Splendor review Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel May 15, 2016

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review. Following.

[deborahjo]

Love your review. Have been on the Splendor 2 times out of Long Beach. She looks the same.

 

Funny thing is we will be boarding her again January 14, 2018 for a full transit thru the Panama Canal leaving from Miami for 13 days. We will dock in Long Beach. Kind of funny.

 

 

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[valentinebaby1]

I just looked that one up (yes, I cheated). :eek: It's The George Washington Masonic Memorial. It's in Alexandria, VA (just south of Arlington and DC). I recognized the VRE (Virginia Railway Express) train and it looked like a station there, so I got on Google maps and looked it up, found the station and noticed the landscaping and walkway pattern leading up to the building. We have a VRE station a mile from us but farther to the west in the suburbs and hubby used to take VRE into DC when he worked downtown, so very easy for me to recognize those trains. Since hubby works from home Tuesdays, I just asked if he recognized the building. Although he didn't know what it was, he said he used to see it from the train & confirmed it's right near the Alexandria station. :D

 

Still really enjoying your review and love your sailaway pictures. So happy you had a nice day to sail from Miami but hope you get to do the turn basin next time. :)

 

Well we do have 4 more chances to do the turn in the basin, so we're sure to do it at least once...lol at least we better! Or I'll complain to JH and demand some compensation...lol

 

Thanks for the info on the building. It wasn't at all familiar, but looked important so I was curious.

[valentinebaby1]

Enjoying your review. Following.

 

Thank you and glad to have you on board!

[valentinebaby1]

Love your review. Have been on the Splendor 2 times out of Long Beach. She looks the same.

 

Funny thing is we will be boarding her again January 14, 2018 for a full transit thru the Panama Canal leaving from Miami for 13 days. We will dock in Long Beach. Kind of funny.

 

 

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I wanted to do that full transit cruise SO freaking bad! But we already have 2 booked for this fall, plus we have to make a trip to LA for a wedding this fall so our budget just wouldn't allow another one so soon. I hope you enjoy sailing on Splendor again!

[valentinebaby1]

May 16, 2016 SEA DAY

 

We woke up to this:

 

 

Actually what woke us up was the sound of the wipers on the bridge windows. It took us a minute to figure out what the sound was. It wasn't raining, but seems they were spraying water from above us to the bridge windows. Unfortunately that left our windows dirty, but who cares, we still had a beautiful sunrise to see while lying in bed.

 

 

DD and I opted to stay in bed, and catch up on some sleep while hubby got up and wandered the ship, which was still very quiet.

 

 

 

 

Here's a picture from the secret deck on 7 looking up towards the bridge and our room right above that:

 

[valentinebaby1]

Hubby brought us some pastries for breakfast in our room. We didn't have much on the agenda for the day but wanted to go to Tea Time at 3, and we were supposed to meet up with our website meet and greet at 10:30 near the aft pool. We had all agreed to wear mardi gras type beads to identify each other. DD and I finally got out of bed and we got a little more breakfast and we found our way to the middle pool to hang out. It didn't take us long before we left there to go to the aft pool in hopes that it would be a little more calm, and it was.

 

The aft pool on the Splendor is different than what we experienced on Valor and Liberty. It is wide open and uncovered, as the sliding deck cover is over the middle section instead of aft. Aft is supposed to be adult only, and although it was quieter than the pool in the middle, it wasn't completely kid free. One woman was there with her baby, but at least there weren't kids screaming and splashing everywhere. It was pretty crowded though and loungers were mostly claimed, although we were lucky enough to grab a couple of them near the pool.

 

 

Here DD and I were in the middle of the pool, just enjoying life!

 

 

The meet and greet was kind of a fail. Not many people showed up. The 3 of us just had lunch when we were ready, I remember having food from the Tandoor grill. We just spent several hours at the pool area. We had some drinks out by the pool, made some new friends and just relaxed. It was different for us to spend the sea day this way, as the last 2 cruises we spent in the chaos of the lido deck party and hairy chest competition.

 

 

DD did this for awhile...and regretted it later. It was hard to get a grasp on how much time we were out there!

