Glory 02/03/07 Review

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

:) (Part I)

PRE-CRUISE

We drove down to FL from PA, just missing the tornado. We didn't realize that until after we were in our hotel, which was probably a good thing. Arrived in Port Canaveral on Friday morning. Checked into the Radisson at the Port. There were 6 of us traveling together. My two brothers and their wives, and my friend Anna & myself. We booked a suite @ the Radisson. It was very nice. 2 King size beds, and a queen size pullout couch. Also a kitchenette with fridge, microwave, sink, coffee pot, dining table & chairs. The separate bedroom had a whirlpool bath and separate walk-in glass shower. Also 2 good-size TV's. Of course nobody used the whirlpool tub. (Just too kinky with your siblings in the next room:eek: )

It was worth it, though. For the extra room and kitchen amenities. After our long drive, we could just relax and look forward to embarkation day.

 

EMBARKATION

The Radisson has a free shuttle bus. We parked our vehicle in the designated area, and took our luggage to the front lobby for our 11:15 am shuttle appointment. (Make your appointment early; as soon as you're booked) The process was VERY quick. We left the hotel at 11:15, and were on the Lido deck getting lunch @11:50 am. Can't beat that.

 

OUR CABIN

We've had all different kinds of cabins. From inside to suites. This time we decided to go cheap with a past guest fare. So... we booked an inside cabin. We were in cabin 9204 on the Lido deck. We were @ the very front of the ship. Thought it might be too rough there, but was pleasantly surprised. Felt no more movement there than in any other cabin we've ever had. It was a handicapped accessible cabin. The bathroom was HUGE! After reading a few posts about this on here, I called the Purser's desk to offer to switch if anyone needed it. She said that happens very often, and took our info and said they'd call if they had any requests. They never called. Being on the Lido was nice because you just had to walk to the back of the ship for the buffet.

 

CREW

"Wee Jimmy" was the cruise director. You either loved him or thought he was annoying. I loved him. He cracked me up.

 

Our dining room team was awesome! Our lead waiter was Remi from Haiti.

And the assistant waiter was Nikola from Serbia. They were great. They served us well, with smiles!

 

Our room steward, however was not as good. Saw him on the 1st day, then once or twice in the hall. He never gave us beach towels. I flagged him down 1 day, and asked him for beach towels, and he said "Right NOW?" Hmmm... Standing in front of you with a bathing suit, suntan lotion, a book, asking for a beach towel...... Nah! Bring it to me after dinner! (OK, enough sarcasm!:rolleyes: )To give him credit, I think he might have still been in training.

 

The crew was very nice and friendly.

 

Gotta go do some laundry.

 

I'll be back later for Part II

[ballinafad]

We were on the week before you and also had Remi and Nikola. We loved them especially Nikola.

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

Ports of Call

 

Nassau:

I had been here once before. It's not my favorite port, but also not my least favorite either. Didn't have alot of time here, so we just walked into town and shopped a bit. Didn't care for having a port day on the 1st full day. No chance to get acclimated to the ship. But I was glad this was the 1st port. Give me more time in the other 2 stops.

 

St. Thomas, USVI

Grabbed one of the many(MANY!!!) tour busses along the pier. $25 each. Took us to Megan's bay, where you could get off if you wanted, for a price. We just wanted to shop, but he did let us spend about 10 minutes on the beach for pictures. Walked on the beach and got our feet wet in the water. Stopped on both sides of the island at lookout points. Breathtaking photo ops! I will post some as soon as I have them downloaded. He then took us to the downtown market where we shopped a bit before walking back to the ship. (about 2 - 2 1/2 miles) It sprinkled rain during our walk, but it was rather refreshing after all the hot sun. When we got back to the shopping center right @ the pier, there was a downpour while we were in one of the shops there. (I had to buy a corkscrew, because I forgot mine @ home:rolleyes: )

 

St. Maarten NA

Walked downtown, shopped a little there. Got lounge chairs (2/ $10).

Watched people and had fun on the beach. My one brother bought some jewelry for his daughters and wife. They gave him some free drinks. He came back to the beach with what I though was a glass of water, but which turned out to be straight RUM! Oy! So, rum & coke on the beach for me!:D Took the water taxi back to the ship. ;)

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

We were on the week before you and also had Remi and Nikola. We loved them especially Nikola.

 

 

Yeah. Quite the cutie! The next to last night, he was looking a little peaked. I asked him if he was sick, or if he was partying too late. He just gave me that grin, said maybe he celebrated too much the night before! HA!

[livingitup]

Gotta Cruise, please share more of your trip soon. My family and I will be going in May on the Glory and I'm not sure if this is the way to go. We have onnly sailed RCCL in the past, 1st timers on Carnival, but hope we are well pleased with our choice. We are not the partying type butoh well, here we go anyways. :)

[silentbob007]

Gotta Cruise, please share more of your trip soon. My family and I will be going in May on the Glory and I'm not sure if this is the way to go. We have onnly sailed RCCL in the past, 1st timers on Carnival, but hope we are well pleased with our choice. We are not the partying type butoh well, here we go anyways. :)

 

Don't stress about it and have a great time ... you can usually find a party if you want one, but you can also always find a nice, quiet place, as well. :)

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

Gotta Cruise, please share more of your trip soon. My family and I will be going in May on the Glory and I'm not sure if this is the way to go. We have onnly sailed RCCL in the past, 1st timers on Carnival, but hope we are well pleased with our choice. We are not the partying type but oh well, here we go anyways. :)

 

Don't fret! And don't get me wrong, we had a GREAT time!!! But this IS Cruise CRITIC, so I want to give the downside as well. We are not partiers either. In fact, this cruise seemed to be less of a "party" ship. The ages seemed to have filled in a bit over the years. Diversified. Lots more older folks, as well as young families. We always find something to do. We are not so much into the TEAM thing. I do like the trivia thing sometimes and Karaoke. But I chose not to do the LEGENDS show this time around because it takes up too much time from my last day @ sea. So this time, no ship on a stick.:(

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

The GLORY

 

The Layout

I mentioned before about it being a bit hard to get around. The main restaurants, the Golden & the Platinum were on decks 3 & 4. But you couldn't just walk straight to them. You had to go a convoluted way around. For instance, if we were in our cabins on deck 9, we would take the front elevator to deck 5 and walk to the back of the ship, and walk down 1 more flight to get in the door of the Platinum dining room's 2nd floor. Whew!

 

There were also quite a few disabled folks with wheelchairs and walkers, as well as seniors who had trouble walking and doing steps. I noticed the Red Sail Restaurant Buffet had 2 floors. (The fish and chips was on the 2nd floor) If you wanted fish & chips, you had to walk up the stairs & get it, or go to the midship elevators & go to deck 10 and walk to the back to get there. The elevators at the back of the ship only went to deck 9!

Maybe not a big deal to some, but we were sitting in the upper floor of the Red Sail on Thursday (playing cards!:rolleyes: ), and @ least 2 times a couple of older folks came in with their litle deck plans looking for something they couldn't find. When I told them they had to go to the back door of the restaurant and then walk all the way to the front they looked like they would cry!

 

The main rule of thumb to get around; go to deck 5 first, then go to the area fore or aft that you need to be, then go to the correct floor.

 

The shows

 

We didn't go to too many, mainly because the times were odd. For our late sitting the shows were many times @ 7 pm, before dinner. As I mentioned elsewhere earlier, this just didn't work well for me. And when they would have the 2 shows combined, GOOD LUCK finding a good seat! Most of the time we would end up in the very back at the top on the barstools where you had to lean over to see. Or in the nicer balcony seats right over the stage, where you could see backstage. (I liked that, though as I work in theater and like to see the goings on backstage!;) )

 

Disembarkment

 

EASY. EASY. EASY. (But we had help!)

One of my brothers joined the Carnival Vacation Club while he was on board, and they allowed all 6 of us to do priority disembarking! We met in the Ebony lounge on deck 5 aft @ 7am. They had breakfast stuff for us there. As soon as the ship was cleared, (about 8am)they led us down to deck 3 (about 30-40 of us)and right off the ship. We had collected our luggage and caught our shuttle and were on our way North by 9am. Not bad. Now my fingers are soooooo cold as I type this!!! :mad: :(

 

Any questions? Ask away. I will try to have my pictures downloaded w/ a link by tomorrow.

