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Carnival Glory Eastern Caribbean Review Nov. 29-Dec. 6

jpm1973

By jpm1973,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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jpm1973

jpm1973

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Thanks for stopping by to read my recap of my Eastern Caribbean cruise on board the Carnival Glory Nov. 29-Dec. 6. This was my second cruise ever, having lost my cruising virginity in June on board the Carnival Ecstasy. I’m in my early 40s and for this trip I went with my mom, who would be celebrating an unnamed birthday while we were at sea Dec. 4. She’s cruised many times before, though not since 2009 (which was also on the Glory) so it seemed like she was way overdue. Also it had been a not-so-great year for her and our family, so with all the great deals out there it seemed like a perfect time to go cruising and enjoy some fun.

 

I live in New York and mom is in Chicago, so we coordinated flights to arrive around the same time in Ft. Lauderdale. I found a pretty good deal at the Miami Intercontinental downtown so we planned to stay overnight there and then make our way to the port Saturday morning. We were a bit concerned about weather problems causing flight issues, but luckily enough the weather was fine in Chicago and New York so we both arrived in Ft. Lauderdale without issue.

 

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I had booked a car through Go Airport Transportation and it was easy enough to find their desk after I’d met up with mom and we collected her bag. The car arrived within minutes and after an easy 30-minute drive we made it to the Intercontinental. Let me say what a nice hotel this is – beautiful lobby and spacious rooms. Check-in was painless and we dropped off our bags and then stopped by the lobby bar for a drink before dinner. We made a short walk to Biscayne Tavern (which I had found randomly through the power of Google Maps) and enjoyed a nice dinner and a few more drinks. Although not far, we decided to get a cab back since it was a bit chilly and mom doesn’t do well with cooler temperatures (she has Raynaud’s, which affects blood flow in her fingers and the cold exacerbates it). The cab driver laughed when we told her where we were going (I said it wasn’t far!) but took us without complaint and even skipped the meter. I tipped her well for the short ride and we decided to stop at the lobby bar for one last drink before bed.

 

The next morning I was up early (a bad habit I have, even on vacation) and jumped out of bed when I heard a ship’s horn sound. Out the window five ships docked and the Carnival Glory making her way to her spot in the lineup.

 

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(please excuse my reflection here)

 

Mom was still sleeping so I ran out to pick up a few things we needed at CVS. After some Starbucks for energy, we finished getting ourselves ready and packing up for the short ride to the port. Next up…embarkation and see ya, Miami!

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MrsPhoenix91

MrsPhoenix91

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JP, I am looking forward to your review! You are good son for taking your mother on this cruise :) Got 2 questions for you:

1. What kind of room did you have at the Miami Intercontinental?

2. Did you happen to do a review of your June Ecstasy cruise too?

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jpm1973

jpm1973

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JP, I am looking forward to your review! You are good son for taking your mother on this cruise :) Got 2 questions for you:

1. What kind of room did you have at the Miami Intercontinental?

2. Did you happen to do a review of your June Ecstasy cruise too?

 

Aw, thanks! We really had a great time and are already talking about another cruise next year.

 

The room was a double with two queen beds. I definitely didn't pay more for a larger room so I imagine this was the standard size. Sorry I forgot to get any pictures when we were there!

 

And no review from the Ecstasy; I was too new to all of this back then. But if you have any questions I'm happy to answer what I can.

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jpm1973

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We got a cab without problem at the Intercontinental and were at the port within 10 minutes. We found a porter for our bags and dropped those off before making our way inside. No line at all once we walked in and the staff directed us to the Faster to the Fun line. After a quick check of our passports and boarding passes, we breezed through security and then upstairs to get our Sail & Sign cards. We got through all of that in less than 15 minutes and were sitting in the waiting area by 11:20. We waiting about a half-hour or so before they started calling groups for boarding and we were up and in line to board by noon or a little after.

