Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Glory Cruise Review
7 Day Western Caribbean

Michael Skinner
Age: 36
Occupation: Financial Advisor
Number of Cruises: 1
Sailing Date: December 31st, 2005

We just got back from the Glory’s New Year cruise. It was fantastic. Would definitely recommend it to anyone. This is going to be a pretty extensive review, so if you’d like to know what to expect for this cruise, this is it.

We stayed at the Radisson in Port Canaveral (brutal room – smelled like mold / musty) and took their free shuttle at about 1:00 to the terminal. The guys at the dock put the bags directly into giant containers, which they forklift over to the ship to go through screening & then delivered to your room.

Getting through the terminal wasn’t bad – about 45 minutes from drop off to sipping free champagne on the ship. First is security. DO NOT bring any alcohol though here. Wine & champagne, fine, you’re allowed to bring in a reasonable amount, but no straight alcohol – they WILL take it. Saw a number of confiscated bottles. Then to the line to check the ID, leave a credit card imprint, etc. Then another line to get your room keys. Why they don’t give you the room key at the previous counter, no idea. Then the line up to take your picture for your ID & then you get on the boat. As I said, about 45 minutes.

Rooms were very nice. But don’t be fooled by the website pictures – they make them look bigger. We traveled with our 8 & 11 year old daughters, and we got them their own room right beside ours. If you can afford it, it’s well worth it. The cost was only an extra $400 or so for the week. It definitely would be a little tight with 4 in one room (and we had pretty nice rooms – 11th floor, spa deck, with floor to ceiling windows). Tipped the steward $20 the first night, left $5 every couple days, and received fantastic service. He always put my beer on ice every morning & night (yes, in addition to the wine & champagne noted above, I brought on 24 beer & a litre of Crown Royal. I split it between our 4 bags and it got through no problem – I think they’re more interested in larger amounts of alcohol & dangerous items, etc.)

I’m not sure why some people complain about the food. Maybe different cooks? We’ve had the pleasure to eat at some of the nicest places in the world, and we thought the food was just fine. The buffets were OK – nothing great, but not bad. They changed the menu quite a bit, and it wasn’t bad. There were a lot of choices for food: the deli makes fantastic sandwiches, and the pizza place makes the best Caesar salads I’ve had in a long time, there was Chinese, fish & chips, pizza, burgers & fries, etc. We didn’t eat any of the ‘junky’ stuff, like burgers & fries, so not sure how they were.

The sit down, served meals were just excellent. And service was fantastic. Gave our head waiter & assistant $40 on the first night, $20 on the last, and $10 every one in between, and they REALLY take care of you. Brought the kids a plate of giant shrimp one night, because he heard one of my daughters say she liked shrimp, but she hadn’t ordered it. Brought extra plates of seafood for my wife, when she commented how good it was, and got me some fantastic filet mignon steaks on a couple nights, even though steak wasn’t on the menu. Joseph & Anna, you guys rock!

Shore excursions were great. I went golfing in Belize. If you’re a golfer, this is like the Holy Grail. Just amazing. They fly you out of Belize on a small airplane (about 10 minutes) & land on a small, private island with a gorgeous18 hole course. And there’s hardly anyone there – us 11 people were the only ones golfing. It’s like your own private Island, and own course. My wife & kids went to another private Island & had a great time.

Didn’t go to Cozumel, as the piers are still gone from the hurricanes. Went to Costa Maya, instead. It’s like a small village made for tourists at the end of the pier. You walk off the ship & you’re right into shops, bars, etc. Don’t look for any great deals. It did have a nice beach right there, though, with full service from the bars. Alcoholic drinks were a little cheaper than the ships, and had a good kick to them.

Be sure to check out the shows every night. They’re certainly not Cirque du Soleil, but they’re pretty good. Our daughters loved them and we thought they were pretty fun to go to.

Avoid the casino. Not only does it stink to high heaven (it’s one of the few indoor places people can smoke on the ship), but I don’t think there were very many winners on the tables nor the slots. I played a bit of black jack and it was obvious most of the people didn’t play cards very well, and really shouldn’t have been there (unless they like donating money to the casino).

There was quite a mix of ages and geographic diversity. We saw families with really young kids, singles, teens, seniors, etc. I would say that the majority were between 20 & 50. There were a lot of Canadians on the boat (including us) as the kids didn’t go back to school until Jan 9th. In the US, they went back the 2nd / 3rd. As far as the US goes, there were people from all across the country – a huge number of states & accents. And for the staff, I heard 50 countries were represented, and countless languages. A lot of English, Australian, Indonesian, Indian, and Eastern European. A lot of Eastern European (Estonia, Russian, Polish, etc). It was great to get a splattering of accents from around the world.

There is just so much to do on this ship (and off, when in port), and so much relaxing things to do, if that’s what you want, that I don’t know how you can have a bad trip. As someone said, if you don’t have a good trip, it’s your own fault. But, having said that, I’m sure there’ll be the odd bad reviews.

Anyway, bottom line is that the trip was fantastic and we would highly recommend it to anyone.

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