 

My score for this cruise

(on a score from 1-10):

8+

[Cruz-On]

Thanks for the information on the ship layout. I have been looking at the layout and was wondering how to get to the main restaurants. So now I know go to deck 5 and push on. Thanks again for the review!!!

[sharecruises]

Thanks for the layout tips, I also am taking the deck plans from the Carnival "brochure" with me :)

 

Which shows are "shared" (and crowded)? Any tips on these??

 

I am still trying to decide about early or late dinner sitting, I have read before that Glory has the showtimes for the 2 production shows "flipped", so it is hard to decide what will be most convenient and easier?

 

Also I am on Western Carribean so there are 4 port days...decisions, decisions...

 

How were the bands on Glory?? Deck band/carribean band?? Also did they have a good "cover band" that does rock/soul classics?? Imagination had a great cover band from the Philipines, I hope Glory also has good music..thanks

[sharecruises]

Thanks for the layout tips, I also am taking the deck plans from the Carnival "brochure" with me :)

 

Which shows are "shared" (and crowded)? Any tips on these??

 

I am still trying to decide about early or late dinner sitting, I have read before that Glory has the showtimes for the 2 production shows "flipped", so it is hard to decide what will be most convenient and easier?

 

Also I am on Western Carribean so there are 4 port days...decisions, decisions...

 

How were the bands on Glory?? Deck band/carribean band?? Also did they have a good "cover band" that does rock/soul classics?? Imagination had a great cover band from the Philipines, I hope Glory also has good music..thanks

[cantwait2cruise]

Thanks for the review!!!!

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

Other than the "Legends" show on the last night, I forget which ones were "shared". I will check my capers & get back to you.

 

The deck band was just 2 guys. One sang and played the keyboard, while the other played the guitar. They had additional background music recorded. They were good.

 

There was this female singer that was usually in the atrium lobby. Didn't like her. Mediocre voice. Mediocre look. (she looked like a school teacher) [NO OFFENSE TO SCHOOL TEACHERS]

 

The band in the Amber theater was great. The band leaders name was something like Heinrich, or something like that. (Austrian)

 

There was a classical trio that also played in the atrium and in some of the other bars as well. They were good, but I couldn't stand it too much in the bar because it was a smoking bar. Seemed kind of out of character to have classical music in a smoky bar. Whatever.

 

That's about all I observed.

 

 

As to the meal times, we chose the latter also because it's much easier on port days to come back to the ship, enjoy watching sail off, have a drink, get ready, have a drink, go to dinner.....

 

As opposed to hurrying back on the ship & hurriedly getting ready for dinner.

 

You can always do the Lido for dinner, or room service, or Pizza!

[K&RCurt]

Gotta Cruise Now:

 

We are going on the Glory in October and are debating driving vs. flying. We are just North of Philladelphia so "about" the same distance as you. How long was the drive and what route did you take?

 

Love your review. We are so looking forward to trying Carnival for the first time.

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

We traveled 30 West to 83 South to 95 South. That took us right to Port Canaveral, or very close anyway. Follow the signs from there. Very easy.

 

You would probably catch 95 South from the Philly area.

 

It took us about 15 hours, including fuel/ potty stops, and a 1 hour stop for a meal.

 

My two brothers took turns driving. ( They drive pretty fast;) )It seemed to go pretty fast, especially going to FL. Probably because it was mostly @ night. I watched a movie on my mini DVD player, then slept most of the way.

[livingitup]

Thanks guys for your advice. We will just see it for what it is, A VACATION and enjoy. Glory here we come......:D :) :D

[Freezin in Minnesota]

Just got off the Glory also. We liked that they moved the first formal night to Monday to accomodate the Superbowl. Smartest thing we did on St. Thomas was to take a cab ($10pp) to Saphirre beach, and rent beach chairs ($7pp),snorkel equip ($10 all day). Absolutely beautiful beach, crystal clear water. Coral and fish mainly on east side. Literally 1000's of beautiful fish.

