Carnival Glory April 18-25- Review including lots of pictures!

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

We were scheduled to dock in San Juan at 1pm. However, we were late. It was 1:40 before they started allowing people off the ship. Unfortunately, everybody wanted off at the same time or that's how it seemed. They came from elevators and stairs and all tried to converge at one spot to get off the ship. It was after 2 before we got off. I'm glad we didn't have an excursion booked.

 

We had planned to see San Juan on our own and just walk around or use the hop on hop off trolley. We left the port and started to walk. And got ambushed! It was almost as bad as Jamaica. It was all taxi/tour people wanting to take you on a tour. I swear we got approached by 20 different drivers before we cleared that area. After we got away from them though, we were never bothered again.

 

We walked a ways and then saw a tourism lady and asked her where to get the trolley. Turns out there was a stop right where we were. So we waited and it came about 5 minutes later.

 

I believe there were 14 stops on that trolley and the one we got on at was #14. When I had researched this, it had said that it took your all around the outside of San Juan and stopped at the forts. It did not do this. It took us through some of the streets of Old San Juan and picked up so many people that it was standing room only. When we got to #13 we decided we better get off or we were going to end up back where we started! We were at the bottom of the hill that leads up to San Cristobel Fort.

 

Here is the sign for the trolley that we took (below). I saw another trolley later stop right in front of San Cristobel and I wonder if that was the one we should have been on. It was more like a little train and less like the bus that we had been on earlier.

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

We spent some time in the fort. San Juan and the forts were something that my husband was really looking forward to on this cruise. I am not really into history but explored San Cristobel for his sake and to say I had been there. I wouldn't be a silly person who went to San Juan and didn't go to A fort. Yes thats right I said A. As in 1 fort. We had agreed ahead of time that 2 forts would not be on the agenda. My kids were very bored as I had fully expected they would be. And my mother had already been to San Juan on a previous cruise.

 

Here are few shots at San Cristobel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fab4cruisers]

Thank you for your review. We are doing this at the end of June. We are also staying at the Holiday Inn port of Miami and my girls want to go to Bubba Gump. Thanks for the tips. One question how do I research the Trolley? I want to just walk around Old San Juan. My mother has a bad knee and was wondering if is doable for my mom. Any advice is greatly appreciated. :)

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

Thank you for your review. We are doing this at the end of June. We are also staying at the Holiday Inn port of Miami and my girls want to go to Bubba Gump. Thanks for the tips. One question how do I research the Trolley? I want to just walk around Old San Juan. My mother has a bad knee and was wondering if is doable for my mom. Any advice is greatly appreciated. :)

 

I got most of my info from the San Juan board on cruise critic. I would probably look at a Puerto Rico tourism site to find about more about the trolleys. Unfortunately, our day in San Juan wasn't great. Not because it's not a good port but because of lack of proper planning and research. I think we are people who need the structure of an organized tour.

 

Also not getting off until 2pm didn't leave a lot of time to explore. Time goes fast and it gets dark early (in April anyway). I didn't want to be there after dark.

[Anthomaniac]

Sounds like you got on the commuter trolley, there are several that use the same stops.

[RenoNanaOz]

;)

After dinner, we went to big screen trivia. The theme was famous landmarks.

 

Hasbro The Game Show Part 1 was next. This was our first encounter with Adam, the Cruise Director. He was the host of the show. We also got to see Hugo, who is the Assistant Cruise Director.

 

I didn't really like or dislike Adam, if that makes any sense! He does his job well. My husband felt that Adam was a bit arrogant and Hugo's english wasn't good enough for him to be an assistant cruise director. However, you should know my husband is a very critical person :). He liked Gentry and Puff though...go figure. A Man likes the women better than the men. Not surprising.

 

Personally, I liked Hugo better than Adam. I found him entertaining, funny and down to earth. He reminded a bit of Matt Leblanc (who isn't Mexican but thats who he reminded me of). I think I recall him saying he was new at being assistant cruise director.

 

Anyways...the Hasbro Game Show was entertaining. My 11 year old desperately wanted to get picked but Adam seemed to pick really small children who could barely play the game which didn't make a lot of sense. Why pick a 3 year old to play Scattergories?

 

We just got off the Glory yesterday and had Adam as well. I though the was great. He was very personable and approachable. We noticed he was everywhere, very popular with he young ladies ;) This is why I love reviews, different point of views. Looking forward to reading the rest. I will be doing mine soon.

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

;)

 

We just got off the Glory yesterday and had Adam as well. I though the was great. He was very personable and approachable. We noticed he was everywhere, very popular with he young ladies ;) This is why I love reviews, different point of views. Looking forward to reading the rest. I will be doing mine soon.

 

I would have to agree about him being popular with the young ladies. If I was 28 (Adam mentioned he is 28 in one of the shows), I'm sure I would have liked him very much too. And I didn't not like him. He was ok. Opinions will vary yes. What did you think of the other members of the entertainment staff?

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

I would have to agree about him being popular with the young ladies. If I was 28 (Adam mentioned he is 28 in one of the shows), I'm sure I would have liked him very much too. And I didn't not like him. He was ok. Opinions will vary yes. What did you think of the other members of the entertainment staff?

 

While still on the topic of the entertainment staff, my husband and I had a discussion about how often the staff (especially the visible "celebrities" like the cruise directors) have sexual encounters with passengers. I said I'm sure it is not allowed but my husband speculated that it probably goes on anyway. He wanted to go to the Q&A session and ask them but we never made it there. What are everyone's thoughts on this subject?

[LitchfieldParkCruisers]

Thanks for sharing!! We board the Glory on May 30th, and can't wait!!!!

 

LPC

[Jenny in TX]

After dinner, we went to big screen trivia. The theme was famous landmarks.

 

Hasbro The Game Show Part 1 was next. This was our first encounter with Adam, the Cruise Director. He was the host of the show. We also got to see Hugo, who is the Assistant Cruise Director.

 

I didn't really like or dislike Adam, if that makes any sense! He does his job well. My husband felt that Adam was a bit arrogant and Hugo's english wasn't good enough for him to be an assistant cruise director. However, you should know my husband is a very critical person :). He liked Gentry and Puff though...go figure. A Man likes the women better than the men. Not surprising.

 

Personally, I liked Hugo better than Adam. I found him entertaining, funny and down to earth. He reminded a bit of Matt Leblanc (who isn't Mexican but thats who he reminded me of). I think I recall him saying he was new at being assistant cruise director.

 

Anyways...the Hasbro Game Show was entertaining. My 11 year old desperately wanted to get picked but Adam seemed to pick really small children who could barely play the game which didn't make a lot of sense. Why pick a 3 year old to play Scattergories?

 

I agree with you on Adam. He was fine but nothing really stood out. I on the other hand loved Hugo. I love his accent and thought he was so personable. We really liked Fluffy too!

[Jenny in TX]

Thank you for your review. We are doing this at the end of June. We are also staying at the Holiday Inn port of Miami and my girls want to go to Bubba Gump. Thanks for the tips. One question how do I research the Trolley? I want to just walk around Old San Juan. My mother has a bad knee and was wondering if is doable for my mom. Any advice is greatly appreciated. :)

 

We were on this same cruise and we stayed at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami. It is a great location and Bubba Gump is right across the street. It will be the first restaurant you come to when you walk in Bayside Marketplace.

 

My husband and I walked all over San Juan when we got off the ship. I printed a walking guide off the internet before we went and we walked to El Morro and toured that and then walked all over San Juan and hit all the high points. We figured we easily walked 5-7 miles that day. We had dinner at a rooftop restaurant that I had seen very good reviews for. We got there right before sunset and it was really beautiful and the food was amazing. We didn't get back on board until about 9:30. We did talk about the fact that if our parents had been with us we would have had to do a tour probably because it was too much walking for them and a lot of the walking is uphill.

[RenoNanaOz]

I would have to agree about him being popular with the young ladies. If I was 28 (Adam mentioned he is 28 in one of the shows), I'm sure I would have liked him very much too. And I didn't not like him. He was ok. Opinions will vary yes. What did you think of the other members of the entertainment staff?

We didn't really notice many others, except the girl that did the absolute awful Miss Carnival Glory contest. So long, boring and really tacky, I suppose she was only following the direction of Adam so not her fault. I will say that all of the staff were very friendly with exception of some young "I'm all that" kid named Kole at Muster.

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

After we left the fort we wandered around for a while. The cobblestone streets are really neat. There seemed to be a cop standing on very corner.

 

My 11 year got to hold a iguana and have his picture taken. He did this on our last cruise in Jamaica. I guess its his thing. He also stopped to see the parrot guy and have his picture taken with the birds.

 

We bought a few souvenirs and headed back down towards the ship.

 

Here are some random pictures of San Juan:

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

I forgot to post the pictures that I took when we were arriving in San Juan. Just a tip here: we were on the port side of the ship and this was the best side for arrival in every port and it was the best side for leaving Miami. I know this because when we left Miami we had beautiful views of water, mansions, palm trees, etc. When we came back into Miami we saw warehouses and fork lift trucks :D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

So since we didn't spend a long time in San Juan, we were back in time for dinner in the dining room.

 

I was really surprised that the dining room seemed to be full. I though a lot of people would still be in port since we docked so late.

 

I tried something from the local menu. It was some puerto rican pork appetizer. It was pretty good. I also had the crab cakes. They were delicious.

 

My entree was fried chicken. It was not great - dried out.

