Review Western Caribbean on the Glory March 2 - 9

[Heartfruit]

Who we are: We are a family of three. My husband and I are in our early 40s and our daughter is 9. We've been on two previous cruises one doing the Eastern Caribbean on the Glory and one doing the Canadian Maritimes and New England on HAL. We are mostly port cruisers, in that we pick itineraries primarily by where they are going not so much by ship etc.

 

This trip we were at a event in the Florida Keys and realized that if we drove like mad people back to Toronto, my daughter would still have only two days of school before March Break. This didn't seem worth the effort so we gave her a choice between spending a week in Orlando doing theme parks or a week on a cruise ship. She picked the cruise ship. We selected this cruise because the dates lined up well with our availability, it was inexpensive and we hadn't been to any of the ports before.

 

We originally booked an interior room but just hours before we left for Florida I got a call from Carnival offering us an inexpensive upgrade to a balcony room so we took the upgrade. I'm sure Carnival was hoping to convince us that we should never cruise again without a balcony but to be honest we didn't use it much. I would however get an ocean view room so we could get the same room lay out. I'm not sure we would have enjoyed the smaller cabin much.

 

We were staying in the Florida keys for the week before the cruise so we drove up to Miami on Sunday morning. We arrived at the cruise port about 11am, and quickly found parking right across from the terminal. We had FTTF, but it wouldn't have made much difference boarding. It was nice to stand in shorter lines but they were moving passengers though the terminal quite quickly and I'm sure we would have boarded maybe 10 or 15 min later if we hadn't had FTTF.

 

I did really like being able to go directly to our cabin to drop off our carry on as we had quite a bit of it. Then we went up to lido to get some lunch. We did the buffet at the Red Sail. It was kind of disappointing for my DD. The buffet promised Italian which to her meant pasta or pizza but their was neither. We ended up going to get her a slice of pizza afterwards because she didn't enjoy the food she picked up much.

 

After lunch we explored the ship, went to the safety briefing, did some laundry, watched sail away, attending the Camp Carnival orientation and my husband (who is training for his third marathon) when running.

 

IMG_0278 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

By then it was time for dinner. We had Anytime Dinning in the Golden dinning room but we almost always went down between 5:45 and 6pm. I was curious to see what the new dinning experience was like given everything I'd read about it on CC.

 

I didn't mind the removal of the table cloths. Although the table could get a bit wet around the water glass, our serving staff frequently wiped the table between courses. We really enjoyed the bread plates with the different ports on them

 

IMG_0293 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

We were informed the first night that in addition to what was on the menu, we could also order the "chief's specials" which for appetizers included soup-of-the-day (that night it was chicken noodle), tossed green salad or fruit cup. And for dessert were cheese plates, fruit plate and ice cream or sherbet.

 

We did have one big issue with the new menues. As I mentioned above, my husband is training for a spring marathon. He is hoping to run fast enough to qualify to run Boston in 2015. So he can't really afford to gain 5 pounds on a cruise. That said, he isn't exactly on a diet. On the days he does a lot of running, he can happily eat a 2000 cal meal, but he does keep careful tabs on what he is eating. When we booked the cruise the Glory was still on the old menu system, where the calories were available for the "spa" meals but this feature has been removed from the new menus. After the menus came out my husband phoned Carnival and was assured that calories for the meals would be available on board. Well to make a long story short they aren't. We had a long discussion with one of the dinning room staff and the best they could do to accommodate him was let him pick his meals the day before and then they could tell him what the calories in that meal were. That doesn't really aid in meal planning. And my husband was very frustrated by that. In the end he just made best guesses but it often limited his selections.

 

I had great intentions to take photos of all the menus and the food but I found I completely forgot once I was in the dinning room. I did take some notes on what we ate though.

 

For the record I rated the food on the following scale.

Excellent - I would happily eat it again, anytime

Very Good - I would likely order again

Good - Nothing really wrong with it but I might order something different next time

OK - It was fine but I'd probably order something different next time

Dreadful - We did not like it and would definitely order something different next time.

