Splendor 4/10-4/18 - quick review, pics later

[maurinsky2]

We got off the Splendor this morning. It was an interesting experience cruising with 3 teenagers with various degrees of addiction to the internet and other electronic devices that they didn't have full access to!

 

1. Faster to the Fun

When we embarked on 4/10, we were incredibly grateful to have purchased this! We got to the port around 1pm because we were total packing slackers, and the lines were insane, but we moved right through very quickly.

 

When we tendered to Half Moon Cay, we loved FTTF because we got right on to a tender and were in a very early group onto the island

 

When we disembarked, we were frustrated because the announcements were at complete odds with the instructions we were given - we spoke to Malcolm Burn about it while we were standing in line and were told "FTTF has different policies, you should have followed the written instructions" - as first time users, it would have been nice to have the announcements, which stated that if you attempted to go to the 3rd floor, you would be turned away, indicated that this was not the case for gold, platinum or FTTF users. All in all, we're glad we bought it, but it was a little frustrating at the end.

 

2. The food

Was mostly good. We had one lousy breakfast on the Lido deck, the omelette I ordered was so sweet it tasted as if someone added sugar to it, and the coffee was abominable. Aside from that, we had 4 sea days and we enjoyed the sea day brunch every one of those days. We had anytime dining so we ate in the Black Pearl, and we all were satisfied with the meals. I didn't record what everyone ate, but the only one that was iffy for me was a jerked pork loin - my serving was huge and very dry, but my fiancé had the same thing and he loved it. My future stepson ordered the same thing at ever dinner - fried chicken with no side dishes, and warm chocolate melting cake. I feel that the WCMC lived up to the expectations I had for it. We did try a couple of other desserts - 3 of us had the Bitter & Blanc and loved it, and on the last night, I had a cappuccino pie which was delicious and I shared it with my daughter, who shared her Grand Marnier Souffle with me, which was also delicious. We ate at the steak house twice because my sweetheart loved it so much, and the food was fantastic both times but the second time it was so cold I had a hard time getting comfortable, even wearing a jacket.

 

My favorite entree in the Black Pearl was a bbq cornish game hen. My favorite starter was a "didja" of sushi - it was phenomenally delicious.

 

My older future stepson turned 18 on the boat, and they made a big deal without making too much of a big deal, which suited him fine. He got a special dessert and a song.

 

We never had lunch, except at Half Moon Cay, and we went to Señor Frog's in Nassau. So loud! Luckily, I'm a lightweight when it comes to drinking so I was buzzed from my one drink and therefore loose enough to have a good time.

 

We went to tea time every sea day, and we loved it. We met new people, had great conversations, including with two young teenage girls who were seated with us yesterday, and the food was great. I was quite partial to the vanilla scones with cream.

 

3. The service

Most of my party was delighted with the service. It wasn't what I expected - we didn't have the same servers every night and we didn't meet our room steward until we were disembarking this morning! However, everyone was friendly and warm and many of the crew remembered our names after interacting with us - particularly Antoinette, who ran karaoke. Our rooms were spotless, and we had the following towel animals: a bat (maybe?), a frog, a scorpion (my personal favorite), a dog, a snail and an elephant.

 

4. The entertainment

Janae Longo is fan-freaking-tastic. The dancers were great although the choreography wasn't - particularly in Fiesta Latina, which I thought was borderline offensive with it's Latin stereotyping and fake accents. Todd Evans is just not good enough to keep up with everyone else. He was working so hard, and you could tell.

 

5. Trivia

With all those sea days, there were lots of opportunities for trivia, and I was one point shy of winning the 80s trivia, musicals trivia, but I finally managed to score a Ship on a Stick for TV shows theme songs - hooray for watching way too much TV!

 

6. The Ports and excursions

In Grand Turk, we had a nice morning at the beach and then went on the ultimate snorkeling adventure, which was great. Our crew was Mitchie, Jason and the captain whose name escapes me. We got to touch nurse sharks and explore a coral reef as well as the wall, which left me feeling a little bit like Nemo's dad.

 

In Half Moon Cay, we enjoyed a beach day. The water was surprisingly cold, but it was refreshing in the hot, hot, hot sun. We all ended up getting burned despite copious re-applications of sunscreen. I enjoyed my bbq lunch, too.

