My first Carnival Cruise - Splendor

[bymyglass]

Just a few notes.

1. I love Chocolate Melting Cake

2. All my Rum Runners made it through

3. I brought too much wisky

4. Next time make sure colapsable cooler holds water b4 using

5. Carnival is not so bad

6. Buffet was horrible

7. ship layout was dumb

8. Did not enjoy "Malcom"

9. My DW gets see sick

10. I loved my cruise but think I will go back to Princess.

[Chris41]

Well thanks for the quick review and enjoy your Princess cruises

[tea4ular]

...my 15th overall...(second on Splendor)

 

My quick observations:

Love the spa balcony cabins

The furnishings (overall) on the ship need updating

The ship is spotless

Love the spa

The food panders to what I refer to as the lowest common denominator - it is hit or miss, and when it misses, it really misses, and when it hits it does a pretty good job - Mongolian BBQ is a hit, as is the omelet station - worth the wait for freshly prepared, hot food

Anytime dining is a pleasure - never more than a 10 minute wait

We felt that Malcolm Burn (CD) was the very best we've had on any ship, ever. He is entertaining without being clawing, and those horrible announcements all freaking day long were to a minimum

Comedy instead of nightly "Broadway style" shows is a hit!

The music by the main pool is far too loud (not the live music, but the recorded music)

Our cabin steward (Arnold) and his assistant (ATM) were exceptional -

I felt that some of the staff were down - I can't explain it exactly, I especially found it to be true among the women workers

Lots of kids on board, and saw no goofing off (I've read about elevator pranks, etc.)

Saw zero chair hogging

I wish people used their very best manners in public...'please' 'thank you' 'excuse me' go a long way and please do not nibble the food on your plate as you walk through the buffet lines and use the utensils after you've liked your fingers clean. Please.

Mexico was like a ghost town. Only the Splendor was in town, and the ports are feeling it

 

All in all we had a great time, chatted with some great people, and would do it again. :)

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the summary!

[MKESail]

Just a few notes.

1. I love Chocolate Melting Cake

2. All my Rum Runners made it through

3. I brought too much wisky

4. Next time make sure colapsable cooler holds water b4 using

5. Carnival is not so bad

6. Buffet was horrible

7. ship layout was dumb

8. Did not enjoy "Malcom"

9. My DW gets see sick

10. I loved my cruise but think I will go back to Princess.

 

Totally agree with you on points 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 - but RCI ;)

 

Absolutely loved all the comedians and the hypnotist guy :D

[SadieN]

...my 15th overall...(second on Splendor)

 

My quick observations:

Love the spa balcony cabins

The furnishings (overall) on the ship need updating

The ship is spotless

Love the spa

The food panders to what I refer to as the lowest common denominator - it is hit or miss, and when it misses, it really misses, and when it hits it does a pretty good job - Mongolian BBQ is a hit, as is the omelet station - worth the wait for freshly prepared, hot food

Anytime dining is a pleasure - never more than a 10 minute wait

We felt that Malcolm Burn (CD) was the very best we've had on any ship, ever. He is entertaining without being clawing, and those horrible announcements all freaking day long were to a minimum

Comedy instead of nightly "Broadway style" shows is a hit!

The music by the main pool is far too loud (not the live music, but the recorded music)

Our cabin steward (Arnold) and his assistant (ATM) were exceptional -

I felt that some of the staff were down - I can't explain it exactly, I especially found it to be true among the women workers

Lots of kids on board, and saw no goofing off (I've read about elevator pranks, etc.)

Saw zero chair hogging

I wish people used their very best manners in public...'please' 'thank you' 'excuse me' go a long way and please do not nibble the food on your plate as you walk through the buffet lines and use the utensils after you've liked your fingers clean. Please.

Mexico was like a ghost town. Only the Splendor was in town, and the ports are feeling it

 

All in all we had a great time, chatted with some great people, and would do it again. :)

 

Just got off the Splendor also. The women were still stunned by the previous cruise. It was a full ship charter. Many guys running around in nothing but shiny jockstraps.:p Heard different stories:eek::eek::eek: from various crew around the ship.

 

Overall the food was much better than I expected. I was expecting complete dreck and didn't get that at all. Food arrived at the correct temp in the MDR. The Flat Iron steak was cook as stated on the buffet.

Just had to remember to slice the Flat Iron the correct way otherwise it was very chewy.

One morning the apple danish were straight out of the oven hot.yum

[twindaddy]

Totally agree with you on points 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 - but RCI ;)

 

Absolutely loved all the comedians and the hypnotist guy :D

 

I will be on the Splendor in a few weeks, what night is the hyponotist? Is that in the main show room?

[riclop]

...my 15th overall...(second on Splendor)

 

My quick observations:

Love the spa balcony cabins

The furnishings (overall) on the ship need updating

The ship is spotless

Love the spa

The food panders to what I refer to as the lowest common denominator - it is hit or miss, and when it misses, it really misses, and when it hits it does a pretty good job - Mongolian BBQ is a hit, as is the omelet station - worth the wait for freshly prepared, hot food

Anytime dining is a pleasure - never more than a 10 minute wait

We felt that Malcolm Burn (CD) was the very best we've had on any ship, ever. He is entertaining without being clawing, and those horrible announcements all freaking day long were to a minimum

Comedy instead of nightly "Broadway style" shows is a hit!

The music by the main pool is far too loud (not the live music, but the recorded music)

Our cabin steward (Arnold) and his assistant (ATM) were exceptional -

I felt that some of the staff were down - I can't explain it exactly, I especially found it to be true among the women workers

Lots of kids on board, and saw no goofing off (I've read about elevator pranks, etc.)

Saw zero chair hogging

I wish people used their very best manners in public...'please' 'thank you' 'excuse me' go a long way and please do not nibble the food on your plate as you walk through the buffet lines and use the utensils after you've liked your fingers clean. Please.

Mexico was like a ghost town. Only the Splendor was in town, and the ports are feeling it

 

All in all we had a great time, chatted with some great people, and would do it again. :)

Yes we agree on the room stewards Arnold and ATM they were fabulous we were on a couple of weeks before you and ATM said he was leaving to go back home, i guess he lied.

[snake114]

Our family was on the 11/4 Splendor cruise as well.

 

Balcony cabin comfortably housed the four of us and contents of 4 large suitcases. Room stewards did a fine job. The kids (8 and 9) loved Camp Carnival, as well as the large water slide.

 

Couple of major down-sides:

-Carnival really lived up to my concerns about the potential behavior of fellow passengers/being a heavy "party" cruise. The first night alone, my kids were knocked over (along with several expensive art pieces) by a drunken woman who could not stand up by herself at 5:45pm while waiting in line to be seated for any time dining. She was knocked out cold, security called, but never showed up. Her companions eventually dragged her off, presumably to her room.

Then, at the early/family hypnotist show, one of the passengers picked to participate on stage promptly sat down, and then started throwing up all over the stage. Told to leave by the performer, he then stumbles back down, sits down in the front row, and is promptly handed more drinks by his enthusiastic companions. Within a couple of minutes, he is loudly puking again all over the surrounding seats and aisle area leading up to the stage! It took approximately 15 minutes for security to arrive and remove him.....

 

-Be careful if your kids want to use the kids splash park area. My son cut himself severely in several places on his feet while playing there. While the nurse in the medical area was great about treating him, none of the staff was interested in taking a report or trying to fix things so other children would not get hurt.

 

Dining room service ran from ok to poor, depending on which team you happened to receive. Don't bother ordering a (paid!) cake for a birthday or other special event- not worth the hassle!! We ordered a personalized birthday cake for our son turning 8 from the "Formalities" store on board. We told the hostess when being seated that it had been ordered, as well as our head waiter. 45 minutes after our main course had been cleared, still no cake, and nobody seemed to then know anything about it. It took having a major scene with the Maitre ' D for them to even start investigating, and half hour more for a cake to appear, with my son's name spelled incorrectly......

 

For debarkation, don't bother waiting if you have a number past 18 or so. A half hour after the estimated 10am time that we had been told would be the estimated debarkation time for our group number (29), they still had not called past 18. At that point a Carnival employee strolled through the Casino/lounge area on deck 5, and starting telling everyone to just go ahead to the atrium and get on line to debark. When I asked him about waiting for our number, he said that normally once they get past the first few groups it just becomes "open" disembarkation.

 

While I did enjoy many aspects of the cruise, I doubt that I will be cruising with CCL again. We have had much better luck with NCL, and will probably return there.

[chipq]

I found the buffet on my three recent CCL cruises (Spirit, Valor, Inspiration) to be just ok, nothing special with the exception of the burrito bar and the Mongolian Wok. These were very good.

 

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[rickechambers1@aol.com]

Splendor is the second least attractive ship ive been on (NCL Sun wins top Honor's) after my cruise on Splendor in January I will not return. Service was good...but that's about it. Agree with OP (except the part about his wife being sea sick...have no idea about that.)

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[cvpends]

I will be on the Splendor in a few weeks, what night is the hyponotist? Is that in the main show room?

 

The hypnotist is a fly-on and does perform in the main show lounge, when on board. I've enjoyed all the fly-ons during my Carnival cruises -- watch your Fun Times to make sure you don't miss them!