 

For dinner that night we had:

Me: Smoked Duck - Very Good, Grilled Mahi Mahi - Good, greek salad - good and Date pudding - excellent

DH: Also had the smoked duck and Greek salad but he had Flat Iron Steak - Very Good, and Strawberry parfait - OK

DD: Spicy Alligator Fritters - good but their weren't very spicy and contained very little alligator, beef lasagna - dreadful it had a wierd texture, and a huge serving size. She made up for it by ordering CWMC for dessert which must have been very good because she ordered it again later in the cruise:).

 

We were pretty tired in the evening. I sat out on Lido watching the Oscars on the big screen for a while then called it an early night

[CruiseGirlKS]

Great review....thanks for taking the time to share. :)

[Heartfruit]

Our second day was an At Sea Day. It started as a lazy morning for DD and myself as my husband was doing his long run (3 hours) that morning. Then we all got together for the Sea Day Brunch

 

DD: Eggs Benedict - good but a little too salty

Me: Huevos Rancheros - very good

DH: Fruit plate, omelet and the Hen Alla Diavola all of which was very good

 

I read for a while on the balcony and then went for a walk on the gyms tredmill. I also tried out the steam room in the spa and the showers. They were very nice especially since the shower in our state room wasn't draining too well (this was partially fixed by the next day). We also went for tea which was nice and then we napped until it was time for dinner. We'd been very busy for the whole week before so it was nice to have a day to mostly do nothing.

 

It was a cruise formal night. Most people looked like they'd made a effort although what everyone wore varied quite a bit.

 

IMG_0297 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

We all enjoyed the mango champagne/sprite toasting drink when we first sat down. And DH and I also ordered a bottle of wine with our meal.

 

Apps:

DH: shrimp cocktail - good

DD: chicken noodle soup (from the kids menu) - good but the noodles were really wide and hard for her to manage on the spoon.

Me: Spinach Salad - very good

 

The second course of pasta was a penne in a tomato based sauce with some other vegetables. (I know I'd seen some earlier feed back that both formal nights it was cream based pasta sauces) We all really enjoyed it.

 

Mains:

DD: pizza (again from the kids menu) good but oddly it didn't come sliced so it was a bit awkward.

DH Steak from the grill - very good.

Me: Sea Bass - good

 

After the mains my daughter excused herself from the table as there were Camp Carnival events she wanted to attend. There were four desserts listed on the menu but rather then taking our order they just brought out Hazelnut cake. It was good but not really what I was in the mood for and we were never asked that night if we wanted coffee or tea.

 

IMG_0298 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

After dinner we went for a stroll around the ship and then I went to check out the Diva show. I didn't go to any of the shows the last time I was on the Glory so I can't comment on how they compare to the older entertainment but I did enjoy it. I thought the two female singers were quite strong but their male counterparts seem to be pushing their range a bit. I was also struck that this style of show is quite influenced by tv shows like Glee and if that isn't your cup of tea, this might not be either.

 

IMG_0300 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

I think this guy was my favorite towel animal of the week.

[Dibleyboy]

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[Heartfruit]

The next day we were in Grand Cayman. We'd booked spots on the Rays, Reef and Rum Point tour with Native Way Watersports. (http://www.nativewaywatersports.com/) Grand Cayman is a tender port but the tender is a short one and the tender boats are really large. We didn't use our FTTF because there seemed no need. We were met as soon as we got off the tender by our boats captain who signed us in. We were a bit early so we explored around the port for a bit until it was time to leave.

 

IMG_0315 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Then we were loaded onto a bus for a short drive to the marina where the boat was docked. There were 13 of us on this excursion and the boat could have seated far more so there was lots of room for everyone. As we traveled out to the snorkeling area the crew passed around the lunch menu so everyone could make a selection.

 

IMG_0320 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

There were quite a few boats at Stringray City so our guides decided to take us snorkeling first and then to the Stingrays. They outfitted everyone in snorkeling gear. I've read that in the past this company didn't always have children's sized equipment on board but that seems to have been rectified. This was my daughters first time snorkeling and I didn't know how she'd take to it. She panicked a little when she first got into the water because she isn't use to swimming is such an open area but once I convinced her to stick her face in the water she was hooked.We had about 30 min to snorkel and then we loaded back onto the boat for the short trip to Stingray City.

