SirenSuzanne

We chose the Glory for our very first cruise which just ended this past weekend. We chose the 7-day Western Caribbean itinerary with Grand Cayman, Mahogany Bay, Belize, and Cozumel and couldn't have been happier. Food... We were very impressed with the food at the Steakhouse, and the food in the dining room was good. But, we were left feeling a bit disappointed by the buffet, and the options for food after about 9pm. When you are doing activities and enjoying entertainment all evening and you want to grab something to eat before bed, you are limited to the pizza restaurant or room service. Oh...and Guys Burger Joint and Blue Iguana Cantina are only open for lunch. So if you take an excursion or exit the ship at port, don't expect them to be open for a bite to eat when you get back. They are both really good though, so make sure you get them on embarkation day and sea days (though Blue Iguana Cantina isn't open both sea days...bummer). These are the reasons I only gave 4 out of 5 stars. Cabin... After much research, I selected a deck 7 balcony. It was great since this deck of room was "sandwiched" between two other decks of rooms. No sounds of scraping chairs from the lido deck and no loud music or sounds of slot machines from the fifth deck. We also chose a room near the set of elevators that we thought we would be using most often, which was wonderful! There were occasional "dings" of the elevator opening on our floor, but it didn't bother us enough to wish we hadn't picked that room. And I don't think I could ever pick anything less than a balcony! And our cabin attendant was fantastic! She knew our names from day one and went out of her way to make sure we had everything we needed and more! Shopping... We thought we hit the jackpot with the jewelry deals onboard, as everyone else was going crazy for it all too. Word of advice... The inch of gold is really layered gold and silver on top of rhodium. If you are sensitive to rhodium and tend to turn green, steer clear!! Same with the Effy jewelry that they put on sale for 50% off during the cruise. Within a half hour I was green and had to return it. Bummer since it was really beautiful! I'm sure the higher-end jewelry and the watches would be better, but those were out of our price range. Oh...and if you have difficulty finding decent shirts in the ports at a reasonable price, or just don't have the time to shop, just wait until the morning of your last sea day. They will sell t-shirts (small through 3x) for 2/$20. They had cute designs and a variety of colors and shirts with the name of each port of call. Not bad! We were excited since we didn't have much time to shop with all our excursions. Shows and Activities... Their shows were really good. We went to both the 60's Beach Party themed show as well as the Epic Rock show and were not disappointed. We sang along to both, and my Husband, who is not a show or musical guy at all, said he really enjoyed them! Way to go Carnival. Just note... If there are rough seas, they will limit the shows to only a concert style show with no acrobatic type dancing around (safety first), so try to go when it is calm seas! Bingo... I was really excited to do bingo! When we saw what the prices were, we were much less excited. You get a card of 3 for $20, a card of 6 for $30, or a card of 9 with a dauber and a pull tab game for $40. There are only 3 games, and to win the "grand prize" you must bingo within the first 48 or 49 numbers. If no one hits the grand prize, the game continues and when someone hits bingo the prize lowers to about a tenth of what it was. We only played once. It wasn't worth the cost to us, but to each their own. Too many kids?... Since this was our honeymoon, and our first vacation away from our kids in almost 16 years, we definitely didn't want to be bothered by a bunch of kids. We thought for sure we would end up enjoying the serenity deck most of the trip! We were actually surprised to realize on the last day that we hadn't gone to the serenity deck once! We spent a lot of time at shows and in the casino, as well as eating and the occasional dip in the pool and/or hot tub, and we really didn't find ourselves bothered by the kids that were around, if there were any at all. The only place we noticed them was at the lido pool, as they really took it over, but we swam at the aft adult-only pool and that solved the problem. Other than that, the occasional kid running through didn't really bother us. Excursions... We booked an excursion in every port. We chose the Stingray City/Turtle Farm in Grand Cayman. Next was Beginners SCUBA in Mahogany Bay (I am certified but my Husband is not). Then on to the Jaguar Paw ATV adventure in Belize. And, lastly, the Whale Shark snorkel in Cozumel. Carnival has so many excursions, and they all sounded amazing, so I just HAD to book one in every port. I won't make that mistake again. We had an amazing time at all of them, but they gave us absolutely no time to hit the beach or shop in port, even the shorter excursions. That was really disappointing. And, we were exhausted! I would recommend only doing an excursion in half of the ports. Take time to relax, hit the beach, and leisurely walk through port and check out all the shops. Thank goodness we booked our excursions through Carnival though, because we were late getting back on 2 of them. I couldn't imagine paying some random person in port to take you somewhere and trusting their mode of transportation and time management to get you back in time! Scary! I'm sure I could continue to write this review all evening, but I'm going to call t quits now. If you had any questions, please don't hesitate to ask and I will try to answer them as best I can!