Glory Western 9/22-9/29 Review LONG!

[Hogladyrider]

Where to begin! We are both in our mid 50’s and have ONLY cruised with Carnival; this was our 8th cruise with Carnival and the BEST to date and our second sailing on Glory.

We cruise for R&R and we thoroughly enjoy the amenities – cabin steward, waiters, room service, the nightly shows you name it!

We do not cruise to gamble, or hit the night clubs every night. The closest I get to the casino is walking by on the Promenade deck and gasping at the smoke smell, yes I am a reformed smoker!

We booked this cruise a year out because we enjoyed sailing on Glory Eastern so much in 2006 and it was our first cruise experience during hurricane season and it was WONDERFUL!

We booked our first aft balcony cabin after reading such great things about aft cabins on Cruise Critic and I must say we are hooked. We were previously hooked on balcony cabins but now it will be aft balcony whenever possible for us.

Since we live in Central Florida we drive to the port, we arrived about an hour later than we normally do; we prefer to arrive around 10:30 and beat the first group of buses coming from the airport; by arriving around 11:30 the buses beat us, but it worked out just fine. Parking for the week was $84. As we entered the Port Terminal we were handed a piece of paper with the ship’s new port schedule on it; due to the hurricanes we did not know where we were sailing to and we honestly didn’t care, we were going to be on vacation. We were on the ship by noon embarkation was a breeze; we opted for e-documents. We had all our paperwork out and ready, Fun Pass and Sign and Sail Application was completed before we arrived so it was a simple process. The staff was professional as always.

We had requested 6:15 dinner but were assigned to 5:45 dinner. We decided to leave it at 5:45 rather than request a change since it was only 30 minutes difference and the 6:15 dinner was in the Golden Dining room and the 5:45 dinner was in the Platinum Dining room, which was two floors down from our room, very convenient. We had a table for 8 but only 4 of us showed up all week long for dinner. We had a window table and we enjoyed the company of our table mates all week long.

As soon as we boarded Glory in the Lobby we booked our Emerald Room reservation for 6:30 Wednesday evening. More on this later.

Our lunch was a sandwich from the deli and an ice cream cone since we did not want to over eat at the buffet and the people act like they have never seen food before, it’s crazy that first day when you board the ship.

After lunch we went to our cabin, met our cabin steward, Nestor, who was provided us with outstanding service all week long. We hung out in our cabin until Muster Drill and we watched the movie “Because I Said So” with Diane Keaton. We had cabin 7442 Empress aft and in the aft cabins there is no couch, only two chairs and a table which was fine with us, the couch just seems to “collect” things all week long. The balcony had two nice chairs and a table. These were new chairs since we sailed on Glory in 2006. We had plenty of room on this balcony and we spent a good bit of time there all week long.

After the muster drill we had our Meet & Greet up on Lido deck at the Azure Bar at the aft pool then it was off to dinner. It was nice to meet people and put a face with a “real” name instead of an on screen name. There were several first time cruisers and several veterans; it was fun chatting with them all.

Off to dinner and our waiter Mile from Macedonia was top notch all the way all week long. Each night I would ask for his recommendation and most nights I went with his suggestions and he was right on. He even advised us that often the meat can be tough, which I already knew and I make it a point to order something I wouldn’t normally have. The food was outstanding all week long from the soups; to the desserts and the entrees were perfect portion size. We were out of the dining room each night by 7-7:30 at the latest, up to our room for some after dinner balcony views so DH could have his cigar and then off to the evening show. Our waiter, Mile, was departing the Glory the same day we were, 9/29; he was going home for 6 weeks then reporting to California to serve on Carnival Pride, after two contracts on Carnival Glory.

First evening we wound up at Bar Blue, the band was great and the place was hoping for it being early in the evening. This turned out to be a “hot” spot all week long, the band got rave reviews!

Sunday 9/23 – Sea Day – beautiful sunrise off the aft balcony and room service for breakfast, this is the life! I lounged around the aft pool for a while, enjoyed the hot tub and chatting with people then at 2 pm we were off to the cooking demonstration in the Emerald Room. I forgot to bring my camera and this is a great demonstration. One of the chefs from the Emerald Room fixes a complete 5 course meal from appetizer, to salad, to main entrée to dessert and we all got to taste test at the end of the demonstration. It was a great event and attended by less than 50 people; the demonstration was held right in the Emerald Room. We were even given the recipe for chocolate melting cake.

