Review: Carnival Splendor 7/20/13 (Eastern Caribbean)

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Hello all! I’ve been busy the last few days running around and doing a few things around the house, but I’m finally back to review more of our second full day at sea! It's nice to see I've been missed. :)

 

While I have been to afternoon tea here in NY several times, this was going to be the first afternoon tea for DH and our boys. I told the boys that there would be tiny finger sandwiches and then some sweets. Since they had eaten lunch, I told them they could just have tea and sweets if they didn’t want the sandwiches.

 

We met up with the rest of the family and got a table for all of us at the very back of the Gold Pearl MDR. Shortly after we were seated, the waiter came around with the tea box. DH and both the boys chose to have green tea. I opted for Earl Grey this time. The tea was very good. The boys hardly touched their tea. DS8 drank a little bit of it after adding some sugar, but only a few sips. DS6 wanted it to get darker, and then it wasn’t “green enough” for him so he said he would just drink water. They came around with smoked salmon finger sandwiches, and DH and I each grabbed one. The boys didn’t want one. They never did come back with the cucumber sandwiches though. However, they came around with the cart of sweets and they had different things than the day before, with the exception of the scones & Devonshire cream, and the strawberries and cream. It was nice to be able to have different sweets than the day before!

 

I had some orange ginger cake which was very light and delicious. I also had a chocolate macaroon…delicious!!! This is not a typical coconut macaroon that you find in the supermarket, but rather a real French macaroon, a light meringue cookie filled with a delicious cream (this was chocolate cookie with chocolate cream). No coconut in this, so DS8 was able to have one and he loved it! Coconut is one of the foods he is allergic to, so he was happy that he could try this since it had none. He was also able to have another type of small chocolate pastry they had there, and DS6 had this as well and loved it. Both boys also got strawberries with cream and loved it. I also had the scone and some strawberries. DH had a variety of sweets. I loved it. DH wasn’t impressed with afternoon tea and said it’s just not his thing. He didn’t find anything wrong with the items they served (he liked them very much), he said he just wasn’t into the whole experience. It seemed like the boys could take it or leave it, but they did enjoy the things they ate. The rest of the family enjoyed it very much once again.

 

Unfortunately for me, this was the last afternoon tea I had on the ship. On the 3 following port days they did not have it, and the other 2 sea days I was busy having spa treatments…LOL, don’t you just feel so sorry for me?!

 

After tea, we went back to the cabin to relax a bit and then change for dinner. There was a VIFP cocktail party (Gold members and above), so we got ready early enough to attend that and then go to dinner shortly thereafter. DH is a Red VIFP member and the boys were on the first Carnival cruise. DH said I should still go with the rest of my family (they’re all Gold members), because he thought for sure they wouldn’t let him in. But, DBIL is not a Gold member either, and DSis said she was going to go with him and see if they would allow him to attend, so I decided to try the same with DH and the boys. Sure enough, when we got to the Spectacular Theatre, I asked at the door if DH and the boys could come in since we were on the cruise together as a family and they said no problem, go right in! Same thing for DBIL with DSis. We weren’t sure before we tried this because the invitation given in the cabin only has the names of the Gold VIFP members listed.

 

The cocktail party was very nice, much nicer than I remember them years ago. Servers came around with trays of hors d’ouvres (sp.?)…nothing overly fancy, but a nice little bite. Bar waiters came around with different cocktails. I had a Fun Ship cocktail…different liquors with different juices…it was delicious! The boys had fruit punch. They also had another type of cocktail that DH had and I tried it. Another delicious fruity cocktail. But I didn’t have my own since I didn’t want to be too full or too tipsy for dinner! During the cocktail party, Malcolm was hosting and had some fun things going on like a little Carnival Cruiseline Trivia. It was fun. Then they put on a screen, all the different Carnival ships through the years and told the audience that when a ship is shown that you have sailed on, cheer. So we did! It was a nice crowd and we had fun. We were definitely glad we went!!

 

DH wanted to see if we could go on a tour in San Juan the next day to see certain things, and there was one that looked great for us (it took people to the Forts, the Capitol and other popular areas). Unfortunately it was sold out. So we said we would stick to the original plan and have a cab take us to those places, as my family has done before in San Juan (DH had never been there before and wanted to see those things). We told him we would go wherever he wanted to see, because he hadn’t been there before. DBIL hadn’t been to Puerto Rico since he was a kid so he wanted to see the same things as DH. More on San Juan later!

 

The boys had told us that they wanted to go to dinner at Camp Carnival that night. We allowed them to, but since the dessert being served was cookies and they could have tree nut cross contamination, I gave DS8 an individual pack of Oreos to have for dessert instead. So after the VIFP cocktail party, we brought the boys up to Camp Carnival and then headed to the MDR for dinner. DS8 had told me to order his food for the night after, and he requested a hot dog with fries and whatever cold fruity soup they had, along with chocolate melting cake for dessert. He said if they have steak that I think he would like on the menu, to please order that too so he could try it.

 

We went to the MDR for dinner. Hector, our waiter, asked for the boys right away and said he misses them! I told him they would be back the following evening and I would order DS8’s food for him because he told me what he wants. We had a wonderful meal in the MDR once again, complete with terrific food and service, and of course…chocolate melting cake! When Natalija came around with the menu for the following night, she was surprised not to see DS8 there. I told her the boys were at camp having dinner, and I would order for DS8. She came back a little while after, and I had noticed a NY Strip steak on the following night’s menu, so I added it to the rest of DS8’s requests. I also ordered him the chilled soup…this time it was either mango or cherry, I forget which specific one.

At the end of dinner, our friends came by our table to see where we were headed later on. They were having karaoke up on deck so we decided to go there, and my parents joined us. My friend and I had been in chorus in high school and we could sing well. We sang a song together from “Grease”, and then we each sang another couple of songs. At 10pm it was time to get the kids. We decided we would let them stay up late since we weren’t going to be in San Juan until 3pm the next day, so they could sleep in. So we brought them down to karaoke. At this point, DSis, DBIL and 9-y.o. DNiece joined us (12-y.o. DNiece was with friends from her camp group). DS8 wanted to sing “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles (his 2nd grade show this past Spring was a Beatles tribute, and he has been in private voice lessons for 2 years!), and DS6 wanted to sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider”! That’s right, they have a selection of children’s songs as well for karaoke! DS8 sang beautifully and got lots of compliments. DS6 was also terrific, so adorable and everyone loved it when he sang! We had a wonderful evening, complete with drinks and pizza (of course!), and we went to bed around 11:30pm.

 

Next up: First port, San Juan, and a deck party on the ship!!! Stay tuned! :)

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OK, I'm hoping this works!!! Here's a link to a pic of our boys in their tuxes:

 

 

And one of the two of us:

 

 

 

I don't know why I couldn't get the pics to appear on this post, but just click on the links above to see them.

 

Enjoy!! :)

[Daymaker]

Bonnie the photos do show up for me. Boys are Adorable! Actually so are you and DH. :) Looking forward to the rest.

 

Donna

[Neotericisis]

You have the cutest family ever!! I can totally picture your little ones singing at Karaoke!

 

Thank you for sharing!!:)

[bangzoom6877]

Bonnie the photos do show up for me. Boys are Adorable! Actually so are you and DH. :) Looking forward to the rest.

 

Donna

 

Aww, thank you Donna!!! That's so sweet. That pic of the boys is going to be our holiday card this year! I'm glad the photos show up when you click the link. To a degree, I am still electronically challenged! ;)

 

More to come again soon, San Juan!!! :)