Splendor Review - Long review with some photos

We just got off the Splendor this past Sunday, and I wanted to post my review. It's fairly long, and I start with a general review of the ship, then get into a small summary of each day of our cruise and what we did.

Background:

This was our 9th cruise overall and third cruise with Carnival. We traveled with our two children (10 and 13) and another family. Even though this review is critical of the Splendor, we had a really nice cruise. We love cruising and really do not let the little things get to us. However, since this is a critique of our cruise, I will be critical in many areas. Even though I am critical of the Splendor, it is very difficult to complain about a cruise that cost us only $369 a person (not including tips, taxes, etc.)! So overall, this was a bargain of a cruise and one that we really did enjoy. Now, on to the critique…

Ship:

As many people have written in their reviews, the decor of the Splendor is very pink, and in my opinion over the top. I could actually get past the color, but there are these awful pink circles all over the ship. I kept asking myself how the final approval process by Carnival Executives on the decor by Joe Farcus got the go ahead. It’s really bad and has a very cheap and low quality feel to it. On this ship, it seems as though they really went out of their way to stay away from any sort elegant or classy look. Even the granite counter tops at the guest services desk had the pink circles embedded in it! I know this is a very personal sort of thing, and it’s obvious by reading many past reviews that many people don’t care or don’t seem bothered by the decor, but for us, it really seemed ugly and classless. This didn’t ruin my cruise experience of course, but after sailing on other cruise lines and ships, the Splendor comes in dead last in the classy and elegant ship department. I know some will say that Carnival caters to the “Fun Ship” theme, but it seems to me they could still have a “Fun Ship” and have their ships not look so trashy. Many people who post on cruise critic make the claim that they don’t cruise for the decor of a ship. That is fine for them, but when there are so many other beautiful options out there to choose from, I would have a very difficult time choosing the Splendor again.

Looking past the decor, there are some other areas of the ship that left me scratching my head in wonder. When this ship debuted in 2008, it was Carnivals largest ship at the time. To all of us in my group, we all felt the ship had a really cramped feel to it. As many cruise lines do, it seems like when they build bigger ships, they really just add additional passenger decks and add more people to the ship. I am not sure if this is the case with the Splendor, but the atrium and public spaces seemed very small for a ship this size. Our last cruise on the smaller Carnival Spirit seemed to have a more open and spacious feel to it. I am not sure where all the tonnage went to on the Splendor, but it just felt like a very tight space with a lot of people everywhere.

The layout of the ship was also about the worst layout of any ship I have been on previously. The flow just seemed very off to me. For example, the entrance to our dining room was tiny, and you could never enter the dining room from the doors in the back for some reason. The middle stairway and elevators seemed to be sort of useless. The photo area took up too much space, (as it does on all cruise ships it seems), and the shops were tight and packed. The rear lounge areas weren’t very attractive and seemed oddly placed.

The outdoor promenade deck seemed to be poorly designed as well. There were only one set of doors on each side to enter the deck 3 promenade area and you could not walk all the way around the deck. If you took a walk on the promenade deck, you would just come to a dead end at each end. There was no way to get back into the ship except for the main doors at the atrium area and no way to walk around the aft or bow of the ship. And why did they put those harsh blue florescent lights on the promenade?

The public decks on the top of the ship were designed better than the interior public decks, but still had some glaring flaws. The top decks are very “tiered” and staggered. It was nice to have the main pool area kind of “sunken” down with plenty of sunny and shaded areas. Or you could go up to the Thunderball pool or adult pool and have complete sun and open views. However, they put the main pool hot tubs one deck ABOVE the main pool!? I have never seen this before, and while it was nice to have a hot tub area somewhat by itself away from the main pool, if you wanted to move from the main pool to the hot tub, you had to go to the stairs and climb up one deck to find the hot tubs. They really needed an additional set of hot tubs right next to the main pool. The outdoor TV screen was a good idea, but just seems to be implemented poorly. The volume was way too loud, but then again, every music venue was consistently way too loud. I have no idea why the music in each venue has to be so loud. I don’t think this problem is exclusively a Carnival problem, but the Splendor does it’s very best to keep the volume cranked up at the live music venues and on the outdoor screen.