First formal night in the dining room it was lobster and prime rib for me and an end cut prime rib for DH. One thing I noticed on this cruise is that the dining room was not packed like on previous cruises. The Golden Dining room serves 750 and the Platinum Dining room serves 1100 and there were a lot of empty seats, maybe it was just the early seating.

After dinner we changed into comfy clothing and went to see the first show of the cruise “Living In America” – it was very entertaining and the music was great, we really enjoyed the show a definite thumbs up!

Monday 9/24 – Cozumel 10-6 We have an excursion booked for 2 pm so we were staying on board until then. We’ve been to Cozumel numerous times so we wanted to experience the ship for a change. We watched all the people leaving. Ecstasy was in port at the same time as Glory and both ships were emptying at the same time.

We booked the Deluxe Snorkel, Beach and Sail excursion $55 for 3.5 hours. It was on the Fury catamaran. The snorkeling part was really lame, nothing to see, but I expected that. I wanted to go out on a catamaran. The snorkeling was like a cattle-call; I got kicked in the head twice and just enjoyed the water. After that they took us to a private beach and it was great. Once the snorkeling portion was completed it was free beer and margaritas and sodas for the rest of the excursion. All in all it was a great time we were even on the Fun Ship video as we had a cameraman on board for our excursion; we’d do it again; the crew of the Fury was lots of fun and very professional.

After dinner at the Red Sail that evening it was off to the show in the Amber Palace which was the juggling of Manuel Zuniga and the comedy of Al Ernst – both were very enjoyable and something different, the juggler was amazing and the comedian had us all in stitches.

Tuesday 9/25 – Belize 8-5 This was our first visit to Belize, we were undecided what to do and since it was a 4 port stop cruise we decided to just take the tender into Belize and browse around the port and return to the ship. I would DEFINITELY recommend an excursion in Belize. The ship is anchored quite a distance from Belize, a good 30 minute tender ride. The shopping at the port is blah! Our shopping consisted of a $20 donation to the Belize Humane Society for which we received two tank tops. We are big proponents of rescuing and adopting from shelters so this was money well spent. We enjoyed talking with the American woman who was in charge of the booth and telling us how she must “rent” a vet for a day to tend to the animals and how animals in Belize are not pets like in the US, they are not treated with the best of care. There were many who did excursions with vendors other than Carnival, but no matter what an excursion is the way to go and you don’t want the ship to sail without you for sure!

Dinner in the dining room was outstanding again, I had the veal parm, I chose to go with the recommendation of our waiter and he never steered me wrong!

After dinner it was our balcony until after dark, then a nap with a wake up call so we could go to the midnight adult “R” rated show of Happy Cole. We had seen him before and really enjoyed his comedy. He did not disappoint this time either, he is our favorite comedian! He takes everyday life and puts it into true life comedy!

Wednesday 9/16 Roatan 8-3 Coffee on the balcony watching us dock in Roatan. Only room for one ship at a time at this port of call. There is NOTHING at the port, it is all under construction. The scenery pulling into port is amazing, lush and tropical. Today at 4 pm is the past guest party, which we don’t want to miss, it’s in the Amber Palace so they must be expecting a large crowd! In Roatan we chose to do the Tambayana Beach Resort excursion with Carnival for $35 pp and it did not disappoint. DH said it was the first day he did NOT want to return to the ship! This beach is AWESOME, the snorkeling from shore is outstanding, the water is crystal clear, and the beach is raked and so clean. We chose this excursion because we could return to the ship at our leisure with transportation available every 30 minutes so we got to stay until the last bus returned to the ship. It is about a 30 minute ride each way to and from the resort/ship. There are fresh water showers, rest rooms, changing rooms, nice lounge chairs, beverage service as well as food and snorkel gear rental is available. There is a small gift shop with very reasonable prices and some local gifts. We chose a spot under a huge palm tree right in front of the beverage man! How convenient. Beer and mixed drinks were $4; I had a wonderful pina colada while DH stuck with beer.

