10 Day Carnival Liberty & Carnival Splendor Adventure

[jam19872016]

I am going to invoke "what happens on the ship, stays on the ship" and skip past a couple of hours. Let's just say I had a good time and leave it at that :)

 

Fast forward to just before midnight and I was back in the casino. I rarely miss the drawings but I did skip out on them tonight, sure hope my name was not called. This was the ninth day of the trip so not too bad, but I did end up in the hole. I had a lot of fun but man, how did I go from being as far up as I was to down? I might have a problem :D

 

Then this happened.

 

 

And I'm back up for the trip again!

 

I played a couple more hands to make sure I didn't have any more lucky cards, then I walked away for the night.

 

My plan of eating light and drinking heavy was a success and much of the rest of the night is a little fuzzy. Once I left the casino I took a walk and saw that Quest was taking place. I have never attended but often been curious so I stopped in. It was already mid way through and looked like a lot of fun. Raunchy, but nothing X rated maybe a strong R rating.

 

Once that was over I went to the nightclub for some people watching and a couple drinks. Somewhere around 1:30 I decided I'd have enough fun for one night and made my way up to Lido for a late night snack.

 

Random drunk picture of canned tomatoes.

 

 

Pizza!!

 

 

There are many times I think Carnival could do better with their late night choices. Tonight, this was the best thing ever! I think the key to enjoying their late night food, is to have had plenty to drink.

 

I enjoyed a little late night TV (and made a mess on myself with pizza) and then turned in with only one left on my 10 day adventure.

[jam19872016]

Day 10: Fun Farewell Day At Sea

 

I set a wake up call this morning because the Premiere Slot Tournament was being held this morning at 10:30. This is just like the regular tournaments held on each cruise, except it is free and open only to premiere guests with 2000+ points or comparable table play so far this cruise. I did ok but did not qualify for the finals. Bummer. So I went back to bed :)

 

Set another wake up call for the Fireball Raffle starting at 12:30. It is amazing how much better I felt with just an extra hour or so of sleep. Much like the first sea day, there were drawings being held pretty much all afternoon in the casino. So this is where I spent most of my day except for brief interruptions to eat. I would end up missing the sea day brunch again. Next time, I will make a better effort to make it to brunch.

 

They were hosting a fun farewell party that evening that included a balloon drop. Each person could add a balloon into the net, and when they dropped if MarQ caught your balloon you won a "special prize".

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Tonight's dinner menu.

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

For my starter I had the steamed mussels and the shrimp cocktail.

 

 

 

Both were good, but tiny.

 

For my main I had the jerk pork loin and the tiger shrimp creole.

 

 

 

The pork loin was fantastic! Very spicy too, so be careful if that is not your thing. The creole was excellent as well.

[jam19872016]

Dessert menu.

 

 

I had the WCMC (of course) and the pie.

 

 

 

I agree with the overall consensus on their pie, basically inedible, yuck!

 

Other than the pie, it was another fantastic meal but a little slow tonight at just under 1.30 hours.

[jam19872016]

After dinner I made my way back to the room where I had my final towel animal.

 

 

My towel critters hanging out on the couch.

 

 

Tonight's show was Epic Rock. I have seen a lot of reviews where people say this is their favorite show. None of the shows were amazing, but this one was tough to sit through to be honest. I would probably not go to this show again unless whoever I was cruising with REALLY wanted to go.

 

 

Next up I went to '90's Music Trivia Party. I went to this on the Sensation and had a blast. I was very excited to see it offered as I had not seen it since then. It was as fun as I remember and hope to see it offered again!

 

 

 

 

After this I went back to the casino and spent a bit too much time there. I left down $100 for the whole trip which is the best I have ever done. I heard from many others on the same sailing as me that they have never seen a casino paying out as well as this one did this week.

 

I cashed out after the last drawing at 11 with plans of turning in early so the early morning wake up and get out of your cabin would not seem to early. I was sad it was over, but I knew it was time to get back to reality. The nice thing about spending 10 days on a cruise, is realizing it is time to go back. I have been doing 5 day cruises and it is over before it really feels like it has begun. Ten days is not always practical but I hope to stick to more week long trips. I say that but I have since booked two 4 day cruises, better short than none at all I guess lol.

[jam19872016]

Debarkation:

 

Debarkation was pretty quick and painless. It did come to a stop at point for about five minutes with no real explanation as to why but once it started moving again we were soon on our way.

 

Now in my hurry to not miss the ship, I paid no attention to where I parked and to make matters worse, we did not dock at the same pier that we boarded from. I must have wandered around a good ten minutes before I found my car. Ooops.

 

 

Summary:

 

 

Dining:

 

 

 

The Splendor does not have the 2.0 upgrades that most ships have, and as she is leaving the fleet in 2019, she never will. Despite that, there are many wonder options to chose from. Although she does not have Guys or Blue Iguana, she does have a burrito bar and a grille serving up hot dogs and hamburgers. Not as good in my opinion but again, there are many other wonderful options to chose from.

