Glorious aboard the Glory (6/9 - 6/16)

For any WWE wrestling fans out there, you should be familiar with Bobby Roode's entrance theme, "Glorious." Imagine that playing in the background. :D

 

We got back from our second cruise this past Saturday, this time aboard the Glory. I wanted to take some time, not just to write down our experiences, but hopefully cover some of the Glory questions we had leading into our cruise for anyone who might find it helpful for their own. I'd like to help some of those who are new/newer to cruising like us. I don't like using the term "newbie" because it is all too often used as a derogatory on these boards. No complaints about what used to be or what's no longer available. No claims that the MDR attire of others ruined our dining experience. I wanted to contribute something as seen through the eyes of cruisers who haven't been doing this long and who see today's Carnival cruises for what they are, not what they once were. Which is something I feel is lacking on here since long-time cruisers tend to be the voices most heard.

 

Our first cruise, two years ago, was aboard Glory's sister ship, Conquest, so we were already familiar with the layout of the ship. First and foremost, I want to say that I much prefer the interior design of Glory over Conquest. I found the Conquest to be quite tacky.

 

We always drive to our vacations. It's cheaper (for us) and even though this was a very long drive, we enjoy the road trip experience. This time we sailed out of Miami, but stayed in Ft. Lauderdale at the same hotel we did two years ago. It was a nice stay, plus they have long-term parking for cruisers, so we used them again. For those interested, it's the Rodeway Inn & Suites near the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Their cruise parking is $10/day. We've used it twice now and haven't had any problems. The only hotel I found with long-term parking in Miami was too expensive for us, especially just for one night, but next time I might look into it more. Rodeway has a free shuttle to/from the airport as well as Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale). They also offer a shuttle to/from the Port of Miami, but it's $10 more per person than a private shuttle company. One of the managers asked us if we were taking their shuttle and we told him no, because of the price. He said it was a common complaint and they were looking to contract with a different company to get their price down. We happened to choose QLS Transportation and had a very good experience with them. We got to choose our pick-up time from the hotel and he got us to the port in good time, even after having to pick up one more person. They use the interstate express lanes when available, which is nice when you're eager to get there. Fast forward ahead to the return trip back to the hotel after the cruise, we debarked the ship earlier than expected, but it wasn't a problem. A QLS van was already near the port picking up other passengers and he was able to fit us in early. Otherwise it would've only been a short wait. We'll use them again if necessary.

 

We arrived at the terminal around 9:45 and were one of the first ones in the priority line (we had FTTF). The handle on the 12-pack of soda I was carrying ripped and several of the cans broke open when it hit the pavement. Luckily, I had a reusable bag with me because I had read several reports that terminal security sometimes rip open the cases to check the contents. This comes into play in just a little bit. I wasn't watching the clock, but I'd say they opened the doors before 10:30 because we weren't standing in line for very long at all. Let me just say, security was a bit of a joke. They ushered us to the last X-ray scanner, but a gentleman behind the scanner told us to wait and hold onto our bags because there was a problem with the machine. So why direct passengers to this line? As we stood there, the woman on our side of the machine kept telling us to put our bags on the conveyor and was getting visibly frustrated with us, but we were only following instructions to wait. Eventually, the guy told her no, the machine was broke, so she calmed down. We thought we were going to be sent to another line, hoping they wouldn't send us to the back of the line since we were already near the front. Yes, we're one of those people who enjoy getting on board as soon as possible. Those of you who make fun of that can deal with it and keep your rude comments to yourself (but I doubt you do). Finally, the guy said to just go ahead and try, so we sent our stuff through. Apparently it worked. We sent the first 12-pack of soda through and they didn't say a word, didn't even open it. Then I sent the bag through that had several loose cans. When it came out the other side, the guy asked us what was in the cans. My wife said, "Dr. Pepper." We thought that was obvious. The guy asked, "Not beer?" OK, you caught me, I own my own bottling plant and I secretly sealed beer inside several Dr. Pepper cans. As the comedian, Bill Engvall, would say...Here's your sign. They didn't care about the full case of soda, but questioned several loose cans. Give me a break. They finally told us to just go ahead.

 

Next stop, check-in. Checking us in happened so fast that I didn't know it was actually check-in. We were directed to a Carnival rep. standing at a podium and I thought he was just checking our documents, then would send us to the actual check-in counter when a spot opened up. Nope, that was check-in. He welcomed us back to Carnival, checked our documents, and that was about it. For the four of us, it took less than 2 minutes. We were sent to the waiting area upstairs and priority had a section of chairs that was somewhat blocked off from the general boarding seats, with a couple Carnival reps checking boarding passes to enter. The way people talked, I had pictured a separate room. No big deal, we were getting on a cruise ship, who cares about a priority lounge.

 

They had announced over the PA that boarding would begin around 11:30, but in reality, they started boarding around 11:00 or so. No arguments here. :) The call for platinum/diamond and suites went fast and it was our turn. One last check of our boarding passes before going up the gangway. For some reason, the passport photos of our son and his friend didn't process during check-in, so they had to get their picture taken for their S&S accounts at this point. The reps did it with their tablet devices and it only took a second. It was our son's friend's first cruise and I believe his exact word the moment he stepped inside the lobby was, "Wow!" Something I highly recommend to all adults is to try to live through the eyes of a child now & again. Even when you've already done something yourself, experience the sense of wonderment a child feels when they see something that amazes them for the first time. In this case, our son's friend is 17 years old, but it still counts. When our son was younger, I loved watching his face light up when he saw something amazing for the first time. But I digress.

