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

[valentinebaby1]

Here's a few more shots from Punta Morena:

 

 

Here's hubby with our tour guide Colleen:

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Our next stop was Coconuts. It sits up on the cliff, one of the highest points on the island (or is it the highest point?) and there are quite a few steps to get to the bar, but so worth it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SharkCruiser24]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this review. You've given me some ideas for our upcoming Cozumel trip!

[qzyksw]

Thank you for the review. It has been a pleasure to read and see what you have done.

 

I started to read the review to learn more about the ship...but I got sucked into your whole trip. The writing is great and funny.

 

Thanks for the great review and your sense of humor

[pghsteelerfan]

YAY - a ValentineBaby review- I was with you and hubby on M/V Liberty back in Sept. 2015 (Hello JKirKN and PgHSteelerfan) We were looking at the M/V Splendor for September but ended booking the M/V Dream out of NOLA. miss splendor will have to wait to next year; great looking lady and awesome review.

 

We are doing this itinerary in March aboard M/V Sensation - I know smaller and older but she is coming out of dry dock a few weeks before so I am looking forward to the improvements.

 

Any way really nice to see you all again and thanks for the review and ideas.

 

Fair winds and following seas.

 

Tony

 

Well, hello there to you!!! :) Nice seeing you again too and I hope you have a great time on Sensation and also the Dream. We don't have any cruises booked...yet. We tend to book about three months in advance, sometimes sooner. :)

 

Valentinebaby1...I'm laughing at the KFC picture and the little chicken. Your comment "Run little chicken, run for your life!" :D Really enjoying your review and getting ready to catch up on your latest updates.

Edited January 28, 2017 by pghsteelerfan

[sammygoose]

great thread thanks!

[glrounds]

Loved the review . . . great pics as well. Thank you.

Edited January 28, 2017 by glrounds

[watermelonqueen99]

I see people talking about CD's and how much they like certain ones...we loved Felipe from our first cruise (woo hoo!) and Classy Cassie on our second cruise was just eh...but Chloe did such a great job making the whole cruise experience extra special! I would love to cruise with her again some day!

 

If you ever get the chance, cruise with Dr. E on the Magic. He is absolutely fantastic, you'll never wanna cruise with anyone else! Lol

[valentinebaby1]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this review. You've given me some ideas for our upcoming Cozumel trip!

 

I should finish up the day in Cozumel shortly...thanks for reading! I'm so excited about our next visit to Cozumel, which will be on the Glory in October. I never saw this excursion when looking before, and obviously it's a very limited season, but there's one called "Save a Sea Turtle" or something along those lines that we booked through Carnival. We'll *hopefully* get to help dig up some of the turtle nests and find the stragglers and release the ones we find. It will be totally different than any excursion we've done before, but I can't wait to go back to Cozumel!

 

Hope you have an awesome time!

[valentinebaby1]

Thank you for the review. It has been a pleasure to read and see what you have done.

 

I started to read the review to learn more about the ship...but I got sucked into your whole trip. The writing is great and funny.

 

Thanks for the great review and your sense of humor

 

*blushes* awww thanks! I'm glad you've been enjoying it!

[valentinebaby1]

Well, hello there to you!!! :) Nice seeing you again too and I hope you have a great time on Sensation and also the Dream. We don't have any cruises booked...yet. We tend to book about three months in advance, sometimes sooner. :)

 

Valentinebaby1...I'm laughing at the KFC picture and the little chicken. Your comment "Run little chicken, run for your life!" :D Really enjoying your review and getting ready to catch up on your latest updates.

 

I'm still hoping for good things for you and D and keeping my fingers crossed that you might be able to sail with us on one of these upcoming cruises!

[valentinebaby1]

great thread thanks!

 

Thank you for reading!

[valentinebaby1]

Loved the review . . . great pics as well. Thank you.

 

Thank you! And I can't take credit for most of the pictures. Hubby is usually the one with the camera in hand. Or for anyone who knows him, cameraS in handS...lol

 

We were just talking about his photo taking on this cruise compared to our first 2 cruises and he took significantly fewer pictures. Part of that, I'm sure, is that the "newness" of cruising has worn off. But the other thing we realized is that we really enjoyed this cruise more too, and *maybe* that is because we were more immersed in *being* in the moment instead of just recording the moment. For example, when we were at Miss T's restaurant, we were enjoying our meal and our time together so much that we didn't take a single picture of the food that we were so excited to be there to eat!

 

But truthfully I liked it better this way. We have some great photos to remember it by, but I'm not having to go through 10,000 pictures like I did on our Liberty cruise!

[valentinebaby1]

If you ever get the chance, cruise with Dr. E on the Magic. He is absolutely fantastic, you'll never wanna cruise with anyone else! Lol

 

I've heard many good things about him. Unfortunately Magic is not on our agenda at least for the next 2.5 years...and that's how we feel about Chloe too :) I won't let a "bad" CD ruin a cruise, but a great CD sure makes things more fun!

[valentinebaby1]

So I left off about halfway through our Bar Hop excursion...picking up from there...

 

The 3rd stop on our tour was Playa Bonita. The building here probably shouldn't be standing based on the laws of physics, but somehow it is. It was a lot of fun! I guess at one point it was on a lovely beach, but the beach has eroded, and the building now stands practically over the water. We loved watching the pelicans dive bomb the water, it was so close! There is still a beach off to the south side. (On our land vacation to Cozumel, we spent some time in the water here, but the water was red flag level so we opted not to this time.)