As with most cruise lines, there were never enough hot tubs or pool space available for the amount of people on board. Actually, the pool space was fairly adequate, but they definitely need more hot tubs. The hot tubs were either packed with drunken adults (usually always in the rear adult pool area) or packed with kids using the hot tubs for swimming. I still don’t know why most cruise ships continue to fill their pools with salt water. Princess and the newer RCL ships (and some Holland America ships) have fresh water pools. Why can’t Carnival? And, why can’t they figure out a way to heat the pools on the cooler days? This is more of a complaint with all cruise lines but the Splendor continues the tradition with cold water in the pools and salt water pools. I heard many complaints about the salt water and cold temperatures. If the pools were heated better, and had fresh water instead of salt water, I think the hot tubs would have less children swimming in them.

The splash park and water slide were nice and the kids seemed to enjoy them. Since the splash park actually had fresh water, it was nice to stand in the “shower” fountain spouts for a few minutes to rinse off the salt water from the pools and water slide. Because the splash park was pretty chilly most of the time, it would have been nice to have a dedicated hot tub in that area for the kids, but there wasn’t one.

The spa area cost quite a bit of money to use, but we knew this going into the cruise. Not a huge deal, but it just adds another thing to add to the list of knocks against this ship. The “extra cost” area of the spa seemed like one of the few classy areas of the ship, but we didn’t take advantage of it due to the cost. There are free places in the spa area however, which were nice. The workout machines and weights in the gym are free to use, and the small locker rooms have two steam showers and a free dry sauna. The men’s sauna has no windows, but I heard that the women’s sauna had big windows with an ocean view. This was definitely a hit with the ladies.

Other complaints about the ship:

- The internet “room” was only accessible by going through the cigar bar and was tucked away in what looked like a large closet.

- The library was tiny and almost pointless. In a ship this size, you should have a bigger library and how about a dedicated card/game room? On the Splendor, they made the library a combined game room/library. It was so small, they should have just done away with it and used the space for something else.

- The Casino should be more closed off from the rest of the ship. You had to walk through it to get to the main public spaces on Deck 5, and it was pretty smoky smelling. I would have liked to have listened to the guitar player, but the smoke smell was pretty strong. The jazz club and cigar bar (obviously) also had strong odors so we avoided those lounges unfortunately. I realize they want the casino to be a big draw, so I am sure the location of it was intentional.

- On Deck 4, they have a sort of promenade outdoor deck (where the lifeboats and muster stations are located) but you cannot use that area unless you are performing the muster drill or need to use a lifeboat. Seems like a big waste of space, as other ships just use the main promenade deck for lifeboat boarding.

- People seemed very confused as to why the ship leaves Cabo in the evening between the back to back days. I may have missed an announcement about it, but the staff should inform people about the reason why they sail out to sea for the night and just circle around out there only to return to the same spot the next morning for the second day in Cabo. I told various people I ran across that it was because they could then open the casino and shops on board if they were out at sea. Not sure if there are other reason. You would think they could try to work something out with Mexico to allow them to open the shops and casino, but maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part. A true overnight stay seems like it would be a bonus.

Service and Food:

This being our third Carnival cruise, we always have been impressed with the quality and service levels that the staff provides. From the room stewards to the cruise director to the dining room, most everyone seemed to always have a smile and they were always helpful. Carnival does a great job with their crews from what we have experienced over our past three cruises with them.

The food quality also seems perfectly acceptable, especially considering the low price we paid for this cruise. While it isn’t high end gourmet food, it was very good and very adequate. One complaint we had on our past Carnival Spirit cruise was the poor flow and layout of the buffet area. On the Splendor, this is one area that they really designed well. The flow seemed really good and there were so many options to be had. There was also plenty of seating and places to eat. The rarely used Rotisserie area was one of our favorite places to eat. The Splendor earned tops marks in my opinion for their buffet/grill areas!

We really liked the anytime dining and had no problems at all. We generally were there right when they opened at 5:45, and there was always a line for the opening time, but the line moved quickly. They just have a very small space to wait in line and the line spills over into the atrium. The dinning room had very good and efficient service. We didn’t try the extra fee Steakhouse. $30 a person seemed a bit steep and we were happy with the main dining room.

Entertainment:

The entertainment seemed lacking in many areas. For all of their 22 bars and lounges, there was often very little music to listen too. Karaoke was plentiful, but the singers were almost all too drunk and usually off key. I really enjoyed the duet couple in the Atrium (Summer Breeze). The piano bar was frequently “closed” as was the jazz lounge. The rooms were open of course, but there was no music going on. I didn’t stay out late every night so I could be wrong here, but the four nights I stayed out late listening to Summer Breeze, I had a hard time finding any other options during their breaks between sets other than karaoke.

