Off Glory (Eastern) Yesterday, Any Questions?

Just got off a wonderful Eastern cruise yesterday and just started the laundry, but wanted to answer any questions you might have while their fresh on your mind and before we I can do a review.

We were in 7233 cat 11 and have a lot of other friends on board, so if we didn't do it, they probably did.

Wow! Did you have a great time? Stupid question, right?! We are sailing Glory in June, but we are doing Western.

The first question that pops into my mind, was did you find any "secret" rooms? I remember a thread a while ago saying that there were secret rooms on all of the ships, but no one had posted anything about Glory.

Do they have the virtual golf on board? My husband is dying to try this!

Did they offer any dance lessons? Like on sea days?

Did you have any kids in the camp Carnival program? How did they like it? What kind of things did they do? *That question came from my 8 year old son!*

What nights were the formal nights? Or would these be different for Western?

What must we see on the ship?

That is all I can think of now! Thanks for taking the time to answer, and I can't wait to hear your review!

Jeannette

Yes we had a wonderful trip, the weather was a little to be desired, but you can't control that. There were positives as well as negatives, but all in all you couldn't ask for a much better vacation.

Positives huge ship, lots to do, and very friendly staff

Negatives: more motion than we are used to (seven cruises previously) and weather

We didn't find any secret rooms, but a wonderful spot just to watch the ocean we found was forward on deck 7. No one ever goes there and it's tucked off by itself, you could have you own "private getaway" or cocktail party (lest the bar service) and no one would know the difference.

Yes, they had virtual golf and a LPGA tour on board, there were putting tournaments a few days and otherwise the general golf cage.

There were four different days of dance lessons, from country to salsa, so a big representation. Interestingly, The Grand Ole Opry had booked this cruise as a part of a package (unbeknownest to us until we arrived) there were a lot of country music and dance fans on board, of course the concert by Terri Clark, Trace Atkins, Little Jimmy Dickens and Bill Anderson helped fuel them on. There were on the ship all week and were pretty friendly to everyone. Just like everyone else, they were having a vacation.

There were very few kids in camp carnival the entire week and probably no more than 50 on board (out of 3000) but I wouldn't take this to be normal, even our dining team mentioned that when we sailed was normally the slowest for children to be on board, there was however a great arcade (even by adult standards) and a full activites center for kids called ultraviolets. There should be plenty for them to do.

Our formal nights were on Sunday and Thursday. Currently the Western formal nights are on Monday and Thursday.

The ship is very expansive and is a little tough to get to know until day two or three. Check it all out, it's worth the time...

Let me know if there are any other questions. And don't be worried, it's a great time!

Thank you! Well, I guess the spot on deck 7, is kind of a secret, if no one is there! I am going with a group, so that might be a great place to hang out!

I don't think we will have the same situation with no kids on board. We are going in JUNE! So, I'm sure there will be kids everywhere!

I am so excited! Our last cruise was 10 years ago, so I think I am way overdue!

Thanks again!

Jeannette

Glad you had a great time ! How rough was the water? And what did you do for excursions ? Daan

LEGEND 11/29/03

GLORY 3/5/05 Only 5 weeks away!

Curious about the lido deck food. Did you ever have problems with cold food, especially at breakfast. How were the lines. Do you think the ship handles the crowd on the lido. How were the lines to leave the ship at ports. Thanks for any info.

Jim

What was wrong with the weather? I am going Glory this Sat - planning for around 84 high 73 lows (weather channel) is that not about right? I have never cruised before. Any advice?

We will be on the Glory October 1...sailing with our 14 year old son. I suspect that there will be few kids on that cruise as well, since it is shortly after school starts. When we sailed in May with our son, there were very few kids on that cruise as well. Cruising with few kids has it's ups and downs. Nice that there isn't so many that it becomes bothersome, but then on the other hand, not enough to entertain each other. Did you sail with any kids of your own? If so, and if they were around my son's age, do you happen to have a copy of the camp carnival capers for that age group? Counting the days till we set sail once again :)

Camp, the water wasn't that particularily rough, with the exception of the last night (someone described our last night by wondering if we had hit an ice berg!) I don't know what it was but we could all feel the motion much more on this ship than others. A few in our group had only cruised once before on the Triumph and they commented on especially on it. I didn't think it was that bad, but it was more described than my previous seven cruises and some of those had seen some rough seas.

