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Glory Boston to Canada Review 7/7/12 - 7/12/12 with Pictures


amdmsk

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Hi everyone! Just got back yesterday from the 5-day Boston to Canada cruise on the Carnival Glory. I'll do a full day by day review and post pictures to go along with everything. I just need to upload some pics and I'll get started!

 

Here's a little background info on all of us before I get the review started. We are a family of four from just outside of Allentown, PA. I am 23 and my sister is 18 and both of us are on our summer break from college. We were also with my mom and dad. This was our 10th and cruise (platinum cruise), all with Carnival. We have done this itinerary once before, the very first time we ever went on a cruise. We took this itinerary from New York on the Victory back in the day, but decided this would be a quick trip from Boston and opted to do the itinerary again.

To summarize the cruise, I am SO glad we went on this cruise again! We all had a great time and wish it wouldn't have gone by so quickly. We're already looking forward to the next one in January :D

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Welcome Back! Glad to hear you had a great cruise! Will you post your review here or in the review section?:)

 

I'm posting here...I'll do it in pieces. I'm getting started right now...the pictures are uploading as I type this! I'm just about to start writing the first piece- embarkation and sailaway! :)

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Alright, here we go!!

 

Saturday- July 7: For this cruise, unlike almost all the others we've taken, we did not go to the port the day before the cruise, but instead decided to stay after for a day, which I'll write about as I keep going. So, we thought that we had about a 6 hour drive to Boston, which meant that it was going to be a VERY early morning for us!! We are always those people who arrive early to the port on embarkation day and wanted to arrive in Boston around 10:00. With that being said, we decided we would leave home between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. :eek:

We ended up getting on the road about 2:50 and we were off! The GPS said that it would take a little under 5 hours to get to Boston. The trip was pretty uneventful and there was no traffic at all. With a few stops along the way, we were in Boston just after 9:00 a.m., earlier than we had planned. Not including the stops, the drive took us just under 5 hours...here's to the accuracy of the GPS! :p

 

Since we were earlier than expected in Boston, we didn't really know what to do, so we ended up going to the cruise pier that early anyway. Now, recently, people going on this cruise have gotten e-mails saying not to arrive at the pier before 1:30. My advice would be not to follow that lol. It seemed like the port and ship stayed pretty empty until about 1:00 and I think this is why. We were able to get in the parking lot, parked the car ($60 for the 5-day cruise), and waited a few minutes to get the shuttle from the parking lot to the terminal.

 

More coming up in my next post...I'm writing as I go on here and don't want to accidentally delete anything lol!

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For anyone taking this cruise and driving to the port, it was actually very easy. The cruise passengers park in an alternative parking lot that is just behind the terminal, about a 5 minute bus ride. The shuttle is complimentary and it's a very short drive. The worst thing was having to pack up all the luggage to put it in the bus and get it back out 5 minutes later.

 

My first view of the Carnival Glory from the car:

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We arrived at the terminal about 9:30, which was a little too early and we had to wait outside for about 15-20 minutes in a little waiting area with the others who arrived early, waiting for everyone who was disembarking to finish coming off the ship. As soon as everyone was gone, they let us in and we went through security and to check-in. Check-in was easy, once they found our sail and sign cards that is. We were checking-in and when the person went to get our cards, she couldn't find them!! After about 10-15 minutes of waiting (the person was very nice about it), she finally got the cards from someone on the ship, who said that the ship didn't print or bring off the platinum cards yet. :eek:

 

All was well once we got the cards and the little inconvenience is nothing to complain about. We then went to the waiting area and because we were VIP this time, we went to the VIP lounge. This lounge is really, really tiny and probably couldn't seat more than 10 people, but the furniture was comfortable! At the time we arrived, it was just us and another couple who was waiting there. We were only there for about 20 minutes or so when they came to get us to board the ship. We were probably within the first 10 people to board the ship and were on board before 11!!! After swiping the cards, my dad had a problem getting his card to work and we had to wait a few minutes until he got someone who was able to re-print his card (yes, after all it took to get the sail and sign cards, now one of them was not working and had to be re-printed), but once that was taken care of, we were good to go!

 

We then went up to Lido to get lunch before the crowds arrived and had a nice lunch. On the Lido deck, which is called the Red Sail Restaurant, they have the Grand Buffet area, dessert stations, ice cream, pizza, two grilles (one forward and one aft), the Mongolian wok, the deli, and a burrito bar. We had a good lunch and then decided we would leave to go explore the ship a while until the rooms were ready.