 

 

Look at the size of these drinks!

 

 

I have a few other pictures from this stop...that are hilarious and yet I probably shouldn't post them as they are not family friendly. Let's just say there were fake body parts under aprons and drinks made in shapes of body parts...things got a little wild here, but it was a lot of fun!

 

Rastas was our 4th and final stop of the tour:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

Rastas is right next to the entrance to Punta Sur, and here you can barely make out the lighthouse that sits at the southern tip of Cozumel:

 

 

 

 

Some final notes about the Cozumel Bar Hop....If you want a relaxing tour with gorgeous views, this could be a tour for you. If you have a wild bunch and want to get a little wild, this tour could be for you...it's really what you make of it, and for the most part the bars are large enough that if you wanted to get away from a wilder crowd, you could do that. Colleen takes excellent care of her guests! The tour is a great way to see the other side of the island that most people don't get to see.

 

Also, keep in mind that the East side of the island does not have electricity or internet. You need cash for everything, but prices were very reasonable. We ate at Coconuts and the food was excellent! The drinks at all were great, but especially at Playa Bonita. Each of the stops has little booths set up so if you are afraid you won't have time to shop, you can shop along the way (we just found that the prices were a little higher than in San Miguel). All in all it is an excellent tour, and so much fun!

 

[valentinebaby1]

The tour finished up and we were dropped off right at the entrance to the cruise terminal right on time as promised. We had a few minutes to wander through the shops in the port area before boarding the Splendor for the last time.

 

 

Now I have to admit that hubby and I were a little tipsy...we had made sure to eat a good breakfast before leaving, knowing we would be drinking (and starting super early at that!). DD had just as much to drink as these old farts did, but she wasn't the least bit tipsy...As we were walking through the cruise terminal taxi stand area, hubby tripped and wiped out. I think he was trying to be a hero and grab a paper that had been blown out of someone's nearby hand, but we had a good laugh over it until we realized that he was holding the box of glassware. He somehow managed to keep his hold on the box and luckily nothing was damaged.

 

We managed to get through the port area without any other mishaps, bought a couple more magnets for our collection and made our way back to the ship.

 

 

 

There was just a little bit of a line getting back on the ship. The time stamped on this photo is 5:21pm. Back onboard time was 5:30.

 

 

Phew we made it! 5:28pm...lol

 

Back on board safe and sound, and hubby snaps this pic at 5:50pm:

 

 

That's a lot of people still meandering towards the ship! We sailed away at 6:11pm. Bye Bye Cozumel, see you again some day!

 

[valentinebaby1]

My decision to do this review so late prompted hubby to finally start editing some of the videos of all our trips, and although I already posted about Ocho Rios, here's a quick video of pier runners from that port:

 

 

Not the greatest video, too much wind and blurry but you get the idea!

 

Here are a few more random photos of Splendor that were taken after we were back on board:

 

 

 

I'm not sure how there weren't pier runners...maybe there were and we just didn't see them. This photo was taken at 5:58 and we took off just 12 minutes later...talk about cutting it close people!!

 

 

 

I'm not sure why, but we were moving really fast, heading through the channel between Cozumel and the mainland, going North. Almost 21 knots! The ship was rocking and we were laughing because we weren't sure if we were just still a bit tipsy from our day or if things really were rocking that much! Didn't bother us though, it just made getting around a little more interesting. It didn't last long.

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

It was our second Elegant Night and we got ready for dinner. We were looking forward to this night because we knew that Bitter N'Blanc was on the menu!

 

omnomnomnom....

 

 

You can tell it's our favorite menu item because I believe it was the ONLY menu item we took pictures of!

 

After dinner we headed back to our room to change and get more comfortable. Our towel animal was waiting for us...

 

 

We headed out to the Lido deck to hang. There was a dance party and "giveaway" which consisted of a few straw hats, beads and fun mustaches. We ran into one half of the honeymooners and she told us she had not been feeling well that day, and she stayed on board while her husband wandered Cozumel alone. He apparently was hanging out at a beach and got quite sunburnt, so now he was alone in their room not feeling well. She hung around with us for awhile and we enjoyed the evening.

 

 

The only show that night was karaoke, which isn't really our thing. But we apparently missed the Love and Marriage show. We still haven't sat in on one of these yet and it would have been so much fun with Chloe. But we still had a fun evening!

 

Edited January 29, 2017 by valentinebaby1

[Pom Lover]

Thank you for the review of the Splendor. We are booked in cabin 9198 in two weeks and I loved seeing your photos of the rooms. We are excited to have such a spectacular view.

[SLCfirsttimer]

Enjoying your review, we did the Bar Hop several years ago and it was so much fun. We also had Colleen as our guide, she is fantastic. Looking forward to more of your review.

 

 

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[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

Thanks so much for your review and beautiful pictures! So glad that all of you had a great time. I sailed aboard the Splendor in July. I also loved Chloe! She's so nice and super funny What a personality!

[FrankandLolas2ndhoneymoon]

I was just about to ask you what cabin you were in, but then i re-read and realized. This might be kind of a stretch, but do you know anything about the Extended Aft balcony rooms? Thank you for a very thorough review!

[easyboy]

Wish we can do the Bar Hop in March! Thanks for that tip!

[terri-eddie]

I think you might have misunderstood. The BBQ is actually in the back of the ship... The odd hot tubs are are on the either side of the pool but a deck up.

 

 

 

Well, that explains why I didn't see the hot tub near the bbq! I must not have walked forward on that deck at all. Oh well...next time!