Glory - 4/25/15 - If you write a review and nobody reads it...

[Sturmin]

Looking at sailing on the Glory in Nov, but Eastern Carribean instead of Western. Waiting for the rest of your review.

Loved the Star in 2006, but I see they moved the main lounge from the upper deck and put in more rooms. Liked sitting up there watching inside passage go by when not outside.

[Chakuna]

Come on!....where is the review!?!?!?

[cmcsharon]

Part 1 – Planning the Trip (Pirate Signs, Flipping Itineraries, and…Oh, the places you’ll go.)

 

As we learned in my last cruise review…I am the one with the least amount of cruising time…so, naturally, that makes me the one in charge of planning everything……? It was only recently that my sign and sail card turned gold. Which, based on recent announcements, I believe elevates me to the red-headed stepchild status within the Carnival Loyalty program. (Please…no taking offense to that last comment…in all honesty, I have no problem with the changes that were announced within the program…and…my daughter’s red hair is beautiful.)

 

I completely understand the need for large companies to make changes to remain competitive. This was our second time on the Glory…the first time was before the 2.0 upgrades. I will gladly forgo chocolates on my pillow in the evenings and a crowded past guest party to be able to enjoy Chicken Tacos from the Blue Iguana Cantina…with corn and black bean relish and salsa with chopped up watermelon and jicama….pardon me, I’m drooling on my keyboard.

 

As long as I get to cruise on those beautiful ships…I’d be okay if Carnival sent me a pre-board notice that said to bring a sleeping bag and a side dish…because dinner the first night is potluck!

 

Since we had just been on a Western itinerary on the Magic, I sent the minions some options for planning this cruise…those options were an 8 day Southern in September on the Breeze and a 7 day Eastern, also in September, which I think was on the Dream. (I really liked that Cove Balcony on the Magic...so I was focusing on the Dream class of ships.) And then my son told me about something he read on a cruise review and it would be a dream come true if we could do it. So…I set out to find an itinerary with that particular port and found this April 25th cruise on the Glory. I quickly sent this one out to the minions to consider as well…and…told them about the 5 minute adventure we’d do if we did this itinerary. Before everyone even had a chance to respond…minions were booking it! This was the one…everyone wanted that 5 minute adventure…and, I hadn’t even told my husband we were planning another cruise yet. Oops.

 

You’re probably wondering what this 5 minute adventure is…well…I’m not telling you yet. It’s at a port that is often missed so this could still be a complete bust. But…I will say, most of our group are not Ziplining people (fear of heights) or cavetubing people (fear of bats in dark places) or Indiana Jones types of adventures people (fear of snakes, rats and indigenous tribal people with sharp pointy sticks). The highlights from our last cruise were interacting with the stingrays at Stingray City and swimming with Manatees in Cozumel. (Neither of those ports are the one I’m worried about getting to this time…so, that leaves you with Belize and Roatan to speculate on.)

 

The itinerary was set…Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and then Grand Cayman…and, the cabins were booked. All that was left was the waiting. Ugh…the waiting. I’m not good at waiting. So….I occupied some time by doing lots of research and then randomly sharing it with the minions in what I would call…Cruise News. It would include things like: new stuff on the ship since we were last on it, excursion plans for the kids and I, Miami plans, hotel info, airfare prices, etc. After staying up late one night to finish writing up and sending out info on how many ships and people will be at every one of the ports, and including our plans for excursions each day…imagine my surprise when I check my email that next morning and one of the minions asks…would you please do that all over again with the correct itinerary!

 

Excuse me? Is she on crack? I wouldn’t normally jump to conclusions about her using illegal substances…as there’s no evidence she ever has…but…that was a lot of work. Clearly, she’s mistaken!

 

I quickly text her saying I don’t understand and she forwards an email from Carnival that all the minions received that morning…except me…saying something about due to safety reasons in Grand Cayman (too many ships in port)…Carnival is REVERSING our itinerary! WHAT???? Remember that 5 minute adventure (you know, the ENTIRE reason we are even going on this itinerary?!!)…I had booked it with the private vendor (the ONLY vendor!) moments after booking our cruise…for all 12 of us…when we were scheduled to be the ONLY ship in port. And now…there are going to be several more ships in that small port on our new day…what if it’s already booked??!!

