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A Splendid journey and a dance with Bertha


jimbo5544
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Great review on steakhouse from a busy port on a big ship! Beautiful photos...that skyline with the Freedom Tower and our Statue of Liberty are breathtaking and give a lift every time viewed. Thanks for review and effort. sarah

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Great review on steakhouse from a busy port on a big ship! Beautiful photos...that skyline with the Freedom Tower and our Statue of Liberty are breathtaking and give a lift every time viewed. Thanks for review and effort. sarah

 

 

Thanks, in all our cruises it is the first of a Carnival ship. Did one earlier this year (my first) on our sailing on the Oasis. I enjoyed doing it enough to want to do another. While I thought it would take away from our cruise experience, the opposite was true. Finding a bit of time to do a synapses of the day was actually refreshing. Rendering that into something umm....more legible when we got home was also fun.

 

I will never be as good as some here, they are in the wrong Job lol, but I enjoyed (and enjoying it still) doing it.

 

 

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Day two Tuesday Dancing with Bertha

 

OK, its really some things I forgot in day one first.

 

First of all, our room. We had booked our room almost a year in advance. We, actually this was all me, wanted an aft wrap category 9C room. The wife was leaning decidedly more towards an Ocean Suite in terms of preference. We have had almost every type of non interior room that Carnival has (well OK, we have not stayed in a cove balcony yet) from Ocean view to Owners Penthouse suite on the Fantasy class and the Captains suite on the liberty. All that being said, we generally go back and forth on aft wraps and ocean suites, with an occasional 8C balcony room thrown from time to time.

 

This room was on floor six, right above the lounge , which we did hear from time to time.

 

Here is a couple of pic's of our room, and more importantly, our balcony. I love balconies and spend a fair share of time on them.

 

 

 

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Looking forward to your review, we sailed this itinerary (but made it to Grand Turk) in June. Great cruise!

We have gone to GT 4 times. I did feel sorry for the first time cruisers and the people who booked it just to go to GT though.

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Day two stormy at sea dancing with a girl named Bertha

 

Knowing we were going to experience some rough seas despite having to miss Grand Turk, we awoke on Tuesday with some trepidation. Opening the door to our balcony, I was pleasantly surprised tho find relatively calm seas. We spent some time in the morning at the aft adults only pool to some sun and some clouds but by lunch time we started to get a couple of sprinkles and cloud cover, by one the seas had come up a lot with what I would guess to be between 15 and 20 foot rollers. I decided to take a nap and by 5 the seas were calming down.

Before the nap, we wandered around a bit and found the Karoke with the stage band..... Yes I did say a stage band. The Splendor must be one of the last (or maybe hopefully growing again ships) that have a full 10 piece band. Normally you would not catch me near a karoke but this with the band and a female singer named Ty (who was a bright spot in the entertainment) made it enjoyable. The formal night was switched from Tuesday to Wednesday and we had an enjoyable evening in the MDR and roaming around the ship at night.

 

Day three another day at sea

 

After breakfast, we quickly moved to the adult pool (aft pool) grabbed a couple of chairs and played catch up for missing part of Tuesday. We quickly found that most of our group had the same idea and by mid morning had put the old adage for the Alan Jackson song to the test "it must be 5 o'clock somewhere" and the buckets of beer and cocktails began to flow. The bar staff, always quick to respond to quick and repeating customers was always there with a fresh bucket or two. Things wound down somewhat after 3 and we returned to get ready for dinner and our first formal night. We met our group at the casino bar at 5, met the captain and the senior staff, got singled out by the lead singer Ty of the band and then head off to dinner. After a wonderful meal of prime rib and lobster we hit the main show room for Fiesta Latina. Have to say that the two lead singers in the main show were at best average (and I am being kind) Nuff said......

 

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If we had headed straight down to Grand Turk it would have represented pretty much a straight line. The Captain doing his best to keep things somewhat normal had taken a much closer tract near land, hugging the coast.

 

Bertha was somewhat kind and after heading north for a while, took a right turn and headed out to sea.

 

As we returned to our cabin, we found our towel animal and our platinum gifts, here is a pic.

 

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and a night time snack

 

 

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Day four port canaveral. Another day at sea (LOL)

 

We had decided to stay on hone ship, as we are very familiar with Florida and thought we would enjoy the leisurely day around the Splendor. Watching everyone scramble at breakfast was admittedly fun before heading out to the adults pool for a morning of sun.

 

We spent the morning at the aft adults only pool. After lunch, we headed up to serenity for a while.

This is just a great area of the ship and could only wish for the addition of a pool or hot tub to the serenity area of the Splendor. Looking across we spotted the Sensation which came in with us at the crack of dawn. I asked my bride if she would enjoy sailing on a Fantasy class of ship again which prompted a discussion of the pros and cons of the older smaller ships and ended up with us agreeing we would still enjoy sailing on them.

 

 

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Thanks for the review, especially the steakhouse. I was looking forward to hearing about it and good to know it was a positive experience. Glad you had a great time!

Thanks, there is a little more coming on the Steakhouse.

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Before heading for dinner we sat on our balcony and watched the Sensation go through their muster drill and watched two ladies sitting out on their balconies drinking as the muster drill went on.

 

The Sensation at the pier.

 

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The two enjoying cocktails on the balcony during muster drill.