The main shows were fine and on par with other cruise ships.

Big complaint – As I mentioned earlier, I have no idea why each live music venue had to be so loud. The pool side band was painfully loud, as were many of the big outdoor TV shows and concerts. Even the duo in the Atrium, which I really enjoyed listening too, had their speakers/amplifier turned up really loud. I can’t imagine people like it that loud but maybe it was just us? We couldn’t even hear each other when we tried yelling at each other out by the pool.

Photo gallery/Photographers:

This is one of my biggest problems with cruise lines, and especially Carnival. On the Splendor, the Atrium already seemed small for the amount of traffic and people on board, but then they go and setup photo areas all around it, making it almost impossible to navigate. On other cruises, it seemed like the photo areas were mostly on formal nights, but on the Splendor, it seemed like they were setup every night. Deck 4 around the atrium was where the photo gallery was. It was always packed, and they dedicated way to much room for photos (which they have to do, because they are always trying to take your picture and they need a lot of room to display them apparently). I know it must be a big money maker for Carnival, but I just hate that it takes up so much space when they could put it somewhere else (like the board room area maybe?). There is more to complain about in regards to the photographers at dinner and at the ports, but it’s been hashed over before, so I’ll leave it at that.

Cabins:

We had the lower category port hole cabins on deck 2, and our friends had regular interior cabins just down the hall from us on deck 2. The port hole cabins only allowed 2 people (which was fine), but they were actually very nice and spacious. Even though they are considered interior cabins, the windows (port holes) were great, and the room was longer than the traditional interior cabins that our friends had. One nice surprise was that they were able to put both of the twin beds together to make a king bed in our room. After researching this cabins, I had read that the convertible couch bed and the standard twin bed are not able to be pushed together like they do in the regular cabins, but they actually did put our beds together for us. The couch bed seem an inch or two lower than the regular twin bed, but it still worked out fine for us and was an unexpected bonus.

We were confused about the bathroom color choices and the amount of pink trim in the cabins. This really is trivial, but for such a new ship, it just seemed odd. The bathroom has a blue floor, and then they have the sink area and wall trim set in this green granite pattern. The green and blue seem to really clash, and we can’t figure out why Carnival couldn’t have picked some better colors that go together. The pink and peach colors in the rooms are fairly muted, but we still can’t figure out why there has to be so much pink.

Also, beware that in these rooms you hear the bow thrusters extremely well. It felt like a small earthquake in our cabin each time they used the bow thrusters. There were only two mornings though when it really bothered us and that was only because we were docking or mooring early in the morning while we were still in bed. But for the price of the room, it was easy to overlook.

Our Cruise Summary:

Day 1:

Embarkation went really smooth. We arrived to the terminal about 9:15, which is a bit early, but we dropped off our luggage at the bottom of the parking garage with the porters, and walked over to the outdoor check-in area. There was nobody else in line, and we went right up to a Carnival agent. I asked how long they had been setup ready to check in new passengers and she said they had been there since about 9am. We got a zone 1 boarding card, and went over to one of the cement planters to park ourselves for the next couple of hours. I walked over and took a few photos of the Queen Mary and then took a few photos of the Splendor at the water front area. They started boarding the wedding parties around 11:30, then VIP’s, and then zone one around 11:45. We went through security, the photo area, and up the escalator to the place where they scan your room key and take your photo. We were then walking down the long boarding bridge. Once on board, we quickly stopped by the front desk and got additional room keys for our kid’s cabin and punched holes in our cards for the lanyards. The kids had saved up for soda cards, so we got them set up with that in the atrium. We then headed up to the buffet and had lunch.

We walked the ship after lunch and headed to our cabins at 2pm. The cabins were good, and our luggage arrived pretty quickly…within the hour. There were crew members on the stairways looking like they were ready to begin muster drill, but we hadn’t heard any announcements yet. The crew members said muster drill would be in about 15 minutes, but we went ahead and took the kids swimming for a bit. They finally made an announcement about it, and around 4:30 had the muster drill on deck 4. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I thought deck 4 was the promenade deck. But the outside of deck four is only used for muster drill and lifeboats. We wanted to wait up there until all the crowds were gone but they told us we couldn’t stay and had to leave right after the drill. It didn’t make sense at the time since we thought it was the promenade deck, but we got it straightened out.