 

I quickly email the tour guide and explain the situation and ask for the new date. And, I wait. You know me and and waiting…yeah, it’s not good. I’m in California on Pacific Time, the tour guide is on a small Caribbean island operating on something referred to as ‘island time’ so…I get to wait some more. About a day later I get a response and he assures me all will be fine. Whew! I quickly stop tearing up my large Carnival brochure into tiny pieces that I was planning on burning in effigy (it was the 2014 version anyway).

 

The other bad part about a reversal of an itinerary is that most of the Carnival excursions are no longer available to pre-book. There were a couple that I was planning on booking but they never did show up under the new dates. I emailed the shore excursion desk asking about them and they explained that they’ll be available to be booked on the ship. I would’ve liked to have done it ahead of time…but…I will take them at their word and book them on the ship. And, I still had my effigy pile to burn later if need be.

 

Another thing I decided to do while waiting for our cruise to get here…was to make door décor for all our cabins. You see, I’m not just known for writing cruise reviews with excessively large amounts of words in them…I’m also known for playing with paper and glue. So, I put together some Pirate Signs and banners for our cabin doors.

 

Here’s the banner and sign that was on my door and a couple other minion’s doors.

 

 

We also have a minion that has a slight obsession with pandas. And, when I say slight I mean bordering on insanity. We could probably have her institutionalized because of it…instead, we enable. So, I also made a few banners with Panda Pirates and Panda Mermaids for some of the other minions as seen on her cabin door below.

 

 

And, since I still had time to kill waiting for this cruise to get here…I got some cups from the dollar store and decorated those too. It was fun to have these little gifts to give to the minions at our first dinner on the ship…it was a small price to pay for the fact that I will be exploiting them mercilessly in my cruise review!

 

 

 

Next up…Part 2 – Miami Bound (Is there an App for flying a plane, Hotel Conventions and…theres Boobs and Butts everywhere)

[undercat]

Subscribed! I read your Magic review earlier this week when I was supposed to be studying. I love your writing style and you provided just the entertainment that I needed! Looking forward to more!

[S.C.]

I'm in :)

[jhnsnfamily]

Love your writing style! You are informative AND entertaining! I'm in![emoji4]

[Willeve]

Will be on the Glory in August, following your review!

[najnelle]

You are back!!!! I am so happy! Loved your last review!

 

We will be going on the Glory on this itinerary in September. It will be great to hear your take on it.

 

Your door decorations are amazing! I'm working on my door decor now.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the journey.

[Seany527]

Great start! [emoji2]

[SenatorsFan]

I love your door decorations and salute your talent. :)

Heather

[pooksma]

You are very creative! Joining in 'cause I don't want to miss the excitement.

[vdarrell]

More more I need More :)

[hfj17002]

Lol, your reviews are awesome.

[Kfoot]

You're off to a great start. Everyone's talking about your Magic review, so now I have to go read it while waiting on this one

[Kfoot]

Just spend the past 4hrs reading your Magic adventure review. It was hilarious. Great review.

[cmcsharon]

Just spend the past 4hrs reading your Magic adventure review. It was hilarious. Great review.

 

FOUR HOURS??!! WOW!!! I'm so sorry!!

 

Wish I could say that's not going to happen with this one...but...I make no promises! :D

[cmcsharon]

Part 2 – Miami Bound (Is there an App for flying a plane, Hotel Conventions and…its Boobs and Butts everywhere)

 

So its two days before we leave now…one group of minions went to Florida early to spend some time before the cruise. They stayed a couple of nights in the Florida Keys and they left the Keys this morning and are headed to Miami for a 2 night stay in South Beach.

 

I’m at work. In my real life, I’m a project manager…I manage multi-million dollar technology projects. I’m surrounded by people (let’s face it, they’re geeks) that speak a language all their own…tech-speak…at high speed. When conversing with them…the words that often come out of my mouth are…now, dumb it down for me!

 

My project has a critical implementation phase coming up and I’ve pulled everyone together for a meeting. We are sardined in a conference room because I need everyone that’s impacted by this next phase to get the same message at the same time. I’ve got notes and diagrams on the table in front of me and I’ve placed my cell phone on top of them. I’m close to finishing the meeting and am in mid-sentence when my phone starts to vibrate and up on the screen pops a text message that simply says…………there’s boobs and butts everywhere.

