Carnival Glory April 18-25- Review including lots of pictures!

[Jenny in TX]

We were on this sailing also and had such a wonderful time. Beautiful weather the entire time and the seas were so calm!

 

We also stayed at the Holiday Inn at the port. I totally agree with you, it was very expensive because of the convenience but it is not one of the nicer, new Holiday Inns. We had wonderful service but it could use with a some renovations. We ate breakfast downstairs at the restaurant the next morning and the food was very good and reasonably priced.

 

We went to the CVS on Friday night to grab some bottles of water and it was very overpriced. I'm sure its because of the location. We paid $1.77 for a bottle of water.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[Elaine515]

Did the Glory have the new Social Media Package yet for $5 per day or $25 for the week allowing you to have limited access to things like facebook etc ? Thanks

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

Did the Glory have the new Social Media Package yet for $5 per day or $25 for the week allowing you to have limited access to things like facebook etc ? Thanks

 

I'm not sure about that. However, the internet is terrible. I went to the Internet cafe to check in for my flight and it ended up costing me $20 because it was so slow and it kept timing out half way through and I had to start over 3 times. It seemed as though everyone in the room was having problems.

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

We are doing the same cruise in August, really looking forward to your pictures and comments!

 

Oh good. I have lots of pictures! About 1000 I think! I also have tons of food pictures. We took pictures of everything we ate.

 

I'm going to do some more tonight. I had to go back to work today which always sucks after a vacation:(

[pirate4me2]

Following along! We are doing this itinerary next October on the Glory.

Thanks for taking the time to put a review together.

[Jenny in TX]

Did the Glory have the new Social Media Package yet for $5 per day or $25 for the week allowing you to have limited access to things like facebook etc ? Thanks

 

No they did not. You had to pay by the minute.

[CruiseDaddyVT]

Did the Glory have the new Social Media Package yet for $5 per day or $25 for the week allowing you to have limited access to things like facebook etc ? Thanks

 

We just did the b2b on the Glory and it did NOT have the internet pkg. And it was soooooooo sloooooow.

[arubanut]

Looking forward to seeing lots of pictures!

Going on the Glory 4th of July.

 

Thanks for posting!

[nybumpkin]

Yes, they always do if they are getting married in Miami (or any home port). They usually have the reception right after and still have to attend muster drill. The people not going on the cruise also have to get off before departure.

Some years ago when on one of our Glory cruises (NYC-Canada) the same staff checking in VIFP staff also were in charge to checking in the wedding parties and guests. End result was it would have been faster for us to stand in line with non-VIFP guests.:(

 

A few years ago we watched a bride go to muster drill wearing her gown. we applauded the happy couple.:)

[dwillett]

want all the great places on carnival glory we are taking a western caribean cruise belize grand cayman cozamel roton honduras all the best places to visit and great excursions

[Beverley792]

We are going on this itinerary on the Glory this Saturday. Can't wait!

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

So we settled down for lunch in The Red Sail Dining Room, which is the name of the lido buffet restaurant on the Carnival Glory.

 

My 13 year old eats a lot but the variety of things that he eats is very limited. He is a meat and potatoes man for the most part. Every night in the dining room he had steak and potatoes! More on that later though.

 

On this first day, they actually had chicken fingers (which I never saw again all week). So that is what he came back with. He said the line for Guys burgers was too long. However, he did eventually go with his dad and they had their first of many Guys Burgers. They had to settle for the

Plain Janes as they didn't have any other kind cooking yet I guess.

 

I found some things that were ok. I know this isn't what people looking forward to their Carnival Cruise want to hear but I did find the quality and variety of food on the lido buffet not quite what it was on my last cruise 4 years ago. Especially the selection of desserts. Sorry. I don't want to be a buzzkill but I have to give my honest opinion. Food is very important to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

I did eat a few of these while on the cruise. They are delicious! I have nothing bad to say about them! Pig Patty was my favorite. And the toppings bar is awesome. I love the fried mushrooms and bacon that you can add to your burger. They even had little hickory stick like things. And the fries were really good too. Also, you can just get fries if you want to. I never had to wait in line either. There was never more than a couple people in line.

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

After we finished lunch, we headed down to our deck to see if our cabins were ready and they were. So we were able to finally unload our carry ons, water and pop. We had two cabins side by side on deck 7. When I booked these rooms last June I asked for two rooms that could have the balcony opened up. My PVP had told me that we would have to request it be opened when we got on board. It would not be done ahead of time. We found our room steward in the hall and introduced ourselves. His name was Wayan. Our room steward on our first cruise was also named Wayan. Anyways, he was very nice. We knew he was busy and would open the balcony when he had a chance. He came and did it well before sail away which was really nice of him.

 

Having the balcony opened was awesome. It meant we had a long balcony with 4 chairs and two tables. It was almost like having connecting rooms as you could walk back and forth between rooms without having to make sure you had a key to get back in your own room.

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

Our cabin was pretty much identical to our ocean view on the Freedom, except that it had a balcony of course. And our cabin on the Glory had a fridge full of goodies which we did not touch (you have to pay for those). We had asked Wayan to remove them. He cleaned out my mom's fridge but he never did ours and I didn't bother him about it. There was room for our stuff. He doesn't actually remove the items from the room. He can't. He just put them in one of the cupboards.

