Glory Review 08/05 It was JUST Ok.

[LHP]

For everyone here who just sailed the Glory... why is the talent show gone? My brother and I have been practising a song for months now, and have been getting really excited to perform in the Talent show which has been on all our cruises. To do this, we both have to bring our instruments, which are rather inconvenient (a guitar and some drums). Should we bother?

 

Does anyone here know for sure why it is gone, and if it will come back?

 

Thanks a bundle,

 

Pat

 

Sadly, it appears you are correct. Most of the ships have gone to the "Legends Show" where people perform prearranged songs from Madonna, Elton John, Garth Brooks, etc. The people who perform these songs on stage the last night are selected during the karaoke time.

 

I have sung in at least 10 old fashioned Talent Shows and really enjoyed doing so...however, I can understand the change. The poor Social Host never knew who was signing up. Fortunately, we usually had mostly talented people...but there was the occasional "you have got to be kidding". This new way, Carnival can control (at least to some degree) the talent of the those performing. Even if someone does not sing perfectly, if they were enthuastic enough to get voted in by the masses...they will still be entertaining. I was fortunate enough to help 3 people get into the Legends show. All were first time cruisers and their delight was more rewarding than getting to sing myself.

 

This decision in the past was made on a ship by ship basis. However, by now it is probably fleet wide. Having said all that, some ships still have a midnight show in the smaller lounge that is like an American Idol knock off. I did this on the Pride. It was fun, but I am not sure it is worth bringing drums for. (especially since there is no guarantee it is going to happen)

[beerman123]

Hey guys....First I apologise for the whole president and approval ratings thing. I was being a little facetious but it didnt have a place here.

Ok, so I dont think the cruise totally sucked. there were some good things about it. It just wasn't as good as the cruise on the Valor. The reason why we didnt eat in the dining room for breakfast was because we slept in alot ( I didnt realize how much sleep I needed ) We ate in the emerald dining room one night and that was really good. My wife is still telling everyone about the chocolate desert she got. The main courses in the dining room were pretty good. The part that was bad was the appetisers. They had some cream of strawberry soup that was just a fancy way of saying " strawberry milk in a bowl ". thats just one example. The weather was great ( except for the firt day at sea when it rained ) . The 12 year old kids that were hooking up werent on the funnel deck they were on the lido deck right by the back pool. I expected alot of kids and I read alot of posts about the kids before we left and thought " people need to lighten up their just kids". But these kids were BAD. The whole " regulars " thing during karioki thing went like this...Other people would get there 20 min. before the regulars and put in for songs....the regulars would come in and somehow would be on stage as soon as they got there while the other people had to wait. Thats not cool.

[FnyFACEnAL]

We did a back-to-back on the Glory last December and loved every one of our 14 days! We have been on 15 or 16 cruises and each one is to be cherished but the Glory was something special. The ship was spotless and our waiter always had a steak ready if we were tired of the menu. Breakfast to me on a cruise ship is brought to my cabin including my muffins, yogurt, coffee and orange juice. What is not to like?? :)

 

(We sail again on 8/27 from Port Canaveral and are hoping to see the Space Shuttle take off as we sail away.)

[Knights on the Beach]

Glad to hear there were some things you liked about your cruise after all. When I first read your comments about the food, I thought "wow, what happened?" because I thought it was very good, but then I see you didn't like Mark Price and we really enjoyed him too (on both the Victory and the Glory). It looks like the others who posted here that were on your ship the same week really enjoyed it. I'm sorry to hear you didn't.

[osiebosie]

Beerman,

 

Wasn't that chocolate dessert wonderful? My dh had that, and I had the cheesecake --- ummm ummm good. I don't know how we got it down, since we were already stuffed, but we sure did. I do wish the restaurant were not directly under the sports deck.

 

Glad you enjoyed most of your cruise. The sleeping is the best part, isn't it??? Our friends went to their cabin one day around 10 a.m. and got up just in time for dinner. :eek: They said they slept the whole time!

 

Shay

[beerman123]

osie, the day of the chocolate buffet i wasnt feling too well, I think I had one too many tacos at the taco bar. But it looked really good. I'm trying to remember the name of the chocolate desert in the emerald restaurant...I think it was called the chocolate tart. But they bring you three different chocolate deserts. It was absolutely awesome. But back to the point...I hated missing the chocolate fountain.

