Margaret

Age: 47
Occupation: Information technology
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Glory
Sailing Date: November 20th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

I went on a cruise with 9 other family members, including my parents in their 80s. Dad is in a wheelchair.

There is good news and bad news about traveling on the Carnival Glory with a handicapped person. The good news is that the handicapped rooms are excellent. The shower, in particular, has the best arrangement I have seen. The staff assisted us with embarkation and debarkation to make it as painless as possible.

The bad news is that the handicapped rooms are at the complete opposite end of this ship from the dining room we were assigned to. It is a big ship. It took my parents 20 minutes to get from their cabin to the dining room. And that is walking straight through, not stopping to talk or visit the casino and so forth. The buffet on the Lido was closer but people in their 80s, one of whom is in a wheelchair, don’t do well with buffet lines. I was disappointed to discover that the dining rooms were closed for lunch while in port. For most of the lunches, my parents were forced to stand in line.

The downside of the Carnival Glory, unfortunately, is the cruise director. My brother referred to him as “the K-Mart guy” because he spent an excessive amount of time on the loudspeaker trying to sell something. At 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. and many times in between, this guy was broadcasting unnecessary and lengthy information over the loudspeaker. The loudspeakers in the halls are at high volume; high enough that they can be heard inside the cabins, even by my parents with hearing problems. This problem was compounded by the fact that our cabins were above the Amber Palace, which was often noisy until after midnight.

After a while, we stopped cringing at the artwork and decorations, which can best be described as garish. Mom is convinced the decorating was done by heavy drug users. Dad is convinced the paintings were done by kindergarteners. At any rate, the visual assault was an unneeded addition to the cruise director’s continued auditory assaults. This ship is not the place to be if you are trying to “get away from it all” and are looking for any form of peace and quiet.

Many things about the cruise were excellent. The cabin stewards kept the beds well made and the ice bucket stocked with ice. Our waitress, Rensche, was wonderful. This was my parents’ 12th cruise and they thought she was the best they had seen. The food was abundant and available around the clock.

Did we have a good time? Yes, we certainly did. Is my family taking another Carnival cruise? No, probably not. As my mom said, she now knows that there is such a thing as a ship being too big. And too noisy.

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