 

So after a year and a half wait from the time we booked, we're finally on the ship. We went straight to our cabin to drop off our stuff. The signs on the fire doors to the cabin hallways no longer mention any of the priority passengers being allowed through, but you are. They even mentioned it over the PA. We had two cabins, but they weren't ready yet. They just needed to be vacuumed. We were told there were a lot of FTTF passengers, not to mention I know they have a lot of work to do to turn the ship over, so it was ok. We asked if we could just put our bags on the bed and that wasn't a problem. As we were walking away headed to Lido for lunch, we saw our steward placing S&S cards in the mailboxes of the finished cabins, so we turned around, went back and got our cards real quick. Up to Lido for my long awaited Guy's burger. I had one in my belly by 11:25am. Oh how I had missed you, sweet sweet Guy's burger. Don't worry, we have 7 days to catch up. And so it began.

 

We decided to walk around, check out the interior design of Glory, and show our son's friend everything we knew from Conquest. Afterwards, we went back to our cabin to check on our luggage. Two of our four checked bags were there. A short time later, they dropped off the third. The last one took another 20 minutes. We had all four by 2:00 and got everything unpacked.

 

Dustin, our Cruise Director, announced that muster would be called soon. When the alarm sounded, we waited a few minutes because we didn't want to arrive first and be stuck in the back behind a hot sea of people. Learned that the hard way last time. It worked, we were a couple rows from the front of the pack. Thankfully, it wasn't as hot this time as it was last time thanks to cloud cover. Muster lasted about 20-30 minutes.

 

We finally got a chance to properly meet our steward around 5:00pm. Komang, or "K" as he insisted we call him. OK, K. We got our 12-pack of water that we pre-ordered a couple hours after boarding, but K said he still had to get our complimentary waters. No hurry, we were going to supper soon. They were waiting for us when we got back.

 

Our first night in the MDR didn't disappoint. We enjoyed the American Table menu (now known as American Feast) two years ago and it was just as we remembered. We like to experience different waiters, so we don't request one. Although, on night 6 we had a great waiter, Agus, who was funny as all get out. I ordered the fried chicken and he kept making "legs and breast" jokes with me. We had planned to request him on the next night (our last night), but we totally forgot. I wished we had because our final waiter wasn't very fun.

 

After dinner, we attended the Welcome Aboard show in the main theater. We got to meet our Cruise Director, Dustin, who seemed like a lively fellow. He did a bit talking to the towel animal puppets that were on the tv screens. That was pretty cheesy. The Playlist performers did a few songs, but I was disappointed. I didn't think they were very good singers at all and worried that if that was a sign to come for the rest of the live music shows, they'd be a disappointment. More on that later.

 

Day 2 was a Sea Day. We couldn't get the boys out of bed, so the wife & I went to brunch, which was something else we were really looking forward to. It was better than we remembered. The fillet mignon was outstanding! So much so, we ordered another. We tried to get just two more fillets, but the waiter brought us two whole meals instead. I'll fast forward to the second Sea Day brunch of the cruise. It was disappointing. Our waiter wasn't very personable and the fillet mignon wasn't nearly as good as the first time. Afterwards, I had wished we had skipped it and left ourselves with the wonderful memory of the first one. That second Sea Day was also the last day of the cruise, so that probably had a lot to do with it. Mentally, things are different for us on the last day. Things don't seem to be as much fun, food isn't as good, things like that. We know it's just about over, we have to get packed up and whatnot, so it messes with our heads. Admittedly, that's our own personal hang up.

 

I hope I haven't put too many people to sleep. I tend to be a detail oriented person, so it's not easy for me to summarize. I'm going to write up our port day experiences, a little about the entertainment & food, and cover a few things we weren't happy with. And hopefully help with some specifics. I probably won't include any pictures. I didn't take pictures to correspond specifically with this write-up, but if I happen to have one of something that someone's looking for, I can post it.

My boyfriend and I were on this sailing too. Im enjoying your review so far!

 

Our check in (no FTTF) was extremely fast too, it took less than 15 minutes from the time we got out of our Uber until the time we were on the ship, we have the 1-1:30 slot

 

 

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What dates were you on the ship?

What dates were you on the ship?

 

 

 

June 9th- 16th

 

 

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June 9th- 16th

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OK. I was confused by the title saying 9 which is Sept. I’ve seen it written with the day and then month first but usually with letters or a year in it. It’s not standard for the US like other countries besides maybe the military but even then they would write it 09JUN18. Thanks for the clarification.

The thread title makes this appear to be a very old cruise review from September of an unknown year. Good to see that it is a recent review.

 

You say " We enjoyed the American Table menu (now known as American Feast) two years ago and it was just as we remembered. "

 

American Table and American Feast are both active menus served on different nights per Carnival's website:

AMERICAN TABLE AND AMERICAN FEAST

"American Table and American Feast have been designed to create a contemporary and memorable dining experience for our guests.

On Cruise Casual evenings, with an emphasis on exceptional American cuisine, American Table features familiar regional, fresh and contemporary dishes, with a wide array of appetizer, entree and dessert selections which changes each evening. Additionally, American Table is designed with modern table décor and place settings with menu designs to complement the experience.

On Cruise Elegant evenings, guests are treated to our American Feast, a dining experience designed to create the feeling of an elaborate celebration and features tantalizing appetizers, a delicious selection of succulently prepared meats, seafood, and vegetarian choices, topped off with one of our spectacular desserts. Depending on the cruise duration, American Feast is featured on one or two evenings per cruise. "

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by sanmarcosman

My boyfriend and I were on this sailing too. Im enjoying your review so far!

 

Our check in (no FTTF) was extremely fast too, it took less than 15 minutes from the time we got out of our Uber until the time we were on the ship, we have the 1-1:30 slot

Thank you. :) Yeah, I remembered that you would be there too and thought to myself, I wonder who she is? Have I seen her? LOL We did meet a woman on one of the forward observation decks as we pulled out of Grand Turk. She said she's a CC user, but she didn't tell us her username. And I didn't give her mine just in case we may have had some disagreements on here. :') Edited June 20, 2018 by Organized Chaos

What dates were you on the ship?

Crap! Must've been a momentary bout of dyslexia. I'll contact the mods and see if they can correct it.

