Splendor review Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel May 15, 2016

[valentinebaby1]

We peeked in to see some of the other nearby rooms while they were still touring... Here are a few more photos of rooms:

 

This is one of the Scenic Ocean View rooms that are sandwiched between the 2 Grand Scenic Ocean View rooms. They are still neat rooms, just not as large as the Grand ones. We kind of felt they were almost "tunnel" like going into them though, you can kind of see what we meant by this first photo:

 

 

 

This is the room that is right across the hall from ours. This is a basic interior option, although this one might be "turned" from what is standard:

 

And this one is the other Grand Scenic Ocean View room, number 9201. 9200 and 9201 are very similar but there are a few slight differences between them. We were told that the sofa in 9200 opens up to a bed that can sleep 2, but we opted to leave it closed and DD slept on the top of it, but we were also told that the bed in 9201 doesn't open. From what I understand, 9200 is sometimes available to be booked for parties of 2, but typically requires 3 or 4 people, but 9201 can only be booked for 2 people. There are some slight differences in the closets and where they are in 9200 vs 9201 as well. Here's a couple photos of 9201 on Splendor:

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We headed out from there to get some lunch and went to the lido buffet. The Tandoor restaurant was open so we decided to try that too. After lunch we wandered around for a little while and took photos before muster drill.

 

 

 

 

 

We thought this was a strange hot tub...located inside on the lido deck, but closer to the dining areas and buffets. We never did see many people using this one:

 

Here you can see the retractable roof. This section can be closed and this middle pool enclosed. They usually closed the roof at night, and we saw people still using the pool after midnight at least one of the nights.

 

[valentinebaby1]

More photos from around the ship:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We arrived at about the middle of the pack, not too early, not too late. Muster drill took forever though, and there were some antsy and already drunk people near us, which made things more funny and yet more miserable at the same time. It was unbearably hot and we were getting no draft or wind at all down the corridor where we were, but finally it was over and we had survived it!

 

 

We headed straight back to the top of the ship for sail away! We were disappointed that Splendor had already made the turn in the basin in the morning, which was beautiful to see, but we wanted to be ON the ship when it happened. (And of course when we returned, she went straight to dock and made the turn on sail away for the next cruise, so we never did get to turn in the basin).

 

We were watching on the south side of the ship, DD and I had found rocking chairs in the shade, but hubby was running around taking photos everywhere. He came to get us and told us the view was on the other side, so we left our lovely shaded seats to see South Beach on our way out of port. It was worth it. The beach was packed, and people were waiving as we sailed past.

 

 

 

 

 

[terri-eddie]

We were on the Splendor just last month, and I don't remember seeing the indoors Lido deck hot tub! I wish I had....I prefer a less-crowded hot tub, and I don't like to sit out in the sun for too long either. That one would have been perfect for me.

 

I guess it's just another reason to book another cruise!

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

We watched as we got further and further from Miami before leaving the deck and heading back to our room. I'm fairly certain we napped for a little while before getting ready for dinner. Our luggage had arrived too so we decided to actually unpack and use the closets and drawer, which we hadn't done on our previous cruises.

 

We met our room steward on our way back to our room. He greeted us by name and we discussed servicing our room. He asked if we preferred morning, evening or both. We told him both, but told him he didn't need to clean twice a day, once was fine, we just wanted to be sure to have clean towels and empty the trash as needed, and our towel animals, but stressed he didn't need to do everything twice a day. He said it was no trouble, and he was happy to do service twice a day. And he was fabulous! He took excellent care of us all week.

 

When we had arrived back in our room, a lovely gift basket was waiting for us, full of fruit, cheese and wine. It was marked simply as a gift from the hotel director. We had no idea why we received it, but it was a lovely surprise!

 

[valentinebaby1]

We were on the Splendor just last month, and I don't remember seeing the indoors Lido deck hot tub! I wish I had....I prefer a less-crowded hot tub, and I don't like to sit out in the sun for too long either. That one would have been perfect for me.

 

I guess it's just another reason to book another cruise!

 

I just pulled up the deck plans to see exactly where that hot tub is...and it's actually on deck 10 right about midship. And while I was looking at the deck plans, I see there is a BBQ buffet there, that I had no idea was there. I just asked hubby about it, he said it wasn't all that great, so I apparently didn't miss anything too exciting, but lol...but I guess we both learned something new about Splendor today :)

[jimbri]

Glad you started the review. Looking forward to it!

[iheartmarshall]

I can't wait for the rest of your review! We're visiting these ports on the Vista in May and I need some reviews to tie me over :)

[valentinebaby1]

Glad you started the review. Looking forward to it!

 

Thank you! Glad to have you along to read!

[valentinebaby1]

I can't wait for the rest of your review! We're visiting these ports on the Vista in May and I need some reviews to tie me over :)

 

The funny thing about these ports is that going into it we weren't as excited as we were about the southern route we did on Valor and Liberty (from San Juan to St Thomas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Martin). After doing that route twice we were afraid that this cruise would be a let down. We were so wrong! While nothing will ever beat our first cruise on the Valor, in terms of our excitement, awe and wonder of it all, this cruise beat the Liberty for us. People told us the best thing to do in Ocho Rios was to stay on the boat...so glad we didn't listen to them! People have said they hate Cozumel, and we love it and after spending a week there at an all inclusive we kind of felt like we were visiting an old friend again!

