We recently returned from the 7-day New England/Canada cruise on the Carnival Glory (June 3-June 10). I thought I'd do a review. FYI, we are a couple in our early 50's now living in Kentucky. This was our 3rd Carnival cruise (2nd on the Glory), and our 8th overall.

Arrival/Embarkation: We always arrive at least one day early to our port city of embarkation. This time we arrived via Amtrak from Chicago (where we had visited family) the night prior and stayed at the Westin Bayfront. We booked through Priceline and paid ~$150. We highly recommend this hotel. It is within walking distance to the port (although I wouldn't do it with baggage), and across the street from the Silver Line.

As far as embarkation goes, we only waited 2 hours to board. (Let me back up by saying we booked our cruise in January and received the email regarding the first time change in April. Check-in was to be 6:30-8:30, so I immediately contacted the manager at the Westin and confirmed that we could store our bags.) I booked us a 2-hour free walking tour of Boston at 11:00. We were able to get a late check-out of 2:00 PM, enabling us to leave our bags in the room. Our tour was great and we were back at the hotel by in plenty of time to get our bags and check out. Since we had a lot of baggage we opted to take a taxi to the pier. We immediately dropped off our bags and boarded the shuttle to Quincy Market. At that time we were given the letter regarding the even later delay. It stated that we would not be departing Boston until 11:00 the next day, and that they "hoped" to begin embarkation by 10:00 PM. We did not stay at Quincy Market but instead walked to a Starbucks where we could use our Netbook and decide what to do that afternoon. We found a large movie theater a couple blocks away and decided that would be a good place sit down and take a nap! LOL We both ended up staying awake through the entire movie, however. ? After leaving the theater we stopped to get a bite to eat and then a convenience store to pick up some soda to take on board. We did not want to deal with the shuttle and opted to pay $4.00 to take the subway to the pier as we knew the Silver Line stopped directly in front of the terminal. There was only one other couple on the subway with us -- much better than taking a crowded shuttle! The terminal was not opened when we arrived and we waited 15-20 minutes before they opened the doors. We were in the first group allowed inside at that time (~9:45) but the line was stopped before we got up to security. That was our longest wait. We stood in that spot for 90 minutes. I won't go into detail about all the different areas of groups waiting, etc., but just say that once the line was moving again we did not stop, other than to get our sign & sail cards, until we were on board and in our room. Our baggage had not arrived yet, but we were exhausted and we asleep before midnight. I cannot comment on food or entertainment availability as we had no desire to find either. Read more