IMG_0358 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

There were quite a few people around Stingray City. Clearly most boats going out there carry more passengers then ours did. One of our guides got into the water with us and showed us how to handle the stingrays. Where to touch and where not to touch etc. Once we'd all gotten a chance to look at them and pet them, he went back to boat for some squid. It was like feeding squid to a vacuum cleaner. I think there was enough squid for everyone to get two or three pieces (although my husband lost one of his to an enterprising sea gull).

 

IMG_0339 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Then we were back on the boat for another 20 min to Rum Point beach. My husband suffers a little from motion sickness and this was a little rough on him but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

 

IMG_0369 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Rum Point was very colourful. Our lunches were ready and waiting for us. The catch of the day was the most popular choice. My husband tried the jerk chicken which he liked a lot. I tried a bit but it was too spicy for me. We had about an hour and a half to eat our lunch, explore and enjoy the beach. Then we were back on the boat to return to the marrina and our tender harbour. All told we were about 30 minutes later arriving then estimated but we still had lots of time before the last tender.

 

We returned to our room to clean up and rested until dinner.

 

For dinner that night

 

DH: Orange and fennel salad - good. shrimp curry - very good

Me: Orange and fennel salad - good. Citrus chicken - OK

DD: Escargot - very good. Kids spaghetti with tomato sauce - very good (although the tomato sauce is not typical and might not please fussy kids.)

 

For dessert my husband had the chocolate panna cotta -excellent. In fact so good that he hunted down another serving later on the lido deck. I had the popcorn pot du cream which was very good except for the popcorn which was a bit weird and didn't add much.

 

There was not much that interested us on the evening entertainment. There was a Mardi Gras parade. We walked pass it and my husbands comment was "I'm not nearly drunken enough for that." Around 9:30 I wondered around trying to find something to do. The guitar player on the lido was good but not quit my style. There was a bean bag toss in the casino. The piano bar was basically empty. The was a lineup out the door for the comedy club. And the main show room was perhaps 1/3 full for the love and marriage show (I sat though about 5 min). After that I figured it was best just to call it an early night and headed to bed.

[KTaylore]

Thanks so much! We are taking this boat and itinerary in a few short days.

 

Any chance you kept your Fun Pages?

[crazycruzer68]

Enjoying your review, love the pics of the ship.

[Heartfruit]

The next day was Cozumel. It was a later port so another lazy morning. My DH did some running on the ship track, DD went off to Camp Carnival. We were slightly late docking so it was announced that we'd stay in port an hour later then scheduled. We grabbed an early lunch at the deli and then headed off.

 

The port area is really easy to navigate. I really liked that the taxi stands had a posted price list. It was nice to know we weren't going to get ripped off. However, both directions our taxis had questionable seat belts. Luckily it wasn't a long ride.

 

We headed to Chankanaab Park for the day. My daughter and I had a mid-afternoon booking to swim with the Manatee. We started our visit with a walk along the Mayan walking trails. There are loads of recreated Mayan artifacts. They are all labeled but unfortunately I didn't find the labels very enlightening.

 

IMG_0395 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Then we explored some of the other park features including the crocodiles, and the lagoon after which the park is named.

 

IMG_0402 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Finally we made our way to the beach. My daughter enjoyed the snorkeling so much the day before that she wanted to try again so we rented snorkels and spent an hour or so snorkeling.

 

IMG_0416 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Although there were several ships at Cozumel that day, the beach was pretty empty, there was no problem getting beach chairs and there was a waiter tromping back and forth bring food and drinks to anyone who wanted to order them.

 

IMG_0415 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Finally it was time for our Manatee swim. We had a good time, but it was by far the most commercial part of the park. They tried to sell us a photo package before we got into the water. I'm glad we didn't get it as none of the photos were very good. There were one or two individual shots that I might have bought if they were cheaper but not for $40 each.

 

That said, we got to spend about 30 minutes in the water with the Manatee. We feed them a pile of lettuce and got to hug, kiss and shake hands with the largest of the three Manatees. All the animals looked healthy and well cared for.

 

After the manatee swim we headed back to the dock area and did a little shopping before boarding the ship again.

