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Carnival Splendor 2/10 mini review


no1racefan1
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Just returned to the frozen tundra known as home today. I know some of you have been chomping at the bit to get some Splendor reports (I was!) so I figured I'd share a little. I'm too lazy to figure out how to attach photos, sorry.

 

Getting there:

We live in Wyoming and the nearest airport is 1hr. 40 min. drive. Our flight was Friday, 2/9. So of course on Thursday, 2/8 we get a major snowstorm. It was still snowing Friday morning and DH was out shoveling snow as I was finishing our packing and checking the weather like a madwoman. There was a brief period of time that the road was closed, but we waited until about 10:30am and hit the road. It was -20 degrees. It took us just over two hours to make the drive; not too bad. Our flights went off without a hitch and we landed in LAX just after 9pm. We knew it was officially vacation when we walked out of the airport without parkas, snowboots, earmuffs, gloves...you get the idea. It was a brisk 60+ degrees ;p

 

We rented a car at LAX and stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn in Redondo Beach; it was convenient for a one-night stay. I just recently got the Hilton Honors Ascend AMEX card so I'm trying to get some use out of that puppy.

 

The next morning we drove to Long Beach and met DH's mom and stepdad for breakfast at The Breakfast Bar. I found this place on TripAdvisor and it did not disappoint. We spotted the Splendor on the way to breakfast--see you soon Carnival!

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We dropped our car off at The Westin. They have a Budget rental car desk there, which is why we used Budget. Then we caught a taxi to take us to the ship.

 

Embarkation went super smoothly. We arrived promptly at our allotted arrival time (1:30pm) because I am a rule follower like that. We handed our bags to a porter and he said today was the grand opening of the remodeled Long Beach terminal. That didn't mean anything for us other than there seemed to be a LOT of staff on hand; I don't know if that is normal or not.

 

We were directed to the 'on time' line (there was also a 'too late/too early' line that was a lot longer) and they checked us in on handheld devices. They told us to just follow the palm trees to get on the ship. Whee! We made a detour over to guest services to change the credit card that was on file and then proceeded up and up and up the ramp and were on the ship. I'd guess it was about 10 minutes from dropping off our bags to walking on the ship.

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The Splendor:

Is very pink. I think everybody already knows that though.... I had seen pictures and it was even more over the top than I thought. We don't much care about ship décor so it really wasn't noticeable after the first day. We went straight to our cabin to drop stuff off. We had a spa interior, #1026. This was kind of an experiment for us. Our first cruise was an interior but our last two cruises were on aft balconies. We wanted to see if we would be okay with an interior. Well, it was fine, but we immediately missed having a balcony to be able to see the weather or to catch a sunrise in our pajamas. So I guess we are officially balcony people!

 

The room seemed pretty good-sized for an interior room and there was plenty of storage. The desk/vanity area was large and very nice to drop all our stuff on each day. It took us a couple of days to figure out which light switch did what in the room. LOL.

 

Our room steward was I Made and he was very pleasant and courteous. He greeted us as we arrived and asked us to complete a little form that asked if we needed extra pillows, blankets, etc. It also said to select morning, evening, or both for service. I asked him what was the easiest for him and he laughed and said it is our vacation, we can have whatever we want. We selected morning service. We also asked for extra hangers and extra towels. These were delivered promptly and we always had extra towels every day.

 

I Made greeted us by name in the hallway whenever we saw him, as did his assistant. He kept our ice bucket full of fresh ice daily although we never asked for it. We are not super needy and he provided everything we could have wanted. We were happy to leave him an additional tip as a farewell thank you.

 

We loved having the additional spa amenities, such as bathrobes and slippers. We used these every day and DH was excited when I told him he didn't have to find room in his suitcase for slippers, LOL. We also had access to the spa area and DH used the steam rooms daily. He loved them. I am not really a spa/steam room kind of gal but I did enjoy the Thalassotherapy pool daily. Having access to the spa just a floor above us was very convenient and I think we used it a lot more than we would have if we would have had to hike across the ship.

 

I also used the gym almost every day between 6-8am. I am not a regular exerciser at home and I don't go to the gym. However, something about having it just a few steps away really motivated me to go work out each morning.