[roscoandlucky]

We were also on the Glory last week. We too had late seating but we enjoyed going to the shows before dinner. we felt that between 4:00 and 8:00 there was not alot to do so we were glad to have the show to go to. The one night we went to a show after dinner, as it was a shared show, I could hardly stay awake so we were glad most of the shows were before dinner. I agree that it gets way to crowded during the shared shows- we were not able to get into them all. One night they had a show in the Ebony lounge which might seat a quarter of the passengers.

[amy2313]

The GLORY

 

 

The shows

 

We didn't go to too many, mainly because the times were odd. For our late sitting the shows were many times @ 7 pm, before dinner. As I mentioned elsewhere earlier, this just didn't work well for me. And when they would have the 2 shows combined, GOOD LUCK finding a good seat! Most of the time we would end up in the very back at the top on the barstools where you had to lean over to see. Or in the nicer balcony seats right over the stage, where you could see backstage. (I liked that, though as I work in theater and like to see the goings on backstage!;) )

 

 

We are traveling in March and have heard that the show times are very odd and not as accessible for everyone. We have tried to call Carnival because very few ships have these times and were informed that comments could not be recorded with their representatives pre-cruising. This did not make sense to me because you would think they would want to document concerns and maybe change it before cruising. So we have to go on the cruise, see a limited amount of shows and complain after for other cruisers. So all in all we are trying to get as many Glory cruisers as possible to send a quick email, comment card, or phone call to try to get this changed for future cruisers! After reading how you were dissatisfied with the show times I thought it is a perfect chance to get more people involved in commenting to Carnival about Glory's show times!

 

Just to help you out I have all the contact info for Carnival if you would not mind taking a couple of minutes to let Carnival know your disappointment with the entertainment schedule and lack of seating due to it.

 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Guest Relations Department

MSPX - 460s

3655 NW 87th Ave.

Miami, FL 33178-2428

 

guestinfo@carnival.com

 

1800-CARNIVAL (ask for guest relations!)

 

If you get any type of response please let me know we would love to hear!!

 

Thanks!

[Nyiles]

We had late seating on the Glory last year and we requested it again for our cruise next month. We liked going to the shows prior to dinner. Our typical routine was show...dinner...casino. It worked out great for us.

[unicorn1075]

We are booked on Glory Eastern for 8-18-07. This is one more thing I am asking my PVP about. Thanks for mentioning it. We are a group of 8, ranging in age from late 20's to late 60's and look forward to "meeting up" at a show in the evening.

[paradoc1]

Been on the Conquest last year. Are there many noticable diffrences in the lay out of the 2 ships. the lounges, food etc? we loved the Conquest and are looking forward to the glory. we will be going in may and can't wait

[GOTTA CRUISE NOW]

The Conquest & the Glory are "sister" ships, so they're laid out the same, but with different names for the restaurants/ bars/ etc...

 

Thanks for the info,amy2313. I will email them about this!

[amy2313]

 

Thanks for the info,amy2313. I will email them about this!

 

Thanks for letting Carnival know!!

 

There was a pretty large group of us that had been discussing the Glory's show times on another thread probably a month ago now to get past guests to voice their opinions after it became obvious from the replies, the majority preferred having a relaxing evening without having to rush to a show and could enjoy a dinner in the dining room followed by the shows. I know that there are some people that like to go to the shows first and on other Carnival cruises, passengers were able to choose for themselves early or late show b/c the times were just more accessible to everyone and their tastes, unlike the Glory.

So thank you for contacting Carnival. We all appreciate it.

[livingitup]

Thanks for the layout tips, I also am taking the deck plans from the Carnival "brochure" with me :)

 

Which shows are "shared" (and crowded)? Any tips on these??

 

I am still trying to decide about early or late dinner sitting, I have read before that Glory has the showtimes for the 2 production shows "flipped", so it is hard to decide what will be most convenient and easier?

 

Also I am on Western Carribean so there are 4 port days...decisions, decisions...

 

How were the bands on Glory?? Deck band/carribean band?? Also did they have a good "cover band" that does rock/soul classics?? Imagination had a great cover band from the Philipines, I hope Glory also has good music..thanksFebruary 11th, 2007 07:14 PM

I'm in the dark alos on this, please school me on "shared shows". What are these and why should we take a late dinner seating to avoid them? We currently have early seating so that we can see the shows after dinner, good or bad. HELP:eek: