Splendor, cabin 1077 review from a 1st timer on carnival

[love2bonboard]

Okay, here is my review of my cruise on the Carnival Splendor 9/11-9/18 Mexico. We are lovers of Princess, but want to try other cruiselines and this was the first time on Carnival.

Embarkation was not the greatest. We arrived at the port and waited...waited...waited. A lot of people had to stand in the lines under the direct hot sun, with only a few places to sit. I understand a lot of it was due to customs, but it just wasn’t fun standing in the sun for hours. We didn’t get to board until 1:30. All other cruises I have been on had covered places to sit. I understand boarding delays and I don’t particularily blame Carnival, but just thought I would note this for other passengers regarding the port here in Long Beach....if you don’t want to wait standing in the sun, then don’t get to the port until 2:00.

We boarded and headed up to the buffet. There was a 2-piece band playing which I really enjoyed. Princess stopped having those live bands and I really miss that. I had a cheesburger and fries (something I LOVE on Princess, but unfortunately, Carnival just missed it on the buffet/pizza/grill). My DH and I just couldn’t find anything that we liked during lunch hours. Towards the end of the cruise we tried the Mongolian Grill and the Deli and ate there exclusively, both were very good. The deli was open until 11:00 pm, so we ended up getting sandwiches quite a few times.

Getting to the stateroom. The rooms were open at 2:00. We had a handicapped room..1077 (last minute deal). The room was a little strange for us...it was an upper/lower and after 7 days the upper bed was causing some backaches. I called housekeeping for an egg crate, but Carnival doesn’t offer them. The lower bed was very comfortable, but the top bunk was really hard. I didn’t mind climbing up the ladder, but I wasn’t expecting the difference in the mattress. The room was nice and clean except for some stool on the outside of the lower toilet bowl...kind of gross, but it was cleaned and we moved on. The only caution on the handicapped rooms is that there is an automatic door that is really loud when opened and stays opened for about 30 seconds offering views of the beds for all who are walking by. My DH and I tend to hang around our room naked :eek:, so we established a pre-warning knock before entering the room when we knew the other was in there. I don’t care if my DH sees me naked, but not hallway passengers who are walking by. My husband went to bed early and I woke him up every time I came in late (the key card automatically opens the door, no way to bypass that and manually open the door). Again, this is nothing to complain about w/ Carnival, just a room summary for those who want info on that room. Also, there are a lot of alarm buttons, one right above the bed next to the light switch, so yes, I accidently hit that and got a call from security...whoops. The room steward was great (minus the stool on the toilet). He had our room cleaned w/i an hour after us leaving and did a great job with the normal room cleaning. The room location wasn’t the greatest as far as noise. The first night we heard the ka-thunk, ka-thunk with room vibrations from the art carts delivering art to the art storage room on the other side of the hall way until after 1:00am (apparantly they got a huge art shipment in). We new there was an art show coming up by the ka-thunking; it actually occured a lot. There was a large metal rail on the floor that the art carts kept going over and over and vibrated our room. Also, the pool water slide area is right above, so we had the pounding of kids running all day long to get in line for the slide (slide was awesome!). These noises didn’t get to us too much because I brought ear plugs, but for those who are light sleepers you may want a different room. Being on the 10th floor; however, was fantastic. Every time the thumping started getting on my neves I just thought of all those kids having fun going down that slide and it wasn't too big a deal. Acutally, my DH and I went down that slide a lot....really fun.

Staff/shows: Great service. We never encountered a rude crew member. The service in the dinning room was fantastic as was the service in every area we went . The crew did a nice job with some of the day activities. We really enjoyed the newleywed type shows and the trivia. We didn’t do the evening dance shows (just don’t like them) nor the bingo. We went to the comedy shows. I don’t remember the names, but the first two nights they had two comedians...there was a white comedian who was horrible and there was a black comedian who was absolutely fantastic (sorry, I wish I could remember his name). Unfortunately, he left the ship and they brought on two more comedians who were just okay.

Cruise director: He was really quick on his comedy. I think he really added to the quality of the entertainment. The only negative was that he needs to cut back on the 10 minutes announcements.

Big Screen TV: Awesome. Just like MUTS on Princess. They could have had more movies at night and turned the volume down during the morning broadcast, but love the big screen!

