Splendour of the Seas Transatlantic March 09 Review

[mike@sea]

For some reason I´m not able to send the review via the mask, so I simply post it here for those that are interested.

 

Just returned from our 14 night repositioning cruise on the Splendour leaving Santos/ Sao Paulo on March 13th to Lisbon, Portugal. Since there are no recent Splendour reviews, I thought I´d quickly leave one here. I have cruised with 5 friends, all in our 40th. Me and my friend and cabin mate are rather the cruise experts as C/A diamond members, compared to our friends who were cruise virgins when we boarded in Santos.

The Splendour was the only ship in port and boarding was very efficient, easy and quick.

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We have sailed twice on the Splendour many years ago, and have only sailed Radiance class ships and Voyager class ships since. Compared to them, the Splendour seemed rather small and yes, also older looking. Our friends however thought the ship was big and seemed happy with what they saw. Cabins were ready by 1.00 p.m., luggage arrived mostly around 4:00 p.m. We were were pleased with our aft JS and so were our friends with their D2 cabins starboard. The JS on the vision class ships are smaller than on the newer ships, but are still very nice and to me have the perfect size. Our room steward Wayan from Indonesia was great, our friends were equally happy with theirs. The aft balcony with the great view worth every extra Euro spent!

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Staff: The Splendour had one of the friendliest staff I ever met on any of my 18 cruises. From captain to the pool boy, always friendly, helpful and smiling. Most were Brazilian with very good English language skills, but many also came from European, or other South American countries. Quite a few Indians, all extremely nice, as well. Overall as mentioned before probably the nicest staff I ever experienced. They did work very hard to please everyone!

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Fellow passengers: It did not come as a surprise that probably 2/3 of the passengers, the ship was full, came from Brazil. Passengers boarded in all of the Brazilian ports, Santos, Rio, Salvador and Recife, meaning the ship slowly filled up as the cruise went on. The Brazilians are a happy bunch but some of them think they are better than others.

Some older women were really badly behaved with no manners when it comes to being on time for dinner, queueing up, waiting for their turn to talk etc. Oh well, most were well behaved and it was a fun and interesting experience vacationing with them. Other passengers came from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia and other EU countries. Most seem to have a real good time on this voyage.

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The ship: One can tell that the ship is over 10 years old. It has none of the glitz and open space feeling the newer ships have. Ceilings seem to hang lower which adds to the small ship feeling. While carpets in all the hallways were new, the ones in the cabins could do with replacements. Open decks all looked fine and mostly well maintained, so does the solarium area. Bars and theater all looked great and were in very good shape. Viking Crown lounge which is also home of the nightly disco is probably the nicest one on all the ships with the perfect size and a perfect dancefloor. We had a great time there every night. The DJ was surprisingly very good and pleased everyone with his varied music!

The gym however was way too small by today´s standards which was very evident on this cruise. It was crowded from early morning to late evening. Not very pleasant on a journey with many sea days. The sauna was equally bad and just as crowded.

I did not get any massage nor did I use the salon service. The Spa staff however was wonderful, exactly as all other staff on the ship.

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Entertainment: Well, I think they did a very good job with keeping everybody busy and entertained. Not easy with the passenger mix we had. All announcements came in English, Portuguese and German. In the theatre, the cruise director, a charming Brazilian guy, always started in Portuguese, followed by fluent English and again followed by Portuguese to get the mostly Brazilian audience cheering and clapping. Good job! Theatre was mostly full every night. Shows were mostly good to very good with some cheesy Brazilian dance shows in the beginning of the cruise. Singers and especially the dancers were very good this time with one great show -movies- and one not to my liking -ballroom dancing- !

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Food and other amenities: Overall I think that RCCL still provides a wonderful experience and a great product. I can fully understand that there are certain so called cutbacks, especially when their customer value is questionable. So do I miss the pillow chocolate? Definitely not, I´m glad they are gone. Do I miss shampoo and cream? In fact, our JS came fully equipped with bath amenities, the balcony cabin of our friends had none. They did not miss it since they prefer and bring their own stuff anyways, as most people do. Besides, all showers do have full shampoo dispensers. If there was one thing I did miss, then it was the free photo coupon in the coupon book.

