Carnival Glory, Recession Buster group cruise, September 19 through the
26th.
Sheesh... I got to writing and this report is almost as long as the cruise.
DISCLAIMER: Read at your own peril. I take no responsibility for faulty
memory, hurt feelings, monitor spewage, differences of opinion or general
grumpiness on the part of the writer or the reader. Whatever happens if you
read this, it isn't my fault... unless you like it and then feel free to
heap piles of praise upon the author.
Usually we start planning group cruises well in advance... sometimes as
early as two years prior to sail date. This year, because of the world wide
economic situation and the constant state of flux with cruise prices, we
didn't choose a cruise until the beginning of June.... only 111 days before
departure. The availability of group space at that late date is a good
example of how the cruise market struggled this year.
Criteria.... We wanted to make this cruise as affordable as possible so we
were looking at 1) major cruise lines 2) easily accessible port 3) easily
accessible airport 4) price 5) price and 6) price.
We found that the Carnival Glory sailing from Port Canaveral fit the bill.
The fare for inside cabins started at $419 pp and every cabin in the group
received a $100 pp onboard credit. Later, as we got closer to sail date, I
was able to add a bottle of champagne and plate of chocolates to each cabin.
While we did supply the usual door signs, name badges and lanyards, t-shirts
were made available for sale at cost and 100% of the people in the group
purchased them.
In addition, many of the people in this group own at least 100 shares of
Carnival stock giving them an additional OBC of $100.
We drove from Shreveport to Cape Canaveral and stayed at the Radisson the
night before the cruise. Room cost was $119 and included parking during the
cruise, buffet breakfast and shuttle service to and from the ship. We got
upgraded to a "Jacuzzi suite". I have been telling people about this hotel
for years but this was the first time I actually stayed there and it was
great. Good, clean room, excellent pool and efficient shuttles. The
breakfast buffet came with the free upgrade and had an omelet station and
excellent OJ. If you park at the port, it is $15 a night, so for a few
dollars more, the Radisson is an excellent value.
So here in no particular order are some of my thoughts and impressions of
this cruise.
To tell the truth, I didn't have very high expectations for this cruise. I
had been on this class of ship before and while it is popular, it isn't one
of my favorites. In the current economy and the fact that Carnival is now
run by people with an accounting background (rather than marketing), I
expected to find a lot of cuts in the quality and service of the cruise.
Holy Mackerel, was I wrong. Cruise lines talk a lot about "exceeding
expectations" and this cruise delivered. Not because my expectations were
low.... but because this cruise was one of the best I have ever had on a
Carnival ship.
To start with..... the ship is clean. I'll go so far as to say that the
Carnival Glory was the cleanest ship I have ever cruised on. Period. No
exceptions. Deep down clean... like people dusting the tops of cabin
doors.... AND fire doors. People dismantling beverage dispensers and
cleaning the individual parts. No empty glasses sitting in the elevators
for hours. Room service trays removed in a timely manner. So clean, that I
would have been comfortable walking around the ship barefoot. The ship is
so clean that some of us were wondering if they weren't getting ready for
some inspection or perhaps, recovering from an earlier one. In either case,
my congratulations to the housekeeping department and the deck crew of the
Glory because they did an outstanding job.
The Carnival Glory has one of the most understated decors in the Carnival
fleet. Many areas reminded me of Royal Caribbean and Princess ships. I
don't usually pay a lot of attention to the decor, but it was nice not
seeing miles of neon, purple worms, thousands of cremation urns or
Botticelli-like nudes all over the ship. One exception was the main show
lounge which was RED with miles of brocade fabric and almost baroque
decorations. Too busy for even my tastes.
I had been told that Carnival was now serving macaroni and cheese in the
dining room and i cringed at what changes I might find on the menu.
Macaroni and cheese was always available from the children's menu and over
the years I know a few people who requested it at dinner but I never tried
it. My loss... this stuff is not your regular Kraft Mac and Cheese out of a
box. This dish is delicious. It is used as a side dish, served in a
ramekin a few nights of the cruise, but it was so good that many people
order it as an extra side and it is served to them in a larger oval dish.
I asked the Maitre 'd about it and he said that it was one of the most
popular "off menu" items ordered so they started using it as a side dish.
Plusses in the dining room include a noticeable improvement in fish dishes.
I am not a "fish" person, but we ordered almost every fish dish during the
week to taste and in most cases, they were delicious. The one really
outstanding entree was ocean perch. I sneaked a bite of my wife's plate and
it was wonderful. If I wasn't already full, I would have ordered
another.... it was that good.
Other plusses... The Prime Rib is still on the menu twice and is still
great. Boneless Beef Short Ribs were excellent!!! I'm not really sure what
cut of beef this was, but it was falling-apart tender and full of flavor.
The kind of dish you remember long after the cruise is over. The chocolate
melting cake is still on the menu every night. Very good, very popular.
Minuses - OK, this "Flat Iron Steak" isn't too good. Most of them are
tough.... one to the point where a tablemate couldn't eat it. I don't know
what cut of beef they are using for this, but they should go back to the
strip steaks they used to serve. Those weren't always the best either, but
they were far better than the current offering. Another minus was the
service... I think. Our waiter and assistant were very nice people but on
some nights, they served the starter, soup and salads all at the same time.
Now we thought this a little weird but I have to admit, it did move the
dinner along and we always got out of the dining room in good time to see a
show, etc. None of us thought it was a big enough thing to request they
change this, but like I said, it was a bit weird. This doesn't appear to be
a new policy, just our waiter's way of doing things.
Carnival's buffet is pretty much unchanged. The best food can be found in
the Deli and the Chinese sections. The rest of the lunch entrees are pretty
standard with the exception that one day they had an excellent piece of
roast beef at the carving station. The Fish and Chips area is one deck up
from the Lido and was very good with batter-fried fish and deep fried
oysters. The usual pizza, hot dogs, burgers, etc are available as usual and
the chicken fingers served at he pool grill were surprisingly very good.
The breakfast buffet on this class of ship needs another station but most
breakfast dishes were good if not anything outstanding... with the exception
of the corned beef hash which was excellent. Not a drop of grease anywhere.
Carnival should teach the people at Princess how to do this.
It might surprise you to know that Shreveport, Louisiana isn't known for
having wonderful Sushi restaurants! Go figure. There is a Sushi counter on
the Glory open from 5 to 8 PM almost every night and it was excellent. So
good that at the end of the week, I gave the man working there a gratuity.
He seemed surprised and very pleased.
ENTERTAINMENT: There is a new entertainment option on the Glory that is in
test mode... a Comedy Club. Two comedians board the ship and in mid cruise,
they leave and are replaced by two others. They give 5 shows a night
starting at 6 PM and the two late shows are "adults only" this happens 4
nights of the cruise so by going to different shows each night, you could
get to see all the shows if you wanted to. I think this is a great idea and
hope they expand it throughout the fleet. The only drawback was that they
were asking you to get a ticket for each show. Each ticket was worth $1 off
a drink purchase. Platinum members did not need tickets. Some of the early
shows were sparsely attended, but the late shows were usually packed. The
cruise director who was on the ship setting this up told me that they were
really using the tickets to help keep track of attendance during this test
period.
The productions shows were very good and made good use of the sunken
orchestra pit. The male singer wasn't very powerful but he got the job done
and the female singer was pretty good. Standard lounge acts around the ship
all seemed pretty good for the times I listened. Carnival ships are filled
with music and the Glory was no exception.
VIP STATUS: We are Platinum status with Carnival (10+ cruises) and that has
certain benefits. VIP check in was very quick and allowed up to bypass a
fairly long line at around 1 PM. It looked like there were plenty of res
agents working and I didn't hear any complaints about people waiting a long
time to get on the ship.