 

The gym and spa facilities were both very well used on this trip. I had read that the spa rooms are usually nearly empty but that wasn't the case for us. There were always 3-4 people in the steam rooms and the Thalasso pool, and the gym was always crowded when I went. Even during slower times of day there was always a handful of people in the gym.

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We decided to take a spa tour since we planned on spending a lot of time there this cruise. I enjoyed the tour even though it was partially sales pitch. We ended up booking massages for the first sea day during our tour, at reduced prices. We planned on getting massages anyways so it was a no brainer.

 

Cloud 9 Spa:

We enjoyed several treatments on this cruise. We usually might splurge on a massage for each of us but this trip was all about relaxation so we decided to book a couple of extra treatments. Plus those spa ladies are great at selling additional services ;p

 

Between DH an I, we enjoyed these treatments:

 

Elemis Pro-collagen grooming treatment w/ shave. DH rates this an A-. He said it was nice and he booked it during our tour when the barber was offering a free haircut with purchase. He like his haircut and he came back with an expensive Elemis moisturizer because he has a hard time saying no....he has used it every day though and he really likes the moisturizer.

 

Thai Herbal Poultice massage--DH got this and would give it an A-. He though Wachi, the massage therapist, did an amazing job and he loved the use of hot stones that this included. He didn't really think the extra charge for the Thai poultice part was worth it although he liked the smell of the herbs. They give you the poultices to take home if you wish, but I asked DH to throw them away because I did not care for the smell at all. He said next time he would book a hot stone massage.

 

Elemis Aromastone massage--I got this and would give it an A-. My massage therapist was Julie and she was great at adjusting the pressure since I'm a wimp. It was really nice, but I felt that it was overly product-focused and next time I would just book a regular Swedish massage and add hot stones. We were able to book our massages together as a couple's massage in the same room even though we had different types of massages. We liked that.

 

14-day Shellac manicure--I give this an A. I wasn't planning on getting a manicure. I usually only get my nails done for special events or vacations. I had them done a couple of days before we left home. I realized that my nail person must have forgot to prepare the nail beds with bonder because the shellac polish started popping right off in the shower. Since I was down to only 4 painted nails two days into the cruise, I decided to get a manicure. Chloe from England was the nail tech and she did a really great job, even though she was kind of stabby with my cuticles and that part was not comfortable. Usually shellac lasts 10-12 days on my nails so we'll see if I can really get 14 days out of this.

 

Reflexology--I give this an A+. I was complaining to DH after all of our ports that my feet were tired from all the walking we had been doing. He mentioned it to Wachi in passing and she said she would give me 20% off this treatment. That was a pretty good deal I thought. I didn't know what to expect because I had never had a reflexology massage before; it was basically a really in depth calf and foot massage. It was seriously amazing and I would book this on every cruise after days of walking!

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Dining:

We give the overall dining experience an A+. We are not buffet fans, so you will not see much info on the buffet here. Tastes are subjective but I'll try to include some of our hits and misses. There were very few misses!

 

Breakfast--we ate breakfast every day in the MDR. Sea days was of course brunch and port days had the new breakfast menu, which I was pretty excited about. MDR breakfast was my least favorite on our last cruise and I thought the options were pretty boring. The new menu had plenty of options and everything we had was good. DH was able to preorder his breakfast every night the night before because he has some food restrictions.

At brunch, my favorites were the tomato soup and ceasar salad with chicken, the steak and eggs, and the banana cream pie. DH also loved the steak and eggs and his eggs were always poached exactly how he likes them.

On the regular breakfast menu, I enjoyed the options for build your own omelet and I had the vanilla French toast twice. It was deliciously caramelly.

I didn't care for the orange juice. I ordered it twice and both times it was watery and not that good. I just stopped ordering it after that.

 

Lunch--we usually had a small lunch since we had big breakfasts and were saving room for dessert. Burgers from the grill were our go-to for lunch. They were okay; probably on par more with a fast food burger than a gourmet burger, but they hit the spot. I had pizza from Pizza Pirate one time and I thought the crust was good but it could use a few more toppings and the sauce was watery. I also had a burrito from the buffet burrito bar one day and it was okay. I liked that their were corn chips available at the burrito bar since that's my favorite snack at home.

