lovestocruise19

The next part of this review will be all the pictures I took around the ship while we were exploring.

For reference, our room number was 15229. Another awesome thing about our room was that Lido was just one deck up!

Once onboard, we dumped our carryon bags in the room, did e-muster, explored a bit and ate lunch on Lido. E-muster consisted of meeting at our location (casino bar) and checking in. Then they asked if we knew how to put a life jacket on. There was a chorus of "yeses" and then we were dismissed. We booked a junior balcony. The actual balcony is the same size as a regular balcony (in fact, this balcony felt larger to me than balconies on the other ships). The only difference that we could see was the clearance between the foot of the bed and the wall that holds the TV. You have to slip by sideways. But I'd do that a million times over to be able to save a bit of money on the standard balcony. The features I loved about the closet were the pull out rack for shoes and the fact that the shelves could be put up or down with a pin type thing if you had longer clothes. The bathroom itself was a little small, but the shower made up for it! The little bar to rest your foot on to shave was convenient and the best thing about it was the fact that is has a door. This prevents water from getting everywhere like on the ships where they just have a shower curtain and a small lip on the floor.

I did my cruise nails at the hotel. Hotel lobby: The day of the cruise we took a ride share to the Port of Miami. We got there around 9:45 a.m. as we had a 10 a.m. check in. We are Platinum so we waited in that lounge. Boarding began at 10:45 a.m.

Our 15th Carnival cruise was quite memorable for more reasons than one. I'll start with a quick pre-cruise synopsis and then get on with the main event. Hubby and I were delivering my parents car to them in Florida where they were wintering. We decided to take the auto train for the first time. The pros were that is cut out about 9/10 hours of driving time, but the big con was that we didn't get much sleep in coach class. Very hard to get comfy. We visited my parents overnight in their campground and then drove a rental car from Jacksonville to Miami for our cruise. Pre-cruise we stayed at JW Marriott Marquis which was amazing. The room was huge and there was even a TV screen in the mirror of the bathroom. Fancy! Quite the change from sleeping on the train!

So, that's it! The next day, we took the Carnival bus to the airport. Very smooth process compared to embarkation. Of course, we had the people that didn't follow direction and crowded the gangway before Andy even announced that anyone could debark. But since we FOLLOWED DIRECTION, we got off the ship easy peasy. As I was leaving, I saw Andy and said "Andy for Captain!" 😉 Was this my favorite ship? Nope. Was everything perfect? Nope. Did I still have an amazing time? YES! Honestly, how can you go wrong with bountiful food, beautiful Alaskan scenery and really good nights sleep? But just to be transparent, here were the CONs: 1. Poor dessert selection (especially at dinnertime on Lido) 2. I didn't see a chocolate buffet! 😭 (first time in 14 cruises) 3. TV broken entire cruise 4. HORRIBLE embark (lugged own luggage on for first time in 14 cruises) 5. A lot of juice machines and some ice cream machines didn't seem to be working properly 6. The Hub App "What's Happening" feature was down for a couple of days for Androids Being that we had just cruised the Magic late Feb/early March, the Splendor beat the Magic on these points: 1. Fridge worked and kept waters cold (Magic fridge wasn't cold at all) 2. The chocolate chip cookies were PERFECT (they were too hard on the Magic) 3. Best cruise director ever, ANDY! 🥰

And here's what I call the "money shot." Thanks, Canadian bird!

We arrived in Victoria around 8 p.m., but I think it wasn't until nearly 8:45 p.m. that they started letting people off the ship. I went to the Serenity deck and took some pictures of the sunset.

I had been looking forward to dinner in the MDR all week because they had my absolute favorite appetizer: sweet chili chicken tenders. I also tried salmon again and had Baked Alaska for dessert. I took a picture of mine which was comprised of vanilla and strawberry ice cream and hubby took one bite of his and noticed that it was all chocolate ice cream so we switched since he isn't the biggest fan of chocolate.

We went to the Diamond and Platinum party where I got a free Mocha Chocolate Getaway. It was held in the Moroccan Lounge in the aft which is where the comedy is normally held. Usually, the Diamond and Platinum party is held in the main show lounge. I wonder if it was because there weren't as many Diamonds and Platinum guests on this cruise. Because it was held in that lounge, there was no screen with the little movie and all the Carnival ships on it. Instead, Andy made up a song naming all the ships in the Carnival fleet. It was, as John Heald might say, brilliant! I got this little retractable straw in its own carrying case from my work for employee appreciation day and I have to say, it came in quite handy on the cruise. Fit inside my new little anchor clutch and is better than those flavored straws they give you.

I got breakfast and then went back up to get cinnamon buns for hubby. He packed a bit and then we wandered around for a bit, searching for a good WiFi signal. We checked in for our flight and ate lunch on Lido. We attended the Q&A with Andy, which I always find interesting. We stayed for some matinee comedy with Spike Davis. After him, Allan Cunningham came on and we watched him for about 20 minutes before abandoning because even hubby didn't like his act. Some ship pics:

The next day was basically a Sea Day, with a tiny stop in Victoria, BC, Canada. We chose to not even get off the ship. The towel animal takeover was up at Lido. I really like this fairly newer Carnival tradition. I think it puts a smile on the faces of young and old.

I got in line again for the Mongolian Wok for lunch and waited a very long time. I timed it and it was 50 minutes from getting in line to getting my finished bowl. I ate it back in the room and it wasn't as good as it was the other day. Some of the noodles were a bit burnt. It was the second elegant night, so we decided to eat dinner on Lido. We went to comedy and I didn't really like the comedian much-Allan Cunningham. We then went to Andy, our cruise director's, comedy show and he was VERY funny. My favorite drink: Mocha Chocolate Getaway. They were kinda skimpy on the chocolate sauce. Must be food shortages! Lol! Andy!

Oops, forgot to post this fruit that I got delivered by room service before we got off the ship. Once back onboard, we had a little late breakfast and then played a few games of fooseball in the Red Frog Pug.

Fish ladder

The next day was Ketchikan. We had no plans at this port other than to just wander around and do a little shopping. I had printed a walking tour map of Ketchikan that I brought with us and it helped me find what I really wanted to see which were some totem poles and the fish ladder. It was rainy to start, but actually cleared up a bit as the day went on. We weren't off the ship that much.

I tried Mongolian Wok for the first time ever and it was delicious. I went to the Ketchikan Shopping Highlights Show. For dinner in the MDR I tried Gruyere and Country Chicken Soup and chicken stuffed with spinach and tarragon sauce called Supreme of Poulet Farcie, which I've never seen on a menu before. We watched the Love and Marriage Show with Andy as the host which was hilarious. We both really liked Andy and agree that he is now our favorite cruise director.

We entered through the main door of the museum and then exited through the glass house. Then we were outside in the garden. There was a door that led into the gift shop from the garden , which is where we ended up exiting.

We saw the Spirit in port with us that day. I thought his towel animal was a scorpion, but hubby said lobster. But scorpion tails curl UP like that where lobster tails are down. #teamscorpion

This is the glacier as seen from the very first viewing point. So if you aren't good at walking or don't want to see the waterfall up close, you could just choose to view the glacier from this point. This was another cool view. I was standing on the (many) steps leading to the park service building. The building also has an elevator for those who need that. You can see both the glacier and Nugget Falls in this picture: This view is right at the entrance.