Live on Splendor - London to Barcelona

[RachelG]

Street festival 

[RachelG]

Lunch in Tarragona

[RachelG]

Montserrat 

[RachelG]

October 9, 2023–Dublin to Home, and final thoughts

 

We had a good 5  1/2 hours sleep at the Dublin Airport Hilton, which is actually no where near the airport.  Our cab driver from the airport to there was very funny and drove FAST.  A 5 1/2 sleep makes all the difference between feeling like you have been run over by a truck and feeling refreshed.  Plus a shower helps.  They also had a veryIrish breakfast buffet, so if anyone had a hankering for black or white pudding, it was available.

 

Our Air Lingus flight from Barcelona to Dublin was fine and on time, but very basic.  They charge extra for water.  It was in coach as they don’t have business class but only a 2 hour flight.   We didn’t have to pay extra for luggage as it was a codeshare with AA, and were in business class on the rest of the trip home.  For a $3000 pp saving, no complaints..

 

AA flight from Dublin to Chicago was on time and very comfortable.  Going through customs ahead of time in Dublin is really nice.  I got another nice nap in the AA business class seat.

 

Now final thoughts.  The ship was completely full.  I really never felt that it was crowded, and we didn’t have to wait in lines.  The crew was top notch, plus really happy after they were able to stop wearing masks.  Our cabin stewardess was proactive and responsive.

 

Most passengers were 50+, with a couple of mother/adult daughter combos.  Only one child onboard who was a cute little 4 year old son of an officer.  As I said before, he was a delight.  There was a particularly obnoxious large Asian group who felt that they were entitled to the large table and the surrounding ones in Compass Rose every evening and pushing in front of people at the buffet in La Veranda.  One took a whole bowl of cocktail sauce for the shrimp and dumped it on her plate while George was waiting to get some.   I never saw them on any excursions.

 

Food was mostly good to great with very fresh produce, some of the best tomatoes I have ever had on a ship.  The burgers at the grill had improved immensely.  George had a few steak and lobster issues, but the steaks I had were delicious.  They brought on fresh fish at every port, which was pretty amazing.  Wines were just ok, though we did find some we really liked and just asked for those.

 

 

The Meridian Lounge has great innovative cocktails, but it was just too loud when the music started.  Too small a space for the band to play.  The pianist in the Observation lounge was more conducive to conversation.

 

We had some really great excursions and some just so so.  The wineries in France were terrible, but the Spanish ones were fabulous.  The excursion with only 30 minutes in Sintra and 30 minutes is Cascais was really disappointing.  Total waste of time as it took longer to drive there than we got to spend there.

 

The weather was great, though warmer than expected, but this time of year is a good choice for the itinerary.

 

Our suite was 816 and we had more storage space than we could ever hope to use.  We had more storage than I have in my bedroom and bath at home.  It would be a good suite for a longer cruise.  It also has a larger balcony, though we didn’t really have time to use it much.

 

Wifi was acceptable.  Slower than on land, but definitely better than I have had on most ships in the past. I only had trouble uploading my office stuff once, which is better than average. It was too slow for me to upload photos efficiently, so I just did that onshore.

 

It was great getting to meet Forgap and her husband after all these years, and of course, we had several other friends onboard.  Plus we met some new friends who we   Hope to sail with in the future.

[forgap]

Rachel has motivated me to come out of my travel stupor to add my take on our final days on this cruise.  This was our first time on Splendor and it is a beautiful, very comfortable ship.  For the first time in almost 200 days sailing on Regent, we didn’t go to one lecture and went to only one show.   The cruise had only one sea day, and port intensive cruises tend to be tiring.   I have to say our excursions were just OK.  None of them were memorable.  We are also at the age where we are not as robust as we have been on previous cruises.   So the long fast walks in heat took its toll.  Even with the little man symbols and tour descriptions, it was often hard to predict the level of stamina you would need.  I think the most problematic thing on a tour were thick accents and non stop monologues into imperfect bus microphones.  Next trip, we may skip the group excursions and go it alone.  
 

My biggest disappointment was no deck BBQ even though we had two overnights in port and perfect weather.  Apparently there was a deck BBQ in the previous segment that was held indoors due to weather.  And, NO DANCE PARTY!  
 

Our  last day we had a special tour in Palma as part of our travel agents participation in Virtuoso Travelers.   We did a food tour of Palma which included the central market where I stuffed myself with Imberico ham, then a tapas restaurant, then a vintage ice cream/coffee shop.  It was quite a bit of walking and standing and I think I would have loved to just meander Palma on my own. It is a beautiful town with interesting shops and cafes.  
 

We transferred to the airport from Tarragona which took about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The 15 minutes was just leaving the port which appears to be a man made spit of land with a jogging/biking path next to the access road.  BCN was huge and navigating to the appropriate lounge was like finding a secret treasure.  Lounges are assigned by boarding concourse, so you have to go through passport control for your area and then look for the “VIP” lounge.  Who knew?  We flew Delta to JFK, then on to ATL.  JFK now has facial recognition for global entry so no line and we zipped right through to baggage.  JFK was a madhouse and we had to recheck our bags, go through security, wait in line for the delta lounge then walk miles to gate 53 for our flight.  We were home at midnight after almost 24 hours in transit.  
 

