Review / pictures of Splendor Scenic Ocean View 9201

[sk84fungirl]

First, thanks so much for this thread. I don't cruise for a year but love researching. I'm about to see if this cabin is available for my date. Not saying I'm going to give up my balcony, but...! ;)

 

Also, I will be traveling with some first timers. And this is my first time hearing about the new cabin service. This is a great tip for me to include in my package for my group.

 

Your pics are awesome. My only concern is potential noise. But hey, the views are just awesome!

Edited May 12, 2016 by sk84fungirl

[sk84fungirl]

Where do you find out about these rooms? How many are there?

[yamsi12]

I see the carpet is blue. I wonder if just the new rooms are that color or if all the cabins on the ship got the blue carpet treatment as well.

[RiotAct]

I am really bothered by the insistence on the once a day service. Despite John Heald confirming repeatedly that this will not happen, twice a day if you choose, I continue to read of this happening. I don't need a twice-daily cleaning, and I prefer morning so that our beds are made and the bathroom cleaned. But I do like clean/fresh towels, turndown service, and towel animals in the evening. And I really do want both! I hope this is resolved before my next cruise in October.

 

Especially with gratuities going up again (yeah, I know it's only a buck a day, but still...)

[sk84fungirl]

Just confirmed by my TA that I am in 9201 for only an additional $10 pp.

 

Thanks for sharing the pics as I had no idea why folks kept asking for information on this room...:p

 

13 months to go and counting....

[jmcancruise]

Shhh! I don't want word to get out about these rooms. We had one on the Valor and were planning it again, but they swapped ships on us. Now we have one booked on the Glory, keeping our fingers crossed that they won't swap ships again.

 

Seriously, anyone who is considering one, we have been in everything from a 1a interior to a grand suite and these rooms are by far our favorite. Enjoy everyone who manages to snag one.

[Beach_gal]

Just confirmed by my TA that I am in 9201 for only an additional $10 pp.

 

Thanks for sharing the pics as I had no idea why folks kept asking for information on this room...:p

 

13 months to go and counting....

 

That is awesome!! Please take and post lots of pics! 13 months will fly by in the blink of an eye :-) I don't sail Splendor until next Christmas/New Year's...but I get two weeks in that room!

[Beach_gal]

 

Seriously, anyone who is considering one, we have been in everything from a 1a interior to a grand suite and these rooms are by far our favorite.

 

I completely agree. I never would've thought I'd be happy in anything other than a balcony, and even my husband was doubtful up until the minute we set foot in the door. Our absolute favorite cabin ever!

 

But yeah, we ought to stop advertising their awesomeness ~ they're difficult enough to find as it is :-)

[sk84fungirl]

How did you all find out about these types of rooms? Of course here on CC? But any other way?

 

I looked online and did not see the room. So I called my TA with the room number and requested it or something similar.

[ChrisNCruiser]

The rooms will only show up on Carnival's website if there's one available - when they ARE available they're listed under "Oceanview." It doesn't happen often, and we really lucked out since it only showed up a few weeks before our cruise. Typically, from what I've heard they're booked a long time in advance.

 

An answer an earlier question, we peeked in other non-scenic oceanview cabins on the Splendor and they didn't have the blue carpet. These cabins are brand new, so they got the Breeze-esque decor.

[mrpayroll]

LOVE those big windows.....:)

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review.

 

Keith

[Senoj84]

Beautiful pics!

[missholly24]

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the pictures :-) To answer a few questions....

 

ROOM COST / TYPE / QUALITY

We REALLY lucked out getting the cabin. Because it was a new cabin that was built during the March-April drydock, it seems that Carnival didn't open up the inventory until a few weeks before the cruise. From what we have heard and seen, it's really hard to get one of these on a ship that has them, and are usually sold as soon as Carnival releases inventory (12-18 months out). At the time we snagged it we were originally booked in one of the two over-sized Ocean View cabins in the back corners of the Main deck, but had booked it so far in advance that the price of an OV had dropped several hundred dollars as opposed to what we originally paid. Bummed about that, about a month before the cruise we were going to consider upgrading to a balcony since the cost would have been negligible from the original price of the corner OV. As we were looking, we discovered that Carnival had released the inventory on these, and snagged it. The total cost to upgrade from our corner OV cabin was only $60 total. It's NOT considered a junior suite so it doesn't come with early boarding, etc, but as you can see in the pics it's very large - at least as large as a junior suite - but the bathroom is standard size with no tub.

 

We would absolutely consider this cabin over a balcony if we were ever lucky enough to find one available again. We ended up relaxing and spending more time in this cabin than we have for the few times we've splurged on a balcony.

