Splendour Review

[twoguyscruising]

Looks like no reviews on the Splendour since 12/5. Come on guys/gals give us some reviews. Cruising in April so I like to get all the info I can.

Thank you...

[lindalu62]

just posted my review in early Feb., did you do a search?

[waitingtogo]

where did you post review. it is not on review board.

[wrp96]

Getting reviews posted on the review board is at least a month behind, my review of my cruise the week before Christmas didn't post until the end of January. Just search through the Royal Caribbean board to search for new reviews.

[BellinghamBoaters]

I posted a review weeks ago on the Splendour from my sailing 01/02-01/12 and it has not been published yet. The cruise was great! The Splendour was great!

[DPKIRISH]

I just got back last night. Overall, it was a nice vacation, but very dissapointing in some ways. Some of it was RC fault and some is probably mine.

 

BOARDING

We flew into IAH on Friday night and stayed at the Doubletree, which is set up with RC. We got up in the morning and got on the bus to Galveston. Bus ride was nice and quick - just over an hour. I think we lucked out. The boarding was really really fast. I was impressed with how quickly everyone was processed, through security and boarded.

 

We got off the ship a little bit late (30 min.) but fairly easily and the shuttle got to the airport terminal timely.

 

FOOD

This was very dissapointing. The Windjammer was a huge let down. The food was often cold and not all that great. I do not expect to get the best food ever from a buffet, but at least keep it hot or at least very warm. And what was with those horrible eggs? I have never seen eggs so runny. The only thing that saved me was the omlet station - except the men at the station could not understand anything I said to them.

 

Also, the beverages were very inconsistant. The orange juice was often watered down and the lemonaide was usually incredibly sweet and overly tart. Maybe they could taste the stuff before they give it to us.

 

In the King and I (formal Dining Room), I thought that the service was fairly good. No complaints there at all - except one night almost everyone at our table recieved different menus with different items excluded-very confusing. The food was ok-nothing great. Steak always over cooked, which reminds me - the meat carving station in the Windjammer usually had very very low quality dry meat.

 

The head waiter was kind of a freak. He always would come over and act like a lion or sing who let the dogs out. I think he thought we were laughin with him, but it was more like at him.

 

ROOM

We had an Ocean View room and it was fine. The bed was rediculously uncomfortable. I slept better on the lounge chair by the pool. Our stateroom attendant was great - Leon. We always had fresh ice and always found ways to take care the room without runnign into him. He got a great tip.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

This was hit and miss. Some was good and some was not so good. The Love and Marrage was funny. Battle of the sexes was really bad. The singers and dancers did a nice job. The comedian was not that funny. Overall, I was really tired of every host or MC doing that "let me hear you... oh no, I am sure you guys can do better than that..." Maybe if they gave us something to clap or chear about more, we would be more excited.

 

The music was good. My only problem was that the pool band took so many breaks. They were on break more that they performed. I love the steel drums - can't get enough. The man and woman who performed at the Captain's reception and often in the Centrum were nice. It would have been even better if they knew more than just those six songs that they performed over and over.

 

Pool games were fun and entertaining. It is amazing what people will do for practically nothing when on vacation.

 

PORTS

Cozumel: Tendering took longer than I would have liked (pier is in really bad shape). We had to wait 30 minutes to get off ship and almost an hour to get back on. Downtown and some beaches seemed to have made great progress after Wilma.

 

Costa Maya: Beautiful port - plenty to do. Majahual was fun. Liked it even more than Cozumel.

 

Mexico overall: I was really frusterated with the fact that you can not use prepaid calling cards (even international cards) at the pay phones. I guess they want the money spent there - not back home. The probelem is, I don't think I should have to pay $1.50/minute. Oh well, you live and you learn. Another issue: why is so hard to get a Corona? It seemed like everywhere I went, all they had was XXs. That was weird to me.

 

OTHER

The Salarium was a complete waste of space in my opinion. They was a retractable roof, but only opened it the day we got on and off the ship. I would have loved to enjoy the Salarium on the sea days. I am sure it would have reduced the over crouding at the main pool as well. The pizza there was good though.

 

Fitness room was good. They had a nice selection of cardio machines and free weights and other weight machines. I was able to work out a few days.

 

The casino was fine. It had a good variety of games. My wife was really upset with a pit boss and complained about him becasue he was very rude to her.

 

The bars were good and gave many diverse places to hang out and have a cocktail.

 

OVERALL

I guess this ship was not for us. We were much happier on the Adventure of the Seas (2002). We probably won't go on another ship smaller than Adventure. Hopefully the food has not deteriorated on all of the RC ships. We will definetely have to hedge our expectations going forward.

 

I will try to answer any questions that I can.

[camreesmom]

We were on the same cruise as DPKIRISH. It's amazing how different people can have different opinions of the same cruise. I would probably have to agree with you more than disagree though.

 

Boarding was the fastest that we've ever experienced. We got to the pier around 11:45 and we were on the ship by 12:05. We wondered where all the people were.

 

We had been on the Splendour before so we were expecting a wonderful time again. After being on the Rhapsody twice since our last time on the Splendour, we were a little disappointed. The crew on the Splendour did everything that they needed to but the Rhapsody crew seemed to go above and beyond to make your vacation exceptional.

