Carnival Glory Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This cruise was basically chosen in a spur-of-the-moment, "ohmygosh, it's HOW inexpensive?!" conversation between my wife and I; if I recall, the interaction was basically as follows:
"Honey, I found a cruise over Spring Break that costs $[smallnumber] per person for a week, for a window cabin, out of Miami."
"OK, sign us up."
Cabin Review
Ocean View
Our cabin was spacious (220 square feet), and about halfway between the fore and mid elevator banks, which suited us perfectly. There was plenty of storage space for clothing for 3 (the cabin wouldn't fit 4; our daughter slept on a converted sofa). The only knock on it, and it's a minor one, is that it's directly above a crew-only part of Deck 0 that seems to see activity throughout the entire day and night, so sometimes there's noise from below, but it's not terribly loud (it didn't wake us up, at least). We liked having the cove window; it allowed us a little extra storage space (hats, books, stuffed animals, and towel animals tended to wind up there), and the ship's lights reflecting off of the bow wake provided enough light to just about see by in the middle of the night if you left the shades open.
Being on deck 1, there was a real sense of how fast the ship was going through the water when you looked out, but there wasn't too much motion (although, in fairness, we had pretty stable seas the whole time; there was a little motion during dinner on day 3 when we got in from Amber Cove -- 2 or 3 degrees to either side as the boat rocked).
Port Reviews
Amber Cove (Puerto Plata)
The cruise port is immaculate. Really, really nice. A little far away from town, though, so there's not a lot of private tours happening; you'd probably have to rent a car or hire a taxi.
We did the catamaran sail and snorkel through the ship. The snorkeling portion was a little blah (winter is rainy season in the DR, and therefore the water was cloudy, but the tour operators did get in to chum the water a little and encourage fish to appear). There were two stops, with an open soda bar before the first stop, and open bar with beer and rum drinks before the second, finishing up with a buffet lunch (cold cut sandwiches and sides) as we sailed to the disembarkation point. There was a nice mix of American Latin music (Pitbull, etc) and Dominican and Mexican hiphop playing as we sailed, lending a party atmosphere.
Getting to and from the catamaran was done on a modern tourbus that easily seated 40; we had more like 25. The drive to embark was about an hour, through Puerto Plata to Sosua, while the return trip was about half an hour, as we sailed to Playa Dorada, which is closer to Amber Cove.
Grand Turk
Here, we just did a beach day. The cruise port is excellent, with a really cool exhibit about the role Grand Turk played in the Space Race (it's where John Glenn and Gus Grissom splashed down after their flights), the usual shops, a Margaritaville, and tons of beach chairs near a crystal-clear swimming area. There are people on the beach touting tours, renting beach chairs (the ones under the green umbrellas belong to the port, and are free to use, which we found perfectly acceptable), selling drinks ($20 for 5 local lagers), offering pony rides, and braiding hair. We rented snorkeling equipment ($10 for mask and snorkel, $6 for fins, for the day) and explored. Plenty of fish to be found in the swimming area, and we even found an anchor in about 12 feet of water, pretty cool!
I'd rate this beach as second only to Half Moon Cay. Magen's Bay comes in a respectable third.