 

Dinner that night:

 

DD: seared tuna - OK but too spicy for her, and the veal parmesan - very good

I had the flatbread - very good, seared tilapia - good with salad - good and beans - ok

DH: tortilla soup - very good and steak tacos - very good.

 

That evenings entertainment was more to our liking. We played Dr. Who trivia and then watched Despicable Me 2 on the lido.

[Heartfruit]

Thanks so much! We are taking this boat and itinerary in a few short days.

 

Any chance you kept your Fun Pages?

 

We did keep our Fun Times. I don't have a scanner but if you have any specific questions, let me know and I can look it up for you.

[Heartfruit]

Our next stop was in Belize. Here we did use the fttf passes to secure an early tender because the tender here is so much longer. We'd booked a tour of the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins though belizecruiseexcursions.com. They'd sent us very clear instructions on how to find them in the port. We paid the outstanding balance on our booking and hung around the port area until it was time to go. In addition to our family there were two other couple in the van with us. Once again, seat belts were a little hit or miss but we made do.

 

The roads in Belize are really really really terrible. Apparently they've always been bad but there was some flooding last fall that made them even worse. This caused my motion sick prone husband some discomfort to and from Altun Ha.

 

Our driver pointed out many sites along the route. And skillfully passed the two buses filled with the cruise ship tour to ensure we arrived well before them.

IMG_0458 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Our tour guide Richard lives not far from Altun Ha and worked on the excavation as a teen. He was very knowledgeable about the site and gave us lots of information about it.

 

IMG_0475 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

After our formal tour we were given 30 min or so to climb the largest pyramid, take extra photos etc and then we met Richard at a small local restaurant on the far side of the parking lot. There we were given our lunch of chicken, rice and beans, potato salad and fried plantains. It was really yummy.

 

IMG_0508 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

 

Our guide pointed out some places near the port we could safely visit when we returned but we were tired so we took the next tender back and rested until dinner.

 

We were seated near a window and dinner that night and were treated to a lovely sunset.

 

IMG_0612 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Dinner that night:

DD had cannelloni - she didn't like it but DH and I both thought it was very good. Then she had a chicken breast with Mac and cheese - both good

DH had flatbread - good, steak and greek salad - very good

I had the oysters Rockefeller - very good but small.and the salmon cakes with grilled veggies. The salmon cakes were very good but the not so much the veggies.

 

For dessert I had the carrot cake - very good and my DH had the mango cake - very good.

 

After dinner we all went to the Harry Potter trivia which was fun. Then DD and I went to check out the Hasbro Gameshow but it was kind of boring. Everyone wet to be then except me. I would have like to watch the end of Goonies on the Lido but it was raining. So I wondered around the ship a bit then went bed myself.

[2 cruzen]

Thank you for the review and rating of the food. We will be on Liberty in 2 1/2 weeks...with the new menus. :D

[mobydog]

Thank you so much for your review. We head out on the Glory on Sunday. I have a few questions for you:

 

How did your 9 year old enjoy camp carnival (we are taking our 9 year old son)? What were the best activities she enjoyed?

 

How did the port times translate to those on the ship itinerary prior to the cruise. We had the time change on Sunday so I am concerned how this will effect our schedule as some ports do not follow daylight savings time.

 

Were there any must do activities on the ship?

[Heartfruit]

Thank you so much for your review. We head out on the Glory on Sunday. I have a few questions for you:

 

How did your 9 year old enjoy camp carnival (we are taking our 9 year old son)? What were the best activities she enjoyed?

 

How did the port times translate to those on the ship itinerary prior to the cruise. We had the time change on Sunday so I am concerned how this will effect our schedule as some ports do not follow daylight savings time.

 

Were there any must do activities on the ship?

 

I was going to save our impressions of Camp Carnival until the end but I guess I can do it here since you asked. My daughter loved every moment she spent in Club HAL last summer and I know it was a contributing factor to her choosing another cruise for this vacation. But she didn't enjoy Camp Carnival nearly as much. At 9 she is at the bottom on the 9-11 age group but she often felt like the activities planned were to young for her. There seemed to be few 9-11 year olds in the camp so many activities had to be canceled or modified. She says the were a bit disorganized so activities didn't always run at the scheduled time. She enjoyed the camp a lot more on the sea days. I think more kids were around and the activities ran more to schedule.

