Cruise Review: Glory 10/30/04 Part II

Wednesday, St. Maarten:

We arrived in St. Maarten a little early, so we got off around 9:30 (although it got in early, we did not lol). We get a water taxi pass, and we go to the beach on the other side of the lagoon or w/e. We sit down, and we buy a seat. We immediately have someone come over, and take our drink orders, and she ended up serving us food and drinks the whole day. So we get there and I go bounce on a trampoline. My sister gets her Hair Braided, and then we go and rent a jet ski. The Jet Ski was cheap, only $75 an hour. So we split it up, 30 mins for me, and 30 mins for my sisters. My dad gets on, and after we start really moving, we decides he no longer wants to do Jet Ski, because it was hitting him a little to hard, causing a shockwave into his back. So, we go back and my sister hops on. We go flying out, and it is so much fun, it hurts a little. Once we get far out, my sister ends up starting to drive, so we are going around and around. My sister by the way loves turtles. So we are near a sailboat, and suddenly, we see a turtle. She lets the throttle go, and we start going in circles looking for this turtle. Just a note, the water was 15-20 feet deep, what are the chances that we find this turtle? Slim to none. So we spend about 3 minutes looking for a turtle, and she finally gives it up.

So we go back on the beach, and I have an awesome cheese dog, and talk to some Diver who lives on the island, who just cooked my cheese dog. After that, me and my other sister, go on the other Jet Ski, because my other sister, who was already on the jet ski, decided to pass on the opportunity of getting smashed up and down for another 30 minutes of her life. So me and my sister go on there, and basically do the same thing we were doing before. We go to turn around, and when you do a slow turn, it begins to bob, and sway, and flood. I tell my sister to lean left, and by accident, she leans right. You fill in the blanks. So we struggle getting back on the Jet Ski, and we head back to the beach, assuming that was enough. We get in, and we go back to our thing.

I go on the Trampoline, and some guy is blowing a whistle, yelling at me to get off that costs $5! So, I get off, not arguing with the guy because I got to get on earlier, and we go to another Jewelry store, to see if they have this thing. The reason why I am not mentioning this is because my mom may read this, and we still can’t find it. So we get back on the boat, and I go and get some fries, and play poker, and go swimming with my dad. After that, I meet up with my friend, we go to the arcade, and go back up to go swimming again. I then go down to deck 3, to watch the boat leave. We had to wait 30 minutes for some people to get on the boat, and a bunch of people were getting mad because, they felt that if they had to get on the boat in time, then these people should have too. Well, oh well does it really matter. Once they were back on the boat we left port. Everyone relaxed, and all was better.

So I go to the Ivory Club, and to the Internet Café to check my email. No new mail, I feel so unwanted! After that I go upstairs to eat, and go swimming in the pool again. I then go to the Ivory Club again, and find John. I sit and talk with him for 5 mins and he immediately runs away saying there is a need for a medivac, now tell me something, having left port about 30-40 minutes prior, is it just me who finds that to be a lie, but I yet again regretting, do not argue with him. So he runs away with his friends, and I go to the room to relax. After that, I go to Camp Carnival, and find that DDR is there.

This camp carnival girl gives me an attitude because I forgot to say please once, and she says is that a Demand or a requirement. I look at her like are you kidding me? She was so nasty, so I leave and with a nice and nasty comment, she says to me, leaving already, I took this stupid thing out for you. Are you kidding me? So then, I go to the arcade, and meet up with my friends and play games.

After that, I go to the Talent Show. The Talent Show was good, everyone was good singers. After that, we watch the bedtime story. The Bedtime Story was identical, and we found out he did it last week and the week before that and the week, oh you get the point. While watching, there was Mary the always big huge sleeping black lady. She of course tackled John, and the whole show seemed more like a sales pitch to buy a video, then to actually see the act. John continuously kept repeating, how can you explain that to anyone? You have to buy the tape, and I will do it for half price only $14.99, and then every single day after that, it was in the program, have you bought your video tape yet? It was sickening that he lied, and then on top of it, tried to sell us a tape. So that was a disappointment.

I go back to the Ivory Club and have a drink, and go to sleep. It was a good tiring day, but hey it was a lot of fun, and I began to HATE John more and more.

Thursday, Fun Day at Sea:

Thursday, was one of the last 2 Not So Fun Days at sea. So Thursday, I wake up, and John had told us to watch his show. So we watch the show, and we watch him dedicated, to 500 different birthdays, and it really got boring. Once we were done with everyone’s birthday, we had Anniversary’s and at the end, we call him. For anyone who wants to call the studio, it is 4047. Also, the studio is the Crimson Club, on the 4th deck right outside the Lobby, mid-ship. We call him, he apologizes for wasting my mom’s tanning time, and he has Champagne and Strawberry’s sent to our room, and he gets me some tokens, and claims he might meet me there in 30 mins. So I played games, and if he came, he came, if he didn’t then oh well. So He didn’t come, but I played Time Crisis, and some Circus Shooting Game. It was a fun game, a little repetitive, but the more you played you could see yourself get better as time went on.

After that, I meet up with my family, we go swimming and watch Fear Factory. The New Jersey Girl Wins! After that, we go and get lunch. Then I meet up with my friend, and we go downstairs, and play 7 game bingo, and sit in the front row waiting for the marriage show. The Marriage show is just plain boring. It was all the same stories, and it just wasn’t funny. It started to put me to sleep a ton. So once that torture was over, I went to the Internet Café and hung around there. After that, I went to eat some more, and then we went to dinner. I ate a hot dog, because I didn’t feel like having Pasta yet again. It was really good, surprisingly, it filled me up.

After that, I went to the Ivory Club to see the band, which was jamming pretty hard, and John was there, because it was the formal night. So he said of course forget it, because he couldn’t because now he was having a staff meeting. After that, I listen to some music, and talked with the drunken golf pros, and it was so much fun. They played for 2 hours straight, and had singers and special guests and all kinds of stuff. After that, I went downstairs, and went to sleep; knowing the last today was just ahead of us.

Friday, My Last Day aboard the Glory

Friday, is always a sad day, a fun day at sea. We get up and I eat pizza for breakfast as usual. I then get a Strawberry Smoothie, and get my mom a present, her inch of gold for her Birthday. After that, I go swimming, and play poker with my dad. After that, I go downstairs, and play Backgammon with the Internet Guy and talk with him. It is already 3pm, so I go return the board, meet up with my Dad, and play poker up on the lido. Then we go down to the Lobby Deck, and sit outside, and watch the last sunset. My friend meets up and we take pictures and all kinds of stuff. It was a lot of fun, and we go get a drink at the lobby bar. After that, I say good bye, and go back to the internet café, and hang out with my Internet Café Buddy, Andrew. So we sit and talk and I leave and go to dinner. Once we eat dinner, I go to the comedy show and the other thing. The guy who eats swords was cool, but it wasn’t that exciting. But it was cool anyway, and after that the comedy guy was there. The problem with the comedy guy is that we saw him in January, and he did nothing different. After that, beginning to feel sick, I go down to the Ivory Club, say good bye to everyone, and go down stairs, to my room and struggle to go to sleep.

Saturday: Debarkation

Well my dad gets us early tags, because we had an earlier flight, and last time we had almost missed it, but made it on with 44 seconds to spare. So we were the second ones off the boat. We just got out of bed when they called our tags, so we waited, and went upstairs to eat Breakfast. Debarkation was quick and painless; we only waited 30 minutes in total. We also so Nanka, for the last time, our Waitress, at dinner. We left the boat, happy with our trip.

Final Note:

Sorry for this being so long. So to finish off everything was pretty good, John is a common liar, and committed Fraud (will explain on Cruise Critic Boards, when ready). Debarkation and Embarkation was a piece of cake, and was quick. We enjoyed the ports, and found the time long enough. Most of the time we got on the ship an hour and a half to two hours earlier then we had to be. We did not do any shore excursions through the ship, because it was such a rip off last time. The food, room, and public areas were great. Our Waiter and Waitress were great. Andrew the Internet Manager was amazing, and the Jazz band in the Ivory Club, was amazing. I recommend the Glory, but not John.

Happy Cruising

Dave

Dave,

With over 3000 passengers on board what exactly were you looking for John to do for you, just curious????

Someone get me a drink of the day, please....

~Kristen (who was also on that cruise and had a ball without meeting John)

My guess is you would have had a better time if there were more kids your age aboard but given you cruised the end of October, most kids are in school.

I wasn't expecting him to do anything, all this was offered to me from him. I just met him, and spoke with him for a little bit, and he was the one who offered, I was just expecting him to at least let me know if he would not be there, instead of leaving me hanging. Even if he couldn't personally do it, I could understand the pursers desk, or anything like that.

This posting was brought to my attention my another cruise critic mate, to say the least I'am shocked what you had to say about John Heald. I understand there is always several sides to a story but I can tell you that John Heald is a great person and a great cruise director. Calling him names and saying he commits command fraud is every so wrong and I must reply. I have known John Heald not only as a Cruise Director for the past 11 years but as a dear and close friend. He has given so much to Carnival and their

guest over the years I cant put them into words what it means to me and so many people. Few years ago when my mother passed away, john called me check up on me on a routine base. Sometimes John does say things that are misunstood by some people, sometimes he does say things that he is going to do something but do to his busy schedule aboard a cruise ship, things do not work out the way he wants them, emegerncy do happen people do die and get hurt, things do break, there are staff matters that he must address, there is problem in ports with tours that they run that needs his input, there is staff meeting, a lot goes on that you and public do not see and would be shock. Yes sometimes cruise director does do a overkill trying to sell thing but that is not them it carnival tellilng them to do it, why to make money to generate more money taken in it is not fraud it is big time buisness. I have seen john take money out of pocket to give to the 2nd place winner at free cruise bingo where there could be only one winner with drawing the highest bingo ball and he didnt want the person that lost go away with nothing. I have seen john do so many times for kids on and off the cruise ship, go to Hopsitals in ports with toys and give them toys, also going to hospital with the dancers/socal host over the years to sing and make them laugh during the holidays seasons, i have seen him give so much to the ronald macdonald house for kids programs the list goes on. I also cruised about 1 1/2 weeks after 911 and I will tell you this I will never forget that cruise, how hard it was for john heald to supply humor and laughter because of what was going on in the world, and the stories i got back from crew members about the week before and how john had everyone singing god bless america duriing the week of 911 and with him breaking down in tears on stage, he is the best in the game. I did get a email back from john reference this posting and he requested me to post his side of the story, but I dont want to do that, but i can tell you his side is a lot different then yours. I hope this gives you more open view