 

ONCE-A-DAY SERVICE:

We boarded the ship determined to get the twice-a-day service until we met our steward. I'm a pretty determined and aggressive person, and yet he still walked away only agreeing to service the cabin once a day :p I don't regret the 'decision' - our steward and his assistant worked very, very, very hard during the cruise - but I do plan on letting Carnival know how we feel about it. It does not make the stewards' lives any easier because they now have many more cabins to service. We were also wondering if they were being compensated appropriately. When we asked, the steward made it clear that we could feel free to grab whatever we wanted off of his cart in the hallway (and we did, like towels). Because we were just two people in an over-sized cabin, we were able to keep our cabin clean and tidy with a minimal extra effort - but we can see this being an issue for three or more people in a smaller cabin, especially the bathroom. Also, we had morning service, but a few times during the cruise he dropped off items at night while we were at dinner (our free Platinum laundry, past guest invitations and gifts, etc).

 

Hope this helps!

 

Funny you say that amount. They tried to upsell us from a standard balcony room to cabin 9200 for an additional $2000....Thats quite the difference. We laughed and turned it down.

[JKirkN]

Funny you say that amount. They tried to upsell us from a standard balcony room to cabin 9200 for an additional $2000....Thats quite the difference. We laughed and turned it down.

 

Funny you say that amount. They tried to upsell us from a standard balcony room to cabin 9200 for an additional $2000....Thats quite the difference. We laughed and turned it down.

 

W T F ? We were on the 5/15/16 sailing and got 9200 for just a couple hundred more than then small interior room we originally had! (less than $2000 total for 3 people)

 

I can NOT BELIEVE how AMAZING 9200 is! We are DEFINITELY SPOILED now!

 

I have some pics of 9200 and 9201 (got in before the cruisers got there) and I have a 3D (Google cardboard) of both of them too if anyone is interested.

 

We have booked 9201 on the Glory for Oct. 2017 and can't wait! These rooms are amazing!

 

We were asked about the cleaning and said we wanted both and there was no problem. (the steward did *mention* that some people did prefer 1 or the other....lol..) Our steward (Jonard) was amazing and kept everything clean and kept a bucket (sometimes 2) of ice for us at all times! We ended up tipping him pretty well on the last day...

 

One thing I didn't like was that around 5-6am each morning (usually just as the sunrise was coming up) they would squirt the windows....but there is no wiper, so all we got was a bunch of water running down our windows and then spots all over them. But the view was still amazing...just wasn't great for taking sunrise pictures from the room... lol... There was definitely the noise of the bridge wipers...but it was only in the early morning after they squirted our windows too...and they only wiped once or twice usually... My wife and daughter mostly slept through it.

 

One thing that was interesting is that usually they say you have to shut the blinds on those HUGE windows so the lights don't bother the bridge. But for some reason there was no sign and no one told us to shut them. I left them open once with the lights on and no one from the bridge called us. I'm wondering if there is some new coating on the windows (since they just built them in dry dock a couple months ago) that keeps them from causing glare for the bridge????

 

Anyway, if you can get this room GET IT! It's amazing!!! And if anyone wants a copy of those 3D pix for cardboard, let me know (they aren't perfect...I moved a little too fast so there are some hiccups on them) it's fun to put on the headset and be "in" the room again :)

 

Sunrise before they squirted the window (still lots of spots but OK for pictures)

 

http://screenshot.net/07q77cp

 

 

Sunrise after they squirted the window (not as good for pictures...but still neat to see)

 

http://screenshot.net/0kpkkfx

 

[riclop]

Thanks for the great pictures.

[OhJinkies]

Hi Pam,

We walked through the Serenity deck a couple of times but didn't spend any time on it while on the Splendor. We LOVE the serenity decks on the smaller Fascination-class ships, but the locations and views don't do a lot for us on the larger ships. In particular to the Splendor (a one-off ship for Carnival), it offered poor views and ventilation. While I love the idea of peace and quiet, when we sail the larger ships we tend to stay on the seldom-used decks right out of the atrium on promenade under the life boat. Less sun, but much more scenic / airy and closer to the water.

 

 

THANK YOU so much for posting this image. I was trying to determine whether there was a deck like this on the Splendor. This is my favorite spot on most cruise ships, but I most recently sailed on the Sensation and they didn't have anything comparable. I love to sit in a lounger on the promenade beneath the life boats and read, enjoying the shade and breeze.

[Cushing985]

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the pictures :-) To answer a few questions....