 

Her impression that the activities were too young for her is giving me pause when it comes to booking Carnival for our next cruise. I can't imagine this will get better as they roll out the Seuss program across the fleet. The 9-11 years olds share a space with the 6-8 year olds on the Glory so I can imagine that running two programs in the same space may have been difficult for the staff.

 

I also had the impression that they saved the coolest stuff for the Night Owls program to encourage the paid participation. But as I said, we cruise so we can visit ports. I don't want to be dragging a child who was up until midnight around when I'm trying to enjoy a new place.

[mere08]

Excellent review. We, too, choose the cruise based on ports first, ship second. We make the most of our port days and rarely stay up late. Of course, traveling with a 4- 5 year old helps with that. I can't wait to read the rest!

[mobydog]

Thanks! I am hoping since we will be there over spring break that there will be many kids in his age bracket. We care most about the ports too and he will be there only intermittently. Our boys are always back to the cabin by 10 p.m.

 

Just curious...at any point did you change time on the boat to central time?

[Heartfruit]

So I guess I'm on to Roatan. We'd booked a private driver with Boden Tours (http://boddentours.com/). This was surprisingly economical, I suspect wages are not that high on Roatan. Unless you have serious mobility issues, it isn't as hard to get to the independent tour area as it sounded in the instructions. We basically had to walk up a flight of stairs and then 200 meters down the road.

 

Our driver was Kenny. I didn't have a firm plan for where we wanted to go. So we basically just asked him to drive us around the island and give us a tour. He did a fantastic job. He was very friendly and answered all our questions. The flexibility of having a driver was a really nice luxury, we stayed precisely as long as we wanted at each stop. No waiting or feeling rushed. We made several stops for photos and to stretch our legs. The first was from one of the high points in Roatan.

IMG_0513 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

There was also a little market there selling a variety of souvenirs. This is also where Kenny showed my daughter the sleeping plant, a weed whose leaves wither when someone touches them and then slowly spreads out again over about 5 min. This was the highlight of the tour for her.

 

Our next stop was at Mayan Eden, a little tourist zoo where we could see some of the animals native to Honduras. They had a butterfly house and a some native mammals including three types of monkeys. Admission was $10 each and that included a guided tour of the facility.

 

IMG_0578 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

We also drove past many of the beaches. The waves beyond the reef were pretty big that day and you could see how the reef protects the island. Kenny stopped so we could get a look at a mangrove tree. Apparently you can go to jail for cutting one down because they are so important to protecting the reef.

 

IMG_0603 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

We considered having lunch on Roatan and I know my husband was tempted at the thought of trying stewed iguana but we were only in port until 3 and we didn't want to waste the opportunity to see as much as possible, so we ate some protein bars we packed and waited until we were back on board for a late lunch.

 

Then we did some laundry and prepared for our second American Feast night.

 

DD ordered the kids Chicken noodle soup and spaghetti again as there was nothing that really interested her on the adult menu

 

DH had the 4 season salad - good and I had the stuffed mushrooms - very good

We both had the pasta course which was in a mushroom cream sauce. My husband enjoyed it more then I did but I think that was because mine wasn't very hot.

We both had the teriyaki salmon - very good as our main.

 

Again although there were several desserts listed they didn't ask for our dessert selection. My daughter even specifically asked for a different dessert (from the kids menu) when she first ordered but they brought out the sticky toffee brioche with four toppings. It was served "for the table" in a portion large enough for 4 big helpings. We were all too full to really enjoy much of it. If we'd been hungry we would have put up more of a fuss over not getting what my daughter ordered but she was stuffed full of spaghetti and was happy enough with a taste of brioche (which she declared tasted like cinnamon buns). We did get tea and coffee that night though.

 

After dinner my daughter and I went to pose for a couple of portraits. I don't get my photo taken very often (I'm normally the one holding the camera) and I thought a nice portrait might make a good gift for my father who's birthday is coming up. I didn't mind these photographers but we disliked the constant barrage of photos when were are entering ports, eating our dinner etc. We weren't interested and we weren't going to buy them but the photographers could be quite pushy sometimes.

