Splendor 4/15 to 4/22 review as best I can

[FightOnRon]

Just got home form the Spendor and I am very tired form 7 days of fun I will review as my vision comes into focus,,,but before I start I wantt o give a two thumbs up to our steward Eddie and our MDR servers Alejandro, Rina and Steven,,you made my trip memorable.

 

I made some notes,,took some pictures but don't want to drag this out too much (although I usually end up doing that). Demographics,,I am 60 my DW is 59,,and we traveled with two friends that are 61 and 63. We had side-by side OV cabins on deck two,,and as my siggy shows this is my 6th cruise. And yes,,I did have a lot fun,,but I also saw a bit of everything people argue about on this board but I will cover those when it pops up and none of it wrecked anything for me.

 

Embarcation. I live an entire 25 minutes from the port. I left at 10am because the LOng Beach Grand Prix was going and I didn't know if it would jam up the road (it didn't). Got there by 1030 but I wasn't alone in this thinking so there were a lot of us there already,,we ended up in zone 3. By 11 they were up to zone 12 I think. But it went fast after we started boarding (some stragglers kept us from getting on) and we headed right to the Lido to hunt.

 

Lines for food were pretty long already but we wouldn't really see that again until the last sea day. Had to wait maybe 15 minutes for a burger,,my DW about 20 for the Mongolian. No one at the deli so that was the quickest. People wer everywhere as we were all there early,,but the sstaff was busint thier buns amking sure tables were cleared so there were places to sit for everyone.

 

Cabins were ready at 1:30 but there was no announcement,,we just wandered down to find ours.

 

ON my HAL cruises all I hever had was a balcony,,on my one previous CCL on the Paradise only had the OV everyone has,,so technically this was my first voyage in an OV. I found for my taste this was a perfect room and until the last weekend,,very quiet exept for one thing I will get to later. It was impecabbly clean and I think roomy (I was in a hotel room in Boston once at the Omni parker that was smaller then this).

 

Gotta find my notes,,i will be back.....................................

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the start of your review. Can't wait to hear it all.

[susie8862]

Have never been on the Splendor. Going in January though and cannot wait to hear the rest of your review.

[FightOnRon]

FOund my notes for first day. After we unpacked we explored a bit,,this is a huge ship. the largest HAL ship I have been on is the Eurodam (thier largest class) but I think the the Eurodam would fit in the trunk of this ship.. We had a cabin that was perhaps right under the shore excursion desk and when we looked down the hall it seem like a house of mirrors it was so far.

 

NOTE: It is hard to manuever this ship because you can't go from one end to the other deck 3 or 4 (as most of you know) so we used our deck as the freeway to travel past the dining rooms. If I were on deck 6,7,or 8 I would do the same. Especially if you wanted to get to the Robusto bar or the Internet room. On the back of deck four before the dining room,,so you need a freeway to use that deck.

 

Also,,what I found cool, was that being on deck 2 we were one deck and maybe 20 yards including steps to get in the lobby area where all we had to do was go outside and had our own private deck. 95% of the time no one was out there as all you can do is sit an read,,but they had lounge chairs so it was my own personal serenity area if I didn't want to walk far. I think at one time one side of the ship was for smoking and one wasn't but the side that used to be for smoking was still being used for that because the ashtrays were still on the bulk head. No one stopped anyone either. Just an FYI for smokers.

 

 

As far as age groups I would say every age that can sail was there. Babies to people old enough to be my parents (rest thier souls). And every type of person you can see any time of any day in any mall or ballpark was there.

[susie8862]

The Glory is the same. Hard to navigate at first.

You are not typing fast enough for me..lol..lol...

Okay, I realize you just got back today and you have a million things to do..blah blah blah. Will let you off the hook, but I shall return to hear more.

(hope you know I am kidding) Looking forward to more of your review!!!!!!

[LAdad]

Great so far... going out on Splendor in June!!!

[FightOnRon]

I guess because we all got on at the same time and all went to eat at the same time it felt crwoded. Thsi wouldn't really happen too much this bad until the last sea day. I did see the infamous Chogs but not too many yet,,I could count them on my hands,,,,this day.

 

Prior to muster drill we got into a trivia game that showed pictures of stars (in the showroom) and we had to name them. My DW knows all the stars in the world and we scored 39 out of 40. Got my first and only Ship-on-a-stick of the trip,,but I met my goal !

