Carnival Glory - June 5 - 12 - Western Carrib.

I just got home yesterday from my trip, it was awesome! It was my second cruise, the first time I was on the Fantasy and just did a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas. The Glory was a huge ship, absolutely beautiful, and the ports were great as well.

Highlights:

Mark Price, the cruise director, was great! My girlfriend and I are still talking with a British accent as we found ourselves talking like him throughout the trip.

The entire crew was very friendly and always busy trying to make everything just perfect for the guests.

The shows were very entertaining. Diana LaSalla has an amazing voice and the dancers did a pretty good job most of the trip. Diane Ford and Percy Crews were fantastic comics. Justin Illusion put on a great show even though he still needs a little bit of work on the execution of his magic tricks.

We ate and ate as usual for a cruise. We loved the variety of food that was offered. The quality of the food in the dining room was above average, but nothing sensational. We were unable to get a reservation in the Emerald Room Supper Club.

The ship is so big that it took awhile to learn our way around. Others have complained of how the dining rooms make you have to take stairs too much. But by the second day we figured out that your best bet is to go Deck 5 which spans the entire length of the ship and then just walk down one or two flights to enter the dining room. It worked great for us.

I had paid $1,000 each for the cruise and ordered a guaranteed balcony room. I was thrilled to find out when we got there that our room was on Deck 8 and right by the elevators by the back of the ship. Only when we went to the Amber Palace did we have to walk the "mauve mile" as we called it, having to walk the lenght of the ship through the mauve colored hallway to get to the other end.

We spent another $1,000 on board, but most of that ($600) was on the shore excursions. We did: Uvero Boat Blast in Costa Maya, Cave Tubing in Belize, and ATV Jungle Adventure in Cozumel (took the day off in Progresso). I would highly recommmend all of these excursions. They were great and well worth the money! The ATV adventure was just that, and even a bit dangerous! I was very surprised, because normally they make all of the excursions pretty vanilla and so safe that it sometimes takes some of the fun out of it. If you like thrills and adventure then be sure to do the ATV adventure. It was a wild ride!

We carried our luggage off the ship and were in the car by 8:30am. Our friends called us and told us they had to wait for their deck to be called and didnt get off the ship until 11:30am!

It was a great trip and we had lots of fun. Let me know if you have any questions about the ship or anything else.

One bad note: My girlfriend found a black hair in her Fish & Chips all three times we ate there. The food was great but the hair thing was a bit disturbing.

DO THEY PLAY MOVIES ON SHIP.I'M GOING IN SEPT

They do have "new" movies that they play on the the TV. They have a different one every day that is free. They also have a pretty large selection to choose from that you can pay to watch.

Also, another great thing is that you can now purchase your shore excursions through your TV. No more waiting in line at the Shore Excursion Desk. You can also check your folio to see how much money you have spent with your Sail & Sign card.

I leave this Saturday (6/19) on the Glory western my question is do you have to book your excursions in your room or can you go to a desk and do it thru an actual person?

Glad you had a great time. There are ten of us going and we are also doing the cave tubing excursion thru Carnival.

Skylark,

That is great, you will have a lot of fun!

Yes, you can still book your excursions at the desk but I would highly recommend doing it through your TV. We knew that was the excursion we wanted and we went straight to our room once we got on board and booked it via the TV. We had friends that went to the desk about the same time and by the time they got to the front of the line the excursion had booked full and they could not go. Using the TV is fast and easy. It shows you all of the excursions for each port, their descriptions, the top picks, and the cost. You just press a button and you make your reservation. Then they bring the tickets for the excursion to your room. It was great!

Hopefully, you will get Patrick as your tour guide. I have vacationed a lot and been on a lot of different tours and he was by far the best tour guide I had EVER had. He was very smart and articulate and really passed on a lot of knowledge to us about Belize. He was also very responsible and passionate about the cave tubing adventure. I was so impressed that I tipped him $20 at the end of the trip for being so awesome!

Thanks for the heads up. I think I will give it a try and book the excursion thru our cabin. Its definately not an excursion we want to miss. Is there a seperate remote to the TV to book the excursions? Also on the cave tubing excursion did you find it to be over crowded? Sorry to seem so concerned about booking excursions thru our cabin tv but that is new to me. I sailed on the Paradise about four years ago and they had not implemented that yet.

Any suggestions on what to do in Progresso? Thanks

I am curious why you could not get a reservation in the supper club? This is one of our favorite things to do - we have not had any problems in the past. Where you looking for something very specific?

Thanks Kathy

In Progreso, we did the Dzibiltalchun Ruins and Mexican Rodeo. It was really nice. I didn't think it was worth 4 hours in a bus to go to Chichen Itza or Uxmal, so these smaller ruins were very nice. A lot of beautiful artifacts, a Mayan culture exhibit. Then we went to Rancho Tierra Bonita for a really nice lunch (everything was delicious), and a show featuring folkloric dancers, music, and rodeo. It was my favorite non-snorkeling thing to do!

Glory 6/5/04

NCL Sky May 2000 (Alaska)

Skylark,

No, there is not a seperate remote. Everything is built right in. When you turn the the TV on it tells you to push Menu on the remote and from there you can book excursions, view your folio, and watch movies. Very much like a hotel room. It works great.

Kathy B,

We did not try to make a reservation for the supper club until the third day and by then it was already booked up for the week. Next time I will be sure to make a reservation on the first day for sometime during the week.

Beth,

I would suggest doing some type of excursion while in Progresso. We had decided to relax that day and just wander around on our own. After about 15 minutes my girlfriend quickly realized that she did not feel comfortable walking around near the port area. It was the most "unsafe feeling" ports of the four. Very crowded streets and not as tourist friendly as Costa Maya or the others.

Skylark,

We too live in the Pickerington area, we sail on July 31st, I'd love to hear from you and see what you think about the Glory. Hope you have a super week.

Sharon

Glory 7/31/04

Imagination 8/01

Gamecock Jeff:

Thanks for the information - was there any beach to go to in Progresso right off the boat? You must be a SC fan - they certainly took care of my Pirates in baseball this past weekend - good luck in the CWS - you all have a great coach!

We were also on this cruise. We were in 8350 and sounds like we were close to Gamecock Jeff. Being on the even numbered side of the boat was great because if you got up in time you got to see them dock and as we departed you got to see the pilot boat come up and get the pilot. Pretty cool to watch as the boat doesn't stop for this. We saw two interesting things from our balcony. In Cozumel after we left port the ship went a little ways out and stopped which seemed unusual. In the distance we see a pilot boat coming to us. He pulls up and four or five passengers come out of the pilot boat cockpit and are put onto the ship. I don't know any details but I guess they were lucky they weren't left in Cozumel. In Progesso an ambulance pulls up after we had docked and someone was carried off in a stretcher. No details on that one either.

In Costa Maya we did the dune buggy trip and that was a blast. Probably the highlight of our trip. We did cave tubing in Belize with Xstream and barely got back to the ship in time. Turns out Richard the tour guide thought there was a one hour time difference instead of two. He waisted an hour waiting on some guests who never showed up. The line to get in the water was long and once we got in we had to paddle as hard and as fast as we could down the river,which was a madhouse,ate our lunch in the Van and Richard hauled *** back to town. At one point he thought he had blown out a tire which would have screwed us royally. Carnival needs to stay much longer in Belize. We could have used at least another two to three hours. It would have been fun to float down the river thru the caves which are awesome. In Progresso we did the Jeep Hacienda adventure and it was okay. Not enough off roading. We were hoping for something more like the dune buggys did. We still had a awesome trip and loved the Glory. Any questions feel free to ask.

KJ

Please tell me about the Uvero Beach Break...is it a soft white sandy beach? That's what I'm looking for! Also, does the Carnival cave tubing tour provide lunch?

Thanks!

Picktown Cruiser

WOW, what a small world. You could be my neighbor. Do you have any children going with you on your cruise? We have a 12yr old and a 19 yr old. We have two other familys here in Pickerington going also. I will give a report of my trip when I get back. Thanks Gamecock Jeff for your all your info. I will have a Miami Vice for all of you!!

Cruzn Buckeye

According to the excursion list that was faxed from Carnival, lunch is included with the cave tubing, how about it Gamecock Jeff, and what was it??

Good game this past weekend with ECU, you have a great team!

I know some of the people that went cave tubing with us did not make it back on the boat in time. But they must have been tendered to the ship because we saw them later in the week.

Yes, lunch was included. You eat at Cheers, they serve you rice and beans with chicken.

Skylark - It must be a Buckeye cruise! We're from Reynoldsburg and going on 6/19 also on the Glory. Can't wait. What flights are you going down on? We're leaving on US Air at 6:00 a.m. (oh...) and get there at 10:04 a.m. Doing the Carnival transfers.

Skylark,

Yes we have our three sons travelling with us. They are 19, 17, and 14. The two older kids may have been in school together. I hope ya'll have a super time. I really like all the information I get from past cruisers. I feel like I'll be a little ahead of the game when we get on board.

Sharon

Glory 7/31/04

Imagination 8/01

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We're going 07/03. I was wondering if you noticed any rocking of the ship. I have read some reviews that complained of this. Thanks. Trying to figure out if we should take seasick meds or not.

I am going on this cruise in August. I have heard mixed reviews on it, some good some terrible. It looks like a blast, but big ships are usually hard to find your way around. Is it hard to find your way around on this ship?

You should have no trouble finding your way around the ship if you remember that Deck 5 goes through from front to back of the ship. You can go up or down from there. I am usually kind of directionally challenged, and I had no trouble finding my way around. Also, I did not notice the ship rocking any more than any other ship I've been on. I took Bonine every day since I have always gotten seasick and I did not have one queasy moment. The worst rocking I noticed was in the Amber Palace which is all the way forward and the Platinum Restaurant, which is aft. Maybe I noticed it more because I was sitting down. Our cabin was on Deck 7, slightly aft of mid-ship and all I noticed there was a gentle rocking which I thought was wonderful when going to sleep.

Lildudette

Our flight leaves 6.00 am also, but Delta. I think you will beat me there, we have to stop in Atlanta. So save me a spot, but not on a deck chair, you would be flamed terribly. ha ha. We are going to have a fabulous cruise!!!