Carnival Glory

Carnival Glory is the second of the five Conquest-class ships and shares her lead sister’s steel almost exactly: same Fincantieri yard at Monfalcone, same 952-foot hull, same 110,000 tons, same 2,980 lower berths. Where she has diverged is in what has been done to her since, and in where Carnival has chosen to put her. Both of those changed in the space of a month in 2024.

The Cadiz refit

She spent twenty-one days at Navantia in Cadiz in April 2024, and it was a more thorough job than the label “dry dock” suggests. The most visible change is on deck five, where the SkyBox Sports Bar was gutted and reopened as the Heroes Tribute Bar & Lounge, a room built around military service, the same concept Carnival has since put aboard Carnival Conquest. The arcade came back rebranded as The Warehouse. A dedicated Carnival Adventures shop replaced general retail with shore-excursion gear. Camp Ocean, the children’s program, was redesigned around a video wall for its Space Cruisers sessions. A Dreams photography studio went in, and the casino gained a non-smoking section.

The cabin work is the part guests notice second and appreciate longest: new balcony doors and windows, LED lighting, bathroom night lights, faster Wi-Fi and a replaced interactive television system throughout. She emerged in the red, white and blue livery.

The point of listing all this is that a 2003 ship reads very differently depending on when it was last taken apart. Glory was taken apart recently.

The collision at Cozumel

In December 2019 she struck Carnival Legend while both were maneuvering in Cozumel. Six people were hurt, none seriously, and the footage of a 110,000-ton ship grinding into the stern of another went around the world within the hour. Both ships were repaired and both are still sailing. It is on her record and it is the only genuinely notable incident in twenty-three years of service, which for a ship carrying close to three thousand people a week is a reasonable ledger.

Where she actually sails

Port Canaveral, since May 2024, where she took over the short-Bahamas slot previously held by Carnival Liberty. That was a real change of life: she had spent long stretches of her career on week-long Caribbean itineraries out of New Orleans and Miami, and she now runs three- and four-night loops almost exclusively.

The pattern is Friday three-nighters, usually Nassau or Bimini, and Monday four-nighters that pair Bimini or Princess Cays with Nassau. Occasional five-night sailings stretch the format. Port Canaveral makes her an Orlando ship in practice, and a large share of her manifest is arriving from the theme parks or heading to them.

Who she suits

Families building a week around Orlando who want three or four nights at sea bolted onto it, and short-trip cruisers who would rather have a big ship with a recent refit than a newer, smaller one. Compared with her older sister Carnival Conquest out of Miami, she is the same vessel doing the same length of trip; the choice between them comes down to which port you can get to and whether you want Celebration Key or Nassau.

She does not suit anyone looking for a modern ship. The public rooms are freshly finished but the bones are 2003, the specialty dining is thin, and the top-deck attractions amount to a WaterWorks slide complex rather than anything elaborate. She is also a poor fit for anyone who wants a quiet sailing: three nights out of Port Canaveral in summer is the loudest product Carnival sells.