Yeah, I remembered that you would be there too and thought to myself, I wonder who she is? Have I seen her? LOL We did meet a woman on one of the forward observation decks as we pulled out of Grand Turk. She said she's a CC user, but she didn't tell us her username. And I didn't give her mine just in case we may have had some disagreements on here. :')

That's funny! I'm not shy. If I think you're a doofus on here, I'll tell you to your face as well. I'm not just a keyboard warrior, I'm the whole package. 100% real all the time :D.

Crap! Must've been a momentary bout of dyslexia. I'll contact the mods and see if they can correct it.

Oops!

The thread title makes this appear to be a very old cruise review from September of an unknown year. Good to see that it is a recent review.

 

You say " We enjoyed the American Table menu (now known as American Feast) two years ago and it was just as we remembered. "

 

American Table and American Feast are both active menus served on different nights per Carnival's website:

Ah, I see. I just happened to see American Feast a couple times and assumed they had changed the name altogether.

That's funny! I'm not shy. If I think you're a doofus on here, I'll tell you to your face as well. I'm not just a keyboard warrior, I'm the whole package. 100% real all the time :D.

Same here. If it were the other way around and I met someone who turned out to be a person on here who I thought needed an attitude adjustment, to say the least, I'd let 'em know it. But since we talked to her for a while and she wasn't comfortable giving us her username, I figured I wouldn't push it. I don't intend to offend anyone on here...well, unless they deserve it :evilsmile: ...but I'm sure it happens. I figured I'd better remain incognito on the ship to avoid trouble. LOL I'll keep an eye out to see if that woman happens to have her picture as her avatar.

 

There was another woman I saw a few times here & there that I swear I've seen somewhere. I couldn't place her for the life of me. The only thought was that she was a CC user who has included pictures of herself, maybe in reviews, but I'm not sure. I kept seeing her and it was driving me nuts. I tried to work up the nerve just to ask her if she was on here, but in the real world, I tend to be a pretty shy dude.

Thank you. :) Yeah, I remembered that you would be there too and thought to myself, I wonder who she is? Have I seen her? LOL We did meet a woman on one of the forward observation decks as we pulled out of Grand Turk. She said she's a CC user, but she didn't tell us her username. And I didn't give her mine just in case we may have had some disagreements on here. :')

 

 

 

You probably saw me, I’m a short petite white girl and my boyfriend is a tall black guy, we are hard to miss lol

 

 

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Same here. If it were the other way around and I met someone who turned out to be a person on here who I thought needed an attitude adjustment, to say the least, I'd let 'em know it. But since we talked to her for a while and she wasn't comfortable giving us her username, I figured I wouldn't push it. I don't intend to offend anyone on here...well, unless they deserve it :evilsmile: ...but I'm sure it happens. I figured I'd better remain incognito on the ship to avoid trouble. LOL I'll keep an eye out to see if that woman happens to have her picture as her avatar.

 

There was another woman I saw a few times here & there that I swear I've seen somewhere. I couldn't place her for the life of me. The only thought was that she was a CC user who has included pictures of herself, maybe in reviews, but I'm not sure. I kept seeing her and it was driving me nuts. I tried to work up the nerve just to ask her if she was on here, but in the real world, I tend to be a pretty shy dude.

Now you'll be left to wonder who she was.......

 

Looking forward to more of your review.

You're off to a good start, I'm a sucker for reviews with details.

Thanks for your thoughts.

You're off to a good start, I'm a sucker for reviews with details.

Thanks. I tell myself I'll just cover some of the highlights, then it grows and grows.

Port Days

 

1st port - Grand Turk: We were in GT two years ago and our son said if we ever cruised again, he wanted to come back here, so it was a big part of booking this particular cruise. We had a great time snorkeling on our own last time (we're very amateur snorkelers) and were eager to give it another go. The first thing I realized when we got up and got moving that morning was that I had left my swim trunks at home. Real smooth, vacationing in the Caribbean and I forget swim trunks. So I headed off the ship by myself to try to find a pair in one of the shops. Ended up having to buy a $25 pair at Ron Jon that probably would've cost me $10 at Walmart. Not something I was happy with since I rarely use swim trunks, but it was either that or a pair of my shorts. Or maybe my undies could've passed as a pair of Speedos. ;p Yeah, no one wants to see that. Two years ago, we snorkeled just to the south of the pier, the opposite side of where the huge crowd congregates in front of Margaritaville. At that time, there were only a few lounge chairs under some large palm trees that provided lots of shade. Less than 10 people there that day. We saw fish, crabs, a live conch, and small coral. But today it's been drastically changed. They've torn out the larger palm trees and replaced them with smaller ones that provide barely any shade. They've also placed a lot more loungers and it looks like they've worked to attract more people to this side of the pier. There still weren't very many when we were there, but it was obvious more people have used this area in the last two years because the marine life we saw back then is practically non-existent now, probably due to heavier foot traffic. That was very disappointing. We only saw a few fish. But this is where we ended our day. We began our day by walking down to the southern tip of the island. I had read on another site that there was pretty good snorkeling just around the southern tip on the far side, but it was very windy that day, so the other side of the island was just too rough. We stuck to the southernmost point and just to its north. Due to the winds, the water was quite murky, but we did spot life here & there. We climbed around on the large rocks at the southern point. You'll need some type of water shoes for this because the rocks are very sharp. All kinds of sea urchins clinging to the rock wall on the far side. We spent all of our time in GT along this southwestern coastline. We had wanted to walk to Governor's Beach, but ran out of time.

 

2nd port - San Juan: I had planned out our day here weeks in advance. We were going to tour the two forts and visit the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista to see Ponce de Leon's tomb. Once you leave the terminal area, you are hounded by locals offering tours. We planned to take the free trolley system around Old San Juan, so we walked down the street to one of the other trolley stops away from the pier because I had read it was less crowded. The tour guides are lined up along this street and you can't walk five steps without another one bugging to take you on a tour. I get that this is how they make their living, but it's annoying when they're that aggressive. We made a pit stop in the Harley shop then went back out to find a trolley. None came along so we decided to just walk to Castillo de San Cristobal since it's a short walk from the pier. My son and I love history, so it was interesting touring the fort, seeing the work that goes into building such a structure during a time before modern tools and equipment, and also seeing how WWII technology was integrated into such an old fort. The trolley stops just outside the fort, so after a 5-10 minute wait, we hopped on headed to del Morro. The huge park, if you want to call it that, outside this fort is amazing. And great kite flying weather. $7 gets you into both forts, just keep your receipt from the first one if you'd like to go to the second. Another amazing structure, but my wife and the boys were getting their fill of forts, so we didn't cover as much ground here. Off to see Ponce de Leon's tomb. I guess he never found that fountain of youth. It's only about a 10 minute walk from del Morro, so we skipped waiting for another trolley. The architecture of the church is amazing in its own right. I wasn't as impressed with the tomb as I thought I'd be. It's much smaller than I imagined. Back to the ship on foot we went, only another 10 minute walk or so. All in all, it was a good day.

 

3rd port - St. Thomas: For us, St. Thomas was kind of up in the air. We thought we would use it as a second snorkel day, but weren't going to decide until after Grand Turk. Since the water was murky in GT and we didn't see a whole lot, we decided to go ahead and go snorkeling. I had picked Sapphire Beach ahead of time. We originally planned to go to Coki Beach based on what someone here had told me, but the more I read about it (here and other sites), we decided against it. Let's just say that, at times, Coki Beach (aka "Smoky" Beach) has been known to have a certain kind of atmosphere that we didn't want to be around, nor did we want to take two teenagers to. Maybe we wouldn't have encountered anything like that, but we didn't want to take the risk. We considered Magen's Bay, but read that the snorkeling was better at Sapphire, so we got a taxi (a big passenger van) at the pier and headed to the other side of the island. Now I don't normally get car sick, but there was something about this ride that didn't agree with me. First, it was crazy hot in the van. Especially after another group got in, we were packed in like sardines, and the lady in front of me pointed the air vent directly at herself. That combined with the guy's driving, the hills, the curves, and the very rough ride, it just about did me in. I survived and was glad to get out of that van. The driver wanted to negotiate a time for our return trip and insisted that he be the one who took everyone back. We wanted to come back whenever we felt like it, so the group (us and others) agreed on a time and we figured we could catch another taxi if need be. Another guy said the same thing, there'd be plenty of taxis. If we want to leave, there's no sense in waiting for the same one. The driver didn't even think to collect our fare, he was going to get back in the van and go without getting our money, but I'm not that type of person, so I stopped him to pay. The first thing I noticed once we hit the beach was the smell. If you know what a gray water tank smells like, that was pretty much it. A light sewage smell. We couldn't smell it down the whole beach, just in certain places. There's a resort on this beach, so maybe that had something to do with it. There's a lot of coral beds in the shallows at Sapphire with lots of marine life. And there were a lot of people snorkeling over the coral. About an hour into our time there, a very old gentleman in a "Security" T-shirt began patrolling the beach, constantly blowing his stinking whistle, and ordering everyone away from the coral. Why do they think people come here? A vast majority were there to snorkel. I mentioned to a guy who had just gotten there with his family and was one of the ones getting whistled at that everyone there had been snorkeling around the coral for a good hour before the old man threw a fit. The guy said, "He probably just woke up." LOL A lot of people swam farther out into deeper water and saw schools of fish, rays, and supposedly a turtle, but we didn't have the equipment. After a while, I decided to rent us life jackets so we could venture a little farther out. The nearby rental shack was manned by a couple young locals who obviously didn't want to be there. How did I know? Well, they acted like your typical lazy teenagers (maybe early 20's). But what really tipped me off was the fact that the girl loudly proclaimed, "Ugghhh I wanna go hooooome!" Not very welcoming to those who provide their livelihood. It was $20 for four life jackets for an hour. After fighting the waves for a half hour to get out farther, my wife and I were beat. We had already been there for a couple hours and were exhausted, so we called it quits. We did get to see a lot of marine life in the shallow coral beds before old man ocean chased everyone away. And there were two iguanas walking across the sand, taking shelter in the shade under the trees, and under people's lounge chairs. The van ride back to port was much more pleasant.

 