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We walked around and took pictures in all the public areas on the ship. I have pictures of EVERY area, so if there's something someone here wants to see, just let me know and I can upload it. I'll just put a few here...

 

Golden dining room...

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Ultraviolet's/ Arcade..I really loved this space, which was also Club 02. I thought it was so cool how everything in it was like a life-size piece from a Monopoly game! Here's the floor:

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After walking around all the inside areas, it was about 1:30 and we went to see if the rooms were ready. Sure enough, they were and I actually think many of them were ready before 1:30. We had two rooms across the hall from each other on Deck 8, one balcony room and one inside room. My sister and I stayed in the inside room and my mom and dad in the balcony room. This worked out very well for us. We also met our room steward, Marvin, around this time. He was awesome every day and was always working so hard! He took great care of everything, was so friendly and always smiling, and always seemed to be there if you needed him. He was great!

 

We had some more time before the safety briefing, which was scheduled at 4, so we went to the upper outside decks to take some pictures and explore some more.

One thing we really enjoy and miss on the Spirit class ships is the Seaside Theatre:

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We spent a lot of time out there relaxing and watching whatever movie happened to be on, even if it wasn't something we particularly cared to see. It was just so relaxing, especially at night when they played the movies and everyone who hangs out in that area at the pool all day are gone. You'll be able to tell from reading this that we are not people who enjoy the crowded areas and so we try to avoid things like the Lido deck main pool area on sea days, the buffet at peak times, and the lounge areas right outside the dining room when everyone is going and coming from dinner.

 

Took this picture from an angle as we walked along deck 10:

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As far as the weather goes, it was warm out on embarkation day. It was sunny in the morning, but by afternoon, it was really cloudy and there were a few rain showers throughout the afternoon. Things then cleared up by sail away and sunset and the afternoon clouds were certainly not a prediction of what the weather would be like the rest of the cruise. We would soon learn we would have near perfect weather the entire time and couldn't be luckier, as we heard the previous cruise was very rainy, cloudy, and foggy every day!

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We spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around the outdoor decks of the ship and then returned to our rooms to spend some time on the balcony before the safety briefing. I took some more pictures of the outdoor decks, where many people were already beginning to use the pools, hot tubs, and water slide.

 

The obligatory funnel photo:

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The clouds were starting to break as we headed back, spent time on the balcony, and went to the safety briefing. Before safety briefing, our suitcases had already arrived and so we were able to unpack while we waited as well. We then went down to the safety briefing which took about 15 minutes I would say and then made our way back to our rooms where it was already time to get ready for dinner and watch sailaway from the balcony.

I'm trying to remember exactly, but I think we set sail about 5:15- 5:30. We watched from the balcony until it was time to go to dinner at 6:00. We had early seating in the Platinum (aft) dining room and we had a table for 4 on the upper level against the railing that looked down to the lower level. Our head waiter was good and had a great sense of humor, but his assistants were alright. They weren't overly talkative or friendly, but were pretty efficient, though some nights it seemed the service was a bit slow. It seemed like they were just too busy and were serving too many tables at once. Some nights they would be really quick and we'd be done in just over an hour, but other nights, it was closer to 2 hours until we were finished. It's nothing to complain about because I really had no where else to go (that's the beauty of cruising), just something we noticed. I also did not have a problem with this, but sometimes, others in my family would say that their food was not very hot, just lukewarm occasionally. Again, not a problem for me, and not something that was a huge problem for my family, just something we noticed sometimes, again I think because it seemed like our wait staff was very, very busy.

 

I can't really complain about any of the food on board. Some things are much better than others, and there are some things I don't like but also many things that I really love. I am also a bit of a picky eater, but there was always something that I liked and I was never hungry. We don't really cruise for the food and I think food is something that everyone has their own opinion about, so this is probably all I will say about it. If there's anything specific about menus, etc. that anyone wants to know, just ask and I'll be happy to write more about it. I will say though that the mac and cheese and banana split from the kids menu are pretty tasty!! :D

 

In the morning, I'll post pics from sailaway and the first night out at sea and move on to our first, and beautiful and relaxing, day at sea. :D

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My brother and his wife were on board for this cruise. Both in their seventies, this was their first cruise. I don't know if you noticed or if there was a delay leaving, but they were late getting back from an excursion due to mechanical issues of the vehicle. He was the last one getting back on the ship, couldn't go faster due to medical issues.