Another benefit of VIP status is having free laundry "wash-and-fold"
service. We took good advantage of this, being able to bring fewer clothes
with us and having them laundered for fee during the cruise. For the most
part, laundry sent in the morning was returned that evening. Some minor
touch-up with an iron in the public laundry room was all that was needed.
ECONOMY CUTS: The Captain's Cocktail Party and the Gala Buffet. Instead of
the Captain's Party there is now a 3 hour "Happy Hour" where your drinks are
$1 off. The ship officers mix and mingle and you can have your picture
taken. They have added a one hour "end of the cruise" party that was held
in the smaller show lounge at 5 PM the last day of the cruise. Free drinks,
but the party was not publicized or well attended. The Past Passenger party
had about 500 people attending. Drink service where we were was a bit
spotty, but eventually we did get served when our dining room Assistant
Waiter saw us and went and got us a bar waiter. The Gala Buffet is no more,
but they still have the big Lido pool party buffet at 11 PM one night which
they promoted heavily. I didn't go but I heard it was very good.
We booked a typical inside cabin category 4B. It had been a while since we
had an inside cabin and it was fine. Carnival cabins are fairly spacious
with room enough to walk on both sides of the bed. Three closet sections
and plenty of drawer space and even good storage shelves in the bathroom.
No surprises here and our cabin steward (Randall) was very efficient and
unobtrusive.
LONG STANDING PET PEEVES - or "Some things never change." I absolutely
hate it when they schedule Bingo in the main show lounge right before a
show. The only thing more boring than Bingo is sitting there listening to
other people play Bingo. I swear that someday, some ship's photographer is
going to stand in the middle of the gangway blocking my exit from the ship
and I am going to walk right over or through him. With 3000 people trying
to get off the ship, holding up the line for photos is just the height of
rudeness. I know why they do it, but please, give me a break. Set up your
picture stations to the side and people who WANT you to take their picture
will find you. I promise to stop asking to eat dinner in the show lounge if
you stop asking me to dance in the dining room. Four nights we were treated
to dancing waiters while trying to finish our meals in the dark. Yes, I
know it is cute and people who have never been on a cruise love it so how
about a compromise... do it two nights a week instead of four and wait until
people are done eating the main course before you turn out the lights to
sing "Heeeeeyyyyyyy, Hey Baby! I wanna know-ow-ow, if you'll be my girl."
MILESTONE - I kind of forgot this until after the cruise but the day we were
in Costa Maya was the 16th anniversary of the day I opened Countryside
Travel. We spent the morning in Costa Maya with good friends Joe and Becky
D along with Steve S. Joe bought a round of drinks and nachos and we sat
and enjoyed the morning, watching he people, the water and the ship in the
distance. It was a great way to celebrate the anniversary even if I forgot
it.
DISEMBARKATION: (I really hate the word "debarking". Sounds like something
you would do to a noisy dog.) VIP status got us off the ship first. We
were told to be in the main lobby at 7:15 AM, got there at 7:14 AM, they
started letting us off the ship at 7:20 Am and by 7:35 AM we were at the
curb waiting for the shuttle back to our car at the Radisson. Very nice.
COST: Cost for my cabin including tax - $970 and we got $100 OBC from the
group and $100 OBC from shareholder benefit. My onboard account ended up at
$216... so my out of pocket expense onboard was $16.
We drove from Shreveport to Port Canaveral. (Made a stop in New Orleans on
the way, but room, parking and dinner was comped by Harrah's so no cost)
Here is the trip breakdown:
One night at the Radisson in Cape Canaveral - includes shuttle and parking -
$119
Gas $177 Tolls $14
Total cruise, transportation, hotel, etc: $1296 or $648 pp +/-
Of course, we did spend more than that including meals on the road,
souvenirs and some shopping we did in the ports, but the above pretty much
covers the cruise and the cost of getting to and from the ship.
If you are still here reading this... WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! It is
Saturday... get away from your computer and go play outside!
George Leppla