Jima, we didn't seem to have any poor service particularily with cold food at breakfast, the lines were o.k., never more than 5 minutes, the only exception being lunch. There was almost no full type dining items until 12 noon. You could do the obligatory deli or pizza, but otherwise you needed to wait it out until high noon, it wasn't a big problem, but a few days we skipped breakfast and then of course thought we would have an early lunch, just plan to plan around it.

Leaving at port wasn't a problem for us as long as you didn't want to jump off immediately. We waited until after 30 minutes at each port and were able to walk off immediately with the exception of St. Thomas which was really strange. Because we had previously stopped in Nassau, everyone, regardless if you were getting off or not, had to go back through customs. There were some long lines for that but we generally handled it in about 30 minutes. You snaked through a lot of lines and ended up in the Amber Lounge where you should you passport and then you picked up a sticker with you name, birthdate and I believe cabin number on it. Once you had your sticker you could exit the boat. If you didn't pick up your sticker they went looking for you, not like muster drill, they actually went looking for you and found you. There was one couple they called for almost 20 minutes on the pa system and since there room was closed to ours, we were milling in the hall and saw someone from customs and 2 of the ships personnel come specifically to their room, they weren't there and we left immediately so I don't know what happened.

Jessie, The weather was in the low 70's for most of our trip with the exception of one really warm day in St Maarten. My wife is cold natured and she wore capris and long shirts most days with the exception of St. Maarten. It was overcast probably 5 of the 7 days. It didn't make for a bad trip at all, and was certainly warmer than at home in Kentucky, but unless things change a lot don't plan for 73 lows the entire week, or at least that's not what it felt like.

Let me know if there's anything else we can help with!

What excursions did you do? We're doing the Eastern route on Glory in June and I just can't decide what we should do at each port.

Also we have room 7434 which is a Cat 8 but a starnge W shape at the back of the ship. Was your room near that? Was it a really long walk to get places?

How were the shows?

Thanks so much!

Elise

We didn't travel with kids, although a few in our group acted like them one night...... so I don't know about the capers for kids.

Mom, we were at the front of the ship so we weren't I don't know about the W shape on the back, although we did eat dinner in the rear dining room (platinum) which would be a couple of floors of below your room. There is a slight motor vibration you can feel but it's not a big deal and 2 of the couples with us said it help put them to sleep each night. Kind of like a vibrating bed without having to put in a quarter. Being on the front of the ship we did have a lot of walking but then again it's a floating city we were expecting to do that. Our longest walk each day was to dinner, but that was probably a good thing.

We didn't do any excursions in Nassua since it was a short amount of time and we just wanted to wander through the city. Caught a few taxi's and went over to Atlantus and had a great time at a much lower cost than the ship. Took the entire tour and did it on our own schedule.

St. Thomas we took the island tour and catamaran ride with snorkeling. The island tour left a little to desire, but it was only an hour. The catarmaran ride, although not sunny was still a good time. Our poor captain had to try and set his anchor for other 30 minutes and finally two of the crew had to get in the water to get it set. But it was still a nice excursion.

In St. Maarten we forgo the organized tours and ended hiring a van at the pier for $200 for 8 people for the entire day. Stopped at a grocery store right outside the town and bought beer and snacks, toured the island for an hour then over to a shopping bazaar (shopping it much better outside the pier) and then off to Orient beach for lunch and 2 hours on the beach. Stopped back in town at another shopping center on the way back to the boat (prices got cheaper as the day went on) and were back on the ship by 5 p.m. I would definitely consider something like that for St. Maarten especially if you can get several couples together.

The shows were good, the comedians, especially late night were excellent. Typical cruise ship type shows, but still good. There was sword swallower the last night but based on what we heard we decided to skip. Also the illusionist was not that much talented but still put on a decent show. After making someone disapear and reappear from a box 5 or six times we lost a little interest.

All in all there were good shows, our only problem was late dinner which meant dinner at 8 p.m. finished by 9:15 and then waiting until 10:30 for the late show. We were so worn out it made for a late evening, but not bad.

Thanks for the quick reply. Sounds like you and your group had a great time!

We, wife and I, took the glory last year. I think they must have been under-staffed, because service and attention to detail was pathetic. When my wife went to complain, there were about 15 other people in line ahead of her, all with similar gripes. Food rating: 1-5, I give it a 3, at best. OH YES, we had some of the roughest seas, the spray from waves reached our cabin window, and that was about 30 feet or more. One night the emergency lights came on because the ship was riding too low in the water. I watched a beer bottle roll from one end to the bar to the other, quickly!!! We went RCI 2 years ago(mariner of the seas) and in less than 24 hrs, we will be on enchantment of the seas. NO MORE CARNIVAL!!

