Glory Review - May 15-22 - Part 2 (long)

Part 2

The Ship:

I knew the Glory would be considerably bigger than my only other cruise on the Imagination, but honestly, it didn’t seem THAT much bigger. Our cabin was on Deck 7 (Empress) and the biggest adjustment I had to make was to get to the promenade deck, we had to go DOWN, rather than up. We made that mistake a couple times and headed upstairs until we realized we needed to go to Deck 5. The layout was sort of similar and I didn’t have much trouble finding my way around. The little deck plan comes in handy, but I wish they’d have full ship diagrams like in the brochure. The ship is beautiful, and much more subtle than the Imagination. I don’t know if I saw much, if any, neon this time. It is very colorful, though, in a good way, and all the rooms and public areas are named after colors. There is a big attention to detail, which most passengers probably don’t really notice, but I think adds a lot to the atmosphere. As others have pointed out before, Deck 5 is the key to getting around. Deck 3 is especially choppy. The only time I sort of got lost was when I tried to find the Ivory Club... it’s sort of tucked away on Deck 4. And I never even found the sports bar until Wednesday or Thursday. You’ll never see it if you’re not looking for it.

The ship was sparkling clean. I didn’t think there would be many signs of wear & tear since it is so new. There were always crew members cleaning... every day I’d pass someone wiping the handrails, steamcleaning the chairs, washing the ceiling tiles, etc. When I went on the galley tour, the kitchen area smelled very clean, sort of like bleach.

I wrote in an earlier post about the smoking, but I’ll repeat it here in case someone who’s interested missed it. Basically, it was fine! No smoking on the promenade, left side of the ship, elevators and elevator corridors, and all dining areas. How refreshing! Definitely an improvement over the Imagination in 2000. Smokers on the Glory were considerate and didn’t try to sneak a smoke while waiting in lines or in places that were designated as smoke-free. The only place where it was too smokey for me was in the casino. My room smelled fresh, though I did notice some smoke smells coming from a cabin down the hall when I walked past. No big deal though.

Our cabin:

I chose cabin #7378, category 4D (inside on Empress Deck). We had an oceanview on the Imagination, but the only time we looked out was in the morning getting ready so we figured an inside cabin would be ok this time. Overall, it was fine. We weren’t in the room that much and not having a window wasn’t a problem. Sure, a balcony would have been great, but I didn’t want to spend the extra money. There was more than enough storage with a lot of space to spare. The beds were comfy and we slept well... though a couple nights I vaguely remember hearing some sort of banging from the back wall. They must have been doing some sort of maintenance, but it wasn’t bad enough to keep me awake for long. One major difference in this room over the room on the Imagination was the bathroom size. Are all bathrooms this small?? Our Imagination bathroom was very roomy, with a large shower. On the Glory, the bathroom was small, and the shower was so tiny! I’m not a big person and yet I felt crammed.... barely room to turn around. Shower pressure was medium. It did the job but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as I have at home. You can adjust the water to a few different settings, but it didn’t come out any stronger. The bathroom towels were thick and soft. I decided to leave my hair dryer at home. Mistake. The room hair dryer would be ok if you have short hair, but for shoulder length hair or longer, bring your own. As others have written, there was only one outlet (one plug) in the cabin, but that was all we needed. We didn’t bring a power strip, nor could we think of anything to plug into it. We did have a little indiglo nightlight which was perfect. We had 2 robes; neither of us used them since they were heavy. I’m not much of a robe person unless I’d be sitting around drinking coffee all morning. The best thing about the cabin was the location. I purposely picked this deck to avoid any loud public rooms above or below, and I wanted to be as close to midship as possible. It was a bit farther back, but overall the location was incredibly convenient.

The Food:

There was certainly plenty of it, and what I had was good to excellent. I think I was more impressed on my first cruise, but I think everything was equally good this time around. For breakfast, we ate in the dining room one day, had room service one day, and ate in the Red Sail the rest of the time. My husband liked the variety of the Red Sail so that’s where we ended up. I’m fine with anything for breakfast.. except the scrambled eggs weren’t very good. Room service was prompt, early in fact... we weren’t even up yet when she came. And funny story about breakfast in the dining room. I ordered french toast, and the waiter said it was 2 pieces of bread, is that ok or do I want 4? I’m not a big eater so I thought 2 slices of bread would be more than enough. Well, they count the half-slices as one, so I had 2 half-slices of french toast (one slice of bread). We had a laugh about that. Good thing they don’t cut the slices into quarters! Think I could handle FOUR pieces of french toast?!?

We had lunch every day in the Red Sail. It was just more convenient, though I wish we would have had a couple lunches in the restaurant. I missed the orange soup! There is a huge variety in the Red Sail, there’s no way you could try everything. The deli is very good and the huge sandwiches are freshly made to order. I read here about the Fish & Chips so I had to try it, and while I'm not usually into fried foods, it IS very good. On Friday at lunch they have the Chocolate Extravaganza. Basically two lines of the buffet are nothing but chocolate desserts. I tried a couple things, and my favorite was the chocolate fudge cake (cut by the guy behind the counter) -- this tasted like real fudge... it was sugary and cold and had a fudgy sauce... it was not the same thing served at dinner that night with the same name. I also really liked the mocha rice thing at the “chocolate sushi†section. Sounds terrible, but it was great! We also had pizza almost every day. Excellent crust.

Dinner was in the Golden Dining room at 6:15. Perfect! I was afraid we’d get the 5:45 seating, but the 6:15 was exactly what I had wanted. Not too early, not too late. We had a round table on the upper level right inside the door. There were 3 other couples at our table. Two were in the 30-40 range, while the third were in their 70’s. We all got along great and we enjoyed the time there very much. We spent a lot of time with one of the couples at other meals, at the shows, and at St. Martin. Really nice people. The food was delicious. My favorites were probably the strawberry soup, tiger shrimp, a penne dish with seafood, the fruit appetizers, chocolate mousse, grand marnier souffle, and chocolate souffle. Although I’m a VERY picky eater, I pretty much liked everything I ordered, though a couple people at the table didn’t like some of their dishes, usually the beef or pork. I had the seafood entree every night, except one night I had veggie lasagna, which was ok but had more spinach than I’m used to in that dish.

We didn’t go to the Emerald Room, the supper club. I found the food in the dining room to be just fine without having to pay an extra $50. The older couple at our table went and said their food was cold, though the service was very attentive. We never went to the Red Sail for dinner, and I’m glad we didn’t. One of the other couples at our table missed dinner one night so they ate in the Red Sail. The next day they told us to “never miss dinner!â€

I had sushi almost every day. It was very good, and had 3-4 different choices each night. I was also happy to see the Creams coffee bar. I tried the coffee in the dining room, Red Sail, and room service, and while I drank it, it wasn’t all that great. However, the lattes in the coffee bar were excellent! If you are used to lattes & cappuccinos from Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, then you will be happy with Creams. Interestingly, I always saw crew members walking around with their paper Creams coffee cups. Guess they don’t like the regular coffee either.

Service:

Whenever I passed a crew member, they always looked up and said hello. I thought that was nice. In the Red Sail restaurant, there were plenty of crew to clear tables and take trays. And we had the most incredible waiters in the Golden Dining Room. Fantastic!! I don’t know our table's head waiter’s name... begins with an S, he’s from Indonesia, but he was very polished with service, and he was always singing when he distributed the menus. The other waiter (not sure of his exact title) was from Columbia -- Jaime. He was also excellent...always had a smile, and was also right on top of things. They got into the dancing shows, even coaxing the older couple at our table to get up and dance with them. We all tipped them extra on the last night, they were both outstanding. The one couple at the table said they wished Carnival printed off little vouchers to actually give the waiters something the last night to show them we really did tip. I guess they know, but it would be nice to give them something... maybe an envelope for the extra cash.

Our room steward, on the other hand, did nothing special. We had kept the cabin door propped open the first day when we were in there, expecting him to stop by to introduce himself, but he never did. Our beds weren’t together so we had wanted to ask him about that. I ran into him the first night around 10:00 when I went to check on my seasick husband. He said he didn’t think we were married (I go by “Ms.†and not “Mrs.â€) so he didn’t put the beds together but he could do that if I wanted. My husband was already in bed by that time so we told him maybe later. After this, we barely saw him the entire week. Occasionally we’d pass him in the hall but that’s it. I have no idea of his name or where he was from. We never got the invitations to the Past Guest Party. I didn’t know it had been held until our tablemates mentioned it on Thursday night. I assumed it would be on Friday. I went to the pursers desk to make sure we were really listed as past guests. They looked us up.and said we were listed as past guests and that invitations had been printed, and should have been delivered to our room. Nope. We also only got one comment card at the end of the week. (This was after the Debarkation talk where they stressed that everyone, even 2 year old kids, get cards.) So I had to track down the room steward and ask him for another card. I don’t know if he was new or what. The good news about our room steward was that we had cute towel animals most nights and that the room was properly cleaned 3 times a day. We didn’t cut his tip, but we also didn’t give him any extra.

Passengers:

This was definitely an older crowd than I had expected. The average age was probably around 50. Lots of older folks, many more than on the Imagination. There were still lots of 20-30 somethings, but not as many as I would have thought. Very few kids on board, and those that were there were well behaved. I barely noticed the kids. Of course, that’s one reason we chose this time of year to cruise. I want to avoid the holiday/spring break/summer vacation crowds, and it worked great. And for as many people as were onboard, it honestly didn’t seem too crowded, except for a few instances (the photo gallery was always mobbed, the gala buffet, debarkation). No one was belligerent, and I never saw any obnoxious drunks. I really hope Carnival is getting away from that outdated stereotype.

Overall:

This is a fantastic ship. Much more elegant than the older ships, and despite its size, it’s still easy to navigate. (I might not write that if my cabin was on the lower decks). I’d certainly consider sailing the Glory again one day. We chose Carnival because we had such a great cruise on the Imagination and my husband is adamant about not having to dress up all the time and having a decent size cabin. Carnival seems to work well, and while I *might* consider trying another line, right now there’s really no reason not to choose Carnival again. He did say he wanted fewer sea days and more ports, so if we do another 7 night cruise we’d look for 4 ports instead of 3. Overall, we had a great time, and while we could offer a few suggestions to Carnival (which we did on the comment cards), everything was a lot of fun and the cruise was well worth the money.

As Ronaldo would say, “Kissy kissy bye-bye!â€.

Carnival Glory - 5/15/04

Imagination - 4/00

Thank you for review!

It sounds like you had an excellent time... we had to choose between your cruise and the Triumph.. and it looks like we both picked winners!

Thanks for sharing!

Cathy

Ecstacy October 1992

Destiny October 1999

TRIUMPH May2003

Our TRIUMPHant Return! May 15th

http://community.webshots.com/user/catrin0917

thank you for posting....we leave on the Glory this Saturday!!!! Love, Juliah

Yes it indeed seemed like you had awonderful cruise and glad to hear all bout it as we look forward to leaving ut this saturday on her..thanks so much for the awesome and detailed review!!

Cyt

Atlantic

Oceanic

Norway

Enchantment of the Seas

Destiny

Voyager of the Seas

Conquest March 30th 2003

Glory May 29th 2004

Caribbean Princess Oct 23 2004

Triumph/Victory November 20/21 2004

Thanks for sharing, we are looking forward to it. What day was the past guest party?

Glory Cruise 6/26

Jubilee 6/89

Ectasy 5/91

Jubilee 6/92

Soverign of the Seas 5/93

Majesty of the Seas 6/94

Monarch of the Seas 6/95

Monarch of the Seas 7/97

Enchanment of the Seas 5/99

Imagination 6/2000

Adveture of the Seas 3/2002

I saw in a post once that the chocolate buffet had "Chocolate Spaghetti" on it. Did you happen to notice that? I mentioned it to my daughter and now she keeps asking me about it. We sail on the Glory in October.

Great Review!!!!

 until we cruise again!!!

Thank you for your detailed review, cannot wait until August!!

Carnival Pride 8/17/02 (Western Caribbean)

Carnival Glory 8/21/2004 (Eastern Caribbean) 30th Anniversary Cruise

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Thanks for the great review!

Ken, I'm right behind you...can't wait for August to get here!

Michelle

Carnival Glory 8/21/04

Carnival Fascination 9/02

Carnival Imagination 6/01

Majesty of the Seas 12/00

Glory - August 21, 2004 - Here we come!!

Again thanks for the detailed review cant wait for August.

ECSTACY 04/03.

Until party time

Thanks again for the kind words. Those of you scheduled for the Glory will have a great time.

Mar915- I believe the past guest party was Thursday, late in the afternoon. The other couples mentioned it that night at dinner.

Wenocancer2 - Hmmm... chocolate spagehetti? I don't think I saw that, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. It was kinda like sensory overload....

Lady_K...thanks for the great review. I will be cruising on the Glory in July with a group of 16. We can't wait!! What really got my attention on your review was your ending...Ronaldo saying "kissy, kissy, bye-bye" Is he on the Glory? Last year he was on the Sensation teaching his sexy dance moves from Rio and we all loved him. However, he had to depart on our first port of call and go to another ship (maybe the Glory) because of some unexpected reason. I would love to see him again to hopefully learn some dance steps.

Isscancun--

yes, Ronaldo is on the Glory. The cruise director, Mark, was sick pretty much all week, so others filled in for some of the stuff that he might have done. I know Ronaldo did a lot of the announcements over the PA system, plus he did some bingo ("I twee-wenty two")as well as at least two dance classes. Seems like a fun guy!

Carnival Glory - 5/15/04

Imagination - 4/00