Thanksgiving On Splendor - Eastern Caribbean - CruiseXLife's Photo Review!

[cruisexlife]

Zoomed in look at the deck and the Regal Princess

 

 

It started to rain, so we went inside to the Chocolate Extravaganza. We all had a lot to eat, I got some chocolate ice cream and some fruit dipped in chocolate, plus a donut. We all sat together a spent a little more time getting to know each other.

 

Eventually, the rain stopped and we went to the aft. We were surprised with a beautiful rainbow!

 

 

Eventually, 4 o clock came, and we had made plans to meet up for tea again as a family. That was nice to do. My new friends and I met at the El Mojito at 4:30, and I had a drink with them too. Eventually, I left and headed up to catch the sunset. I was happily surprised to see the Regal Princess and Carnival Breeze very close!

 

 

The sunset today wasn't all that great, but it was still nice to see

 

 

I liked this picture as well.

 

 

After the sunset, I usued the time to do the usual gym and steam room run. I had a good workout, and the steam room visit was nice too. After my workout, I showered and went down to dinner, and met up with the rest of my family. We had a good meal, and it was nice hearing the waiters sing goodbye to us. For dinner I think I had chicken and shrimp off the everyday, nothing appealed to me that day.

 

After dinner, I went to the comedy show and met my Rochester friends. He wasn't all that funny tonight, so we went up and watched the on-screen movie instead. Eventually, we went to a bar, got drink, and just walked around the top of the ship and got to know each other, since we didn't have much time throughout the rest of the cruise. I had to be up at 7:00 the next day to get off of the ship and enroute to FLL around 9, so around 11:30, I turned in. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my friends from Rochester were on my flight from FLL to BWI the next day, and were changing to ROC later in the night. With southwest, you get to pick your seats, so this was a total score! Here is the Carnival Breeze sailing past us in the night.

 

 

Next: Miami

[cruisexlife]

This is a beautiful picture! This is the excursion my husband wants to do, however I'm kinda scared. I'm not athletic or a good swimmer.

 

You do not need to be super athletic, but the hike before the trip can be a little tough. I would recommend it if you were up for the challenge of the hike, because once you finish the hike, it's all downhill (literally) from there! :D However, I would hate to see you strain yourself or not enjoy yourself if you can't. But I would love to see you do it, I had an amazing time! :D

[cruisexlife]

Hello all,

 

I am SO sorry for taking a month off of this review, especially considering I only had a short amount of time left to write about. First, this blizzard came through and murdered Maryland, which not only kept me locked in my house for a week, but it cancelled my trip to Mexico that I had planned, so I spent numerous hours on the phone with the insurance company getting it refunded (just got my check in the mail yesterday!). I also have a 92 year old neighbor that I look out for, and of course, family issues came up as well. But those are not excuses, I should not have taken this long off of the review writing. I'm going to finish it now. I am terribly sorry to everyone that I have kept waiting that needed info for their upcoming cruise! :(

Edited February 14, 2016 by cruisexlife

[cruisexlife]

I originally set my alarm for 4:45AM to try and watch us pull into the dock in Miami. I ended up ordering a grilled cheese, so by the time it came and I was finished with it, I didn't get to bed until after midnight. So when the alarm went off, I turned it off, and set it for 7:05. I went back to sleep, and actually got up at 7:05. I went outside and saw the Disney Wonder bow-to-bow with us.

 

 

Miami Skyline

 

 

This view is not so pretty on debarkation day.

 

 

I lied, it's still really pretty.

 

 

I went back into the room, and got changed. Katie was up and functioning at this point. We packed away everything else major in the room. About this time, Kevin made the announcement that self-debarkation had begun. Katie and I went up to breakfast. I'm going to miss this pool view.

 

 

We got our breakfast, sat down, and enjoyed our last bit of time together. Katie had reached out to some friends in the area and was actually going to stay until Thursday before flying back to Baltimore. They were going to meet her at the terminal after we debarked, and Mom, Elron and I would head off to FLL to fly home. It was nice to sit down and have a meal with her on the ship, the sickness ended up cutting into a good half of the trip. I eventually got a call from my mother, saying that they were eating and that they would be done in about 10 minutes, which was just enough time to talk another walk on the top decks in the heat. Here's the beautiful Breeze!

