Carnival Glory 10/16 Review

Went on the Glory Eastern Carib route departing on 10/16. My review is below. This may take two postings. I'm not sure. Started out staying at the LaQuinta Orlando Airport the night before. Nice hotel for the $$$, many restaurants nearby. Took Art's Shuttle Sat to the port. Would not recommend to anyone. Worst experience we have had with a shuttle in a while. We were originally told it would just be the four of us..private transpo basically. But there turned out to be also two other parties. The driver piled the luggage very precariously in the back and a few times peices fell down and if not for the gentleman sitting next to my mom grabbing them in time, they would have hit her on the head for sure. The driver did not know where he was going to pick up the last couple and we drove around for about 45 mins trying to find their hotel. And he was kind of strange also..mubmling to himself and telling us all he hasn't had a vacation in 5 years then proceeding to try to get a flight to San Diego talking on his cell while driving us around. He went off on the security guys at the port because he was sitting wasting him when he could have had another fare leaving the port. I will say the manager there is being accomodating so far. She is supposed to get back with my on resolution but I feel we paid too much for the service we got. The embarkation was a mess. Nothing like I had been reading where you were on board eating lunch by 12:30. We got to the port at 11am..by the time we offloaded our bags it was 12noon. The lines of cars to drop off or pick up was amazing..and Carnival only had one lane going in for cars and cabs and shuttles. There has got to be a better way than this! Stood in line inside for an hour. My impression of the Carnival agents was that they were not interested in processing us too quickly. Guess they were on "island time". We did not get on board until after 1:30....long day already at that point with all the waiting in lines. Compared to our experience on the Spirit out of Miami in Jan '04 when we walked up to no wait, and literally were processed and on board in 1/2 an hour..this was a nightmare. The ship itself was O.K. decor wise. Lots of chrome and neonish decorations. I thought it kind of tacky..compared to the Spirit and the Royal Caribbean ship I was on, this just wasn't as classy. I also thought it felt worn..lots of stains on the carpet, dishes chipped in the dining room..many trays and dishes chipped in the buffet, comforter looked real shabby, deck chairs cracked in places. Being this ship is only a year old, it seemed like there was a lot of livin' going on in that one year because it's kind of starting to look old. Food wasn't really up to the same standards as on the Spirit either. Nor was service. Table 409 inthe Platinum dining room sucks. It is right by the waiters station in a corner and there is a big beam near the booth so all the waiters have to squeeze by this table around the beam to serve. We requested a table for 8 or more since we were a group of 4 but got this little 4 booth instead. We should have requested a change but looking around..all the larger tables were filled and we didn't want to change dining times. Buffet food in Red Sail was O.K. lines, lines, lines though. I really noticed a big difference between the Glory and the Spirit in this regard. never got to try the Fish and Chips because the line was always soooo long. Very disappointing. My husband and brother opted for pizza many lunches simply because they would not wait inthe long lines. they did miss a great variety of food and it's disappointing that you pay for those choices but then end up eating a slice of pizza because of the lines. Wew went to the supper Club the first night. it was good but again I didn't feel the service was at the same level of the Spirit. And this location on the Glory seems like an afterthought wheras on the Spirit, it's so elegant and grand..but the food was top notch though so I don't regret going. I did like the spa and gym. Bigger than the Spirit. Machines in top shape and really nice. The huge saunas with big picture windows are great. However the spa girls were a bit snippy and sort of had their noses up in the air when I asked for a locker key. They don't have many lockers for some reason and only give them if you are getting a treatment. They had plenty of room in there so it's beyond me why they just didn't build more lockers. As for the ports, The Bahamas was very nice...need more time though. We took a cab to Atlantis then did the The Dig tour which you can do on your own...$29pp and it's worth it. The aquariums are so amazing there and you get to see the whole property. We were very impressed and want to go back to stay there in the future. St Thomas we took a tour through Carnival. It was horrible. The driver had a very thick accent and between that and the old speaker you couldn't understand a word he said, on top of that he crammed the rows with people and I sat scrunched next to a very large lady most of the time. Really the guy was just a driver nothing more. We could have hired a cab for less and been more comfortable too. I was always a big fan of the Carnival tours but I'd say that was my last one. I'll do the stuff on my own from now on which is what we did in St Marten. Normal price for hiring a cab all day is $250, we got them down to $200 for about 6 hrs. Best thing we did!!! Our driver was Selma and she really knew so much about the island. We told her what we wanted to do and see and she made recommendations also. Went parasailing and jetskiing on Orient Beach and shopping and lunch in Marigot. Wanted to get to Maho to see the jets but didn't have time. Ended up giving her a $60 tip because she was so great as guide. Debarkation was very very slow. We were ready to go at 8:30 like they said but didn't gegt the color called until after 11. One of the last ones to get off. We could have slept and extra hour without a problem since I found out that even if your color is called you don't have to go down right away you can wait and go whenever. Customs was a breeze though. Rented a car to drive around but didn't really do anything because of the lost time in the morning. Wanted to see the Space Center. We'll do that next time. All in all I would say I could not recommed this ship and I was overall not impressed. I think we are only going to travel on the Spirit class ships and for at least an 8 day cruise...seems you get a different crowd and better service. At least that is my experience.