 

 

Suddenly it was Tea Time, and we had almost missed it! It was in the aft dining room so we just went straight down and asked if it was ok if we were in our bathing attire, with cover ups. They said it was fine, as long as we weren't wet. Hubby was wet though, so he left to go all the way forward and 5 floors up to our room to change so it took him awhile to get back.

 

There weren't many at the tea, but we met a lovely couple who were on their honeymoon and enjoyed talking with them, while drinking tea and eating wonderful desserts. By the time hubby got back it was nearly over. While talking to the honeymooners, we realized their cabin was right around the corner from ours. We decided to show each other our cabins when we made our way back across the ship. They had a junior suite which was really nice with the walk in closet area before entering the bathroom, which had a bathtub. They loved our room too, and it was nice to have a chance to see yet another room type first hand for future reference.

 

Of course we didn't take any photos of tea time! Hubby was really slacking off on his photo duties this cruise!

 

After that we decided it was time to shower and get ready for dinner. DD and I took turns taking short naps while the other showered and we got ready for dinner, which was our first elegant night. We headed to dinner around 6:30 and had no wait to be seated. Dinner was lovely and we took our time. After dinner we wandered around and sat in for the last few minutes of one of the stage shows (and decided we'd make a point of seeing a full show sometime that week, because it looked like we missed a great show!), and we did a little shopping and then decided to try to get into the comedy show. It was pretty full, but we managed to get seats up front. Luckily we did not get picked on. The comedian was hilarious and quite raunchy, which embarrassed DD to be sitting with her parents! She survived it, we laughed our butts off and then when it was over we headed back to our room. When we got there, we found yet another surprise waiting for us from the hotel manager. This time it was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. Still not sure why were being treated like royalty, but it was sure fun!

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

May 17, 2016 OCHO RIOS, JAMAICA

 

We weren't facing the right direction to see the sunrise from our room this morning, but hubby went out to take photos. We started approaching the port just before 7 am.

 

 

It was a little overcast so sunrise wasn't spectacular:

 

 

 

We had booked the Bobsled ride through Carnival so this was actually the first time we got to experience the difference between starting the day with a Carnival excursion vs an excursion booked on our own. (Our only previous booking with Carnival directly was in St Thomas on our first cruise, in our first port, and even after getting the tickets the evening before, we found out right before we were to walk out the door to leave for it, that they had canceled it! It was very frustrating to have to scramble at the very last minute to find an alternative that it wasn't already too late for). Anyway, it was very different for us to go meet in the theater for instructions and bracelets and waiting there instead of just getting off the ship. But finally it was time to go and we went out as a group to our bus that would take us to Mystic Mountain for the ski lift up to the Bobsled ride.

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

After a short ride on the bus, we arrived at Mystic Mountain. There we were given an opportunity to buy bug repellent bracelets and we opted to do so. It was around the time that the Zika virus was hitting the news big time so we figured it was a good idea, even though we had also brought along bug spray. We then got in line for the ski lift and waited.

 

And waited.

 

It really seemed to take a very long time to finally get to the front of the line. While waiting the scenery was pretty, there were streams and lots of greenery...and SPIDERS. Yikes. Huge spiders and great big webs everywhere. But they were all off the path thank goodness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seemed like a long wait, but looking at the times stamped on the photos it was actually about 30 minutes.

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We finally got onto the ski lift and made our way up the mountain. The ride was a good 30 minutes. It was starting to really heat up so I was glad we brought bottles of water with us. The view was amazing and it really was quiet and peaceful, except when we would see another one of those huge spider webs along the way!

 

 

 

 

 

umm....this was a little disconcerting...lol we figured they belonged to zipliners, but it was still funny to see. We imagined that maybe the giant spiders got to them...

 

 

Almost to the top!

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Once we got to the top, we were free to wander around. There was some shopping, some dancers and musicians performing, a hummingbird pavilion, a restaurant upstairs with amazing views, a swimming pool with a slide, a small museum dedicated to the famous Jamaican Olympic Bobsled team, and of course the Bobsled ride itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around for a little bit and decided to get in line to take our bobsled ride before it got any busier. We waited 30 minutes in line for the ride, which wove through the middle of the building in the shade (Of course when we got done, there was practically no line at all!).

 

[valentinebaby1]

Finally all strapped in and ready to go!

"Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time!"

 

 

 

 

The ride itself was a lot of fun, but over with very quickly. We each had our own sled and had the option to tether them together or ride each on our own and we opted to ride alone. Hubby left first, followed by DD and I was last. I was concerned about being a fluffy person and fitting in the cart or having mobility issues with it, and although it was just a little awkward getting in and out, it was very doable. You control the speed of the sled and have a hand brake. I'm not a huge fan of roller coasters, but this was fine for me. I probably took it slower than the other 2 did. The sled is built onto a track and is not at all motorized. Once you reach the end, the track has a chain type lift back up to the top and you ride in it back to the top. The actual ride itself lasted about 2 or 3 minutes from start to finish.

 

Once we were all safely back at the start, we did some shopping and didn't spend that much time there. We wanted to get back down the mountain and were hoping to have enough time to go get some real authentic jerk food.

 

 

 

 

 

[skidawg79]

Loving the review, thanks for deciding to do it! Just booked the Splendor in August. Will actually be the smallest ship I've ever been on, but the type of person that the ship doesn't really make or break the vacation unless it's something crazy. Really looking forward to the rest of the review!

[valentinebaby1]

Loving the review, thanks for deciding to do it! Just booked the Splendor in August. Will actually be the smallest ship I've ever been on, but the type of person that the ship doesn't really make or break the vacation unless it's something crazy. Really looking forward to the rest of the review!

 

I hope you enjoy the Splendor as much as we did! Have a wonderful time!

[valentinebaby1]

I hope this isn't breaking any cc rules, but here's a link to a video of the Bobsled Ride that hubby took:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnKUHCp4Qrw&feature=youtu.be

 

 

[h_blond2]

I'm enjoying your review so far. Looking forward to the rest!

[Jamman54]

Really enjoying your review! We enjoyed our three cruises on the Splendor, and look forward to sailing on her to Hawaii in 2018. :)

[DebbieMo]

May 16, 2016 SEA DAY

 

We woke up to this:

 

 

 

 

Ahh, jealous! Wish we had scenic OV for our cruise in June.

 

 

 

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[valentinebaby1]

I'm enjoying your review so far. Looking forward to the rest!

 

Thanks! More coming soon!

[valentinebaby1]

Really enjoying your review! We enjoyed our three cruises on the Splendor, and look forward to sailing on her to Hawaii in 2018. :)

 

How awesome! I'm sad to know Splendor is leaving the Carnival fleet :( I hope you have a wonderful Hawaiian cruise!

[valentinebaby1]

Ahh, jealous! Wish we had scenic OV for our cruise in June.

 

 

 

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It is such a wonderful room! I'm surprised on the new builds that there isn't a similar room built. We were so spoiled having this room on Splendor that 4 of our upcoming cruises were booked based on the room before anything else!

[Annie102100]

Can't wait to read more about your cruise on the Splendor! Cruising on her in June to the Southern Caribbean and love seeing your photos! May have to book another cruise some day to visit the ports that you did :)

 

 

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[valentinebaby1]

Ok, so when I left off we were just getting off the ski lift...moving on...

 

We had planned on going to Miss T's restaurant, after seeing it on a Food Channel show with Guy Fieri taking a cruise and stopping there. We could have easily spent more time at Mystic Mountain, but decided to head back down. There was no line to get back onto the ski lift. 30 minutes later we were back at the bottom and waited for the bus to take us back to port. As we were chatting with a couple of the ladies working at the bottom of the lift, we asked if they knew how far it was to get to Miss T's from port once we got back, and if they thought we would have enough time. Oddly enough one of the girls working at Mystic Mountain was Miss T's daughter! So we had a good laugh at what a small world it is, and hubby took a photo with Miss T's daughter to show to Miss T once we got to her restaurant.

 

 

 

It took a little time to get the bus back to port. There weren't a lot of people leaving Mystic Mountain so soon so we had to wait for a full load. It was nearly noon before we actually got back to the port. We were dropped off and immediately looked for a cab to take us to Miss T's. We were also hoping to be able to stop to get some Wray & Nephew and Appleton rum but didn't want to pay too much for them. We found a nice cab driver and she told us she knew where Miss T's was and where we could stop along the way to get the rum. Hubby also wanted to stop and get a Jamaican "patty" even though we were eating at Miss T's, just to experience it. She told us what she would charge us and would stay with us while we shopped and ate and would stop for patties on the way back. I can't remember the amount we agreed upon, but we felt it was fair to basically have her as our tour guide for a couple of hours, and we felt more comfortable knowing she would stay with us while we ate, since Miss T's place is a little off the beaten path and we weren't sure how easy it would be to find a cab there if we were on our own.

 

We stopped at a little shopping place first. There was a jewelry store with alcohol on one side of it and a trinket type store on the other side. We got to sample some of the alcohol, got some magnets and trinkets and of course I had to look at the jewelry while hubby was discussing the alcohol purchase. I fell in love with a Tanzanite ring and we negotiated on a price for it that I was comfortable with. He purchased a couple of bottles of rum, and they said the rum would be delivered to the ship, boxed and wrapped for us. This made us really nervous. We weren't right at the port, and had never done this before, but sure enough, it all arrived as they said it would and we picked it up at the end of the cruise.

 

After our shopping was done, we headed the short distance to Miss T's. We offered to buy lunch for our taxi driver and offered to let her sit with us, but she declined. She did come in and had a Ting (grapefruit soda, kind of like Squirt) at the bar while we ate though.

 

 

So finally it was time to have real Jamaican food! We were so excited about this, and probably enjoyed this part of our day more than the bobsled ride. The restaurant was practically empty, although group came in of about 8 people, shortly after we arrived. They were also from the ship and had seen the same show we saw. We asked if Miss T was there to meet her and talk to her for a moment, but they said she had just walked out to her car to leave. We told our waiter that we had met her daughter and had a good laugh about the randomness of meeting her. Just then Miss T came back inside the restaurant again so she came over to say hello. We told her we met her lovely daughter and so hubby took a photo with her too. Finally we were able to look over the menu and decide what to order.

 

 

While we were reading over the menu, our waiter said he was going to make us some special drinks. He came back with the most delicious concoctions that we have ever tasted. We tried to watch what he was using, and know it had some type of apricot brandy, some Appleton rum, lime juice and some other stuff in it. After tasting them we asked if he would tell us what the recipe was, but he wouldn't tell! So it will forever remain a mystery. Meanwhile we decided on a couple of different dishes to try and decided we would just share the meals so we could all try several dishes. We ordered curried goat, oxtail, jerk chicken and one other dish that was shrimp of some kind. Of course, we didn't take any photos of our drink or of the meals.

 

 

 

The food. was. amazing! I actually loved the goat, it was my favorite food. The oxtail was excellent too. It was served with little dumplings. The funny thing was that the jerk chicken was what we came for, and that was barely touched in the end. Not because it wasn't good, we just loved the other foods more and were too full to finish the chicken! We had also ordered a salad (DD was afraid if she didn't like the other food that she'd be starving, but turned out she liked all of it and barely touched the salad). We stayed for awhile and enjoyed our drinks and the wonderful food but finally decided it was time to head back to the port. We did stop for a few minutes to get a few patties that we brought back to the ship with us and ate some of them later (we forgot about the rest of them later in the week end ended up throwing them out at the end of the cruise...they were delicious though!)

 

[valentinebaby1]

Can't wait to read more about your cruise on the Splendor! Cruising on her in June to the Southern Caribbean and love seeing your photos! May have to book another cruise some day to visit the ports that you did :)

 

 

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We're doing the Southern Caribbean route to Aruba on Conquest...but not until April 2019! I can't wait to see those ports. Honestly though, we haven't been to a port that we didn't enjoy!

[valentinebaby1]

When we arrived back at port we still had a little time left and decided to stop at the little beach next to the port. As hot as I was, I decided not to swim at that point and let hubby and DD swim while I kept watch over everything. I found a spot in the shade at a cafe and ordered a couple rum punches to enjoy. I sat and "people watched" while they swam for a few minutes. Once they were finished up we made the walk back to the ship. It sure seemed like the ship was further away than it was in the morning! But we made it back with time to spare with very full tummies.