We sailed on the Carnival Glory to the Western Caribbean on December 4, 2004. We have sailed with Carnival several years ago on the Fascination and thoroughly enjoyed that cruise. However, this trip was a different story. Cabin Location This is our biggest complaint as it became necessary to battle with the purser's desk numerous times.
We were in Cabin 6367 which is directly above the Kaleidoscope Bar and "Teri Jo" who sings and to a keyboard. When we went to our cabin the first evening after dinner it was as if Teri Jo was playing from our room! My husband and I determined where the noise was coming from and proceeded directly to the purser's desk. They said there was nothing they could do about the noise because the "passengers wanted to be entertained, and she would be playing until 1 a.m.." They could care less that we could not sleep. Their resolution was to offer us ear plugs. We gave that a try, but they did nothing to cut the vibration coming from the bass, nor her singing. The next day we received a fruit basket expressing Carnival's regret that we could not be moved to a different cabin. By the 2nd evening we became determined to battle it out with Carnival. We took their fruit basket and stood our ground on our 2nd trip to the purser's desk and would not accept that nothing could be done. A representative of the Hotel Director admitted that the noise level was too loud, and that they have complaints on every single cruise about these cabins! I expressed my disbelief that the Carnival Glory had no respect for those passengers that wanted to sleep at night. They did reduce her playing time until 10:30 and promised us that she would not play on Tuesday and Thursday nights and the playing would never go beyond 10:30 PM. Well, Teri Jo played on Tuesday and Thursday nights and on Thursday night she played until 1:00 a.m.! I might add that my husband has a 80% hearing lose, but without his hearing aids he could hear every word that Teri Jo spoke or sang in the lounge beneath our room. Our voyage was tainted by sleep deprivation and the stress from having to do battle with the purser's office.
DINING ROOM EXPERIENCE My husband and I booked this trip a year in advance for our family of 10. Unfortunately, the dining room was another big disappointment as they did not seat us together at one large table, but gave us 3 tables that were about 3 feet apart. We requested a change, but that never happened. The Maitre D' was worthless and was probably only concerned with getting tips from those that were happy. He wrote us off the first evening. They admitted that this was another area where passengers were frequently complaining on cruises. Our dining room service was fair at best. We were seldom served everything we had requested. In all fairness, we understand our servers were new to the job, which does explain some of the service problems. The servers were very nice. Carnival Glory does not fully set their tables with all the eating utensils one needs. If you leave your fork on your plate and it gets picked up, you'll need to ask for another. You get one of everything and each night that was not enough. A couple of evenings we were on our own for finding a utensil to eat our desserts with. The food was fair. By the end of the cruise it all began to taste the same.