Glory Review 12-03-05 - long!!!

[moonlily]

Hello all!

I can't believe that it's been a week since we disembarked the Glory. Here is a review of our December 3 2005 Cruise. I had also been on the Glory April 9 2005.

 

Embarkation

We arrived at terminal at 1200 after dropping off our rental at Budget and using their complimentary shuttle to the dock. The process took about 20 minutes this time. We were given copies of the itinerary change as we entered the building. No surprise to us as we had gotten the scoop from CC boards and Carnival via e-mail.

 

Purser's desk had Full sign up, but it didn't seem as full as April's sailing. I had seen the passenger numbers for April and they were full. Missed the numbers this time

 

Once on board we were pleased to see that the ship had been decorated for the season. "Evergreen" garland with ribbons and ornaments had been placed along the railings of the overlook surrounding the lobby, there was also a Christmas tree placed near the piano.

 

This time we planned to not go to our room until after 1:30 as requested. We each had a small rolling carry-on and I also was dragging along my laptop. (For down loading pictures. Those data cards are pricey!) We had no problems with finding a seat up where Su Mer is located. The other passengers hadn't discovered the Fish and Chips...yet. That changed by mid week. Su Mer was open all week at the posted hours.

 

Cruise Critic Meet Up

At 3:00pm we stopped by Creams on the Promenade deck to see if anyone from the Roll Call was there. Saw GROUCHPUSS, Jahosacat, Mickey, TR, Kathy, Janis Bernie and quite a few others I can't recall. The Rum had already kicked in by then. Nice to see everyone.

 

Room

We were on the Lido deck 9259 inside. We had booked a 4A and ended up 4E. So not so bad upgrade fairy. We did like the location, and noise wasn't a big problem. We were next to a maitainence closet and heard a bit of banging once, but is was mid-day and just the once.

 

New bedding system was in place. I don't know if the duvet cover is replaced each cruise but everything seemed fresh and clean. Not like those Hotel spreads with busy patterns that cover up a multitude of "sins".

 

Our Steward Wayan introduced himself. He was wonderful. We were so busy that we didn't get to see him often, but when we passed him in the hall he always had a friendly smile and encouraged us to have a great time. Wayan kept the room very nice. I see that there were some cruisers on my sailing that had some concerns but we didn't have any problems with items being disturbed. We tipped him in addition to the automatic gratuities. Both times I've cruised with Carnival the auto tipping hasn't seemed to diminish the service. I like it so far.

 

Dining and Food

Assigned second seating 8:30 pm in the Golden Dining room. We were seated at a long eight top. We had two other couples at the table, Tom and Lisa fro FL. and Krissy and Jack from PA. We had a great time with them.

Ate every evening meal in the dining room. Main entrees were good, but the desserts were our favorites. The chocolate almond cake wrapped in Phyllo was to die for. My husband very gallantly let me try a bite. Wonderful.

 

Also very good was the Prune tart. It may sound weird but it is a very good dessert. The tart crust is tender and sweet. The prune whip is flavored with a liquier. An the is a little bit of liquier soaked fruit in it also. I have now tried most of the desserts, so any questions?

 

First formal night was Monday the first "Fun Day at Sea". My husband and I both got the Lobster tail and Prime Rib. Nice sized lobster tails and they were very good.

 

Our servers were two charmers. Head wait-person Ivana from Romania and her assistant Alexander from Macedonia. Both were a lot of fun. Every one at the table did notice that they seemed a bit preoccupied after the third night. We had noticed that they had very few people showing up at their tables for dinner. Alex and Ivana's tables were execptionally empty. We noticed that this was also occuring at the first seating also. I did hear that the lines at the Red Sail were very long for dinner.

 

Only complaint I have is that the only night we got coffee was the first night we asked for it. We asked for it each night with dessert after that but ended up having our dessert sans coffee. It actually got kinda funny. Our guess is that the "fun stuff" breaks the flow. Anyway that's what we choose to think, although Krissy had noticed we weren't getting coffee and decided to order coffee the last night. She GOT it. My Husband and I just started to laugh. Yes, we were annoyed, but it was pretty funny.

 

Activities

Spent a lot of time at the Art Auctions. We went to all four and the wine and cheese party. My husband says it was his favorite activity next to sitting out on the deck relaxing. I won three prints. I was asked to pay 10 dollars each shipping. None were available to carry off the ship. They also run a Framing "workshop" so you can choose framing for your "prize". I like the prints I chose so I'll just make a trip to the Michaels crafts and do it myself.

