Eastern/Western Back to Back

By DebbieandJerry

• December 23, 2010

My lengthy review was written shortly after our return so please refer to it for a lot of the details.

I didn't rate entertainment for a number of reasons. For the first week, the weather was so rough that all of the shows were cancelled except for the last night where the shipmates portrayed musical characters and performed. We didn't go to any of the shows on the second week.

As much as I am a fitness nut, I never used the gym. I woke up one morning for the early morning stretch class. The instructor was 5 minutes late and only conducted class for 10 minutes. The "spa specials" weren't affordable which was a shame because I always used their services in the past.

We were in a balcony very close to the rear of the ship. Our balcony was much longer than those in the past. Complete with two chairs and one table. First time for us, our room had two huge windows where you could sit on the ledge and then the door to the balcony.

Debarkation after the 2nd week was very slow. Don't know why. Our "number" was called almost 75 minutes later than scheduled time. Our luggage, however, was waiting for us on the turnstyle. This was the first time that we had a turnstyle similar to the airport. I really liked that feature. The custom line, however, was very long and seemed slow.

As I wrote before, the meal service for the first week was horrible. At times it felt as if we were ignored. So we switched to anytime dining for the second week and truly loved it.

The common areas were extremely clean and we never saw dirty dishes, trays, etc. on the tables. Carnival has really stepped up in this area.

Carnival did an excellent job of accommodating all of my food allergies. I was able to eat all three meals (which is something that I wasn't always able to say on previous cruises). The only complaint that I had was their coffee, once again, was truly awful. I broke down and ended up buying coffee at the speciality bar during the 2nd week (I only drink black coffee so it truly "hurt" to spend $2 for each cup). Carnival use to have a speciality coffee bar punch card, but they had recenlty done away with it.

Ports of call were fabulous. All of the excursions were cancelled and refunded for the first week due to weather conditions. Carnival did an excellent job of keeping us advised, informed and safe.

The Glory is a really nice ship; seems to be in great shape. The staff and crew went out of their way to ask us our names and to use them. I would cruise on this ship again.