LIVE from the Glory: Aug 13-20, 2023

[princess76021]

Yay!! Another live!!  I live vicariously through you guys reviews!

Thank you so much for doing this.

Hugs from the oven (Texas)

[cthrn27]

Are we there yet?  Are we there yet??  Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Some of us never grow up.  Safe travels!

[DeanDeeDee]

Thanks for posting a live review!  I'll be following!

[AFS1970]

Sounds like a fun road trip. We sailed on the Conquest out of NOLA in 2005.

[minniegidget]

Oh boy I'm looking forward to following along on this trip. I really enjoyed your last cruise. Btw did the travel insurance ever pay for any of your delays?

Thanks for letting us tag along with you and your family on this vacation.

[maxandmolly]

Looking forward to another great review!

[SenatorsFan]

I'm looking forward to following along. Have a great cruise!

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

13 hours ago, minniegidget said:

Oh boy I'm looking forward to following along on this trip. I really enjoyed your last cruise. Btw did the travel insurance ever pay for any of your delays?

Thanks for letting us tag along with you and your family on this vacation.

Thank you! I’m really glad you enjoyed it.  

 

I initiated the claim, but didn’t submit the paperwork yet. I was waiting on the garment bag issue to be resolved with AA to see if I need to include that with the travel insurance claim.  I have 15 months to do it, so I’ll submit it when we get back.  

 

I’ll post an update on a that progresses.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Here we are, the end of our first day.

 

Even though I’m writing this in the evening, I don’t know when it will be posted here, as the wi-fi isn’t working right now, and I don’t think I’ll be staying up waiting for it.

 

The drive in from Hattiesburg was easy. We, of course, had the Princess and the Frog playing while we drove in.  And, here I get to brag about how great my planning acumen is: “Going Down the Bayou” played while we had a great view of the Bayou out the window. Aren’t I great?

 

We arrived at the line to get into the parking lot at 9:46.  When you go to make the turn onto Port of New Orleans Rd, there are two lanes, with police directing traffic.  We got into the right  lane because, for one, it was a lot shorter at the moment, and, also, I knew we would have to make make a right into the garage.

 

Well, it wasn’t long before  we saw that the left lane was moving much faster than us.  Orders of magnitude faster. At 10:10, we were still a block away.  With the left lane now zipping ahead of us even faster, we were tempted to  move into it.  But, I was worried we wouldn’t be able to make that turn into the lot. So, my wife got out of the car and walked down the block to see what was going on.

 

When she got back, she reported that both lanes turned into the garage (there were two lanes into the garage). She even asked the officer directing traffic why the left lane was moving so much faster.  The officer replied she didn’t know, but thought it was rather strange.

 

With this report, I jumped ship into the left lane, and was in the lot in no time at all.

 

We then discovered why the left lane was moving so much faster. They have attendants helping people pay for parking, and taking their ticket. I don’t know how or why, but for every car the person working the right hand lane processed, the left hand lane attendant processed 3-4 cars.  

 

$175 paid, we drove up the ramp to unload our checked baggage. Easy enough. After tipping our porter, he told me to get in the car and follow him.  He took us to where a barricade was, moved the barricade, and waived us through to a parking area right by the elevator. Everyone else was directed up the ramp to higher levels.

 

We took the elevator to the first floor, where they checked boarding passes for times.  It was just 10:30 by this point, so they sent us into the line to enter the building. Those with a 10:30 time were asked to wait a few more minutes.

 

There was no one in front of us, but the line snaked around a few times until we actually got to the door to the building.  At the door, they again checked our arrival time.  We then went up an escalator, where we waited a couple of minutes for a check in agent.  She took our pictures, checked our boarding passes and passports, and sent us on our way to security, where we walked by dogs who did the sniff test.

 

There were two people in line in front of us for security, and we were through by 10:45.  As we got to the seating area, they were just starting to call platinum.

 

We quickly used the restrooms, and finished a minute before they called FTTF.  A minute later they called A05, and we were on our way just at 11:05.