 

Muster drill was not too bad. I heard the announcement that it was going to happen,,I heard the announcement for the workers to get to their spots,,but never heard the annoncement to go for it. So in a couple of minutes there was someone at our door to clear our cabin and they check them off as they went and put some type of tags in the locks so you couldn't go back. From what I could see all cabins were cleared. We didn't meet at a bar and get led like the Paradise was in 2010,,this was more like the HAL drills where you had to follow the path laid out by the saftey crews to your station. They did a head cound 3 times to make sure the correct number was there. We were realesed and bbefore we could blink we were moving.

 

MY DW and my friends were perhaps over celebrating so our night would end before the welcome aboard show. We did anytime dining and as we liek to do we went around 615ish. We had a great server so we would be with him the rest of the week and it was just as though we had fixed dining. They all had our names down before dinner was over and would remember us ,,as would our steward.

 

 

BTW,,we didn't see our steward until maybe 530 but he introduced himself as we did us to him and he told us his working hours and asked if we wanted anything special,,and he seemd to always be spot on when we needed him.

 

Back to dinner,,everything was hot if it was suppsoed to be,,cold if it was supposed to be. We all though the food was pretty good and better hten an Applebees as it has been compared to by many.. The beef brisket was really very good.

 

throughout this entrie trip I would say anytime dining started to get really packed by 7 pm and I didn't see those pager thingys like the Paradise had,,just people in lines. Go early !

 

So do to the overindulgence and the fact we were up so early because we were soo excited,,we all called it a day.

[reerun25]

Enjoying the review, can't wait for more!!

[FightOnRon]

I am getting woozy but since my DW is sleeping the Funship off,,and I am watching my Dodgers get pasted,,may as well type!

 

First sea day we ate in the MDR for breakfast. No lines, friendly service. While I bring up the service,,I know many review and say they see surly and grumpy employees but I never saw any of those. I saw,,in the 7 days,,one guy wlaking down the hall looking sort of po-ed aobut something but I said hi and he broke into a smile and at least said heelo back sir to me (being old hath it's privledges).

 

My Dw was pretty sick today so the fun was hampered. She imbibed more then she should have (you'd think at our age we would know better but we don't imbibe at all at home ,,as 6 pack lasts a week),,so she kept going down for the count.

 

I spent most of the day exploring and I will say since it was a nice sunny day everyone was on deck. I would say I say chair hogs but I didnt' as it seems every deck chari on the Lido around the pool area and every lounge check on deck 10 were taken by someone. But because why I don't know, the serenity deck had chairs avaiable both in the sun or the shade. Also my private deck on level 3 was empty still.

 

Insetad of the MDR we went Lido again for lunch. I have to say now,,I never eat in those inside areas of cruise ships so I can't comment on the food there. I had deli and knowing me probalby pizza for lunch. But because many were intent on sunning rahter then pounding down food, the lines were minimal for the number of passengers and the tables were always available. Still the workers were busing thier buns getting tables cleared and they were fast. they would swoop in quickly.

 

A bit after lunch my DW was sleeping and my friends wanted to sun on the serenity deck. I met them with my book,,I was heading for shade. On the side they were broasting on there were no shade seats so I crossed over to the other side (not like in death although i feel that may come today!) and found a nice cozy spot to read. I observed everyone there was intent on peace and quiet and sunning or reading or both. Then after about 30 minutes 3 women came in with three trays of food,,3-4 plates per tray and started yacking as loud as they could and eating like that was the last food on the ship. they were too noisy for this to be serene,,so back to my private balcony on deck 3. Alos,,my firends wife is a smoker and normally a very considerate one but she is also,,dare I say a bit of a ding dong,,and there was not a no smoking sign so she lit up,,and got laid into by another lady so she put it out, aplogised and saidn she didn't know,,and she really didn't ,,but if she did she would have forgotten in 10 minutes anyway. Sort of a ding dong but we still love her.

 

This was elegant night one so we dressed for dinner.

 

Oh wait,,I wanna go back to day one in the MDR. I looked for the dress code violations everyone here likes to talk about and I only saw one guy with a backwards ballcap,,that was it as far as I could see.

 

Anyway,,our waiter told my DW and friends to "double down" so they did and had double lobsters on their plates and they loved it (I don't eat fish). I remarked I love ribs but had to have the prime rib,,didn't know it would show up again later. As I was eating my prime rib our waiter came flying by and right next to me like magic was a huge plate of ribs.

