Just off the Glory!! Long Review!

[FSUgirl17]

We made it back safe and sound from our October 13 Glory sailing. We had an AWESOME time!!

 

We live in Tallahassee so it’s only about a 5 hour drive for us. We drove down the night before and stayed at the Radisson Resort at the Port. We were allowed to park our car there for free and they offered a shuttle bus to take us to the port. The outside of the hotel was nice, the lobby was nice but the rooms were old, musky, and gross! Our AC wasn’t working properly so every 3 hours, we had to turn it off for 10 minutes so it would reset itself. I called earlier in the week to reserve our shuttle pick-up time and we were scheduled to be picked up at 11:30. Waiting for the shuttle was a MESS! There were only 2 shuttles (that seat 24 people) running back and forth and I can’t even tell you how many people were waiting. We did not leave the hotel until 1:00pm. It was a nightmare. We ended up catching a taxi getting off the ship so we wouldn’t have to deal with their shuttle again. I would not recommend this hotel. The rooms were awful and they don’t have their shuttle system together.

 

EMBARKATION: Finally after arriving to the port, we waited in a long line but it moved pretty fast. From start to finish it took about 20- 30 minutes. It wasn’t bad at all.

 

We were on the ship by 2:00 so we went straight to our room and it was ready. We had cabin 7446 on the very back of the ship. This was our first aft balcony and we absolutely loved it! It was great! We will always have an aft balcony from now on! We had planned on attending our Meet & Greet at 3:00 but since we got on the ship so late, time flew right by us so we missed out on it. We wondered around the ship for a while, went to the dreaded muster drill, then wondered around some more before getting ready for dinner. We had the 8:30 dinner in the Golden dinning room and we were seated at a table for 8 but we were the only ones there. We didn’t really care because we just figured everyone was tired from traveling down that day. We were tired ourselves so we skipped out on the show.

 

DAY 1- Nassau: We did not book any tours through the ship and on this day we were just going to walk down to the Hilton and use their pools and beach. When we got off the ship we were approached by a taxi driver who was offering tours for $25pp. We saw another couple doing it also so we decided to join. It was great!! He was very nice and informative. He took us all around the island and our last stop was Atlantis. We walked all through the hotel and we were amazed at this place! We were glad we did the tour. The driver dropped us back off at the pier around 12:30 and we had to be back on the ship at 1:30. We were hungry so we went ahead and boarded the ship to eat some lunch. I had the AWESOME Ruben sandwich then we hung around the pool for the rest of the afternoon. This was our first formal night so we got all dressed up, took some pictures then headed off to dinner hoping to meet our table mates. Again, we were the only 2. We were a little disappointed so after dinner we asked the Maitre’D to be switched to a different time/table. He did that with no problem and we were switched to the 8:00 dinner in the Platinum dinning room. We did go to the show, I don’t even remember which one it was but it was just okay.

 

DAY 2- Sea day: We slept in and woke up around 9 and we decided to have breakfast in the dinning room. We’ve never done this before and it was great!! After breakfast we went to the Game Show Mania and I was picked to be a contestant!! It was fun but I made a complete fool of myself! It’s hard to answer questions when you are put on the spot! It was fun though. After that we went to the pool, had lunch, and hung around the pool some more. This day was the past guest party so we went to that at 4:00. We had free drinks and the CD, Wee Jimmy asked for couples to come on stage. We didn’t know what for but we decided to go on up anyways. We had to dance and then he picked 10 couples to stay on stage. We were one of the lucky couples who got picked. We had to dance on center stage for about 30 seconds. Again, we made fools of ourselves but we had a good time. We were beat out by an older couple but they deserved it. They were hilarious!! After that, we hung around some more, visited the casino, then went to dinner. We were so excited to have dinner mates!!

 

At the hotel

 

Hotel Pool

 

Our Cabin

 

 

Our balcony

 

Backing into the port at Nassau

 

 

 

More to come...

[Giggles2007]

So far, sounds like everything went alright. You must have did the eastern which is what I will be doing but not until 2009. Just reading your post, I am getting sooooo siked. I also read the reviews and write little notes for myself. Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip.

[Djptcp]

Thanks for posting -- DH and I will sail on the Glory on December 22nd and are so looking forward to it. I appreciate your comments very much. We also live in North Florida, but closer to Jacksonville, so about a 3-hour drive for us to PC and we'll go on embarkation morning.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience at the Radisson. DH and I spent several days there at Christmas in 2005 and it was wonderful. Our room was huge and beautiful and didn't have any musty smell at all. Others have reported on the message boards that they would recommend it, too. We weren't there to take a cruise, just to spend the holidays, so I can't comment on the cruise shuttle.