 

A few minutes later we were eating lunch.  

 

I opted for the Ol’ Fashioned BBQ, which I enjoyed.  Twice.  The best part of the BBQ is walking up the stairs to get to it burns all the calories you get eating it.  Therefore, you can eat as much pork butt as you want and not gain any weight.  

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

One of our favorite parts of the day is exploring the ship.  And getting lost over and over. 

 

The outdoor decks of the Glory are very nice.  The various levels of the decks flow together nicely.  We didn’t spend much time out there, though.  

 

The lower public decks don’t have such a great layout.  Decks 3 and 4 don’t go through because of the dining rooms, and you can’t use the outdoor decks to bypass the dining rooms, either (at least, it seemed that way; it’s possible I missed an entrance - I’ll confirm today). And deck 5 is a no-go for us, because of the smoke coming from the casino.Which means we have to go through deck 2 or 6 to get from one end of the ship to the other.

 

At 1:30 we went down to our cabins, and our luggage was already delivered. We have connecting cabins for us and the kids, and the grandparents are down the hall.  

 

Unpacked.  Checked in at the kids clubs. Relaxed.  Freshen up for dinner.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I’m not going to compare the Horizon and Glory; instead I’ll let the two reviews stand (or float) on their own.  However, I will make one direct comparison.

 

We have quite a few allergies in the family.  While our allergies have not changed, what they are able to eat has.

 

For example: Horizon:: shrimp cocktail came with cocktail sauce.  Glory: no sauce

Horizon: brisket gravy came with gravy, but the Glory did not.

 

There were some other examples as well.  I have no clue whether the Horizon chef didn’t really check ingredients, or the Glory chef is really careful with ingredients.  Or, the Horizon chef did a lot more to specially prepare dishes.

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

 After dinner we listened (and danced) to the 80s Rock Band in the lobby.  

 

Love Shack, Baby!

 

The Welcome Show could have been skipped, in hind sight.  I would have enjoyed the 80s music a bit more.  However, the Playlist preview show was a lot of fun.  It’s clear we’ll be in for a treat tonight for Motown!

 

Did I just give away the secret that I didn’t finish writing Day 1’s review on Day one?  🤣

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Our table just got called for Brunch, so the rest of Day 1 will have to come later.

 

Spoiler alert: there isn’t much more.  We were tired from the trip down, plus the hour time difference, I guess.

[luvcruzing]

On 8/12/2023 at 2:16 PM, Haljo1935 said:

Sailing from NOLA is interesting  - takes forever (it seems) to actually get out and into open water.

That’s why I don’t book cruises from NOLA.  Once is interesting, but once is enough - for me.

[nydney1]

2 hours ago, luvcruzing said:

That’s why I don’t book cruises from NOLA.  Once is interesting, but once is enough - for me.

The best part is the 8 hours of going down the Mississippi.

 

It’s unlike departing from any other port.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

WoW, I’ve fallen a bit behind, haven’t I?  Can I still call it a live review when I’m posting events from 48 hours prior?

 

I’m going to answer, “Yes,” because I don’t know how to change the thread title.  Also, I’ll try to be more consistent going forward.

 

So… after the welcome show, the kids went to camp, while my wife and I finished straightening out the cabins. And then that was it!   (I told you there wasn’t much more after the welcome show)

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Yesterday was the first sea day.  As I wrote yesterday, we went to the sea day brunch.  I keep telling myself I should try the 12 hour French toast.  But I never did.  Until yesterday.  Perhaps if I hadn’t been thinking of ordering it for so long (going back to the first day of the Horizon cruise) I would have been amazed.  But, after thinking about it since July 9, I was a bit underwhelmed.  It was good, and I enjoyed the banana topping. 

 

After brunch we explored the ship a bit more. I confirmed that you can not get to the exterior promenade from the aft of decks 3 and 4.  They do have emergency exits to the exterior promenade, but I don’t understand why they can’t be regular doors.  Maybe one of you know?

 

I also can confirm that the aft pool and hot tubs are adults only.  They (and the midship pool and hot tubs) are open until midnight.  But, the serenity hot tubs are only open until 8pm.  Maybe that’s why they made the aft pool and hot tubs adults only…. if they have the aft ones open late, they can close the serenity ones early?  The serenity ones are nicer, I wish they were open later.  My wife and I plan on using them tomorrow or the next day, depending on what else is going on.

 

Another oddity is that the forward elevators only go up to deck 11.  Serenity, and Camp Ocean, is on Deck 12.  There is no way to get to these two locations without walking up a flight of stairs.  What would they do if they had a kid in a wheel chair? 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

My wife and I then used the fitness center.  I used the treadmill. This was after I got tired of the exercise bike going clickeity click click with every peddle rotation.  The treadmill, though, ran very nicely - but I still don’t understand why they put TV screens there to block the view of the sea. 

 

Tea time!  Or, as listed in the Fun Times, Veterans Tea Time.  Why it was Veterans Tea Time, as opposed to just Tea Time, I have no clue.   It was just tea time.  

 

My wife, father in law, and I were seated at a table with another couple, more my father in law’s age, and we had a terrific conversation with them.  Tea was fine.  Finger sandwiches were OK (they used to be quite a bit better to be honest), but desserts were very good.

 

My wife could only have the strawberries, because of allergies.  She asked for strawberries without cream, explaining this.  The server gave her ONE strawberry.  We all just laughed (including the other couple).  The server said, “sorry,” and gave her a second strawberry, and walked off.  Yes, just a single additional strawberry.  

 

As we were finishing our snacks, someone else was seated at our table.  This was really awkward.  We already had a really nice thing going, and having someone else join so far into the meal (can you call two strawberries a meal?) just didn’t work well.  It completely interrupted the flow of the conversation. Every sentence had to have include.a recap of what we had said before, or we just repeated things we talked about for the sake of the new person.  It was just weird.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

After tea time we started getting ready for elegant night.  

 

The good news is that are formal wear did not get terribly wrinkled being in a regular piece of luggage.  

 

We walked around a bit getting family photos. It took a bit of time to try to get all 8 of us in the group photos.  We only had time to go to two backdrops.  I don’t think the first one is going to come out well, but I have high hopes for the second backdrop. We need to start hunting down our photos and start weeding out the ones we don’t want.  We pre-purchased five photos.  I hope they have folders we can put the “maybes” in as we find them, until we decide which ones we want.  Maybe later tonight we’ll look into this.

 

Elegant night dinner was very nice.  Our food came very quickly, and was very good.  I had the filet mignon, cooked perfectly.  My mom’s filet was still mooing, so they took it back.  The second one was perfect, though.

 

Again, though, there are food items they would not give those with allergies that were served on the Horizon (one I didn’t mention before was the jellies that come with the chilled soup).

 

After dinner we relaxed for a little while before Motown.  This was a lot of fun.   The cast puts a ton of energy into the show, making it a great way to spend the evening.

 

We considered going to the late night comedy, but decided to relax in the cabin for awhile instead.

 

Before turning in for the night, I checked out the new midnight buffet.  The meatball sub is a nice addition, though it is pre-assembled, and sitting in the warmer already in a bun with the melted cheese.  The “deep dish pizza” looks like frozen pizza from the supermarket.  Hot dogs are already in the buns, so they can just grab and go with them.  They do have chiîle and fried onions, though, for the hot dogs.  I didn’t see the soup, though it was there, as were the chips and salsa.  Cole slaw and potato salad as well.  I might have forgotten an item or two.

 

Time for Getaway Island.  I’ll come back later! Bye

[wikoffclan]

3 hours ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

 

 

Another oddity is that the forward elevators only go up to deck 11.  Serenity, and Camp Ocean, is on Deck 12.  There is no way to get to these two locations without walking up a flight of stairs.  What would they do if they had a kid in a wheel chair? 

