Thebosn1

You're right. I have never cared about a cruise director. Mikey was great and very talented.

I'm just curious, what exactly did he do that set him apart? Like a lot of people commenting here, the only time I ever even notice that we have a cruise director is if they are annoying.

We were there in May and also never noticed any kids. However, there was one fool who thought it would be cool to bring his little speaker and blast music while he was in the Hot Tub! Serenity People!!! We just moved to the other side.

Always that ONE guy...

Sailed Mexican Riviera July 21-28. Previously only sailed on HAL. Carnival was better than I expected. Aft balcony on deck 8 was great. Did the MDR late seating, food and service was typically OK. Buffet was "meh" at best. Ship was sold out but only felt crowded at lunch on Lido. Questions? Ask away!

 

~Marc

Awesome. I sail on her is October to Hawaii and I have an extended aft balcony on deck 8 as well. I am in 8450. I'm really exited about the extended balcony, but was wondering if there was much noise from the pool above.

Anything else you have about the cabin and the aft pool would be helpful. Thanks.

You are correct. However anytime I was on the port side of serenity I never saw any kids in that camp ocean area. It didn’t seem like they used the outside play area all that much

 

If it’s really that big of a problem to you just stay on the starboard side

 

 

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No, not a real big deal. Just never been on this class ship before and seemed like a bit of a strange setup. Thanks.

This kind of issue is a catch-22 for the cruise line. If they do nothing, people rabble about the cruise line not enforcing the rules for the children. If they enforced the rules every time and actually did something about it, you'll have parents descend on RCI with their lawyers saying their precious child would NEVER do x/y/z, that the cruise line had no right to tell them what to do or what not to do, how dare they, etc etc.

I think that is absolutely correct. PLUS they would rather have a one time cruising family of 4 than two adults that have cruise 15 times. If my wife and I don't come back after 15 cruises, so what? They can replace that family of 4 with a new on the very next cruise. Carnival even says in in their business model. They want first time cruisers who really don't care about cruising.

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Two Adult Cruise Passengers Assault Minor on Independence of the Seas

Why would I do that? Does it have anything to do with my question?

Totally disagree.

 

Have seen security "round up" kids who were actually playing cards in a stair area and tell them to go to their cabins as it was almost curfew.

 

Also kick an entire family out of the solarium. Large family pretending "no English" with several kids, including swim diapers, and just being very loud and taking over the pool. Several people complained. Two security guards showed up. Prior to that several passengers had tried to explain in Spanish that the area was for adults. One of the guards quickly switched to Portuguese - they picked up all their stuff and left. Many people thanked the security guard. He said no problem and said he would keep an eye on them. He also said he knew at least some of the group spoke English as they had been quite unruly elsewhere on the ship.

Thanks, that's something that would never happen on Carnival.

While you claim not to be exaggerating and claim not to be someone who just complains about kids, I have a feeling that you would be unhappy on any cruise line (even one that is adult-only). You talk about "people being hurt" about "vacations ruined" because of kids. I have cruised many times - AK, HI, Maritime, Med, Baltic -- never seen a pax injured by an unruly child (I've seen someone fall down a half flight of stairs because HE was drunk - but no one under the age of 45 anywhere even in earshot). I've never even been awakened by an unruly child (but have been awaken plenty of times by adults fighting in the cabin next store, by adults being loud in the hallway, and by adults banging on my door by mistake). I know of no one whose "entire vacation" was spoiled by unruly kids.

 

I am not a fan of loud people of any age -- and I have been disrupted by kids (and adults) -- but in no case has it "ruined" my vacation (or even so much as an afternoon of my vacation). I have been in elevators where a group of kids think it funny to hit all the buttons -- but there again it has been a momentary inconvenience and has not really "ruined" anything.

 

I fear that even an adult-only cruise would have pax who somehow will "nearly trample" or otherwise disrupt your personal bliss. I fear that on a private island, you will be disturbed by a jet flying miles away and be "attacked" by unruly gulls or singled out by a murderous coconut.

Thank you for your ridiculous and judgmental response. If you were shooting for sarcasm you missed. If knocking old people down and nearly hitting a person in the head with a bottle from a hundred feet above is not a big issue for you that's fine. And I'm sorry if I have a hard time relaxing on the vacation that I paid for when somebody else's kids are physically climbing on me in the hot tub, or storming into the serenity area in large unruly groups.

But thank you for insinuating that you are a much better person than me. I don't believe it for a second, but thanks for trying.

I have a cruise booked on the Glory and have never sailed on her before. I was looking at some pictures and I have a question about the Serenity area. I was looking at the deck plans and it looks like the serenity area is on deck 12 (which stinks already), but it also looks like it is only ONE SIDE of deck 12. It also looks like it is wrapped around "Camp Ocean". Isn't that the kids area? Did they seriously wrap half of a serenity deck around the kids camp area? Can this be correct?

The serenity area on these ships is often my last refuge to escape the ever more unruly kids. Did I seriously just book a cruse where they only have half of one? And is that half wrapped around the kids camp? Please tell me I am not seeing this correctly.

I did not know that Carnival offered 18 day and 23 day cruises. Were these repositioning cruises?

 

 

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Yes. LA to Sydney and Honolulu to Sydney.

Curfew is 1:00 a.m. for kids not with their parents/guardians. I believe it's for under 18. Security will definitely break up any groups of kids and will escort back to their cabin.

Wow, see Carnival doesn't have one at all, and if they did they would never enforce it.

Best to cruise at the times of the year and on longer cruises when less children will be cruising. ;)

I only cruise during the school year, and my last few cruises have been 23-8-18 days. Doesn't make a difference.

Royal is not much better than Carnival but the curfew is mostly respected. That does help, at least late at night.

See, that's what I mean. If Carnival has a curfew, I have never seen it. What is the curfew on RCI?

Not sure what particular behavior you are referring to. I think RC does a decent job with curfew and also maintaining the adult only rule in the solarium.

 

You seem to be mentioning serious/dangerous behavior - you mentioned people being hurt, etc. I have no witnessed anything I would consider truly dangerous - usually more like kids riding elevators, being too loud, etc.

 

I think the key is to sail on longer cruises and try to avoid peak summer months.

I have been on 18 and 23 day cruises where the kids were just as bad. I never sail during the summer or holidays or spring break. I admit the 18 day cruise was during spring vacation in other countries, but it was 3 weeks, and it was by far the worst.

Best thing is what we do , do not travel in summer or spring breaks or holidays,also take longer cruises, last cruise was a music charter on celebrity adults only, I think celebrity or Hal would be better since they do not have all the features kids might like .

It doesn't make a difference. I NEVER cruise during those times. In fact, I took a 23 day cruise during the school year and there were tons of kids.

I have never sailed RCI, but I have an honest question. I have been cruising for a long, long time on another cruise line but I am thinking of switching. The reason is simple, the unsupervised kids are completely out of control on the cruise ships and staffs REFUSE to do anything about it.

I'm not exaggerating and I am not just someone that bitches about families with kids. I'm talking about people being hurt, entire vacations ruined because parents refuse to control their kids. Complete brushing off of nearly all rules. And the staff will simply not do anything about it.

So my question is simple; does the staff on this line hold parents accountable for monitoring and controlling their kids or not? I never thought I would actually leave the cruise line that I have always used, but things get worse every time I sail and I have had it. I don't want to stop cruising, but I am looking for a line that actually holds parents accountable for the behavior of their kids when it gets out of hand.

Was on the Splendor last month.....my 4th time on her...many outside areas of the ship are starting to show its age. Inside it is in impeccable/excellent condition. As usual, the Tandoor Indian eatery at the back of the Lido Deck was EXCELLENT.

The cruise director at the time, Alex Degmetich, was the most obnoxious ever ..... starting at 9am...constantly and I do mean CONSTANTLY harking out loud on the PA system this sale and that sale....he would go on and on and on and on......constantly repeating himself over and over and over again. And his announcements sounded like he was talking to passengers with a low IQ. What an idiot!

Other than that, the Splendor still remains one of our favorite ships, second only to the Elation!

Interesting. I honestly don't know what the big deal is with the CD. Some people actually use the CD as a reason to book, or not book some cruises. IMO, the BEST CD are the ones that just keep quiet and out of view until I need them. And I rarely do.

This is just a few pointers for those booking or planning to go on the splendor:

 

Pros:

• Very friendly staff who used our names
  
• Great ports - Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta (my favorite)
  
• Some good comedians (1 wasn't but 2 were, didn't hear the 4th)
  
• Steakhouse was amazing
  
• There was plenty to do if you wanted to - we didn't go to any of the shows
  
• Piano bar player - Martin - was really good
  
• Karaoke contest was super funny
  
• Room steward did excellent job of cleaning the room each day
  
• I thought the dining room food was fine ... some things were really good and some just OK. The Lido deck has a ton of options with BBQ, Asian, pizza, deli etc.
  

Cons:

• Beware of rooms on the 8th deck - it is right under the Lido deck. We had cabin 8356 and the noise at 2-3am every night was horrible as they cleaned the ice cream machine and moved tables/chairs. We did complain and got an account credit but the noise continued. Maybe those rooms need white noise makers?
  
