Carnival Glory Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I must say up front that the reason we chose this Carnival cruise is because Carnival gave us a sizable on-board credit as a goodwill gesture for destroying our luggage and doing $600 damage to our belongings on our first cruise with them. We approached this cruise as somewhat of a "do over" and wanted to be able to say we would recommend this cruise line, but it just didn't work out that way.
PRE-CRUISE HOTEL: We stayed at the Radisson Resort at the Port in Cape Canaveral for two nights pre-cruise. The Radisson does not offer an airport shuttle, but they recommended TraveLynx. We reserved TraveLynx online in advance, and they were prompt in picking us up from the Orlando airport to take us to the Radisson (for a cost of $50 total for two people - very reasonable!).
The Radisson offers a complimentary cruise shuttle from the hotel to the Port Canaveral cruise port, but space on the shuttle fills up. If you do not call a few days in advance to reserve space, you may lose a spot on the shuttle. Don't wait until check-in to schedule the cruise shuttle! This very thing happened to another couple from our Cruise Critic Roll Call - they tried to get on a shuttle upon check-in, but the front desk staff told them that the shuttle was full and there was no space left for them. So, while a cruise shuttle is offered, you are not guaranteed space on it! One would think they would just keep running the shuttle back and forth until all cruisers were at the port, but nope, not here.
Cabin Review
Interior
CABIN:
We booked a Large Interior Cabin (#7296), midship, category 4E. The size of the cabin was fairly large by inside cabin standards, with ample space for storage under the bed for our two pieces of luggage and more than enough closet and drawer space for our clothes. To view a tour of this cabin, click or paste this link into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tJxFNxsFsg
With this midship location, we anticipated very little sound from the hallway, however, this was the loudest location we have ever experienced. Just a basic hallway conversation felt very loud to us while we tried to sleep in on a handful of mornings. We could even hear our neighbors talking, sneezing, coughing, flushing the toilet, using the hair dryer. Not only was the hallway noise very loud and annoying, but the walls were thin from cabin to cabin as well.
Though the layout of the cabin was typical, one thing was not - the cradle attached to the hair dryer. The hair dryer was housed in a drawer, which is a standard. However, to use the hair dryer meant that I had to dangle the cradle attached to the cord as I dried my hair. Surely, this was a mistake in installation, but nevertheless, something I had to endure the entire week. I am so lucky to have short hair and only hold the dryer and the cradle for a short 5-minute blow dry each morning. I really don't know how someone with long hair could have used it unless they had biceps like a tri-athlete. To view a video of the dangling hair dryer cradle, click or paste this link into your browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxJ2itOgsak