 

[cruisexlife]

Once we were done, we headed back to our room. We were Zone #16, and they were calling 1-5 at that point. We watched some news until Kevin called us. We grabbed our final things, said our final goodbyes to the room, and walked the sad walk to the glass elevators to debark the beautiful Splendor.

 

 

We have this weird tradition of always talking the glass elevators down to debark the ship. We got down to Deck 3, and it was crazy packed.

 

 

We inched our way towards the machines to scan our card one last time. We scanned our cards, but when Katie did, it made a bad noise, and then we had to step out of line to get her questioned as to her health conditions as she was leaving the ship. Good job Carnival for trying to stop the spread of illness!

 

I noticed that they were putting Christmas decorations up, as the next sailing was dipping into December. That's the only thing good about coming back from a Thanksgiving cruise: It's now socially acceptable to listen to Christmas music!

 

 

We proceeded off of the ship, down the ramp, and into the building. We took the escalator down to baggage claim. This is very similar to what you would find at a baggage claim in a large international airport. However, the baggage claims are so much bigger. Bags were legitimately on top of each other here. Luckily, ours came soon and we didn't have to wait in the massive herd that was surrounding the conveyor belt. We grabbed our luggage and moved to the Customs agents. We each went through separately, handed our forms, and left. Katie's friends were waiting for her right when she got outside. I said my goodbyes to her, and helped her into their car. Here's the ship.

 

 

After she was gone, we headed to the transfer bus area, and hopped on our pre-purchased transfer to FLL. We waited about 15 minutes, and it was about half full. It was about 9:15 by then, and we headed off. Here's the Disney Wonder again.

 

 

And as we were pulling out, here's the Breeze. I would love to try this ship someday on one of its 8 day voyages. I wish they still had the St.Maarten-Antigua-St.Thomas-Grand Turk route (or a deviation of a few ports, some had Tortola or Nassau) offered, it that would be a great cruise. I just remember seeing that cruise once on Breeze offered, and I had to miss out on it. The Aruba-Curacao route looks beautiful though! However, you can't really go wrong with the Breeze.

 

[cruisexlife]

We hopped on the short 45 minute drive up 95 to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. For us, we've always used FLL, because we have the 3 major lowcost carriers (Southwest, Spirit, and jetBlue) flying direct from BWI to FLL, and even if we were to use Delta or something, it is still almost always cheaper to fly into FLL. American finally put a BWI-MIA route this past year, which should be helpful in the future.

 

For any of you AV geeks, here is the Dynamic Airways Boeing 767 that had the engine fire on the runway back in October 2015. I saw anything Dynamic 767 taxiing later on in the day. I wonder how bad the damage is to this plane.

 

 

By the time we were in the airport, it was about 10:15. Due to the large amount of flights, they were only going to check bags for flights leaving within 3 hours of the current time. So we had about 40 minutes to wait, since our flight was at around 1:50. We sat in the area with phone plugs near baggage claim until 10:50. We checked the bags, and then made our way to security and the terminal. I got some pizza, and a Starbucks drink for lunch. I proceeded to my gate, where I found out that the girls I met from New York that I previously mentioned we on my flight from FLL to BWI, and then they were going to fly from BWI to ROC. I sat with them, and talked to them until boarding. Since Southwest has open seating, we planned on sitting together. Mom and Elron sat closer to the front of the plane, and we were able to pick up a whole row for the 3 of us, and I got the window seat. We taxied down the runway, and took off. Here was our shadow.

 

 

The Royal Princess, Allure of the Seas, and two other cruise ships docked in Port Everglades. Some lucky people they are!

 

 

Here was some pretty water I saw off of the coast.

 

 

It was nice being able to talk to and connect with them on the flight. We had a beautiful view while we talked!

 

 

Here is the North Carolina coast, which means we were getting closer and closer to home. The flight was about an hour after that point.