Food: Well, here is where the big difference (not that this is trying to be a comparision between Carnival and Princess), but the food during breakfast and lunch wasn’t good. Breakfast didn’t start, most mornings, until 7:30. I get up early, like 6:00 and like to go get a cup of coffee. I went up early one morning to get some coffee, about 6:30 and wanted some cream. I asked one of the service workers and he told me to be patient and wait until 7:30. So, I ended up ordering room service at 6:00 every morning so I could get some coffee and cream. I also had a BLT every morning w/ extra bacon...yum. My DH tried the bfast buffett and just didn’t like the food. Lunch was also limited, ending at 2:30 every day. Again, we just didn’t like the food. We ended up sticking w/ the mongolian grill and the deli, both were very good...never looked back at the buffet again. The dinner menus; however, were good. Okay, not great, but very good. There was always fish and steak available and the steaks were very good. The service in the dinning room was the best I have had in a long time. One of the reasons I wanted to try a different cruise line was that the dinning service w/ Princess just hasn’t been good in a long time. The dessert options were also very good on Carnival; I can’t say anything about the taste of the desserts as I tried the melting cake on the first night and fell in love...I would marry that dessert if possible. I had it every night. With all the cutbacks, I was pleasantly surprised at the variety at dinner...frog legs, escargot, shark, and alligator. I loved the Dija menu items (as in: did you ever try, or something like that). One of the reasons we love cruising is to try new food things and they were very good. The comfort food; however, wasn’t very good. I tried the meatloaf...it was like spam and not very good. But, other than a couple of items, the dinning experience was excellent. Bfast and lunch both needed more hours and more variety.

Ship: Okay, the splendor is just a visual headache. Not my taste at all with the pink/black zebra print everywhere. The floors are kind of short and there is not a lot of wide open spaces. The pool deck has two layers and just feels a little tight. There is a nice adult only area with a small pool and two jacuzzis. The pool water temp was perfect (although I do prefer fresh water), and the jacuzzis were warm (could have been a little warmer, but not bad). The rotisserie area is a great place to get away from the crowd and eat. There were very few people using that area. The spectacular venue was done very nice. I loved the couch style sitting and the decor was elegant, yet fun...acutally my favorite design for a theater that I have seen on a cruise ship. The ship stores and photo area were typical. The main lobby was just ugly...I just couldn’t get past the pink/black zebra print, but that is my taste and I’m sure many people like it....I just don’t think “fun” necessarily has to be so tacky. With that being said, I really don’t care too much about the ship decor...I’m on the cruise to eat, relax, and enjoy the ports.

Gym: Excellent gym. Nice early hours and plenty of machines. The womens locker room has a free dry sauna and a steam shower.

TV menu: Loved the options available on the tv. You can order room service, check your bill, and see what is on the menu for dinner. Excellent. Every cruiseline should have that!

Disembarkation: One word: Great!

Movies: HOP, Water for Elephants, Rio, Just go With it, Mars needs Moms, I am Four, hmm, can’t remember the rest. Some were available on the room tv and some on the large screen tv on the pool deck.

Customer service: We had a broken shower handle which was fixed about 20 minutes after I called and the steam shower in the womens locker room wasn’t working and was fixed by the next morning. So, they take care of things! The bar service was great, as well. I ordered a drink of the day and asked to skip the umbrella and add extra cherries. The bartender placed two cherries as eyes and took one cherry stem to make a mouth and made me a happy face...loved it.

Wrap up: Depending on what is important to you would determine if you would want to sail on Carnival. We really enjoyed the cruise, but will still stick with Princess (will still throw in a few other cruise lines, too just to try new things). For us, we missed the trident grill, great pizza, 24 hour buffet, fresh water pools, and the evening MUTS with 2 movie showings. Also, we prefer the art selection on Princess vs. Park West art (but that is something very specific to us and by no means a critisism of Carnival). We have another Carnival cruise coming up and are looking forward to it, actually, I cannot wait to continue my evening feasting on the melting cake! We probablly won’t sail on Carnival after that, as eating is just a big part of our cruise experience and we just like the food better on Princess...but that is all personal preference, so again, just my opinion. I would still recommend Carnival, you just can’t beat the price and again, the service was excellent.

I tried to be fair and balanced telling you the good and bad according to our experience. Again, this is a critic forum and I am just trying to offer our personal take on the cruise. I know there are Carnival activist on this site and expect a few snarky responses to my complaints, so go ahead...I have thick skin. Otherwise, I hope the rest of you enjoy the thread and take it for what it is worth...one person's opinion, well, two people if you count my DH comments.

[okwriter]

While I'm a little surprised you couldn't find anything on the buffet, I have to agree with you on the Mongolian Wok. YUM! :)

 

LOL @ the door and the nakedness! And I love the Carnival slides, too! :D

 

I'm happy to hear a good review of the Didja menu. I'm looking forward to trying some of those items! ;)

 

Glad you gave a fair and balanced review. A couple of people on these boards---okay, one (who is now on my Ignore list :rolleyes:)---seems to think I can't "handle" anything other than a stellar review. But I took time to read yours and thought you did a great job. I admire someone who can "tell it like it is."

 

Thanks for your efforts!