The thing I was looking foward to alot was the fact that the cabins are so dark. I hate light when I sleep so those rooms are perfect. The second sea day ( I think it was thursday) I woke up and went up on the lido deck and everyone was eating lunch! Turns out it was almost 1pm and I slept about 14 hours. Thats just what I needed. See I'm no too much of a negative nancy now am I

[osiebosie]

Lol! You are doing great beerman!

 

My dh stood in line for at least 30 minutes for that chocolate buffet. They must need to set it up differently. My friend and I left our dh's, and that's when we saw the whale. A much better alternative to chocolate:p .

 

Shay

[enester]

First I apologise for the whole president and approval ratings thing.

 

I apologize for teasing you about it! :)

[RVman]

Speaking of the buffet.

[poptart]

Okay, I went back and counted and am proud to report that as of right now 4 out of 5 cruisers who have posted on this thread and were on the Glory last week had a wonderful time.

 

WHEW!! That made me feel better since I am soooooooooo looking forward to cruising on her in November the week AFTER Thanksgiving. I really hope the piano bar is lively that week. Karoke we can do at home, so if it's sub-par we can live with it.

 

I know from experience there will be very few kids onboard. :) that week. Yes, I love kids--I'm a mom and grandmom--but I prefer my vacations with as few of them around that don't belong to me as possible!!!!

 

Beerman, glad you came back with a few positives! Since you slept so much I think you may have just been overly tired even when the cruise started.

[lukegr]

The whole " regulars " thing during karioki thing went like this...Other people would get there 20 min. before the regulars and put in for songs....the regulars would come in and somehow would be on stage as soon as they got there while the other people had to wait. Thats not cool.

 

i can definately see why this was one of the spoilers for your cruise, and it would have made me angry too, even though i don't do karaoke (although i go watch when my brothers do). however, did you talk to the dj about it?

[kcslim]

I was on the Glory in September 2005. I really did not have anything to complain about. For me, anyway, it was a fantastic trip, and it even rained like the dickens in Cozumel! I like sailing in the fall because of fewer children (mine are gone, been there -- done that). And, it's not that I do not like children.

 

Beerman, I think Carnival's food is good. Not great, but good. There is always one night I don't like ANYTHING and they bring me something else.. like steak. Breakfasts for me.. well, I could be bad and eat all greasy breakfast foods.. but stick with yogurt and fruit.

 

I went on a Celebrity cruise a few years back. The food was fantastic, the service was fantastic, I could not fault any of that. But my preference, is Carnival.

 

So, we all have our likes/dislikes. Sorry you weren't too pleased on the Glory, but hey... now you know try something else! :-)

 

Karen

[sharonella]

.........The whole " regulars " thing during karaoke thing went like this...Other people would get there 20 min. before the regulars and put in for songs....the regulars would come in and somehow would be on stage as soon as they got there while the other people had to wait. Thats not cool.

 

Thanks for explaining that -- that sounds to me like the host had favorites, or had a (bad) policy of starting with the songs that got "left over" from the night before. I've done enough karaoke at different places to know this is NOT something that should be done. The host should start over with every new session. On the other hand, if they do "hold over" a few slips from the session before (so they don't have to "re-look up" numbers), they should be added into the mix AT THE END OF THE PILE *AFTER* they arrive. Sorry I'm "yelling" here. I've been to enough karaoke to know what should & shouldn't be done. I'm annoyed at the host for not being fair, and I wasn't even there! :p

 

And I don't mean to sound "snarky" here, but this is a real question - what did you expect cream of strawberry soup to be? It's basically pureed strawberries (usually strained, so no strawberry pieces, "bits" or seeds) & blended with cream & / or milk, served cold. I've had it & I liked it. Definitely not as thick as a McDonald's shake (which is made in a machine similar to an ice cream machine, & is partially frozen - more like soft serve) but tasted a whole lot "fresher"!

 

Anyway, just my .02!

 

Sha

[bartleby112]

About the Piano bar guy. I messaged the current glory piano man and he broke his arm. He will be off the ship till february he thinks. Really too bad, i had been talking to him on myspace for a while now and was looking forward to listening to him play in october. But he said someone named mark will be possibly taking his place. He related that mark is pretty good and knows over 1000 songs.

[STiVo]

About the Piano bar guy. I messaged the current glory piano man and he broke his arm. He will be off the ship till february he thinks. Really too bad, i had been talking to him on myspace for a while now and was looking forward to listening to him play in october. But he said someone named mark will be possibly taking his place. He related that mark is pretty good and knows over 1000 songs.

 

Hmm. I thought you just typed that you massaged the piano guy and broke his arm. I was about to blame you for this whole mess!

[rvrgirl]

 

Food- It wasnt good at all. The breakfast made me sick every time i ate it. Omelets were really really greasy. sausage was swimming in some liquid. It was just bad to look at. Believe me I'm not one of those cruise snobs but McDonalds looked better.

 

I do have to agree with you on the breakfast buffet. Never been on the Glory, but to me it's the same on all the ships I have been on. Carnival needs to change up their breakfast or get new products. Omelets were hit or miss.

Now we just order coffee on our balcony ( room service coffee taste so much better) then wait for lunch. :p

[hawaiigirl73]

No way! You saw a whale!!!! I, too. was on that cruise, and I searched for any marine life and saw exactly squat. What kind of whale was it? I was shocked to not even see a dolphin. Although, a man in the balcony next to ours saw a shark following us out of the Bahamas!:eek:

Lol! You are doing great beerman!

 

My dh stood in line for at least 30 minutes for that chocolate buffet. They must need to set it up differently. My friend and I left our dh's, and that's when we saw the whale. A much better alternative to chocolate:p .

 

Shay

[osiebosie]

I couldn't believe we saw a whale, either!! My friend spotted it and I literally thought it was a tree floating in the ocean. Then we saw the air spout spew, and I ran and grabbed the binoculars and sure enough, it was a whale. It was a brownish color, and I have no idea what type it was. I wish I knew. We watched it for a long time. It was swimming south. There were no others we could see.

 

We saw two turtles, a sting ray, and tons of flying fish, along with the whale. All from our balcony, not the upper decks. In the past, we have seen a hammerhead shark, and a humongous school of dolphins! And tons of flying fish.

 

It's always exciting.

 

Shay

[Sunset Brat]

My dh and I did the April 2005 Carnival Glory and absolutely loved it! This was not our first cruise but our first cruise together!!! This was my 4th cruise and DH 2nd but by far our best.

 

On a fluke, we ended up in the karaoke lounge and dh was chosen as "Garth Brooks" for the Carnival Legend shows. It was definitely the highlight of our cruise. Some of the winners were good and some mediocre but all interesting. The Amber Palace was packed the night of the show so definitely there was an interest in the "American Idol" type show.

 

We are cruising again in five weeks on the Miracle and can hardly wait to find the karaoke lounge so he can try out again!!!!

 

Mark, the cruise director and his wife "Lenka" were awesome and we enjoyed their shows and humor so much we wish they were moving to the Miracle so we could see them again.

 

We have nothing bad to say about Carnival or the Glory. It was a wonderful cruise and we can't wait for the next one!! We loved the Glory and hope the Miracle is just as much fun:)

[hawaiigirl73]

Confession time. I am a whale geek. I use to be a marine biology major until we had more kids. I looked it up, and by your description, I am very sure what you saw was a Sperm Whale. It is brown and does not have a dorsal fin (back fin), which would explain it's wood-like appearance. They are also known to travel in small groups of 2-20, which is probably why you only saw the one. You got a rare treat. The Cetacean societies like sighings to be documented to help keep track of the population. Do you remember where we were coming from? If we ever cruise together again, I'll take a cabin by yours.

 

I couldn't believe we saw a whale, either!! My friend spotted it and I literally thought it was a tree floating in the ocean. Then we saw the air spout spew, and I ran and grabbed the binoculars and sure enough, it was a whale. It was a brownish color, and I have no idea what type it was. I wish I knew. We watched it for a long time. It was swimming south. There were no others we could see.

 

We saw two turtles, a sting ray, and tons of flying fish, along with the whale. All from our balcony, not the upper decks. In the past, we have seen a hammerhead shark, and a humongous school of dolphins! And tons of flying fish.

 

It's always exciting.

 

Shay

[osiebosie]

Well, Hawaiigirl, I hate to say but it had a dorsal fin. But I know it was not a dolphin/porpoise, it was way, way too large.

 

I thought shark for just a second, and of course, knew that it wasn't a shark, with the fin and blow hole.

 

We saw a school of dolphins on the way back from Hawaii a few years ago, in the Pacific. There were hundreds, and they were leaping out of the water, swimming right up to the quickly moving ship, so close you could see the spots on them. This was definitely not a dolphin.

 

Both sights absolutely amazed me. I would love to know what kind of whale we saw. Any other suggestions?

 

Shay

[osiebosie]

Let's see, we had left our last port, St. Martin, and it was Friday, the day of the chocolate buffet for lunch. So we were getting close to the coast of Florida.

 

More info: it never went under the water, it just stayed on top for as long as we could see.

 

Shay