 

[cruisexlife]

And with that photo, we mark the end of my fourth (and worst) photo review that I've done. I really enjoy writing them, it's a goof way to relive a trip, and I know that reading and asking questions on other reviews really helps me make the most of my cruises, and I want to be able to make sure I'm able to help as many people as possible. Again, I am so sorry for being very slow at the end, and then taking a month off, on my next review, I plan on fixing that!

 

Speaking of next review, I actually do not have a cruise planned at the moment, but I have two land trips planned. The first is a volunteer trip to the Dominican Republic. Yes, you read that right. We are going to be camping in in the inner areas of DR, and we are spending 6 days doing clean water projects. Some of my friends and I have been talking abut it for a while, and we are finally going, which I'm totally excited for. I'm also taking a trip to Iceland in August for 5 days, which is going to be so fun, lots of great nature and sights that I've wanted to see for a while now. With the refund check from my Cancun vacation, I'm looking at booking a cruise, or maybe a Caribbean hotel with some friends.

 

As for my next cruise, I want to try something new, so there's a good chance that it will not be Carnival, but certainly one of my next 1-3 cruises will be another line. I want to not only see what else is out there in the cruising world, but I also want to see some more places. Don't get me wrong, I love Carnival, but 15 minutes to get through a buffet, 30 minutes to reboard the ship, and not a deck chair in sight is getting a tad bit old. Plus, I would like to see more places. Amber Cove was disappointing, and Grand Turk is pretty boring without the sun. I want to experience more places, and get some new cultures and countries under my belt. I really would like to cruise to the Mexican Riviera, Belize, some more Southern Caribbean Islands, and most importantly, Bermuda. Now don't get me wrong, I love Carnival, and I understand that they cruise to all of these places. I'm just saying that with my tight schedule, there seems to always be a complication, and I find myself on yet another cruise to Grand Turk. I will certainly continue to cruise Carnival, and I didn't have a bad experience, I just need a change. I currently have my eyes on the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda in the near future.

 

As for Katie, she liked the cruise, but she didn't really like the rough seas, nor the tacky tourist areas that were made, such as Amber Cove and the St.Thomas. She said that she would cruise again, but maybe to more diverse places. We talked recently about maybe Bermuda or Alaska sometime in the next few years.

 

Well, I guess this is the end of a terribly drawn out review. I hope you all enjoyed it, and remember at any time I am open for questions, I don't care hoe old the review is. Don't be afraid to leave them! I had a great time on Splendor, we had a good time island hopping, we had good weather most of the time, and it was nice to spend some time with Katie before she got sick. Thanks again for reading, happy cruising to you all! :D

 

Edited February 15, 2016 by cruisexlife

[GrummanTiger]

Thank you VERY much for finishing! I kept you on "subscribed" list just because I enjoyed your writing style.

 

Thanks again!

 

GT

[Destaw71835]

Great review!

[BenjiRodney]

Loved the review, going back to St Thomas and San Juan on the Magic in December, San Juan is a favorite, this will be time number 5

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SMSACE6]

I enjoyed your review very much. No worries about being late to finish it. Life does sometimes get in the way of us doing these fun things. I am glad you did finish it though, and your upcoming travel plans do sound wonderful as well. Cruises will always be there! Best wishes.:)

[lablover61]

Thanks, we are looking at a Splendor cruise !

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[cruisexlife]

Thank you VERY much for finishing! I kept you on "subscribed" list just because I enjoyed your writing style.

 

Thanks again!

 

GT

 

Thank you so much for staying subscribed! I really wish I wouldn't have abandoned it like I did, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!

 

Great review!

 

Thank you, and welcome to CC! :D

[cruisexlife]

Loved the review, going back to St Thomas and San Juan on the Magic in December, San Juan is a favorite, this will be time number 5

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I love both of those places! But I'm with you there, San Juan and St.Maarten are tied for my favorite port, I can't choose between the two! You will have a great cruise. Thank you so much for reading!