I went outside for sail away, and then decided to hit the hot tubs in the adult pool area. There were quite a few people partying and a bunch of single girls joined by a bunch of single drunk guys in the hot tub next to the one I was using. They got really rowdy, and packed in the hot tub. The guys were putting the girls one by one in the middle of the hot tub and then pouring drinks down on top of their mouths as they whooped and hollered. Of course the girls couldn’t drink all the alcohol being poured on them, so the vast majority of it was going into the hot tub water! It was pretty gross, and it made me glad they change the water frequently in the hot tubs (I think they change it daily).

We went to dinner right when it opened and had a nice evening. I attended a little of the karaoke after dinner and then went to bed.

Check-in Area

Queen Mary

Cabin 2217

Day 2 at sea:

Had breakfast in the buffet and got my usual omelet and coffee. We went out to the pool for awhile, then spent most of the afternoon playing cards up in the rotisserie. We had lunch in the dinning room (the dinning room on deck three at the rear of the ship is open for lunch only on sea days, and I highly recommend it!). Took the kids to try the splash park, but it was pretty chilly with the cool air and cool water temperatures, but they had fun anyway. This was the first formal night, so we had a nice dinner at 5:45 again. We bought the 5 bottle wine package and split the cost with our friends. I don’t eat lobster, but my wife and friends said it was the best lobster they had ever had. I think we saw the main show that night then went to bed afterwards.

Day 3 first day at Cabo:

We had breakfast early in the dinning room that day. After breakfast, we went up near the mini golf course and watched our arrival into Cabo. The Disney Wonder (who also departed the Long Beach area when we did) had already arrived and was anchored in the bay. There were a ton of people trying to get off the ship that first day in Cabo and since we have been to Cabo many times before, we had wanted to avoid the lines for the tenders. We had already planned to stay on the ship all day, and it was a great decision since it was really empty most of the day. We hung out by the main pool all day, but we went up with the kids to the Thunderball pool, waterslide, and splash park often. They unfortunately played a Tina Turner concert at the main pool area late that morning. It was of course way too loud, and we just don’t particularly like Tina Turner and her raspy voice J. Anyway, we had lunch in the buffet and a few of us tried the Mongolian BBQ. It was really too spice for us, but it was worth a shot. The buffet was so empty and the whole ship was really nice with all the people off of it. In the afternoon, the Reggae band was playing by the main pool and it was just really loud, so we went and played cards up in the Rotisserie area.

We had dinner and I think saw the prop comedian show that night. It was a great day just hanging out on the ship while everyone else was waiting for tenders and enduring the heat of the day in Cabo (it was warm that day, but had a nice breeze going).

Day 4 second day at Cabo:

The ship arrives early the second day at Cabo since they just go off shore a ways and circle during the night. We woke up with the bow thrusters shaking our room around 6:15ish. Got ready and headed to breakfast at 7am. After breakfast, we got some gear packed up in backpacks and headed right for the tender boarding area where we walked right onto the tenders. There is rarely any wait for a Tender boat the second day in Cabo, and this day was no exception. We got to the marina in Cabo and hired a water taxi/plexiglass bottom boat for $5 a person (round trip). There were eight of us (my wife stayed on the ship) so $40 wasn’t a bad price for a round trip to the Lover’s beach area. We actually decided to go to the Pelican Rock beach, which is right next to Lovers beach, and you can easily walk to Lovers or to the Pacific side of the beach. We decided on Pelican Rock because we wanted snorkel around the rock. Visibility was perfect that day, and there were no jelly fish in the water so we had a nice time swimming around the rock looking at all the fish. We told the boat/taxi driver that we only wanted to stay for an hour and a half, and sure enough, he came back to get us right at an hour and a half. I am always impressed how the taxi boats are always true to their word about picking you up from the beach in a timely manner. The kids were all tired, salty and sandy by then and they were ready to get back to the ship for lunch. We spent the rest of the day on the ship, I think playing cards and taking the kids to the splash park and pool for a bit.

Sometime either the first day in Cabo or the second day, we received a letter from the captain saying that we were not going to go to Puerto Vallarta as scheduled due to the hurricane. Instead, they had arranged for us to go to La Paz instead. La Paz is also on the Baja California side of Mexico and is just north of Cabo in a big sheltered bay. We had been to La Paz previously on the Holland America Ryndam and the Carnival Spirit cruises.

Day 5 La Paz:

We had breakfast in the dining room and we really weren’t planning on getting off the ship that day, other than to look around at the little vendor area right outside the ship. The dock at La Paz (actually the ship docks in Pichilingue, which is about 10 miles roughly outside of La Paz) requires that you take a shuttle bus or taxi to be able to go into town. Carnival had arranged for free buses every half an hour or so into town, but the last time we were in La Paz, I remembered that the line to get on the buses took forever, and we just didn’t want to wait in line for anything. After breakfast we got off the ship, expecting to just do a little browsing in the market area they setup at the dock. However, the cruise director was standing at the exit of the ship area and said that there were no lines and the buses were available to take people to town for free. We decided to go ahead and get on a bus and head into town since it was so convenient. It took about 20 minutes to get to town on this little two lane road, but it was fairly scenic as the road goes along the beaches and ocean front.

Once in town, we just walked down the main street along the beach. It seemed like more of an authentic Mexican town compared to Cabo, and it was nice place. There were some really great looking restaurants, but it was still a bit early for lunch, and we had planned to have lunch back on the ship anyway. There wasn’t a lot of shopping compared to Cabo and other tourist areas in Mexico, but there was some shopping. We walked for awhile, but the kids were anxious to get back to the ship, so we decided to head back to the bus station to go back to the ship.

Along the main street, I noticed a few of the locals selling boat excursions out to see the local whale sharks. Whale sharks are harmless fish, but they are real sharks and the biggest fish in the world. They feed on plankton in the shallow waters off La Paz. I love the ocean, and have been interested in sharks ever since I was a little kid. After one of the guys offered the price of only $25 to swim with a whale shark, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I told my friends to go ahead and head back to the ship as I wanted to do the whale shark thing. After talking to the guy selling the whale shark trip, he said that we all should go on the excursion and he would charge only $10 for the kids, and that his boat would take us directly back to the cruise ship. This sounded better than the bus for my friends so we all decided to go see the whale sharks and get a ride back to the ship on his little boat.

This turned out to be an awesome experience. We saw about 5 different whale sharks and swam with about 4 of them. The water was murky, but the sharks were huge and beautiful! After we saw the sharks, the boat driver took us directly back to the Splendor and dropped us off at little dock right behind the ship. It was so convenient!

La Paz

Day 6 sea day: Spent the morning by the pool, and played cards in the rotisserie area again. We had lunch again in the dining room and it was really good. We went dancing that night in the atrium and I stayed up till about midnight listening to Summer Breeze (the couple who sing and play the keyboard in the atrium each evening).

We also did the afternoon tea this day. It was nice to meet some new people at our table and it was a nice experience. It was a bit crowded though, and it was hard to get the waiters to come back to your table after their first visit with the snacks and tea.

We had had really smooth seas up to this point, but today there were larger waves. Not a big deal though, and we actually enjoyed a little more movement on the ocean.

Summer Breeze

Day 7 sea day:

After breakfast, the kids wanted to go swimming one last time, but today was a cooler day, so the swimming didn’t last long. Unfortunately, the hot tubs were all out of order, and we waited for about an hour for them to finally get them working. There was a group of young boys that all piled into the hot tub we were in and we had to tell them not to spit the water at each other (which they were doing) and stop splashing and trying to swim in the hot tub.

We again had a great lunch in the dining room. This was the day they have the chocolate/desert buffet in the afternoon (it’s located in the buffet area). It was packed with people, but we were so full from lunch that we really didn’t partake of it too much. My friend did head down and get a plate full of deserts for us to share while we played cards.

We did the afternoon tea again today, and there were about half the people there compared to the day before. We were able to get seconds on the deserts and snacks they gave out with the tea, and we had some really good conversations with other passengers who were sitting with us.

We had our final dinner in the dinning room that night, and this was the only night that the service was really slow for some reason. I think the assistant waiter was not working, and the head waiter lady had to do all the serving. That evening they had my favorite desert which is the Grand Marnier Soufflé. We packed our back after dinner, but we had decided to do self debarkation so we didn’t have to put our bags out in the hallway. I stayed up late listening to Summer Breeze again.

