Easter Glory! A detailed pictorial review of the refurbished Carnival Glory 4/15-4/22

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 20, 2017

I'm joyfully cruising with a broken ankle, a little noise won't ruin it for me! I do think we are in the same area tho and my husband is a light sleeper. Thank you for the tip!

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Wow, hope you are all healed up quickly. The noise is an issue if you want to make it into one, again I could deal with it but my sister made a huge deal about it all week and tried her best to make us all miserable along with her because of it, lol. I had stayed in an interior on deck 4 I believe, right near the club on the Glory back in 2013, and the noise again was loud in there at night, almost pulsating through the walls. Perhaps it is something with how this ship was built or maybe it was just me being unlucky with cabin location on this ship but it seems the walls are very thin all throughout the cabin areas at least. But I do caution that if you are tendering to HMC, and you have issues with mobility, make sure they let you go to the front of the boat on the first deck, as they get off the ship first in port and top, near the captain's bridge on the way back to get off quickly. My mom sort of got stuck in the shuffle and ended up getting off last both going to and from the island because she has a walker and moves rather slowly. Enjoy your cruise, other than the few issues I have mentioned, it is actually a pretty good ship and itinerary. Thanks for reading along!

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 20, 2017

Hello again everyone! It is finally summer in the city (well spring that turned into a pre-season heat wave overnight) and that makes it a great time to talk some more about this cruise that I took Easter week. Wish I could update this more often but I am just crazy busy or tired from being busy when I do have some free time, but I am slowly making progress. I had left off with our eventful Easter Sunday on Half Moon Cay and that night's activities, our next day would be a slower paced day at sea.

A few things I have forgotten to discuss so far in this review. Many people ask about the bottomless bubbles program and is it worth it. I think it is as it is always the first thing I sign up for on a cruise when I board (if I don't get the Cheers program when I am sailing with my friends who like to drink), so yes I believe it is worth it. I will not lie, I drink a lot of soda. I drink more when on a cruise than when at home though, and if you drink more than about 3 a day, it is worth it to get the program. I asked our traveling party if we should bring on our 48-can allowance (1 12-pack cans per pax in your carry on) and since they don't really drink that much soda, it might have been enough for all of us but we decided that traveling in day-of cruise would make trying to lug 4 heavy cases of cans all the way from NJ logistically tough. So I just went ahead and bought the package. Yes, it is over $50 for the week and I can get 4 cases of soda for $10 on sale at Acme but I don't mind splurging for that one thing as paying $2.50 each or whatever with autotip is just not my idea of fun. LOL. Besides, I think I had some non-refundable promotional credits (whatever they are, I see them on my folio quite often when on Carnival and do not totally understand how I get them but whatever) and that generally covers most of the purchase. I figure by buying the package it is peace of mind in that I do not have to worry about how many cans of soda are left from my carry-on allowance during the week and can get a drink at any bar on the ship, anytime. I drink more than enough to cover the cost. If you do not drink a ton of soda, maybe avoiding the package is a good idea. Just know you have to pay taxes on each purchased in Miami and San Juan as each are in US waters while docked and close to land.

Also, you can see in my menu pictures that there are always a few items on the menu that feature an upcharge. Surf and turf, filet mignon, etc. It is a $20 upcharge but the food is supposed to be steakhouse quality, served to you in the mdr. Now, I never have bought anything from this menu but I was once at an 8-top where the guy seated next to me got the filet and said while it was good, not worth the charge when you can go to the steakhouse and get the entire experience for just $15 more. I agree with this. I don't get paying more in the regular dining room when there is more than enough good food for no additional charge to choose from. Note, we did go to the steakhouse later in the cruise and I will be talking a lot about that experience when the time comes.

Also, I have noticed that although Carnival has changed its ways a little by nickel and diming people more, the prices on the drinks really have not gone up that much. I can still get most mixed drinks for under $10 (before tip) and beer for the $5-6 range. Buckets are a decent deal, like $25 for 4. Compare to Royal, which charges like $11-13 for the same mixed drink and a little more for beer than Carnival. So I cannot really complain about drink prices on Carnival, at least not at this time. I did get a few drinks of the day during the cruise as well and they can still be had for $7.95 plus tip apiece and are usually pretty good and strong. Anyway.....

So, with those thoughts out of the way, here we go with the next part of the cruise. Enjoy!

DAY 3: SEA DAY #1

This being a sea day combined with the shenanigans of the night before meant everyone woke up fairly late (for a cruise) on this day. I woke up to very rough seas sometime around 1000 and we actually did hear the captain make an announcement concerning and update about the rough seas and weather that we were experiencing. It wasn't anything too crazy for me but again, it did give my sister some issues today. It was announced early in the day that lido deck activities such as the men's hairy chest contest would be postponed due to the weather today and the evening's scheduled production show was going to be cancelled and replaced by a show that would not put the performers in danger of injury due to the rough seas.

Nasty day today

We all went to the first seaday brunch in the same dining room that we had dinner in at night and it was not too terribly crowded at 1030 in the morning. Guess lots of late sleepers or those too lazy to go get a nice meal in the dining room. Either way, more room for us. I got a ham and bacon omelet with a side of hash browns (which are really just round tater tots), my sister got steak and eggs and liked hers (it is better than you would expect actually). I forget what my mom or K got but I am sure it was good, lol. I found out that you can use your VIFP platinum free seaday brunch drink coupon on the first or second seaday brunch, so we both elected to use ours on this day. I got my usual frozen margarita and my mom got a bloody mary and both were pretty good. The bar server was kind of (well really) hot too, I did see her at other events throughout the cruise, LOL.

Got a menu, this was one side. There is more on the other side. It is a brunch, so you can get breakfast food or lunch food or a combination of the two. Seaday brunch is actually done pretty nicely on Carnival.

Anyway, the rocking of the ship soon became too much to deal with for T and she headed back to the cabin to go to sleep and K wanted to go to Camp Ocean, so I figured I would take her up there and drop her off because her mom was feeling too lousy to make the trip. Camp Ocean is located right next to Serenity, up on like deck 12 forward, and when you drop off someone in the party, the counselor has you do a little oral questionnaire like supplying allergy info, stating what relationship you are to them, do you want them to be allowed to sign themselves out, etc. I explained that I am her uncle and that we are traveling together and her mom was too sick to make the trip to drop her off, and that was fine. I sent T a chat message to let her know the dropoff was fine and I was headed back around 1130. All 3 of us had the chat feature and it did come in handy many times during the cruise. Nice feature and again, at $5 per person, well worth it. Works just like texting, even gives you a text beep like you would get back on land when someone sends you a message.

The entrance to Camp Ocean, take the elevators or steps all the way to the top deck forward to get here. The gym and spa is not far from here as well.

It was really windy today also, little to no activities outside. The highest decks were closed due to the high winds.

It being a sea day, I couldn't pass up on some Blue Iguana Cantina. Or some of the BBQ that I had not yet tried I do not believe. So, to kill time, I walked around some and got some pictures. Got a random shot of one of the glass elevators as I entered. They go from the promenade to the highest deck I believe and do have a nice view of the atrium. But they are pretty small and do not handle more than like 6 or so comfortably so the wait for one with room on it can be pretty long.

More in just a moment...

Edited May 20, 2017 by FlyingCruiserNJ

Moosevilleco · May 20, 2017

Glad you're back!

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FlyingCruiserNJ · May 20, 2017

DAY 3 - SEA DAY #1 CONTINUED:

The other side of the seaday brunch menu I talked about

My margarita. I am boring and do not change it up much when it comes to this stuff. Margaritas are good anyway. Especially before noon.

Omelet and round tater tots

Back to the rainy day tour of the public decks. This was the lido deck, midship where the hot tubs and pools open to pax of all ages is located. Not many people in the hot tubs or pools today except for some diehard kids who would not let the bad weather ruin their water fun.

Right around noon is when the old fashioned bbq is located, right above the sweet spot part of the main buffet and there is a staircase or elevator to take you up to here. I could have been sure this was another Guy Fieri thing but I was also told by some folks here that it is not. Either way, the experience this time was not great. I had to wait for my pork butt and beans, although there was not a long line, and I do not think the beef was available at this time. I did not want to wait and told them I would be back another day for the chicken and beef and just settled with pork and beans today. They were OK.......but not great. Kind of disappointed. Thought it would be more like the Jimmy's C-side BBQ that they have on the Magic and maybe a few other ships, but it wasn't. Limited selection and the service was not particularly fast. Not bad, just not great.

I will also go ahead and mention here that there is debate about how the sodas are served to you from a bar. Yes, some bartenders will swipe your card, make you fill out a receipt for the 0.00 and give you half a can of Coke on ice in a plastic cup. Others will give you the whole can, opened, or will give you more warm soda in a cup with no ice if you ask. Others will give you the full unopened can, without you even asking and some will not give you an unopened can or a full can at all even if you ask. It is up to the bartender, location, time, how busy it is and possibly the relationship you have built with the bartender throughout the cruise what you get. My experiences were hit and miss but rarely did I have to wait long to get a soda at any bar. Atrium bar was the worst, followed by the casino bar during busy evening times. But I was always served at some point.

Anyway, more to come....

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 20, 2017

DAY 3 - SEA DAY #1 CONTINUED:

One cool thing about the BBQ was that there was a whole plethora of sauces to choose from if you so wanted to add to your food after being served. I figured the seasoning on the meat and sauce with the beans was more than enough but I may have added some BBQ sauce to the pork, cannot remember.

Speaking of one of the instances where I got a full can - yes I did today. Don't remember which bar I got it from though. Bar hours in some locations were odd on this trip, for instance the aft pool bar closed like midnight even though there were tons of people up there getting pizza after the comedy shows nightly. Kind of weird, but I guess they have their reasons for closing.

Lido dining room was rarely crowded to the point where I could not get a seat, I relaxed near the window with food and drink and watched the lousy weather out the window. Clean-up staff is everywhere on lido and if it even looks like you are done with your food, they will come and ask you if they can take your plate. I was done with mine and they came by to take it, so just left me with a soda and a view.

Also, forgot to mention there is a self-service beer machine located aft, near the pool on lido and maybe one in the lido dining room, aft. I never used this feature but maybe someone else has and has an opinion on it. Reminds me of the self-service beer machines they have in Ashburn Alley at the Phillies stadium now, never used them either, but they look similar. I forget if I got any pictures of this machine however.