 

I look forward to your next installment!

[aggieastrosfan]

I have some awesome night shots of the Glory from when we were in St. Thomas with you last week. I'll get around to posting them eventually. :rolleyes: ;)

[abitaturbodog]

Great pics! I love your review!

[mikedx]

FSU,

 

We were on the same boat! I think we had much the same experiences. I also posted my review on here.

 

Did you or anyone you know of take any photos/video of the yacht racing at St. Martin? My wife and I did the excursion and were looking for additional photos.

 

Thanks,

Mike

[GAMOMOF2]

So far, sounds like everything went alright. You must have did the eastern which is what I will be doing but not until 2009. Just reading your post, I am getting sooooo siked. I also read the reviews and write little notes for myself. Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip.

 

 

Sorry about hijacking post, but you will be getting on the Glory when we are getting off. I will keep her nice for ya.

[FSUgirl17]

DAY 3- St. Thomas: We weren’t scheduled to arrive in St. Thomas until 10:00 so we slept in once again. We ate a quick breakfast up on the lido deck then we had to go through customs before we could get off. You are supposed to wait until they call your tour time. If you didn’t have a tour booked you were supposed to wait until the end. We didn’t have a tour booked but we went ahead and went through customs when they made the first announcement. They weren’t checking so they didn’t know. Customs went really fast and we were off the ship by 10:15. Again, we did our own thing. We did a little shopping at the port then took a taxi to Coki Beach. The taxi drivers in St. Thomas are very rude and Carnival told us not to tip them. Our taxi driver didn’t speak one word to us and if we asked a question, he answered “yes” or “no” and that was it. So no, he did NOT get a tip from us! Coki Beach was pretty but very crowded! We snorkeled and we saw some cool fish and a few squid. We hung out awhile then decided to go back to town to do more shopping. My DH started talking a taxi driver and said he was really nice so he told him he could take us back to town. His taxi was an old beat up van and I told DH I did not want to ride with him. DH said it would be fine but sure enough, ½ mile down the road, his van broke down. I told DH to just get out and we will flag another one down. We flagged one down and jumped on (it was an open ait taxi) with a family of 6. They were drunk off their butts but fun to hang out with. They had actually rented the bus for the day but they said we could still ride around with them. So it actually worked out great because we got a little tour of the island! We got back to the port, did a little shopping, then decided to walk to Paradise Point. We bought tickets and rode to the top and it was beautiful! We had a few of their famous drinks the Bushwacker and they were so good we bought the kit to bring home! We got back on the ship around 7:00 and watched the ship leave port. We were exhausted so we skipped out on dinner this night. We ate up on the lido deck and it was surprisingly great! We had the made to order pasta and it was fantastic! I would recommend trying it at least 1 night.

DAY 4- St. Maarten: We had scheduled a tour through SMX Tours. Victor was our tour guide and he met us exactly where we were supposed to. We were the first couple there so we waited about 15 minutes for the other families. This tour was great. He took us all around the island, to the airport to watch a plane land, shopping, then to Orient Beach. Orient Beach was gorgeous! Definitely my favorite part of the whole trip. We did wonder down to the far end just to check things out and after about 2 minutes, we saw all we wanted to see! LoL We got back to the ship around 4:30 so we took a little nap before getting ready for dinner. The show this night was my favorite. It was the Motown show and it is not to be missed!

 

Arriving in St. Thomas

 

Coki Beach

 

View from Paradise Point

 

DH Drinking a Bushwacker...YUM!

 

Hanging out on our balcony

[Giggles2007]

Sorry about hijacking post, but you will be getting on the Glory when we are getting off. I will keep her nice for ya.

 

 

 

Thank you very much. I am not a drinker but make sure you save some of those Frou Frou drinks for the rest of my group. :D

[As You Wish]

Great review so far. I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

 

I'm hoping that your experience at the Radisson was the exception because I've read many good reviews and I'll be staying there before my cruise on the Glory. Wish me luck.

[cruzdawg69]

Great review so far. I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

 

I'm hoping that your experience at the Radisson was the exception because I've read many good reviews and I'll be staying there before my cruise on the Glory. Wish me luck.

We were on the same cruise and stayed at the Radisson.....it was great! The room was very nice, the folks at the hotel were friendly and helpful and the food was good. If we ever cruise from Port Canaveral again , we will stay there again.