Splendor Review 5-1 thru 5-8

[PGBSAB]

We were on the Carnival Splendor from 5/1 – 5/8 an 8 day stopping at Grand Turk, Dominican Republic, Curacao and Aruba. This was our 10th cruise with Carnival and we, like many, have noticed the cutbacks. The ship was PINK, but we knew that going in and after a while you don’t even notice the pink zebra circles everywhere. Ther ship overall was clean and people were crew members were always wiping, mopping etc.

 

We had cabin 7443, which is one of the “bowling lane” balconies. The room is configured differently and there is no couch, which we did miss. The room however seems a little larger, but to use the bathroom you had to close the door and then step to the other side and walk in…not a deal breaker, but one of the things my husband and I both noticed was a pain. The biggest thing we noticed was the vibration…we always get aft cabins and this was the worse we have experienced. It would shake so hard when the side thrusters came on that the room would actually start to squeak,rattle and actually sounded like it was moaning. Again, not a total deal breaker since we loved the larger balcony, but was something we noticed. Our cabin steward was good, but as soon as we arrived he asked if we wanted morning or evening service, we asked if we could be both and he did agree. We are pretty easy, just give us ice daily, clean towels…we even make our bed before we leave the room. I know he redoes it, but I try not to leave a huge mess for him and realize they work very hard and have long days so we try very hard to be considerate of his time.

 

We went to the steakhouse the first night (you can get a free bottle of wine, or 2 at 50% off each) and we enjoyed the experience as usual. We chose to get to bottles and they let us take the second bottle with us that evening and we enjoyed that the first elegant night. The food is always excellent and well worth the upcharge in our opinion.

 

The food overall was fair, I can honestly say there was nothing that really stood out as really good. I definitely did not go hungry, but to me fried chicken or meat loaf is not something I want to order for a nice dinner on a cruise ship. I did hear several people raving about the rotissery, but we did not make it there, but maybe something to try if we sail this ship again. We did go to the buffet several evenings since the menus many evenings were just not something we wanted to sit thru for 2 hours. We did anytime dining this time and my recommendation is come early expecially on elegant nights, you will wait sometimes at least an hour to be seated.

 

The ports of call were good, here is my rundown:

 

Grand Turk – People either love this or they don’t. The port itself is small with some shops, and beaches are right there to enjoy Water is beautiful and if you are a beach person you will love it. There is a Margaritaville right there and we shopped a little and went and had a drink and people watched. The pool is great and people were having a wonderful time. We enjoyed this port and would love to go back again, but if you are someone who does not like beach and a little shopping you may wan to book an excursion.

 

Dominican Republic – We booked an excursion not affiliated with the cruise ship. We were taken snorkeling (not very good), to a beautiful island for lunch and then to see the star fish. It was a really nice day and we enjoyed ouselves, but we would not book this excursion again. The island is very lush and green, and definitely bring your bug repellent. A thing to note…all cabs are affilitated thru the cruise ship and many require multiple passengers before they will leave so allow plenty of time if you are doing a excursion off of the ship.

 

Curacao – This is one of our favorite islands. We did an excursion off the of the ship again and we did an off road jeep tour. We loved it, we went to blow holes, and by the wind mills, and they explained how the island was formed etc etc. We saw sea turtles, I can say enough about how great this was. It is very very rough so if you have back issues, this might not be for you, but we really enjoyed it. This is offroad and you will get very very dirty with the red dust that flies everywhere, make sure yo wear tennis shoes, the coral can be sharp so closed toed shoes may be best.

 

Aruba – Let me start out by saying, we love Aruba, the waters are absolutely beautiful and snorkeling is usually wonderful. I did a lot of research and found an excursion that was not thru the ship. When I contactd them they said Carnival has not contracted with their company and all reservations needed to go thru them. This is becoming more and more the case on some of the islands. I did do additional research but could not find a lot of excursion that fit in to the time frame we needed. The picture on the carnival website was of a catamarn with sails, front nets etc. What we got was a two decker boat that in now way was catamaran. I was not the only person that was unhappy with this change, we paid for something that was not the case. The excursion itself was ok, the snorkeling was not the best but it was not terrible either. I have learned my lesson though, I will not book a snorkel excursion thru the ship again, there were way to many people it took you 15 minutes to get in the water for a 30 minute snorkel stop and I kept getting hit with fins etc. We both realized that boats with this many people are not for us, so we will choose to opt out in the future.

 

All in all it was a good trip. I would not hesitate to sail the Splendor again if the itinerary and price was right. It is really pink…pepto bismal pink, but to each is own. Our next cruise we will turn platinum, so we still feel cruising is one of the best values out there for our vacation dollars. We have sailed NCL, Princess, Royal and Carnival and they each have their good and bad and we have seen cutbacks on many of the lines. Go with an open mind, realize how fortunate we all are to be able to experience these wonderful ships and islands and remember that these wonderful memories will be with you for a lifetime.

[SMSACE6]

Thank you for your review. I will be sailing on this ship, later this year.

 

I appreciate your taking the time to share your opinion, and certainly accept that there will be both some good and some not so good on any cruise. I will be also doing Your time dining, so will keep in mind to get there early on elegant nights. I was hoping this ship would get the new American Table menu, just to have a change, but it appears that it will not be happening on this ship.

 

I think I will be fine with all the pink, since that is my favorite color:D

 

Thanks again.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the feedback.

[jrhea]

Thanks for the review. We are doing our Cruismas cruise on her this year.

 

 

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[Cr2zCr8zy]

Awww, the Splendor my favorite. We miss her here in NY... :)

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review.

 

Keith

[smarks]

Thanks for the review. I will be checking her out next week.

[kimnicki]

You didn't by chance do the Sailaway Snorkle and Beach cruise did you? We are doing the same itinerary on 6/4 and I just booked that excursion last night, specifically because we wanted to catamaran.

 

Thanks so much for your review!

 

Kim

[cruiser fanatic]

Thanks for the review. Are you sure that the cruise was 5-1 - 5-8? We were on the Liberty of the Seas cruise departing 5-1 and we were with the Splendor in Grand Cayman on 5-4.

[Trumpetplyr]

You didn't by chance do the Sailaway Snorkle and Beach cruise did you? We are doing the same itinerary on 6/4 and I just booked that excursion last night, specifically because we wanted to catamaran.

 

Thanks so much for your review!

 

Kim

 

 

We just booked the same excursion and I also selected it due to the boat.

[gfountain1]

Grand Turk has to be my least favorite port. It's your typical port inside the fence, but we took a tour of the island and it's a dump.

[cruiser fanatic]

Grand Turk has to be my least favorite port. It's your typical port inside the fence, but we took a tour of the island and it's a dump.

 

I think Grand Turk is beautiful. Not a dump at all. Clear water and lots to do. If you truly think Grand Turk is a dump, go check our Progreso, Belize, or Freeport.

[gfountain1]

I think Grand Turk is beautiful. Not a dump at all. Clear water and lots to do. If you truly think Grand Turk is a dump, go check our Progreso, Belize, or Freeport.

 

The beach right off the pier, diving and margaritaville were great. I'm talking about the actual island. Trash floating through the canals, trash dumped everywhere along the way to the lighthouse we toured. It was depressing to see the shape of the island and the lack of basic services like trash collection.

[annbuono]

For anytime dining, what do you consider "early" to arrive so you don't end up with an hour wait? In the past we would arrive around 7:00 ish and never had to wait more than 5-10 mins. Thanks.

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[LizaMM]

Thank you for your review!

 

I am happy to hear that you asked for and received cabin service 2x daily :) I have read some issues about this and I really do NOT want to have to argue with cabin steward when I request both AM and PM cabin service.

 

My daughter sailed the Splendor last year and she commented on the pink as well. I am interested to see how it compares to the grapes in the MDR on the Miracle ;)

 

Thanks again for your review

[RogersRanch]

Thanks for the review! We'll be on the Splendor in two weeks!! 6/4

[Faith,Family&Cruise]

We just booked the same excursion and I also selected it due to the boat.

 

You didn't by chance do the Sailaway Snorkle and Beach cruise did you? We are doing the same itinerary on 6/4 and I just booked that excursion last night, specifically because we wanted to catamaran.

 

Thanks so much for your review!

 

Kim

 

We booked this excursion too-there are six of us. We had such a great catamaran excursion in St. Thomas we hoped it would be similar!

[kimnicki]

Thanks for the review! We'll be on the Splendor in two weeks!! 6/4

 

Us too! Can't wait :D

[kimnicki]

We booked this excursion too-there are six of us. We had such a great catamaran excursion in St. Thomas we hoped it would be similar!

 

I emailed Carnival Excursions to see what company runs it. Ive seen a few bad reviews on one. I may cancel if it's the one with not so hot reviews.

[ashley2196]

Thanks for the review! Do you by any chance have pictures of the Funtimes?

 

 

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