 

 

Hands down my favorite on Lido is the Indian located all the way aft. This is probably the most authentic Indian food outside of India and it is absolutely delicious.

 

 

The BBQ place located just above Lido is also good, although if you are from someplace well known for BBQ, you may be disappointed. The pizza was okay, although I may have been influenced by too many drinks.

 

 

The buffet was not good which is normal for Carnival. It is not that the food itself is not good, but rather at any given meal, there are only a few items to choose from with 90% of the buffet being salad and meats and cheeses. Not much in the way of real food. I don't expect fine dining, but at least on par with a Golden Corral would be nice.

 

 

 

 

 

I did not try the deli, room service or Mongolian Wok.

 

 

Service in the MDR was spot on for the entire trip and almost every item was well prepared and served hot. There were a couple items that did not stand out, but overall one of my best MDR experiences to date.

 

 

Chef's Table was an out of this world experience. I highly recommend everyone try this at least once. It is expensive at $75 pp but it is worth it and so much more.

 

 

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

 

 

This ship is pink! Like really really pink. I love it. If you are not a fan of some of the more wildly decorated ships, this may drive you insane. Pink doughnuts everywhere lol.

 

 

Everything was well maintained and clean. And bright :)

 

 

My room was 1206 which was a 1A located very far forward on deck 1. It was a little noisy being this close to the waterline as well as this close to the front of the ship. You could hear the waves slapping the front of the ship. Truthfully I grew used to it and it just became background noise, but if you are sensitive to sound I would avoid this room. The sounds of the anchor did not bother me after the first day and I am a pretty light sleeper but it was very noisy, so this is another potential noise issue.

 

 

None of these bothered me. The only issue I had was with the water temperature in the shower. There was only one setting - scalding hot. Truthfully I should have complained, but I made it work.

 

 

Entertainment:

 

 

 

The main production shows could have been better. 88 Keys and 80's Pop to the Max were okay, but Studio VIP and Epic rock fell a little short. This is something Carnival needs to improve on, I think it is generally accepted that their production shows have a lot of room for improvement

 

 

There were many other activities going on at all times including comedy shows, deck parties, trivia parties in the atrium, live music all over, basically everywhere you turn, there was something fun going on.

 

 

MarQ was the cruise director and he was GREAT! Not quite as good as my two all time favorites (Wee Jimmy and Chris the Flying Scotsman) but very very good. He is still a new CD and could very well become one of Carnival's best.

 

 

The casino was also very wonderful. This was a premier cruise and they really went all out to offer up the VIP treatment with several small gifts and many many drawings in the casino. The cocktail party was very nice as well. If you receive an invite to a premier, book it, it was a blast!

 

 

Service:

 

 

 

This is where the Splendor really shined! The crew really went above and beyond in every department. I have never met so many wonderful crew as I did on the Splendor. There was no shortage of bar staff or really shortage of staff anywhere that I witnessed.

 

 

My steward and his team was also one of the best I have ever had. The assistant steward is the only assistant who has ever made an impression on me as they usually just stay in the background. It felt like I had two stewards!

 

 

Overall:

 

 

Overall this was my second best cruise to date. I think it was the superb service from the crew that really made it go that extra mile. If you don't need the 2.0 extras with all the extra bells and whistles, I highly recommend this ship, you will absolutely love it.

 

 

Looking Ahead:

 

 

My next cruise is also on the Splendor. I will be doing an 8 day Eastern Caribbean on 7/22/17 going to St. Maarten, St.Kitts, San Juan and Grand Turk. I will be cruising with my mom. I am not sure how that is going to go, as she did not enjoy her last cruise but she expressed an interest in joining me so we will see.

 

 

Thanks to everyone for reading this review and allowing me to relive all the fun I had on my ten days on the Liberty and Splendor!

[Jamman54]

Thanks for completing your review! We have also enjoyed our cruises on the Splendor. :cool:

[mbrownferrier]

Thanks for the wonderful review.

 

 

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[tashartx]

Thanks for the review. I have been enjoying it, because my next cruise will be on the Splendor and after reading I see that it is the same cruise as you. My mom will also be going with me. I hope you enjoy yourself again.

[jam19872016]

Thanks for completing your review! We have also enjoyed our cruises on the Splendor. :cool:

 

Loved the Splendor! I will have two more chances to enjoy her before she moves to CA and then out of the fleet.

Thanks for the wonderful review.

 

You're welcome. Thank you for following along!

 

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[jam19872016]

Thanks for the review. I have been enjoying it, because my next cruise will be on the Splendor and after reading I see that it is the same cruise as you. My mom will also be going with me. I hope you enjoy yourself again.

 

Hopefully your mom is more excited to cruise than mine :D I'm a little apprehensive about it to be honest. I will have a great time though and can't wait to be back on board! Only one week to go now :cool: