A Splendid journey and a dance with Bertha

Below is the beginning of a review of our cruise on the Splendor 08/04 sailing.

Another Splendid voyage. 08/04/14

This review marks our return to cruising Carnival after a year long absence (which for us is a long time). This was to be our 3rd cruise on the Splendor and the 2nd on her out of New York.

First a little bit about us. I am jimbo5544 on cruisecritic, I post probably what most would consider more than my share of posts here on the Carnival main board. I was traveling with my better half Mary. We are both part time travel agents with full time jobs. Most of the time we cruise with at least one of our five children and their families. This cruise we were on our own. We cruise Carnival a lot, this was our 26th cruise on Carnival and we were actually using one of our milestone rewards as on board credit for this cruise.

This was a group cruise that we had arranged as a fund raiser for our local Knights of Columbus chapter.

Our cruise was to be an 8 day cruise on the Splendor with port stops in Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau. Notice the reference to the word "was", but more on that later.

We had 12 cabins in our group and had arranged for transportation of a small bus to take us from our home town down to the pier in New York. We had arranged to meet in our church parking lot. We had some first time cruisers with us and as the bus (27 passenger) I knew we were in for some fun when I saw the bags coming out of cars. What were these people packing for? As we got close to the terminal I joked with everyone on the bus saying we had gotten an email from Carnival saying that due to tropical home Bertha, we were being diverted to Canada (Which was being rumored here on cruise critic the week before our cruise), I should have kept my mouth shut.

I had wanted to be at the terminal a little before 11 so we could get on and get the cabana we wanted from the excursion desk for HMC. We got there right at 11 and dropped our bags and went in for check in. The terminal was not to bad (crowding wise) and we went into the VIP check in room. Check in went off without a hitch and we began the wait for the call to go on the ship. After about 20 minutes they announced that there was a delay getting on the ship and they expected boarding to start around noon. We later found outs that the ship was having a CDC inspection which I am guessing was the reason for the delay.

About 10 minutes later, they came over with another announcement that for safety reasons and due to the tropical storm Bertha we were going to drop the port of Grand Turk and substitute Poet Canaveral. A large groan went up from the crowd in the VIP room and I am sure from the crowd outside as well.

We began to finally board the ship around 12:10. Our first cruise from New York was very orderly, this was definitely not the case on this day. The workers tried to keep an open lane down the middle of the terminal so the VIP cruisers could board. It quickly became a mess. I am not sure the reason for it but everyone started to crowd the area to pass thru to get to the boarding area. Pushing and showing commenced and it was fairly ugly with people with zone 11 pushing right thru and going to the boarding area. In our 28 cruises, we have never experienced anything like this.

At any rate, we boarded and began our cruise on the Splendor. I went over to the excursion desk and the curtains were drawn. A worker explained they were making the necessary changes of canceling excursions for Grand Turk and also with the changes to our cruise (alignment of the stops). We were fine with all of this.

One new thing for us was that I noticed when I bought the first cocktail, that there was not two copies of the receipt, just the one you sign and they take back. While certainly not a big thing, it caught us a bit by surprise, although it totally makes sense.

We had decided a small group of us would go to the steakhouse on our first evening. This I something we had not done before, and truth be known part of the reasoning was the offer of a free bottle of wine that had mentioned here as well on John Heald's blog.

We made that reservation for 7:30 at the station they had set up in the lobby. We them prodded to our room. Our room was ready, and we met our room steward Erickson, who told us thanks for all of our cruising with Carnival, welcome back and to be sure to let him know if we needed anything else he would take care of it. We had an aft wrap cabin 6485. We checked out the room, and the balcony, which is a great balcony with 3 loungers and 5 chairs. A great balcony. As we were leaving the room, our bags got delivered (pretty good as this was before 12:30),

We explored the ship a bit, as mentioned before this was our third sailing on her (actually our 4th as were invited to a free 3 day sailing on here when she came over to Long Beach from her inaugural season in Europe).

We then went up to get something to eat and relax. At 2:30, I went to our agreed upon time and place at Liners bar on the aft section of lido deck. We ended up meeting about 6 other posters from the roll call and talked until it was time for the muster drill. We then went down to the muster drill area and waited as announcement after announcement went on asking for people to go to their assigned area and please be quiet. We finished the muster drill around 10 after 4 and I went to see if the excursion desk was open (it was ...hurray) so I could get our 2 story cabana for half Moon Cay then hurried up to meet the rest of our group to take pictures of the city as we sailed away from Manhattan.

