I woke up following a good night’s sleep shortly after 7 am and if Sister T and I weren’t boarding the Carnival Glory today, would have rolled right back over.
Sister T got up and discovered the room only had one packet of regular coffee and one decaf. Ugh, not good Hyatt! She kindly gave me the one and said she’d pick up coffee downstairs when she went to smoke.
Hyatt Breakfast
After getting ready for the day, we went down for breakfast at the cafe where we had the breakfast buffet included in our room rate.
It was very good with great coffee and juice included. I really enjoyed their biscuit with gravy and the frittata. The fresh fruit was great too. You could get eggs or omelettes cooked to order.
Following breakfast we finished packing up and left the room about 10 am after checking out on the TV.
The elevators were a mess due to all the cruisers wanting to leave for the port. Once outside, it was only 3-5 minutes for our Uber to arrive. The brief ride to the port was just $7 plus trip.
Embarkation
We had a hard time figuring out where to drop our bags, but once we found the right place it was smooth. The awesome porter told us where to find the priority boarding line where we had literally no wait for check in or the X-ray machine.
We were in the priority waiting area about 10:45 am and boarding started right at 11:30 am.
Once on-board we went straight to the room to drop our carryons and was a bit disappointed to find our room wasn’t ready. Remember this was my first cruise as platinum and one of the benefits is that your cabin is ready upon embarkation.
Apparently the news that we were now in the cabin didn’t make it to the room steward and it caused problems the rest of today. I hope it gets straightened out fast.
The room steward let us drop our carryons which we placed in the closet and then went to lunch.
Glory Afternoon
I headed straight to the fairly new BBQ on deck 10 above the regular buffet. No one was in line and only a few people were sitting in the area.
I had a pulled pork sandwich and potato salad. I was going to get the beans but the server told me they weren’t warm enough yet.
He kindly brought me a plate of them while I was eating.
Great service and delicious food!
T. went to smoke while I topped off lunch with tasty cheesecake.
We came back an hour later AND still the room wasn’t done. In fact it wasn’t done until after 1 pm.
While waiting in a common area with all the other passengers for cabins to open up, the captain announced our itinerary was changing from Eastern to Western along with the days and ports. This was as expected due to Irma heading directly towards some of our ports, but disappointing. I had expected to get information on an itinerary change when checking in but at least we got it before sail-away.
We were going to do the same itinerary the Glory sails every other week so I quickly looked it up on my phone so we could book one of the beach clubs in Cozumel.
I tried to book Nachi Cocum but it was full. Next choice was Mr. Sanchos where I was able to get reservations for the two of us. Later in the week, we found out this was a very good move.
One picture of Miami before returning to our cabin.
We were surprised to find out when returning to our cabin the beds were set up together and the couch was made up as a third bed. There were drink coupons for someone else AND our VIFP bottles of water and coupons were not in the room.
The bottled water I ordered was there so I had hope. I let the assistant room steward know and he said they would fix it in the evening. I wasn’t happy about that but they had to get luggage delivered.
I laid down to try to nap and was just about to fall asleep when they knocked on the door with our bags. I texted my sister and we unpacked before the safety drill at 3:30.
Due to medical reasons, T requested the special needs muster and we went to the Ivory Bar as directed. They scanned our cards and 30 minutes later we were done.
We then separated and I visited the Alchemy bar and told Jakub I’d be a regular.
First a basil drop and then a custom drink by Jakub from Slovakia. I meant many fun people in the hour or so there.
Glory Evening
After getting ready for dinner, Teresa and I headed to the steakhouse for our 6:30 pm reservation.
Notice the steakhouse had our right cabin number. 😉
Emerald Steakhouse
We were warmly greeted and seated promptly. The wait staff all introduced themselves and we had a chance to look over the menus. We go to the steakhouse on the first evening for two reasons: the free bottle of wine (or 50% off any wine) and we’re not impressed with the first night’s menu.
We are ready to dine…
And wine for me! We were brought our choice of bread with accoutrements.
The chef’s surprise was a very tasty beef slider.
I started with a crab crake.
T’s first starter was lobster bisque (no picture. I next had the shrimp cocktail.
T. also had beefsteak tomatoes with gorgonzola crumbles.
Our mains came shortly after. I had gone with my favorite surf and turf.
I got to see the Lobster ravioli for the first time when T ordered it.
It was good, but I’ll stick with steak next time. For dessert T had a wonderful looking fresh fruit dish with sorbet.
I had the apple tart with ice cream which was very tasty.
Two things of note as we finished our meal in the steakhouse. I had ordered decaf coffee with my dessert. The server came to me later and said they didn’t have decaf coffee. She could bring me some from the Lido deck if I wanted. Uh, no thanks. Truly wierd.
Second, she charged me full price for the bottle of wine until I reminded her of the 50% discount. All in all, a fantastic meal, company, setting and pretty good service.
Cabin Woes
The glow was ruined when we returned to our cabin and found it was still made up the same. We had a towel animal but the dirty towel’s weren’t even picked up.
The room stewards were not in the hallways so we called housekeeping who sent the room steward. He said he would fix and apologized again and said it was because we weren’t on the his list. That was true BUT I had given instructions to his assistant hours earlier.
We told him we also needed ice, our VIFP water and drink coupons. He said to give him 15 minutes so we left and I took this picture outside.
Well, the bed’s were separated when we returned and the water was there but NO ice or drink tickets. Discovered my bedside lamp isn’t working but I will deal with all of them the next day.
We had lots of papers today. First the most important with our new itinerary.
The fun times of course.
The original entertainment schedule…
And the revised Western Caribbean schedule.
Important information.
The internet plan information. We had both purchased social plans online before embarkation and saved about $7.
If you missed the other parts of the recap the links are below.
Leave a Reply