a huge elevator and went up to the floor where we would check in. We were greeted by smiling Carnival staff and quickly went through security. We had no wait whatsoever to check in, and were given out Sail-and-Sign cards; Gold for me, Red for Annika. We were directed to have our embarkation photos taken and then to a waiting area. It was about 10:30. We sat, and I filled out our Canadian customs form. At about 10:45, an announcement was made that hoarding would begin at approximately 11:15.

 

Annika had a chocolate chip muffin from the little snack stand, and we waited for another half an hour. At almost exactly 11:15, an announcement was made that Diamond, Platinum and guests of a particular wedding party could board.

 

I knew we would be next, so we gathered our things and prepared to get in line. We were the first FTTF passengers in line, but had to step out for a second because I hadn't filled out the ship name on the customs form. That done, we were the second FTTF group allowed through!

 

We made our way to thaw gangway! When we stepped of the pier onto the ramp, I squealed "We aren't on the pier anymore!!" Annika pointed out that we weren't quite on the ship yet, so I said "We are in limbo!!"

 

As soon as we stepped foot on the ship, we said "We're on a cruise!!"

 

Annika went first and handed her S&S card over to ding onboard and have her photo taken. I went next, and we were officially there!!

[serene56]

11:15 boarding started--yipppeee!! that is the time I am hoping for as that is when we should be arriving to the pier.

[chiapet]

Thanks for the review ... looking forward to more ... also wondering if you have any of the FUNTIMES to post too ;)

[clr315]

Excited for more more more. Doing same cruise on 9/14!

[kangaand2roos]

Thanks for the review ... looking forward to more ... also wondering if you have any of the FUNTIMES to post too ;)

 

I have most, if not all. It's just a matter of me figuring out HOW to post them (same as with the photos!

[kangaand2roos]

The most exciting single moment of a Disney vacation (my most frequent vacay) is driving onto the Disney Property. The most exciting single moment on a cruise is stepping onto the ship and into the atrium for the first time!

 

So, there we were! Amongst the first on board and in the very colorful (color is the ship's decor theme) atrium lobby! What to do first?

 

Well, of course I wanted to test and see if FTTF really worked. There were crew everywhere directing people to the public decks. As we approached the elevators one of them asked us where we were headed. I said, deck eight to our room. She nicely told us that the rooms weren't ready yet. I told her we had FTTF and she smile brightly and said "right this way, and sent us onto an elevator!

 

I will opine here that of all the benefits of FTTF, this was the one that made the extra money well worth it. We got to the port quite early, so would have boarded early regardless, but to be able to go directly to our stateroom and unload our carry-ons was worth their (the carry-ons) weight in gold!

 

We are in cabin 8209, an interior on the Starboard side, second to the front, behind the bridge. The layout was identical to the other interior I had occupied on the Valor 5 years ago. I had forgotten how ample the storage was and could easily have gotten along without the over the door hanger I brought along, though we did use it. My next cruise, my son will be joining us, so I will bring it again.

 

I put our cash and a couple of other items in the safe and placed our toiletries where they belonged in our bathroom. It took maybe 10 minutes and we were off to explore. But wait...

 

We opened our door to explore our temporary home, and there in front of us was one of our two bags! It was our wheeled garment bag. I brought it in, quickly hung our clothes, and stowed the bag under the bed with our carry-ons.

 

NOW it was time to go and explore!

[kangaand2roos]

Excited for more more more. Doing same cruise on 9/14!

 

Have fun! It will probably MUCH quieter. We sailed with about 3600 passengers (double occupancy is 2974) so there were a lot of people! I think I heard about 1000 in the under 18 category!

[naz022292]

We were on the same cruise. We were the family that went on the ship right before you! We also had FTTF - but they didn't put any stickers on our bags. That probably explains why we didn't get our bags very quickly. Many of the rooms all around us had their bags outside before we got ours. We got them around 3 or 4. Wasn't a problem - they must not have seen the little FTTF symbol on the tags. I agree that the best part was being able to get to the room right away. This was our first cruise but I would think it would have been a pain to have to carry around the bags while trying to eat, etc...

I did have to go to guest services once. There were two people working the desk and there was a line - so I went into the special line (no one else was there). The people at the desk helped two more guests while I waited, and answered a couple of phone calls - all while I waited. When someone came out from the back and saw me, she came over and told me that I needed to get into the line. I told her that I had FTTF and she told me that it was my fault I had to wait because I didn't "flash" the FTTF sticker to those working the desk. After that, on the only other occasion that I went to the desk, I just waited in the regular line. Wasn't a big deal anyway, it didn't really feel right that people should have to wait LONGER to get helped because I "bought" my way to the front of the line. I would have felt different if they had someone assigned specifically to help FTTF and platinum guests.

 

I also liked being able to debark quickly. That made getting off the ship easy and there were plenty of people waiting to help us with our (way too much) luggage.

[kangaand2roos]

We were hungry, so we headed off to the Lido. An easy walk up one floor and we were headed to food.

 

As we stepped onto the Lido, we were asked to pose for one of what would be many photos taken onboard. I know the photographers are an annoyance to some, but my little girl LOVES having her picture taken, so she posed with the ship's wheel.

 

We checked out the buffet and each selected a few things. It looked like the upper floor where I thought the fish and chips place was was blocked off. We ate our food at a nice window table and when I got my water, I was reminded how much I loved Carnival's Lido ice!!

 

We headed to the far aft area of the buffet to see what the dessert offerings were and I looked up. Voila! The fish and chips was open! I had just looked at the wrong part of "up-stairs!"

 

Luckily, neither of us had selected too much buffet food, so we walked up. I had the bouillabaisse, the Ahi with watermelon, and the ceviche. Annika had the fish and chips. It was all delicious and far better tan anything we had gotten from the buffet. We decided to go outdside to eat and sat on a couple of lounge chairs just outside of the restaurant.

 

When we were finished, we walked downstairs for Annika to get dessert. I think I said that I try to avoid gluten and sugar, so desserts would mostly be limited to dinner. Annika loves cake pops and to her delight, there were strawberry ones in the dessert area. We hoped there would be different flavors of these each day, but, alas, this was the only time we saw them. Unfortunately, the pops had raisins in them an Annika is NOT a fan of raisins!

 

I texted a picture of the ice to my sister-she is also a big fan- and one of our score from the fish and chips place to my brother. Yes, I was rubbing it in their faces a little!

[kangaand2roos]

We were on the same cruise. We were the family that went on the ship right before you! We also had FTTF - but they didn't put any stickers on our bags. That probably explains why we didn't get our bags very quickly. Many of the rooms all around us had their bags outside before we got ours. We got them around 3 or 4. Wasn't a problem - they must not have seen the little FTTF symbol on the tags. I agree that the best part was being able to get to the room right away. This was our first cruise but I would think it would have been a pain to have to carry around the bags while trying to eat, etc...

I did have to go to guest services once. There were two people working the desk and there was a line - so I went into the special line (no one else was there). The people at the desk helped two more guests while I waited, and answered a couple of phone calls - all while I waited. When someone came out from the back and saw me, she came over and told me that I needed to get into the line. I told her that I had FTTF and she told me that it was my fault I had to wait because I didn't "flash" the FTTF sticker to those working the desk. After that, on the only other occasion that I went to the desk, I just waited in the regular line. Wasn't a big deal anyway, it didn't really feel right that people should have to wait LONGER to get helped because I "bought" my way to the front of the line. I would have felt different if they had someone assigned specifically to help FTTF and platinum guests.

 

I also liked being able to debark quickly. That made getting off the ship easy and there were plenty of people waiting to help us with our (way too much) luggage.

 

That's funny that you were the ones right in front of us!

 

I used the guest services desk twice as well. The first time there was a wait, but only because the person in front of me apparently had an issue that took some time to resolve, but the regular line at that time was really long. The next time, I was helped immediately and there was a moderate regular line.

[chiapet]

I have most, if not all. It's just a matter of me figuring out HOW to post them (same as with the photos!

 

That would be totally AWESOME ... as we're leaving on Sat. and it would definitely come in handy before then! I know the easiest way that most people do it is by uploading everything to a FREE photo hosting site like photobucket dot com. Then you can just insert the images to your posts here.

 

In the mean time ... please keep your great review coming ... I'm really enjoying *picturing* myself in your place come next week ;)

[kangaand2roos]

We wandered about, checking out most of the public areas of the ship. When we saw the GIANT chess set on the Lido, I suddenly missed my son very much! He LOVES chess and would have loved this. The good news...tomorrow I am booking a cruise to the Bahamas on the Pride for February, and he is coming along! I still can't talk DH into coming with us, but I'll have both of my babies!