 

In Nassau, we went to Balmoral for a dolphin encounter, which was expensive but we decided once in a lifetime for us - it was very cool! The staff was slightly disorganized, but we got to meet Pigeon the dolphin, who was very talkative, and we each got an individual experience with her, giving back and belly rubs and getting a kiss. My stepsons weren't interested in the dolphins so they had a beach day and they loved it. We got an extra bonus because we got to ride the catamaran back to Nassau. We had lunch at Señor Frog's, which the kids loved and made for great people watching, and went shopping at a few places, including the straw market.

 

7. The weather

It was rough on the way home! 12 foot waves! Too windy to be outside!

 

8. How we entertained ourselves

My sweetheart and I spent a lot of time on the balcony reading and talking. We had a few excellent specialty coffees at the coffee shop. We did trivia. My daughter and I did karaoke and we even got to feel like celebrities for a moment when someone on an elevator with us asked us if we had sung the night before and then proceeded to gush. The boys ended up spending a lot of time and money in the arcade. We never used the pools or hot tubs, we walked through the gym but only one of us (not me) used it. We wandered around the shops, looked at pictures but didn't buy any, and the people watching was fantastic.

 

If you have any questions, let me know. I will post pictures at some point.

[jimbri]

Going on the Splendor in May. Looking forward to your photos!

[092306]

Thanks for the review and glad you had a good time. Looking forward to your pictures!

[Crusin Karen]

Nice review! We are going on the Splendor for the 3rd time in 3 weeks! :D Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us and glad you had a good time.

[rxs148]

Hi, planning a bunch of us next March. Wondering about Serenity deck... if you any comments or pictures.

 

What about 2.0 fun ship upgrades? Which does it have?

 

 

thanks

[Crusin Karen]

Hi, planning a bunch of us next March. Wondering about Serenity deck... if you any comments or pictures.

 

What about 2.0 fun ship upgrades? Which does it have?

 

 

thanks

Serenity on Splendor is a JOKE. It's just basically some lounge chairs with cushions on them. No clamshells or hammocks and it is right below the mini golf. Fortunately we are not big Serenity users; we like "to be where the action is" but the Miracle had the Serenity added the last x we sailed on her and we spent an entire day there almost ALONE while we were in Nassau and boy....it is so relaxing back there. I don't know what the "Splendor planners" were thinking when they made that area. :confused::( Sorry for the highjack, OP! :o

[maurinsky2]

We only spent an hour or two in the Serenity area, it was free of children but not very quiet with the mini golf right above it.

[Andoria]

Thank you for the review! One week from today for us!

[apiary311]

Thanks for writing a great review! We'll be on the Splendor next January, so it's great to hear about it. Disappointed to hear about the less-than-spectacular Serenity deck. We were hoping to spend a lot of time there. Flying golf balls doesn't sound very relaxing!

[disneyfan68]

We got off the Splendor this morning. It was an interesting experience cruising with 3 teenagers with various degrees of addiction to the internet and other electronic devices that they didn't have full access to!

 

1. Faster to the Fun

When we embarked on 4/10, we were incredibly grateful to have purchased this! We got to the port around 1pm because we were total packing slackers, and the lines were insane, but we moved right through very quickly.

 

When we tendered to Half Moon Cay, we loved FTTF because we got right on to a tender and were in a very early group onto the island

 

When we disembarked, we were frustrated because the announcements were at complete odds with the instructions we were given - we spoke to Malcolm Burn about it while we were standing in line and were told "FTTF has different policies, you should have followed the written instructions" - as first time users, it would have been nice to have the announcements, which stated that if you attempted to go to the 3rd floor, you would be turned away, indicated that this was not the case for gold, platinum or FTTF users. All in all, we're glad we bought it, but it was a little frustrating at the end.

 

2. The food

Was mostly good. We had one lousy breakfast on the Lido deck, the omelette I ordered was so sweet it tasted as if someone added sugar to it, and the coffee was abominable. Aside from that, we had 4 sea days and we enjoyed the sea day brunch every one of those days. We had anytime dining so we ate in the Black Pearl, and we all were satisfied with the meals. I didn't record what everyone ate, but the only one that was iffy for me was a jerked pork loin - my serving was huge and very dry, but my fiancé had the same thing and he loved it. My future stepson ordered the same thing at ever dinner - fried chicken with no side dishes, and warm chocolate melting cake. I feel that the WCMC lived up to the expectations I had for it. We did try a couple of other desserts - 3 of us had the Bitter & Blanc and loved it, and on the last night, I had a cappuccino pie which was delicious and I shared it with my daughter, who shared her Grand Marnier Souffle with me, which was also delicious. We ate at the steak house twice because my sweetheart loved it so much, and the food was fantastic both times but the second time it was so cold I had a hard time getting comfortable, even wearing a jacket.