We watched us sail away from Roatan from our aft balcony, we hated to leave. We definitely want to return to this port next year.

After dinner we didn’t go to the show, we were pretty beat from all the snorkeling and water activities so we retreated to our balcony and then retired for the evening.

Thursday 9/27 Sea Day at 7:30 am the seas were flat, we have been amazed at how calm the ocean has been on this cruise. Tonight is our 2nd formal night so we are just going to chill today, me by the aft pool, Gary will probably hang out and watch some movies. I decided to go to the disembarkation talk as they kept saying that things have changed. Well we do self-disembarkation and nothing really changed there but it was good to know. I completed our Comment Cards and at 3 pm we both went to the Galley Tour thru the Golden Dining Room. The Golden Dining Room feeds 750 people and the Platinum Dining Room feeds 1100 people….the kitchen is all stainless steel with a special non-skid tile floor, very interesting tour and we have lots of photos.

DH did not want to dress for formal night dinner, so he went to the buffet and I went to the dining room. I wanted that Baked Alaska tonight and I was really enjoying our dinner companions each night.

After dinner we met up and went to the show in the Amber Palace to see “Rock Down Broadway” which was a tribute to Broadway shows. It was very good. Those Glory dancers are amazing when you figure two shows a night and all those steps to remember and costume changes. After the show it was nap time with another wake up call for 11 pm so we could go see the 2nd “R” rated Comedy show starring Carl Faulkenberry. Well, he was OK, I had high standards after Happy Cole and there was no comparison, I kept waiting for the “R” rating to kick in, but it was still enjoyable.

Friday 9/29 Freeport breakfast on the balcony watching us dock in Freeport. We got to see the Inspiration in dry dock which was exciting and get some photos of her as well. This was our first visit to Freeport; we’ll take Nassau any day over Freeport. We did not do an excursion here. We took a cab $5 pp each way to Our Lucama Beach, which is a good 30 minute ride. We spent the day at the beach, which was nothing like the beaches in Cozumel or Roatan. The water was actually chilly compared to the other beaches! It was still a relaxing day on the soft sand. We headed back to the ship, had lunch and a nap.

Our last dinner in the dining room. We exchanged e-mail addresses with our dining companions. We learned that our waiter was leaving the ship the same day we were. Miles was going home to Macedonia for 6 weeks, and then returning to work on the Pride out in California after two contracts on Glory.

After dinner it was back to the room final evening on the balcony and the dreaded packing to go home! At least we were looking forward to picking up our dogs on Saturday morning on the way home! It was a great vacation and AWESOME cruise. For us Carnival just keeps getting better and better.

Saturday 9/29 we were off the ship and in our car out of the parking lot by 8 am and we were in no hurry to leave! Self disembarkation is the way to go. We only had two bags and no other carry items so it was easy.

Of course we suffered from post cruise depression that first week home and the week back at work was horrendous we’re ready for another cruise for sure; but we have to wait until February when we will sail on the refurbished Inspiration and then in September we sail on Legend with another aft balcony and we will return to Roatan and Belize, providing the hurricanes don’t get there before we do!

There are over 200 photos of this cruise if you click on the link in my signature. I regret I did not have my camera with me when we went to the Emerald Room cooking demo, but there is always next time.:D

Any questions ask away I’m sure I’ve left out numerous items.

Susan

[gypsyrose]

Hey Susan! I would love to go back on the Glory but still trying the other ones out 1st. Have only talked Mark into 1 a year. Living in FL makes it so much easier for you guys. Sounds like you had another glorious cruise. Loved your pics! Tell Gary hey......Ena

[Hogladyrider]

Nice to hear from you Ena!

 

I agree living in Florida does help a lot, but now you guys are near the mountains which is where we'd like to be for get aways.

 

We are going to try the Legend next year, which is the Spirit class of ships, one level down from Glory, the Conquest class.

 

If you get a chance to do that Western route we just took it is awesome, though Freeport was our least favorite port, we liked Nassau much better.

 

Maybe we'll meet up again some day, thanks for the nice note!

 

Will tell Gary hi for you guys, he is FINALLY on day shift so we have a life together again after 5 years of night shift!

Susan