Glory Review 5/06/06 - 5/13/06 First time cruiser

[IntoTheBlue]

Hi there! We just finished our first cruise and it was great! While preparing for this cruise, I found it extremely helpful to read the reviews. I specifically want to add a few little items that I think will be helpful to those who have never cruised before. So here goes. :)

 

A little about us: DH and I traveling together with friends to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Also the first vacation without the children who stayed home with Grandma.

 

Embarkation: Carnival arranged our flights and we arrived at the terminal at about 2:45, we were in our room by 3:15. This was a breeze we were in a suite so we took full advantage of the VIP check-in. The lines outside the VIP room looked a little intimidating.

 

Suite: Originally booked Cat. 11 and received upgrade to 7294 Cat. 12 on the Empress deck. Was very spacious. The balcony was great. I especially loved all the closet space.

 

Room Steward: Walter was very pleasant and helpful. Room was always clean. Towel animals were very cute, especially the monkey hanging from the artwork on the wall.

 

Dining: Platinum late seating. Ben and Roxana were the absolute BEST!! We looked forward to seeing them every night. We ate in the dining room every night except one. We enjoyed all the food, some more than others. We sat with friends whom we were travelling with and another couple who were celebrating there 57th wedding anniversary. We really enjoyed talking with them. The age differance, made no differance, it was great we all got along very well.

 

Casual Dining: We ate at the red sail buffet for breakfast and lunch most days. I have to say that the breakfast food was nothing to brag about. But I definately did not go hungry. Expected more fresh fruit, I did enjoy the grapefruit. DH loved the hamburger bar as did I. The Pizza was also very good. We never seemed to have the right timing for fish and chips it was closed when we came by. Deli and oriental bars were also good.

 

Emerald Room: We made our reservation early Monday for our Thursday seating. I must say it was well worth the extra fee. The food was devine. The service was excellent. I would highly recommend it. It was already a formal night and our anniversary so it was just wonderful.

 

Ship Layout: A little confusing, but not to bad. DH kept me straight he seemed to learn the layout better than I did. My one tip here for first timers is, get ready for some stair climbing. If you do not want to wait for elevators. We took the stairs I would have to say 90% of the time. But this is a good thing, compensate for all the extra calories. :D

 

Casino: Fun but smoky. Won $25 on slots but gave it all back. Played blackjack with DH twice and we won $75.00. That was the extent of our Casino experience and our first time gambling. If you are sensitive to the smoke it is hard to spend a lot of time here.

 

Karaoke: They need a larger room for this. We attempted to watch two nights and it was just too packed. :rolleyes:

 

Clubs: ? Only tried the White Heat one night it was a blast. There was a big crowd with a good mix of ages. Fun dancing.

 

Shows: The jugglers were impressive. I did not care for the Vegas style show the first night it was offered so I did not attend the second time. The second midnight comedian was very good. Did not see the first. The Legends show was quite good. Mark Price was EXCELLENT! He has got the best personality and he is very funny. :D

 

Art Auction: I mention this because we bought a painting that we were continually drawn to the entire cruise. It was a fun and differant experience. And the free champagne is a plus. If you are remotely interested in art I highly recommend giving this a try.

 

Ports: This is my only real complaint about the whole cruise. The port times are not long enough. Next time I cruise I will pick one with longer port times.

 

Key West: was fun, did some shopping and some drinking (no crawling though lol). Ran to the lighthouse and the southernmost point for pictures and luckily got a cab back. I felt rushed to get back in time. Note to those who buy the Pirate Soul museum tour to get off the ship sooner, it does not work. That tour is taken at your leisure so there is not specific start time. The museum is pretty cool so it was not a waste. I guess that will not matter if the itenerary changes.

 

Belize: We booked the Goff's Caye excursion through the ship and the little island was great! The beach is beautiful and we wish we could have stayed all day. A few words of advice if you choose this tour, if you have limited snorkeling experience stay on the island. We tryed off the boat and the water was pretty rough, I consider myself a pretty strong swimmer, but it was too much for me and I needed assistance back to the boat. As did a couple others with me. If you are a true beach bums like us you should try to book this excursion twice and stay all day, if we ever go back that is what we plan to do. As for the city of Belize I could take it or leave it, we stayed within the port walls and it really only took about 30mins and we were ready to go.

 

Costa Maya: We had booked the clear bottom kayak tour it was cancelled due to rough water. They offered us an alternative but we chose the refund instead. This turned out to be a really good thing. We went ahead and took a bus to Majahaul (spl?) and did a beach break, wave runner, snorkeling tour with a local. It was by far the best stop of the trip. The beach was beautiful. We stayed all day with a little shopping time in Costa Maya. It was GREAT!:)

 

Disembarkation: This was also a breeze until our friends lost a bag, we all were given early debarktion because carnival booked our flights early. Everything ran very smoothly until the bag incident. All of the Carnival staff and even the bag porter were soooooooo helpful and about 1.5 hours later they found the bag YEAHHHH!! Just in time to get us to the airport for our flight. So other than that no big deal. You just have to be patient and keep a good attitude.

 

First Timer Tips:

 

Be prepared for a hefty sail and sign bill at the end of your cruise. Even if you do not buy a lot of drinks the other things add up quickly. Carnival misses no chance to sell you something else.

 

Take plenty of small bills for your shore visits, you tip a lot of differant people.

 

Let your husband ride the wave runner, you stay on beach and soak up the sun. (my preferance) I found it to be a little scary.

 

Tie a very bright colored ribbon to your luggage it makes it much easier to identify.

 

 

Well thats it, my first review and cruise are done. Time to start planning the next trip. If you have any questions I will gladly answer. Happy Cruising.

[gypsyrose]

Happy anniversary and great review. Isn't the Glory just beautiful. Glad you had a great cruise.

[brianroberts2526]

We rode wave runners in Mahuahual too, were they the new ones? Oh it was soooooo much fun

[arewethereyet112]

how much did it cost to rent the waverunners?? thx, great review

[brianroberts2526]

They were asking 70 per machine for an hour; which already is a great price. We rented 5, and he ave them to us for 60 a machine. All were 2006 with less than 10 hours of operation on them

[IntoTheBlue]

Hi Brian, we saw the brand new ones really close to us, that must have been your group. These were pretty new 2004. The machines were just fine it was the rough waves outside the reef wall that scared me. So my hubby just dropped me off and went and had a blast. It was one of his favorite days also. As for the price I believe we paid $30 for 1/2 hr it was all part of a package. It was a great deal. :)

[abby and nathan's mom]

What time did your flight land in Orlando? Carnival booked ours to land at around 1:30 on the 10th for our Eastern cruise. Should be we all right?? What time did yours leave on the way home?? Ours leaves at 12:05.

[IntoTheBlue]

We flew out of Norfolk, VA. We landed at 1:30 , after getting our luggage and taking the shuttle we were there at 2:45. I think you will be just fine. I know we were a little concerned about cutting the time so close, but is was no problem at all. It gave us some extra time in the morning to say goodbye to the children. So it worked out perfect. Have a great cruise;)

I forgot to add our flight home left at 12:45 and even with losing the bag for a hour and a half we were there with plenty of time. Since Carnival arranged the flights we were among the first off the ship.

[Vinman2112]

Our first cruise was also on Glory a couple years ago. Great ship and a great time.

[abby and nathan's mom]

Thanks for the quick response. It sure makes me feel a whole lot better talking to someone who's been there and done that!!

[LHP]

So glad to hear you are hooked on cruising...and someone who loves karaoke (an extra bonus!!!) Yes, I am officially addicted to both. Thanks for the advice on Belize. We are headed that direction in October and hubby usually snorkels.

 

Happy Cruising!!

[wizzzzzad]

My family is going on the Glory in about a month. We are going to be travelling from 06/17 to 06/24. I am considering trying to book a reservation for my wife's birthday on 06/22.

 

It would just be the two of us, as Grandma & Grandpa are tagging along, and have offered to sit with the kids.

 

How much would the Emerald Room cost for just the 2 of us?

[luvgreys]

I was also on that Cruise. So sad that it is over. :( :( I loved how beautiful and clean the ship was. Every where I looked someone was cleaning something.

[StaySea]

Emerald room is 30pp. & WELL WORTH it