 

ROOM COST / TYPE / QUALITY

We REALLY lucked out getting the cabin. Because it was a new cabin that was built during the March-April drydock, it seems that Carnival didn't open up the inventory until a few weeks before the cruise. From what we have heard and seen, it's really hard to get one of these on a ship that has them, and are usually sold as soon as Carnival releases inventory (12-18 months out). At the time we snagged it we were originally booked in one of the two over-sized Ocean View cabins in the back corners of the Main deck, but had booked it so far in advance that the price of an OV had dropped several hundred dollars as opposed to what we originally paid. Bummed about that, about a month before the cruise we were going to consider upgrading to a balcony since the cost would have been negligible from the original price of the corner OV. As we were looking, we discovered that Carnival had released the inventory on these, and snagged it. The total cost to upgrade from our corner OV cabin was only $60 total. It's NOT considered a junior suite so it doesn't come with early boarding, etc, but as you can see in the pics it's very large - at least as large as a junior suite - but the bathroom is standard size with no tub.

 

We would absolutely consider this cabin over a balcony if we were ever lucky enough to find one available again. We ended up relaxing and spending more time in this cabin than we have for the few times we've splurged on a balcony.

 

ONCE-A-DAY SERVICE:

We boarded the ship determined to get the twice-a-day service until we met our steward. I'm a pretty determined and aggressive person, and yet he still walked away only agreeing to service the cabin once a day :p I don't regret the 'decision' - our steward and his assistant worked very, very, very hard during the cruise - but I do plan on letting Carnival know how we feel about it. It does not make the stewards' lives any easier because they now have many more cabins to service. We were also wondering if they were being compensated appropriately. When we asked, the steward made it clear that we could feel free to grab whatever we wanted off of his cart in the hallway (and we did, like towels). Because we were just two people in an over-sized cabin, we were able to keep our cabin clean and tidy with a minimal extra effort - but we can see this being an issue for three or more people in a smaller cabin, especially the bathroom. Also, we had morning service, but a few times during the cruise he dropped off items at night while we were at dinner (our free Platinum laundry, past guest invitations and gifts, etc).

 

Hope this helps!

 

I think a call down to Guest Services or the Hotel Manager would have set the steward straight. I recognize the stewards are over-worked but frankly, that isn't my problem and their pay isn't my problem (or business). I'm on vacation and I don't want someone else's problems impacting it. I do tip the stewards at the end of the cruise on top of the auto-tips but if the steward gives me a hard time about once a day servicing I wouldn't bother. It isn't Carnival's policy but it was a bad attempt to allow guests to customize services (people who party all night don't want to rush out of the cabin in the morning).

[sk84fungirl]

In addition to 9201, someone in our group just landed the last scenic view for our cruise next summer.

 

#9197

 

Will be our first time in these types of rooms and staying on Lido deck.

 

Less than 365 days to go...:p

[CruzCrazy]

Interesting that they changed out the chaise lounge for 2 chairs and 2 end tables. We had 9201 on the Glory a few years back and loved it, but one of my favorite things was relaxing in the chaise lounge next to those fabulous floor-to-ceiling windows.

 

Edited July 1, 2016 by CruzCrazy

[JKirkN]

Interesting that they changed out the chaise lounge for 2 chairs and 2 end tables. We had 9201 on the Glory a few years back and loved it, but one of my favorite things was relaxing in the chaise lounge next to those fabulous floor-to-ceiling windows.

 

 

We were in 9200 back in May and that was the only thing I was disappointed about. It was a wonderful room, but I really would have loved having the chaise lounge.

 

We'll be in 9201 on the Glory in Oct. 2017, so I hope it's still there!

[somethinggood]

Thanks for the review and pics of 9201.

 

We're booked in 9200 on Splendor in a couple of months. It's a mirror image of the room you posted, but is supposed to sleep four. Any idea what the bed arrangement will be in 9200, since we'll have four in the room?

[tea4ular]

Beautiful. We had a cabin similar to this on on a Celebrity ship for our Alaska trip. Must say, I felt like we had the best cabin on that ship. I would love this cabin (on the Splendor) anywhere except in a hot weather area (Caribbean, Mexico). I need a balcony for those.

 

:)

[cruizinisthebest]

Thanks for the review and pics of 9201.

 

We're booked in 9200 on Splendor in a couple of months. It's a mirror image of the room you posted, but is supposed to sleep four. Any idea what the bed arrangement will be in 9200, since we'll have four in the room?

 

 

We had 9200 on the Freedom. The sleeper sofa is used for the 3rd & 4th person. We had our kids with us and it worked out perfectly. It's the only cabin aside from a suite that I personally would ever consider sleeping 4. Wonderful cabin!

 

 

Cabin 9200 6K 320 sq ft

 

Beds: twin/king-double sofa bed

View: window – floor-to-ceiling, forward view

Bathroom: shower-toilet-sink

Features: Interactive flat-screen TV, telephone, 110 AC current, individual climate control, hair dryer, safe, mini fridge, 4-closets, sofa, chair and coffee table

[Jamericannn]

Glad they didn't make the room pink :)

 

Those rooms are great oceanviews but I do not like to be at the very front of the ship.