ussenterprise

@dck12ga - hope it is quieter for you. We're thinking of calling CCL to complain, but not sure what good it will do at this point.

@1kaper - nice, I'll check out your review!

@Ephride, sorry, I don't have the Capers (Fun Times)

Greetings and salutations. DW and I just returned from a much needed 7 day escape to the Eastern Caribbean aboard the Carnival Glory. I hope you find this review informative and feel free to ask me any questions you might have. The ports of call were Nassau, Bahamas, St. Thomas, USVI, San Juan, PR and Grand Turk. I will break the review up into segments for easier reading.

Bio:

DW is in her late 30's and I am early 40's. This was our 6th cruise, 4th with CCL. We have also sailed RCI and NCL. This was our 3rd cruise on a CCL Conquest class ship, so the layout was quite familiar. Our last cruise with CCL was in 2010 and there have been a few changes since then - some good, some not so much.

Pre-cruise:

We prefer to fly to the port the day before the cruise to leave plenty of time for any potential airport nightmares, especially given the weather of late. We jetted into Miami on Saturday the 22nd and our Chicago bodies went into immediate shock upon feeling the Florida heat. We grabbed a shuttle to our hotel, the Hyatt in downtown Miami. Shortly after arriving, DW realized she'd left her phone in the van. A quick call to the company and the dispatcher contacted the van driver who promptly returned her phone to us, so this is a shout out to Super Shuttle. Please consider patronizing them should you need transport from MIA to your hotel.

Speaking of the hotel, the Hyatt is a bit old but clean and comfortable. DW considers bargain hunting a sport and was able to get us a room for $100 on Priceline. Their web site says the WiFi is $10/day, but we were able to log on for free so perhaps that policy has changed. The staff was very friendly and courteous. If you stay there, consider a room facing the river. Ours faced the street and even though we were on the 10th floor, the traffic noise was quite pronounced. There is a restaurant in the hotel, but it is quite expensive and the food is just average. There are several eating options within walking distance, so you may want to consider those instead.

Embark:

Finally! We awoke early with the same anticipation of a 5 year old on Christmas morning. We strolled to Starbucks for breakfast and then called a cab for a ride to the port. As we drove, I kept a look out for Crocket and Tubbs but the Ferrari must have been too quick.

OK, this is the part where I become a salesman for CCL. We had heard of the Faster to the Fun program (hereafter, "F2F") where, for $50 per cabin (NOT person) you get priority boarding access and your cabin is ready immediately upon boarding. You also get priority reservations at the specialty restaurant and priority boarding of tenders in addition to a separate line at Guest Services. DW and I exited the cab and never sat down. We walked straight to security, then to a special check in line for F2F. Once we were checked in, we boarded the ship and went straight to our cabin. I kid you not, it was 20 minutes from cab to cabin. Worth EVERY penny!! Our luggage arrived within an hour (another perk) and we were unpacked and ready for fun while other people were still waiting to board. CCL only offers about 50 of these per cruise, so book it right away. If they're sold out, keep checking the web site as they sometimes open up more.

Cabin:

Our home away from home was Stateroom 7371, a category 8C balcony, starboard side, aft. We were told by the CCL booking agent that this would be a great spot because there were no staterooms across from it so it would be nice and quiet. It was anything but. In place of staterooms was a galley, which does not appear on the deck plan, and there was the constant sound of dishes and silverware being thrown around. This would go on into the late hours of the evening and got old quickly. I would recommend staying forward of this area. Von, our steward, was fabulous and kept the room in great shape. He always had a smile and called us by name whenever he saw us.

After unpacking, we decided to try some of the new eating areas that were installed as part of CCL's 2.0 program. We strolled up to Lido and went to The Blue Iguana Cantina. Here, you can get MTO tacos and burritos. I got a chicken taco and a pork taco. The tortillas are made fresh when you place your order and there is a toppings bar with various kinds of salsa, pico, cheese etc. To accompany my tacos, I grabbed a Thirsty Frog Red from the Red Frog bar. Tacos and beer were both fabulous. The cantina is also open in the morning for breakfast burritos, which we never got around to trying but were told they are also delicious.

After lunch came the lifeboat drill. With CCL, you must report to your muster station although you do NOT have to bring your life jacket. Once the Cruise Director, Dr. E, finished stumbling his way through the drill, DW and I headed topside for sail away and watched the USA slowly disappear. We then headed back to our stateroom to get ready for dinner.

Dinner:

Our MDR was the Platinum Dining Room. We had table 667, which was on the second level, all the way in the back, starboard side. We were lead to our table and met our table mates, a couple from Vancouver, BC and a couple from CA. The dress code for this night was cruise casual, which means anything short of gym shorts, sleeveless t-shirts and flip flops is acceptable. This is a link to the menu for the first night - http://zydecocruiser.net/menus/aNew/index.htm

I had the Alligator Fritters, Mesclun Greens Salad and Beef Lasagna. DW had Shrimp Cocktail, Mesclun Greens Salad and Flat Iron Steak. All the food was quite tasty.

This is a link for the dessert menu - http://zydecocruiser.net/menus/aNew/Dessert2.jpg

DW and I both had Melting Cake, delicious as usual.

After dinner and a quick stroll to help the food move through, we retired to our stateroom and the banging of dishes across the hall. I stepped out onto the balcony to enjoy the warm night air and was "greeted" by our neighbor whom I have named Selma as she reminded me of Marge Simpson's sister complete with gravely voice from years of smoking. After a couple minutes of listening to Selma hack, it was time to hit the hay. Next stop, Nassau.

Not sure if this was mentioned previously, please forgive me if it was. At least with the daily service charge, you can go to the customer relations desk at the end of your cruise and adjust it down if you don't think your room steward or MDR server did a good job, or up if you think they were outstanding. I like to tip them in cash on the last night because then I can tell them in person what a great job they did and I think they really appreciate that. With a bar gratuity, you pay 15% regardless.

Eka from Indonesia on Freedom. Beautiful, friendly, always used our names and genuinely wanted us to have a great dinning experience, which we did except for the diet pumpkin pie :P