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Glory Review: Sail date of 5-3-08 Grab some popcorn it's a long one

scomar

By scomar,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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scomar

scomar

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Well here is my review of the Glory. If you just want to know about the ship just read the very top and very bottom. If you want to know about the ports read it all. I had to share my review as a thank you to all of you who have done the same. It made my cruise more enjoyable knowing what to expect. So here it is:

 

Embarkation: Got to the port about 12:30PM lines not to long and went very fast. We were on the ship by 1:15PM. We went to Lido for some drinks and food. We were in the room by 2:30PM. Muster drill was done differently from when we were on the Sensation in Jan 07. On the Sensation we all gathered at a specific room and then went to our muster station but on the Glory they tell where your muster station is at and you go straight there. I did like doing this better, seem like it went faster. We took our life vest back to the room and actually went to several different areas of the ship for sail away. We were able to see a lot of different perspectives doing this.

Cabin: We were in cabin 8284. Very clean plenty of room to put all of our clothes away and hide all suitcases (5) under the bed. Had nice chairs on the balcony not the plastic ones. Room was cleaned 2 or 3 times a day. The bed was two twins pushed together. Now if you were sleeping on your side of the bed it was very comfortable, but if you wanted to spoon with your partner (girlfriend in my case) the center of the bed had a hump were the two twins met. This was very uncomfortable. We asked the cabin steward (Thomas) for a mattress pad which they did put on for us but was still a hump. Didn’t loose any sleep over it though. Thomas did a great job with all requests we may of him. I would also like to see Carnival install a few more hooks in the room for hanging clothes and bags ECT.

1st Day at Sea: Pretty much a do nothing day for us. Really not in to doing the Lido deck scene of just laying around the deck. Just too many people. We ended up going to the aft lido deck which was less people and a lot more quite. Hung at the pool and hot tubs, which were very nice temperatures. Went and explored the ship. Nice relaxing day.

Cozumel: Not what I expected. Thought it would be more relaxed place. Between Cancun, Cozumel and Cabo San Lucas, I would have to pick Cabo then Cozumel and Cancun last as far as the cities go. But that’s just me. Any way they have your typical stretch of shopping as soon as you are off the ship. We were given a tip to walk on the ocean side of the street to avoid all the vendors trying to get you to come in to their store and boy was it nice on that side. We went to the Hard Rock café, not the little one closer to the dock but down the road. Stop in for a drink got to talking to the bartender. We asked where to shop that was away from all the tourist type stuff. He told us about a stretch of shops behind the Hard Rock. If you walk out of Hard Rock and go right to the first street take a right to the next street take a right and down that street were all sorts of shops without many people shopping. We walked down about one or two block and found this jewelry store called the Silver Palace. Found a great deal on a ring for my girlfriend. The shop keeper even sealed the deal with a shot of tequila with me. Very knowledgeable man about jewelry most he makes himself. My girlfriend said he reminds her of the Hispanic detective on the old “Barney Miller” TV show. So after shopping we grabbed a taxi and went to Paradise beach. Here went parasailing. Carnival charges $100 per person for this. They have all sorts of company’s right at the beach. We chose one that was only charging $50 per person. We did a tandem parasailing. Whole thing took about an hour and one of the guys on the boat took all sorts of picture using our camera of us parasailing. The pictures he took were great.

Belize: We tender in to Belize only 12 min ride. On the way in I took a great picture of Belize. On the way back took a great picture of the ship. I liked Belize nice reminded me of typical tropical town by the sea. There was a nice boardwalk with a few shops. Here we did a snorkeling, Bannister Beach and Manatees watching tour. We booked this tour through Coral Breeze Tours dot Com. Hammerhead water sport is the company that actually provided the tour. These guys were great. During the snorkeling they actually brought up a sea urchin and hermit crab. They let everyone hold them and take pictures. Bannister Beach was beautiful, white sand beach very tropical. You can get drinks and food here. The Hammerhead guys even started up a volleyball game with anyone who wanted to play. Unfortunately we did not get to see the Manatees. Although on our way back some dolphins were playing as we drove by. So they turned around and followed the dolphins around for us to watch. That was very cool. We got back to the dock in time to do just a little shopping.