 

My favorite entree in the Black Pearl was a bbq cornish game hen. My favorite starter was a "didja" of sushi - it was phenomenally delicious.

 

My older future stepson turned 18 on the boat, and they made a big deal without making too much of a big deal, which suited him fine. He got a special dessert and a song.

 

We never had lunch, except at Half Moon Cay, and we went to Señor Frog's in Nassau. So loud! Luckily, I'm a lightweight when it comes to drinking so I was buzzed from my one drink and therefore loose enough to have a good time.

 

We went to tea time every sea day, and we loved it. We met new people, had great conversations, including with two young teenage girls who were seated with us yesterday, and the food was great. I was quite partial to the vanilla scones with cream.

 

3. The service

Most of my party was delighted with the service. It wasn't what I expected - we didn't have the same servers every night and we didn't meet our room steward until we were disembarking this morning! However, everyone was friendly and warm and many of the crew remembered our names after interacting with us - particularly Antoinette, who ran karaoke. Our rooms were spotless, and we had the following towel animals: a bat (maybe?), a frog, a scorpion (my personal favorite), a dog, a snail and an elephant.

 

4. The entertainment

Janae Longo is fan-freaking-tastic. The dancers were great although the choreography wasn't - particularly in Fiesta Latina, which I thought was borderline offensive with it's Latin stereotyping and fake accents. Todd Evans is just not good enough to keep up with everyone else. He was working so hard, and you could tell.

 

5. Trivia

With all those sea days, there were lots of opportunities for trivia, and I was one point shy of winning the 80s trivia, musicals trivia, but I finally managed to score a Ship on a Stick for TV shows theme songs - hooray for watching way too much TV!

 

6. The Ports and excursions

In Grand Turk, we had a nice morning at the beach and then went on the ultimate snorkeling adventure, which was great. Our crew was Mitchie, Jason and the captain whose name escapes me. We got to touch nurse sharks and explore a coral reef as well as the wall, which left me feeling a little bit like Nemo's dad.

 

In Half Moon Cay, we enjoyed a beach day. The water was surprisingly cold, but it was refreshing in the hot, hot, hot sun. We all ended up getting burned despite copious re-applications of sunscreen. I enjoyed my bbq lunch, too.

 

In Nassau, we went to Balmoral for a dolphin encounter, which was expensive but we decided once in a lifetime for us - it was very cool! The staff was slightly disorganized, but we got to meet Pigeon the dolphin, who was very talkative, and we each got an individual experience with her, giving back and belly rubs and getting a kiss. My stepsons weren't interested in the dolphins so they had a beach day and they loved it. We got an extra bonus because we got to ride the catamaran back to Nassau. We had lunch at Señor Frog's, which the kids loved and made for great people watching, and went shopping at a few places, including the straw market.

 

7. The weather

It was rough on the way home! 12 foot waves! Too windy to be outside!

 

8. How we entertained ourselves

My sweetheart and I spent a lot of time on the balcony reading and talking. We had a few excellent specialty coffees at the coffee shop. We did trivia. My daughter and I did karaoke and we even got to feel like celebrities for a moment when someone on an elevator with us asked us if we had sung the night before and then proceeded to gush. The boys ended up spending a lot of time and money in the arcade. We never used the pools or hot tubs, we walked through the gym but only one of us (not me) used it. We wandered around the shops, looked at pictures but didn't buy any, and the people watching was fantastic.

 

If you have any questions, let me know. I will post pictures at some point.

 

We are on this cruise with you and agree with just about all of your points. We don't have a lot of cruise experience, but I'm thinking I won't sail of NYC in April. We had a bad luck of the draw with weather I believe. It seems the sail right before us was fine. Those last 2 sea days were a doosy! Loved loved loved HMC! Just beautiful beyond words. We also had FTTF and were very confused during debarktion. We finally just went down on our own. We were in our car by 9:30 I believe.

 

I will also be posting a short review with pics.

 

Karyn