 

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Once on board when found a place for mom to sit in the lobby as I had to make a detour to the Shore Excursion desk to choose our cabana for Half Moon Cay. This was a surprise for mom – I hadn’t told her I had booked it. I had planned on keeping it secret until we arrived on the island but mom was asking what I was doing so I decided to just let her know. She was thrilled and in hindsight it was a great decision to book the cabana considering the weather we had. More on that later. Since I had never been to Half Moon Cay I had done some research on the cabana locations, and decided on #4 since it was further down the beach but still not so far that we would have a long walk.

 

I also had some Carnival Gift Cards I wanted to apply to our account so after my visit to the Shore Excursion desk I stopped by Guest Services with the gift cards. The cards were applied to our account with no problem and after that I ran to check to see if our cabin was ready to drop off our carry-on bags. It was, so I ran back down to the lobby to get mom and we made our way up to Deck 8 and our balcony cabin 8378.

 

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We checked out our room briefly and saw that the Fun Shops had delivered our bottle of rum. After dropping our bags we made our way up one deck to Lido to get some food and our first vacation drink. We both opted for the Caribbean Colada from the Red Frog Rum Bar and I grabbed us three tacos from Blue Iguana. Man, these were delicious! Mom and I both agreed that the pork tacos had way more flavor than the chicken so we stuck with the pork for the rest of the cruise.

 

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jpm1973

jpm1973

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Once we finished eating we made our way back to Red Frog to refill our drinks. Mom opted for the same while I tried the Frog’s Island Ice Tea since I do enjoy a good Long Island. I should have paid more attention to the ingredients, however, as I have a huge aversion to blue drinks and this one has Blue Curacao in it. Needless to say I didn’t let it go to waste and it tasted fine, but I steered clear of anything else blue the rest of the trip.

 

While we were there we met up with a couple people from the group that had been created for this cruise. We chatted with them for a bit and then it was time to make our way to the other side of the pool to Blue Iguana Cantina for our planned group meet up at 3 p.m. It was great to put real faces with names and get to know everyone a bit better. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time as soon they were calling for everyone to make way to their muster stations. With margaritias in hand mom and I made our way to Atlantic Deck 4 and our assigned muster spot. Thankfully this was a quick and painless process and once done we headed back up to Lido deck for our sailaway from Miami. By the time we made it back up the Norwegian Getaway had already departed and the Celebrity Reflection was not far behind. We were next to leave and soon enough we were pushing away from the pier to start the slow ride out to sea.

 

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We spent a bit longer up on deck enjoying our sail away and then made our way back down to our cabin to see if our bags had arrived (they had!) and to unpack for the week.

 

After getting settled and enjoying a small cocktail on our balcony, we made our way to the Golden Dining Room for dinner. We had anytime dining and had no issue being seated right away when we arrived around 6:45. Service was quick yet not rushed and we enjoyed everything we ordered. Mom and I both had salads; I had the grilled mahi mahi (the port-of-call entrée) and mom opted for the shrimp. For dessert mom tried (and loved) the melting chocolate cake and I had the Nutella tiramisu – so good!

 

After dinner we stopped by the casino – you’ll find this is a regular stop for us throughout the cruise. Mom loves the slots and I enjoy the craps table from time to time. Neither of us walked out huge winners that night but we had fun making our donations to the Players Club! After that we met up with some from the group at the Alchemy Bar, which would become our go-to bar throughout the cruise. We loved the creations they made here and the three bartenders – Nataliya, Brian and Alex – were awesome! After a couple drinks here we decided to call it a night. Next up…Half Moon Cay and playing hide and seek with the sun.

 

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jpm1973

jpm1973

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Beautiful pictures! Did the ship 'feel' crowded at all?

 

 

Thank you!

 

There were only a few times it "felt" crowded - the first day on the lido deck was busy, and then in some common areas at specific times, like when the comedy show would let out and everyone would be trying to go the same direction. Otherwise I never felt crowded at all.

 

 

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SMSACE6

SMSACE6

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Thanks for your review! I am enjoying it very much. One of my best cruises ever was the one I took with my Mom on the Liberty five years ago. We have not been able to cruise together since then for various reasons.

 

I really loved my cruise on the Freedom in Nov, but I have really been wanting to try a cruise with the new dining room menu, so I have to wait a while for that LOL.

 

I know your review is barely started, but did you like the new American Table on Glory? in general? I know there will always be something that one does not like. I am just curious to try something or just some new things in the MDR.

 

I will be following your review, and thanks again for posting.:)

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jpm1973

jpm1973

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I know your review is barely started, but did you like the new American Table on Glory? in general? I know there will always be something that one does not like. I am just curious to try something or just some new things in the MDR.

 

 

 

I will be following your review, and thanks again for posting.:)

 

 

I hope you and your mom get a chance to cruise together again soon!

 

I really liked the American Table menu - the options were good and it was nice to have some standard grill items available each night in case none of the daily items were appealing. That said I've only been on one other Carnival cruise so I don't have a lot to compare this to. We only ate in the dining room three nights but had no complaints about anything we had.

 

 

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jpm1973

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We leave saturday for our week on the Glory. Same itinerary, except for Nassau in stead of hmc.

 

How long did it take for you to get your bags with FTTF?

 

How smokey was the Casino?

 

Thanks for previewing our trip.

 

 

Our bags were waiting for us when we got back to our cabin between 4:30 and 5. Might have been there much earlier but we didn't check.

 

The casino was pretty smoky most of the time and it was particularly noticeable in the evening when more people were hanging out near that bar and listening to the band that played there. I grew up with family members smoking all around me so I might be a little more tolerant than others are. I will say while I was playing craps it never bothered me, but when I'd be near any slots where people were actively smoking it was a bit much. Hope that helps.

 

 

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jpm1973

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Thanks for the review. Going on the Glory January 10th. My 3rd cruise. I'm getting so excited and your review is increasing my excitement. Can't wait.

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I'm sure you will love it! Granted this was only my second cruise, but the Glory is a great ship and the crew was incredible.

 

 

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jpm1973

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Loving your review so far!! We are leaving on the Glory May 30, 2015 for my little brother's senior trip. We can't wait!

 

 

Thanks for reading! I'm sure you'll have a great time on the Glory - great ship with a fantastic crew.

 

 

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jpm1973

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Day 2 – Half Moon Cay

 

Since we had a cabana rented for the day at Half Moon Cay, we were able to get on the first tender from the ship and were told to meet in the Amber Palace theater by 9:15 a.m. Since it would be an early start, we opted to order room service breakfast the night before and it arrived right on time at 8:30. I had been watching the weather forecast for the past few days and knew it was supposed to be windy at Half Moon Cay today, but all signs pointed to mostly sunny skies. When I looked out once we had arrived it didn’t look even close to mostly sunny, but not terrible either.

 

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Oh well, we were hopeful that the skies would clear up as the day went on. We finished getting ready, packing our bag, and eating our breakfast and then made our way to the Amber Palace on deck three to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Eventually a little after 10 a.m. they announced that the first tender with equipment and crew had made it to the island and we would be next. The first tenders arrive:

 

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We were escorted downstairs and were on board the tender very quickly. The water was definitely a bit rough and the winds were high; considering there was no sun to be seen it felt a bit cool to everyone. My poor mom and her issues with cold was bundled up like we were going skiing and not to an island in the Bahamas. But we were still optimistic! On our way:

 

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And then the rain came. Made for a, um, refreshing ride to the island for sure! It thankfully stopped not long before we arrived, only to come down even harder once we stepped off the tender. Here are some shots I got from the tender to the island.

 

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We made it!

 

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Edited by jpm1973
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jpm1973

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Did you happen to take any pictures of the Alchemy bartenders? We had a Brian on Liberty last year and really enjoyed watching him make drinks. Hope it's the same guy!

 

I think it may be the same bartender; he mentioned being on the Liberty in the past. Here he is...I have a better picture somewhere but this is what I found right away.

 

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