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

[watermelonqueen99]

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!

 

We had a blast! Great ship, awesome crew, great mix of fellow passengers! And yes, Chloe was our CD. :)

[valentinebaby1]

I found our Fun Times so here's a little more detail about our nightly activities:

 

On our first sea day, we sat in for a few minutes on the 88 Keys show, which we really enjoyed the few minutes of it that we saw. Then the comedian we saw that evening was Lester Bibbs. We ran into him at Miss T's restaurant while we were there also so we told him how much we enjoyed his show.

 

So back to the review:

 

 

So once back on board after our day in Ocho Rios, I'm kind of drawing a blank as to what we did. We ate in the main dining room every night so I know we did that, but I don't think we did much else. Between the 3 of us, there was only 1 drink ordered per our sign and sail receipt that day. I think this might have been the afternoon/evening that DD and hubby tried out the water slide and we may have just hung out at the pool for awhile before dinner. I think we may have gone later to dinner since we had such a big lunch. Our one drink ordered that day was from the Black Pearl service bar and wasn't until shortly after 9pm.

 

At some point we did watch the sunset, so we must have watched before going to dinner:

 

 

 

 

What I do remember doing that night was attending Carnival Quest for the first time! DD went to bed (her narcolepsy requires her to have consistent sleep and at least 8 hours so unfortunately for her she doesn't have much choice in that matter), but while she slept we headed down for Quest which didn't start until 11:45pm.

 

We didn't participate, we just observed, but it was a riot! It was a very adult scavenger hunt and Chloe was so brave to lead such an event! If you haven't attended before, you should see if your ship offers it; even if you just watch and don't participate. But don't go if you're one who will be easily offended or get your panties in a bunch seeing people taking off clothes and running around like crazies. If you're offended at the comedian's adult shows, maybe Quest isn't for you...lol

 

We walked back to our room through the Lido deck and the cover was over the pool, and it was still open. By this point it was around 12:30am. I swear on our previous cruises they closed down the pools much earlier, so we were kind of surprised it was still open and that there were still people enjoying it at that hour.

 

 

And of course a photo of our towel animal that night:

 

[valentinebaby1]

We had a blast! Great ship, awesome crew, great mix of fellow passengers! And yes, Chloe was our CD. :)

 

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!

[valentinebaby1]

Wednesday May 18, 2016 Grand Cayman

 

We arrived in Grand Cayman very early and on the agenda today was a tour with a company called Acquarious Tours, and yes, that's how it is spelled. The tour included pick up at the port for a short ride to the bay side where we boarded a boat and made 3 stops. The first was to Starfish Point, the 2nd was Stingray City and the last stop was snorkeling in the Coral Garden.

 

Grand Cayman is a tender port. We headed down to guest services to find out how the whole FTTF thing worked for tendering and it was awesome to just walk up to the desk to the FTTF side with no waiting, since there always seemed to be a line at the desk. We were then greeted by a crew member who walked us to the closest elevator and rode with us down to exit and walked us right to the front of the line. It was so easy and fast! So we took the tender to shore and now had a little bit of time to kill before our tour would start.

 

This was on the tender boat:

 

 

here you can see what the tender boat looks like.If you've never tendered before, the little boat pulls up right next to the ship and they put a walkway across from the ship to tender. So easy. Since we were the only ship in port, at that point anyway, it went pretty fast and there were I think 4 tender boats running:

 

 

 

 

Some of the shops weren't even open yet, but there were enough of them open that we picked up our magnets for our collection, just in case we didn't have time on the return end. We found a snack shop open and picked up a couple of frozen Slurpee type drinks to enjoy while we waited. We really weren't sure how long it would take to get through the tender process since it was the first time we had been to a tender port, so we had allowed ourselves plenty of time and now we were waiting a little longer than we would have liked, but better safe than sorry. We were in port 8am-4pm with last tender running at 3:15.

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

They did have a large tent set up for shade in the spots where people wait for their tours, which I thought was a nice touch!

 

 

 

 

Our tour driver met us as agreed and we walked a short distance out of the port to the parking lot where a bus waited to take us to the marina. The ride was maybe 5-10 minutes. We then boarded the tour boat and met our captain. The boat was large, and had an inside section and a section on the front. We chose to ride outside and enjoy the breeze on our way to the first stop: Starfish Point.

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Starfish Point is a small beach with a nice calm shallow area and lots of starfish scattered in the very clear water. We spent about 15 minutes at this stop and were able to pick up the starfish, keeping them underwater as instructed, and take photos of and with them. The tour took lots of really great photos as well, which were available to us after the cruise as a free download. The captain was very aware of how many boats were at Starfish Point and Stingray City and judged accordingly at the time as to which we would go to first as to avoid the biggest crowds.

 

 

 

A large stingray came to visit at Starfish Point:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Froufie]

When we arrived back at port we still had a little time left and decided to stop at the little beach next to the port. As hot as I was, I decided not to swim at that point and let hubby and DD swim while I kept watch over everything. I found a spot in the shade at a cafe and ordered a couple rum punches to enjoy. I sat and "people watched" while they swam for a few minutes. Once they were finished up we made the walk back to the ship. It sure seemed like the ship was further away than it was in the morning! But we made it back with time to spare with very full tummies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wondering if the beach has a name? Just off the ship and to the right? Any loungers/umbrellas/facilities?