 

The minions had arrived in South Beach.

 

I can feel my face turning redder and redder each passing second as I’m sitting there with my mouth still hanging open having not finished my sentence. I very carefully peek over to my left where the technical manager sits next to me as I’m silently cursing Samsung for the amazing screen resolution on their new Galaxy phones…only to see him staring straight ahead with eyes as big as saucers. Uh…yep…he saw it. I then sneak a peek to my right where the business manager sits…he’s barely containing himself…and…my little peek sends him over the edge. He starts laughing hysterically and I can’t help but join in. Even the technical manager, who is always the utmost professional, can’t help but start laughing. I quickly explain to everyone that these two have just been subjected to a slightly inappropriate message from my cohorts that went ahead of us to Miami…and…since I don’t want to start my vacation under the threat of a sexual harassment situation…I tell them to see those two if they want further details and very quickly end the meeting! …boobs and butts……smh

 

The last two days go quickly and it’s finally time to start this vacation. I’m excited for the vacation part of it…but…the travel day is never fun. There aren’t a lot of options for traveling from Sacramento to Miami. You either take a red-eye or you leave at zero dark thirty…suffering through numerous stops before finally reaching the East Coast. The kids and I are on American Airlines, leaving at 5:40am, and will have one stop in Dallas before arriving at Miami’s airport at 4:00pm. Another set of minions is leaving around the same time only they’re flying Southwest and have 2 different stops to make before arriving at the Fort Lauderdale airport at 6:00pm, to meet their shuttle and then get driven to the hotel we’re all staying at, the Intercontinental in downtown Miami.

 

Grandma minion usually goes with the other minions on the travel days but she liked our flight details better because there’s less stops, we arrive earlier, and we fly in to Miami…so, she’s coming with us. We leave our house at 3:15am to get to my Mom’s house (Grandma minion) by 3:30am. My husband is driving and we all load up in his truck for the hour long drive to the airport. He drops us off, we say our goodbyes and it’s into the airport we go. We’re on vacation!!!

 

It’s 4:30am now and there wasn’t a lot of activity outside the airport…but, when we step inside we quickly see the line for checking in. It goes on forever. We trudge our way to the back of the line and then my son notices that the line is filled with what appears to be a large regiment of military personnel. And then he points out that they all have rifle cases to check. Ugh! He notices this because my husband is in law enforcement and we’ve had to travel with him before when he’s had to check guns through the agents…and, it’s a process. It’s a long process. And…that’s a lot of guns between us and those agents.

 

After about 10 minutes in line one of the agents steps up and yells to the line that if we aren’t with the military, please go to the kiosks first to get the check in started…so…I leave the family in line and quickly jump to the kiosk. Whoohoo…this is much faster…I tell it how many bags we’re checking in, verify our seats and then click the button for it to start printing boarding passes. And…it’s no longer fast. The printing is sloooooooooow. Before the first boarding pass has printed I can hear an agent calling our last name to bring up our luggage….yikes! I’ve got 8 boarding passes to print…4 for the first flight and 4 for the connection. My mom and the kids drag all the bags up as I impatiently wait for the printing to finish. And I wait and wait. As soon as it finishes I run up to the agent show my ID and we are on our way. Next is security.

 

The security line is moving fast and in no time it’s our turn to lift our arms and radiate our jiggly fat molecules. The kids go before me, then it’s my turn and then my mom is after me. As I’m walking towards the conveyor belt to pick up my scanned carry on a group of TSA agents swarms past me and I look back to horrifyingly see the female agent in the front take her hand and start repeatedly slapping my mom, MY 76 YEAR OLD MOM, on her chest. And, the first thing that pops in my mind is that I don’t think you perform CPR on people who are upright and walking! The agent finally stops beating up my mom as I hurry back over to her and my Mom looks at me and says…I forgot I have my fitbit clipped to my bra.

 

OMG…my mom’s being beaten up by a TSA agent because of a tiny fitbit (which is a small pedometer that tracks your steps, if you’re not familiar with them. It’s a cruise ritual for us…we all have them and are very competitive as we try to outstep each other.).