 

I enjoyed your review very much. No worries about being late to finish it. Life does sometimes get in the way of us doing these fun things. I am glad you did finish it though, and your upcoming travel plans do sound wonderful as well. Cruises will always be there! Best wishes.:)

 

Thanks for understanding, and thanks for sticking with me! I do plan on cruising at least once this year, but if it doesn't happen due to the land trips, 2017 will most likely be mostly cruises. I usually shuffle back and forth every year. Thanks again for reading, happy cruising! :D

[cruisexlife]

Thanks, we are looking at a Splendor cruise !

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Thanks for reading! Where would you be going? Do you have any ship questions? I'd love to help! :D

[pghsteelerfan]

I was just on CC and noticed that your review popped back up! I was wondering what happened, but I figured you were busy and also dealing with all that snow we got hammered with. I'm officially done with winter and now we're getting more. :eek: I know, first hand, how time consuming reviews take, so I'm never one to put pressure on anyone to finish as we all have our lives and responsibilities.

 

I have really enjoyed this review and, as I've said before, I just love your pictures. Throughout your review, I felt so bad for your friend, Katie. To feel the excitement of a first cruise to some great places then being too sick to enjoy it. That's a shame and I sure hope she gets an opportunity to try cruising again. You mentioned you'd like to try a Mexican Riviera...we did one on RCI in 2000 and loved it! We left out of LA, CA, and went to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. All beautiful ports and even though they are all Mexico, each was so different. I'd love to do another Mexican Riviera one of these days and if you get a chance, I recommend it - no matter the cruise line. I just wish I had a digital camera when we did it. I need a "re do". :D

 

Thank you again for taking the time to do another review. I really do enjoy your reviews.

[cruisexlife]

I was just on CC and noticed that your review popped back up! I was wondering what happened, but I figured you were busy and also dealing with all that snow we got hammered with. I'm officially done with winter and now we're getting more. :eek: I know, first hand, how time consuming reviews take, so I'm never one to put pressure on anyone to finish as we all have our lives and responsibilities.

 

I have really enjoyed this review and, as I've said before, I just love your pictures. Throughout your review, I felt so bad for your friend, Katie. To feel the excitement of a first cruise to some great places then being too sick to enjoy it. That's a shame and I sure hope she gets an opportunity to try cruising again. You mentioned you'd like to try a Mexican Riviera...we did one on RCI in 2000 and loved it! We left out of LA, CA, and went to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. All beautiful ports and even though they are all Mexico, each was so different. I'd love to do another Mexican Riviera one of these days and if you get a chance, I recommend it - no matter the cruise line. I just wish I had a digital camera when we did it. I need a "re do". :D

 

Thank you again for taking the time to do another review. I really do enjoy your reviews.

 

Hey! Thank you so much for your dedication throughout all of my reviews, I greatly appreciate the support. I have some family in LA that I would love to see, so that wouldn't be too bad of a combo ;) But the itineraries out west are all the same throughout the lines, so it'll most likely come down to a matter of price and availability. But I would love to try it out! Cabo and PV look BEAUTIFUL :D

 

Any travel plans for you?

[pghsteelerfan]

Hey! Thank you so much for your dedication throughout all of my reviews, I greatly appreciate the support. I have some family in LA that I would love to see, so that wouldn't be too bad of a combo ;) But the itineraries out west are all the same throughout the lines, so it'll most likely come down to a matter of price and availability. But I would love to try it out! Cabo and PV look BEAUTIFUL :D

 

Any travel plans for you?

 

We really enjoyed Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. The scenery was much different from the Caribbean but very beautiful. It was in January that we went and was rather chilly (and foggy) at sea, but it was hot in the ports. We were able to go to Mazatlan while on that cruise and we loved it there, but I think some ships are avoiding it right now for safety purposes.