 

The ships aren't that much different in size but the Splendour seemed a bit crowded in some areas, mainly the Windjammer. It was difficult to get around in there and I can't imagine trying to get through there in a wheelchair or with a stroller. We had some very good food in here but also some terrible stuff. We didn't find the meat to be dry but temperature and flavor were inconsistent. I have never been able to eat scrambled eggs from a buffet because the texture just isn't right but we enjoyed having our eggs over easy at the omelet station. We had dinner in the Windjammer one evening and it was SOOOOOO dark around the outside tables that you couldn't even see your food. The tables were very crowded together. The orange juice was horrible, just mainly water with a very little bit of juice added.

 

We didn't spend much time at the main pool so I can't comment on it being crowded or not out there. We did go to the Solarium quite a bit and enjoyed the hot tubs there. The pool attendants were excellent at keeping the kids out of the Solarium. DH commented that it looked like they couldn't open the retractable roof without blocking the golf course.

 

Dinners in the dining room were excellent but the steaks were always over cooked. I ordered my first steak medium well and it was almost burned. The next time I ordered it medium, it was still well done. The beef filet served on formal night melted in your mouth and the lobster served the night we left Costa Maya was wonderful. Our assistant waiter was excellent. Our waiter gave us good service also but he was very shy and quiet, seemed to be having a problem with English. Our head waiter kept trying to speak with a New York accent and did the who let the dogs out thing also. I wonder if it was the same guy. His name was Claudio from Guatamala. We did question how they decide how to group people together for table assignments. We were not too thrilled to find out that we had been placed with a family of 5 with 3 kids when we are a couple in our late 30's, early 40s. We ended up really hitting it off with the family but thought it was strange that we came on the ship to spend some time away from our kids and end up eating with other kids.

 

Our bed was not unbearable but we have learned to request an eggcrate mattress as soon as we get to the cabin. Our room was incredibly small. It was the smallest cabin that we've ever booked and I won't make that mistake again. The bed only had a nightstand on one side and the other side of the bed was all the way up against the wall. That wasn't very convenient for bathroom breaks in the middle of the night. We were in a category M inside cabin on deck 2. Our door also squeaked all night long which was very irritating.

 

Tendering in Cozumel was much quicker than what we were expecting. It took us maybe 20 minutes total from when we got in line until we got on the pier in Cozumel. We did wait until around 8:30 to try to get off the ship though so I know that helped. When we walked out of our cabin that morning to go to breakfast around 7:30, we had a very hard time getting down the hall because the line to get on the tenders was all the way to the front of the ship on deck 2 at that time.

 

We really enjoyed Costa Maya, like DPKIRISH said, even more than Cozumel. We got on the bus to Majahual ($3/pp each way) and stopped at one of the bars on the beach to get drinks then walked across the street to sit under one of the palapas. We spent most of the day there. I got the best massage ever for $20 for 40 minutes.

 

The entertainment was hit or miss. The comedian was just so so. The dancers the first night were a joke. We did enjoy the production show, Dancing through the Movies. The farewell show with the group from Argentina was weird. The lady screaming was very annoying. The group that sang at the Captains reception and in the Centrum did seem to sing the same songs over and over again. Sometimes their accent was a bit strong too.

 

We did enjoy the casino and came out a little bit ahead so that was good. DH played slots and I played roulette.

 

I'll be on this ship again in April with a bunch of friends from work so I'm curious to see if things are the same then.

 

Julie

[just sailing]

We were on the Splendour last month. Boarding was the fastest we have ever had on any ship. We stayed in a JS and our room steward was very good. I had breakfast in the Windjammer usually at 7 a.m. and found the food to be fine. The dining room service was excellent from the assistant waiter to the head waiter. We found the food to be good and my steaks were always cooked the way I ordered them (medium rare).

 

We speant a lot of time at the pool and the casino. The bar service was good at both places. I won some money at the casino and won the Owners Cup Horse Race which made the trip even better.

 

I used the Gym several times and they have a good selection of equipment.

Tendering in Cozumel was a breeze we were off the ship and in a taxi within thirty minutes.

 

We had a very good time and are going back next year. Have a great cruise twoguyscruising.

[twoguyscruising]

Wanted to thank you all for putting the reviews here, I didn't realize that it takes awhile for them to get posted to the Review section.

 

Food is one of the most interesting things, some love it some hate it and some don't say anything. I just love being spoiled so I hope that this will happen on this ship. Wow 2 more months till we sail... I wish it was tomorrow.

 

Thanks again

Arthur

[BellinghamBoaters]

Other posters are right on as far as their criticisms. The beds were not the most comfortable but tolerable. I left a suggestion that a topper of the new memory foam matress toppers would be a cheap fix. Did not know about the egg crate but the matress was bearable but not the best.

 

My wife an I ate dinner every day in the King and I and it was great to good. The Windjammer as others have mentioned was much to be desired. The embarkation lunch was cold and Breakfast was luke warm to cold as well other than the Omelet station.

 

Still, the service was awesome as well as the expeerience. This was our first cruise but we are hooked.