I passed on Blue Iguana today as the lines were pretty long (I think they are only open until 1430 on sea days and 1530 on port days) and headed back to the cabin around 1330 to take a nap as there was really not much going on around the ship that I was interested in at the time. I passed the promenade, in the atrium and saw some sort of trivia contest going on, I think the winner received a ship on a stick (I will win one someday) as I wandered around some more before napping in the cabin for the afternoon. NOTE, according to my funtimes, it was a trivia where they showed a piece of garbage thrown out by some actor and contestants had to figure out which actor threw out what trash. Yeah.......

I took a nice long nap, until around 1700, when I got up, finished the remaining chocolate covered strawberries on our plate, and made my way upstairs to the hot tub after discussing with K how she liked the camp ocean. She said she did like it and made some friends. She actually made a really good friend early on and hung out with her for the rest of the cruise more than she hung out with us, lol.

I will mention that we brought a power strip. Figuring 4 phones, probably an ipod or something for K, other things such as hair dryers, the two outlets they give you standard just would not be enough. We plugged it in and left it on the counter all week and it was not a problem, and was plenty enough for our needs. I also forget if I mentioned that the safes on this ship are card-activated, and you cannot use your sign and sail card to set up the unlock/lock code on them. I used a Wawa gift card to set up our safe I think (anything with a magnetic strip on the back works) and kept it in the drawer in the desk, under other stuff so we could all get to it whenever we needed to and it was not left out in the open all cruise long. Also, we requested ice in the bucket each day on the first day and got it each day of the cruise thereafter. The stewards are really good about this.

I stopped by the miniature golf course on the top deck, midship but it was way too wet and windy to play, but you have to go through the sports court to get to it. Interesting but as far as I saw, there is absolutely no other way to get there, other than walking across a sometimes-active volleyball/soccer/basketball hybrid court. The sports court was closed by the time I went up there around 1800, and it was really wet, but I still got a pic of it to give you an idea of what it looks like. Gets really windy up here also. The mini golf is up another flight of steps, surrounding the red funnel.

I was again hungry at this point, Guy's was closed for the day, and I had not yet hit the Pizza Pirate on deck 10 aft, near the pool, so I got a few pieces of freshly made pepperoni pizza. Is it the best pizza in the world? Not even close. Is it OK? Yes. I can get pizza only about a million times better from a dozen different places near home but this is a cruise ship and Carnival pizza has actually gotten better in recent years. Still, no pizza on a cruise ship compares to what they have at Prego on Princess, at least the Grand Princess. That is the best I have ever had and almost rivals what I can get at home. Anyway, short line here, got my pizza and a soda and then headed into the hot tub around 1830 for a dip to relax. No sunset tonight due to the overcast skies and rain so no need to run back to the room to get the camera to take a picture, sadly.

I got a pic of this diagram that is located in every public area, shows you where you are, and helps you find your way to where you want to go. Obviously the Hub app has an interactive version of this and is more in-depth and in detail but if you do not have your device or don't want to look at it, these signs are a nice help.

Our nightly dinner experience up next....

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 20, 2017

DAY 3 - SEA DAY #1 CONTINUED:

I went back to the cabin around 1930 to get ready for dinner, and by the time we were all set and ready to go to dinner, we had missed the captain's toast in the lobby on deck 3 that happened sometime around 1900. None of us really were upset by this though, we have all gone to them (well maybe not K) and honestly, on Carnival they just aren't a can't-miss event. Other lines and ships do theirs really well and are events but not so much here so it is something that can be skipped. I will say that when you are with a group of 4, anytime dining is not so bad because you are not under pressure to all be together and ready to hit the mdr at 2015 or miss your dinner slot as is the case with assigned dining. We were able to go to dinner when we were ready on this cruise, even though we had to wait for a while at least a few times for dinner due to everyone wanting to go to dinner at the same time some nights.

We got to the mdr around 2030 or so and got seated for the first elegant night. This is a night that they decorate the tables up and put tablecloths on them. Yes, I know it is cruise critic thing to debate the tablecloths policy LOL. One decoration on our table was an aluminum starfish that could have served as a nice, cool looking paperweight, haha. We did not get dressed up tonight as it was simply too rough sea-wise and nobody felt like getting into their best wear on this evening. There would be another elegant night later in the cruise though.

Menu

I guess it is hard to coordinate the singing and dancing wait staff when people are coming and going all night in the anytime dining room but they seem to do a good job and we did get a show as we waited for our food.

I got Italian Wedding soup as an appetizer. Great American Table addition, always good. Also got about a half dozen shrimp recipes on this cruise.

Oh, of course I got lobster. Rarely eat it at home (just taught myself how to cook frozen tails bought from the store at home recently) but it is a cruise so I had to get one. I actually only got one as T did not finish hers so I had mine and her leftovers. The tiger shrimp they have on the side with the lobster is almost as good as the lobster itself and the orzo and drawn butter makes this dish great.

More food pics......

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 20, 2017

DAY 3 - SEA DAY #1 CONTINUED:

I will mention that K was at the Camp ocean tonight until around 2200 which is when I think the kids have to leave or the parent has to pay extra to keep the kid there after hours so to speak, so as she did on a few occasions, met up with us at the end of dinner in the mdr for a quick dinner and.........dessert. Well I suspect she really only wanted dessert but we wouldn't let her get just that without some food also. Our wait staff was great about taking care of that for us, we could coordinate with her when she was headed to the mdr and would get a dish that would be waiting for her when she arrived and dessert would be either there or to go.

My other dish was a Chilean sea bass with plantains I think and was OK but not the tastiest fish I had on this cruise. I think T and my mom got prime rib which I don't even mess with anymore on Carnival because it is always cold, tasteless, and too thin a cut of meat. Skip this. Best prime rib on a cruise ship was at O'Sheehan's on the Norwegian Star, but this just is not that good and never has been. At least they moved spare rib night to another evening so you don't eat messy ribs while wearing very nice and usually expensive formal clothes.

BTW, I tried a cherry Coke or what they call one at dinner tonight and it was awful. They take regular Coke and put grenadine in it. I saw someone else doing that at the atrium bar while we waited for a table in the mdr and decided to give it a shot. Awful. Love cherry Coke from a bottle or can. Fountain cherry Coke is almost always bad. Avoid. The wait staff handles soft drink and wine requests in the mdr now and they were generally pretty good about making sure I always had a drink in front of me at dinner. Also, the camera crew came around as they always do to try to take pics but we declined and the bar dude with exotic shots tried to sell us some and we again said no.

For dessert, I got a fruit plate and they are always good. I think I skipped the wcmc tonight. I think K got a pork chop and some sort of jello to take back to the room as it was after 2200 by now and we had stuff to do and didn't want to be the last ones in the dining room.

We all stopped back at the cabin at 2230 or so, K and T went to sleep as they like to go to bed early while my mom and I are more night owls, and we headed back out after checking out what the platinum gifts were on this cruise and we also got to see our towel animal with my sister's shades added on for good measure. I think the gifts were compactable fanny packs for travel. We got something similar to these from a past behind the fun tour years ago and my mom still uses hers to this day. These will be useful sometime I am sure.

BTW, this flyer they put in the cabins tells you how to download the Hub app to your phone or tablet. Easy to do. I also will mention that the wifi speeds all throughout the ship were really good and the signal was good. On the balconies, it was sort of weaker but usually worked. It was just a tug of war fighting over who had access at the time on their phones as often one of them forgot to log off when they were done and I had to kick them off to log on or vice versa, but for what we paid for the entire cruise for access for all of us, small problems. Also a flyer about internet packages offered and how to log on to the system. I THINK you can use the HUB app for free as long as it is downloaded before you leave home port at the beginning of the cruise if you did not buy internet.

Since the comedy of Chas Elstner did not start until 2330, I went to the casino to kill some time before the show and won $21 at the penny slots. This is rare for me and I cashed out after I figured I would not do any better before the house took all my money back. I charged $20 to my player's club account that I set up with my sign and sail account on the slot machines and if you get 500 points throughout the cruise, you get cashback. I never got above about 100 for the whole cruise, lol. I think free drinks start when you hit 1500. But bartenders always come around asking you if you want a drink, especially if you have a drink next to you at the machine. I hate waiting for bar service, so I always decline and if I want to get a drink I will go to the casino bar and order one for myself.

I met my mom a little before 2330 at the Punchliner lounge and we watched the show, which was much funnier tonight than the past 2 nights. He was actually genuinely funny tonight. Vulgar at times yes, but vulgarity is fine if you are funny and he mixed the two up well tonight. The shows generally run a half hour, and at midnight the show was over and it was now time to figure out what to do for the rest of the evening. BTW, I do not know or remember what the replacement show for the cancelled production show was and I guess I did not care as I made no notes about it afterward, lol. Since we were going to St. Thomas the next day, these two comedians would get off and there would be no comedy on the fourth day. Two new comedians would be boarding in San Juan the next day I guess and would entertain us for the rest of the cruise.

My mom and I went upstairs and got some pizza as is our tradition after comedy shows, and just peoplewatched for a while. As I have noted, the lines are much shorter at the Pizza Pirate after shows now than ever before. Wonder how they do this, maybe just less demand or maybe they manage the demand better? At peak times there is a whole team of guys, like 4 or 5 working to get pizzas and whatever else made for people who are hungry and waiting. Late night also features Pizza Plus, which is the usual pizza plus sausage hoagies, possibly salads, and lasagna although I did not see anyone with a hoagie or lasagna. I think a few people did get salads though IIRC.

On the way out of the Punchliner, we noted that the cinnabar really was not loud. Next to that was the Alchemy bar which was not loud and a little further down is the club. No problems with noise from those places but whatever noise came from the cinnabar, it went straight up through the ceiling and into our room and it was actually louder there than in the bar itself I think.

Anyway, we got back to the room at 0100 and I was ready to go to bed at 0130 but T was up frantically running around complaining about how she could not sleep due to the crazy noise. She called guest services and did not receive much of a remedy as the place stayed open until at least 0200, and finally called security to complain. What that would do it anyone's guess. Again, it is not reasonable to expect them to close too early but 0200 is kind of late. But we were all finally asleep sometime after 0200 and since the next morning would feature a visit to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, we were scheduled to arrive early and take a very early all-day excursion. I will talk about that debacle that took place the next morning when I pick up with the next part sometime in hopefully the near future.

I hope you are enjoying the review, have a great weekend and happy cruising!

parkesyau · May 22, 2017

Great review so far I'm getting more and more excited about my trip in the glory in 2018

Looking forward to the rest

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 29, 2017

Glad you're back!

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LOL, thanks. :cool: Glad to finally be back here and have enough time to actually continue with the review. I have St. Thomas coming up and then after that, our day at San Juan where I think I got the best pictures of the entire cruise. Hope you are having a great Memorial Day weekend.

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 29, 2017

Great review so far I'm getting more and more excited about my trip in the glory in 2018
Looking forward to the rest

2018 will be here before you know it. The Glory is a pretty nice ship and the frontline staff is pretty good about making sure you are taken care of and feel welcome and comfortable onboard. Are you doing the same itinerary? Anyway, thanks for reading along and I am just about to get to my day in St. Thomas and the night's onboard activities. Hope you continue to enjoy and I again apologize for taking so long to get the review updated. I am working on it as time allows me to. I do wish I could put more time and energy into getting it done as soon as possible.

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 29, 2017

DAY 4: ST. THOMAS

Hello everyone, I am back after way too long once again to update this Easter vacation journey review. I hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekend and let's take the time out to remember the real reason for this day, which is all of those in the service who have fought and made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure we have the freedom to cook burgers and hot dogs and go to the beach this weekend and cruise and whatnot whenever and wherever we want to. My heartfelt gratitude to all of them and their families.

I last left off with a sea day, our first of two as we made our way towards the US Virgin Islands. Our next day would feature a visit to St.. Thomas, and that is where the review will continue. The following takes place between 0900 and 0200. Enjoy.

So, as usual, I got up and went outside to check out where we were parked and what the weather was like, balconies are good for that kind of thing, lol. It was warm and rather humid but not totally oppressive and although it was mostly cloudy, it did not rain today on the island.

My view from the balcony, decent view, calm water, cloudy day. St. .Thomas is extremely hilly.

We had pre-purchased dolphin swim excursions through Carnival as K really wanted to do that and my mom insisted I go because she wanted to keep us all together and some of the activities on the tour supposedly involved physical stuff that she couldn't do and I could, so she wanted K to have someone to be able to do the difficult parts of the tour with someone familiar - me in this case. When my sister booked at the last minute, they still had openings and she booked it as well. From my understanding, this tour included a long boat ride from the ship to the island of St. John and an all-day tour including dolphin swim and then a long ride back to the ship, with no time to see anything else before sailaway. I had thought of cancelling it honestly once I saw my sister was going now and just go see some stuff that I had researched in Charlotte Amalie on my own, but I did not as I figured I would still want to go with them on the tour.

Well, after the awful issues with the noise from the bar below and my sister's inability to rest (keeping us all awake for a good part of the night - the problem with 4 people in one cabin haha) coupled with the rough seas all day and night, I really wasn't feeling it this morning and was not up to an all-day tour that cost like $150 that I could have done without honestly and so went to see if I could cancel it. Their policy is no refunds after 24 hours prior but I really made my case to the shore excursions desk lady and she did cancel my ticket and refund my tour price. I profusely thanked her as I just was not up to spending all day on one of the ship tours and did not want to lose my money if I did not go, so that was a good thing. I told my sister through the chat feature that I was able to cancel the tour and I saw them for just a few minutes back at the cabin before they left to meet their excursion on the dock around 1000. They told me later that again, debark was a mess trying to get everyone off the ship in time to meet their tours on the dock but that they did make their tour and spent the rest of the day off on their journey. I figured it would be a good time to get a few pictures from the higher part of the ship on the opposite side that our cabin was on and would get some breakfast before figuring out what to do for the rest of the day.

As you can see above, there is a large marina with private boats right next to where the cruise ships park and a port area with a Senor Frogs and a few other restaurants and bars along with a large shopping area. Note that the city of Charlotte Amalie is pretty far away from the ship and if you want to walk it, plan on a half hour each way if in good shape and if you have mobility issues, plan on a cab. Don't even try to walk it. I will talk about the tour I took of the town and the walk there and back in a moment. Also note that cell phone service was spotty for me here. With my provider, St. Thomas is supposed to be within the domestic calling and data zone but I had issues with getting service here. St. Thomas is the USA but still, don't plan on getting great cell service here. Service in San Juan is much better and just like as if you were back home on the mainland. We did go there the next day.

Anyway, more shortly.....

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 29, 2017

DAY 4: ST. THOMAS CONTINUED-

The ship in front of us was the Norwegian Escape. I had never been on this ship and it had gotten here before us today, so that is why it was parked forward of us. I have a great story about its departure later on as well, pretty exciting to watch. That ship made a larger ship such as ours look tiny in comparison and I will show you what I mean in pictures a little later. Never been on that ship but may try it someday. I have heard mixed reviews about the VLS (very large ships) or mega-vessels since they have become popular. Also, looking back through my notes, the tour actually cost $170 and they met it at 1030 or so but that still required them getting in queue to get off the ship pretty early. I will also mention that it took a while for the ship to be cleared for debarkation by local authorities on arrival, as we were scheduled for 1000 but got there earlier and had to wait a little while to get clearance. Is that US Customs or Coast Guard or whatever, I am not sure.