Lounge access was granted and we had many nice talks with fellow passengers. Fatima the concierge was pleasant but not as personal as other concierges I came across before.

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The food. Hmmm, really difficult to judge. While I did enjoy the windjammer food this time, variety was good, some dishes were aimed towards the Brazilian taste - I wish RCCL would do this more often and cater more towards the local area the ships sail in - , I did have some difficulties with the dining room food. I must add that seasoning was always great. Food was not bland at all. Variety was also good.

The thing that I disliked though was the fact, that repeatedly the dining room menu listed items, that were simply not on the plate in the end or items that were completely different in the end. If the menu reads -Wasabi Mashed Potatoes-, I do not want to have regular mashed potatoes on my plate, because that´s not what it was advertised at. There were other dishes, that would have been really great, if they would have come with a or the right sauce for example. Very sad, because that sort of spoilt the dining room experience a bit. Again, selection and presentation were quite good, but the actutal dishes in the end lacked and simply were not properly cooked/created/put together.

Lobster was not offered at all and according to our headwaiter have not been for almost 1 1/2 years on the Splendour. The Radiance did serve it in December, so that´s obviously a ship´s decision. It wasn´t really missed though. Deserts were great!

Meat was quite bad, especially when compared to what was being served years ago. What happened here? Since we sailed from Brazil, where meat is inexpensive and tasty, I find this almost inxecusable and cheap from RCCL to cut back these expenses to this level.

Dining room service was great, dining times however difficult on this sailing. First seating started at 7.00 and late seating at 09.30. Quite a few Brazilians did show up much later than their assigned dining times. I felt quite sorry for some of the dining room waiters but they seemd to be used to it after a season in Brazil.

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Overall another wonderful cruise where we met some wonderful people from all over the world. I did like the fact that it was not an "All American" cruise experience this time. All of us had a great time and would do the same cruise again. RCCL will remain the cruise line of my choice and I´m looking forward to my next cruise.

[kauppias]

great review, gave me some insight to the experience i might be looking at in my next vision cruise... will be the first time in a long time on such a "small" ship :D

[RicardoC]

Thanks for posting the review!

Glad you enjoyed the cruise and most of the brazilian people....sorry for those badly behaved :o

My mom is from Santos and Dad, Sister, and I from Sao Paulo....how did you like the cities? Did you spend any days before the cruise there? I know Santos does not have that much stuff to do and its not that beautiful(mom cannot read this:rolleyes:) but Sao Paulo is the opposite :D;):cool:...hope you liked my city :)

[mike@sea]

We spent 3 nights prior the cruise in Guaruja at a nice hotel ( The Falls ). It was perfect to unwind and get us in the mood for the cruise. We enjoyed it a lot and had a wonderful time.

As mentioned in my review I had a good time on the ship and did enjoy the Brazilians! :-) Had an "appetizer" on what to expect on this cruise when I sailed on the Radiance in December from BUE to Santos.

Would definitely like to revisit Brazil, especially Recife and Salvador but would also like to see more cities and areas of this beautiful country. I´m pretty sure I´ll be back for more...

[RicardoC]

We spent 3 nights prior the cruise in Guaruja at a nice hotel ( The Falls ). It was perfect to unwind and get us in the mood for the cruise. We enjoyed it a lot and had a wonderful time.

As mentioned in my review I had a good time on the ship and did enjoy the Brazilians! :-) Had an "appetizer" on what to expect on this cruise when I sailed on the Radiance in December from BUE to Santos.

Would definitely like to revisit Brazil, especially Recife and Salvador but would also like to see more cities and areas of this beautiful country. I´m pretty sure I´ll be back for more...

 

That's good to hear....we have an apartment by the beach about 1 hour driving from Guaruja....it's a good place just to relax...I would also go to Sao Paulo in your next cruise....it is a very modern city with LOTS of malls, bars, and a capital of culinary....seriously the city with more pizzerias outside of Italy(many italians say our type of pizza is much better and I agree :p) AND city with more sushi restaurants outside of Japan ;):D

About the Splendour it is a great ship....well It was back in Dec 2001 when we did the New Year to 2002...our first RCI cruise :cool: out of Santos also but a 7 night roundtrip....pretty cool ship...the Radiance in Brazil will be pretty cool....its good to see the cruise market is growing every year there....I guess we'll have to cruise in Brazil soon to see how they're doing.....I heard Royal Caribbean is gonna build a cruise Terminal in Rio or Santos(or both)...I don't remember :rolleyes:

[B-May]

Hi Mike!

 

I was also on the ship and have a different outlook from Mike. I was not impressed with the food either. For a dining room to serve the butter in plastic packets where you peel the top to get the butter out - very tacky indeed. Every night the waiter started with "this is not available etc. etc." No matter who you talked to in the dining room, they all blamed the poor food quality on Brazil. They were definitely looking forward to European vendors.

 

I was a gold member but became platinum half way through. We were given gold coupon books for the 3-5 nite cruises. We thot they had been left behind from the cruise before but no, these were the right booklets we were informed. I did see a tablemate pull out his platinum 7+ day book though so I guess only gold got these booklets - in fact the date on them was 2006 and the one I received from my Dec. 07 cruise was dated 2007. Obviously they are trying to use up very old stock. Again, tacky.

 

We were repeatedly told this was NOT an immersion cruise by RCCL personnel before we left but they obviously lied. I don't know what the final tally was but there had to have only been about 200+ english speaking on the cruise. The Brazilians had their own trivia and other games, but insisted on coming to ours as well. If the activity host read the question in english first they got mad so it had to be in reverse order the next time. They acted like the ship was theirs and treated it as such - no concern for their fellow passengers. Someone even stole my M&M sign off my cabin door (it was magnetic) on the 2nd day. I heard grumblings from many who heard that the Brazilians got last minute rock bottom deals so the ship would be full which wasn't fair to those of us who had booked a year or more in advance and paid top dollar.

 

The Brazilian ports were amazing. We did go to Morocco (Agadir and Casablanca) but I found Casablanca disappointing. Cadiz looked like a very clean port (we took the tour into Seville where I had been before and wasn't disappointed - it is a beautiful, clean, modern yet old city).

 

As for the ship - yes it is very tired. We had a D2 and the bathroom was in badly need of replacement. The tvs are old too. We did get to see an Owner's Suite and it was amazing. The bathroom alone was probably better than most peoples are home!

 

I did choose this cruise for the itinerary and the cost but wasn't expecting the rude reception from the Brazilians. I was glad that my fellow CC'ers were so friendly and the crew were upbeat and happy.

 

Not only did RCCL claim that I did not submit my gratuity sheet and I had to find other ways to tip the staff, but when we repeatedly asked that our invoice stay in US funds and not be converted into Canadian they still went ahead and converted it. If I went back to RCCL (never say never right?) I wouldn't sail on one of their older ships like this one.

 

And don't get me started on the naughty room (posted separately).

 

Would I cruise again with RCCL? My last 3 cruises have been with them and the food gets worse and worse. I'm about to try HAL in May for Alaska and I think it's back to Princess after that.

[RicardoC]

Hi Mike!

 

I was also on the ship and have a different outlook from Mike. I was not impressed with the food either. For a dining room to serve the butter in plastic packets where you peel the top to get the butter out - very tacky indeed. Every night the waiter started with "this is not available etc. etc." No matter who you talked to in the dining room, they all blamed the poor food quality on Brazil. They were definitely looking forward to European vendors.

 

I was a gold member but became platinum half way through. We were given gold coupon books for the 3-5 nite cruises. We thot they had been left behind from the cruise before but no, these were the right booklets we were informed. I did see a tablemate pull out his platinum 7+ day book though so I guess only gold got these booklets - in fact the date on them was 2006 and the one I received from my Dec. 07 cruise was dated 2007. Obviously they are trying to use up very old stock. Again, tacky.

 

We were repeatedly told this was NOT an immersion cruise by RCCL personnel before we left but they obviously lied. I don't know what the final tally was but there had to have only been about 200+ english speaking on the cruise. The Brazilians had their own trivia and other games, but insisted on coming to ours as well. If the activity host read the question in english first they got mad so it had to be in reverse order the next time. They acted like the ship was theirs and treated it as such - no concern for their fellow passengers. Someone even stole my M&M sign off my cabin door (it was magnetic) on the 2nd day. I heard grumblings from many who heard that the Brazilians got last minute rock bottom deals so the ship would be full which wasn't fair to those of us who had booked a year or more in advance and paid top dollar.