 

As far as dress code I did observe people in shorts and in tshirts turned back by receptionists. There was an announcement the previous night about the dress code and they did turn the violaters away. No ball caps tonight.

 

Went to the show,,,Beat. We enjoyed it and we were tapping our feet so it was all good.

[FightOnRon]

Few more notes about elegant night. As you know we set-sail on the date the Titanic sunk. In the MDR was a party of 4,,youngish,,men in tuxedoes women in fancy gowns. hen men had life preservers around thier necks that looked like Titanic life preservers. Cute but sort of morbid in a way but no one cared.

 

So far the ride is really smooth (or at least to seasoned cruisers it is) and our cabin is quiet at night except,,,,,there is this one closet that has a creak to it that had I not have earpugs, it would have drove me nuts. I enver really noticed it at day with the TV on but at night,,annoying. My friends thought hte boat was ricking but I sure didn't notice it, nor did my DW

 

ALos,,the few kids I see running int he halls were bieng disiplined by their parents to knock it off. Also when they were loud their parents made them be quiet in the hallways,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,for now.

[mousey]

Interesting review. I was on the Splendor two weeks ago and pretty much agree with what you've said so far. I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. By the way I'm a little further into my 60s than you. Your group sounds like fun!:D I'm, the ding dong in my group!:D:

[FightOnRon]

Day 3,,,first day at Cabo.

 

We were insructed to line up right before you planned to leave if you were going ashore but had not ship excursions. People were told to watin until 830 to start,,,we ported early. So naturally people were lining up way before they were supposed to because they wanted off. I observed this as we went to the MDR again for breakfast and saw the lines. We had a ship excursion so we didn't need to do this,,we just met at our appointed time.

 

Again standard breakfast in the MDR,,,then out on deck 3 with a few people to observe us pulling into Cabo. We met for our excursion,,were led right to a tender and away we went. We had to wait quite a while on the dock for our excursion to start. But all in all it was fun. We stayed on land just until about an hour before the last tender. there were a number of pretty drunk 20 somethings on the tender being pretty loud because they were pretty drunk,,although they were respectful to us,,their elders. They were getting back on the ship to get money and go back and stay the night on the land. In fact there was a mad dash from people heading to the tenders to all leave and spend the night.

 

Everyone knew the weather would be fine the next day so many stayed ashore.

 

to be cont............

[Crusin Karen]

I'm glad I found this! We are booked on the Splendor for the lst time for May, 2013. As you can see in my sig, we do a lot of "repeat cruises" so we are excited to be going on a "new ship." ;):p We are a bit closer to the pier in Manhattan than you to yours in CA, so we are losing the Miracle for the Splendor. Welcome home and thanks for sharing your cruise with the rest of us!

[kazbar]

We are on her this coming Sunday :D

[FightOnRon]

I want to close day 3 and rest to continue tomorrow. HOnestly for dinner I do not remember what I had at all,,I do know I never had to oreder off the everyday menu so whatever I ate was off the menu. I do remember this meal was not piping hot as the others but it was still godd that I remember,,because for night 4 not so much and that was the only not so much good meal of the trip,,out of every meal. I also know that as a good boy I ate it all anyway! Also,,head count again only 1 baseball cap.

 

Ship felt less crowded at night. I don't beleive that many stayed behind,,must have been that many were a little "tired" from the day and went to sleep.

 

Kids seem to be staring to come out of thier cocoons as it seems there are more,,but still it's all good. Parents in control.

 

BTW,,today I was a bit shocked. On an excursion today I was with a large group andt here was a family with 3 kids on the bus with us (is was a boat/bus tour). For the first time ever in my life as I can recall,,a child said to me "oh please,,go ahead of us". This was a family from Australia and thier kids were the most polite I have ever seen,,to strangersI should add.

 

I think the stage tonight was a comedian (I did save the Funtimes so I will look it up later for sure),,I do know I didn't go this was the night we played in the casino but not much as we are not gamblers,,like ding dong is. We went to be early because we had to get up early for tomorrows excursion. We were going to be off the boat in the first round of people leaving. So again by using a ship excursion we didn't ahve to line up for stickers to get off the ship.

 

BTW,,I had the melting cake 3 times in total and it was perfect each and everytime.

 

PS: My DW just weighed herself and she has lost a pound,,so you can cruise and not mess yourself up!

