Guest Blog: Carnival Glory Over Thanksgiving

My fiance and I cruised on Carnival Glory from November 20-27 Thanksgiving week. This is our 3rd cruise together and second time on Carnival. I got engaged on my first cruise with Carnival Destiny. So I hold Carnival very close to my heart. 🙂

Embarkation was quick and smooth. We were in zone 9. We didn’t hear our zone called but we saw some people who were in zone 10 going on the line so we followed. Don’t know how we missed our zone we did however hear everything up to 8. LOL.

The ship was very very similar to Destiny so we felt right at home. But have to admit that it does look a little outdated but that didn’t bother us. We’re not there to enjoy the decor. We’re there to have fun! The crew members were very very nice! In previous cruises, we had interior stateroom which always drove us crazy. So to be in an ocean view room was like WOW!! It felt to luxurious and waaaaaaaaaaay bigger then we thought. The size difference was practically double or maybe triple then the interior. I do not have to tell you that we will never go back to an interior room again. Level 2 Room 2415..THE BEST.

Ports: We docked at Nassau, St. Thomas, San Juan,and Grand Turk.

Nassau – Since we’ve been to Nassau before, we decided that we would just collect our free jewelry (lol) and hang out on the beach. Getting off the ship is pure chaos in Nassau. So many people in your face for a tour. We got on one of the vans to the beach by Atlantis..i believe it was Cabbage Beach. While there, more people were approaching us to buy something or to braid your hair. We finally found a spot on the sand after rejecting many many hustlers. But then this one friendly man named Patrick Glinton came to us offering to jet ski. Like I said before we had no plans to do anything and declined his offer. But after talking to him for awhile and finding out that it would cost $50 for the both of us with him driving the jet ski we figured WHY NOT??! We had SOOO much fun! Patrick showed us some of the celebrities houses, Gilligan’s island and we even got off Eddie Murphy’s private island to take pictures. We have absolutely no regrets doing this impromptu excursion. Patrick was cool and he gave us his number and email address for when we visit Nassau again.

St.Thomas…I LOVE YOU! OMG! This island is a little piece of heaven! Its gorgeous and the people are soo friendly! We didn’t book any excursions there but we did take a van to the market. Then we went back to the ship for lunch and back out again to head out to Megan’s Bay Beach. It’s truly a beautiful beach! Just wish someone told us there was a $4 per person entrance fee. We didn’t know until we actually got to the gate. We didn’t mind at all but we could have been told in advance. We stayed there for a couple of hours and headed back to the ship to drop stuff off and went out again to pick up some souvenirs and check out Kmart since it seemed like everyone had a shopping bag from there. LOL. We definitely want to go back to St. Thomas again. I was really sad when we were leaving.

San Juan – We got there on Thanksgiving day and we were SOOOOO happy that we booked an excursion because practicallyEVERYTHING was closed for the holiday. We went horseback riding at the foothills of the El Yunque Rainforest. It was an amazing experience! It was about an hour ride to the site from the port. We rode horses to the countryside, along the edge of El Yunque and the banks of Mamey River. Our 4 tour guides were very informative, funny and made sure that we were all comfortable along the way. This excursion was pretty expensive but totally worth it! Although San Juan is beautiful I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to do anything else like go to the forts. Even 90% of the shops were closed. It was pretty much a ghost town. Don’t think Carnival should have docked there on Thanksgiving day and I definitely wasn’t the only one that thought this. I guess that gives us a reason to go back to San Juan 🙂

Grand Turk was soo cool! I love how the ship docked almost right on the beach. We tried to book an excursion but everything was sold out. So we just hangout on the beach.

Dining: The food on Glory was awesome! No complaints here. My favorite area was the Fish & Chips that had the best batter fried fish filets EVER!!! It was like the best kept-secret on the ship. Seems like no one knew about it. There was never a line when we went. The only time we saw a long line which was about 20 people was the last full day. I guess the secret came out. We were happy that we discovered it on day 1. YUM! We chose to have late dining at Platinum Room. Service was always on point and I just adored the Matron D. I think I had chocolate melting cake every night. We never got to eat at the Mongolian Wok..the line was always ridiculous. And we didn’t eat at the paid restaurants either. From what we’ve heard..they are not worth it.

Spa Carnival had a fully equipped gym, whirlpool spa, saunas and a beauty/nail salon. I got a facial which was fantastic! I attempted to work out in the gym the first 2 days but we had some serious rough seas. It was really really bad.

The adult only comedy shows in the Ebony Cabaret were hilarious! Al Ernst, Mark Simmons, Al Romero, and Don Grey were the best! Al Romero was my favorite.

Minor Complaints: I felt there wasn’t enough activities. For example, the last cruise we went on (starts with an N) had everything Carnival had plus more like bowling, rock climbing and etc. I wish Glory had those. We didn’t go to the pool because it was always crowed. We went to the Dance Parties every night at White Heat and every night it was BORING. No one was dancing. Maybe we came at the wrong times but it was pretty much dead. Also, the jewelry “sales rep” seminars were so whack! They always made you think you are missing out on something if you don’t go but then its the same story routine for every single seminar. And honestly, I really don’t see any deals in the shops or on-shore. We met one couple who told us that they asked the jewelry expert for help at one of the shops in St. Thomas and she just ignored them. What happened to the whole “If you need help to get a deal, just come talk to me”? SMH.

Major Complaints: DO NOT BUY INTERNET!! My fiance is in grad school and purchased Internet access to check emails for homework. He originally brought 30 minutes and we got an additional 15 minutes after attending an auction. On his first day using it, he was probably was on it for 10 minutes the most. When he logged on the next day it was down to 5 minutes! He called the manager and complained and they gave him the full 30 minutes back. Now, the Internet was sooooooooooo verrrrry slow!!!! It felt like a dial-up! On the last full day, I went on the Internet and it said 15 minutes left. I tried to log on my email and was unsuccessful…like i said verrrry sllooooow. I logged off after about 5 minutes..YES I was timing this. Neither I nor my fiance went back on for the rest of the day. When we got the bill we were charged $21 for over usage!!! I was not happy about this. We went to the front desk and they called the Internet manager. He said we overused it by 20 minutes and I knew there was NO WAY! After basically arguing with him on the phone cause he was very rude he refunded us the $21. Then he had the nerves to say that we will be buying the Internet again on our next cruise. I told him the only reason we got it in the first place was so that my fiance can check his email for homework. He was a total jerk but I was happy we got a refund.

Debarkation: We always go for self-assist. You get off the ship quicker and you don’t need to wait at the baggage claim. Not to mention, getting a taxi is so much easier. I do find it funny that the crew aren’t as friendly during debarkation time. LOL! It’s like..Ok..get off the ship! HA!

Overall experience: On a scale of 1-5, I would give Carnival Glory 3.5..sorry but the Internet drama left a bad taste in mouth and San Juan on Thanksgiving Day wasn’t cool . Besides that I had a BLAST!