The good the bad and the ugly from my adventures on the Carnival Splendor

[Vitamin_Sea]

Well the whole system sounds ridiculous to me!

 

Please direct all complaints to the USCG regarding the Muster! :eek::p

[lovelearnteach]

When I sailed on the Miracle out of NY, our muster drill was on the outside decks as well.

 

RCI also does not require life jackets at their muster drills anymore either.

 

So far, I am not seeing anything really negative in your review to say, never again.

 

Sailing around the holidays puts extra stress on the staff to make sure everything goes well and everyone has a good time. The CD was excellent on our 12/3 sailing and had lots of activities planned on the sea days and port days as well for those who chose not to leave the ship.

 

Our friends were very satisfied with the size of their outside balcony cabin, the overall quality of the food, the wide selection of food choices (one was a diabetic and always found a dessert to eat), the overall service (day one their cabin steward was a little slow in giving them things that our cabin steward provided (we were on deck 8, they were on deck 6), but by the end of the cruise, they tipped their cabin steward extra for all that he did! Our wait staff in the dining room was also excellent. How many times did they go back and get another appetizer or another main course to share? Extra tips at the end for them too.

 

If you didn't want a booth, you could have asked the Maitre'd to change to a table. Your request would have been noted and acted upon. Considering your uncle was special needs, there would be no question that a regular chair would be easier for him to manage.

 

The children seemed to be much better behaved on the Splendor compared to the Explorer (RCI) and we did not have any issues with the elevators other than sometimes it was hard to determine which elevator "dinged". Sometimes by the time we figured out, the door was closing!

 

As far as a Meet & Greet for your roll call, our roll call arranged to have one and was given the Board Room at 1PM on day 2 at no cost. Some pastries and coffee were provided also without charge. It all depends on the "group leader" for your roll call. The Assistant CD stopped by for a bit.

 

We too have sailed with Princess many times but due to the extensive damage in Red Hook after Hurricane Sandy, their schedule this year was disrupted.

 

After awhile the "pink" tends to go away and not just jump out at you. The Legend has an urn motif throughout the ship. Either you love or hate the Legend -- there is no middle ground with that ship!

 

Sorry your overall impressions were so negative.

 

MARAPRINCE

It's kind of a funny situation in that we enjoyed our vacation and the Splendor, but feel at the end Carnival is not for us. There's not one specific thing I can point to and say this is the reason. Your not going to hear me slamming the Splendor or Carnival Cruise Lines, we just don't feel they are for us :).

[Vitamin_Sea]

It's kind of a funny situation in that we enjoyed our vacation and the Splendor, but feel at the end Carnival is not for us. There's not one specific thing I can point to and say this is the reason. Your not going to hear me slamming the Splendor or Carnival Cruise Lines, we just don't feel they are for us :).

 

It is good that your honest with your experience on CCL. It is nearly impossible for any cruise line to make everyone happy. I think any vacation has its ups and downs. We always go into vacations with reasonable expectatons I guess.

 

However, CCL is quite happy to take your money when you book a PCL cruise :)

Edited December 31, 2013 by limoguy1

[lovelearnteach]

Looking forward to your review! We were booked on the Splendor for November 2014, but then Carnival cancelled the cruise and moved the heck out of New York, so we booked with Celebrity. :)

 

I took my girls to NYC last weekend to see the tree, the Rockettes and Radio City, etc. and we stayed at The Warwick Hotel, I saw availability at the Radio City Apartments, if we were looking for a fridge and microwave, I would have definitely booked!

 

Keep it coming!! :D

Bummer, at least you found another cruise to console yourself with :D:).

 

Thank-you :).

[lovelearnteach]

If your uncle is special needs, you would have received priority boarding at NYC automatically without paying for Faster to the Fun.

 

MARAPRINCE

His special needs are not physical, thank-you though :).

[lovelearnteach]

I do believe CCL will return after they retrofit the ships to meet new, international standards emission laws to burn cleaner fuel by 2015. It is an expensive retofit to install these "scrubbers".

All ships operating within 200 miles of Canada are affected by this new law.

Thanx for the info :).

[lovelearnteach]

Enjoying your review! Thanks for using a large font and changing to a format using paragraphs. These old eyes are not what they used to be! lol

 

I am especially looking forward to your pics of the Splendor. I think I would like the décor a lot. I am a huge fan of PINK! :)

I really liked it for the most part, thank-you :).

[lovelearnteach]

Is Splendor the ship that caught fire last year?

I wouldn't know, maybe someone else could comment.

[lovelearnteach]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Knowing how time consuming it is to do so, I appreciate your effort, regardless of whether your opinions are positive or negative, as they are your opinions, and should be respected. Looking forward to the cruise portion of your review.

Thank-you :).

[lovelearnteach]

Hi Salt Wind :)

 

The Carnival Splendor had an engine room fire November 8, 2010.

The Carnival Triumph had an engine room fire February 10, 2013.

 

 

Thank-you for sharing :).

[lovelearnteach]

Please direct all complaints to the USCG regarding the Muster! :eek::p

Believe you me I plan too :eek::D;):)!

[Vitamin_Sea]

I wouldn't know, maybe someone else could comment.

 

THe Splendor did have engine trouble. The crankcase split causing a fire and loss of power in 2010.

 

CCL did refund everything to the folks, gave free future cruise vouchers and reinbursed the folks for there travel expenses to get home.

 

These things happen, its a mechanical failure.

[fair-winds39]

Hello friends, this is my 1st Carnival review and most likely my last. For those that don't like long drawn out reviews talking about a detailed day to day experience with pix that can take days and days to write, then you are going to hate my review. For a quick sum up for those that want to move on and a teaser to those that want to stick with me, here is a basic summery. My name is Ken and I travel with my uncle Terry. For the past 4 years we have sailed Princess, and are very happy with them. We, as of yet, have had a "bad" cruise. As long as the food is good we're good, we can always make our own entertainment. We enjoyed our vacation, but have decided Carnival is not the cruise line for us. Over all I really like some of the element designs in the decor, but without a doubt the pink circles and pink "donuts" with some mystery animal stripe print on them are hideous, but for instance I loved the copper trim in many of the public areas, so pretty and timeless. I thought the ship was in really good shape no complaints really there. The food was good and at times really good, so we can't say it was a "bad" cruise. There were just a lot of little things, more with the personnel, that added up to make me feel I will never sail Carnival again. Let me just say for now that I believe the top exec's for this company are way out of touch with what it is they are supposed to be doing, and that I blame them for the staffing issues we encountered. So while I will not say we had a "bad" cruise I will not only not sail on the Splendor again, I will not be sailing Carnival again, and of course this is just my opinion, and pretty much I speak for my uncle to. I'm not slamming the Splendor, Carnival or those that love sailing with them, we enjoyed our vacation and would not change our decision if we could. So really I would say if you enjoy sailing with Carnival then your going to enjoy sailing on the Splendor, most likely. That's it in a nutshell, if you don't care to hear another word I say then please continue on your quest for cruise knowledge, and many blessings to you :). For those that want all the juicy details with food porn and all :eek::p:rolleyes::D, stay tuned!

Sorry you won't be sailing Carnival again, and my apologies for just reading your first post, the shortened version of your review. I want to read the rest because I will be sailing with Carnival in Feb., and I'm interested in learning what you experienced on the Splendor.

 

Since I haven't started reading your full review, I don't know if this would apply in your case, but could you have used the Carnival vacation guarantee?

[lovelearnteach]

It is good that your honest with your experience on CCL. It is nearly impossible for any cruise line to make everyone happy. I think any vacation has its ups and downs. We always go into vacations with reasonable expectatons I guess.

 

However, CCL is quite happy to take your money when you book a PCL cruise :)

Ain't that the truth, we've enjoyed every one of our Princess cruises, but have talked to someone on each one that hated it and was never sailing with Princess again, go figure :D:).

 

Actually Carnival Corp owns about 12 different lines, with CCL and PCL being 2 of them. So the money does not go to CCL, but the parent company CC :).

