Just back from Glory 3/5-3/12

HI All:

Just walked in the door from my vacation on the Glory. I will update more detailed later, but wanted to go through some things from the trip for anyone who is interested.

Ship:

The ship was very nice. I didn't find it tacky at all. I actually liked all the colors. Found it pretty. I especially liked the little colored tiles everywhere, except they don't appear to be holding up very well, as some were missing or cracked. The boat seemed clean, although our windows weren't washed until the 3rd day and were very salt-covered. It was nice to be able to see out of them on the 3rd day. THought they should have done that before we got on the board. But, not a big deal. Our Room steward, Tamara (7th floor Empress) was fabulous. She really was terrific and I couldn't have asked for a better one. Talk about being accommodating, always there, but never on top of you and really friendly. (and we had issues that I wouldn't have wanted to deal with having a sick toddler with us (ick)).

Agree that the layout is a bit choppy, but it was practically identical to the Destiny ( which I went on a few years ago) so it was easy enough to navigate.

Food:

Pretty average; nothing horrible, nothing great. One thing I finally did on the last day was have the dining room lunch. It was very nice and a great treat from our typical by the pool fare. Definitely recommend that. Room service seemed slower than the last trip, but the boat was packed, so I can certainly understand that. Wish there was more variety on the breakfast side, but otherwise, was great.

Never did find the "fish and chips" everyone talks about. ??? Pizza was great, as was the Rueben sandwich in the deli. (ask for double meat!). The man in the deli is from Indonesia and has been away from home for now, exactly 7 months, 1 week and 1 day. :) He was very friendly.

Didn't try the supper club, so can't comment on that.

Bars:

They have more bars to fit every taste you could ever have. We liked the Ivory bar which was more string instruments and jazz etc. Very nice bar and very calm.

Camp Carnival

I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, my 5 year old loved going. But, my 2 1/2 year old went fine the first time and then had separation issues. This is pretty normal for this age, and I guess it was somewhat frustrating that the staff did absolutely nothing to help him separate. So....he stayed with us the whole trip. That is fine except it would have been nice to get some "us" time. Fortunately, my 14 year old son was also on board and watched the little one from time to time. Also, the staff just wasn't very friendly. I think they were to the kids, but much less so to us parents. Weird, really. But, as I said above, my 5 year old loved it, so that is all that really matters. Just some annoyances that I will get into later more specifically.

Pools

They seemed to drain them daily. ??? Is that because of fecal teabags? ick! It was pretty cold, so never used them anyway. But, they were drained and refilled and ready to go by mid afternoon.

Shows

ONly went to Rockin on Broadway and it was very good. Fast paced, moving and good singers and dancers. Very enjoyable. :)

Staterooms:

Mine was very nice, although layed out I think a bit differently from a cat. 12 in the Destiny (7299..Cat. 12). Our kids' room was across the hall 7301 and it was your basic inside room. Not bad though, really. Kind of cozy. Very smokey though would be my only complaint.

Boarding:

We had it made here. Got in a bit late, so they checked us in at the airport, while we were sitting waiting for the bus. Totally easy. :)

Debarkation ??: Went ok. Hate that hurry up and get out of your stateroom rush, but what can they do? That's just what you have to do on a cruise. From the time our floor got called to walking onto the bus, it was 30 minutes. Really not bad at all.

Immigration:

In St. Thomas this was horrible. We had to wait literally an hour and a half to get off the boat. THen where they said to go just had signs saying go up and go down. Noone there to help people; people just sort of standing in an elevator bay area wondering what to do. Very Very long lines and a total pain in the you know what to get off. THere has to be a better way for this one. :(

Route/ports:

We got off in every port. Nassau is pretty grungy. Atlantis is huge, but also very expensive ($7.00 milkshake).

St. Thomas is great. Love the shopping and we went to Sapphire beach instead of Megan's bay. Very lovely beach with great services right there. No walking necessary. Wonderful!

St. Maarten:Also very very nice. Had great weather and went to Dawn Beach (on the Dutch side). Shopping at the port is pretty varied and made me happy (2 early jewelry birthday presents. Whoo hoo).

The only thing I would do differently is go a bit later in the year by a few weeks as it was sort of chilly until we got to St. Thomas. This gave us 3 warm days and that's about it. We didn't get rain though during the day and the seas were pretty calm until the last 2 nights (not a big deal though).

I will post the trip from hell parts (nothing to do with Carnival) later. :)

Tricia

Thanks for sharing your experience! We sail out on April 30th for the Eastern. OF course we were just there in may of 2003 but havent sailed on the Glory. We were on the PRIDE before and loved it!

I was kinda sorry to hear about Nassau....we are looking forward to the waterslide through the aquarium at the ALantis....or maybe parasailing or something....We didnt hit Nassau on our last Caribbean cruise..we hit Half Moon Cay which was the most beautiful beach i've ever seen!

None the less...we are really looking foward to it! Hey..Maybe we will even haven Tamara as our steward. We are in a suite on the empress deck too! 7251 to be exact!

Again, thanks for sharing...I dont see too much posted regarding the Glory and as far as the layout...it always seems confusing at first to me on every cruise!

Julie :-D

Sounds like you used the Carnival shuttle?? We're trying to decide if we want to use it for the ride from the port to the airport on our return but am concerned about having to wait for the bus to fill up? We're also still trying to decide if we want to do self-assist in that we have a day room at the Hyatt in Orlando (right at the airport). Would much rather be on our way than waiting on the ship. Also, what time did the shuttle start running from the airport to the pier? You mentioned checked in?? You still had to go through the lines, etc., when you arrived, correct?

I was also on the Glory 3/5. We had a small group of 7 on the Verandah deck right by the glass elevators. Excellent location. I plan to write more but we had a ton of wet heavy snow to deal with when we got home. Daan

Sounds like you used the Carnival shuttle?? ?

We did use the one set up by Carnival (run by Mears). It worked out fine. They did wait to fill buses but only a few minutes really. We were the first on our bus and waited about 10 minutes I think. Not bad. One thing I know I will do differently next time is come in the night before. As I said before, it took me two days to feel like I was on vacation like everybody else. :)

Tricia

Nice write-up, Tricia. We were on board with you! I'd have to agree with everything you had to say (we didn't deal with Camp Carnival though). After exploring the ship in Day one, we found it very easy to get around the ship.

Also agree about immigration in St. Thomas. Luckily we had a full day in that port!!!

My DH and I both had services. He had a manicure and pedicure. I had a massage. Both had great service. No complaints there at all. The prices were a bit high compared to other resorts etc, but we knew what we were getting into. What did throw me though was that you were essentially held hostage after your service while your spa person did a hard sell on you for some lotions and stuff. I was given a sell for $70.00 eye cream and $85.00 moisturizer and I only had a massage, not a facial. (I did end up buying the cream because I am turning 40 and I thought, what the heck). My DH was asked to purchase some lotion for his feet and was told point blank that it is the job of the masseuse/manicurist etc. to sell these products. Because she was so honest about it, DH bought the lotion too. I don't mind the hard sell, but to have to wait in the room in my robe for my slip to sign only to be then pushed to buy products didn't sit too well with me. It actually stopped me from going back for more services. But, just wanted to forewarn anyone thinking about using the spa that this seems to be standard operating procedure. So, be ready with your answers or be prepared to buy. $$$ :eek:

tricializ,

I was on the glory on the "famed" 2/19 propulsion proboblem cruise. I was on Empress deck also. Cabin 7401. If you don't mind I would like to ask you a couple of questions about the crew:

Who was the Cruise Director?

Was the Captain, Captain Salvatore?

And, Who were your waiters, Head Waiter, and bar Waiter/waitress?

Thanks,

-Greg

We will sail on Glory on June 25. It sounds like you had a nice time. How were the shows?

Elise

Thanks for the response on the Mears shuttle...one more question for you...did you have to take your baggage from the bus to the porter when you arrived at the pier or did the porters take it right off the bus? Just trying to figure out if we need to take our own luggage from the bus.

Thanks!!

There were porters right at the port waiting to take the luggage off the bus and load it all up. Didn't have to handle a thing. :)

Tricia

Tricia - thanks for getting back to me so quickly - we had to carry our bags quite a ways at the port in Miami once the cab dropped us off. That's great we won't have to handle a thing once we arrive. How far did you have to carry your bags in Orlando? Looks like we need to go down a level from baggage claim to catch the Mears shuttle? Do we have to get a number or something at baggage and wait for it to be called so we can board the bus?

Thanks for the valuable information - did any of you ask to have your fridge cleared so that you could use it during your cruise? Camp Carnival counselors can be pretty strict and sometimes snippy, but they do a good job and I don't mind the tight security.