First night in the Pinnacle Steakhouse

Breaking some of our tried and true cruise habits, we made the decision to not go to the MDR on the first night and instead, go to the steakhouse. This is something we have never done before and our decision to do so was for several reasons. First. The free bottle of wine did play a factor (even though we ended up getting another bottle during the meal), and it had been a while since we had cruised Carnival and I wanted to experience the steakhouse again.

There have been a thread on the main page specifically about the steakhouse on the Splendor (not a complementary one) and I wanted to see if my meal would come up to the standards of past steakhouse meals.

For the sake of brevity, I will net this part down a bit.

Food - we found the food to be as good as previous dinners (both at this steakhouse a year ago and many others before it). I had the same meal I always (almost always anyway). The onion soup was very good, for those who have not tried it, it is reduced and has a rich flavor. I had the beefsteak tomato with gargonzola cheese and dressing was yummy a as always as well. My spice rubbed ribeye was delicious and tender (although I could not finish it). Due to being really full, I opted raspberry sorbet for dessert which was very sweet. One last semi-related point, they used to have basil ice cream there which I loved and wish they would bring back.

Ambiance -the steakhouse manager came to our table to ask about everything and she accepted our praise. To address another point made in another thread, while she did have slacks on, they were not jeans and her attire to me was very business like.

Service - the service this particular evening was fairly slow. It took us a tad over 2 1/2 hours for the meal and frankly a bit longer than what we were accustomed to (and more in line with what we experienced with the steakhouse when they started appearing on Carnival ships).

In summary, based upon my experience I can tell all of you that from our view, the meal, the experience has not gone down hill at all.

Day 2 to follow.

(chanting)

Photos!

Photos!

Photos!

:D

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

(chanting)

 

Photos!

 

Photos!

 

Photos!

 

:D

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

working on it but running out of steam lol

Liners bar and some of the early attendees for the Meet and greet.

Manhattan skyline as we sail away and the Freedom Tower

Statue of Liberty as we sail by

Approaching the Veranzano Narrows bridge to Staten Island

Looking back at the bridge

Great review and awesome pictures so far -- thanks!

I would love to sail out of NYC someday!

Great review and awesome pictures so far -- thanks!

I would love to sail out of NYC someday!

Thanks, the itinerary is somewhat limited (from a variety perspective) but you can't beat the sail away photo opportunities.

Great start looking forward to the rest! Thanks for sharing!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Glad to hear you enjoyed the steakhouse. I was worried about the negative reviews. I have my first night reservation booked and I look forward to it. I am enjoying your review. Thanks for posting.:cool:

Yay, photos! :)

Keep going. Enjoying your review!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Yay, photos! :)

 

Keep going. Enjoying your review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Thanks, I reread a couple of yours and almost did not do a review. :o Yours are excellent. :)

Great start looking forward to the rest! Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Thanks, hope to finish tonight.

Enjoying the review and the pics! We will be sailing on Splendor in May for the first time. Very excited!

Kim

Enjoying the review and the pics! We will be sailing on Splendor in May for the first time. Very excited!

 

 

 

Kim

It was a very good cruise. Would have been great if we had gotten to Grand Turk (more to follow on that this evening).

Great start to your review! Can't wait for more! :)

Thanks, Jimbo!!!

Great review and pictures.

Would love to do Splendor, as she's just 2 hours away.

Keep it comin':D:D:D

I am enjoying your review! I am eyeing the Splendor for September 2015, Canada New England itin. I have never sailed out of NYC. Thanks for posting.

I'm enjoying your review too!! I was getting on the Splendor when you were getting off!! I was the one with the big smile :D

Great start to your review! Can't wait for more! :)

More coming tonight. Took me forever to figure out attaching pictures.

Thanks, Jimbo!!!

Great review and pictures.

Would love to do Splendor, as she's just 2 hours away.

Keep it comin':D:D:D

Thanks, she sure is close to us. While she does not have all the bells and buzzers of the Breeze, we still had a great time.

I am enjoying your review! I am eyeing the Splendor for September 2015, Canada New England itin. I have never sailed out of NYC. Thanks for posting.

It is a great city to sail out of. It is the one time I wanted sail away to go a little slower so I could enjoy it a little more.

I'm enjoying your review too!! I was getting on the Splendor when you were getting off!! I was the one with the big smile :D

Ah, so that must have been you I saw with the big smile on your face. :D One of the really nice things about the Splendor and sailing from New York for us is that there are relatively few platinum guests so we were off in a jiffy and home by 9:30.

Thanks for the report!

Thanks for posting Jimbo. Going on the Splendor Oct 24. Haven't seen many recent reviews.