Splendour Review part 2

[evildiva]

The sail away party brought us right into dinner, we had an early seating at 6:15 in the King and I so off we went. Kadi and Sebastian were our servers, Kadi from Estonia and Sebastian from Poland made an excellent team. After the first night we never had to ask for drinks, Sebastian always new and had them waiting for us. We had 2 formal nights and I was not impressed with the way people dressed, one man wore a t-shirt and shorts both formal nights and many people dressed casual on these nights. RCCL should either enforce this dresscode or get rid of the dresscodes all together. The food the entire week was just okay, its presentation was beautiful but the taste was bland and the selections were strange. It did not ruin our cruise though, we did order more than one entree at the beginning of the meal so our server could have it prepared, we always ordered more than one dessert and sometimes we liked it sometimes we didnt. On lobster night my husband had 4 lobster tails, he just ordred them at the beginning of the meal.

Our first full day was at sea and we enjoyed swimming and lounging by the pool, we made many friends that ended up being from the same part of NY as us. One couple had there luggage lost by the airline and RCCL did the best to accomodate them, they got there luggage Monday in the Georgetown Grand Cayman. I will now break down our trip by not days but things we did and ship happenings:

 

The Ocean adventure club: The girls fell in love with not only the staff but all the friends they made. The one problem is the hours of the program are sometimes not convenient, 9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm then you can sign them up for the dinner program at 6pm, 7pm-10pm, then if they want to stay for latenight it is from 10pm-1am and $5.00 per hour per child. While in port the program opens at 7am, they dont eat breakfast until 9am, they take them to lunch and then you must pick up by 5pm on port days.We did not use the program all of the time but the hours were short, The staff I cant rave enough about and the activities were very fun, they have a pirate parade throughout the entire ship, a talent show, a carnival night, jungle night, they watch movies, they do a ton of crafts and projects and sing a lot. My girls will miss the staff, they also traded e-mail address' with some of the kids. One tip, the dinner choices are not huge if you sign them up for this; Cheeseburger, hamburger, hotdog, chicken nuggets. Again I cant say enough about the great staff!!!

 

Teenagers 12-16: We had plenty of these on this cruise and boy were they a nightmare! I traveled with my neice and nephew 15 and 17 who chose to be with us rather than go to the activities on board. They were not unsupervised

and they did not roam the ship. They did go to the Soalrium to get food, they did lay by the pool and they did go to the shows with all of us.

The teens that were left unsupervised on the other hand ran (literally) around the ship, screamed. yelled, swore, pushed each other and then proceeded to press EVERY number in the elevator all the time so you had to stop on every floor. There parents did nothing as they probably did not care where or what these punks were doing. One boy mixed an ice cream cone and soda together and dumped it in the jacuzzi, his parents were sunning themselves right behind him and he was about 14. I dont know why RCCL lets them behave this way, I dont know why they were allowed to take over the jacuzzis or why there dont have parents that care but it made my husband very upset and I ended up yelling at a group of them. Didnt ruin our trip though!

 

The Photo Gallery: What a complete rip off!! There prices are outrageous and I hope that they come up with some better packages for us to buy!Take your own pictures!!!

 

Meet and Mingle: Our invite for Sunday never arrived, we ended up getting another invite for the last day of our cruise when we had plans do be with our family. Never went, sorry!

 

Rainy day activities:

We had 2 rainy days and I was disappointed in the lack of ship activities there were for people with kids, I had hoped they would have showed a movie :(

 

ports:

Georgetowm Grand Cayman

I will have to say, it rained most of the day in the Cayman's, We went shopping and found nothing and then went to the Marriot on seven mile beach.

This hotel is closed due to the hurricanes but the beach bar is open and they have beach chairs for about $5.00 a piece. The beach was beautiful!!! Everything I had pictured it to be but the area was so devasted by the storms that it is sad. The people are very friendly and lets hope if you take a cab that you end up with the guy who is a Elvis impersonater like we did, he is a trip!!!

Costa Maya Mexico:

BEAUTIFUL!!! The people in the shops are REALLY pushy but will come way down on prices if you persist. Take a cab to Majahual beach and go to Tapas, it rocked!!! Allen is the best server ever, the food is excellent and the drinks are great. The beach is perfect and chairs are free if you eat or drink there. The bathrooms arent great but who cares! The service is excellent!!!

Belize:

Book a tour with Nacho and Cynthia to go to Altun Ha and the Baboon sanctuary, its a cultural experience you will never forget! www.ncqadventuretours.com

Cozumel:

4 words; Nachi Cocum Beach Club!!! Its has the nicest pool, jacuzzi, swim up bar we have ever seen! The beach is awesome, with shade if you need it and the drinks are nice and strong! We paid around $35.00 per person for all inclusive drinks, buffet with the BEST food we had the entire week. The bathrooms are impeccable and the place is so clean you could eat off the floors!!! We rented jet skis that were brand new and had a blast. You have a free hour of snorkeling gear or water float if you want it too!!! The kids loved this place!cozumelcruiseexcursions.com/CozumelBeachBreak.htm

We of course took the kids back to the ship and went to Carlos and Charlies that night! What fun, the food was good and the drinks even better, I lost my drivers license here so be careful of those Margaritas but if Kiwey is working hope he does a magic show for you, he should be on TV!

 

To sum up our first cruise in one word would be PERFECT! The entire staff on the ship made our trip, we had Kasmir our bartender who always new our drinks and had my Latte waiting every morning at 7:00 am. If you tip these people a little extra it means so much to them because they get to keep it not put it in a pool with others. We tipped the special people that we didnt have to at the end of the cruise as well. They deserved it! Of course we tipped our waitstaff and room attendent too! The entire staff made Disneyworld staff look bad that is how great they were, we never had someone rude or not want to help. I cant wait for our next cruise!!! We will do this at least once a year, it was the best!

Here are the things that I think are important to bring on your cruise:

Digital camera with additional memory stick

lots of sunblock

small bills, $5's, ones to tip people

over the door shoe organizer to keep toiletries etc in

thank you cards for tips(this makes it special)

a beach duffel bag to carry towels and purchases

fanny pack(okay they are dorky but useful!)

2 bathing suits per person

flip flops or lightweight sandals and sneeakers

pack half of what you thought and bring more cash!!!

a bathing suit cover up

shout wipes

woolite

tons of antibacterial hand gel

baby wipes

air freshener

 

We didnt need:

Duct tape

extra outlets

hair dryer

extra hangers

 

I hope this helps, I will post pictures at a later date! If anyone has questions just ask!!!

[setsail]

Good review, we did this cruise back in Dec.. Hope you signed up for c&a while on board. That way you can start getting the coupoun book on your next cruise. They have coupons for pictures which we always use. You seem to have a perfect attitude for cruising and you are quick learners ie. "your statement about packing less and bring more cash". Blame the parents not Rccl for wild children.Rccl does what it can. Hoped you booked your next cruise with Rccl while on board to get the credit.

[evildiva]

We are now loyal RCCL customers!!!

[Francesca2]

Did you get to any of the shows? What entertainment would you recommend? Also, how were the seas?

[Ruth Cruise]

Hi evildiva,

 

thank you very much for your detailed review! We will be sailing the Splendour in April and you are building up our excitement.

 

Can you also tell me, who the Cruise Director and the Captain were during your cruise?

 

Tanks a lot Ruth

[ColdCruiser39]

I can tell you about the cruise director and captain. My sister is EvilDiva and I was on the cruise with her. She probably couldn't post about the cruise director, Rico because she and my wife are still drooling over him - :) .

Seriously, the cruise director and his staff are incredible. Another group of funny, bright and knowledgeable people. Enjoy all that they have to offer.