Greetings from the island of Tennessee!!!! My wife and I just returned from our cruise on the Carnival Glory. Let me just start by saying...I WANNA GO BAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!! OK, Now that that's out of my system, , Cathy and I tend to focus on different things (the ships for her, the ports for me) so she'll be submitting a review shortly.

EMBARKATION: Very smooth! We stayed at the Radisson and took a free shuttle to the port. From the time we boarded the shuttle it took under an hour and a half to be on Lido deck eating lunch.

THE SHIP: I liked it. The theme is "colors" (everything is named after a color i.e. Bar Blue, Golden Dining Room, etc...) Only a couple of complaints
1. it can be confusing to find your way around on decks 3-4 because the Golden dining room separates the forward sections from the aft...to walk from one end of the ship to the other you need to be on deck 5 or higher...so to get to the theater you may find yourself walking half the ship, then going up two floors walking the rest of the way then back down two floors. Sounds worse than it was, once you get the hang of it it's no big deal.
2. There was a smell of sewage outside the theater for a couple of nights...they had it fixed by the end of the cruise so probably won't be a problem for future cruises.

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THE STAFF: Wonderful!!!!! Our room steward Imam was fantastic! Very cool towel animals! Room was great! Our Head Waiter was Yony, and our Team Waiter was Anner both from Guatemala. Fantastic guys!

THE FOOD: As usual great...The chocolate decadence cake is amazing...order at least three! The chocolate cake from room service is also very good. I'm pretty sure I ate the cost of my voyage several times over.

THE SHOWS: I don't much care for the Vegas style stuff, if you like it you'll like the two production numbers. DO NOT MISS a singer named Marcus Anthony, he sings Motown and was the best show of the trip. He's great!! The comedians were funny, but not rolling in the aisles funny. The talent show was fun and cruise director Greg did the "Bedtime Story" afterward...hilarious!!! Also try to make it to the Mr. and Mrs. show. Skip the port talks (sales pitches) and the debarkation talk (they'll be on your television constantly)

THE LOUNGES: make it a point to go to the CINN-A-BAR it's a fun piano bar. The Ebony Cabaret has a good cover band, and a singer (Julie) with a great voice plays piano outside the Casino some nights.

THE PORTS: This was the second time around this route for us (We did the same route on the Pride last year) so we knew a little more about what to expect.

Key West FL--They were doing construction on the Navy base so the first trolleys had quite a wait, we decided to have an early lunch on the ship before going ashore. by the time we finished , the crowd was gone and there was little waiting . We walked down Duval St. (sorta like going to the circus) there were mimes, street singers, and folks with huge snakes taking pictures with the tourists. Lots of bars/pubs with live music. For you Jimmy Buffett fans Captain Tony's (of The Last Mango in Paris fame) and Margaretiaville were both easy to find. We found a small place called The Blonde Giraffe key lime pie factory. They serve chocolate covered frozen key lime pie on a stick (like a bizarre ice cream)...quite possibly (I hope my wife forgives me for this) the best key lime pie I've ever tasted!!! They have a website. There is a stand in Mallory Square near the Key West Aquarium that has really good key lime-aides and key lime floats. The Aquarium is fun too (especially if you plan on doing shark-ray alley in Belize--they have a large nurse shark tank so you can get a preview of things to come).

Belize City Belize--maybe my favorite port. Last year Cathy went cave tubing while I went to Shark Ray Alley (very fun tour!) This year we decided to go snorkeling at Goff's Caye. Normally this would be a great tour. You go to a tiny island (about football field size) and snorkel a great reef with massive corals. We didn't have the typical trip. We boarded our snorkel boat with threatening skies overhead. Shortly after departing we drove thru a torrential rainstorm (hardly any shelter on the boat) I heard several references to the storm on "Gilligan's Island" (...a three hour tour...) finally we got to the island (still raining) and most folks elected to go ashore and huddle under a shed...the rest of us were bound and determined to go snorkeling! So we snorkeled in the rain...and waves...and thunder and lightning. That last part concerned us a bit so we inquired about it from the guide. He told us Lightning doesn't strike the water in Belize (must be special Belizean lightning) and even if it did our masks and snorkel were plastic and wouldn't conduct electricity. That was about the point where the snorkeling ended...sort of a group decision to exit the water. When we arrived back at the island the sun came out and we decided to snorkel around the island...very shallow till you get out a bit. Cathy brushed up against a rock in the shallows, no big deal in itself however upon this rock grew some fire coral. She likened it to placing a paperclip in an electrical outlet....back to the shed to see the medical officer for a vinegar and ammonia compress. A little rash and some swelling/itching. Our snorkeling was done for the day. The guide told us lots of stuff about Belize and its history. We still had fun. It was an adventure...if you don't like adventure refuse to go on a tour boat in the rain (I learned later that several people refused to go and were given full refunds). When we got back to the Glory we ate then tendered to the City for some shopping they have a small shopping center called the "tourism village" now...Belize has grown a lot in a year...not sure if that's a good thing. We'd looked into a company called coral breeze (on the internet) that had a great snorkeling tour that included shark ray alley for $70pp. I think we'll try that next time.

Cozumel, Mexico: The biggest complaint I heard was that we weren't at Cozumel long enough. They've built a large shopping area at the end of the pier since we were there in Jan. If you're planning on buying souvenirs, T-shirts and the like there isn't a need to go downtown anymore. We took a taxi to Chankanabb Marine park ($10 each way per taxi and $10 each for admission) The park is wonderful. Great snorkeling from the beach there was a Mayan statue underwater, and there is usually a statue of Christ (it had been temporally removed for cleaning)., not crowded at all, botanical gardens, and replicas of a Mayan village/ruins. The dolphin encounter is located here, and a sea lion show.
Big line to get back on the Glory. Several people drank WAY too much and ended up "chumming the waters" over the pier or being carted on the ship in wheelchairs.

Progresso, Mexico: the pier is about five miles long, they take you to town in busses. You get dropped off at a flea market area. lots of booths with good prices. Hammocks were $15-18 Hammock Chairs $10-20. Lots of $5 shirts. There is a blue double decker bus that does a 20min tour of Progresso for $2. It was fun, you drive by the beach, and open air chicken/fish market and fruit markets. They were experiencing "red tide" while we were there and canceled all the beach break tours. slight fishy smell when we got off the ship but the beach looked fine from the bus. The beach is within walking distance. There are several shops on the pier itself.

DEBARKATION: They are doing something new...if you can manage all your own luggage without help you can carry it off and get off earlier. We decided to do it the old way and was still off around 10:00 take a book and find a chair in the theater you'll be off before you know it (unfortunately)

All in all it was a great trip and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. One thing I'd like to see change (excuse me while I get up on my soapbox) Other passengers didn't seem to care where they smoked. As a Respiratory Therapist I deal with people who have breathing problems like Asthma and COPD every day. Tobacco smoke does more than inconviences them. It makes breathing difficult, increases medication use, decreases the immune system's response and can land them in a hospital pretty easily. Please if you smoke, smoke in your cabin, smoke in the lounges, smoke in the casino, smoke up on deck on the correct side of the ship...but PLEASE do not smoke in or around the elevators, hallways, or doorways to non-smoking areas like theaters and dining rooms (I saw LOTS of this) We're all on the same ship please be courteous to non-smokers who don't want to be exposed to tobacco smoke at every turn. There are plenty of smoking areas. We all want to enjoy our cruise without visiting the infirmary, so please don't smoke in the few areas that are designated non-smoking...Thank you. (LADIES AND GENTLEMAN...SHANNON HAS LEFT HIS SOAPBOX)

The Cruise was great...we're planning our next one. You won't go wrong with the Glory.