• Debarking was horrible - no method to the madness. We did self assist and they kept calling floors to come down. All elevators were full and on deck 3 it was a madhouse.
  
• New cruise director JJ - her first one ever - she talked and talked and talked on the overhead speakers all the time
  
• Muster drill was chaos - you line up and then they run through checking seapass cards to see if you are there - really, really unorganized. Poor people in the back had no idea what was going on.
  

Good to know:

• They don't really follow any of the rules. For example, the Cabo tenders ....they said at 9:15 you can start getting tender tickets on the lido deck. Your entire party must be there. Well at 9:00 my husband went up by himself and got tickets for the 19th tender. 19th at 9:00 - 15 minutes before you were even supposed to be able to get them. So, lesson learned - head up there by yourself super early if you want an early tender.
  
• Dress code was more of a suggestion - didn't see anything enforced
  
• Only 2 outlets - 1 in the bathroom and 1 at the desk/mirror. They will bring you an adapter for the 110 outlet if you ask
  
• Seemed to be more seating available at lunch if you went up to the aft deck where the BBQ is located - plus the BBQ potato salad is the best ever
  
• The aft pool is supposed to be adults only - didn't happen. Although kids weren't in the pool itself, they wondered through or hung with their parents some. Was still pretty quiet.
  
• Spa pushes very hard to sell you product
  
• Time changes - we were already on a 3 hour time change since we are from the east coast but while on the ship, they changed ahead 1 hour 1 day and the next they changed it back. Cabos is 1 hour ahead and PV is 2. It became pretty confusing for some folks.
  

Overall - good cruise as I think all cruises are what you make of it. Let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you, nice info. I have an aft balcony on deck 8, more under the pool deck than the restaurant, hope the noise is not too bad!

The terminal has been upgraded. As platinum you will walk in the dome just like any other terminal and check in. We to are platinum and did the check in outside last September. Am curious to see the new dome.

My wife and I are sailing out of Long Beach this fall on the Splendor. It will only be our second time sailing from Long Beach. It will also be our first time boarding in Long Beach as Platinum. I was wondering if the refurbishing of the terminal is complete, and if the priority boarding process is different than it is in other ports.

The first time we boarded in Long Beach we did not have priority boarding and we wound up standing by a makeshift sign in the parking lot. We were so far away we could not hear our boarding zone called hahahaha.

Any up to date info on the terminal and the boarding process would be appreciated.

I had the corner wrap and my friends had the one next to us on deck 8 of the Splendor. The balcony is much bigger then regular and of course the corner wraps are huge

And no problems with noise from above?

We had booked cabin 6489 – an aft extended balcony cabin. Our room seemed more spacious than some of the others we’ve sailed in (but that is entirely perception), and our balcony was much deeper than a standard balcony, with two chairs and a table, and room for at least two more.

 

 

 

 

 

I find having the room ready when we board one of the more valuable Platinum perks. Not monetarily, of course, but the ability to ditch our carry on bags as soon as we board to free ourselves up to explore the ship without having to mind them is really nice. So, now freed of our bags, we headed up to the Lido deck to grab lunch. The Splendor is one of the few remaining ships built in the last ten years that have not yet undergone the 2.0 upgrades. This means no Guy’s Burgers, no Red Frog Pub and no Blue Iguana Cantina. The Lido fare onboard the Splendor is much like it was ten years ago: a grill, a burrito bar, a deli (still with the old menu), the pizza stand (with the newer Pizza Pirate menu), Taste of Nations and the rotisserie. It does have one unique feature though: a barbecue station on deck 10, where the pasta bar usually is. And since it was new and different and because we like barbecue, it was an easy choice for lunch. It was fantastic. I don’t usually care for pork, but the pulled pork sandwich was aces.

 

 

This is great information thank you. My wife and I are in an extended aft balcony on Splendor this fall. Great pictures!

Does Carnival provide lounge chairs on their aft-view extended balcony? We had our first aft-view extended balcony on the NCL Breakaway and fell in love. We are looking at a Mexican Riviera cruise, but I don't want to spend the extra money if we'll just have regular chairs out there.

 

Thanks!

My wife and I have an extended aft on her this fall. All the pictures I have seen have loungers and a chair out there.

Agreed. I was just on her and it was adults only.

 

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Awesome! Was it actually enforced too? My wife and I sail Spendor this fall and this would be very welcome news. We have an extended aft balcony and would close to the aft pool.

Several years ago we took a cruise across the South Pacific on the Legend. Two YEARS later we took a cruise on the Sunshine and one of the lido deck bar guys recognized us, and came over to talk to us before we even noticed him. I was blown away. Over 2 years he must have taken care of tens of thousands of people, yet he remembered our names, noticed our new tattoos and even our brand of beer. I was impressed.