Glory Review 6/26- Eastern (long)

[mar915]

Well here it goes. I am not that good at writing reviews but I will try.

 

We left at 7am from Chicago and arrived around 10:15 in Orlando. As I was getting my luggage Art's shuttle called me on my cell where to meet them. It worked out great. They loaded the van and off we went. We got to the pier a little line to get in but not bad. Things seemed to run smoothly. I think we where on the ship and eating on the lido deck by 12:30 the latest. We went to our room which was great. It was a little smaller than I thought the older Carnival rooms where, about the same size as Adventure on RCL. The balcony was great since we had two rooms the cabin steward opened up the window between and we had a huge, huge balcony. One room was my husband, 2 yr old and myself the other one my mom and my 6 yr old. So it worked out perfectly to go back and forth.

 

We were seated at the 6:15 in the Golden dining room, which I liked better than the Plantium. It seemed more open. We had a table for the 5 of us but right next to another family of 4. It was nice with the little one to sit seperate than other people. But it was great to have another family that we sat near and would talk to. It was kind of like a bench on one side and chairs on the other side of the table. But that bench was a little low, my husband felt like he needed a booster seat in the bench to reach the table. Our wait staff was great, the first day I think the bus boy was sick because our waiter seemed to go everything, but it was great as the days went on. Perfect service and food was good. The choices were sometimes limited for my mom who just loves steak or something simple, but it was good.

 

The lido deck buffet and the red sail was good, it seemed sometimes limited on what they offered, but I did not care because the pizza and hamburgers were excellent. The best pizza on the sea, almost lives up to Chicago pizza.

I like having the ice tea and lemonade, fruit punch all day on the lido deck, it was a nice touch.

 

The pools never seemed to overcrowed, but since my 2 yr old was up at 6:30am everyday, I did get a close chair at the pool, he loved walking on deck and the fountain by the pool to play with. The slide was good, my son justed loved it.

 

Camp carnival was excellent, alot of good activities for my 6 year old. He always was asking when he could go. My 2 yr old liked I feared would not stay. The first night with the family activies he was dancing and playing no problem, I thought hey he will stay. So the next evening we took him to the play area and he went to play. I called about 15 minutes later and he was screaming to the point they thought he was going to get sick so they asked me to pick him up. He went to the show and loved it. We tried the next day and no way he just screamed for 5-10 minutes while I was outside in the hall and they told me to take him. After that I would bring up his brother and ask him if he wanted to go and he would keep saying no. So he stayed with me. It actually was not to bad since he loved watching the shows and would sit in his stroller and go around at night. By the pool he would where his life vest and walk around the water, but not get in since he is in swim diapers. He loved to play shuffle board so we kept very busy. Dad would take him for a nap and read a book on the balcony while I got pool time. In all it worked out find that he would not go to camp. My older son loved all the activities and parties. He went with camp to dinner on both formal nights.

 

The broadway show(Thurs) and the comedy shows where the best I ever saw on a ship. They were so funny.

 

Nassau we went to Blue Lagoon, perfect beach and water.

St. Thomas went to Coki beach again perfect., fish ate from our hands..then some shopping

St. Martin went to Orient beach which my 6 yr old favorite with the waves then shopping

 

It was an excellent trip with only a few little complaints with the ship. Our cabin steward was okay, not what I usually go from service but he was average, I did like the diffent towel animals, some very unusual ones. Some thing that were strange was the number of lights out around the deck and the balcony lights not working either. It seemed sometimes like they were trying to cut corners and did not have the ship looking perfect, for instance the window were often quite dirty, on past RCL ships every time I turned they were cleaning windows, but not on Carnival. Lastly the gala buffet was very small and not as elegant as it should be. On RCL it was always much bigger and I thing having it in the red snail does not prestent as well and poor traffic flow.

 

Again it rates an A, with only little minor things that RCL seemed to do better.

 

Any question please let me know.

[cruisingrobert]

Thanks for your post - we are staying on the 10th deck which I believe is 2 decks below where the 6 year olds Camp Carnival place is - is that correct? Do you still have to carry a pager for this age group? We did last year when she was 4. Are all the Camp Carnival programs run out of the 12th deck?

Thanks!

[michelle319]

Thanks for the review! Glad to hear all the positive comments about the Glory.

[ken_nyc]

thank you for taking the time for your review, cannot wait!!

[mar915]

Camp is on the 12th deck foward. You need to take the elevators in the main atruim (lobby) to get there directly to 11 and then walk up one flight of stairs to 12. Otherwise any other elevator you need to walk up and around outside on deck 10 or go to deck 9 to go straight across. I did not get offer a pager so I don't know if they had them. They just told me to call in 10 minutes to check on him. For my six year old I did not get one either. I always take my 6 yr old to port so I don't know what they do if you leave them on the ship. She will love the chocolate cookies that was sent to the room on Sunday and Thursday night.

[Krooze Family]

We are sailing on the Glory in October and I have a few questions about Camp Carnival if you don't mind.

 

1) Is Camp Carnival closed during early seating dinner? I read that somewhere on here. We are planning on leaving our three year old @ Camp while we eat with our older child. We are booked for early seating, so if Camp is closed, this plan won't work for us.

 

2) What are Camp Carnival's hours?

 

3) We plan on just "beaching" it at each of the ports. It looks like you did that too. Did you take planned excursions to the beach or did you find your own ride. If you found your own ride, how much did it cost?

 

THANKS!

[mar915]

Camp hours vary each day. On average it is open on sea days from 9-12, closed 1-3. Open 3-5 or 6 depending on the day. The kids can eat at the camp on everyday but the first and last night at either 545 or 615 the time is usually. Then the camp opens either at 7 or 8pm. Basically the kids can eat with you and go to camp at 7 or 8pm or you want them there earlier they would eat with the camp. The first night camp is with family activies. Then it closes at 10pm each night and opens from 10-2am with paid babysitting.

 

I always ate with my 2 year old in the dining room, he did very well and then 2 nights my 6 year old went to camp for dinner, it was his favorite. The dining room did a dance each night but the first and the kids loved it.

 

In port it is open the entire time we are in port in case you go ashore without the kids.

 

In Nassau we did the Blue lagoon tour, it was great for the kids. In St. Thomas Coki beach was about $5 pp and I think Orient beach was $5-6 pp. I forget how much exactly. That was each way. The 2 year old was free. Saved alot of money taking the cabs and more convient. At Orient beach big waves and fun. The cab even scheduled a time to come back, but there were plenty of cabs to take you back there.

 

Mary

[Snowball]

Mary - Great review! Did you keep all of your daily capers? If so, would you be able to scan them and e-mail them to me?

[mar915]

I did not this trip but I can check if my mom did keep them. It may take me a week or so till I have time.

 

Mary

[Snowball]

Ok - thanks Mary! :)

[arnie300]

Mary who was your wait staff in the dining room we also had early seating in the golden and had Marlon and Teja the best I have ever encountered on a cruise ship. It is funny you should mention it our cabin steward was only so so also. I thought the cruise director wasn't very good just average at best. Loved the shows except the magic show it was a little chessy. But the comedians were great. Food was excellent and the Emerald Room was worth the extra.

Snowball if you will give me your e-mail address I have all the eastern capers along with the excursion price list and shopping guides.

 

Arnie

 

PS Who won the color contest ?

[mar915]

What was with the cruise director always cracking up when making anouncements. I forget the waiters name, I am so bad at that especially when I am trying to entertain a 2 year old. I do rember he was from Croatia and had about 10 years experience. We were on the first floor near the back entrance.

 

I thought the magic show was horrible, but then again I never one for magic shows with the story theme. I loved the broadway show and the comedy guy with the robin hood show. It was so funny, I think it was the best one I saw.

[mar915]

I was white and it was not us. I think it was blue but I forget red or blue.

 

My son was so funny on the lido deck sleeping with all the people screaming there colors. I think I have it on video tape I have to check.

 

Mary