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What town are you from??

 

My grandmother lives in Cetronia, my aunt and uncle are in Fogelsville. I bounced around as a kid all over, from Allentown itself to Kutztown, before finally moving to CT. I miss the Farmer's Market at the Allentown Fairgrounds dearly!

 

And keep going with the review! You are doing an awesome job!

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My brother and his wife were on board for this cruise. Both in their seventies, this was their first cruise. I don't know if you noticed or if there was a delay leaving, but they were late getting back from an excursion due to mechanical issues of the vehicle. He was the last one getting back on the ship, couldn't go faster due to medical issues.

 

Hmm, I didn't notice anything. I remember leaving Halifax right on time and leaving Saint John pretty much on time as well. But that's interesting...glad they made it back safely!!

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My grandmother lives in Cetronia, my aunt and uncle are in Fogelsville. I bounced around as a kid all over, from Allentown itself to Kutztown, before finally moving to CT. I miss the Farmer's Market at the Allentown Fairgrounds dearly!

 

And keep going with the review! You are doing an awesome job!

 

Such a small world! We're in Whitehall. I do love the Farmer's Market as well and try to get there every so often!!

 

Thanks! I'll be doing some more every chance I have throughout the day!

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Love your review and pics. Thanks for sharing! We did the Glory to Canada cruise last August, but it was out of NY. It was a nice cruise and we LOVED Halifax. We did have the fog though and that stupid fog horn blew for 2 or 3 days straight (all through the night...uggghhh), so you were lucky to not have that. And at night, when the ship was moving, it was freezing out on deck. The pool water was freezing cold too. But, it was a really nice cruise that we would like to do again someday.

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looking forward to the rest of your review. We did the Glory in January and loved it. A good friend of ours daughter is one of the dancers, I check out the Glory reviews to see if anyone gets a picture of her. :p

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We then watched the ship sailaway from our balcony. The sun had come out as we were sailing away, so we sat out on the balcony and said goodbye to Boston for a few days!

 

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At 6:00 we made our way to dinner. There was nothing on the regular menu that I wanted tonight, so I had the mac and cheese from the kids menu!! Our waiter also thought that I needed something else to go with it, so he brought me chicken nuggets and french fries too!! I felt like I was 8 years old again!!! For dessert I think I had a banana split too, something I had for dessert pretty much every day lol!

 

After dinner, we went back to our room and went to watch the sunset. We then went up to sit at the seaside theatre and watch the movie and have some popcorn before calling it a night. I honestly can't remember what the movie was. We didn't make it to the welcome aboard show. Instead, we headed back to our rooms around 10:00 and called it a night. We were all soooo tired from being up at 2:30 to drive to Boston, we thought we'd go to bed early and get up the next morning to enjoy our first day at sea!!

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Love your review and pics. Thanks for sharing! We did the Glory to Canada cruise last August, but it was out of NY. It was a nice cruise and we LOVED Halifax. We did have the fog though and that stupid fog horn blew for 2 or 3 days straight (all through the night...uggghhh), so you were lucky to not have that. And at night, when the ship was moving, it was freezing out on deck. The pool water was freezing cold too. But, it was a really nice cruise that we would like to do again someday.

 

We loved Halifax as well! The first time we took this cruise, we had fog at sea a lot and the fog horn was blowing all the time. But, on this cruise, the only time we had fog was on the last sea day and it was just patchy fog, mostly in the morning. I heard the fog horn one time when we were in a pretty foggy area, but then it started to clear up and by night, it was perfectly clear! We lucked out!

I will say it was pretty cold sailing at night though. Not so much the first and last nights, but the rest of the nights it was cold out there at the seaside theatre. Carnival had blankets out at the towel hut thing for everyone to take...between wearing a sweatshirt and having a blanket, we managed to stay warm! :D

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thanks for posting your Glory review:) Looking forward to doing the 7 day next year....love your pictures:):):)

 

Thanks! I saw they are having a 7 day New England/Canada cruise next summer! We'll probably be looking into it since we enjoyed these ports so much this time around and it is always so easy to drive to the port. So who knows, maybe we will be cruising together!! :p

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