 

The Brazilian ports were amazing. We did go to Morocco (Agadir and Casablanca) but I found Casablanca disappointing. Cadiz looked like a very clean port (we took the tour into Seville where I had been before and wasn't disappointed - it is a beautiful, clean, modern yet old city).

 

As for the ship - yes it is very tired. We had a D2 and the bathroom was in badly need of replacement. The tvs are old too. We did get to see an Owner's Suite and it was amazing. The bathroom alone was probably better than most peoples are home!

 

I did choose this cruise for the itinerary and the cost but wasn't expecting the rude reception from the Brazilians. I was glad that my fellow CC'ers were so friendly and the crew were upbeat and happy.

 

Not only did RCCL claim that I did not submit my gratuity sheet and I had to find other ways to tip the staff, but when we repeatedly asked that our invoice stay in US funds and not be converted into Canadian they still went ahead and converted it. If I went back to RCCL (never say never right?) I wouldn't sail on one of their older ships like this one.

 

And don't get me started on the naughty room (posted separately).

 

Would I cruise again with RCCL? My last 3 cruises have been with them and the food gets worse and worse. I'm about to try HAL in May for Alaska and I think it's back to Princess after that.

 

 

Interesting your point of view....I'd like to say sorry again for the brazilians....I hope some of them were good people(like the crew) but yep It sucks so bad the last minute so troublemakers get onboard...but believe me it's not all the brazilians...we are actuallt pretty cool people...at least most of us :o....about the M&M sign I know how you feel...on our 2007 Liberty OTS cruise we payed for the b-day decoration in the stateroom for my dad and after one day someone got the sign from our door at night and kicked your door :(....the point is we were the only brazilians onboard so it is even worst to think that the entire world is filled with people like that :mad:...well I hope you have another chance to cruise in Brazil and have a wonderfull cruise just like the 2 we've done there :):cool:

[mike@sea]

Hello Betty. Glad you got home safe. It was nice meeting you. As much as I can see and understand the frustration with some things you experienced on the ship, I don´t see your point about the "Immersion" cruise issue. (Btw, I still don´t know where this silly word comes from and my dictionary has no clue either... ). ;-)

 

I think it is quite normal and was to expect to the majority of passengers on this cruise were Brazilians. It is also logical that RCCL promotes and prices these cruises differently in each country ( they do this with every single sailing by the way ), depending on what country it sells best or could sell best. Not sure if they really filled the ship up with last minute offers. I doubt it. I was looking at open cabins and pricing for many months and the ship was fully booked over a period of months. Than 6 months prior it opened up again with quite high prices. At one point for about a week prices came down here in Germany and went straight up again afterwards. Much much higher of what the original price tags were, when it first came out.

For this cruise, logically it was Brazil and probably other SA countries where it was promoted most, along with all the other voyages the Splendour had from Santos for the season.

I would have never expected to see mainly NAmerican passengers on this cruise or in fact on any South American cruise. I was not suprised there were such few. It was the same thing on the Radiance in December out of Buenos Aires. The passenger mix was absolutely great on that trip, to my taste. Very, very international with a South American flavour.

If you go on the Legend otSeas in Asia, the ship will be mainly filled with Asians. Makes sense and does not come as a suprise. Go to the Med and the ships will be half filled with Europeans, sometimes Asians and South Africans.

 

I think the crew did a great job with trying to please everyone. If Americans are the majority on a cruise, they, by the way, act the same way (!!) as the Brazilians did on this cruise. That you should not forget. You only got to know it from a different perspective now. ;-)

 

The times where RCCL was dominated by NA passengers are long gone. It doesn´t always reflect in the product and RCCL doesn´t always pay tribute to that but they are getting there. And it makes sense. They need to. A huge amount of their revenue comes from people overseas and slowly but steadily they appreciate that and change their product towards a more international rather than a North American one. Without this, they will never survive the future. From what I can see, compared to other lines, RCCL in that perspective is one big feet ahead of their competitors and this will pay off in the end.

 

I do hope you still had a good time on the ship. I thought the crew, mostly Brazilians, was really really lovely and made our trip. I´d do it again.

 

Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Michael