4th and final port - Amber Cove: We had the lowest expectations for this port. We knew about the "water park" area near the pier, but I'm not a sit around the pool type of guy, so I didn't think this would be a very fun stop. We planned to take a taxi to the Teleferico (cable car) to the top of Mt. Isabel de Torres, but that was about it. In the end, this turned out to be my favorite port. As the island came into view, we were reminded of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, somewhere we love to vacation. It was looking great so far. I don't use this word often, but it was beautiful. The pier is long, just like at Grand Turk, but here the locals offer rides to the duty free shop on rickshaw style pedal bikes. My wife asked how much it cost and the gentleman said, "Whatever your heart feels like giving." I liked that answer. There are a fleet of taxis (minivans) parked just outside the complex. And signs showing you the cost to some of the more popular destinations. For what we wanted, it was $30 one-way for 1-5 people to the cable car. We met our taxi driver, loaded up, and were on our way. He was pretty quiet, only pointed out a few things. I tried to strike up a conversation, but his English was pretty rough, so I settled for enjoying the scenery. Other than all the road construction along the way, the mountain scenery was great. We got to the Teleferico and a gentleman by the name of Edward greeted us outside the lobby door. Turns out, Edward would be our guide up the mountain. Something we weren't expecting, but when it was all said and done, we're glad we had him. He walked us to the ticket booth and guided us exactly where we needed to go. It was early so the four of us, plus a grandmother and her grandson, were the only ones in the cable car. Edward talked about the mountain, the national park that surrounds it, and the city of Puerto Plata below. Once at the top, we took a moment to enjoy the view and take a couple pictures. He pointed out some of the more well known buildings, including the "free hotel," as he called it (their prison). He also mentioned the "Dominican Eagles" that were flying overhead, which we quietly got a kick out of to ourselves because in the U.S., they're just buzzards (vultures). He walked us up the hillside to the statue at the top, a one-third size, bronze replica of the "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Brazil. As soon as we got there, another gentleman greeted us. He told us about the statue and insisted on letting him use our cameras to take the perfect photos. Turns out, he knows exactly where and how to post people to get it to look like you're holding the statue in your hand, holding the statue's hand, things like that. He emphasized that taking the pictures was free and we soon found out why. Several of the locals have each set up small shops inside the building that the statue stands on. He urged us to come inside to look at his wares and insisted we'd get a great deal. Uh huh. We agree to see what he had and followed him to his shop. I'm not going to lie, he did have a lot of nice things that would make great souvenirs, but his prices were high. We picked out a small stone statue that we liked and he inscribed "Dominican Republic" on it right there in his shop. Our son picked out something too. We haggled over the prices a bit and settled on a total we were comfortable with. Afterwards, the grandmother/grandson we came up with, who had been to Puerto Plata before, said we probably could've gotten him lower, but it was ok, we were fine with it. Looking back, it seemed as if he wanted to rush us through our pictures of the statue just to get us into his shop. So if you're ever here and would like to take a moment to take your own pictures, just let them know. After all, it's YOUR vacation. My guess is, each shopkeeper takes turns trying to get tourists into their shops, because no one else asked us to buy theirs. Even though this was only our second cruise, I learned pretty quick on our first one that these vendors can be quite aggressive and sometimes you have to be stern with them. At that point, we thought our time atop Mt. Isabel was over. This is where having a guide made a world of difference. If we hand't had one, we would've headed back down on the next cable car. Thankfully, Edward had other plans. He said he'd like to take us to the cave, waterfall, and other places. We were surprised there was more, but gladly told him to lead the way. The trails through the forest are amazing. They have tied the hibiscus on either side of the trails to form arches in many places. The plant life, the birds calling...this is exactly the type of thing we love. Edward said there are parrots in there, but unfortunately we didn't see any. Our first stop was at the mouth of a cave that the natives used to live in. Then he showed us a mock-up of a wooden hut they would've used long ago. Around this hut, they had planted some of the island's cash crops, like sugarcane, cocoa and coffee plants, banana and plantain trees. Our next stop was what Edward called the waterfall. In reality, it was a stream flowing down the hillside. Unlike the natural mountain streams we've come across in the Smokies, this water was pretty dirty. It flowed into a man-made pond that had some coy fish and turtles in it. Back up the hillside towards the statue again. He asked if we'd like to see the bridge, but the grandmother who was with us was tired and said she'd like to go back, so we did. Edward escorted us back to the cable car and down the mountain. We weren't as lucky on the downward trip, the car was full. The fog had moved in, as it does every morning, and it was neat breaking through the fog to see the city below. Once back down, our taxi driver was in the lobby waiting for us. We said our goodbyes to Edward, thanked him for his awesome tour (with heartfelt gratitude and a little something for his pocket), and were on our way back to the ship. The port area is private, gated, and guarded. You'll have to show your S&S cards to get through the gate. Once back to the port complex, we were running out of time, but wanted to have a look at the pool area. Remember when I said I'm not a sit around the pool type of guy? Well I'd make an exception for this place. It looked great. The pool was huge, there was somewhat of a lazy river that stretched even farther (that people were just using as an extension of the pool), and the bar/cafe area is quite large. There's a water slide and a zip line that runs right over the pool. The zip line is $20 for unlimited times. When we come back to this place, and we will make it back some day, I think we'll set aside some time to enjoy this area. We did a little shopping before boarding. One last thing...we wanted to take our picture by the big blue 3D "Amber Cove" sign on the waterfront, but there was a line the entire time, so we snapped a couple pics of the sign itself and headed back to the ship. As we put Amber Cove in our rear view mirror, we were happy to find a new place we want to go back to, but sad knowing it was the last port.

Awesome review so far! Sounds like it was definitely worth the long wait!!!

Enjoying your review. We will be on the Glory in October, doing the same ports.

Awesome review so far! Sounds like it was definitely worth the long wait!!!

Thank you, it was. And so much better than our first cruise. We broke out of our cruising shell this time and had a much better time (not that the first one was bad). More about that tomorrow. We have to give ourselves plenty of time to save up to cruise, but that wait was excruciating.

 

Enjoying your review. We will be on the Glory in October, doing the same ports.

Thanks. I hope you have a great time. Will it be your first cruise? We're thinking about a fall or winter cruise for our next one. I hate the heat, so it'd be nice to go when it's a little cooler. We enjoyed the Glory. I looked forward to the Serenity deck because the Conquest didn't have one when we were on it, but turns out we hardly ever used it. One morning when everyone else was still asleep, I laid down in a clamshell and started jotting down some notes for this review on my phone, but that's just about it. We tried the hammock one evening, but it was raining and we had our dinner clothes on. We laid down in a clamshell on the last night, but some teens found there way into the area and were being obnoxious, so we left after a few minutes.

 

I wanted to sit in the Serenity hot tub and have a couple beers, but couldn't force myself to get into a hot tub in hot weather. Maybe if we went on a winter cruise, the cooler nights would change my mind. I think what I didn't like most was that it was on the front of the ship, so they had the glass walls instead of just a railing and there was very little air flow.

Going to wrap this thing up tomorrow. Started writing down some thoughts about the entertainment and such tonight. Whoever said they were a sucker for details is in for a treat. LOL

I think you will find the fall and winter cruises to your liking. It's too hot for me during the summer. In the winter, if you live in a colder region, it's like a bit of heaven to feel the warmth of the sun. It bites when you go back home, but for that one week it really is a treat.

Thanks so much for doing a review. You're doing a great job!