 

We have some travel plans but won't be cruising this year. Family vacation in SC in late spring and we may possibly go with friends to Myrtle Beach later in the summer. That will depend on how many vacation days DH has. In 2017 DH and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary, so there could possibly be a cruise then. I'd love to do a Journey cruise that goes to more of the islands in the southern Caribbean. You've definitely got some great trips coming up. Too bad you can't do reviews here for some of those. :)

[swalton85]

thanks for the review! love looking at other's pictures while waiting for my next turn :)

[cruisexlife]

We really enjoyed Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. The scenery was much different from the Caribbean but very beautiful. It was in January that we went and was rather chilly (and foggy) at sea, but it was hot in the ports. We were able to go to Mazatlan while on that cruise and we loved it there, but I think some ships are avoiding it right now for safety purposes.

 

We have some travel plans but won't be cruising this year. Family vacation in SC in late spring and we may possibly go with friends to Myrtle Beach later in the summer. That will depend on how many vacation days DH has. In 2017 DH and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary, so there could possibly be a cruise then. I'd love to do a Journey cruise that goes to more of the islands in the southern Caribbean. You've definitely got some great trips coming up. Too bad you can't do reviews here for some of those. :)

 

SC sounds like a lot of fun, I am also taking a trip to Savannah GA to see my family next month for a few days. I love the beaches on that side of the country. Actually, Mazatlan was just put back in the picture about a year and half ago, Carnival, NCL and Princess all regularly visit it on their sailings. But I'm with you, I would love to do a Journey's cruise. Have you ever been to Bermuda? they have some good ones from Baltimore!

[cruisexlife]

thanks for the review! love looking at other's pictures while waiting for my next turn :)

 

I'm with you there! :D Thanks for reading!

[jpm1973]

Glad to see you wrap up your review! Felt like I had picked up a book with the last few pages ripped out. :)

 

Just back from a cruise on Enchantment of the Seas so hope to be starting my own review soon. And based on your recommendation I ended up buying the Fuji XP camera. Didn't use it too much on this trip but worked great so far!

[Crusin' from Fl]

SC sounds like a lot of fun, I am also taking a trip to Savannah GA to see my family next month for a few days. I love the beaches on that side of the country. Actually, Mazatlan was just put back in the picture about a year and half ago, Carnival, NCL and Princess all regularly visit it on their sailings. But I'm with you, I would love to do a Journey's cruise. Have you ever been to Bermuda? they have some good ones from Baltimore!

 

Started reading your review before my January trip on the Splendor and found many helpful hints that I used on my trip, thank you. Enjoyed my trip so much, we are now planning to do a Journey Cruise to Bermuda on her in May. I am reading that it will be Kevin's last cruise as he is moving to another ship.

 

Looking forward to Bermuda as its not often we find a cruise to there from Miami. Then, it's a Jouney cruise which makes it doubly exciting for me!

 

Wishing you all happy vacations, land & sea!

[cruisexlife]

Glad to see you wrap up your review! Felt like I had picked up a book with the last few pages ripped out. :)

 

Just back from a cruise on Enchantment of the Seas so hope to be starting my own review soon. And based on your recommendation I ended up buying the Fuji XP camera. Didn't use it too much on this trip but worked great so far!

 

Great! I would love to read the review, as I did not have a very good experience on Enchantment when I went, so I would love to see how she's doing 3.5 years later, after a refurb. I went through Hurricane Sandy on her, so it was very rocky and a lot of the ship activities and events ever cancelled. We missed CocoCay as well. So it wasn't a fair shot at the ship, I would love to try it later!

 

I'm glad the camera worked out well for you! :D

[cruisexlife]

Started reading your review before my January trip on the Splendor and found many helpful hints that I used on my trip' date=' thank you. Enjoyed my trip so much, we are now planning to do a Journey Cruise to Bermuda on her in May. I am reading that it will be Kevin's last cruise as he is moving to another ship.

 

Looking forward to Bermuda as its not often we find a cruise to there from Miami. Then, it's a Jouney cruise which makes it doubly exciting for me!

 

Wishing you all happy vacations, land & sea![/quote']

 

Gosh, I would love to cruise to Bermuda. All of the pictures are stunning, and the idea of staying numerous days is also appealing, since you can get a better island experience. I hope you end up booking it, I bet you'll have a great time!

 

Thanks for reading, and for the wishes! Same to you! :D