GLORY Review 7/4 -7/11 - WONDERFUL!

Glory Cruise Review – July 4 – 11 with Pictures!

Background: I was traveling with my DH and 10 year old DD. We traveled from Connecticut and since my parents live in Jacksonville, FL we decided to go to Florida on July 1st and spend a few days at their home and it helped that the plane tickets were considerably cheaper flying on a Wednesday vs. on Friday before the cruise.

So we spent 3 days in Jacksonville hanging out at the pool and beach and seeing old friends (hubby and I met in Florida when he was in the Navy).

We got up early on Saturday to make the drive to Port Canaveral, my parents volunteered to drive us to the port so they could spend more time with their granddaughter so we accepted their offer!

We have cruised once before (last year on RCCL for a 3 day Bahamas cruise) and did not enjoy the cruise – lots of reasons but this is about this cruise so I won’t go into it except that we had decided cruising wasn’t for us and planned a trip to Cancun at an all-inclusive resort but after all of the reports of the drug wars and violence in Mexico we had a change of heart and found a great deal from Carnival and decided to give it another go!

We arrived at the port at 10:30am on Saturday

Embarkation:

We had VIP status since we were booked in a Cat. 11 suite. This was fabulous! When we got there after dropping off our luggage their was probably about 100 people in line to go into the building but they had a separate line for VIP and we walked right to the front of the of the line an were let into the building and thru security. I carried on 2 large bottles of wine and we had a 12 pack of water in a carry on (soda and rum runners were in checked bags!) – no issues at all going thru security.

We then filled out our swine flu papers and were directed to VIP check in where you go to a special room and someone sitting at a desk checks you in and gives you your cards and then to the VIP waiting area:

Once we were cleared to get on the ship, we were in the first group to get our picture taken and off to the Lido deck for lunch by 11:30 and having a DOD by noon! It was great, I could get used to that type of treatment!!

Will finish later with first day events including Cruise Critic Meet and Greet!:cool:

Great review so far, looking forward to the rest :)

Great review so far, looking forward to it as we leave on the 25th on the Glory for a much needed break and relaxation.

Love your review.

I'm loving this review! Plus I can see the pics! (Most pic sites like webshots or community shots are blocked on our work computers). Two Thumbs Up!

Can't wait to read more! We're going to be on the Glory in november, and want to hear as much about her as possible!

Sounds like this experience was much better than the first - can't wait to hear more!

I'd like to make a suggestion. Your font is too small and very hard to read. Could you please make it bigger? Thanks. :)

Saturday, July 4th – First Day on Ship

We had lunch in the Red Sail Buffet and it was really good. I had sliced prime rib and some great cheesy potatoes:

This was the only picture I took of the food – I kept forgetting and started eating because it looked so good!

After lunch we decided to walk around and see if we could get the feel for the ship, we were each carrying a backpack and a small rolling bag (with water and wine) so it got pretty cumbersome. We (my daughter!) decided she wanted to check out the pool so we went to the Azure Pool in the back of the ship as it was not too crowded. But beware the pool area is extremely hot to walk on with our shoes including the area around the pool since the water fall was not on and this section of the pool did not have the usual layer of water – so where water shoes or flip flops!

We stayed there until 1:30 and then went off to find out room. We were on the Empress Deck (deck 7) in suite 7251. We loved the room, it was big and roomy and was plenty of space for us and all of the junk I brought on board!

This was not only our first suite but first balcony and we loved having the balcony – we spend so much time out there – it was wonderful!

We did not have our luggage yet (no bid deal!) but go cleaned up and headed to the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet in the Bar Blue.

M&G was a lot of fun and great to meet so many nice people that I had been chatting with the weeks before the cruise. We had about 35-40 people show up over the hour. We didn’t do anything special but just had a chance to have a drink and chat with each other. It was also nice to see some faces that I met at the M&G thru out the cruise and I found my self seeing their faces every time I went to look at pictures in the gallery!

After the M&G went to the room to see if the luggage was there and it was already in our room.

Our room steward Victor stopped by and introduced himself and asked if we needed anything – he was wonderful the entire cruise although we did not see him often!

The rum runners made it without any problems! Those things are great!!

part II next (wouldn't take all my pictures)

Victoria and decided to decorate our door while we were waiting to go to dinner. Since it was 4th of July we decorated with fireworks.

We then got cleaned up and headed out to the Camp Carnival orientation at 5:00pm in the Ebony Theater. We turned in Victoria’s paper work for the 9-11 age group and re-iterated that she would NOT be allowed to check herself in and out of Camp Carnival, I was not comfortable with this idea, so for our family we decided she would not be allowed to do this.