Alright, the end (of this review) is in sight. Phew! :p Thank you for the compliments and encouragement.

 

As I mentioned before, our last day was a Sea Day. We were just in a general funk knowing it was just about over. Nothing seemed fun and the food didn't excite us like it had the whole cruise. I think this was partly mental, but also it kind of felt like they didn't put as much effort into the dining experience as they had the rest of the cruise. So does this last-day mental funk happen to anyone else to the point where it affects your day?

 

One thing that did cheer us up was the final Lip Sync battle. We had watched the original auditions on Lido, but had missed their mini-battle in the lobby mid-cruise. One was a girl who was very good at lip syncing and a rather good dancer. She was up against your average, everyday guy (kind of a big guy) who wasn't the greatest at lip syncing and an awkward dancer. We didn't think he had a chance because, up until the final battle, the girl was in the lead. She looked more like she was auditioning for a job than being up there to have fun. That's not what I was interested in. In the final battle, she did a great job as expected. The guy came out in kind of like a sweatsuit. He began singing Tina Turner's, "Proud Mary." If you know the song, it starts out very slow and this guy was his usual awkward self. It was kind of painful to watch. But when the up-tempo part of the song kicked in, the Playlist dancers took their positions on either side of him, ripped the sweatsuit off of him, and underneath was a thigh-length, sequence dress just like Tina Turner would wear. Then came the Tina wig. The crowd went absolutely nuts, it was fantastic. The other girl was sitting on a stool in the background and you could immediately tell by the look on her face that she wasn't happy. Up until that exact moment, she was convinced she would win, but in a second, she knew her chances of winning had just decreased dramatically. From that point on, that regular average everyday big guy owned that theater. When the cheering crowd decided the winner, there was no doubt. Sorry, no video. We were loving it so much that I didn't even think to record video.

Just a bit of advice in today's camera-crazed society. After I bought a nice DSLR camera a few years ago, I spent a lot of time on our vacations looking through the eyepiece. But I've been making it a point to enjoy the view with my own eyes. I think that's a good piece of advice for everyone who's camera happy. Take your snapshots, capture your moments, but don't live through the lens. You're there in the moment...live it.

 

FOOD

We don't do the steakhouse or anything like that. My son did buy some crab legs from the Seafood Shack, but he said they weren't as good as he's had from other places. I managed to eat a Guy's burger every single day of the cruise and I'm not ashamed of it. :D Our overall MDR experience was great. We were able to catch three of the wait staff's song & dance routines, including their farewell song, Leaving Our Fun Ship, that's sung to the tune of John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane." We didn't get to hear that one last time, so we didn't even know it was a thing. It was great, I loved it. We wanted to eat in the MDR every night, or almost every night, as a way for the four of us to get together and talk about our day. Other than when we were in port, we didn't see much of the boys. Our son is 17 now and doesn't like hanging out with ole mom & dad as much, so it was important to get some time together. But there were times when dinner service was slow and it affected our evening, so next time I think we'll consider skipping the MDR on nights when we know there's something we really want to do or a show we really want to see. My wife and I did attend the second elegant night, a first for us. Honestly, it wasn't anything special to me. I enjoyed getting dressed up, but for me the meal was pretty much the same because I'm a picky eater, which limits my options. I'm just not into the whole formal meal thing. The fancy plating, tiny portions sitting on a drizzle of some sauce with a puddle of something else. Not that elegant night was that extravagant, but you get my point. Oh, and we really wanted to try the new'ish BBQ place (where Fish & Chips used to be) but for my lunches, I couldn't pull myself away from Guy's. Next time!

 

Entertainment

One of our main goals for this cruise was to experience a lot more than we did on our first one and to break away from our comfort zone. On our first one, we went with my wife's aunt & uncle, who cruise often, so we let them lead the way during our port visits. It was all so new to us and we were nervous to stray far from the ship, so we never really did anything in port. This time I was determined to change all that. That's why I planned things in port to experience some of the things the islands had to offer. My wife was still very nervous about doing things by taxi as opposed to Carnival excursions, but I assured her millions of people do it, we'd be fine. Not to mention doing things on our own, like many here know, is much cheaper than an excursion through Carnival. We spent $80 on a taxi ride to Sapphire Beach and back...a Carnival excursion to the same beach would've cost more than that per person.

 

But not just in ports, we wanted to try new things on board the ship as well. Believe it or not, we didn't go to a single comedy show on our first cruise. Don't ask me why, I enjoy comedy, but for some odd reason it just didn't happen. This time we went to a few, and had a great time. One night we walked by Bar Blue during karaoke. I've been to karaoke in the past, but it had been 20 years. My wife had never been to one. It was a packed house and we stood at the door for a while until a couple seats opened up. We met a couple people who were regulars in there and spent the next couple hours having a great time. They were all great people because no matter how bad of a singer someone was, everyone clapped and cheered and were genuine. We really liked the vibe. We went back the next night and since it was between two sets of comedians (two new fly-ons started the next night), they had it in the comedy club. A lot of the same people, but I thought it was much better when it was in Bar Blue. That's a smaller, more intimate setting, I guess you could say. It just had more charm to it than in the big comedy club. But we still had a great time. The rest of the cruise was busy doing other things, so we never made it back to karaoke, but we'll definitely do it next time. My wife has been wanting to arrange a cruise with more of her family and if I had some fun people in our group backing me up, plus a lisle liquid courage, I could see myself getting up there and murdering a song or two.

 

During an 80's trivia party in the lobby hosted by Dustin and the Fun Squad, I was in the thick of it on the dance floor making a fool of myself trying to win a free drink that the Fun Squad crew was handing out to people "encouraging the fun." I thought I had one when I noticed one of the Fun Squad standing behind me for about 5 minutes. I was dancing (if you can call it that) and singing along and doing my best to "encourage the fun," but she ended up giving the drink the old drunk guy nearby who was sitting on a stool and barely moving. I tried so hard and was definitely way out of my comfort zone, so that was a bit discouraging.

