Carnival
Glory
Eastern Caribbean

Tom Nasworthy

Age: 46
Occupation: GIS Manager
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: September 17th, 2005

Embarkation – We arrived by car at 11am and was on the ship at 12:50pm. Almost 2 hours. The process could use some reorganization. For one, we had filled out everything online and had printed Fun Passes. This turned out to be a total waste of time. Everyone was sent through the same lines. There was NO “fast line” for folks with Fun Passes. You must go through 4 lines to get onboard: 1)Security/X-Ray 2)Information desk 3)Pick up Sign & Sail cards 4)line for embarkation photo and then you’re on the ship.

On Board – The week we spent on board was very nice, and we would go again (probably will). There were 3300 guests and 1100 crew, but the lines were never terribly long. The longest lines were for breakfast in the Red Sail buffet restaurant, and even then I never waited more than 5 minutes in line. And if you look around there’s usually 3 to 4 lines open in other areas of the Red Sail. The dining room was nice, although the portions were very small as compared to our previous cruise with Carnival a few years ago. However, you can order more than one entrée or appetizer, or as many as you want. I found if I ordered 1 appetizer, 1 entrée, and 1 dessert I was amply full. The food everywhere on the ship was good to very good. My Soda card was honored in the dining room by the bar steward, and he kept my soda glass full every night that I ate in the dining room (for which I tipped him $10 extra on the last night). On the subject of the Fountain Soda card – I had read it was $38 a week before we sailed, but onboard it turned out to be $45. I bought 2, for myself and my wife since we aren’t big alcohol drinkers. In hindsight, I would not do so again. $90 for 2 soda cards is too much considering you’re not given the cans, the glasses (8 oz) as filled with ice, and the soda is poured from whatever open bar cans they have sitting there. For $45 each we should have been given fresh cans of soda with a glass of ice. Yes, you can go back as many times as you like for soda, but it’s a pain to have 3 swallows and need to go back. I did ask for a can and was told they would have to charge my sign & sail if I wanted the full can. Also, I learned quickly not to show my soda card until I was asked by the bartender what I wanted. Otherwise they will leave you standing there forever while they wait on customers purchasing alcohol. Our excursions were very nice and well executed by the tour guides. We had 1 excursion cancelled due to weather. We were told, not once, but twice, by the pursers desk that our sign & sail cards would be automatically credited for the cancelled excursion. By the last day of the cruise we still had not been credited so we went to the excursions desk and was told we would NOT have been credited unless we turned in our unused tickets at the excursion desk! We were credited within an hour of turning in the tickets. I hear you asking “why didn’t you just go to the excursion desk to begin with?”. Because the excursion desk was only open 2 hours per day! 12-2pm! And we were always doing things during those 2 hours. In my OPINION the excursion desk should be open at least 8 hours per day to give folks the chance to return unused tickets. I’m sure a number of folks found out the hard way that they were NOT automatically credited. The cruise director was Mark Price. He was a very talented, very funny guy! He kept us all well entertained while onboard. Also, the Vegas style shows were excellent. Get good seats at least a half hour in advance. An hour if you want front row. The casino was a waste of money for us since all we do are the slots and they are too tight. We only saw a few folks hit big pots during the entire week. We dropped about $400 between the 2 of us. The biggest win I had all week was 80 quarters. The biggest win my wife had was 72 quarters. The ship is beautiful and the numerous bars are all very nice with different types of entertainment in each (piano, blues, rock, comedy, etc). There were always chairs available if you wanted to sit outside on deck, and there was always something going on somewhere on the ship. We had a balcony room, so we spent time sitting on the balcony and enjoying the view. Someone suggested bringing a bungee cord to hold the balcony door open so we could hear the ocean at night. That didn’t work out for us. The Caribbean is too hot outside in September to keep the door open, even at night. And our rooms never seemed to cool down to a comfortable temperature until after the sun went down each night. And yes, we had the thermostat set at the lowest setting. I would recommend bringing along a small electric fan to help circulate air in the room. I will next time for sure.

Excursions – We had 3 stops: 1)Nassau, Bahamas 2)St Thomas, V.I. 3)St Maarten, W.I.
In Nassau we took a water taxi to the Atlantis Resort. Very nice. The casino was also very nice.

In St Thomas we took a tour of the island that ended at the Blackbeard’s castle, where we then walked down to the shopping district and took a taxi back to the ship. Blackbeard’s castle was nice. The shopping district was mostly jewelry stores. We were shopping for a pink topaz bracelet for my wife and the prices were nothing great in St Thomas. We didn’t buy anything there. We did notice a lot of government housing everywhere on the island. We were surprised because St Thomas is a U.S. territory, so we expected it to look different than other poor islands we have visited in the past. And the dingy shopping mall at the port was 99% jewelry stores as well, and even higher prices than in town.

St Maarten was very nice. The port terminal was very nice, with nicely decorated shops. The shops in downtown Philipsburg were also nice for the most part. And the jewelry prices were better here. We bought a nice pink topaz bracelet for my wife here at a much better price than the previous ports. We also bought some other nice items in St Maarten. And you can buy an ice cold Corona there for $1! Or soda, or bottled water, $1! FYI, when you’re getting off the ship in ports, Carnival has people selling large bottled waters for $3.50 at the gangway. If you wait until you’re off the ship you can buy it for $2, or small for $1.

Debarkation – Debarkation went smoothly. We were off the ship and in our car by 10am. A word of advice – If you do the “self assist”, meaning you elect to carry all of your own luggage off the ship yourself, be prepared to cart it all down several decks of stairs, across the gangway, down 2 escalators in the terminal, and across the parking terminal. We elected to have Carnival take our luggage the previous night, and after going through immigration and customs our luggage was waiting on the carousel on the lower level of the terminal. It was much easier than trying to take it all off the ship ourselves.

We really enjoyed the cruise, and we would do it again. In fact, my wife is already thinking about it for next year. There were a few minor problems, which I discussed above, but there’s always a few. Nothing ever goes perfectly, at least not in the real world! The few problems we encountered were nothing to lose sleep over. All-in-all, Carnival did a great job of feeding and entertaining 3300 guests for a week.

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