Profile and Photo Tour of Carnival Glory

My subject this time is Carnival Glory. Glory is a large cruise ship - - one of Carnival Cruise Lines’ Conquest class. She is not the biggest ship Carnival has but not the smallest by any means. Rather, she is one of five 110,000 gross ton ships which are the real backbone of the Carnival fleet.

In putting together a new profile and photo tour of the Glory, I was struck by just how a large ship gives guests so many choices. Take the open decks for instance. Following her most recent re-fit, Glory now has an adults only retreat area with premium deck chairs, hammocks, a hot tub and a bar. If luxuriating relaxation does not interest you, you can ride down a three deck high waterslide, plunge into a nearby pool or unwind in another hot tub which is adjacent to this pool. If that is not appealing, how about relaxing in a deck chair and watching a movie, concert or sports event on a 12 by 22 foot LED outdoor screen. There is also another pool and two more hot tubs near by as well as a bar and a Mongolian Wok buffet station. People looking to be more active can use the jogging trail, the basket ball court, the volleyball court, the mini-golf course, the golf practice net or play shuffleboard. Then there is another pool with two more hot tubs that is under a retractable glass roof. It also has deck chairs, a bar, a grill and the ship’s pizzeria. If none of this is appealing, there are also the indoor facilities including a large spa, restaurants, bars, theaters etc.

One could go through a similar list for all the dining options. However, the point is that a ship of this size gives one considerable latitude in designing ones vacation.

Of course, there are more people on a large ship than a small ship assuming that both ships are in the same market category. (A large premium ship can have less passengers than a smaller mass market ship). But then on a smaller ship, there is less space and less facilities and so there is more concentration of the people.

Carnival Glory is a mass market ship. In fact, the original vision behind Carnival was to open up cruising to everyman. To this end, the line aims to provide good quality facilities and service at a reasonable price. Over time, it has evolved from being a party oriented line to being a family focused line, although there is still considerable emphasis on having fun.

Carnival Glory is currently winding up her first summer season homeported in New York, where she was sailing to Canada and New England. In the next few weeks she will move down the East Coast doing cruises from Norfolk, Virginia and then Charleston, South Carolina before taking up residence in Miami for the winter. Next Spring, she will follow the same route in the reverse direction.

Beyondships new and updated profile of Carnival Glory is at http://www.beyondships.com/CarnivalGlory-profile.html and the photo tour with dozens of new photos is at http://www.beyondships.com/CarnivalGlory-Tour-1.html

Talking about Single Cabins and Talking with the Senior Officers of Ventura

When I sat down with Captain Alistair Clark, Executive Purser David Sheperd and Cruise Director Leon de Ste. Croix, and asked them to talk about Ventura, the word that kept coming up was “choice.” Ventura is designed to offer guests choices so that the guests can shape the cruise experience so that it suits their needs and tastes. This “choice factor” cuts across entertainment, dining, accommodations and activities. The ship is not based upon the principle “one size fits all.”

One also sees this choice factor across the P&O fleet. While some of the major cruise lines seek to have each of their ships resemble each other as closely as possible so as to maintain brand continuity, P&O has a markedly different set of ships. It is not just that the fleet has large, small and medium sized ships, but there are adults-only and family-friendly ships, traditional/more formal ships and contemporary/more casual ships. Again, this allows the passenger to select the cruise experience that is most suited to him or her.

Unifying all of this is an overall P&O flavor and way of doing things. When you step aboard a P&O ship, you know it is a P&O ship.
Our discussion about Ventura is posted at http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Ventura-interview.html

Because Ventura does present an array of dining choices, I thought it would be helpful to write an article that gives an overview of the various dining venues on the ship. To help me on this, I asked Food and Beverage Manager Alasdair Ross to give a brief introduction to each of the venues. That article appears at http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Ventura-dining.html

Changing topics, this year’s crop of new ships includes two ships that have single-occupancy cabins. For the last decade or so, the prevailing attitude in the industry was that single-occupancy cabins were uneconomical and had no place on a modern cruise ship. Every cabin had to accommodate at least two people. As a result, solo travelers had to pay a single supplement that was sometimes twice the per person rate for a double-occupancy cabin.

Now, however, going against this common-wisdom both P&O’s Azura and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Epic have included some single-occupancy cabins in addition to the typical mix of suites and double-occupancy cabins. Neither line is charging a single supplement for these cabins.

Why did these lines do this and is this the start of something new? I asked several cruise line executives to comment including Carol Marlow, Managing Director of P&O, Dan Hanrahan, President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises and Peter Shanks, Managing Director of Cunard. The article is posted at: http://www.beyondships.com/Cruise-articles-singles.html