[valentinebaby1]

Wondering if the beach has a name? Just off the ship and to the right? Any loungers/umbrellas/facilities?

 

We only spent a few minutes there, so I don't really have a lot of info on it. I believe the beach is called Fisherman's Beach. There is a Margaritaville right there, and the beach is shown on their webpage, so maybe they manage the inflatables, and there were beach chairs off to one side of the beach, so maybe Margaritaville manages the chairs as well?

Edited January 26, 2017 by valentinebaby1

[DebbieMo]

I found our Fun Times so here's a little more detail about our nightly activities:

 

 

 

Do you mind sharing a scan or pic of the fun times? Would love to see it even though we're on a different itinerary.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[terri-eddie]

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 :)

 

 

That's funny! I went up to the bbq area with my husband, and I didn't look around too much I guess! Usually when we first get on board, we start at Deck 1 and go from end to end, bottom to top, exploring all the ship has to offer. We didn't do that this time, thinking we knew all there was to know. I guess next cruise we'll have to do our proper exploration again!

[valentinebaby1]

Do you mind sharing a scan or pic of the fun times? Would love to see it even though we're on a different itinerary.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I'll ask hubby if he's willing to...the scanner and I don't get along too well. If you're looking for specific info (times for something etc) let me know though and I'll look it up for you.

[valentinebaby1]

That's funny! I went up to the bbq area with my husband, and I didn't look around too much I guess! Usually when we first get on board, we start at Deck 1 and go from end to end, bottom to top, exploring all the ship has to offer. We didn't do that this time, thinking we knew all there was to know. I guess next cruise we'll have to do our proper exploration again!

 

You must have just missed it then if you were near the BBQ. Oh well, maybe next time :)

[valentinebaby1]

After Starfish Point we headed to Stingray City, which is a shallow sandbar, about 4 feet deep, where the stingrays gather to be fed. They were huge! I wasn't expecting stingrays this large, or so many of them!

 

 

 

 

We were allowed time to just wander around this area and took turns for a photo op with "Mudslide". One of the guides with our tour was the stingray whisperer, I swear! He was a little odd, in a good way, and "spoke" to the stingrays, calmed them down, praised and soothed them. Mudslide was the one he said is most cooperative for photos and it was so interesting to watch him interact with her.

 

 

He held her for a few minutes, talked to her and explained it was photo time and that we would feed her when we were done with the photos. He petted her and she actually responded to it and really knew this routine and knew what was expected of her. It was fascinating! Each couple or group got to pose with her for a few photos.

 

 

After that we kind of gathered in a half circle and they gave each of us a snack to feed to one of the rays as they passed by us. Feeding them was a little scary, they didn't bite but you could feel a hard tooth like structure and their suck was powerful! But it was so neat!

 

This was our boat, and there were maybe 2 or 3 other boats out there at the time, but it really didn't feel crowded. There was plenty of room and plenty of rays for everyone!

 

 

DD was a little nervous with the stingrays, and after a few minutes in the water with so many of them swimming around, she got back on the boat to just watch. One other person from our tour did also. She was just a bit overwhelmed by it.

 

We spent maybe 30-45 minutes with the rays and then boarded the boat again for a short ride to the snorkel spot.

[JKirkN]

That's funny! I went up to the bbq area with my husband, and I didn't look around too much I guess! Usually when we first get on board, we start at Deck 1 and go from end to end, bottom to top, exploring all the ship has to offer. We didn't do that this time, thinking we knew all there was to know. I guess next cruise we'll have to do our proper exploration again!

 

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.

 

[valentinebaby1]

The snorkeling was fabulous! So much to see and lots of coral. DD joined us to snorkel and we loved it. We spent about 30 minutes snorkeling and they provided the equipment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

When we finished we boarded the boat again and started to make our way back across the bay to the marina. Along the way we were given a piece of pizza and some punch, which was a nice and very welcome treat. I highly recommend Acquarius tours!

 

 

Here's a link to a short video hubby took on our tour, with instructions from Captain Mario:

 

 

On the way in and out of the marina, there are huge mansions to see...very fancy!

 

 

 

I can't remember exactly from start to finish but I believe the tour was about 3 hours 15 minutes or so.

 

As we were driving back to port, we saw this KFC:

 

 

Do you see anything ironic about this photo?

 

RUN AWAY LITTLE CHICKEN, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

 

We got back to the port with a little time to spend, but not enough to go to 7 mile beach as we had hoped to do. We were just afraid it would cut it too close, so we chose to just wander around town and do a little shopping. Hubby also wanted to collect some money/coins for his money collection so we stopped at one of the many banks in the area for that. We decided to just wait until we were back on the ship to get a late lunch.

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

I wish that FTTF included priority tender back to the ship. The wait was long and tiresome, and I wish there was some shade along the way while we waited in line. It probably took a good 20 minutes in line before we made it to the tender.

 

 

 

 

Back on the ship we grabbed some lunch and cooled off in the pool. It was an early port day and we were back on the ship by 3:30 pm.

 

Here's a little video as we left Grand Cayman:

 

 

It was our 2nd elegant night, 80's Pop to the Max was the show that night in the Spectacular Theater but we opted to see Chaz Elstner's comedy show that evening the El Morocco lounge. It was pretty good. I don't really recall doing anything else that evening, but we were pretty tired after spending the day in the sun.

 

Here is our towel animal for the night:

 

Edited January 26, 2017 by valentinebaby1

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review and those great photos.

It's nice to see the stingray video.

[valentinebaby1]

Enjoying your review and those great photos.

It's nice to see the stingray video.

 

Thank you!

[SoloSailorII]

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

[valentinebaby1]

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

 

We are sailing Sensation in September, so take good care of her for us! I'm so excited that she's getting a Guys Burgers! Don't wait too long for Splendor, as she's moving to Long Beach and then leaving the fleet in 2019 :( I'm so sad about that and we're already booked up to April 2019 so we can't squeeze another Splendor trip in before she goes to the P & O line.

 

Did we meet on the Liberty cruise? I know someone recognized us from CC as we were getting back on the ship one day...was that you?

[valentinebaby1]

May 19, 2016 COZUMEL

 

Today was our day in Cozumel. I know some people don't care for this port and say things like "stay on the ship" but we love Cozumel! This would be our 3rd time to Cozumel, the first was a week long all inclusive stay, and the 2nd time was a day trip we took from a week long stay in Playa Del Carmen (and DD was with us on that trip, so this was her 2nd time to Cozumel). Since we had done a snorkel tour on our 2nd visit to Cozumel with DD, we decided to take her on the Bar Hop.

 

This was where we stayed during our all inclusive week (Park Royal). It was fun to see the resort from the cruise vantage point, since we watched the cruise ships come and go all week from our balcony at Park Royal.

 

 

There was a towel animal invasion on the lido deck, which was fun to see while we got breakfast:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

The Bar Hop starts in downtown San Miguel, which is a 10 minute cab ride from the port. I think the cab ride was around $10. We got off the ship as early as possible and headed straight to San Miguel because we wanted to do a little shopping there and to stop at a bar called The Thirsty Cougar before our Bar Hop tour started.

There's a shop in San Miguel that is far cheaper than any of the other shops we saw, including those in the port and along the route for the Bar Hop. We got Mexican blankets for $5 and magnets as low as $1. My son also collects those little tiny bobble head animals and they have them in this shop for $1, where every place else on the cruise they were selling them for $4-5 each! So we wanted to pick up some of those little cheap trinkets.

 

Ah, here we are, The Thirsty Cougar!

 

 

 

The Thirsty Cougar is a bar we saw on TV. The couple that owns it was featured on Mexican Life or Caribbean Life, I can't remember which one, the show where they look at homes to buy. This family bought a home in Cozumel and at the end of the show they showed them at their bar, The Thirsty Cougar. We thought it would be fun to stop in there as another one of our "as seen on TV" stops.

 

The bar was quiet, but of course it was only like 9:30 or so in the morning. We each ordered a drink and they were these huge frozen concoctions! They were so fun and delicious! They also have a very nice collection of hand blown glass items for sale, all made from recycled glass bottles. We love to collect blown glass sea creatures from all of our trips, whenever we find them, and we were able to add a large turtle to our collection, and a sweet little bird. We also purchased a couple wine glasses and shot glasses. Now what were we gonna do with all this glass??

 

 

I know this is kind of dark, but you can see on the left side all the glassware for sale. We had a tough time deciding what to get!

 

 

 

 

Well, while we enjoyed our drinks, they packed everything up for us really well, and found a box that everything fit into, and then used a lot of tape to tape the box up and even created a handle for the box out of tape. We left it all wrapped up like that until we got home, and everything made it home safely. We took that box as one of our carry-ons on the plane too. Between the drinks and all the glass items we had purchased, we probably spent $150 at the Thirsty Cougar but it was so worth it!

[valentinebaby1]

 

Here's hubby with Tim, the owner of The Thirsty Cougar:

 

 

Now it was on to the Hop. We walked the 2 blocks or so to the meeting spot near Senor Frogs. I have some vague memories of a night spent at this Senor Frogs during spring break, when some super sweet college kids dragged these old fogies along with them to ladies night when we were staying at Park Royal...lol...never again! Anyway, we found our tour group and loaded up in the bus to head to the east side of the island.

 

 

The tour consists of 4 stops along the east coast, each stop unique. They are Punta Morena, Coconuts, Playa Bonita and Rastas. We got a free shot at each stop and had about 45 minutes at each one. At the end of the tour we got a tee shirt, and because we were "Fo-Ho's" (Former Hoppers) we got a beer coozie and a button too. Colleen, our tour guide, took excellent care of us and made sure we were back in port on time.

 

Our first stop; Punta Morena: