Better Late Than Never Carnival Splendor Review

[VancouverKory]

Hello Cruise Critics!

I am finally writing my long overdue Carnival Splendor Mexican Riviera cruise review!

Hey better late than never! Plus I just re located all of the pictures we took!

 

A little background about us:

I am Kory my girlfriend is Katie, We are in our mid 20s and we are from Vancouver Canada

 

This was my second cruise and my girlfriends first and she absolutely loved it!

 

I had always heard that Carnival was a great cruise line for younger people and we couldn’t agree more the diversity aboard was just great. There were people from all over the world as well as people of all ages it was a truly unique and unforgettable experience.

 

 

Here we are on the flight down and very excited

 

 

 

 

Here we are arriving in L.A!!

[VancouverKory]

We flew Alaska Airlines from Vancouver – LA. We departed at about 6am so we could have a full day in Long Beach.

 

Upon arrival in LA we used super shuttle and we were transported very efficiently to the Hotel Maya in Long Beach.

 

This hotel was amazing we had such a great time and we would recommend it to anybody! They had amazing grounds with outdoor fire pits a lovely pool and we could walk to the cruise port.. Although they had a free shuttle the walk is great you just go right past the Queen Mary and you are there in about 15 minutes. Also breakfast in this hotel was top notch!

 

The only thing I would say I didn’t like about the hotel was the hotel pool bar prices! We are from Canada so we are used to high prices for beer but this was even crazy for us! About 5-7$ /beer, that’s hockey game prices!

 

We then went and enjoyed as much as we could in Long Beach. We loved it here and really enjoyed the waterfront area and all of the great places to eat! And on our way back to the hotel we went to 7-11 and bought a 6 pack for the same price as one beer at the hotel and sat on our balcony and enjoyed the evening. Much better than our hotel bar!

Here are some shots from around the hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And our Six pack for our balcony with no fridge we had to get creative!

 

[VancouverKory]

This was the big day!!

We woke way too early for any sane person packed up our bags and went to breakfast!

 

I already mentioned the food was great. However the table had a great view of the harbor including the Queen Mary and of course the Splendor!!

We thought the Queen Mary was just huge until the Splendor came in this morning and dwarfed it.

 

After checking out we walked to the ship which was very nice other than the heat (I am not good with heat so I was sweating by the time we got to the ship!)

 

We checked in at the Carnival desks and handed our luggage to the porters and we had a zone 2 card!

 

After that we had some free time and really went and checked out the Queen Mary and the Russian Sub that were there. Also there was some sort of classic event happening at the Queen Mary and there were countless old cars and people dressed from the 1900s it was very cool to see.

 

Some more photos

our first close up of the ship!

[PittsburghGirlee]

Great start..keep it coming...I will be on the Splendor in 31 days..

Great looking couple;)

[VancouverKory]

There were Lots of line ups but getting on the ship overall was a breeze! We were onboard and exploring the ship right away! Exciting stuff!

 

We then were waived over to purchase the cheers package this was only the second week the Splendor was doing it and it was in its early stages so we were not even sure that this package would be available but when we saw it was we jumped at the bit!

 

 

I would suggest this program to anyone who would rather know what they are spending on day 1 of the cruise than day 7. It was great we paid for every drink up front and we worked it out we got our moneys worth by about $100..

 

We are not big drinkers by any means but to be able to have all the nice expensive frozen drinks and my girlfriend could have any glass of wine with dinner and we never had to worry what so ever. Being able to try without hesitation drinks you have never had before was also a big plus I discovered a lot of drinks that I would never of paid for I don’t think.

 

 

For people who comment on how is the service when you have the cheers program I would say its great! I could even get drinks for my girlfriend all I would have to do is just point at her and she would wave and boom no problem 2 drinks and I can be a gentleman still!

 

Here are some photos of getting on the ship

[VancouverKory]

Our first day was a whirlwind so much to see and so much to do! After getting our drink package and our on board credit all set up (we use a cash account because we hate holds!) it was time to check out the room!

 

We booked a balcony Guarantee and I would say overall we got a great room!

 

The only thing I did not like the most was it was connecting and we could hear our neighbors often. The room we got was 9221 right at the front of the ship. We loved the rocking of the boat from up here. We even went around a minor hurricane one night and it was a lot of fun being in the room! Our Room attendant Henry was absolutely incredible he was all over every detail!