We just got off the Glory and had a wonderful time.

I would travel on Carnival any time.

Just got off a wonderful Eastern cruise yesterday and just started the laundry, but wanted to answer any questions you might have while their fresh on your mind and before we I can do a review.

 

We were in 7233 cat 11 and have a lot of other friends on board, so if we didn't do it, they probably did.

Glad you had a good time. We'll be sailing 2/26 & I was just wondering about the formal nights. From the pics that i've seen of the formal nights it seems that everyone was wearing suits. What ratio of men were wearing tuxedos or are tuxedos a thing of the past. I always looked foward to dressing up a couple of nights. Thanks

about lines and service, since this will be the biggest ship I've ever been on. Did they have omelet stations? Enough of them? What about dining room service for breakfast and lunch in the dining rooms? Was it slow, or good?

Also, maybe your sailing wasn't full, I know we're going to have a full ship, do you know how full the cruise was?

Thanks!

I was on during X-mas break and there are omlette lines. Wait was never more than 5 minutes.

Here's a secret, out by the lido deck there's a b-fast station that looks like it's buffet only. Secret is that they make omlettes there too.

Dining room service was excellent.

thanks - our trip planner told us weather and maybe I should pack a little more mixed so if we get weather like you did I won't freeze...Just a few more days!:)

We are going on the Glory in May. My cabin is on the Upper Deck just over the casino. Do you think the noise will be bad in this location? I am getting really worried.

We've just been upgraded to a Category 11 suite - please provide me some details. Thanks

JPK, We saw very few tuxedos on this trip. I don't know if it was because of the Grand Ole Opry group booking a large part of the ship or not, but it seemed fairly low considering our other cruises, maybe 5% if that much. A lot of dark suits, and maybe 10% with no tie or jacket....

Girls, We never saw any problem with dining room service. Typically our starters were out within 10 minutes or odering and then it was a continous meal from there on out. There are several omelette stations on board and they are fantastic! One of our wait staff mentioned the ship was not full. He said about 3000 out of 3600 which suprised me a little since everything we had heard said it would only hold 3000 people. But you could tell the ship was not "full" at dinner and other times.

Gaynelle, I wouldn't worry that much about the casino noise. We had drinks with a couple who were in the same area and we asked if we had kept them up the night before (a long night at blackjack) and they said no they could never really tell anything was going on.

Powriel, the cat 11's are great. We stayed in the Cat 12 twice before and this was our first in the Cat 11. The whirlpool tubs are fabulous and the double sinks provide a lot of room in the bathroom. The area between the bathroom and hallway are a little cramped as evidenced by my accidentally hitting my wife everytime she would be getting ready in front of that mirror. A ton of closet space and drawer space. We hosted a cocktail party in our room on three different nights and had about 10 to 14 people there each night and we were very comfortable between the room and the balcony. Although we've enjoyed the Cat 12 I don't know if I'll book another Cat 12 again unless it under $75 to $100 to upgrade from an 11. I suspect we'll be booking more 11's in the future. You should be very happy.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, I think sobriety is setting in from being at home........

sfagent

I did see that you had "Parties" in your room. I was just wondering if you brought things from home or not.

Thanks....

MrsPack

Glory 2-5-05

If you count 5 cases of beer, a case of diet cokes, 2 (2) liters and and assorted peanuts, yes we did bring a little from home. Actually not from home. We stopped at a liquor/convenience store outside the port and loaded it all in once we had flown down. And that to the three bottles of wine delivered to our room and wallah, a cocktail party.

When we had cocktail parties we typically ordered two or three of the vegetable with blue cheese's from room service and made an appetizer tray for people to snack on. Made for a nice little festivity and a great way to get together discuss the days event before dinner.

I see a counter titled Creams on several websites. Is this the Gourmet coffee and desserts area, or is this a ice cream area. Also, was there ever a ice cream area setup seperate from the soft serve.

Thanks

Jim

Creams is the gourmet coffee and dessert area. Cholocate covered strawberries, cookies, and coffees, lates, etc. were available, although it never seemed very busy except in the a.m. for coffee.

There were a few separate soft serve machines, but never anything else set up. We didn't make the midnight cholocate buffet, so I don't know about then. Of course ice cream and sherberts (which were both very good) are avaialable each night after dinner.