 

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Dinner that night we conversed with the rest of our group on our day and their day of excursions out and about which included trips to Cocoa Beach, manatee kayak excursions and even trips to Universal and Disney.

 

After dinner we went to the Robusto lounge where we found a very good band that did hits from the 70's and 80's. This band was called Asia Power. After that we called it a night.

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Day 5 Nassau another something new

 

We got early to walk on the track and started that only to have the winds pick up and the temperature cool off suddenly and rain began which drove back inside. It only lasted a short while and went out to take pictures of sailing into the harbor and the port.

 

 

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There was already two ships at the pier the Disney Dream and the Carnival Victory.

 

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Following us in was the NCL Getaway and finally the Carnival Sensation (again).

 

We had made the decision to try something new in Nassau where the last couple of cruises we only did some brief shopping in the straw market. We had decided to try a Segway tour of Nassau. While I had tried a Segway in the past, the wife had not and was frankly a little nervous. We met our guide on hone pier and headed out with 6 other cruisers. We wove our way through the crowd (they are renovating the main hall you walk through and instead everyone funnels (no pun intended) to the left which added to the congestion. We were then transported to our Segway station.

 

Our Segway tour started with getting fitted with helmets, knee pads and arm pads and then getting instructions on how to operate a Segway. We then proceeded out of town on our Segway's with our guides. We made several stops and had sufficient time to explore our Segway skills before returning to the ship. I wish I had brought my camera.

 

Dinner that night was good and after dinner we wandered a bit and ended up in the Spectacular showroom where we were chosen for not so newly wed game. Dare it be said we will be known for the rest of the cruise for our answers during the game. People came up to us for the rest of the cruise congratulating us .....All I will say here was that one of 11 questions got a standing ovation of the crowd...

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Day 6 Half Moon Cay or a bit of heaven

 

Having missed Grand Turk we were really looking forward to one of our favorite cruise ports HMC. We were not to be disappointed. We arose at seven and headed upstairs for breakfast before getting on the tender for HMC. Breakfast was already kicking into gear, even at that early hour and after breakfast we headed down with our group to the boardroom for the tender to HMC. We got right on and headed over to the island. We checked into the information desk for our villa and were lucky enough to grab the transport to our back door.

The Jacuzzi in the villa

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For those that don't know the villas at HMC are two story cabanas that have a private Bathroom, shower, large jacuzzi tub, small refrigerator, and table and chairs as well as comfy recliners and snorkel gear.and foam rafts. They also come with snacks, water, and sodas. We spent the majority of the day in the water. HMC is a true gem of a stop and is our favorite port of call. We could go back there every cruise (although our next three are in the Western Caribbean).

 

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Finally around 3:30 we headed back to ship to show and get ready for our group dinner in the Steakhouse. The wife and I on the tender back to the ship.

 

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This time we had 26 people at the steakhouse. Had a wonderful meal and we all had a great time. It capped a wonderful day. To be honest, one person in our group did say that their steak was a little tough. I did not experience that.

 

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Day 7 heading home

 

We began our day with our customary walk on the outside track. Then breakfast and out to the adult aft pool. We spent the morning there and then after lunch we had enough sun and headed down to spend some time inside. Dinner that night was good again and we spent some time in the various clubs. A couple of noteworthy entertainment options. First, on the second afternoon we stumbled upon karaoke live or what I call karaoke on steroids, where you sing with members of the main show band. This was hosted by Ty, a lady who sings I. Various venues on the ship and has more energy than any performer I have seen on a cruise ship. She is a real gem that made that afternoon really enjoyable and we looked for her all over the ship. The second was a cover band called Asia Power. Great music and a fairly eclectic mix, we looked for them as well during the cruise.

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Day 8 the last day

 

We got up early and walked again. We went up to the main pool to see the towel animals in all of the lounge chairs, it is an enjoyable thing to see.

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This was a day of another first as I had scheduled to to do the behind the fun tour with two others in our group. We met at 8:30 in the Alexandria Library where there was coffee, juice and water waiting for us and Danishes as well. We were then met by a very pleasant young woman who explained what we were going to do, reminded us we could not bring cell phones or cameras, and must have closed toe shoes. She said she trusted us but we still needed to be wanded by a security officer that followed us around for most of the tour as well.

 

Here are some of the highlights of the tour: We got to meet the captain on the bridge which I found to be a fascinating place, toured back stage of the main theater, where we were met by one of the dancers who explained the shows, quick changes (and lack of modesty needed). Out on the main stage we were met by a stage technician who described the sets, mic's, lighting and complexities of putting on the show. We got out to the bow (that area where you look down and see those two lonely hot tubs and the spare anchor and the ship bell). We went to the engine control room, not the engine room and were met by the chief engineer that explained the engines and producing power for the ship. We saw the laundry, which was pretty cool, the morgue, the brig, crew quarters, crew and staff dining areas and a crew nigh club (really a lounge). We saw all three sub decks, got a tour of the kitchen and steakhouse kitchen.

 

The whole thing lasted about three and a half hours. At the end we received a behind the fun bag, a behind the fun hat and wrist band. I would recommend this tour to anyone who wants to see the inner workings of a cruise ship. I found the tour to be open, and providing a true look into the other side of the cruise industry. Kudo's to Carnival for offering it.

 

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