I figured I had a little time before they closed up breakfast so I went on a tour of areas I had not been to yet. I headed up to the gym which was on I am thinking Deck 11 forward, somewhere in that area. Not too far from Serenity and not too far from Camp Ocean. Good views of the forward of the ship, and lots of nice workout equipment and weight room. Most of the stuff looked pretty new. It was not crowded but they offer yoga classes and other organized activities here throughout the cruise. T and K said they went there the day before and it was OK but the rough seas made it hard to stay on the cardio equipment for an extended period of time. I am not sure about closing time but it opened at 0700 I think. The spa is also close to here. You actually have to go past the spa desk I think to get to the locker rooms and have to pass through the locker rooms to get to the gym. The men's locker room seemed to be nice enough, shower, steam room I think, plenty of areas to store your stuff and to change in, pretty modern and well-maintained. I have never done it but I have heard that you can also use the gym showers to get cleaned up before dinner or whatever if you don't want to fight for the bathroom with your cabin mates at dinnertime, lol. I will assume this area was updated during the recent dry dock.

Sometime between 1100 and noon I decided to foolishly give breakfast another shot. I saw the omelet line was short as it was the late risers portion of the day and many people were off the ship already. So I got my usual meat, potatoes, toast, fruit, pancakes, etc and tried to get a couple fried eggs from the omelet station. They will do this for you. And it would have been fine except they literally drowned the eggs in oil in the frying pan. You are not supposed to do that but they still did. Anyway, I sat down with that and some juice. I think I only got lemonade as they had already taken the apple, and orange guava passion fruit (which is the truth by the way) away from the machines in preparation for lunch service. I ate most of the breakfast but by the end, I just wasn't feeling so great (think of the poor fried eggs overeasy that had to swim in the frying pan as they were cooked I am guessing) and proceeded to go back to the room around noon to take a nap. I also sort of liked that I wouldn't have anyone else bothering me as I finally was able to take a nap in peace as they were all off the ship on a tour.

Breakfast

I napped from around noon to 1430 and the stewards did come in around 1300 (interrupted my nap for a moment but whatever) to deliver ice and fresh towels but I said we did not really need much more of anything and they were cool with that. I finally got up around 1430, cleaned up and went to the burrito window to get lunch that I wasn't able to get earlier due to not feeling so well. Got a nice burrito with chicken, beef, rice, beans on a wheat tortilla right before the 1530 closing time on port days (no line to speak of here at this time) and it was much better than breakfast.

I got off the ship around 1530 and began to walk through the port area, towards the city. The last time I was in St. Thomas, we had a ship-arranged tour of the island and to Blackbeard's Castle and thus had transportation from the port. I knew it was a bit of a haul to walk to the city but I was prepared for that. Seeing that we were going to depart at 1800 from here, and were supposed to be back on by 1730, I did have to keep track of time. I passed the shopping area which is at the other end of the port complex, and began to walk. Beyond the shopping area is a government services building complex and a local bank and past that is an upscale area with high-end shopping and food options. Almost like a resort, which is actually might have been, not sure. It was called Yacht Haven Grande, and was all under the management of some property services management company. I forget what it was called but it is probably online somewhere. I did not have time to do anything here as I wanted to get to the city and see a few things before it was time to head back to the ship. I had seen a few restaurants that were near the front street in town and right near Emancipation Gardens that got good ratings on the world traveling review sites and was going to try to go to one if I had enough time.

The entrance sign to the marina and shops area. You walk through here on the way to and from the ship if you are going to town.

I will say that although my folks did a long tour, it did not feature much of the island of St. Thomas and I had already done a few full island tours of the place so I did not really have an interest in taking another private tour of the area. I had already seen all the popular spots. If you are interested in what to do here, beach-wise Magen's Bay is supposed to be the best but I have never seen it. I understand it is a bit of a ride to get out there, is secluded with not much to do around it so I wasn't totally sold on that either. There are some tours that take you all around, there is a nice high spot across the island that gives you a view of your ships, and the surrounding areas and nearby islands. I did that tour once.

They do use US dollars here as it is a US territory and the laws are regular USA laws as far as I know. They drive on the left side of the road however, which when I took a tour a long time ago, was kind of weird but it is how it was always done before they were a US island, so they just kept that tradition. Lot of windy roads, so I would not recommend renting your own vehicles to do a tour here as I am thinking unless you know these roads, they could be really dangerous to navigate. I think St. Thomas has a website that details all the things you can do when visiting. I also did a tour to Blackbeard's Castle, which is up the hill a little ways from the downtown area and stopped by the post office and a hotel resort with a neat little family-run restaurant on the walk back to town on a past tour. Plenty of stuff to do, I just did not do any of that stuff on this day.

Not being totally sure of where I was going, I exited the marina around the midpoint of its property and decided to walk along the main road as I figured this would either get me there quicker or there was not a way to town if I kept walking through the shopping area. I was wrong on both accounts, lol. Town is accessible through the marina or through walking down the road. The road is much longer though. Along here is the front of the mountains that make up much of the island and is the main way to and from the cruise port. There are a few businesses here, and I guess there is a school nearby also as many kids in school uniforms were waiting for the city bus as I walked past. Also seems to be a senior citizens living complex in this area on the other side of the street. The walk along here did take me quite a while and was not as scenic as walking along the water and through the marina which I did on the way back. If you are walking, go through the marina the entire way, haha.

Anyway, I thought I had gotten a picture of our ship next to the Escape but it seems I did not. However, the sidewalk that runs along the water into downtown was pretty scenic and walker and biker friendly. Great views as well from here.

More in a moment...

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 29, 2017

DAY 4: ST. THOMAS CONTINUED:

More sunset photos

I did get one airplane photo, this was like an ATR or a Saab or something small departing from STT as we were about 5 miles out to sea at this point. You can see the steep right bank on climb as it took off into the night sky, destination I cannot remember. I checked it out on flight aware at the time but I cannot remember details now.

On my way back to the cabin, I told T that I would get a bucket of beer to being back to the cabin. We could bring some to dinner or whatever. I got a bucket from the tequila bar midship on the lido, and if you get a bucket of four, you get a 2 dollar discount from regular price. Note, if you get Coors Light, you get larger bottles and screw off caps so you can open them whenever you want instead of having the bartender open them all for you at the bar. Even Budweiser, although 16-ounce bottles, have caps that you need a bottle opener to take off and that is a pain. Every time you want to open one after buying the bucket, you have to go find a bartender to pop the cap off for you. That is if you don't want to drink them all at once when you buy the bucket. I got a bucket of Coors this time and got a bucket of Bud later in the cruise from the same bar.

I got changed and we headed to dinner around 2000, once again a wait for the mdr and I brought a bottle of Coors along with me for the wait in the atrium. Good entertainment here. Once seated, I got some minestrone soup and oxtail tongue for my appetizers and both were good. I can't say I have ever had oxtail before but I have seen others with it and it looked good. It was on the rare finds section of the menu tonight....if you cannot find something on this menu that you will like, I don't know what to say for you. LOL.

Food pics upcoming....

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 29, 2017

DAY 4: ST. THOMAS CONTINUED:

I will say one good thing about cruising with a group is that you can share dishes if there are like, say 3 things you want on the menu but know you don't want to order all three for yourself. You can share them and that way, not waste as much as if you ordered them all to sample for yourself and didn't finish any of them. I had forgotten to mention that K spent some of the evening at camp ocean because she wanted to see her new friend and had not spent any time with her all day up to that point. You know, kids.....

Anyway, I got spare ribs and curry shrimp (remember I tried to break a record in total types of shrimp tried on a cruise) and shared a beef tenderloin with my sister. All were good. Portions were good as well and it was really hard to finish any of the dishes completely. I don't know why people complain about the portion sizes. They are fine as many people just want to sample each thing anyway and waste the rest. Remember this is not a land restaurant. Also, no complaints about the food temperature either. Just fine for everything. Ribs are always outstanding on Carnival, and the tenderloin and shrimp had good flavor as well. The beef was a little rare for my tastes but that is how my sister likes it, she ordered it that way. I would have gotten mine medium. The shrimp - that American Table port of call improvement though...I like it.

My food....

K once again appeared from camp ocean before 2200, just in time to get some dinner and dessert, and said she had a good time. They told me over dinner they enjoyed the tour, and got a dvd with highlights of their tour to bring home and watch. I have not looked at it yet but would be interested to. K especially liked the experience.

I got mango cream cake and smores parfait for my dessert tonight as I skipped the wcmc again. K liked her food but was not terribly hungry as she got some ribs, olives and jello at the lido buffet before I dropped her off at the camp earlier. My desserts were fine and again, the wait staff took great care of us all evening.

The dessert menu...more pics next post....

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 29, 2017

DAY 4: ST. THOMAS CONTINUED:

Our wait staff for most of the evenings in the MDR - on a placard on the table. Great job by all of them.

Dessert

Johnny, the solo guitarist playing in the casino atrium after dinner. Pretty good.

We stopped back in the room after dinner and K and I got ready to go to the aft hot tub as I had walked a lot today and wanted some foot therapy from the jets in the tubs lol. K was perfectly well behaved and saw her friend in the regular pool there and they spent some time together while I chilled in the pool for a while. Nobody gave us issues for being in the "adults only" pool, besides it was not crowded by then and nobody really had a problem with a kid being there. I believe the hot tubs closed at midnight on this ship. Serenity closed earlier though I think. It got windy on this night so they closed the roof on the aft pool area as it seems they do every night anyway. It is better that way, at night as it can get chilly back there if it is left open.

Towel animal in the cabin after evening turndown

I will note that K and T debated between going to the late night showing of Rogue One for the night's dive-in movie by the lido pool or doing something else and they both decided to do something else, lol. K did the pool and T went to scope out the new cabin guest services gave them to sleep in due to the noise issues. She also wanted pizza and ice cream and both were near the pool so I am guessing she killed two birds with one stone by doing both things at the same time. About that ongoing noise issue.........apparently they had a spare unoccupied cabin on a lower deck, so they said they could go there to sleep and opened the room for them to use if they so chose to as a compromise for the piano bar problems. Supposedly this would be in a quieter area for them to have more restful sleep. By the way, they also discovered that Mark, the piano man, had left them a $50 gift card to use at the spa during the cruise as a goodwill gesture. I figured this was more than they really HAD to do for them but complaining does get you somewhere I guess. That seemed to cure the problems......at least for one night.

I had gotten a bag of popcorn from the bar as we passed by the movie on the way back to the room, and it was good although salty. Salty popcorn in a paper bag. It is neat that they have it for the movie showings though. I just wasn't interested in any of them because I didn't like any of the movies playing throughout the cruise. If you are wondering, the early movie was called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them. OK....never even heard of that but whatever. Remember I said no comedians tonight so we had to find something else to do to keep us busy, lol. According to my funtimes, the theater entertainment tonight was the Hasbro game show at 2015 (stupid whenever I have seen parts of it on the ship tv entertainment channel being replayed) and the Love and Marriage Show at 2215. I am not married so obviously that would not be for me. Other than that, seriously not that much to do tonight.