 

TSA continues to give her the terrorist treatment until she finally gets the tiny fitbit unclipped from her bra and they run it back through the screener. The funny part is…as we were walking up to security she was pointing out the sign and bragging about how since she’s over 75 years old now she doesn’t have to take off her shoe’s anymore. I’ll take taking off my shoes over being beaten by a TSA agent any day Mom! And, because of this little adventure we decide to rename Grandma minion to Terrorist minion! It suits her!

 

Next up…Part 2 continues – Miami Bound (Is there an App for flying a plane, Hotel Conventions and…its Boobs and Butts everywhere)

[mabones]

Poor Mom!

[Working 2 cruise again]

I hope she had a great sense of humor about that. I would have been a little pissed as it was happening, but it is a great story in the end. Those TSA agents get a little uppity. :D:D

[threetocruise]

This is an awesome review! And I'm not just saying that because your name is Sharon or because you have a diabetic cat (which practically makes us twins). It is just prepping me for my Glory trip in 12 days! Can't wait for the rest!

[Avril]

Great review so far, can't wait to read more (and maybe see a few pics)!! :D I loved the Glory when I sailed on her a couple of years ago. I don't mind long/detailed/funny reviews, they help keep me sane while I'm waiting for my next cruise!! :D

[zabnee]

Over 200 days and counting before we head to this itinerary, so I'm glad I found your review to help pass the time! Loving it already!

[cmcsharon]

Part 2 continues – Miami Bound (Is there an App for flying a plane, Hotel Conventions and…its Boobs and Butts everywhere)

 

For those wondering, Terrorist Minion has a great sense of humor and took the TSA assault in stride…it also could have been because it was 4:45am and we were barely awake. As soon as TSA deemed her fitbit wouldn’t take down the plane, we shuffled our way to the gate. Has anyone else noticed that the 4:00am hour at the airport looks surprisingly like a zombie movie…the kind with the slow, shuffling zombies (which is the kind of zombie I would prefer in a zombie apocalypse).

 

Once we arrive at the gate we’re quickly on board and on our way. We have a 3 hour flight to Dallas and then an hour to wait before boarding the next plane for a 3 hour flight to Miami…arriving in Miami at 4:00pm. The first 2.5 hours on the flight are uneventful and then the pilot comes on to tell us there’s a storm over Dallas and we’re in a holding pattern. The holding pattern lasts for about 20 minutes before we finally get to land in Dallas. Luckily, the gate we pull in to is right next to our new gate. We get off the first plane and they’re already boarding our next plane…so, on we go. The plan was to get breakfast in Dallas but it looks like we’ll be fighting over the two granola bars I have in my bag…but that’s okay…because in 3 hours we’ll be in Miami!

 

Or…not.

 

We board the next plane, it pulls away from the gate and heads towards the runway…and then we stop. After a few minutes the pilot comes on to say they’re having a software glitch and we have to return to the gate for the technicians to take a look at it. It should only be for a few minutes. (Which is pilot speak for we really have no idea how long this is going to take and we are not letting you off the plane.)

 

After sitting on the plane…at the gate…for THREE HOURS…the pilot finally comes on and says the problem has been fixed. But…because we’ve been sitting on the plane for over 3 hours now, they legally have to give us the option to get off. People had been asking if they could just get off to go get some food and get back on…and the pilot was now making it very clear that yes, we can get off…but, the plane is leaving now and it will be leaving without you. So…everyone stays on and off we go. My daughter had been a little concerned about the ‘software glitch’ and whether we were really safe…so, I pointed out the people in the row ahead of us. Five off duty American Airlines attendants were seated right in front of us…I told her they would’ve been the first ones off if they thought it wasn’t safe.

 

Later in Miami we would hear on the news about the delays and cancellations of some American Airlines flights because of an iPad issue. I think we were at the beginning of that issue…and, had I known, I would’ve offered up my Android tablet to the pilots. At least our flight wasn’t cancelled…and…we were all given a free granola bar for our trouble.

 

As soon as we touched down in Miami I texted the minions to let them know. We had planned to meet at 5:00pm for an early dinner…but, we were way past that. One of the minions responded that they are pulling up to the airport right now to return their rental car and will meet us at the baggage claim and we’ll share a taxi van to the hotel. The other set of minions texted that they’ve landed at Fort Lauderdale and are about to get in the shuttle for the drive to the hotel.

 

It was as we were waiting for our bags that the text messages from that third group of minions started to escalate. Text #1…this shuttle driver is crazy.

