Late late Glory Review - 5/28

Sorry this took so darn long - had to go back to work and stuff!!!! Oh well, hope it helps!!!!

Well, our trip started on May 27, when we flew out of Sacramento to Dallas/Fort Worth for our connecting flight. Our connection was supposed to leave at 4:35. Sparing the heinous details, we did not get off the ground until 9:30 PM. To say I was upset and stressed is just not enough!!!! I will never, ever, ever, fly American Airlines again - we had nothing but problems with them from the start. We arrived in Orlando about 1 AM, called for the shuttle for the airport Marriot, and were in our room by 1:30...beautiful hotel, would have enjoyed more time there.

We were picked up by the limo company, All in One Limo, at about 10:30 AM. Highly recommend them - professional, courteous, friendly, reasonable prices.

We arrived at the dock about noon, as we had stopped for a couple of sodas and whatnot. The line getting into the terminal was kind of long, but mostly because people could not seem to understand the whole,"empty your pockets, all baggage on the Xray machine" concept. Went upstairs to Skippers Club, waited about 5 minutes, checked in, were taken around the line for pictures, then onto the boat!!!!

We went straight to Lido for cocktails and buffet - weather was beautiful but darn hot!!!! Eventually made our way to our cabin - category 11 - very nice, seemed smaller than our same category on the Pride. Our luggage arrived not long after and we unpacked and got ready for dinner. We had early seating and were in the Platinum Dining Room. I will say now, I did not think that the food was as good as our last couple of cruises, but it was decent and varied from night to night. So, no major complaints...

Saturday night we discovered the piano bar!!!!! We ended up spending every evening here and had great fun....Mike is awesome.... Highly recommend spending some time in there...

In Nassau the next day - did not do a shore excursion, just shopped around. Took a little horse and buggy ride - that was fun. We were offered drugs on every corner. I do not think we would go back to Nassau, but I also think that if we had done an excursion to the beach or something we would have a different opinion.

Sunday was the first formal night...got an updo at the salon along with a scalp massage. I was also supposed to get a neck and eye treatment with this but only got the eye. I never complained cuz I just didn't find the time and the next two times I went to the spa the gal who did my hair was there, so I did not want to do it in front of her. Not sure if I should still do it now.

Monday was a day at sea....got up fairly early, up on deck, to discover one lady who saved 15 chairs...all day long...when confronted by someone else she said that they ahd a big group. She did the whole, one flip flop, one pair of goggles, etc. half of them went unused all day and at one point other friends of theirs came down saying "we heard you needed us to help you save chairs." It was absolutely ridiculous. Security did nothing when they were told about it. She did this every sea day!!! Most days the majority of the chairs went unused...

Unfortunately, on Monday, I forgot to put on sunscreen...my legs were fried....i put it on everywhere else. We did get a massage Monday afternoon and that was wonderful....

Tuesday we were in St Thomas. Immigration was really not that big of a deal, except for the people who came late and then tried to slyly get to the front of the line when they opened it up. We had booked the downtown shopping and beach excursion. Shopping was okay, the beach was wonderful. My only concern was the rickety old truck that they used to try to get us there!!! The thing stalled going over speed bumps!!!! We then took the skytram up to the top of a mountain....it was absolutely breathtaking!!! I would definitely recommend doing this...we were up there around sunset....wow...there just are no words!!!!

Wednesday, we were in St Maarten. We did the See and Sea Island Tour - again highly recommend this!!! Lots of local history was given to us. There were some beautiful views. After we walked around the shops a bit, bought some Belgian chocolates (yuum) and went to the Jimmy Buffet Store. Then we took the water taxi back to the ship, changed and went back to the beach that was close to the ship. Just one warning - as it gets close to departure time, the water taxi lines get really long!!!! We started to walk back to the ship, got to the next water taxi station, waited about 5 mins, and hopped right on....again the line jumpers!!!! Oh well...

Thursday was a day at sea, we also got more massages with the seaweed wraps. The seaweed part was ok, no big deal, but loved the massage.

Friday morning I decided to get up way too early to ensure deck chairs for hubby and myself. After all that, the chair hog didnt even show up!!!!!! Oh well...joke was on me!

We sailed into the rain on Friday night, the captain had gone a different way so that our last day at sea was sunny.....

DEbarkation was no big deal, just people being rude...and pushing and shoving...got to the airport and flew away!!!!!!

Loved it!!!!

Did the ship seem crowded?

Thanks for the review. I'm going on the Glory for the first time in September. Can't wait to go!

Thanks for the review. I had to laugh at the chair saver. What a stressful way to spend one's vacation! Saving chairs for phantom people and telling people over & over they are saved. I vacation with fairly large groups myself and must say I have never seen a need for all of us to sit at the pool together. I thought that was the point of a cruise. You can cruise "with" your extended family without actually seeing them much.

Or perhaps that is just my family. LOL!

there was actually one point where some of their friends came from the upper decsk and said they had been told she needed help saving chairs!!!! Every time we ran into this lady they were totally oblivious to everyone around them...

pretty1111.... Thanks so much for the review and for your reco for going to the Piano Bar! Do tell us a little more about the Piano Bar -- what kind of music, very crowded, etc.

Also, got a kick out of the Chair Hog! Gosh, there always seems to be several (normally older women) whose only purpose in life on the cruise is to save many chairs in case some family members/friends might possibly wish to sit for a few minutes.

While I don't like "Chair Hogs", I often find myself feeling :( SORRY for them! :( So agree with esterhead!

Thanks for the review. I had to laugh at the chair saver. What a stressful way to spend one's vacation! Saving chairs for phantom people and telling people over & over they are saved. I vacation with fairly large groups myself and must say I have never seen a need for all of us to sit at the pool together. I thought that was the point of a cruise. You can cruise "with" your extended family without actually seeing them much. Or perhaps that is just my family. LOL!

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

She was probably early 40's with a gaggle of kids...she obviously was well off and made no bones of flashing her jewelry etc around (which, as we all know, may show you have money but also a severe lack of manners!!!!) WHATEVER!!!! It is funny now to think about it - there was another woman who told her she was taking one of the chairs after the woman claimed her ENTIRE family (all 14 of them) were eating breakfast...they must have enjoyed it - it took em all day!!! DH and I finally spotted one chair, so I went over and said very loudly "Here honey we can just share since ALL of these others seem to be taken."

As for the piano bar - MIke can sing pretty much anything, he is great about requests...He has a song list out on the bar and tables, and is very gracious...he does this TV theme song medley that is a kick!!!! I am telling you, I honestly cannot express how much fun we had in there - loads and loads. It did get pretty crowded as the week went on and more people discovered it - go the first couple of nights and it is more intimate and you can talk with Mike a bit - also, definitely ask Mike to sing some of his originals - he has one, Take Me Back to Disneyland - that is great - we have his CD - about 5 songs on it. I really really liked him. He asks that people sitting at the actual piano bar do not smoke right there as he was getting ill and it was making it hard for him to sing- we respected that, would simply step away. He was very apologetic about his request, but we totally understood. The first night he asked us not too he kept saying he was sorry, and we were like, "not a problem." I know some people have complained about it but....

Also, our very favorite waitress, Sonja, works in there...tell her Scott and Bev say hi!!!!

Any more questions???

:)

Bev

Thanks Bev .... We'll, for sure, go to the Piano Bar!!!

Once again, appreciated your review!

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)