 

And what a view!

 

As silly as it sounds I will only book a balcony if I cannot afford the balcony on a cruise I can’t afford the cruise! (this is why I haven’t got to go on the Allure yet!) The private space with a view of the ocean is just worth every penny in my opinion and we spent a lot of time out there.

 

Here is some shots of the room and some views from our balcony

 

 

[VancouverKory]

Then it was time to hit the pool for sail away!!

we quickly decided the aft pool was the place for us and we spent most of our time on the ship by the aft pool!

Our first night at dinner is where we hit our only problem on this cruise. We had booked this September cruise in January with a Travel agent and she had assured me we were guaranteed for a table for 2.. which I quickly realized this cannot be confirmed until you talk to the Maitre ‘d your self.

I definitely was slightly nervous once on board because we really wanted to have a private table for us and we could not locate the Maitre ‘d during the day.

So we just decided to wait for dinner and we were at a table of about 10. Not a big deal but definitely not what we had envisioned so we went back to the Maitre ‘d who was of course very busy and she was not able to help to much.

Totally understandable my request is no more important than anyone elses. We then decided to just go over to Guest services and see what they could do for us We were pretty easy we would take any dining time including my time just for a table for 2.

 

The woman at the desk was amazing! She just kept apologizing which I didn’t even feel that she needed to and she said we will have this solved by the time you get back from the buffet. And sure enough I was still in my room changing to go to the buffet and a note slipped under the door with our new dining for a private table for 2! And all week there were no issues what so ever!

They even went above and beyond and gave us all window seats for the rest of the cruise. Talk about great service!

 

Here are a few more shots from the first day

(and as much as I love looking at all of your photos of the food I unfortunately eat mine before the camera is any where near the table so I don't have any food photos!)

 

Good bye Long Beach!!

 

[VancouverKory]

Great start..keep it coming...I will be on the Splendor in 31 days..

 

Great looking couple;)

 

 

Well thank you :)

 

 

I know we had a great time on the Splendor and now that she leaves from New York I think it couldn't get any better than that!

[VancouverKory]

I will combine all my sea days into one post as they were generally all the same.. Awesome!

We hung out by the aft pool ate lots and did pretty much everything you would all expect and I loved every minute of it!

My girlfriend and I wake up very early so I believe this worked out as a huge benefit for us. breakfast was eaten and we were by the pool by 8 each sea day.. and when the rest of the ship wakes up and heads to the pool around 3pm its time for us to head inside. We just felt like because we woke up earlier we were ahead of the crowds for just about everything all week!

 

Here are some Sea Day Shots from around the ship

[VancouverKory]

Heres a Few more shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[VancouverKory]

We did not do a great deal here other than walk down the beach for about 2 hours towards town which was a lot of fun and we got to see some very interesting things.

But the hassles of the sales people on the beach really put a damper on our day in Puerto Vallarta..

 

Both of us had been here a few times so we were not too concerned with seeing too much of PV however we did go stock up at the Wal-Mart and decided to check out the mall where we ended up seeing all sorts of cool things and we had a great time.

 

This is also a good place to go get some peso’s

 

Here are some photos from PV

[rob6465]

Keep it up !! You guys look great together.:D

[VancouverKory]

We were in Cabo for 2 days on this cruise. Cabo was incredible!

We loved every minute of it we did not book any excursions and thank goodness we saw the sardine can ships they put the groups on! Oh and charge you $60 per person! We ended up befriending a local who his wife and himself took us on an amazing boat tour of the Arch dropped us off at Lovers beach for 3 hours and came and picked us right back up! Oh and it only cost us $20 USD and 2 Gatorades and we had a deal!

Swimming in Cabo was one of the best experiences of my whole life the waves were great you just bobbed along and it was like being swooshed around in a hot tub! I wish I could be in that water right now!

Unfortunately we wrecked our what we were told by the carnival cruise store was a waterproof camera and none of our photos from Cabo worked out L

We did get some great shots from the ship though!

 

Here are some shots from our time in Cabo

 

 

 

 

Look how blue this water is!!

 

 

Look how the calm waters of the Sea of Cortez change the rough whitecaps of the pacific!

 

[VancouverKory]

Keep it up !! You guys look great together.:D

 

 

Thank you for the kind words!

 

putting together this review really makes you re live the trip!

 

I can not wait to get back on a cruise!

[VancouverKory]

We chose to just take our own luggage off the ship.. we said by to Henry got off the ship very painlessly and being Canadian we got our own line at customs with about 4 people in it!

 

Before long we were off to LAX airport we had arrived there by 8am! Our flight was not until 4pm so we were not even allowed to check in and go eat until about noon.

Thank goodness LAX has wifi and we could watch movies on the ipad and before we knew it we were coming back home to the rain and cold L

 

Overall I would say this cruise was everything I had hoped for and more! We had an amazing time and we are now hooked and we have a cruise booked on the Breeze in just over 3 short months! Cant Wait!!!

 

I apologize it took me so long to get back to all of you with my review as I always read all of yours

 

Thank you cruise critic for preparing me and giving me all the knowledge I needed to have a great trip with my girlfriend aboard the Splendor!

 

Dining 5/5 – Absolutely amazing every day.. main dining room was top notch.. buffet was top notch and the rotisserie was the hidden gem

 

Public rooms 4/5 – Great spaces on the ship to relax really loved the promenade and people watching

 

Cabin 4/5 – Great cabin great view I gave it a four because of the connecting room

 

Entertainment 4/5 – not my cup of tea for sure.. but I consider the ocean and the pools as my entertainment and I would give that a 5/5 ( we are just not show people) however the piano bar and the comedians were 5/5

 

Service 10/5 – could not believe the level of service we received on this trip. I had to repeatedly tell people no its okay I can get my own drink or whatever or no need to clean our room we are very low maintenance. And we know with all the high maintenance people on board we could deal with the crew as if they were our friends and I think the level of service we received was because of this.

Being polite goes a long way! (I could not believe how inconsiderate some of the other cruisers were on this ship I know I couldn’t put up with some of it if I was an employee I would be pointing to the plank on more than one occasion)

Value for money 5/5 – What you get for what you pay is incredible. Seeing as in how it would cost us about $60 to go just about any where for dinner in my city and I get a cruise for about $100/day with 3 meals and entertainment.. the value cannot be beat!

This is my first ever cruise review and I only learned how to post photos on this website today!

Apologize if the photos are not in order or If I rambled on too much

but I had a lot of fun writing this review and I can not wait to write my next one!

Thank you all for reading

 

Here are a few last misc photos

[caro1998]

Beautiful pictures of both the ship and ports. Thanks so much for sharing!!!!

[nimiq]

Great review and nice picture especially one in PV as we can see our condo tour :-)

 

thanks for sharing

sea ya

Eric

[VancouverKory]

Thank you Carro1998 & nimiq!

 

I am glad you enjoyed the photos!

 

 

 

 

Kory

[beshears]

Great review and pictures. Loved the picture of the sun setting, and the fingers around the sun. What a picture.:)

[sparks1093]

Excellent review! We are considering the Splendor for our 4/2015 cruise (at that point she'll be sailing out of NYC and it's an Eastern Caribbean itinerary). Thanks for the pictures!

 

(Oh, is the aft pool the Serenity area?)

[nyrangers94]

Thanks for the Review and awesome photos. Great to see a travellers photos of the ship. I will be onboard the 11/17 sailing so it was cool to see some previously unseen shots!

[VancouverKory]

Thank you everybody for all the kind words!

 

We are lucky to have a nice camera it does most of the work for us.. My girlfriend graduated university in film so she definitely knows how to use the camera a lot better than me!

 

Thanks beshears the pinching the sun shot took about 10 tries :D

 

 

To answer your question sparks1093

 

on our cruise it was an adult only pool it was not the designated serenity deck that was near the front of the ship on the top floor.. but the pool was adults only for sure however the tandoori and the deli are also right there and they are open to people of all ages so you will see lots of young ones running through the area but I did see the Carnival staff telling some young kids they had to go to the other pools if they were swimming.

 

 

Thanks nyrangers94! The splendor is a great ship! I am sure you will have a great time on your cruise! (not too happy about your screen name still after all these years ;)) Lol!!