Carnival Glory Eastern Caribbean Review 6/25-7/2

[mstheatre]

Hi everyone! This was my very first cruise and I wanted to go ahead and post a review and give my thoughts on the ship and the cruise! I was on the 7-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise that sailed to Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk.

 

Embarkation:

 

We sailed from Miami and the cruise terminal was pretty easy to navigate. We had the Faster to the Fun package which gave us priority embarkation, debarkation, and other perks. We were able to receive our luggage very early in the afternoon before we sailed, which was a big bonus. Overall, embarkation was a pretty simple process.

 

Food:

 

The food was absolutely fantastic. I had high hopes knowing how much people raved about the food on cruises and I was not disappointed. Our first afternoon on the ship, we had the Lido Buffet in the Red Sail Restaurant and it was delicious. There was so much food to choose from and we ended up eating the lunch buffet several times throughout the cruise.

[Tuckers Mom]

Thank you for doing a review. We are sailing this itinerary on Glory next April 29 (soooo far away), but in the meantime, we'd love to hear what you thought of the ship, your cabin and the ports you visited...we are still trying to decide if we want to do excursions or not. Hope to read more from you! :)

[mstheatre]

Oops! I wasn't even done with my review yet and hadn't realized it had already posted. Oh well, I'll finish my review in this post!

 

Food: (continued) I also really enjoyed Guys Burgers and the BlueIguana Cantina. The Cantina was my absolute favorite place to eat lunch on the ship (on the 7 day cruise, I ate lunch at the Cantina 3 days). Guys Burgers is good. It is a burger and there was nothing super special about it, but it was still good and I would recommend eating lunch there at least one day during the cruise to try it. The MDR was amazing. There was nothing I can say that I disliked in the dining room.

 

Entertainment: The entertainment made the cruise for me, personally. On the first night of the cruise, I walked out of the dining room to run into a band called Resting Beach Face. They played 5 out of the 7 nights of the cruise and 4 of those nights they played in the lobby. They are incredibly talented musicians! I'm not sure if they are going to be on the ship for a while or just a few cruises (I would love to see them again) but if you have the chance to watch them, I would highly recommend it. I also played several of the trivia and trivial pursuit games and really enjoyed those. I didn't get the chance to watch any of the Playlist Performer shows but from what I heard, it was pretty good. I watched the Hasbro Game Show as well one night and it was funny. I didn't go back the second night, but it was enjoyable. I rambled a bit here, but overall, the entertainment was fantastic.

 

Ship: The ship itself was very nice (this was my first cruise, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I really liked the ship). The biggest thing I would recommend is glancing over a ship map before you board the ship because it was a little confusing on some floors. I'm not sure if all ships are like this (I've heard that some are not), but several floors on this ship did not allow you to walk completely through the ship (forward to aft, or vice versa). It became a bit confusing at times when you had to go down or up a floor, walk all the way forward or aft, and go back up or down a floor to get where you were going. It wasn't too hard to figure out once you looked at a map and figured out where to go, but it was a bit confusing at first.

 

Cabin: I had a balcony cabin on floor 6. I really enjoyed the balcony. It was a very nice room and had a lot of storage and drawer space. I was also able to fit my suitcase under the bed which made it easier to move around the room. But be aware in our room (and I believe this is so for all rooms) there were only two outlets in the room right above the desk (one was a 110 volt 3 prong and the other was a 220 volt). Be aware of that if you will have multiple devices that you might need to charge during the trip.

 

Ports/Excursions:

 

Half Moon Cay - Half Moon Cay was beautiful! I only did one excursion in Half Moon and then got back onto the boat. I did the Stringray Adventure excursion and I would highly recommend that if you are thinking of doing any excursions and aren't sure what to do. It was about a one hour excursion and you were provided with snorkel gear, water shoes, and a life vest. You were able to go out into a shallow roped off area and snorkel/swim the string rays for about twenty minutes and then everyone gathered in a large circle and you were able to feed them. I had a lot of fun during this excursion - the only thing I wished for this excursion is that you would have a bit more time to swim with the stingrays, but it was fun and very memorable, and as excursions go, it wasn't that expensive.

 

St. Thomas - I was only off the boat for about an hour/two hours at St. Thomas. I did a bit of shopping and looking around and then headed back to the boat. I wasn't as interested in St. Thomas, but I did enjoy the shopping area that was located right outside of the ship more than I thought I was going to.