[love2bonboard]

While I'm a little surprised you couldn't find anything on the buffet, I have to agree with you on the Mongolian Wok. YUM! :)

 

LOL @ the door and the nakedness! And I love the Carnival slides, too! :D

 

I'm happy to hear a good review of the Didja menu. I'm looking forward to trying some of those items! ;)

 

Glad you gave a fair and balanced review. A couple of people on these boards---okay, one (who is now on my Ignore list :rolleyes:)---seems to think I can't "handle" anything other than a stellar review. But I took time to read yours and thought you did a great job. I admire someone who can "tell it like it is."

 

Thanks for your efforts!

 

You are very welcome and thank you for your comment.

[riclop]

Okay, here is my review of my cruise on the Carnival Splendor 9/11-9/18 Mexico. We are lovers of Princess, but want to try other cruiselines and this was the first time on Carnival.

Embarkation was not the greatest. We arrived at the port and waited...waited...waited. A lot of people had to stand in the lines under the direct hot sun, with only a few places to sit. I understand a lot of it was due to customs, but it just wasn’t fun standing in the sun for hours. We didn’t get to board until 1:30. All other cruises I have been on had covered places to sit. I understand boarding delays and I don’t particularily blame Carnival, but just thought I would note this for other passengers regarding the port here in Long Beach....if you don’t want to wait standing in the sun, then don’t get to the port until 2:00.

We boarded and headed up to the buffet. There was a 2-piece band playing which I really enjoyed. Princess stopped having those live bands and I really miss that. I had a cheesburger and fries (something I LOVE on Princess, but unfortunately, Carnival just missed it on the buffet/pizza/grill). My DH and I just couldn’t find anything that we liked during lunch hours. Towards the end of the cruise we tried the Mongolian Grill and the Deli and ate there exclusively, both were very good. The deli was open until 11:00 pm, so we ended up getting sandwiches quite a few times.

Getting to the stateroom. The rooms were open at 2:00. We had a handicapped room..1077 (last minute deal). The room was a little strange for us...it was an upper/lower and after 7 days the upper bed was causing some backaches. I called housekeeping for an egg crate, but Carnival doesn’t offer them. The lower bed was very comfortable, but the top bunk was really hard. I didn’t mind climbing up the ladder, but I wasn’t expecting the difference in the mattress. The room was nice and clean except for some stool on the outside of the lower toilet bowl...kind of gross, but it was cleaned and we moved on. The only caution on the handicapped rooms is that there is an automatic door that is really loud when opened and stays opened for about 30 seconds offering views of the beds for all who are walking by. My DH and I tend to hang around our room naked :eek:, so we established a pre-warning knock before entering the room when we knew the other was in there. I don’t care if my DH sees me naked, but not hallway passengers who are walking by. My husband went to bed early and I woke him up every time I came in late (the key card automatically opens the door, no way to bypass that and manually open the door). Again, this is nothing to complain about w/ Carnival, just a room summary for those who want info on that room. Also, there are a lot of alarm buttons, one right above the bed next to the light switch, so yes, I accidently hit that and got a call from security...whoops. The room steward was great (minus the stool on the toilet). He had our room cleaned w/i an hour after us leaving and did a great job with the normal room cleaning. The room location wasn’t the greatest as far as noise. The first night we heard the ka-thunk, ka-thunk with room vibrations from the art carts delivering art to the art storage room on the other side of the hall way until after 1:00am (apparantly they got a huge art shipment in). We new there was an art show coming up by the ka-thunking; it actually occured a lot. There was a large metal rail on the floor that the art carts kept going over and over and vibrated our room. Also, the pool water slide area is right above, so we had the pounding of kids running all day long to get in line for the slide (slide was awesome!). These noises didn’t get to us too much because I brought ear plugs, but for those who are light sleepers you may want a different room. Being on the 10th floor; however, was fantastic. Every time the thumping started getting on my neves I just thought of all those kids having fun going down that slide and it wasn't too big a deal. Acutally, my DH and I went down that slide a lot....really fun.

Staff/shows: Great service. We never encountered a rude crew member. The service in the dinning room was fantastic as was the service in every area we went . The crew did a nice job with some of the day activities. We really enjoyed the newleywed type shows and the trivia. We didn’t do the evening dance shows (just don’t like them) nor the bingo. We went to the comedy shows. I don’t remember the names, but the first two nights they had two comedians...there was a white comedian who was horrible and there was a black comedian who was absolutely fantastic (sorry, I wish I could remember his name). Unfortunately, he left the ship and they brought on two more comedians who were just okay.

Cruise director: He was really quick on his comedy. I think he really added to the quality of the entertainment. The only negative was that he needs to cut back on the 10 minutes announcements.

Big Screen TV: Awesome. Just like MUTS on Princess. They could have had more movies at night and turned the volume down during the morning broadcast, but love the big screen!