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

Sail away was supposed to be 4pm. We planned to have cocktails on our private balcony for the sail away. However, they didn't start making announcements about the muster drill about 330 or later and I'm sure it was almost 4 when we finally went down for the drill.

 

After the muster drill they announced that there were some "loose ends" and we would not be leaving for a while. We didn't mind. We just relaxed and enjoyed the port of Miami sites from our balcony.

 

The Carnival Victory was next to us and left before us. As it was getting reading to pull out into the channel some foolish people in a little boat headed out there! The cop boat came flying down with sirens blaring and we could hear them yelling at the people on their megaphone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TTU cruiser]

signing on for this one. I will be on the Glory in June, Western Caribbean though.

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

I'm not sure of the exact time we finally started moving but I know we missed seeing South Beach as we had early seating at 6. At 5:55, my mother was still on the balcony videoing when we pryed her away for dinner. I did not want to be late as I had read a post on here about how it really screws up the dinner service if you are late. Unfortunately, our table mates were late every night. (like 15 minutes late) It was their first cruise so I guess they probably didn't know any better.

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

I emailed the maitre d about a week before our cruise to request that we be seated at a large table with other cruisers and by a window if possible. Both of these requests were honored. We were seated with another Canadian family with children. And we had a window seat. Now the Glory and the Freedom are very similar in layout and we were seated at the exact same table location as our first cruise! Very strange. I have a picture of our table and our waiter that I will post later as they were taken on formal night and I want to keep things in order.

 

We were in the Platinum Dining Room.

 

Our head waiter was Jovito. He was wonderful. Very friendly and provided excellent service every night. He liked to talk and we enjoyed listening to him. Our other waiters were Ronald and I Made. They were also very good.

 

This first night I had some kind of honey garlic or honey glazed pork with carrot puree. It was very good. I had a Cesar salad and a shrimp cocktail for an appetizer. On the American Table, there are starters, entrees, sides, port specials and rare finds.

 

Some of the other foods that my family had included a calzone, macaroni and cheese with bacon, salmon and sausage stuffed chicken. My mom had the strawberry bisque which she said was very good.

 

My 13 year old meat and potatoes man ordered 2 flat iron steaks, which would become his staple for the rest of the week.

 

For dessert some had apple pie, some had chocolate melting cake and my meat and potatoes man had icecream. He loves icecream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

We went to big screen trivia. The theme was cartoon characters. My kids really enjoyed it.

 

After trivia, they held something called Family Face off. It is Family Feud but they can't call it that I guess. It was put on by Gentry and Cash Kiley (I think that is what she was called, correct me if I'm wrong fellow cruisers). They picked random people from the audience to be part of their families. One of the ladies they chose refused to come up on stage! They let her away with it but said that would be they only time. My husband ended up being chosen. This would not really be his thing but he went up and ended up having fun and winning what they jokingly refer to as a"24 karat gold hand painted plastic ship on a stick." He also got to keep the sombrero that each of his teammates had to wear.

[Anthomaniac]

 

The problem with this Holiday Inn and this area is there was no where to eat breakfast unless you wanted to take a cab or eat a very overpriced breakfast in the hotel. Nothing at Bayside Market opens until 10. So we ended up walking back down to CVS the next morning and buying some cereal and milk.

 

 

 

There is a very delicious French bistro only a few blocks away, we have eaten there for breakfast the past two times we have stayed downtown (once at the holiday inn, once at the intercontinental). I would highly recommend it next time you are staying downtown. I know there are a few others in the area too, sorry you guys missed out.

[genewalleyn]

Just reading your posts......been a few years since the Glory last time....

 

 

 

Previous cruises....

 

Carnival.....Mardi Gras-1975

Festivale -1978

Holiday X2

Fascination X2

Conquest

Glory X2

Sunshine

Freedom

Miracle

Dream X2

Valor X2 Oct/15

Vista X2 Oct/16

 

Hapag Lloyd.....Europa X2

Bremen

 

Home Lines......Homeric

Oceanic

 

Princes Cruises....Sun Princess

 

Chandris .......Amerikanis

 

Holland American.....Volendam

 

Paquette Lines.......Mermoz

 

Polish Lines.....Stefan Battory

 

Italian Lines......Leonardo Da Vinci

 

Hawaiian Cruises.....Constitution

 

Norwegian Lines......Norway

 

French Lines......France

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

Our first stop was Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. It is a tendered port. We were scheduled to dock at 9am. The tender desk opened at 830. If you didn't have an excursion or any other special privileges you had to go collect tickets for the tender boat. We got #4 tickets. It did not take long to get called. The tender boats are quite large and they pack a lot of people onto them. I believe we were on the beach before 10am.

 

As soon as we arrived we rented two clam shells for $25/each. You really need these. It is very hot and there is not really anywhere to get shade unless you leave the beach.

 

Half Moon Cay is absolutely amazing! The sand is like powder and the water looks like a swimming pool. The water was warm and calm. There was a slight breeze that day which made it even better as it was very very hot.

 

This was definitely our favorite port.

 

 

 

 

 

[Alliwanttodoiscruise]

A barbecue lunch is provided by Carnival on Half Moon Cay. It was served between 1130-130. It was pretty good. They had various salads, fruits, hot dogs, hamburgers, jerk chicken, cookies and some delicious brownies.