Crusing the Eastern Caribbean on the Glory; A Picture Heavy Review - April 6, 2014

[mrsd912]

Happy Monday everyone!

Before setting sail on this adventure, I decided to do a picture review of our vacation. While planning our trip, most of the Glory reviews I found were from the Canadian itinerary, so thought a Caribbean review was in order. While I'm waiting for my 400+ photos to upload to Photobucket, I figured I'd "save my spot" and tell you a little about us.

I'm Kate (32) and I sailed with my husband Jeff (35). This was a welcomed getaway after the nasty winter we had here in Maine!

We're pretty low key people, and we vacation that way too. So I can't tell you about the hairy chest competition, deck parties, or partying at Margaritaville in Grand Turk (though we did eat there, more on that later), but I can tell you about the ship, ports, and some of the shows.

So stayed tuned! Pictures are still uploading, we have to get to the grocery store, and get caught up on Game of Thrones, but I should be able to officially start very soon!

[SmogMonster]

Looking forward to your review. We sail on the Glory on June 14. Hope you had a great time.

[champagne123]

The heck with Game of Thrones and shopping.....post post post.....lol.

 

Welcome back and hope you had a great cruise. We loved the Glory

[GabbyCooks]

Can't wait! We are cruising Glory for New Years. You're right, most of the reviews are the Canada route. Thank you in advance!!

[wb3690]

We did this itinerary in March. LOVED it. great trip, great ship!

[justme_85]

I am extremely excited for this review as I am sailing her on the eastern itinerary in 33 days!!!! :D

Edited April 14, 2014 by justme_85

[mnsawyer]

Hello fellow Mainer - we live not too far away from you - anxious to read your review - we are sailing the Eastern Caribbean on the Liberty on the 26th

[Jeansfanatic]

Sooooo excited!!! Yay! Subscribing!

[Single_dreamer]

I am extremely excited for this review as I am sailing her on the eastern itinerary in 33 days!!!! :D

 

33 days to go! Excitement is building!

[muffin]

Not til March of 2015, but it is a family group of 8, three sets of adults and two youngsters, so we will have great time. kids and 2 adults will be on first cruise.

Can't wait to see your posts….lots of details on what you did on land please!!

[cruisin chef]

Sailing Glory in 12 days, can't wait for your review

[PathfinderEss]

Looking forward to your review and pictures.

[BaseballMomof4]

I am extremely excited for this review as I am sailing her on the eastern itinerary in 33 days!!!! :D

 

Sounds like you are on the May 17 sailing too! Woohoo! I can't wait!

[mrsd912]

Hello fellow Mainer - we live not too far away from you - anxious to read your review - we are sailing the Eastern Caribbean on the Liberty on the 26th

 

Howdy neighbor!

 

You'll love the Liberty, we sailed her for our first cruise and it was so great that we decided to book another Conquest class ship.

The Eastern itinerary is great too. We're seriously thinking about doing the same one for our next cruise. :D

[mrsd912]

So, here it goes!

We decided to fly out of our "home" airport for this trip, which is about 20 minutes from our house. We flew out of Logan last time because of the price difference in tickets. Long story short, after parking and extra hotels, we spent more flying out of Logan than we would have if we flew out of Bangor.

Anyway, we got up early Saturday morning to head to the airport, and left later than we should have. When we stepped outside our door that morning it was sleeting and the roads were horrible. Luckily Bangor is a fairly small airport so there was almost no line at TSA. We go through security and I'm putting my shoes back on when I see Jeff is still waiting for his bag and is being approached by a TSA agent. :eek: Jeff thought he left a cigarette lighter in his bag and that's why he got held up. Lo and behold, he thought it best to pack his Leatherman in his carry on bag and that's why he was being held up. After Jeff was escorted "behind the scenes" by TSA and I sat waiting for him with our bags, our flight began to board. Thankfully, they didn't detain him long since he said he'd just go throw it in our car, but they were paging our name as he was coming back through security.

This was not how I envisioned starting our vacation.

After a layover in New York (no TSA this time!) we made it to Miami. We collected our luggage and went out to wait for our hotel shuttle in the warm sunshine! It was nice to sweat, it seems like we haven't done that for eons in the Northeast!

After reading some hotel suggestions on this site, we decided to stay at the Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon for our pre cruise stay, and it was a great choice! We'll stay here again when sailing out of Miami. The room was really night, great location, and we had an amazing dinner at Casa Juan Restaurant right across the street.

Jeff, glad to be in Florida

 

Nice bathroom, very clean

 

TV and desk

 

View of the room from the window

 

View from our room

 

Walgreens was right across the street, and CVS is across the street from them. On the other side of the hotel is a shopping plaza with a Publix, Burlington Coat Factory, Starbucks, Nail Salon, a couple restaurants, and more. It was very easy to pick up last minute items, and we didn't have to take a cab anywhere. Initially the streets look a little hairy to cross because they're 6 lanes, but they're divided by a good size median so you only cross traffic going one way at a time.

[mrsd912]

The next morning we decided to take a taxi to POM. The hotel does have a shuttle but it's $10 per person and the first one left at 11:00. Since we had Faster to the Fun we wanted to be at the port earlier. We asked the front desk to call us a taxi around 10:00 and waited less than 10 minutes before we were on our way!

The port looked different than when we were there in 2012, at that time they looked like they were renovating, and either they have or we were in a different terminal than last night. For our last cruise there were separate seats for FTTF folks, but no big deal that there wasn't this time. We breezed through check in and easily found a seat to (try to) patiently wait.

Lots of people already waiting

 

Let us on already!

They starting calling guests on board, and after calling Platinum and Diamond guests it was our turn! We got up, got our photo taken after reminding Jeff we do this one together, and then go up the escalator to officially be welcomed aboard. We literally walked on the ship at 11:10 am.

Picture of a picture, forgive the quality!

 

Since we had FTTF, we headed to our cabin first to drop off our bags. We were really excited to see our balcony with this being our first aft facing cabin. I've read that you either love or hate them, and we're definitely on the Love Team. Yes the cabin did have more vibration, you could easily see your neighbors, and we didn't have a couch, but that balcony and the views are worth it!

Edited April 17, 2014 by mrsd912

[mrsd912]

Glad to be back on a cruise ship!

 

 

Drink coupons now that we're "Red Cards"

 

 

 

Our cabin steward, Resty, was close by getting another cabin ready and came out and introduced himself. He asked our names, and referred to us by them for the rest of the week. Resty and his assistant Embar were great. More than once we were still in our cabin when they wanted to come in during the evening, and would come back to the cabin when they were cleaning in the morning, and they always said it was no problem. They took great care of us, we never felt pushed out of our cabin, and took care of our requests quickly.

[mrsd912]

The Conquest behind us in port

 

Views from our balcony

 

 

 

This is the life!

Edited April 17, 2014 by mrsd912

[mrsd912]

Since we had eaten breakfast at the hotel that morning (pretty decent breakfast buffet) we weren't really that hungry, so we decided to explore the ship while it was still relatively empty.

Ivory Club - where karaoke is

 

 

 

White Heat Night Club

 

[mrsd912]

White Heat Night Club (cont)

Arcade

 

 

[mrsd912]

Promenade

 

Casino

 

Cinn-a-bar Piano Bar

This lounge is all dark red, picture didn't come out good with or without the flash

Bar Blue - I love the décor in this lounge, but it's the Cigar Bar so it's a little smelly.

 

[mrsd912]

Color changing ceiling in the atrium

Atrium

 

One of the teen clubs, but I don't remember which age group

 

Amber Palace

 

[mrsd912]

Ebony Lounge - Comedy shows are held here

 

Platinum Dining Room

 

Above the entrance of the Platinum Dining Room

 

Another Teen Club

 

It's getting late and I have to get up early for an all day training tomorrow, so that's it for tonight. Stay tuned for more!

[Markmom18]

Thank you for this great beginning, I love the photo cruise reviews! We're going on the Glory in late August (Eastern Caribbean). Looking forward to more ....:)

[Seany527]

I'm so glad you are doing this. I just booked the Glory last night for the same cruise in Oct. I was having such a hard time finding picture heavy cruise reviews for the Glory out of Miami, until you came along. Thank you! :)