Food: Well, here is where the big difference (not that this is trying to be a comparision between Carnival and Princess), but the food during breakfast and lunch wasn’t good. Breakfast didn’t start, most mornings, until 7:30. I get up early, like 6:00 and like to go get a cup of coffee. I went up early one morning to get some coffee, about 6:30 and wanted some cream. I asked one of the service workers and he told me to be patient and wait until 7:30. So, I ended up ordering room service at 6:00 every morning so I could get some coffee and cream. I also had a BLT every morning w/ extra bacon...yum. My DH tried the bfast buffett and just didn’t like the food. Lunch was also limited, ending at 2:30 every day. Again, we just didn’t like the food. We ended up sticking w/ the mongolian grill and the deli, both were very good...never looked back at the buffet again. The dinner menus; however, were good. Okay, not great, but very good. There was always fish and steak available and the steaks were very good. The service in the dinning room was the best I have had in a long time. One of the reasons I wanted to try a different cruise line was that the dinning service w/ Princess just hasn’t been good in a long time. The dessert options were also very good on Carnival; I can’t say anything about the taste of the desserts as I tried the melting cake on the first night and fell in love...I would marry that dessert if possible. I had it every night. With all the cutbacks, I was pleasantly surprised at the variety at dinner...frog legs, escargot, shark, and alligator. I loved the Dija menu items (as in: did you ever try, or something like that). One of the reasons we love cruising is to try new food things and they were very good. The comfort food; however, wasn’t very good. I tried the meatloaf...it was like spam and not very good. But, other than a couple of items, the dinning experience was excellent. Bfast and lunch both needed more hours and more variety.

Ship: Okay, the splendor is just a visual headache. Not my taste at all with the pink/black zebra print everywhere. The floors are kind of short and there is not a lot of wide open spaces. The pool deck has two layers and just feels a little tight. There is a nice adult only area with a small pool and two jacuzzis. The pool water temp was perfect (although I do prefer fresh water), and the jacuzzis were warm (could have been a little warmer, but not bad). The rotisserie area is a great place to get away from the crowd and eat. There were very few people using that area. The spectacular venue was done very nice. I loved the couch style sitting and the decor was elegant, yet fun...acutally my favorite design for a theater that I have seen on a cruise ship. The ship stores and photo area were typical. The main lobby was just ugly...I just couldn’t get past the pink/black zebra print, but that is my taste and I’m sure many people like it....I just don’t think “fun” necessarily has to be so tacky. With that being said, I really don’t care too much about the ship decor...I’m on the cruise to eat, relax, and enjoy the ports.

Gym: Excellent gym. Nice early hours and plenty of machines. The womens locker room has a free dry sauna and a steam shower.

TV menu: Loved the options available on the tv. You can order room service, check your bill, and see what is on the menu for dinner. Excellent. Every cruiseline should have that!

Disembarkation: One word: Great!

Movies: HOP, Water for Elephants, Rio, Just go With it, Mars needs Moms, I am Four, hmm, can’t remember the rest. Some were available on the room tv and some on the large screen tv on the pool deck.

Customer service: We had a broken shower handle which was fixed about 20 minutes after I called and the steam shower in the womens locker room wasn’t working and was fixed by the next morning. So, they take care of things! The bar service was great, as well. I ordered a drink of the day and asked to skip the umbrella and add extra cherries. The bartender placed two cherries as eyes and took one cherry stem to make a mouth and made me a happy face...loved it.

Wrap up: Depending on what is important to you would determine if you would want to sail on Carnival. We really enjoyed the cruise, but will still stick with Princess (will still throw in a few other cruise lines, too just to try new things). For us, we missed the trident grill, great pizza, 24 hour buffet, fresh water pools, and the evening MUTS with 2 movie showings. Also, we prefer the art selection on Princess vs. Park West art (but that is something very specific to us and by no means a critisism of Carnival). We have another Carnival cruise coming up and are looking forward to it, actually, I cannot wait to continue my evening feasting on the melting cake! We probablly won’t sail on Carnival after that, as eating is just a big part of our cruise experience and we just like the food better on Princess...but that is all personal preference, so again, just my opinion. I would still recommend Carnival, you just can’t beat the price and again, the service was excellent.

I tried to be fair and balanced telling you the good and bad according to our experience. Again, this is a critic forum and I am just trying to offer our personal take on the cruise. I know there are Carnival activist on this site and expect a few snarky responses to my complaints, so go ahead...I have thick skin. Otherwise, I hope the rest of you enjoy the thread and take it for what it is worth...one person's opinion, well, two people if you count my DH comments.

You complained about a hard upper bed and you are a princess lover, they have the hardest beds in the industry.

[love2bonboard]

You complained about a hard upper bed and you are a princess lover, they have the hardest beds in the industry.

 

Never had a backache from a Princess bed and have been on plenty of 14 day cruises with them. This was only a 7 day and my DH and I rotated nights and we both ended up with sore backs.