So, come 2330 it was time to go back to the cabin and hang out on the balcony for a little while before bed. I was asleep pretty quickly as there was no drama and the noise from the bar below did not bother me, so it would be a fairly early night and good night of sleep in anticipation of our visit to San Juan, PR the next day. I will also note we were moving much slower as St. Thomas and San Juan are not far apart and that helped with the smooth seas for this night.

I will get to my review of San Juan as soon as I can, hopefully it doesn't take me a week or more to get to it again, haha. I will try my best to get to it sooner rather than later. It was a really nice day there, and I got some really great pictures as well so be sure to check that part of my review out when I get to it. Good night, happy Memorial Day and happy cruising, thanks for reading along with me as I write about my adventure.

parkesyau · May 29, 2017

2018 will be here before you know it. The Glory is a pretty nice ship and the frontline staff is pretty good about making sure you are taken care of and feel welcome and comfortable onboard. Are you doing the same itinerary? Anyway, thanks for reading along and I am just about to get to my day in St. Thomas and the night's onboard activities. Hope you continue to enjoy and I again apologize for taking so long to get the review updated. I am working on it as time allows me to. I do wish I could put more time and energy into getting it done as soon as possible.

I think it's he same. Half moon, st thomas Puerto Rico and grand Turk. One year seems so far away it's so nice to be living it through your review

tw67 · May 29, 2017

We are looking at Glory for Christmas 2018, and I saw your review and knew it would be a great one. I have seen your reviews before, and I love reading them! I am also from South Jersey, so I think that helps!!! Thanks!!!

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 30, 2017

I think it's he same. Half moon, st thomas Puerto Rico and grand Turk. One year seems so far away it's so nice to be living it through your review

Sounds like it. This trip was my first time at HMC but I had been to St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk a bunch of time before this. This was more for the family time than for the ports but the ports that this itinerary visits are still good and have plenty to do and see. I am going on a few cruises this fall that feature a trip up to some New England and Canada ports I have never seen and another trip to the eastern Caribbean a few months later. Going to be a busy fall but I really like the eastern Caribbean, especially St. Maarten and am looking forward to seeing some ports up the New England coast I have never seen before. Believe me, that year goes by fast when a cruise comes up. We planned this trip months in advance and before you knew it, the cruise was just days away and we were still scrambling to get everything in order for our journey. You will love your cruise and thank you very much for the nice words. I appreciate that people are enjoying this review and all my reviews and that they help people in planning for their cruises. It also allows me to re-live the thing long after it is over. I am going to get to our day in San Juan a little later today I think and we did much more sightseeing here and went on a really cool private tour through Old San Juan. I can't wait to get started on it.

FlyingCruiserNJ · May 30, 2017

We are looking at Glory for Christmas 2018, and I saw your review and knew it would be a great one. I have seen your reviews before, and I love reading them! I am also from South Jersey, so I think that helps!!! Thanks!!!

You will have a great time. I have never cruised at Christmas. Too busy at home and it is too expensive to cruise that week for me anyway. I would maybe like to try it or New Year's on a cruise sometime though. The Glory is a pretty nice ship and the crew is pretty good. Management seems to be a little lacking but they have a tough job in taking care of the wants and needs of thousands of people and I still do think they try their best in difficult circumstances. Thanks for the nice words about my reviews. I like writing them, I feel like each one I do gets better and I am really glad people see value in them and like following along with my adventures. I have learned so much about the ins and outs of cruising that the cruise lines do not tell you and that most people don't know about through reviews on this site and I figure the least I can do it contribute a little bit to that so people can know the little things that can make their cruise vacations better. I am going to get to my day in San Juan in a little while hopefully and we did cover a lot of ground in the Old San Juan and Condado areas while we were there. Although I had been to SJU a few times before, I feel like I saw a lot of the place and learned a lot about it this time that I had not in past visits. Lot of good pictures from there also. I am looking forward to getting to it.

Seeing the complete garbage weather we have had for most of the last few weeks and beyond, not like there is much else for me to do on a rainy day like this anyway, LOL. And it seems there are a lot of cruisers from the South Jersey/Philly area who cruise out of Florida. Cruising is such a perfect way to vacation. I learned that 11 years ago from my mom who had found out herself about cruising a few years before that, :cool:. Been hooked ever since my first cruise, a birthday present back in 2006. Even with the shore and mountains and NYC/WAS so close by, a week at the shore ends up costing you more than a week on a cruise, and you get to see more places on a cruise. I like the shore and land vacations all around the USA, but cruising is the way to go most of the time.

Anyway, thanks for reading along and enjoy your cruise if you do decide to go on a Christmas journey or whenever you decide to cruise.

cruisingbajan · May 31, 2017

Great review and photos. Thanks for sharing.

I have a question for you re: bringing your own soda. Are you allowed to take them to the DR?

My wife and I are Dr. Pepper drinkers:).

Jamericannn · May 31, 2017

Great review. Wish mine was half as thorough as yours.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

crusinpsychRN · May 31, 2017

Read your review at work today--couldn't see pics--got home and went through it all over again! Nice pics.

Easter Glory! A detailed pictorial review of the refurbished Carnival Glory 4/15-4/22

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