 

One night, I volunteered during the Motown pre-show. Again, WAY out of my comfort zone, but I was determined to try new things. Myself and two other guys got taken up on stage and were taught a little dance we had to perform to "Stop In the Name of Love"...with Supremes wigs on. NO! I'm not sharing the video that my wife took .;p

 

During the Veterans Appreciation gathering, they invited the Vets from each branch of service up on stage to tell a little bit about ourselves. Let me tell you something about me. I am deathly afraid of public speaking. My wife asked me if I was going up there and I immediately started getting nervous. My heart was racing and I hadn't even moved. But there was that voice in my head telling me I was there to do things I wouldn't normally do, so I did it and I think I did ok. I couldn't hear myself from the stage, but I don't think I botched anything I said.

 

I enjoy doing the trivia, it's a good daytime activity, and I'm pretty full of useless knowledge. But after a while, I got real sick of people who were willing to lie, cheat, & steal just to get a ship on a stick. Yes, someone literally stole one of them that was on the lobby stage right before a trivia session. I'd constantly see people looking up answers on their phones or writing in the answers as they're being given, then claiming they had it all along. It happened all the time. Even when we played Scattegories one day, a whole group cheated, got caught, and continued to cheat. The host would call out the category and you'd have to write down an answer starting with a specified letter. For example, something you do on a first date that starts with the letter F. If no one else wrote down your answer, you'd get the point. Well, that one group of people wrote down multiple answers for each one. Then they'd use their multiple answers to eliminate everyone else and one of their answers would be one that no one else used. The host caught on and told them that there was to be only one answer each, but the group continued to use their multiple answers throughout the rest of the game and the host let it go. And yes, someone from that group won. Now I know it's just a stupid plastic trophy, but I've tried hard to honestly win one during our two cruises and it's disappointing to see so many people who have no problem lying & cheating to take it away from those of us who are honest. It wasn't the plastic trophy itself, it was the principle. I came to realize that if I missed two or three answers, there was no chance of winning because someone was always going to say they didn't miss any or maybe just one. It'd be nice to see the trivia/game hosts get a better handle on this type of thing.

 

Playlist Productions: The only Playlist show I saw on Conquest two years ago was Epic Rock and I absolutely loved it. From the moment we booked this cruise, we couldn't wait to see it again. Our son loves classic rock like I do, but he didn't get to see it last time because he wasn't feeling good that night. So he was looking forward to it too. I'll get to that in a minute. If you recall, I said I didn't think the Glory singers were very good when they sang during the Welcome Aboard show and was worried I'd be disappointed for the rest. I was right to be worried. In my opinion, they weren't good at all. We watched Motor City and Getaway Island and I think I would've enjoyed them much more with better singers. Then came the night for Epic Rock, the show we were hyped to see. That night, dinner in the MDR ran long. The wait staff were slower than usual and we had already missed the beginning of the early show, so we decided we'd wait for the late show to be sure to see it all. This is a big reason why we've decided to skip the MDR on future cruises if we think it might interfere with other things. After dinner, we walked by the theater during the early show and noticed it looked just as good as we remembered, but we didn't want to spoil it for ourselves, so we quickly walked away. The time came for the late show and we got seated. Dustin (Cruise Dir.) came out and announced that, due to some safety concerns for the cast of the show, there had been a "slight change, but the show must go on." Something must have happened during the early show. OK, slight change, no problem...or so we thought. The 8 performers came out on stage, sat on stools at center stage, and began their first song. I can't remember what it was, but it was a slow song. We knew Epic Rock was supposed to be a huge production with lights, costumes, set changes, the whole works, so we just thought they were going to sit for this first ballad. After all, we took a peek earlier and saw that it was what we remembered. A couple members of the audience actually left during this first song. I think they sensed the same thing I did. When they began their second one and remained on the stools, I told my wife that this must be the "slight change" Dustin talked about and if this was to be the show, I was leaving too. They made it through song #2 and began #3. The only one who would get up off their stool was the lead singer of each song. That was it, there wasn't going to be an actual show. I felt so bad for my boy because he was disappointed that he missed it last time and we were so looking forward to it. That was enough for us, we got up and left...along with several other people behind us. I understand safety comes first, but why couldn't they simply alter the show a little bit to eliminate whatever was dangerous and still put on the full production? If one got hurt in some way, why not have that singer sit out or position themselves somewhere where they can sing, but not be in the middle of the action? They should have some sort of backup plan if anything were to happen. To me, that's what it means when you say "the show must go on." Instead, they completely removed the stage production and did something that reminded me of MTV Unplugged (for those of you who remember MTV when they actually played music). I also didn't appreciate Dustin trying to sugar coat the whole thing by telling us it was just a "slight change." I think he didn't want people walking out before it even started. What's so disheartening about the whole thing was knowing the early show was the show it was supposed to be and they got what they came to see. And I'm willing to bet that the cruise that came after ours got to see the real show. They've been doing these shows for a long time now. There should've been a contingency to give passengers the entertainment they came to see. Sorry if it sounds heartless and selfish, but I really do think they handled it poorly. Hey, at least I'm not complaining about chocolates on pillows and hats in the MDR.

 

Miscellaneous

Cabin service: Instead of giving us the form, our steward just asked us about cabin service preference that first day. Then he had me check off what we wanted for both cabins on the form. I chose twice a day for both at first, but after the first morning, I realized the boys were going to sleep in as much as they could, so I changed their cabin to evening service only. That wasn't a problem for K, he was probably happy for one less cabin to clean in the morning.

 

Cabin temperature: This is one that worried me most before the cruise. I had read a lot of reports that the Glory's cabins were quite warm lately and I can't sleep when I'm hot. We brought our fans, as we always do on our vacations. Thankfully, our cabin (6349) stayed nice and cool the entire cruise. We even turned the thermostat down some and it remained cool. At times I'd even say it was chilly in there. On the other hand, our son's cabin (6345) right next door was a little different. They had their thermostat cranked and it was noticeably warmer than our cabin. But it was comfortable to them, so it wasn't a problem.