 

Ten minutes later we’re in our taxi van and get Text #2…OMG…this is INSANE!!!

 

As we are pulling up to the hotel we get Text #3…PRAY FOR US!!!!!!

 

Within minutes after that last text a blue shuttle van pulls up behind us at the hotel and out stumbled those minions. They made it to the hotel from the Fort Lauderdale airport in just barely over the time it took us to get there from the Miami airport…oh my! I didn’t look to see if they kissed the ground when they got out because I was already headed to check in.

 

I booked the rooms at the Intercontinental through Last Minute Travel (the club). I’ve been using LMT for 5 years now and have never had a problem. I originally booked us rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott for a great deal…but, I kept watching and eventually the Intercontinental showed up at just $20 more than the Courtyard so I cancelled the Courtyard (no penalties for doing it) and rebooked with the Intercontinental. It was all very easy through Last Minute Travel and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.

 

Guest services at the Intercontinental is always wonderful. As soon as I stepped up they asked how my day was going and I explained it’s been a challenge to get there but we are here now and have birthdays to go celebrate. My sister, who had already checked in was celebrating her birthday that day and my Mom’s birthday was the next day. The guest services person said he was going to hook us up to make up for the challenges of getting there and gave us some great rooms with a view of the port. One was on the top floor (34th floor) so I gave that one to my Mom, since she’d never stayed at that hotel before and it would be an amazing view to wake up to on her birthday, and the kids and I took the room on the 24th floor (turns out, our room was nicer…sorry Mom! Her room was VERY NICE…but, ours was a little nicer).

 

We took our stuff up to the rooms and planned to all meet up 15 minutes later at 7:30pm in the lobby to walk over to Bayside Marketplace for dinner. Once we got to Bayside we decided to split up and go our separate ways since everyone wanted different things for dinner. The kids and I went to Bubba Gump for dinner, one set of minions ended up taking a cab over to Garcia’s, a seafood restaurant on the river, for dinner which was recommended by the hotel (and they LOVED it). The other minions were going to look around at Bayside and find something to eat and I never did hear where they went. Our dinner at Bubba Gump was wonderful and we finished it off by splitting an amazing Strawberry Shortcake dessert! It was sooooo good!

 

The plan for the morning was to meet up at the ship. Since most of us had FTTF we were going to check out and get cabs around 10:30am and head for the ship.

 

After dinner the kids and I did some shopping at Bayside and headed back to the hotel a little after 10:00pm. It had been a long day.

 

The minion who’s birthday was that day came to Florida earlier in the week…this is what they did that morning to celebrate the day…

 

 

She and Augustus Gloop minion went up in a biplane!

 

Here’s the view of the Intercontinental Hotel as we walked to Bayside.

 

 

When we were in our rooms we were noticing a boat anchored just below the hotel. It was deceptively small from the 34th floor window. But, here it is at ground level, with a minion. It’s huge! It’s owned by one of the hotels nearby and is used as an additional conference space.

 

 

Speaking of conferences…in the morning I get a text from the minions around 7:30am saying they’re going for coffee and asking if we want to join them. I’m still on California time so my body is saying it’s 4:30am…and, I don’t drink coffee…so I ignore them. But, I drag myself out of bed anyway and get ready to face the day. The kids don’t move. Around 8:45am I head to the elevators to go down to Starbucks in the lobby to get some smoothies, tea and food so that I can coax the kids out of bed. As I reach the elevator bank, in my blurry-eyed it’s 5:45am state…I’m greeted by 3 very shiny happy people who gleefully ask…are you with Blah blah blah Medical?!! Uh…..no. Oh! We’re having a convention here and it seems like we’ve filled the entire hotel. And, that’s when I hear the elevators…completely filled with happy, laughing people…as they whoosh right on by our floor not even stopping. I look at the time on my phone and ask if they have something scheduled at 9:00am and they respond that they do…so, I head back to my room to wait for them to clear out of the elevators. At 9:05 I try again and the elevators…and Starbucks…are empty!

 

Next up…Part 3 – A Cruising We Will Go (Hot tub time machine, Guy’s vegetarian option, and…you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.)

[UKJJ]

This is one of the best reviews I've read. Extremely entertaining. Keep it coming!

[carnivaladdix120]

Awesome review!! Keep it coming!:)