Roatan: Roatan by far my favorite of the ports. Very beautiful place. The town of Coxen Hole was very poor looking. So as we drove through town we were wondering how good of a tour this was going to be. Once out of town though it was a whole different story. We booked this tour through Victor Bodden. Only reason I booked through Victor was because of these boards. Man were you people right about Victor’s tours. Orsy Cruz was out tour guide. It was just him and the two of us in an air conditioned mini van. Most personalized tour I have ever been on. He took us by some shipwrecks and then to these fantastic overlooks of the ocean and landscape. He stopped and let us take pictures and he took picture of us with our camera. Next we went to the Iguana Farm. I really wasn’t sure about stopping here at first. Glad we did though. Very

interesting place. I even got to pet an iguana. Then we stopped at a really nice resort, not sure the name of it, but it was beautiful. It was near the West end. Next we went to Victor’s house. This was very cool. We got to play with the monkeys and see some other animals they had there. While there I saw a tree I had not seen before. When I asked about it he told me it was a cashew tree. It had a fruit on it looking like a green apple with a brown thing on the bottom. So Orsy picked one rinsed it off and let us take a bite. Tasting like a cross of an apple and pear and a little sour but extremely juicy. I ended up eating the whole thing. So it was getting close to lunch and we ask for him to take us to a restaurant that not many tourists go to. So Orsy took us to this amazing place that set on a little jetty so while seated in the restaurant you had the ocean on both sides of you. There was a great ocean breeze blowing through it. The name of the place was Mavis and Dixie’s Shipwrecked Bar & Restaurant. It was a seafood place. Food was very good. After lunch he took us to another little resort area to swim. On our way in we saw a place to get souvenirs, it was just a woman who set up on a picnic table but it was going to be our only chance to get anything. Any way we did some swimming and time had gotten away from us so we had to hurry back to the ship. As we head back to the van I noticed the lady had packed up and left. I was bummed, no souvenir from Roatan for me. Once in the van I mention to Orsy the lady had left and he pulls out a shot glass he got from the lady before she left. He had heard me mention it on the way in and saw here leaving so he got it for me. Orsy was my hero that day.

2nd sea day: Pretty much the same as the 1st sea day

Freeport: Freeport what can I say, been here before never have been impressed with it. This time we decided to do a Carnival excursion to Wyndham Resort. The buildings had seen better days but the grounds and beach were very nice. The day pass included a buffet, use of the pool, beach and water sports equipment. We did some snorkeling while there, which was actually pretty good for snorkeling off a beach. If you do go make sure you go out to the floating white bucket that marks the spot for the coral reef. Something I had to discover on my own since the water sport staff did not mention it. Anyway it was a nice relaxing day. The Carnival excursion was a bit of a joke as far as the transportation goes. The bus was late and had poor air conditioning. We were told on the bus it would pick us up at 4:30 pm but at the resort we were told 3:00 pm. By the end of the day I didn’t feel like messing with the whole bus scene so we grab a taxi and paid the $30.00 to get back to the ship and arrived an hour before the bus. It was $30.00 well spent.

Debarkation: We had a 1:30pm flight, so we were able to go to the purser’s desk and get a lower zone number. This by the way reminds me. The purser’s desk was wrong on two things I asked about. 1) I asked about what time we needed to be ready for a tender not related to a Carnival excursion and was told 8am. When we got to the room to wait for tender the guy said you only need to be there an hour before you wanted to be ashore. We told the purser we wanted to be ashore at 10am. 2) I asked what time do they start calling the zone numbers for debarkation and was told 10:00 am. They started calling numbers at 7:45 am. I also asked if the dining room would be open for breakfast and was told yes. That was also wrong. So you may want to double check with other staff after you get an answer from the purser’s desk.

Summary: Overall we had a great time. The Glory was a great ship. Very big ship, we often found ourselves starting one direction realizing we are going the wrong way and turn around and head the other direction. We coined this as the Carnival shuffle. Lucky we have any soles left on our shoes. Food in the dinning room was very good. Food on the buffet was okay to good depending on the day. The deli had great sandwiches. Fish n chips were very good as well. The supper club food was excellent. Another thing I noticed was after we got off the Sensation (smaller ship) you felt like you were still swaying on the ship. After getting off the Glory I did not have this feeling at all. I’m guessing that because the Glory is bigger we didn’t feel the sway as much. Except for the purser’s desk giving out inaccurate information a couple of time all the staff was great on the ship. Wish they would come up with a different system for the music in the disco. They only play promotional music given to them. So there was a lot of music they didn’t have. From a scale 1 to 10 with 10 being the best I would give the Glory an 8

If you would like to see pictures of the trip go to: http://community.webshots.com/album/563418151vHiBHI

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Georgiagolfer

Georgiagolfer

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Hey scomar, glad you made it home OK. Hope you didn't have the same taxi driver in Freeport that we had when we left the ship. I swear, that woman was crazy. Never have I been so scared in a cab. She drove like she was in a tryout for NASCAR.:confused: We too found the food in the dining room to be better than the buffet in the red sail, although the deli sandwiches and food at the grill were great.:cool:

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NCTribeFan

NCTribeFan

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Thanks. On our way to Port C in the morning!

 

Not doing any of the excursions you did, but appreciate the review anyway.

 

Don't the capers tell you which dining room is open for breakfast and lunch? I thought only one was open and only during sea days for lunch, but I don't remember. Usually eat at the buffet except for dinner.

 

Oh, and I consider that to be a very short review! Mine are that long for each day! :D

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Georgiagolfer

Georgiagolfer

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Thanks. Don't the capers tell you which dining room is open for breakfast and lunch? I thought only one was open and only during sea days for lunch, but I don't remember. Usually eat at the buffet except for dinner. :D

 

The aft dining room (Platinum) is the dining room for open seating for breakfast/lunch, but we never ate there. Ate breakfast and lunch at the red sail, or 1 of the other areas.

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scomar

scomar

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Hey scomar, glad you made it home OK. Hope you didn't have the same taxi driver in Freeport that we had when we left the ship. I swear, that woman was crazy. Never have I been so scared in a cab. She drove like she was in a tryout for NASCAR.:confused: We too found the food in the dining room to be better than the buffet in the red sail, although the deli sandwiches and food at the grill were great.:cool:

Thanks G-golfer, glad to see you made it back safe too. Actually we had a very nice taxi driver. Good driver and was telling us all sorts of things about the Bahama culture. It was an unexpected surprise.

 

Thanks for the great review. Thinking of doing this in 2010. Can you tell me how much your Belize tour was? Sounds like the private tour we had at Cozumel. So much better than booking thru CCL.

Yes, we paid $60.00 per person. IMO well worth the money. You know I love cruising on Carnival but their excursions need to be a little more efficient for the money they charge.

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yeg111

yeg111

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Thanks for the great review.

We sail in 2 days so good to hear that you liked the ship and what things to watch for. I really enjoyed your pictures - got some great ideas of shots to take.

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Lewski709

Lewski709

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Hey guys....sorry I never got a chance to meet everyone. :(

 

In any event, I wanted to add that the best desserts were the Bitter and Blanc and the Date, Fig Cinnamon cake with Rum Raisin ice cream. Don't be afraid to order it, it sounds much stronger than it is and I had TWO. Mmmmmm. I also ordered the cheese plate as an appetizer once, although it's listed as a dessert.

 

I didn't think the breakfast were that terrific, but the banana panckaes, orange muffins and biscuits were very good. Never made it to the omelet station.

 

Different areas in the Red Sail buffet serve different cuisines, look around. My kids loved the pizza. The Rueben from the grill was very good.

 

I thought the dining food in the evening was ok. Just my opinon though. Presentation of food was very good!

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Lewski709

Lewski709

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On the deck where the waterslide is, is there also a pool and hot tub? Please tell me its not adults only..
There is NO adults only pools or hot tubs. Well, maybe the spa hot tub is but it had kids in it too. OH and you would think the slide emptied into the pool, but it's seperate.
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msnyder6706

msnyder6706

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There is NO adults only pools or hot tubs. Well, maybe the spa hot tub is but it had kids in it too. OH and you would think the slide emptied into the pool, but it's seperate.

 

Thanks for letting me know. On the miracle the slide was on the back of the ship and the adults only pool and hot tub were back there. Really did not make sense to me why they did that.

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