Debarkation:

We woke up early again as the bow thrusters shook our cabin violently around 5:15am. We had arrived back in Long Beach. We got ready and did final packing and headed up to the buffet around 6:15. They open up much earlier on the debarkation day. We finished up breakfast around 6:50 and as we headed back to our cabin we noticed that they were already letting people off the ship. We grabbed our bags and headed for the deck 3 lobby area. The cruise director made an announcement right as we hit deck 3 about how people could go ahead and debark if they had their own luggage and were doing self debarkation. There were no lines and we walked right off the ship! We had to wait in a small line in the terminal building (the big dome) to get through customs, but then we were outside and in our car by 7:30am! It was one of the best debarkations ever.

Summary:

I know I have been pretty critical with this ship, but we really did have a great time because even a cheap cruise is a good cruise. However, my wife and I would like to find some alternative to Carnival. I would like a more classy ship and we don’t care for the party like atmosphere they promote. I know it probably sounds like I am boring person, and I do admit that I like a more sophisticated and classy atmosphere. But Carnival seems to cater to a crowd that we just don’t fit in with. There were way too many drunks and unruly and unsupervised kids on the Splendor and it has been that way on all three of our Carnival cruises now. We have seen unruly kids and drunken adults on other cruise lines, but it has been considerably less than what we experienced on Carnival.

Carnival does provide a considerably less expensive cruise, and for that, I certainly can put up with the drunks and partying. It just seems like Carnival could do so much better with their decor and other problem areas, and it’s too bad they don’t make more of an effort in those areas (i.e. really loud music, too few hot tubs, etc.)

I am glad we were able to try a different ship and did not have to repeat a cruise we have already been on, but I don’t think I’ll be going back on the Splendor again. These are all personal opinions of course and I really appreciated all the prior reviews I read before we left so I thought I would simply offer my thoughts on the Splendor for those of you thinking about booking this ship.

I wish there were more cruise options departing from California, but it seems that there are less and less cruise ships home porting in California for the foreseeable future. Hopefully RCL and Holland America will permanently base ships here again and hopefully Princess keeps their ship(s) here.

Thanks for the fair and honest review. It sounds like there really wasn't anything wrong with the cruise other than it wasn't suited to your tastes - which is totally fair!

It does sound however perfect for me and my family, so your review has gotten me even more excited...to bad I still have a long time to wait!

Nice review, thanks. The Splendor is a really nice ship, will probably be using her again.

Cool Whale Pics!!

I LOVED your review of La Paz and swimming with the Whale Sharks! I would LOVE to do that and I so wish that the Splendor would change their itinery to 1 day in Cabo and 1 day in La Paz. That must have been so exciting for you, great pictures, thank you!

Loved your review. It was very nice to hear the good and the bad without the bashing or cheerleading. Awesome!

We enjoyed your review! I too, loved the whale pics! Awesome! We have been on several cruises--Princess, NCL, Royal Caribbean, Costa, Celebrity and Carnival. I think we totally agree with your review of Carnival. There are really no "bad" cruises-- but just some that are more suited to your own personal taste. We always enjoy people watching-- and you get to do that alot on Carnival (well, on any cruise! lol!). We are not into all the glitzy decor either-- but as you stated, for the price, it is a good deal. All the best on your future cruises-- and thanks!:)

Wonderful review and wonderful pictures, sounds like Carnival should put you on staff to design ships:)

Thanks for all the nice comments!

We really did have a great time, and I shouldn't be so harsh with Carnival in some of those areas. They do provide such a great price compared to the other lines, and there are a lot of things they do really well!

Great review & pictures!

We'll be on the Splendor the end of this month. DH and I have to agree with your assessment of Carnival but when comparing costs, we recognize that you get what you pay for. We simply set our expectations a little lower and are less disappointed. There is plenty to enjoy on Carnival ships so we focus on the positives like the Spa suites/spa facility and the melting chocolate cake. :D

Your review was most helpful. I wish we could do La Paz instead of Cabo 2 days. I know my hubby and I would love to experience the sharks. Great pics, too.

Thank you for the detailed review! Glad you found some good highlights on your trip, but it did indeed sound like it wasn't the right cruise for you.

Not sure your demographics, but guessing from some of your activities onboard (tea and cards) that you are not part of the younger crowd that Carnival tends to cater to?

We found Princess to be a nice quiet and relaxing cruise many many years ago and we enjoyed it.. but they may have changed since. It might be more to your liking to sail on one of their cruises?

We are going on Splendor in a few weeks (because of the great value) and are already dreading the pink decor.. my wife particularly despises pink, so perhaps she'll need to wear some tinted glasses to turn it more a shade of purple! :D

Thanks again for the great pics and time taken for giving us a walk through of your cruise on the Splendor!!

Thank you for the detailed review! Glad you found some good highlights on your trip, but it did indeed sound like it wasn't the right cruise for you.

 

Not sure your demographics, but guessing from some of your activities onboard (tea and cards) that you are not part of the younger crowd that Carnival tends to cater to?

 

We found Princess to be a nice quiet and relaxing cruise many many years ago and we enjoyed it.. but they may have changed since. It might be more to your liking to sail on one of their cruises?

 

We are going on Splendor in a few weeks (because of the great value) and are already dreading the pink decor.. my wife particularly despises pink, so perhaps she'll need to wear some tinted glasses to turn it more a shade of purple! :D

 

Thanks again for the great pics and time taken for giving us a walk through of your cruise on the Splendor!!

Actually, we are in our mid 30's, and have had one Princess cruise and one Holland America cruise. Both the Princess and HAL cruises were probably our favorites. Even when we were in our 20's we were pretty conservative in our lifestyle (not necessarily conservative in everything though). We just don't really drink much, other than a glass of wine for dinner. I enjoy music, but I grew up listening to a lot of classical music, and I am more of a "soothing" music kind of person. I do like a fun and lively atmosphere occasionally, and I would like to learn how to dance, but nightclubs and loud music definitely aren't really our scene.

The pink really didn't bother me too much, it's just that our previous cruises on other cruise lines seemed alot more conservative and elegant. The doughnut looking rings in the elevator doors and the lime green grout on the black tile were pretty ridiculous looking, but the pink isn't too bad. Have fun regardless, and it sounds like you will!

So the piano bar was dead?? That's not great to hear. Was it dead around 9 pm??

DH and I have been limiting the search for our next cruise to those that had the spa with thalasso pools and also ships with piano bars, since those are our two most important things. We have almost decided on the Splendor. But if there is, in essence, no piano bar, we might have to rethink that.

Maggie

There definitely is a piano bar physically on the ship, but I only saw a piano player in there two times during the cruise, and I don't remember paying much attention the first time I saw him playing there, but the second time I walked by while he was playing, there were only about 3 people in there listening (but they seemed to be having a good time). Now keep in mind, I was probably mostly around that area of ship before 9pm, and I am sure it was open nightly at various times. I am probably not a good person ask about it, but I was often looking for entertainment between 7-10pm, and there seemed to me to be very little options other than karaoke and maybe the main show in the big theater or bingo in the big theater. I think I only saw the jazz club with live entertainment going about 2 times as well. I should have paid more attention, sorry!

Wow, thanks for the detailed review.

Kirk

Your review is pretty much our review, however, I actually like the pink. DH, not so much. :)

What I want to know is how you got those awesome pix without any people in them ??

HAL is our line of choice, and I love RCI's Radiance class ships. Would we sail Splendor again ?? Perhaps. We ARE in a cruise ship drought here in CA. :p

We really the Fantasy class ships, and have one booked in Feb.

Pat

Thanks for the great review & pics-- they remind me of why we booked again for May.

Did you see me waving goodbye to you from my condo?:D;)

I have 2 cruises next year on the Splendor. Loved your pictures and now I'm more excited.

I know you were being critical and you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I anticipate to have a wonderful time since I love the Carnival product. I love karaoke - even the drunks are fun. I booked a group of friends to go with me in April but I started getting the cruise blues and needed to book another so I Splendor had a resident special and I booked a cheap week in Feb for me & DH to check out the ship. Then I can report back to everyone with pictures of what they are about to experience. I'm stoked. Even my worst cruise was better than work.

Your review is pretty much our review, however, I actually like the pink. DH, not so much. :)

 

What I want to know is how you got those awesome pix without any people in them ??

 

HAL is our line of choice, and I love RCI's Radiance class ships. Would we sail Splendor again ?? Perhaps. We ARE in a cruise ship drought here in CA. :p

 

We really the Fantasy class ships, and have one booked in Feb.

 

Pat

I usually go around the cruise ship the very last night of the cruise with my camera and tripod, after most people have gone to bed or are in the main theater, etc. I just like to get photos of most of the public spaces on the ship, especially at night with all the lights on.