Splendor 8 Day Eastern Caribbean Review

I love reading other people's cruise reviews while waiting for my next cruise to begin. It makes the time between cruises go by a little quicker. I have written four cruise reviews prior to this but sadly I used Photobucket and most of the pictures are unavailable now. If you still want to read them you can do so by clicking the links below:

Sensation (photos still work, did not use PB)

Sunshine (no photos)

Sunshine Part II. (no photos)

Liberty (no photos) and Splendor (photos toward the end) Side to Side

A couple disclaimers, I LOVE cruising and always have a good time. But I like to be honest in my review. Everything is not perfect on a cruise and I do intend to include the bad with the good. Just because I complain, does not mean I did not have a great time.

Also, I may not hit on everything that interests you as a cruiser. I would say from reading many reviews that my cruise style is different from the norm, and that is okay. Please feel free to ask questions though about something I do not cover and I will do my best to answer anything that you would like to know about.

About Me:

I am 29 years old and am lucky enough to live in Florida so taking cruises is more affordable and easier to do than for many people. This was my 12th cruise, my 10th with Carnival and my third time on the Splendor. This was a pretty low key cruise and I did not do a lot, so there will not be a lot to report on, but I hope you will read along and find something that helps.

Joining me on this cruise is my mother. This is her third cruise and second on Carnival. We last cruised together on the Sunshine last December. She did not have a very good time. It is often said that two people can go on the same cruise and one person find it to be terrible while the other has nothing but good things to say about the trip.

That was us that cruise. That is just my mother's personality, she does not see the good in things but instead chooses to focus on the negatives. It really is quite sad, I want her to enjoy herself.

When I first booked this cruise, I booked as a solo and thanks to a great casino rate I was able to pay less for the room than the per person price advertised online. Still even with the price break I was a little strapped for cash (aka, I am cruising too much) so when my mom expressed interest in going although I was surprised she had any interest, I jumped at the opportunity to share costs.

But things did not really work out that way. Even with the rate I got, she was not willing to pay half. My mom is super cheap and I guess in some ways I am too. The difference is, when I see something I really want, I will pay for it whereas she will just do without. So we negotiated and although she did not pay half, she did pay for the parking, her taxes and gratuities, gas, and the biggest perk for me, she had to drive. I know I have a much shorter drive than 99% of you, but god I dread that drive to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami.

We also came up with a couple of important ground rules. Like I said, she tends to be a negative nelly so the most important rule was a simple one. When something goes wrong, ask "will this matter in 10 years?" If not, then forget about it and move on. If they bring the wrong flavor ice cream, lets move on (omg she still brings that up all the time). If the ship sinks, ok that will still matter and we can agree this was a bad trip.

The next rule was to be more involved in the activities, you know get out and do stuff. I think one of the reasons my mom did not enjoy herself last time was because she did not leave the room pretty much at all. Now I am all for relaxing and being lazy, I am not the person who enjoys non stop activities on vacation, but you gotta do a little something.

The final rule was for my own sanity. My mom is a morning person. And by morning person, I mean she is up so early the club hasn't closed yet. Ok not that early, but she is up most days no later than 4 and that is just crazy talk, especially on vacation. So we agreed when she got up, she would go to the library or somewhere else until I could drag myself out of the bed. She ended up doing really good and I don't think she was up before 7 the whole week which for her is unheard of.

So with some ground rules laid down, I was hoping the foundation was set for a great trip for both of us. But I was very nervous, if this didn't work out, 8 days is a long time to be stuck on a ship with someone who is miserable.

Adding to my concern, was my own feelings toward the cruise. I love cruising and usually by the time I am able to do the single digit dance cruising is all I think about 24/7. When I'm at work, I think about cruising. Driving home, cruising. Sleep, dreaming of cruising. Cruising literally on the brain 24/7. Not this time. The excitement was just not building.

At first it was a good thing, it is kind of torture on myself those last few days so this was a relief. But that anticipation just never really built up. Things were really bad at work to the point that I could not distract myself from how bad things were to focus on something fun. Then the last day before vacation, the proverbial "it" hit the fan and it was just not a good time to be taking time off. I actually found myself wishing I was not going on vacation so that I could take care of the problems at work.

REALITY CHECK! That is when you know you need a vacation!

I was determined to go and have a good time and not let work bring me down. I know attitude plays a large part in enjoying your vacation and I was not going to bring that negative energy with me. It took a bit to get into the swing of things, but I did end up shaking the worries and getting myself into vacation mode.

Because I had to work Sunday, I was given Friday off so we decided to split our travel time into two days instead of trying to drive the whole way to Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday. I was relieved because I was not looking forward to having to get up at the crack of down to make it to the port by 11. I tend to bug M about getting on the ship early when I cruise with her so I guess this is karma but my mom just takes these things way too far. She wanted to be on the road by 5 AM. Glad I dodged that bullet.

I chose a town about half way between where I live and Ft. Lauderdale. Then the only criteria was something affordable that did not seem too terrible. I ended up choosing Vero Beach Inn & Suites in Vero Beach.

It was nothing fancy, but it was clean and the staff were very friendly. It also included a hot breakfast. Again nothing fancy, but it was a nice touch especially considering what we paid. I would stay here again, and if for some reason you find yourself in Vero Beach and need a cheap (I mean affordable) hotel then I would recommend Vero Beach Inn & Suites.

As you can see from the photo, it was a cloudy and rainy day today. It was not helping me get into that vacation mood. We spent the day checking out some stores (my mom loves to shop, or at least browse) and ate at Applebees for dinner. After that we chilled out in the room for a while with some TV and WiFi before calling it a night. The next morning would be cruise day :D

Day 1:

Embarkation

The weather was still pretty gloomy today, but it was all uphill from here. Lots of sunshine and clear skies in my immediate future. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel before checking out then made a quick stop at CVS for some things my mom had forgot then we were on the road.

Neither one of us are very good with directions and after the fiasco I had finding my way to the parking place in Miami on my last cruise, I made sure to print the directions this time. I also figured two heads would be better than one and we had plenty of time to spare. I used Park'N Go out of Ft. Lauderdale and they made sure you could not get lost. Once we started getting close, there were literally signs at every intersection that said "turn left/right for park'n go" Super easy.

I see a whale tail!

We pulled in, dropped off our car that they parked for us and they took our luggage and we were in the shuttle and off to the port in no time. Super great experience and I highly recommend using Park'N Go!

I cruised out of Ft. Lauderdale twice last year on the Conquest. This port is pretty disorganized and is still a bit of a mess but not as bad as I remember. It could be because we were pretty early and I am sure that staggered check in is helping. We had an 11 AM check in and arrived probably around 11:30.

When we cruised together on the Sunshine, our suitcases went through something traumatic. I don't know what, but it was visibly obvious they had been crushed, smashed, or had way too much weight placed on top of them. My suitcase could no longer be zipped without rigging it, and my mothers pill container was crushed. Although that is an extreme example, unfortunately each trip through a porter's hands has left my luggage with a new battle scar of some sort and I try to just carry my stuff on now.

I explained to my mom her suitcase was technically too large for her to carry on per carnival's rules. She says I never told her that, but I did. Well a few of the people at the port told her she would need to check her bag with a porter. A supervisor came in and said it would be ok for her to carry it on. She asked if she had a sign on her back that said "give me a hard time" and I reminded her to ask herself if it would matter in 10 years.

During this interaction, I saw someone I recognized. She probably thinks I am a stalker for recognizing her but something just clicked when I saw her and I thought "hey I know her" and I had to mention that I recognized her from FB.

Hello Elaine!

Next the "give me a hard time sticker" was placed on my back. I always carry a box fan with me when I cruise. Splendor is actually the ship that caused this change. When I sailed her in 01/16, my cabin was miserable and I pretty much did not sleep the whole week. (My cabin was fine this time, but I did hear others complaining of a hot cabin) Security said my fan was too large. I went to pull out my printed copy of the rules (which say nothing about the size of the fan) and she told me double check with the lady at the other end of security.

I did not verify with her, just kept it moving but in doing so I forgot to collect my stuff I had emptied from my pockets. Thankfully it was there when I realized my mistake and returned to get it.

We had pretty good timing and waited maybe two minutes before they called zone #14 to board. Overall it was a pretty quick process with just a couple hiccups that still didn't really slow down the process.

We were on the ship pretty early, just after noon, so I was very surprised to see how full lido was. There was already wall to wall people and no tables to be found anywhere on Lido. I am sure that if I had gone up one more deck to 10, there would have been plenty of seating but I just did not expect to not find anywhere to plop down once I got a little further away.

We found one single open table outside on Lido. Not an ideal place but neither one of us felt like carrying our stuff back to get a spot upstairs. For lunch I had my favorite treat when I am on the Splendor since it is not on most ships.

Tandoor

My mom was horrified by the food on my plate. Yea ok it does not look very appealing, but man I love the food here. I did not eat here as often this time as I usually do, but that is because my stomach is not as tolerable of spicy foods as it used to be.

My mom went to the Mongolian Wok and was gone for what seemed like hours. Ok. it wasn't that long but I really did begin to worry about her. I can't justify waiting in line that long so I don't get to eat there often. I never made it this trip because even in port, the line was long. My mom did not make it back there again either.

After eating there was still some time to kill before our rooms would be ready so I went for a walk around the ship. Not really exploring since I just sailed her in May, but I needed to stretch my legs a bit.

They had little stands set up through the promenade called "Carnival on Carnival"

They gave you raffle tickets when you got on board. You could use them at the various stands they had that featured games you would find at a carnival. I've never seen this before and I did not pay enough attention to know all the details. Most of it looked to be ways to showcase spending opportunities but it looked like it might have been fun to play since the tickets were free. I did not get a ticket, I turned them down when I boarded figuring they were entries into an art drawing or something. I will know better next time.

In port with us today was the Harmony of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world.

Finally it was 1:30 so I went back and got mom and we headed to our room. Our room was 9227 an inside stateroom on the Lido deck. I loved being this close to Lido and this is my favorite part of the casino rate i got, all inside rooms were the same price. I was told I could not get a Spa room, which I figured but then someone else on the ship said they were able to book a Spa room on their deal. Guess it is another one of those things that depends on whom you ask.

My room steward was Eve. It was after 1:30 and the hallway doors were open, but she was still frantically cleaning up while people were trying to get around her. Now I have no real complaints about our steward she was perfectly adequate. But she did not have that sometimes over the top friendliness I am used to. Rarely greeted me by name (although she always spoke). I mean nothing to complain about and if I was a new cruiser I would not know that this was below the standard. Case and point, my mom. She loved her and actually left her a tip in addition to the normal gratuities (which if you knew my mom, you would know how uncharacteristic that is of her).

Our room keys were in our mail slot which I don't think is an issue at all. Sometimes I think people just have a knee jerk reaction to change. The chance of a security breach is so small, and very easy to dispute the charges and quickly find out who the person stealing room keys is.

The only issue I had which would have been easier to correct on the spot, was they gave my mom a blue card. I had a feeling it would be, because on the booking it did not list her with a VIFP # but I thought it would work out because as soon as I added her I started getting emails addressed to her that indicated her level as red. No biggie and once I found a time there was no line at GS they were able to correct it.

The rest of the afternoon we spent relaxing in the room and getting settled in. One of the perks of carrying on all your luggage is the ability it unpack right away. And of course, any damage to your bags is your own fault lol.

One of the areas I dropped the ball on was getting my mom signed up for the special needs muster drill. She has trouble standing for long periods of time and when we cruised on the Sunshine she had me sign her up for the special needs drill. I told her we could go to guest services and still get her signed up but she said she would be ok.

As it turns out, we ended up in the special needs drill anyway. They approached my mom most likely because she needed to use the elevator and asked if she would like to attend the drill inside. They also seemed to be asking other people at random. I think there were so many people on this sailing they just could not fit everyone outside so were letting many of us attend inside. Whatever the reason, I was thankful for the chance to do the drill inside. Way better.

As far as being anything other than a drill for show? Naw. There was no semblance of order or any attempt by the crew to create order. I know this will rub some people the wrong way, but I just don't believe that in an actual emergency anyone will know what to do anyway. We will rely on the crew and I am sure that their training is taken much much more seriously.

Once muster was over, I headed up to the Lido for sail away.

Harmony OTS sailing out first.

Hi, enjoying your review, I believe we have the same mother!!

DH and I sailed (lived) on Splendor for 7 weeks when we did a B2B2B from LA around the HORN to NYC. Our room was so hot that they gave me a fan!!

Looking forward to read more!

Miami hands down beats Pt.Everglades and Canaveral at sail away photo time. It's also still dreary outside so not the most stunning sail away pics, but here they are none the less.

Continued

We went to dinner as soon as they opened, at 5:45. There was a decent line to get in, guess we were not the only ones hungry already. Line moved quick and I got a surprise when I met my server tonight. My head waitress was Rica, who I had met up on Lido on my last cruise. She was always super sweet and friendly and I did not expect to see her in the MDR. Bonus points, she remembered me and my name right away.

Tonight's dinner menu.

Dinner menu on Lido

For my starter I had the chilled Vietnamese roll.

Very good as always.

On my last cruise I gained a new favorite from the Miami port of call menu that sadly was not on the Ft. Lauderdale port of call menu. #firstworldproblems

For my entree I wanted to try something different and got the brisket and an old favorite the vegetable lasagna.

I did not care for the brisket. It was too dry. The corn pudding it came with though was fantastic. The lasagna was great.

For dessert I had the nutella tiramisu.

My favorite dessert of the week!

My mom got the sugar free dessert, the strawberry parfait. I thought I had remembered reading that their sugar free desserts were not good at all. If I did, the person who said that really missed the mark. Food is of course subjective, but I tried a bite and man these sugar free desserts were fantastic all week. My mom loved them as well and I would not hesitate to order them for myself in the future.

The food was all good except for the brisket, no big deal you can't like everything and I was glad I tried something different. Rica was fantastic, but obviously stretched thin. Service was over an half and a half tonight. I am used to things being slower the first night and Rica was truly fantastic. I did hear some horror stories from people who said their dinner took two and a half hours. Yikes. More on dinner service as the week unfolds.

After dinner I went with my mom browsing through the shops. No purchases just window shopping. I think she enjoys window shopping more than actually buying lol.

Then it was time for my vice. The casino. My mom joined me and watched and then decided to give it a try herself. I helped her get set up but the buttons on her machine weren't working right. It was like they were sticking or something. I don't know what I did but I accidentally set her up with a $.25 wager. You would have thought it was the end of the world. I flagged down a slot attendant, Tina, to see if there was any way to back out of it but we were just out the quarter.

Tina was amazing all week, she made a point of stopping by and talking I think every time we were in the casino. My mom was kinda irritated about the quarter and I thought that was the end of her trying out the casino. Then she found the Howling Wolves slot machine and she was hooked. She played on that machine most of the week. She was a lot smarter than me though, she played it for $.30 a spin and got to play a lot longer than I did at $3 a spin.

Next we went to the welcome aboard show. I have never attended one of these, but I wanted to keep my mother active so I suggested we go. To be honest, I don't even remember going I just see that I have a charge for a drink. I do remember the drink but I could not tell you a thing about the show. Hopefully it left a better impression on her than it did me, but it was something to do.

We rounded out the night with the big loot draw in the casino. Neither of us left a winner. My mom was up a couple dollars on the slots, I was down. This would be the trend.

Overall I think it was a good first day. There were some bumps in the road but that is normal for the first day I think. The whole process of embarking is just stressful, but the reward is your now on a cruise :). My mom did great, she was involved in the activities, did not let the small stuff get to her, and stayed out way later than I would have thought she ever would.

Hi, enjoying your review, I believe we have the same mother!!

DH and I sailed (lived) on Splendor for 7 weeks when we did a B2B2B from LA around the HORN to NYC. Our room was so hot that they gave me a fan!!

Looking forward to read more!

Ummm, I've been told my whole life I was an only child. Not sure I wanna share, unless you want to take me on cruises lol. Glad you're enjoying the review.

Thankfully no issues with room temperature this time, but last year on the Empress deck it was miserably hot.

With the new locks in the Panama Canal, I guess we won't ever see that long of a voyage again from Carnival. O well, not like I could take that much time off from work anyway, but I bet that was a trip of a lifetime!

So excited for a Splendor review! I leave in two weeks and can't wait!

I am excited for your review. Out of curiosity, what photo sharing site are you using? Photobucket seems to not be working, so what is your alternative?

Enjoying your review.

Nice photos! Following.

So excited for a Splendor review! I leave in two weeks and can't wait!

Glad I could help :) Splendor is a great ship, you will love it. I'll be on again in 3 weeks ;p

I am excited for your review. Out of curiosity, what photo sharing site are you using? Photobucket seems to not be working, so what is your alternative?

Thanks for reading along. I am using smugmug.com. There are probably other free alternatives, but I don't ever want my photos held for ransom again. I am hoping that by paying a reasonable monthly fee ($5 or $6 a month, less if you purchase for the whole year) my reviews can still be enjoyed years from now (I love reading the older reviews and seeing how things are different, for better or worse)

If you don't mind paying a monthly fee, I cannot recommend smugmug highly enough! The site is very user friendly. I can't believe all the hoops I used to go through to figure out the link I needed to share a photo from PB not to mention the constant pop up ads they shoved down my throat. They also offer a free trial if you wanna give it a try before you purchase a plan.

Enjoying your review.

Nice photos! Following.

Thanks y'all. Glad to have you along! I'll have more in the next couple days.

Glad I could help :) Splendor is a great ship, you will love it. I'll be on again in 3 weeks ;p

 

 

 

Thanks for reading along. I am using smugmug.com. There are probably other free alternatives, but I don't ever want my photos held for ransom again. I am hoping that by paying a reasonable monthly fee ($5 or $6 a month, less if you purchase for the whole year) my reviews can still be enjoyed years from now (I love reading the older reviews and seeing how things are different, for better or worse)

 

If you don't mind paying a monthly fee, I cannot recommend smugmug highly enough! The site is very user friendly. I can't believe all the hoops I used to go through to figure out the link I needed to share a photo from PB not to mention the constant pop up ads they shoved down my throat. They also offer a free trial if you wanna give it a try before you purchase a plan.

Thank you! I will have to look into SmugMug, I may have to use the trial and if I get serious about review writing, I'll look into it. Thank you, and I'm optimistic for the rest of your review! Splendor is a favorite of mine.

Excited to see a Splendor review... I do not see many of them on here. I will be taking my first Cruise ever on her in 47 days. Looking forward to read more from you... Have a great day!!!

Excited to see a Splendor review... I do not see many of them on here. I will be taking my first Cruise ever on her in 47 days. Looking forward to read more from you... Have a great day!!!

Really enjoying this review

Going on Splendor in 20 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait. Hate there aren't more Splendor reviews.

Thank you! I will have to look into SmugMug, I may have to use the trial and if I get serious about review writing, I'll look into it. Thank you, and I'm optimistic for the rest of your review! Splendor is a favorite of mine.

Highly recommend SmugMug. Excellent website.

Excited to see a Splendor review... I do not see many of them on here. I will be taking my first Cruise ever on her in 47 days. Looking forward to read more from you... Have a great day!!!

You will love Splendor! I think after your trip on her we will have another cruise addict on our hands :D

Really enjoying this review

Thank you! Glad to have you along.

Going on Splendor in 20 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait. Hate there aren't more Splendor reviews.

I will be on that same cruise! I can't wait either. I will have a drink card from the casino, that I plan to take full advantage of ;p

Ship Tour:

I took a tour of the ship last time, but I uploaded them all to photobucket just for photobucket to become obsolete unless I was willing to shell out tons of money. Since I was going to have to upload them all again anyway, I went ahead this cruise and took new photos with my new camera.

We start out on Deck 1. It's all guest cabins on this deck.

Deck 2 is also guest cabins.

Deck 3 all the way forward is the first level of the Spectacular Spectacular Lounge. This is where the production shows and main evening entertainment events are held

Excursion Desk.