[EBchickens74]

Been following along & can't wait to hear about the ports too(hopefully----especially Ocho Rios). :D

[starfish the second]

subcribing

[watermelonqueen99]

We were on the Splendor about a month before you! Looking forward to the rest!

[nc350]

Super excited about your review"! We are doing this itinerary on the Freedom in 60 days.... who's counting though lol:D:D:D

[valentinebaby1]

Been following along & can't wait to hear about the ports too(hopefully----especially Ocho Rios). :D

 

Thanks! And of course! We loved Ocho Rios and I can't wait to share it with you all!

[valentinebaby1]

subcribing

 

Thanks :) Hope you enjoy!

[valentinebaby1]

We were on the Splendor about a month before you! Looking forward to the rest!

 

I hope you had as much fun as we did! Loved Splendor and everything about our trip! Did you have Chloe as your CD? We thought she was so much fun!

[valentinebaby1]

Super excited about your review"! We are doing this itinerary on the Freedom in 60 days.... who's counting though lol:D:D:D

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise on Freedom! We'll have to plan one on Freedom some day to complete the Conquest class of ships!

[skrufy]

Valintinebaby1. Just wanted to pass on to you some more info on your Arlington photo. The mansion on the hill was General Robert E. LEE's home before the Civil War.

[valentinebaby1]

Ok, on with the review! Thanks for sticking around!!

 

***

 

We decided that even though we had our luggage, we didn't feel like getting dressed up for dinner in the dining room, since it is not required the first day. We had your time dining so it was nice that we could just get ready at leisure and head down when we wanted. We headed down around 6:15.

 

We were seated just the 3 of us at a table. I really have no idea what we ate, but at the time Splendor was still on the old menu, not the American Table menu. (It has since switched over). Truthfully, with the old menu on our first cruise, and the American Table menu on the 2nd cruise, we thought we'd be more excited about the selections going back to the old menu. But after going back to it, it just wasn't a big deal anymore. They weren't all that different after all. We did miss the tablecloths, but mostly because of drippy water classes. But at least we now know going forward that the change in the menu isn't as big of a deal as we once felt it would be. The food was always good, some plates better than others, but no complaints.

 

We did get a kick out of seeing the "ghost woman" plates. I remember seeing someone on cc post about them awhile back. I couldn't remember if they were wondering who the maker was or if they were just wondering if they were still on any of the ships. I suppose at this point they aren't even on Splendor anymore since she has switched to American Table. But since we went through the trouble of taking the photos of the plates and the marking on the back, I'll post it on the off chance that whoever inquired about them sees this...lol

 

 

 

 

We were about halfway through dinner when we realized we were missing our first sunset of the cruise. Hubby went out to take photos so at least we'd have those, while DD and I finished dinner.

 

 

 

After enjoying the sunset and finishing dinner, we went back to our room and found our first towel animal of the cruise....

 

drumroll please....prepare yourself for the most awesome towel animal ever created...

 

 

We had such a good laugh over this one! Best. animal. ever.

[valentinebaby1]

Valintinebaby1. Just wanted to pass on to you some more info on your Arlington photo. The mansion on the hill was General Robert E. LEE's home before the Civil War.

 

That's cool! Thanks for letting us know! I'd love to someday make a trip to DC to see all of this up close and personal!

 

So would you happen to know what this building is?

 

[valentinebaby1]

We had very little sleep for 2 nights in a row, and we were exhausted. Hubby and I were trying to remember what we did after dinner, and there's a gap in the photos for a couple of hours, so we're pretty sure all 3 of us fell asleep for awhile. I think DD was down for the night, but of course hubby didn't stay down long and was soon back out and wandering the ship making friends with everyone he saw, including Chloe, the CD.

 

 

Speaking of Chloe, we loved her! She was everywhere all the time! Our previous experience with CD's was that they were the voice we heard on announcements, and saw them once or twice during the week. Chloe was so different! Yes, she was the adorable voice we heard, but we saw her everywhere. She was so happy and bubbly and genuine. She enhanced the whole cruise experience for us. I'm sure part of the difference was that we had another sea day on this cruise than we had on our first 2 and earlier port days so we had more time to just be on the ship and enjoy everything the ship had to offer, and she was a big part of that.

 

Hubby got some pizza and came back to the room, and since I was now awake, I decided to get out of bed and wander with him for a little while. We ran into Chloe again, so we took another photo of the 3 of us this time:

 

 

We finally made our way back to our room for the night around 12:30am. It was so quiet on the lido deck and the roof was closed:

 

 

Our first day was over and tomorrow was our first of 2 sea days!

 

[pghsteelerfan]

So would you happen to know what this building is?

 

 

I just looked that one up (yes, I cheated). :eek: It's The George Washington Masonic Memorial. It's in Alexandria, VA (just south of Arlington and DC). I recognized the VRE (Virginia Railway Express) train and it looked like a station there, so I got on Google maps and looked it up, found the station and noticed the landscaping and walkway pattern leading up to the building. We have a VRE station a mile from us but farther to the west in the suburbs and hubby used to take VRE into DC when he worked downtown, so very easy for me to recognize those trains. Since hubby works from home Tuesdays, I just asked if he recognized the building. Although he didn't know what it was, he said he used to see it from the train & confirmed it's right near the Alexandria station. :D

 

Still really enjoying your review and love your sailaway pictures. So happy you had a nice day to sail from Miami but hope you get to do the turn basin next time. :)

Edited January 24, 2017 by pghsteelerfan