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Dinner--we ate dinner every night in the MDR, except for Valentine's Day which we had in the Steakhouse. Dining was another experiment for us. We are long time ATD people. I was really not sure we would like having traditional dining. We decided to try it because of DH's food sensitivities. He has developed several as he has gotten older, the worst being onions. Although medically it is not considered an allergy, we find its easier just to say its an allergy because if he eats anything with any trace of onion he will be curled up in a fetal position with stomach cramps.

 

Our last cruise, they were able to accommodate his needs but it was tricky because we had ATD and we had to go over it with every server, every meal. That's why we decided to try traditional dining. All I can say is, we are officially converts and we will always do traditional dining from now on!

 

Our serving team was Theresa, Victor, and Pariana (sp?). They were spectacular. We looked forward to dinner every night just so we could see them. Theresa brought the next night's menu and the breakfast menu every night so DH could choose his meals. He was able to order everything he wanted except for soup--which makes sense that they wouldn't be able to prepare a special batch of soup for one person. What an amazing job the staff did creating alternatives so he could still order whatever dish he wanted. One example is that the stuffed mushrooms have spinach in them which is prepared with onion. So, they diced up some broccoli and stuffed the mushrooms with that. DH loved it. If you are traveling with any kind of food restrictions, I would strongly suggest traditional dining for the ease of ordering--and this is coming from a die hard ATD diner!

 

Highlights from the MDR menus included the filet and short rib duo on the second elegant night, the mango cream soup, the white chocolate banana bread pudding, and the coconut lime cake. We both ordered the flat iron steak a couple of nights. Obviously we come from the heart of steak country and we are big steak fans. We have a favorite local steakhouse that we compare all steaks to. The flat iron steak in the MDR is not as fabulous as that place; however, it was still a really solid option and tender and flavorful. I would give it a B+ in the world of steaks. DH had the salmon fillet and thought it was fantastic. I had a roast chicken dish the first night that was delicious and set the tone for the whole trip. I can't say enough good things about our experience in the MDR.

 

Oh, the maître d, Amith, came around every night to greet everybody. I had emailed him 5 days before the cruise to request a table for two, and he responded within 5 minutes that he received the request. It was a fabulous table right in the middle of the restaurant--not a foot away from other 2-tops--and he stopped the first night and thanked me for emailing him our request in advance. He seemed genuinely pleased that he was able to meet these kind of simple requests. He was so great and he made us feel like we were his special guests the whole week. I bet he made everybody feel that way.

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Pinnacle Steakhouse--I had made Valentine's Day reservations online months in advance and received a confirmation. Our awesome headwaiter Theresa was able to snag a steakhouse menu so DH could order in advance. When we got there the waiter asked if DH wanted to change anything from his preorder and assured him they would be able to accommodate whatever he wanted, but he stuck with what he already chose.

 

DH had the fish of the day which was Chilean sea bass and he said it was superb. I had the filet mignon and it was outstanding. I would give it an A+ and say it was on par with that favorite steakhouse of ours. One thing that was interesting is I did not care for the sides. I ordered the wasabi mashed potatoes and the broccoli. I did not like the mashed potatoes at all; they were a weird consistency and I swear the flavor tasted like bleach. DH told me I am weird, LOL. The broccoli was undercooked and I thought the broccoli in the MDR was way better TBH.

 

Dessert was the star here; DH had lime sorbet that was so refreshing and delicious. I had the chocolate sampler. It was so good, I ate every bite even though I was full. Overall, despite the side dishes I would rate the steakhouse an A+ and I would go again. The steak and dessert together were worth $35pp.

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Miscellaneous other stuff from the ship:

 

It was never crowded at all even though it was a sold out ship. We never had a problem getting a deck chair in Serenity; even managed to score one of the coveted pods for a couple of hours. On our Victory cruise last year, we walked several laps around and could never find an open chair.

 

We liked to use the aft pool when we wanted to go for a swim; the water was chilly but it felt refreshing after a hot day. I don't know if they were enforcing adults only but I never saw any kids back there.