 

Wifi: We pre-ordered the Value plan because we wanted to communicate with one another, and back home, using Apple iMessage. Carnival doesn't officially support iMessage on the Social plan. I read reports of it working sporadically, but we decided on the Value plan just to be safe. We wanted to make sure our son's friend could keep in touch with his parents back home. Wifi was absolutely atrocious! Aboard Conquest two years ago, we had the Social plan and everything it covered worked pretty good. iMessage back then worked almost perfectly. Speed was noticeably slower during peak usage, but it wasn't bad. This time around it didn't matter what time of day/night it was, service was terrible. I'll admit, iMessage worked fairly well. There were times when messages took a minute to go through, sometimes longer, but overall it was pretty good. But the rest of the service was pretty much worthless. I tried to check email one time and it took forever just to get to my inbox, then longer to open a single email. I was able to reply (barely) and I gave up after that. It wouldn't even let me log out of my email, so I cleared my phone's cookies to log out. We couldn't so much as get to Carnival's website, which I tried a few times. I didn't try any social media apps. I have fb, but don't use it anymore. Despite the terrible wifi, the Hub app worked well. A few times it would say it lost connection, but we'd just restart the app and it'd come back. I'm guessing if I had complained to Guest Services about the wifi, they probably would've given a refund or discount, but I didn't. I'm not really the type of person who goes demanding refunds. I know what some people will say...I'm the only one to blame if I didn't make them aware of the problem. I suppose that's partly true, but they need to take responsibility for their poor services. After reading all the complaints in recent months, it's obvious they're aware of it.

 

Our son's friend had his 17th birthday while on the cruise. His mom had ordered room decorations ahead of time. We checked with Guest Services and they let us pick a time for them to decorate. We planned for it to be done while we were off the ship at Amber Cove. Oddly enough, room decorations are put up by the room service staff, not the stewards. But our steward did leave him a nice happy birthday message written on their mirror. We got back to our cabins that afternoon and he was surprised and got a kick out of it. That night in the MDR, I let our waiter, Agus, know and for dessert, he got a little bitty cake and they sang to him. For people having a birthday, they folded a napkin into what looks like cat ears and put that on the person's head during the song. Not sure what that's about, I guess just to be silly & fun. I hope we made his birthday away from his family one to remember.

 

DIY laundry: Last time we made the mistake of waiting until the last day to do our laundry. I had walked up & down multiple decks and half the machines were full, the other half broken. So we gave up. We learned our lesson and had every intention to do laundry half way through this cruise. But we made the same stupid mistake all over again. Every time we'd say we needed to do laundry, we'd put it off and go have some fun. So there we were, the last night again, trying to get it done. The first empty machine I found was broke, but I didn't know it. About a minute after I swiped my S&S card, a lady came in and asked if I got it working. Nope. Wish she had been there 2 minutes earlier. I called down to GS and they said they'd refund my account. We ended up getting another machine not long after. A couple hours later, my account still hadn't been refunded, so I called down from our cabin. After being on hold for 5 minutes, I gave up and decided to "donate" the $3. I went down to GS later that day for something else and was going to mention the laundry refund, but it was the last day and they were busy as usual. We had access to the priority line with FTTF, but even with only two people ahead of me, I got tired of waiting and left.

 

For debarkation, we chose to check our bags the night before. Last time aboard Conquest, debarkation was an absolute nightmare. It was as if that crew had never done it before. We even heard them over their radios multiple times admitting that they lost control. That's because, like so often happens, they failed to assert themselves to the passengers. We didn't debark back then until around 10-10:30 because it was such a mess. The morning of debark, I walked one deck down and the elevator area was packed with people and people were sitting on the stairs (a genuine hazard). I overheard one lady ask a member of the Fun Squad something and the Fun Squad girl told her that those people weren't even supposed to be down there yet. Then take control!! Send them back to their cabins or where they're supposed to be instead of letting the inmates run the asylum. We were assigned to wait in the Golden dining room, but on our way through the lobby, the Fun Squad members directed us off the ship. Everything is roped off so that there is only one line and they just sent everyone in that line off the ship. The problem was, it was only time for those doing Express Debark (those who had all of their luggage with them). So when we got to the terminal waiting area, employees there had all of us wait because the checked luggage hadn't been staged yet. They can't let anyone down there until it's complete because of the forklifts. There were a lot of us who were directed off the ship who shouldn't have been. I guess there wasn't much difference between waiting in the MDR, like we were supposed to, and in the terminal, but it shows that the crew has little control over the debark process.

 

As newer cruisers, we obviously haven't experienced many of the changes that have been made over the years, so we're able to see Carnival through different sets of eyes. There are things that I read about on here that are no longer available and, to me, they're not big deal. Chocolates, tablecloths, a more lax requirement for MDR attire, etc. Those types of things wouldn't hurt our experience even if we had been cruising back then. Then again, I'm sure there will be changes in 5-10 years that those of us who are starting now won't like when that time comes. It's a big ocean out there...we're just along for the ride. :)

 

Even after all of that, I probably forgot some things that I wanted to cover, so if anyone has any questions, ask away. This was the first cruise review I've written and it's a heck of a process. Next time I think I'll skip it and just answer questions here & there. I'm used to writing product reviews on Amazon, for example, and I write a lot of TripAdvisor reviews, but those don't cover something that lasts for a week, so they're much easier. All in all, even after some hiccups, we had a fantastic time. We know to make a few adjustments next time to make our next one even more enjoyable. We're looking at other ships in a different class and new ports. We're hoping that we don't have to wait two full years this time. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Thank you for your service OrganizedChaos!!! I’m glad you participated in the Veteran’s Recognition event! That’s a bummer about the Epic Rock show but a good reason to go on cruise #3! And thanks for the reminder to put the camera down and be in the moment!