 

Saw the Welcome Aboard show and the Rock Down Broadway show. The male singer is weak and the lead Kathy is quite the "belter".

 

Mark Price was the Cruise Director and Weeee Jimmy was his assistant.

 

Spa. They seemed to have raised prices and dropped some services that I had been interested in from last April. They had offered a two person massage and flotation bed, but it wasn't available this time

 

Ports

Key West. Went to the Butterfly Conservatory near the end of Duvall Street. Walked back and stopped at the Blond Giraffe for the frozen Key Lime Pie on a stick.

 

Belize. Did the Snorkling Excursion off the ship to Geoff's Cay. Wonderful. Went off the boat and from the beach. Off the boat was better, but we were able to find some coral formations from the beach. Afterwards walked into town across the old swing bridge. I would have never done this without my husband, but it was very interesting. Also got a "Real" Coca-Cola. Wonderful. There is a difference with the cane sugar.

 

Costa Maya. Did a excursion with Ivan and David to Chaccoben. Everyting went fairly smoothly considering this was independent from the ship. We were delayed during the bus trip into Majahual, but they waited for us. The ruins were beautiful and I can recommend Ivan and David without reservation.

 

Disembarkation

Waited until our color was called, and even then we were off by 10:00. Customs went quick and smooth.

Off the ship much faster than I would have liked!!!!!

 

Any question? I'd love to help out if I could.

[mkk]

Hi Moonlily..DH and I had lunch with you one day on board..just wanted to say hello.

We also had a great cruise and even though this was our first with Carnival...probably won't be our last.

[Crazy about cruising]

Thanks for a great review. I'll be sailing on the Glory in less than 2 weeks and can not wait. I was also on the Glory in September and I agree with you on the comments about Stuart and Kathy the lead singers. I was hoping they would have changed by now.

[pdz]

You mentioned you were at 8:30 in the Golden dining room. Is that mid ship or at the back? Does it have windows? I leave on it the 31st. pdz

[msolberg]

Thank you for your great review. Only 83 days until we leave for Orlando for our March 11th cruise on the Glory.

 

Reading the great Glory reviews is getting me excited. :)

 

Thanks again,

Diane

[LizaMM]

Thank you for the great review!!

 

Will you be posting any of those pictures you mentioned :D ??

[moonlily]

mkk,

 

We enjoyed lunch with you so much!

 

Great to hear from you. My husband was surprised at how easy you made a back to back sound. So maybe some day.

 

Mary

[moonlily]

The Golden dining room is mid ship. It has windows on the third deck level. These look out to the deck. By 6:00 pm this time of year you can't see a thing outside because its dark.

 

The tables that are adjacent to the windows are long and are placed vertically to the window. So the passengers at the far end aren't that close.

 

We had second seating so we could watch the sunset, sail aways from ports and catch a nibble at the Sushi bar.

[moonlily]

Yes I plan to post pictures. I'm getting the snorkle excursion pics transferred to CD and creating a CD from my Laptop so I can post them to the internet. Trying to keep the laptop as "clean" as possible

 

I probably will be slow but plan to have something up before the end of the week

[OCruisers]

moonlilly! Thanks for the great review! Will be looking forward to your pictures!

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[LizaMM]

Yes I plan to post pictures. I'm getting the snorkle excursion pics transferred to CD and creating a CD from my Laptop so I can post them to the internet. Trying to keep the laptop as "clean" as possible

 

I probably will be slow but plan to have something up before the end of the week

 

 

Yeah!!!! :D Do you have lots of photos of the ship??:D

[moonlily]

Kathy is still there, and Stuart's voice is even weaker than before. Demanding jobs I know, but Stuart was definately having an Off week.

 

Stuart now has a very long pony tail which looks absolutely ridiculous.

 

Have you seen the Rock Down Broadway show? Did Kathy sing the "Fame" segment in a "baby doll" voice then? I didn't remember that from the first cruise and it was kinda wierd.

 

I must admit I do enjoy picking apart the shows. This time around the "Welcome Aboard" show seemed more entertaining to me than the Broadway show. I think that it has something to do with the "energy", the audience was pretty sparse for the Broadway show.