 

The ship could definitely use some touch ups here and there but nothing that affected the experience.

 

We are not big drinkers; DH had a couple of drinks and I don't drink alcohol but I'll share some info. on some non-alcoholic drinks since there's not much out there. I tried the Mango Madness smoothie from the kids menu and it was good but super sweet. I ordered a virgin pina colada at the Serenity bar that was really good. My favorite was a virgin Mango Swirl--half mango and half pina colada. A perfect combo!

 

I had a 12-pack of water delivered to the stateroom and this turned out to be a great option for us. We drank all of it.

 

Oh--I had read about the weird layout of the Splendor and that you have to walk through the casino to get from one end to the other. This was not an option for us because of the cigarette smoke. We developed a strategy that worked great. Since we were at the front of the ship on deck 10, we took the elevator down to 2, walked the hallway all the way to the other end, went up the stairs to 3 and came out at the Gold Pearl restaurant.

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Entertainment:

 

I want to start this section by getting the negative out of the way. We usually don't really notice who the CD is on a ship. It's not that important to us. Our last cruise was the CD that ends everything with Cheeeeerio! and we liked him but obviously I don't even know his name. This time I noticed and not in the best way. I know MarQ is a favorite here on CC and sometimes he was great, but a lot of times his jokes fell flat and honestly some of his comments came across as a little condescending--both towards guests and towards crew members. Neither DH and I were fans of MarQ by the end of the cruise. Anyways, we didn't really let that affect our experience.

 

We attended most production shows. We enjoy going to our local community theater and performances in general. We thought all of the shows were well done and fun to watch. No, they are not the same caliber as say, Broadway or Vegas, but we liked going anyways. I thought all 8 performers were quite talented and some of the special effects were pretty spectacular. DH's favorite show was Epic Rock. It was pretty epic!

 

We attended Love & Marriage because we thought it was hilarious on our last cruise; it did not disappoint this time around either, although once again some of MarQ's jokes fell a little flat. Felt the same way about the Hairy Chest competition--last year DH thought this was sooooo funny but this year it felt like MarQ drug it out a little much and it just wasn't as entertaining.

 

We had big plans to attend some of the late night events such as the Mega Deck party, the 80's Rock and Glow Party, and the Mardi Gras party, but alas, we were crawling in to bed around the time they started. What can I say, we like our sleep!

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Ports:

We traditionally book ship excursions in the ports we visit. I know that's not the popular thing to do on CC, but we have never had a less than excellent experience on a ship excursion and we are okay with paying a little bit more to not have to do the legwork of looking for an independent tour.

 

Cabo San Lucas--We booked the ship tour 'Whale Watching & Coastal Cruise'. They were about half hour late getting people off the ship in Cabo; I'm not sure why. Our tour wasn't until noon so we didn't rush to get off the ship. The tender ride was uneventful. Our tour started half hour late because the tour before hours was half hour late; this made me glad we had a ship excursion because they did not cut our tour short and stayed on a half hour late running schedule. I don't know if the independent tour operators were as accommodating but I hope so.

 

This was SO fun and we saw a lot of whales! Mostly we just saw their backs but it was so exciting to be that close to such a huge animal. The boat crew was entertaining and brought us unlimited drinks. I didn't even realize drinks were included in this excursion. They also provided fresh-made chips and salsa which was delicious. They ran out so if you go on this excursion I'd grab some chips and salsa early. On the way back to the pier the crew kept us entertained with dancing, singing, and lots of laughing.

 

After the tour, we walked around Cabo for a little shopping. It was easy to walk around and we saw a lot of places that would be fun to check out. There were tons of vendors and DH bought a straw hat from one.

We headed back to the tender at about 4pm and there was no line.

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That's a great review. You didn't mention the elevator from deck 10 to the middle of the spa. Makes a spa room better because I don't need to walk the halls in my bathrobe and slippers.

 

Yes, so true! It was so convenient to have that access and DH and I joked that we were spa royalty because we had our own entrance. I thought the stairs were really pretty. That's what made accessing the gym so easy too.

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This review keeps getting better and better!! Now I am excited to try the dining room breakfast. Usually the breakfast menu on cruise ships I'd boring so we go to the lido.

 

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

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Mazatlan--We had originally booked 'Nature Discovery & Turtle Sanctuary' and I was super excited about the baby turtles. After the state department revised their travel warning for Sinaloa, I started getting anxious about this. The tour has to travel 45 minutes from downtown. I tried to get as much information as I could to reassure myself that it would be fine (I'm sure it was fine) but in the end I am just kind of a nervous Nellie and I ended up cancelling our excursion. It worked out great though, because we had a wonderful day in Mazatlan.

 

We did laundry in the morning before getting off the ship. It was $3.00 to wash and $3.00 to dry and the machines do not accept quarters; you just use your S&S card to pay. The laundry room on deck 9 was crowded so we went down to deck 2 which was not in use. We try to pack light and don't mind giving up an hour or so to do laundry while on vacation.

 

After that chore was done we got off the ship. There was a man selling wristbands for the HOHO bus on the ship and we were going to get those, but it was sold out by the time we were ready. We heard from a passenger later that the HOHO bus was kind of nightmare because it was super crowded and took way longer to wait than the 30 minutes that they claimed. So we were glad we didn't do that either.

 

Based on CC suggestions we decided to walk the blue line into Old Town Mazatlan. It was a nice walk but definitely not for anybody with mobility issues. There were police officers at every intersection helping direct tourists where to go. Also the blue line is kind of faded and missing in some parts so while it was relatively easy, it wasn't *quite* as simple as everybody made it sound. We came to one corner and weren't sure where to go an a local cab driver pulled up and asked if we needed directions, and pointed us towards where we were headed. I thought it was very nice that he didn't try to get us to ride with him, he was honestly just helping out some lost looking tourists, LOL.

 

When we reached the plaza, one of the blue line volunteers came over and showed us on the map where everything was that most people are interested in. We walked to the cathedral; it was gorgeous but there was an actual service going on at that time so we didn't hang out long because we didn't want to be disrespectful. We then walked to the marketplace and DH loved it but I was uncomfortable being with that many people in a tiny space, so we didn't stay long.

 

We then walked the other direction to the Malecon and checked out the shoreline. They were setting up for a big festival since it was the last day of Carnaval the day we were there. We were getting hungry so we walked back to the plaza and chose a Mexican food restaurant for lunch. Now, everything I read said that 'everybody' speaks English in the tourist areas. I don't really expect them to speak my language since I am in their country. I was very glad that I had DH learn how to say 'no cebolla' because we got a waiter who spoke zero English. I had to brush the rust off my old college Spanish courses to place an order, but we were all very patient with each other and in the end DH had some amazing fresh fish tacos and I had the most authentic enchiladas of my life. It was heavenly and in that moment, I was so glad we were not on a tour bus somewhere. I did hear a guy at a table next to us being impatient with the waiter and rudely demanding to know what the exchange rate was and wanting his change in 'American'. Um, okay dude, maybe you shouldn't leave 'America' then.

 

A group of young adults/teenagers came while we were waiting for our food and put on a breakdancing show that was so fun to watch. They did graciously ask for tips afterwards are we were happy to oblige; like DH said, if a group of young adults wants to organize themselves into a dance troupe to make some money, it's so much better than some alternatives.

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This review keeps getting better and better!! Now I am excited to try the dining room breakfast. Usually the breakfast menu on cruise ships I'd boring so we go to the lido.

 

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

 

Thank you! I agree about breakfast and I am usually the same way. I think you will like it!

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We were also on this cruise.

 

Completely agree with the Steakhouse wasabi mash potatoes being odd. Tasted like and had the consistency wallpaper paste.

 

The promenade walkway goes by the starboard side of the casino.

 

Food overall was good but we had poor service in the MDR for ATD and in the morning. Tea service was very good.

We are buffet people and were questioning why the waitstaff was using the Clean stations for the dirty plates. Dirty plates placed right next to the ketchup, mustard etc.

Our room stewards were excellent. This cruise we also met the floor supervisor, Ass’t Housekeeping Manager and the Housekeeping Manager walking our hallway.

We did have an issue with our safe. Within an hour from reporting the problem it had a new door.

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