 

I had blueberry pie for dessert. It was delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

On this particular evening, for whatever reason, they did not offer the flat iron steak. Our wonderful waiter, Jovito had given the meat and potatoes man a heads up the night before about this. Each of my kids had $100 spending money for the trip. The meat and potatoes man decided that he was going to use some of his money and get a new york strip from the Steakhouse Menu.

 

The price is $20. However, it is only $10 for kids - pretty good deal considering its the same piece of meat! Anyways, I'm certainly not going to complain about that.

 

It looked very good and he said it tasted great:

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

My husband and my mother both had lasagna and said it was very good. My husband also had the chicken breast from the grill. I have posted a picture of their dessert but I'm sorry I can't remember what it was!

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

After dinner, the kids retired to the cabin to watch television (they were quite happy to do this...kids!).

 

We went to see the Love and Marriage Show. It was pretty entertaining. They picked 3 couples from the audience and they had to participate in a Newlywed Game Type Activity. Adam was quite entertaining and funny as the host. There were some children in the audience (even though it said in the funtimes not to bring them). So he had to substitute the word ice cream for sex. There was a couple on stage who had been married for around 54 years I think they said.

 

After the show, there wasn't a lot to do because we were still in port and lots of things were closed like the casino and the shops.

 

Here are some nighttime pictures of the ship in San Juan. You will probably notice that the nighttime picture of the shoreline of San Juan is quite dark. This is something I noticed. There were tall buildings in total darkness! I thought this was unusual.

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

While we were waiting for the casino to open, we went to Creams Cafe and go the kids a huge piece of cake to share. It was only $2.99. And they said it was delicious. They never finished it all either which is crazy because they are pigs who never stop eating!

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

We had found slot machines that we really liked so we decided to join the other people in the casino who were sitting at their machines waiting to play.

 

We were to set sail at 10 pm. As was the theme on this cruise, we did not set sail on time. It was well after 10 before we started moving. Then you still couldn't gamble until the ship was in international waters! So a lady said it would be another 30 or 40 minutes before they turned the machines on. We decided not to bother as the smokers were starting to congregate in the casino.

 

We ordered room service. Another tip- don't order the New York Strip Loin sandwich. Its probably not what you think. It was some strange looking meat that looked like light pink corned beef (?). I didn't eat it.

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

On our first cruise, we never ate breakfast in the dining room. So it was on our list for this cruise.

 

On Wednesday, Day 5 St. Thomas Day we decided to try it.

 

It was ok. Pretty much the same stuff you would have got on the Lido except someone brought it to you instead of you getting it yourself.

 

I had a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon which was very good. My husband ordered a baked apple which he didn't like because it was cold and he thought a baked apple would be warm.

 

I can't remember if I mentioned this already, but the bacon was terrible on this cruise. I think they microwaved it and it was really bad. And at the lido buffet a lady served it to you. You weren't allowed to get it yourself. Anyways, they were serving the same microwaved bits of bacon crap in the main dining room. Meat and Potatoes man loves bacon and he wouldn't eat it, if that tells you how bad it was.

 

 

 

 

 

[Anthomaniac]

I thought the same thing when I ordered the baked apple on our first cruise! Glad it wasn't just me!

[nybumpkin]

My 11 year got to hold a iguana and have his picture taken. He did this on our last cruise in Jamaica. I guess its his thing. He also stopped to see the parrot guy and have his picture taken with the birds.

Wow - Nine years ago we stopped to see the parrot guy and our oldest son (then 15) had his picture taken with the parrots with Carnival Legend in the background. He has a goofy grin on his face, he's holding a ship's wheel (labeled Titanic:p) and has three parrots perched on his arms. It's a Polaroid shot and we paid $10 for it. Today we have it as one of our wallpaper shots. Son is now a US Navy officer. Ten dollars is a lot to pay for a Polaroid shot, but today I think it's the best $10 we've spent.:) Edited May 4, 2015 by nybumpkin
Wow, I'm confusing the ships we've sailed!

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

Wow - Nine years ago we stopped to see the parrot guy and our oldest son (then 15) had his picture taken with the parrots with Carnival Legend in the background. He has a goofy grin on his face, he's holding a ship's wheel (labeled Titanic:p) and has three parrots perched on his arms. It's a Polaroid shot and we paid $10 for it. Today we have it as one of our wallpaper shots. Son is now a US Navy officer. Ten dollars is a lot to pay for a Polaroid shot, but today I think it's the best $10 we've spent.:)

 

We didn't have to buy any pictures. You were allowed to take your own pictures. The parrot guy charged $5 for you to do the pics but he let you do a few different shots holding a Puerto Rico sign. I'm sure it's money well spent as we will have those pictures and memories forever.

[Bride2Be]

Waiting to hear back from our TA to book the July 25, 2015 sailing. Enjoying reading your review. I realize there will be more children in the summer months, but I was wondering if anyone has any information on the kid's club as our son will be 11 when we cruise.