[lovelearnteach]

THe Splendor did have engine trouble. The crankcase split causing a fire and loss of power in 2010.

 

CCL did refund everything to the folks, gave free future cruise vouchers and reinbursed the folks for there travel expenses to get home.

 

These things happen, its a mechanical failure.

That was a long time ago, we didn't experience any engine problems, unfortunately a crew member passed away on our cruise, and of course our deepest sympathies went out to their loved ones :(. We were detained and late leaving Port Canaveral because of it.

[Vitamin_Sea]

 

Since I haven't started reading your full review, I don't know if this would apply in your case, but could you have used the Carnival vacation guarantee?

 

Any cruiser can use the vacation guarantee. One must get the complaint into guest services with 24 hours of sailing. CCL would get you off the ship at the first port with a full refund and a plane ticket home. :)

[Vitamin_Sea]

Ain't that the truth, we've enjoyed every one of our Princess cruises, but have talked to someone on each one that hated it and was never sailing with Princess again, go figure :D:).

 

Actually Carnival Corp owns about 12 different lines, with CCL and PCL being 2 of them. So the money does not go to CCL, but the parent company CC :).

 

Ain't that the truth!! :p

[lovelearnteach]

Sorry you won't be sailing Carnival again, and my apologies for just reading your first post, the shortened version of your review. I want to read the rest because I will be sailing with Carnival in Feb., and I'm interested in learning what you experienced on the Splendor.

 

Since I haven't started reading your full review, I don't know if this would apply in your case, but could you have used the Carnival vacation guarantee?

No need for apologies everyone is free to read as much or as little of my review as they want :).

 

I did seriously think about it, but really someone else is cooking, entertaining and cleaning for you how bad can it be. We were not being tortured, it's just at the end we don't feel CCL is for us.

[lovelearnteach]

Any cruiser can use the vacation guarantee. One must get the complaint into guest services with 24 hours of sailing. CCL would get you off the ship at the first port with a full refund and a plane ticket home. :)

Things really would have had to been much worse than what we experienced to use it.

[lovelearnteach]

Ain't that the truth!! :p

:p:D Yes it is ;):D:)!

[Vitamin_Sea]

Things really would have had to been much worse than what we experienced to use it.

 

Yea well..CCL knows only a small percentage of people will actually use it.

I mean, how bad could it be the first 24 hours anyway unless you start making up stuff :eek:

At least they had the guts to put in a 100% money back guarantee.

[lovelearnteach]

Dec. 19th, 2013

 

Today is the day, we board the Splendor for our Christmas cruise, so excited :).

 

We get up and go to breakfast at Evergreen Restaurant around the corner from our hotel. We saw it in our exploring and it looked like a cute diner, and it was. Good typical American breakfast, I got over easy eggs, sausage and pancakes all well prepared.

[lovelearnteach]

Yea well..CCL knows only a small percentage of people will actually use it.

I mean, how bad could it be the first 24 hours anyway unless you start making up stuff :eek:

At least they had the guts to put in a 100% money back guarantee.

I don't know the muster drill was pretty brutal, and I'm not just talkin about having to stand outside in the freezing cold. It's coming up in my review :eek::D.

[Blk_Amish]

No need for apologies everyone is free to read as much or as little of my review as they want :).

 

I did seriously think about it, but really someone else is cooking, entertaining and cleaning for you how bad can it be. We were not being tortured, it's just at the end we don't feel CCL is for us.

 

I was with you until this:D:D

 

IMOP, that's the type of attitude that is dragging Carnival down. There should be some value given to the time away from home more than not having to cook and clean. As for torture, all that pink:D. The thought is still hurting my senses and the decision not to book the Pink Panther, right on. It can be completely possible to outgrow a type of vacation or a particular line, without having a bad experience.

 

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Forums mobile app

[Vitamin_Sea]

I don't know the muster drill was pretty brutal, and I'm not just talkin about having to stand outside in the freezing cold. It's coming up in my review :eek::D.

 

Well, they do tend to treat folks like cattle setting up the muster :eek:

 

The crew must hate it more then we do!!:p