 

Then we went for a before bed swim. The pool water was really cold. Upside Down was playing on the big screen. It is a sci fi movie with interesting premise and a dreadful plot. I watched it to end in the vague hope it would have a cool ending but it really didn't.

[Heartfruit]

Thanks! I am hoping since we will be there over spring break that there will be many kids in his age bracket. We care most about the ports too and he will be there only intermittently. Our boys are always back to the cabin by 10 p.m.

 

Just curious...at any point did you change time on the boat to central time?

 

We never did. The ship stayed on Eastern time the entire trip even though three out of four ports are in central time. It is something to watch for if you are booking tours.

[Heartfruit]

Our final full day was another sea day. The ship was a bit rockier that day then the others. It was the only day my husband had any issue with his motion sickness and even then it wasn't to bad.

 

After a light breakfast my daughter and I went to towel folding followed by Town Animal Theater. It was funny to watch my daughter during the puppet show. I could tell she didn't want to like it but she did. Not as grown up as she pretends sometimes.

 

IMG_0623 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Then we met my husband for Seaday Brunch which was more of a lunch for us. DD and I had the fruit plate -good and DH had the bagel breakfast - very good. If I find myself on another Carnival ship soon I might see if I can order the bagel breakfast without the bagel. The smoked salmon, cheese and tomatoes looked lovely. For mains, I had the steak and eggs - very good, DD had Mac & Cheese with fried chicken - good but she couldn't finish it because it was too big. DH had the same chicken dish he had our first sea day.

 

After brunch, DD went to check out some kids club activities while I went to purchase my favorite portrait from the photo booth and then I had a nap.

 

We went for tea mid-afternoon. No cucumber sandwiches this time but the lemon cupcake was delicious. I couldn't convince the rest of the family that team scavenger hunt was a fun idea so I just had a meander around the ship to take some photos.

 

IMG_0641 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

DD decided to eat dinner with the kids club so DH and I were on our own. :D We both ordered the flatbread and it was served "For the table". My only problem with this was it was the same size serving we'd each gotten when we ordered it on our own only now it was to share. For mains, I ordered the prime rib - good but rarer then I ordered. DH had the jerk pork - very good with red beans and rice and a baked potato. Oddly the potato came out uncut but then the waiter immediately showed up with saucers of sour cream and bacon bits. This cause DH to scramble a little to get his potato ready for topping. For dessert we had the banana bread pudding - it was OK but not what I think of when I think bread pudding. The accompanying scoop of coconut ice cream however was excellent. We also had the baked apple which was excellent.

 

I met up with my daughter for Monsters and Fairytale trivia. Much to my own surprise we won first place. Apparently no one else in the room grew up with a best friend who was obsessed with Watership Down.

 

IMG_0667 by Heartfruit, on Flickr

 

Then it was back to the room to pack and get a good nights sleep, especially given daylight savings was starting that night robbing us of an hours sleep. The Cruise Director was very worried someone would miss a flight and must have reminded us 4 or 5 time that day. We drove from Miami to Charlotte NC on disembarkation day so we used our FTTF to make sure we could get off as early as possible.

[Roimont]

We never did. The ship stayed on Eastern time the entire trip even though three out of four ports are in central time. It is something to watch for if you are booking tours.

 

Thanks for the wonderful review! So since the ship stays on Miami, when it lists times in port and says 8:00AM to 3PM since Roatan is now 2hours behind (they don't have daylight savings time) we will be in port from 6:00am to 1:00pm local time? Just want to make sure I booked my tour properly!

[KTaylore]

Thanks for the wonderful review! So since the ship stays on Miami, when it lists times in port and says 8:00AM to 3PM since Roatan is now 2hours behind (they don't have daylight savings time) we will be in port from 6:00am to 1:00pm local time? Just want to make sure I booked my tour properly!

 

I was just going to ask her the same question. I know we've been batting this around on our roll call.

[Heartfruit]

Daylights saving time didn't start until the morning of our disembarkation so I can't be sure, but I would assume that Roatan would be two hours behind. However, if you are booking an independent tour you can be well assured that they are very aware of when the cruise ships are arriving (not always so sure when they are departing). I don't always wear a watch but I keep on with me on ship time when we are on a cruise ship so I can be sure to get back in time.