 

San Juan - San Juan was beautiful! I got off the ship again for about an hour/two hours and walked around the city. I really just looked at the architecture and walked around the city for a while. There are several restaurants near the ship so if you want to spend addition money to eat in San Juan, you can, but I went back to the ship to eat lunch.

 

Grand Turk - I was very excited about Grand Turk and it was a bit disappointing. I got off the ship for about an hour and swam in the ocean and got back on the ship afterwards. When I first arrived at the beach, I was looking for a chair and one of the locals pointed out a chair with an umbrella and helped me to it and get settled before telling me it was actually $20. I moved and found a free area to sit in. Be careful - the chairs are free, but chairs with umbrellas are not. The water as nice, but the ship was docked right where you were allowed to swim, so they had an area roped off for you to swim as to not get close to the ship. I feel as if I had done a shore excursion in Grand Turk I might have enjoyed it a lot more, but I can't tell you for sure.

 

Crew: I just wanted to put this at the end of the review - The crew was incredible! I never ran into a crew member that wasn't giving 100% or was rude. All the crew members I met and spoke with/interacted with were extremely helpful and friendly.

 

Our cruise director was Eric and he was incredible! He was a really nice guy and very, very funny! I would most certainly book another cruise with him being the cruise director if at all possible.

 

I really enjoyed this cruise (especially as it was my first cruise) and I really hope to book another cruise in the near future with Carnival and hopefully this ship again!

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

Thanks so much for writing such a great review. So glad that you had a great time! I will be sailing on the Glory the first week of August.

[mstheatre]

Thank you! I hope you have a great trip as well! :)

 

One thing I meant to add before in the food section of my review and forgot:

 

Food: I also tried the Fish N' Chips one day for lunch and I enjoyed it. I had the Fried Calamari Fritters which came with chips (fries) and the Octopus salad. It was all really good!

[Gglisa2318]

Thanks so much for the review. Going on the Glory in August. We love cruising and especially love Carnival. We've finally convinced several family members to try a cruise with us, so this will be their first. Glad to hear you had a good experience as a first-time cruiser and it sounds like our family will love it too.

 

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Carnival Fasination 02/99

Princess 03/2000

Carnival Splendor 3/13

Norwegian Breakaway 2/14

Carnival Splendor 8/14

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for the review.

 

Keith

[Clarea]

Thank you much for the review.

[MJF0507]

Nice review, I was on the same sailing and had many of the same opinions. It is a very nice ship and other than decks 3 and 4 not having full access clear through, the ship is pretty easy to navigate. Glad you had a good time.

[firemanbobswife]

Glad you liked Eric. I can't say the same. He was very annoying and treated the Staff/Crew not so nicely from what my cruise mates were told by them. They said the only reason he got the job was because his daddy was someone high up in Carnival. I don't know if it's true or not, but that's what they were told. His dad was onboard that week (we heard it over and over and over again in his annoying announcements). Maybe he was just trying to show off in front of his family. No idea. But I'm glad you had a great time! I love the Glory!

 

Once you cruise with Matt Mitchum, Eversen, and Mike Pack, it's hard to have anyone compete with them.

[MJF0507]

The staff I talked to liked Eric. I have had good and bad and even the bad ones don't really bother me. If they are energetic and can tell a good sarcastic joke, they win, in my book.

[firemanbobswife]

The staff I talked to liked Eric. I have had good and bad and even the bad ones don't really bother me. If they are energetic and can tell a good sarcastic joke, they win, in my book.

 

 

It might have been because he was fairly new to that ship and from what was said, they didn't like the way he was running things. Like he had some ego trip or something. It's hard to follow Mike Pack, though. He is one of the greatest!

 

As I said before, all that stuff was secondhand info from my cruising mates so I can't verify it. They were constantly doing the activities and came home with a couple ships on a stick and medals so they got to know the staff pretty well. All I can go by is what they told me so I don't consider it gospel by any means. I'm sure some of the staff that were there previously have gone home and new ones replaced them but that's neither here nor there.

 

Anyway, I'm glad some people didn't have the experience I did and had a good time. He may have just been extra annoying that week to show off for his dad onboard.

[CruzerDeb]

Thanks for the review! Doing this same ship/itinerary in September and CANNOT wait! I've been to HMC and Grand Turk before, but St. Thomas and San Juan are new ports for me. I absolutely love cruising and certainly need to do more of it.