Great review, Tricia! My DH and I were also on board 3/5-3/12 and we enjoyed it very much. I do have a warning for anyone planning a future cruise on the Glory. My parents cruised with us; however, they drove down and spent the night prior to sailing at the Hampton Inn in Coco Beach. The Hampton Inn allows you to leave your car in their lot and they provide transportation to the pier thru Art's Shuttle Service. Getting there was not a problem. However, on the day of debarkation, our deck was not allowed off the ship until 10:45 am. My parents went to the designated area for the Art's Shuttle; they waited...and waited... and waited. They stood in 80 degree heat for 1 hour and 45 minutes. There was no where to sit down. Several calls were made and they were told a bus was on its way within 15 minutes... but it still did not arrive. My mother, who had come down with a respiratory infection while on board, passed out and hit her head just as the shuttle finally arrived. She luckily did not have a cut large enough to require sutures, but she did have a small puncture wound from her sunglasses. She was evaluated by some EMT's and given water and got well enough to proceed with her journey home. I think it was ridiculous for the shuttle service to make a group of people wait for that long!! I would discourage any future Port Canaveral sailors from using Art's Shuttle Service!!!

The cruise itself was wonderful!!

Interesting comments about Art's Shuttle. Sorry to hear that your parents had such a hard time. Actually, were thinking about using Art's Shuttle on the return to the airport...still haven't decided between Art's and the Mears shuttle. We're using Mears from the airport to the port.

We were on the same cruise as well, hooked up with CampDaan several times both at the Radisson and on board. Had a great time.

We also disembarked at around 10:30 but the temperature was in the low 60's, nowhere near 80. We had Art's Shuttle but had the whole bus for a group of 46. Did you have a reservation with them?

We were on Voyager last week. It was good to see the Glory in Nassau and St. Thomas, some of us who knew about the previous Eastern Carib. sailing were keeping our fingers crossed for all of you. Glory looks like a fine ship.

we really enjoyed almost every aspect of our cruise last December on the Glory. I thought the food was good to very good in the dining room and good at the buffet at lunch. Breakfast was a little 'scrambled' but had all the fixings available. I loved the pizza and would eat at the grill a few times during the week.

Loved Sapphire beach and Orient in St. Martins. Never had a problem getting on or off the ship what-so-ever. We enjoyed the shows in the evening but had a hard time not comparing them to a broadway show to which they're not.

Overall we thought the ship was beautiful and not over the top compared to other Carnival ships. Pools and hot tubs were always crowded and hard to access unless you stayed behind in port.

We probably wouldn't book Glory again only because there are so many other options out there to explore.

Buddy

I just re-read the part about it taking an hour and a half to get off the ship in St. Thomas. We were on the same ship, and I don't think it was any more than 20 minutes. The ship docked a little after nine, the gangways were out by 9:30, they began calling people by their Shore Tour times a little after that, and we were off of the ship and in the shuttle for our Coki Beach trip before 10:30. When they called our time the line started right outside the White Heat Disco and went into the Piano Bar. From there into the Ebony Cabaret where an Immigration agent checked documents, then right out the back door through a kitchen area to the teen club area where we got a sticker, then out to the Promenade deck and we were done. We were not in line any more than 20 minutes, tops.

Interesting comments about Art's Shuttle. Sorry to hear that your parents had such a hard time. Actually, were thinking about using Art's Shuttle on the return to the airport...still haven't decided between Art's and the Mears shuttle. We're using Mears from the airport to the port.

I would recommend Mears. DH and I used Mears in both directions (from and to the airport) and were on a bus and on the way VERY quickly! They seemed very efficient.

My parents DID have reservations with Art's Shuttle, but they still had to wait for 1 hour and 45 minutes before it arrived.

Glad to hear that Mears was efficient for you. What time did they start running at the airport on Saturday? Also, what time did you get on the bus when you disembarked? How long did you have to wait to leave? Did they drop you right off at the specific airline curbside check at the airport?

Glad to hear that Mears was efficient for you. What time did they start running at the airport on Saturday? Also, what time did you get on the bus when you disembarked? How long did you have to wait to leave? Did they drop you right off at the specific airline curbside check at the airport?

Our flight arrived in Orlando at approx. 9:45 am. We went directly to baggage claims and picked up our luggage and proceeded downstairs to the Carnival area. We were given a number and told to proceed out to a specific bus which was already almost full; our luggage was loaded, we boarded the bus and we were on our way. I'm not sure when the 1st bus runs, but it must be fairly early.

On the day of disembarkation, the porter that helped with our luggage asked us which airline we were flying on, then took us to a specific Mears bus that was going to that airline curbside check so we were exactly where we needed to be! No problem!!

we have used Family One three times and all three times they have been very good and on time, family own and ran business, fred is great, tell him you are from cruise critic and friends of rpsinnj robert/suzann in new jersey.

I guess we'll just have to ask someone from Mears what we need to do with our luggage since we won't be flying in the day of our cruise. I don't want to haul all of our luggage upstairs to baggage claim and then back down again if we don't have to. Maybe I'll call Mears directly and see what they say too.