There's an itty bitty elevator (separate from the main elevators) by the spa entrance that only goes from Deck 11 to Deck 12. Hard to see but useful in a pinch

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

On 8/15/2023 at 8:19 PM, TreyB said:

“This was really awkward.  We already had a really nice thing going, and having someone else join so far into the meal (can you call two strawberries a meal?) just didn’t work well.  It completely interrupted the flow of the conversation. Every sentence had to have include.a recap of what we had said before, or we just repeated things we talked about for the sake of the new person.  It was just weird”

Just curious…can’t you request a private table for just your party?

 

 

I’m not 100% sure, but I did see people sitting at 2 and 4 table tops.  Whether that was luck of the draw or if it can be requested, I don’t know.

 

However, when we first walked in, they directed us to a table to share with another family.  The other family saw us coming, and intentionally sat in the middle of the 12 top rectangular table, leaving 3 seats at one and and 3 on the other, and just looked at us.  We asked the server to put us at another table, and he said there were enough seats.  We pointed out that we would like to sit together, and the other family wasn’t going to cooperate.  He then put us at another sharing table.  While I did not ask for a private table (and didn’t care one way or another), you would think that after that incident, they might put us at a private table.  But, who knows.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

22 hours ago, wikoffclan said:

There's an itty bitty elevator (separate from the main elevators) by the spa entrance that only goes from Deck 11 to Deck 12. Hard to see but useful in a pinch

Found it!  I would never have seen it without reading this.

 

I must say, though, that this elevator is the slowest elevator ever.  It was faster taking the glass elevators up from 2 to 11, than that elevator from 11 to 12.  

 

Disclaimer: I only took it so that I could report on that elevator here.  I wouldn’t have bothered with it, otherwise.

 

See? This review has caused a significant alteration of my vacation!

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

When I said I’’d come back later, I did mean later last night.  But, I was just too tired to continue.  

 

2nd Sea Day.

 

We set the wake up call to get us up a bit earlier than the day before.  We didn’t want to wait so long for brunch, and we also wanted to make the 11:00 military appreciation.  We got up at 8:30 and checked in a little before 9.  This hit the spot; wait time less than 10 minutes!

 

We head on up to the restaurant.  We get to the landing outside the MDR and there was hardly anyone there. The hostess came up to us and asked if we had checked in, and if our whole party was there. It was, so she seated us right away, before the app said our table was ready.  

 

Here’s a tip: if your wait time is less than 10 minutes, and your party is all together, go to the hostess stand.  They may just seat you immediately.  

 

Brunch was even nicer than the day prior.  I didn’t feel like carbing out, so I skipped the French toast and ordered the salmon Benedict.  It was OK.  I remember their Hollendaise sauce used to be really good (back in 2014-2015), but it isn’t the same as it once was.  I knew this, but ordered it anyway.  As I said, it was ok, and what I expected. 

 

Speaking of differences, the flaming tomato soup was very good, but also not like it once was.  It used to be FLAMING.  Now it’s flaming.

 

As a reward for not carbing out, I ordered the banana cream pie.  Now THAT was good.  

[psikic]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:32 AM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

After tipping our porter, he told me to get in the car and follow him.  He took us to where a barricade was, moved the barricade, and waived us through to a parking area right by the elevator. Everyone else was directed up the ramp to higher levels.

Thanks for doing this review!  I am enjoying it so far.  We will be on the Glory in a few weeks.  I'm just curious... obviously you gave a generous tip to get this extra great parking.  May I ask what kind of tip might achieve the same treatment for my family?  My mother is disabled and being by that elevator would sure be helpful.

[Haljo1935]

10 minutes ago, psikic said:

Thanks for doing this review!  I am enjoying it so far.  We will be on the Glory in a few weeks.  I'm just curious... obviously you gave a generous tip to get this extra great parking.  May I ask what kind of tip might achieve the same treatment for my family?  My mother is disabled and being by that elevator would sure be helpful.

We were shown to that parking without asking - we have disabled vet plates, so maybe that is why.