[Heartfruit]

I'll wrap up my review with a few closing thoughts of our over all impression. It is very natural for us to compare this cruise experience to the one we had last summer on HAL so I'll include a few thoughts on that.

 

Dinning

 

Over all I enjoyed our experience in the MDR. I failed to mention above the excellent fresh bread basket each night. The bread varied slightly from night to night but each night there were 3 different types in our basket. There are glitches that need to be worked out with the new menu. It would be nice if all the available dishes were printed on the menu. Some coasters would be a good edition to the table seating on casual nights. And there are definitely some issues with service on the more formal nights. I didn't like that they didn't take our dessert orders. These were frequently the nights I would have liked something lighter (given it was 3 courses instead of 2) and I missed my hot tea and DH his decaf. We enjoyed the pasta but they didn't ask if we wanted it either. If someone didn't care for pasta, it would have still arrived.

 

The portion sizes varied wildly from dish to dish. This made it hard to judge what to order. For example: When I ordered tilapia I got one medium sized fillet. There was nothing else on the plate and I had to order side dishes to go with it. The same night my daughter ordered veal Parmesan. It was two large pieces of veal with a hearty helping of spaghetti. Easily three to four times the amount of food then was on my plate. We saw the same thing several other nights both with apps and main courses. I know that on a cruise ship you can always order another (although we might have missed evening entertainment if we had) and no one is going to chide you for not cleaning your plate but this still seemed out of whack.

 

I also found I missed the option we had with HAL to be seated with others at Anytime Dinning. When we would arrive in the dinning room at HAL they would always ask if we wanted to dine alone or with others. We mostly picked others. We met all sorts of interesting people. And I can make polite conversation with pretty much anyone for one meal. But on Carnival all the tables in the Anytime MDR seemed to be for 2 or 4 with very few for 6 in the middle. We especially noted this when we went for tea and were sat at a long table for 10. It was nice to chat with some new people while we had our tea and made us miss the option at dinner.

 

Another thing I found took away from the dinning experience was the interruptions to our meal by photographers and waiters trying to sell shots. I really wasn't interested (in fact I never saw anyone indulging in the shots at dinner) and I resented the interruptions.

 

Club Carnival

 

As I said above my daughter didn't like the kids club as much as she had last summer. There were lots of kids around but few in her age group seemed to be going up to the camp in the evenings. Things were better on the at sea days. I think part of the problem was the vary scarce program that was distributed. Often activities were described in a single word that didn't really describe much. They also pushed the Night Owls program, saving some of the coolest sounding activities for then.

 

Cruise Director

Dr E was a very different personality from the more sedate Cruise Director we had last summer but we found we really enjoyed his presence on the ship. Our whole family start to jokingly use his turns of phrase like "chow chow double chow" and I enjoyed hearing him sing out good mornings. I'd been warned before I left that Carnival had too many announcements but I didn't find that.

 

Evening Entertainment

Many evenings I was hard pressed to find much to do. Most of the entertainment venues didn't seem to have any activity before 10 or 11 but we were often winding up our evening then. Most of the shows in the main theater were of little to no interest. I might have seen one of the comedians but I didn't feel like lining up for 20 min to get in. Perhaps Carnival should consider putting some of the comedians on in the main show room and move say the Love and Marriage show to a smaller venue. We watched the movies on Lido several times but it was windy, the pool was cold, there were technical glitches with the screen and the movie quality varied widely.

[sammyjo882]

Was there a 2nd formal night? If so, which night? Also, when I was on the Glory before, there was a couple that sang just outside of the Casino. I think they were called "Summer Breeze". Are they (or another duo) still there?

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoyed your review and wonderful photo's.

[Heartfruit]

Was there a 2nd formal night? If so, which night? Also, when I was on the Glory before, there was a couple that sang just outside of the Casino. I think they were called "Summer Breeze". Are they (or another duo) still there?

 

The second American Feast night was held after Roatan. I don't remember Summer Breeze but that doesn't mean they weren't there. I didn't spend much time with the musical acts. When I did see music outside the Casino though it looked to be a trio.