[Crusin Karen]

Congrats to your DW. I GAINED 5 lbs. just READING the words: chocolate melting cake. :eek::rolleyes::o

[CurlyCali8]

Thanks for the review!! I appreciate all your note-taking & insights, as we sail on Splendor this July for our first-ever cruise.

 

By the way, see that you're in Downey; I grew up just up the 605 in Whittier & my uncle lives in Downey. Seems like I spent half my childhood at the Stonewood mall. ;)

[FightOnRon]

Thanks for the review!! I appreciate all your note-taking & insights, as we sail on Splendor this July for our first-ever cruise.

 

By the way, see that you're in Downey; I grew up just up the 605 in Whittier & my uncle lives in Downey. Seems like I spent half my childhood at the Stonewood mall. ;)

 

I live right where the 605 and 5 meet.

 

Random thought I wanted to share. Web usage. Brought the laptop to use in cabin and there is in fact the slowest intrnet connection known to man when you do this. It works,,but you will burn minutes like no ones business. But,,if you get out of the cabin and wander to the web room and use thier terminals,,it is like 10 times as fast. Don't get me wrong, is surely isn't super speed like you have at home (unless you're me,,,mine is slower then slow) but it is still a lot faster therefore less time consuming.

 

 

Oh and cell phone sevice. My friends have AT&T i phones and their phones worked all through the ship. they would text and call each other. I have an AT&T go phone,,a burner so to speak but I have had the same number for years,,and it did work in both ports and I could send texts for the regular fee I pay here at home. I didn't try to call anyone but I know it would have worked.

[FightOnRon]

Congrats to your DW. I GAINED 5 lbs. just READING the words: chocolate melting cake. :eek::rolleyes::o

 

Quite frankly,,seems that on this ship anything with the word chocolate in front or in back of it was delicious.

 

Another random Tuesday night thought. As I said we went in early because we had an early wakeup for the next day and according to my notes,,kids were running up and down the halls,,but then at 11 pm it was like bam,,nothing,,all done.

 

Also,,for some wierd realon this was the easiest excursion we did but we were just plain exhausted for some reason (tacos and beers in San Jose??). We know on thurs,,our Puerto Vallarta night,,we would be doing the most physical day so we canceled our steakhouse reservation,,we were not dissappointed as it will turn out.

[stephaniemason0316]

Just got home form the Spendor and I am very tired form 7 days of fun I will review as my vision comes into focus,,,but before I start I wantt o give a two thumbs up to our steward Eddie and our MDR servers Alejandro, Rina and Steven,,you made my trip memorable.

 

I made some notes,,took some pictures but don't want to drag this out too much (although I usually end up doing that). Demographics,,I am 60 my DW is 59,,and we traveled with two friends that are 61 and 63. We had side-by side OV cabins on deck two,,and as my siggy shows this is my 6th cruise. And yes,,I did have a lot fun,,but I also saw a bit of everything people argue about on this board but I will cover those when it pops up and none of it wrecked anything for me.

 

Embarcation. I live an entire 25 minutes from the port. I left at 10am because the LOng Beach Grand Prix was going and I didn't know if it would jam up the road (it didn't). Got there by 1030 but I wasn't alone in this thinking so there were a lot of us there already,,we ended up in zone 3. By 11 they were up to zone 12 I think. But it went fast after we started boarding (some stragglers kept us from getting on) and we headed right to the Lido to hunt.

 

Lines for food were pretty long already but we wouldn't really see that again until the last sea day. Had to wait maybe 15 minutes for a burger,,my DW about 20 for the Mongolian. No one at the deli so that was the quickest. People wer everywhere as we were all there early,,but the sstaff was busint thier buns amking sure tables were cleared so there were places to sit for everyone.

 

Cabins were ready at 1:30 but there was no announcement,,we just wandered down to find ours.

 

ON my HAL cruises all I hever had was a balcony,,on my one previous CCL on the Paradise only had the OV everyone has,,so technically this was my first voyage in an OV. I found for my taste this was a perfect room and until the last weekend,,very quiet exept for one thing I will get to later. It was impecabbly clean and I think roomy (I was in a hotel room in Boston once at the Omni parker that was smaller then this).

 

Gotta find my notes,,i will be back.....................................

 

 

This is great! We will be on her next Sunday! 7 days... yay!!! Thanks for the review. BTW, I used to live in the San Fernando Valley. My dad still lives out in Pasedena so I spend a lot of time out there. I kind of miss it and might move back someday (especially since we found out love of cruising)!

 

I love the Dodgers but they haven't done the best lately but I hear the Kings are doing pretty well! :cool::D Get some rest and thanks again for the review!

[vivavegas]

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review! Very insightful...:)

[FightOnRon]

Random musing,,,,we used room service everyday for breakfast either for coffee or for breakfast. EVERYTIME they were right on time exactly as I asked on the sheet. If I stated 6am to 615 am it was 6 am,,never late. No one stole the cards s reported on other ships. Used it once for dinner,,,will come to that later,,,and I asked how long, they stated 30 minutes and it was 30 minutes. Never failed once.

 

Will start day 4 (our worse day personally,,not CCLs fault) in a bit,,gotta take my DW's car in ,,it broke while waiting for us in LOng Beach.

[Sunmist]

thanks for the review!

[FightOnRon]

last musing for day 3............I saved most of the Funtimes so it was in fact a prop comedian on the stage for day 3 so we blew it off. Also I remembered what was dinner for me,,some type of pork thing with rice and it was spicy and it was very good. For the other 3 in our party this was the night thier dinners were not piping hot,,but they were hot. Remember we always dined earlier then 630,,and by 645 lines pile up.

 

Day for,,2nd day in Cabo (cruise day 4). The weather again is perfect,,low 80s like yesterday was. But this was a bAd day for us, not CCLs fault though. We took another CCL excurison so we had to be off the boat by 715. ON the tender peir my DW is putting on sunscreen and her wedding ring goes flying off into the water. We are taking the Jeep desert and beach adventure (poorly named) and we were only a group of 10. the leader said he knows people that will go into the water and look,,but to give him a week to get back to us. Not crossing our fingers.

 

IF you go to Cabo and take this excursion you should know this. There is much less desert (good thing) and much more beach. The bad part is the brochure doesn't describe this very well so we were not prepared. My friends wanted to snorkle and knew we didn't so we took this instead. You drive your own 4wd Jeeps aournd and you do go into the desert (and you do get to do some fancy manuvers in sand) but face it,,people don't go to Cabo for desert and you actually visit 3 of the beaches,,the last on being Cheleano beach where the snorkeling is great. Had the description mentioned this,,my friends would have taken thier snorkle gear from the ship and done it there as we were there for 1 hour.

 

Random msuing,,I had read somewhere that Mexico is big on biodegradable TP so I bought some and brought it. the ladies used a a few times so not a bad purchase.

 

After we come back my wife, on the way to the restroom trips and does a faceplant. A lot of people were rushing to her help beside me but she turned out only to be bruised and not boken,,but her day was pretty bad.

 

We got back on the ship early and we go involved in that Battle of the Genders game. I had all the answes for the men and she had all the answers for the women,,but we didn't do the physical part and if you don't know what it is I won't blow it here for you. But the men won thanks to brilliant planning but I wasn't one of the 5 doing the physical part so I did not collect my second ship-on-a-stick. My DW wasn't one of the women doing the physical part,,but the crew member running the show gave her a medal because she knew the answers. This crew member would remember my wife and her name for the rest of the voyage.

 

I want to interject a random thought here as I just remembered it (I think as I type I am going through alcohal withdrawels)................

 

SMOKING. I had an OV so smoking not an issue. I really didn't see anyone smoking where they weren't supposed to and the areas are pretty limited. But for those non-smokers that have trouble with the smell you may be in trouble around the casino. Deck 5 is the deck where all the fun stuff is to do and the casino is right in the middle. There are designated smoking slot machines in there but the smoke doesn't know it is supposed to stay near the machines so it wanders around checking out everyone. Basically the entire casino smells and you can smell it for maybe 15 yards before the entrances (and in the offshoot sports bar). So pretty much the rest of the ship is fine but if you really truely do get ill from the smell all I can suggest is, if you think you can't walk through it,,use the nearest elevators and use deck 6 as your bypass freeway. There is no way around it,,except of course when in port and the casino is closed. For me,,I am an ex,,,,quit 18 years ago,,,smoke doesn't bother me,,but stale smoke in rooms does and that wasn't a problem so it didn't hinder me from losing a few bucks in there.

 

Other then the casino,,there is one bar in the stern,,I think call the Cool Bar,,where smoking is allowed and that may be it other then some outside areas.

 

I'll be back...............

[hannahsmomtoo]

I'll be back...............

 

Sailing on the Splendor for our first cruise in September and enjoying your review. ( And glad DW was ok... and pulling for ring retrieval! )

Thank you