Once that was over we headed out to dinner, we had early seating in the Golden Lower Dining Room, table 185, which is a table for 9 people.

It was my family (3) and a couple traveling with their 13 year old granddaughter and another couple traveling with their 14 year old son.

After introductions were done we met our Head waiter, Stephen and his assistant Katut. They were fabulous (that is my word for the entire cruise)

We ordered our food and appetizers were out quickly, I ordered a chicken dish (it was green! But delicious!) Hubby had Tilapia and said it was great. Victoria ordered the ribs and they were fantastic! (I tried them!)

After dinner we walked around and went to the Amber Palace for the Game Show which was fun.

After the game show, we walked around exploring the ship and finally decided to head back to the cabin as I still had to unpack.

We got to the room and the beds were turned down and chocolates were left with our Capers for the next day.

I unpacked the suitcases and packed our beach bag for our day in the Bahamas, we were taking the Catamaran and Sail boat Snorkeling trip.

We then sat on the balcony had a drink and relaxed until we called it a night.

Next up – Bahamas!

Great review keep it coming! Are the cabin doors magnetic? Thanks. JO:)

Great review keep it coming! Are the cabin doors magnetic? Thanks. JO:)

Yes they are magnetic but my white board did not stay on well so I would suggest using a back up!

This is a great review - we are traveling Glory 8/8 and 11 year old son in the Cat 11 right next door so I am hanging on your every word. We are even getting there 3 days early to spend time with my parent before we cruise. Love the pics too! I am so glad you had a wonderful time!!!

Welcome back Tammi, glad you had a great time. Love seeing the pictures, keep them coming.

My son leaves for Cancun on Monday, for a week, with 4 other couples, hope things go well for him. He has never been there or anywhere without his family, he should have a blast!!! Its a all you can eat and drink place also.

Later, kmbb

Great review so far!! Keep it up! Looking forward to the rest! :D

Before breakfast on Sunday, I wanted to try and find someone who missed the meet and greet to make sure she made it on the ship as she was waiting for a medical clearance for her hubby. We had been chatting and emailing for about a month before the cruise.

I went down to Judy's cabin and no answer but I posted the door sign I made for all the people at the meet and greet (just like the one on my door) and left a note with my cabin number and dinner table number.

She must have stopped by while we were in Nassau and left me a note so we were playing tag!

I finally got to meet her and Bob as they came to my dinner table that night to make sure we met!

It was great meeting you Judy and Bob! Keep in touch.

Tam

Welcome back Tammi, glad you had a great time. Love seeing the pictures, keep them coming.

 

My son leaves for Cancun on Monday, for a week, with 4 other couples, hope things go well for him. He has never been there or anywhere without his family, he should have a blast!!! Its a all you can eat and drink place also.

 

Later, kmbb

Hi KMBB!

Hope you are well! We had such a great time!!! I will try to finish the review soon - so much information I want to say I even keep a journal with highlights that I wanted to mention but I still keep remembering things after I post something.

I'm sure you son will have a great time - we went to Cancun 2 years ago to an all inclusive place (Cancun Palace) and it was wonderful!

Tam:cool:

Hey we had an asst waiter on the Paradise several years back named Katut (unsure of spelling) and he always used the word "fabulous". I wonder if it's the same guy.

Hi KMBB!

 

Hope you are well! We had such a great time!!! I will try to finish the review soon - so much information I want to say I even keep a journal with highlights that I wanted to mention but I still keep remembering things after I post something.

 

I'm sure you son will have a great time - we went to Cancun 2 years ago to an all inclusive place (Cancun Palace) and it was wonderful!

 

Tam:cool:

Welcome back, I am hanging on your words too, since I leave on the Glory 7/25.

Sunday, July 5th – Nassau Bahamas – Part I

I woke up early (as usual) around 6:00am and sat on the balcony until David and Victoria woke up. I could see a storm on the horizon and hear the thunder and lightening in the distance. I had to wake them up around 7 to get ready to go on our excursion.

We all got up and ended up spending time on the balcony watching the storm (despite being disappointed that rain was on the way – it was really cool watching the storm. We watched us pulling into Nassau and enjoyed the sights.

We went to the buffet for breakfast – food was great (bacon police were on hand, but I didn’t mind) and when we sat down to eat – the rain started.

At about 8:15 the buffet was getting really crowded and we were finishing up so I wanted to check at the excursion desk to make see if there was any change to our excursion as we were scheduled to go on the Catamaran Sail and Reef Snorkeling trip and with the lightening I wasn’t sure it they would still let us go.

They told me that the storm was due to blow over and all excursions were still on so off we went to deck 0.

Getting off the ship was easy, we had to be there at 9:00am and they group I was looking for was right off the gangway. We waited until nine and then the group (about 75 people) walked to where the catamaran left from – this was a long walk! We had to go all the way to the back of the straw market, about a 15 -20 min walk and although the rain had stopped it was really sticky out. But hey I was on vacation so who cared!

We got to the catamaran and started loading (there were 2 catamarans) we go onto the first one and got great seats up front around the nets.

The ride out to Rose Reef was beautiful and the staff on the boat were great. We brought our own snorkels so we only needed flippers and vests, these were given out and then we sat back and enjoyed the ride. We go to Rose Reef and got to snorkel for about an hour.

I wasn’t sure how Victoria would do snorkeling so I had read about a “Snorkel Tube” it is an inflatable tube with a window in the middle for you to look thru and acts just like a snorkel mask but you don’t have to go under water and breathe thru the snorkel.

This worked our beautifully for her, she really enjoyed looking thru the tube and it was not as difficult as snorkeling with the mask and snorkel. It also gave David and I an opportunity to snorkel more and we didn’t need to worry about her as much.

When it was time to get back on the boat we all boarded and got ready for the ride back to the ship.

They served free rum punch and gave out chips for the ride back. We had a great time on this excursion and would definitely recommend it.

We docked and got off the boat for the long walk back to the ship. We had to pass by the straw market and all the kids trying to get you to buy something – of course Victoria wanted to buy everything from the kids!

We started the walk back to the ship and it seemed even longer since we were tired and it was really hot and sticky.

We stopped at the room and washed up for lunch…….

Waiting for the excursion outside of the Gangway

On the walk to the catamaran - they were selling these

After the long walk to the Catamaran we passed right by the ship gangway (why couldn't they have just picked us up?!?!) RCCL had a ship in port too.

As we passed were we all gathered!

Picture of the Catamaram (the Seahorse II) We were on the Seahorse

Atlantis

Relaxing on the ride out to Rose Reef

Rose Reef

The sails went up for the ride back

Some of the beautiful house we saw on the ride

Back to the ship....

Did you make that really cool Cruise Critic sign??????

Did you make that really cool Cruise Critic sign??????

Yep! I made them for all that RSVP's to the Meet and Greet that I set up from our Roll Call.....

Glory Cruise Review – July 4 – 11 with Pictures!

 

Background: I was traveling with my DH and 10 year old DD. We traveled from Connecticut and since my parents live in Jacksonville, FL we decided to go to Florida on July 1st and spend a few days at their home and it helped that the plane tickets were considerably cheaper flying on a Wednesday vs. on Friday before the cruise.

 

So we spent 3 days in Jacksonville hanging out at the pool and beach and seeing old friends (hubby and I met in Florida when he was in the Navy).

 

We got up early on Saturday to make the drive to Port Canaveral, my parents volunteered to drive us to the port so they could spend more time with their granddaughter so we accepted their offer!

 

We have cruised once before (last year on RCCL for a 3 day Bahamas cruise) and did not enjoy the cruise – lots of reasons but this is about this cruise so I won’t go into it except that we had decided cruising wasn’t for us and planned a trip to Cancun at an all-inclusive resort but after all of the reports of the drug wars and violence in Mexico we had a change of heart and found a great deal from Carnival and decided to give it another go!

 

We arrived at the port at 10:30am on Saturday

Embarkation:

 

We had VIP status since we were booked in a Cat. 11 suite. This was fabulous! When we got there after dropping off our luggage their was probably about 100 people in line to go into the building but they had a separate line for VIP and we walked right to the front of the of the line an were let into the building and thru security. I carried on 2 large bottles of wine and we had a 12 pack of water in a carry on (soda and rum runners were in checked bags!) – no issues at all going thru security.

 

We then filled out our swine flu papers and were directed to VIP check in where you go to a special room and someone sitting at a desk checks you in and gives you your cards and then to the VIP waiting area:

 

 

 

 

Once we were cleared to get on the ship, we were in the first group to get our picture taken and off to the Lido deck for lunch by 11:30 and having a DOD by noon! It was great, I could get used to that type of treatment!!

 

Will finish later with first day events including Cruise Critic Meet and Greet!:cool:

Enjoying your review so far, can't wait to read the rest. Glory, Glory, here we come, all 35 of us.