 

Annika loved the African decor in the Ebony cabaret and we took a lot of photos. I asked her to pay attention to the names of the rooms and see if she could figure out the theme of the ship. It took her only a couple of rooms to catch on.

 

Cinne-bar

Bar Blue

Amber palace

Black and white library, etc...

 

I'll take a moment here to say that we really liked the decor shipwide. The paintings on the landings between floors on the staircases between floors were so bright and happy! We loved the vibrant, heavy brush strokes. We checked out most of the landing artwork on our tour. We also really liked the glass art on the promenade (5th deck) that changed as you walk by it. If (when) I figure out how to post pictures, I'll show you what I mean!

 

And speaking of the staircases, we used them a lot! I doubt I used the elevators more than 6 or 7 times the whole cruise! I figured that it would make up for a few of the extra calories I'd be consuming! Annika just thought it would be fun. She delighted in "beating" me every time we went up or down more than one deck at a time!

 

We went. Back to the room to see if the second bag had arrived. It had not. I was getting a little concerned, not because I needed anything from it but because they had been dropped together and the first had come SOO fast.

[kangaand2roos]

Annika wanted to take a swim, so we changed into our bathing suits that I had packed in the carry-on, and went out to the pool. We found a chair a level or two up from the main seating area, put our stuff down, and went to the pool. There were a couple of kids in it, but not many. There was a DJ playing music and it was very festive. He played "Don't Stop Belevin'" and I told Annika I loved the song but it made me a little sad because of the recent death of Cory Monteith. The next song was "Sweet Caroline." This one I also love, but it makes me a little sad because my late mother loved, loved, loved Neil Diamond and any time I hear him, it makes me miss her. The DJ must have been taking a break because about the next ten songs were Neil! After the initial couple of bars of Sweet Caroline, I wiped away the sad and figured Mom must have requested the whole album to send her daughter and granddaughter safely to sea!

 

I mostly sat on the overrun area. It was beautiful out and I just king of basked in the Glory (get it...GLORY) of beginning my first cruise in almost four years! Annika played around and loved the dolphin on the bottom of the pool! I don't know how long we stayed, but it was long enough to hear an entire Neil Diamond album plus some other songs, so a while.

 

Eventually we went back to the cabin (or "cabinet" as Annika had called out stateroom on her first cruise!) still no bag. I hung the bathing suits (they never dried the whole trip!) and took a quick shower.

 

It was getting a bit closer to muster and sail away, so I decided to go to Guest Services to just check and see if they had any idea where my bag might be. I didn't complain and in fact told them how impressed I was thus far with FTTF. I was just concerned that they had been checked together and it had been several hours since the first had been delivered.

 

When I got to G'S, there was a family in front of me trying to sort out the S&S card for their toddler. There was an asst. purser helping, but it was taking a really LONG time. I could have gotten in the regular line, but it was really long, so I stayed put. Annika and Stitch (her plush Stitch toy has become a travel buddy and gets his picture taken more often than I do!) sat at a nearby cluster of chairs, listening to music and waiting for us. She took some photos of the ceiling, which changes colors every so often, and was getting a little antsy. Eventually I was helped and she called whomever handles baggage to inquire. She assured me it would be there, but was not sure when. OK. At least they knew and I could move on with the day.

 

We sat and spoke to a family in the Colors Lobby, listening to some music for a while, and then we commenced our tour. We went aft to check the walking track. I noticed the shuffleboard and again wished Charlie had accompanied us, he LOVES him some shuffleboard!

 

I took a picture and sent it to John, my DH, and told him to show Charlie after he came home from day camp. I called my brother (my cruise buddy on more than half of my cruises) and chatted a bit. I called John and told him I would keep the phone on until sail away and he should try to call when he picked Charlie up from camp.

 

It was getting very close to muster time, so we headed back, one more time to see if the bag was there. When we walked into our hallway we looked down and could see no bag in front of our door:( As we approached our door, we were greeted by our steward, Yadnya, and he told us he had just put a bag in our room! Woot! Woot! I would not be wearing the same underwear for five days!!!!

 

We shook hands and introduced ourselves. He seemed to be a very nice young man! They were announcing muster and I made quick use of the loo before leaving the room for Muster Station A!

 

On the ship's map, I had been unable to find out exactly where Muster Station might be, but as it turned out, it's pretty easy to find when there are several hundred other passengers all heading in the same direction!

 

As I said before, it has been nearly 4 years since I cruised, and one thing that I have to say is a HUGE improvement is that one no longer needs to bring one's life preserver along to the drill! :D. I used to dread muster, and I can't say it is my favorite part of the journey, but it is MUCH more bearable without trying to squeeze in 3600 life preservers with the 3600 squished passengers!

 

We were in the 3rd row at the very end of our group. There ended up being one or two rows in front of us. As muster drills go, this was one of the more pleasant ones. There was a crew member down at our end, and he was showing us the capsules that contain the life RAFTS, which are for the crew and different that the life BOATS for the passengers. He was telling us that there was food and water in all of the life vessels to last several (I forget how many) days for everyone in the vessel. Pretty darned impressive, if you ask me.

 

The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes from start to finish and when it was over I felt that little tingle that said "NOW, vacation has really begun!" As we were walking out with the rest of the herd, my phone rang. It was Charlie! John had picked him up at camp and I got to say one more goodbye to him before we sailed!, YEA! I told him that he had to come on the next cruise! He told me that basketball camp was AWESOME and he loved it! Yea! We were all happy campers!

 

Time for sail away!

[kangaand2roos]

Board the ship...CHECK

Go to room...CHECK

Eat and explore...CHECK

Luggage in room...CHECK

Muster drill...CHECK

 

Except a little unpacking (and I'm a pro at that!) the hard part was done!

 

Our CC Role call had not been interested in an official meet and greet, but one of the other members had suggested the aft deck above the adult pool on the port side as a good meeting place. He was traveling with his mother, daughter and son. A couple of days before the trip he posted a video of said daughter. As we headed up the stairs to the deck, a little girl was scampering down. She looked familiar! I asked "Are you Katherine?" She look mildly startled and said "yes" as she continued scampering!

 

As I reached the top, I saw someone who fit Big Daddy's description. I waved. He waved back. I opened the door and he said "Stacey?"

 

Stunning conversation, I know!

 

We made our introductions. I met his mom (first cruise) and was formally introduced to his son and daughter, who had returned with a foofy umbrella drink. I asked Annika if she would like one. I had given her charging privileges and told her she could get on on her own, but she wanted me to come with her, so I did. Her first umbrella drink of the cruise was a virgin daiquiri!

 

We went up and chatted without new friends. As mentioned earlier, the Splendor was docked beside us and as we stood there, we watched her sail away to the Caribbean! We waved at all of the happy passengers on her starboard side as they pulled away.

 

Our departure time came and went, and we didn't budge!

 

Finally, about 40 minutes late, the fog horn blew, and we were on our way! We stood and watched the Manhattan skyline slide past. If we had left on time, we would have been ale to see as we passed the Statue of Liberty, but we were getting close to our dinner time, and although we could have gone dressed as we were, we like to dress for dinner on a cruise, so we had to go. We said so long to our friends and made tentative plans to seethe for a while the next afternoon.

[kangaand2roos]

A some time during the day, I think after I spoke to guest relations, we went to the dining room to check out our table assignment. I very much prefer to be at a larger table with others, especially with only two of us traveling. We had a short wait, and the hostess told us we would be at a table for six. We were upstairs in the Golden (midship) dining room. Our table was the very first one you see when you turn left into the dining room. It was right next to the servers' station, which gave me a moment's pause, until I thought "I'm on a cruise! Someone else is doing the cooking! Who cares?!"

 

Now, back to our (ir)regularly scheduled program!

[NRichard10]

What does FTTF mean? I keep seeing that being mentioned, but I don't know what it is??

 

Thanks

[kangaand2roos]

What does FTTF mean? I keep seeing that being mentioned, but I don't know what it is??

 

Thanks

 

It is a Carnival add-on called Faster to the Fun! It costs $49.99 per cabin and it allows certain perks including: early embarkation- you board first after Diamond, platinum, suite, and wedding guests; priority line for guest services; cabin available as soon as you board; baggage delivered early; priority debarkation.

 

For us, the primary benefit was being able to go to our room as soon as we boarded. Schlepping bags around the lido is no fun, especially with kids!

 

I hope this helps!