Carnival Glory Western Caribbean Cruise Review (June 3-10, 2006)
First let me start out by saying this review is based on my personal observations only. Of course, your own experiences may vary. I apologize in advance for the length of this review...but hopefully some may find it helpful. Where applicable, experiences have been rated on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best).
Background: My fiancE and I are experienced cruisers with nearly 20 cruises between us. Our main loyalty resides with RCCL (I am a Platinum level and my fiancE is a Gold level). We are also frequent cruisers on Princess and NCL. Up until this cruise on the Glory we have always avoided Carnival for a variety of reasons...some through hearsay and some through direct experience (suffice it to say we have often seen some pretty "interesting" characters from Carnival ships at various ports while cruising with other lines). Ill never forget the oh-so-lovely view of Carnival Customers butt cracks as they mooned the Grand Princess while departing Cozumel two years ago. Several of us on the Grand just shrugged and said "Its Carnival...what do you expect?" However, due to my FiancEs vacation schedule (as a newly hired school teacher) we were stuck traveling during peak season for the first time. After searching weeks for a bargain, Carnival was clearly the best price for a seven-day cruise in a balcony cabin. Rather than NOT go on a cruise I had my travel agent book the Glory. I took some comfort in the fact that fellow cruisers had mentioned seven-day cruises on Carnivals larger (Conquest and Spirit Class) ships were much less of a booze fest than their shorter itineraries on the older/smaller (Fantasy Class) ships.