The passenger mix on this cruise was very congenial and it was an absolute delight to meet Rachel and George.  After years of reading Rachel’s blog entries, I fell like they are old friends.  Both she and George were absolutely warm and lovely and engaging.  I hope our paths meet again.  
 

I’ll try to post some pics when I recover from my travel malaise.  Thanks for reading along!  

[liptastic]

Thank you both for the lovely blog. Great photos and narration which has been a joy to read each day. Jean. 

[Jlhalldc]

Thanks to both of you for sharing your trip with us. It's great to hear your honest feedback. And entertaining stories. I hope your transition to homelife isn't too jarring. 

 

[Zqueeze1]

Really sad to see this thread coming to an end.  Thanks for such great narratives, pics, and a sprinkle of food porn to keep me sated.  I hope you all get home safe. 
 

Z and TB

[Mudhen]

I haven't really commented much on this thread as I was too busy reading and reveling in the wonderful photos! Thank you to Rachel and Forgap and anyone else who contributed as I've enjoyed every post!

As said above, safe home everyone!

[irishwitchy]

Yes, a big thank you to both couples.  Loved reading this one!  Honest and fair.  
 

EWR also has the facial recognition for global access.  Very quick!  No paper, either.  Love it. 

[GeorgiaPeach51]

I hate that this is over!  It has been such a pleasure to read and look forward to each morning.  I hope I get to meet you both someday on a ship somewhere.  Thank you for the time it took to write, upload photos and post so those of us on dry land could enjoy!

 

Joanie

[cwn]

Really enjoyed reading both reports and pictures! Thanks so much. We will do many of the same ports as part of the Grand Arctic in ‘25 so I made notes! (Rachel thanks for insight on tours that we need to avoid, but your pictures felt like we were there.)

Carolyn

[JDPCruisers]

On 10/9/2023 at 12:17 PM, RachelG said:

October 9, 2023–Dublin to Home, and final thoughts

 

We had a good 5  1/2 hours sleep at the Dublin Airport Hilton, which is actually no where near the airport.  Our cab driver from the airport to there was very funny and drove FAST.  A 5 1/2 sleep makes all the difference between feeling like you have been run over by a truck and feeling refreshed.  Plus a shower helps.  They also had a veryIrish breakfast buffet, so if anyone had a hankering for black or white pudding, it was available.

 

Our Air Lingus flight from Barcelona to Dublin was fine and on time, but very basic.  They charge extra for water.  It was in coach as they don’t have business class but only a 2 hour flight.   We didn’t have to pay extra for luggage as it was a codeshare with AA, and were in business class on the rest of the trip home.  For a $3000 pp saving, no complaints..

 

AA flight from Dublin to Chicago was on time and very comfortable.  Going through customs ahead of time in Dublin is really nice.  I got another nice nap in the AA business class seat.

 

Now final thoughts.  The ship was completely full.  I really never felt that it was crowded, and we didn’t have to wait in lines.  The crew was top notch, plus really happy after they were able to stop wearing masks.  Our cabin stewardess was proactive and responsive.

 

Most passengers were 50+, with a couple of mother/adult daughter combos.  Only one child onboard who was a cute little 4 year old son of an officer.  As I said before, he was a delight.  There was a particularly obnoxious large Asian group who felt that they were entitled to the large table and the surrounding ones in Compass Rose every evening and pushing in front of people at the buffet in La Veranda.  One took a whole bowl of cocktail sauce for the shrimp and dumped it on her plate while George was waiting to get some.   I never saw them on any excursions.

 

Food was mostly good to great with very fresh produce, some of the best tomatoes I have ever had on a ship.  The burgers at the grill had improved immensely.  George had a few steak and lobster issues, but the steaks I had were delicious.  They brought on fresh fish at every port, which was pretty amazing.  Wines were just ok, though we did find some we really liked and just asked for those.

 

 

The Meridian Lounge has great innovative cocktails, but it was just too loud when the music started.  Too small a space for the band to play.  The pianist in the Observation lounge was more conducive to conversation.

 

We had some really great excursions and some just so so.  The wineries in France were terrible, but the Spanish ones were fabulous.  The excursion with only 30 minutes in Sintra and 30 minutes is Cascais was really disappointing.  Total waste of time as it took longer to drive there than we got to spend there.

 

The weather was great, though warmer than expected, but this time of year is a good choice for the itinerary.

 

Our suite was 816 and we had more storage space than we could ever hope to use.  We had more storage than I have in my bedroom and bath at home.  It would be a good suite for a longer cruise.  It also has a larger balcony, though we didn’t really have time to use it much.

 

Wifi was acceptable.  Slower than on land, but definitely better than I have had on most ships in the past. I only had trouble uploading my office stuff once, which is better than average. It was too slow for me to upload photos efficiently, so I just did that onshore.

 

It was great getting to meet Forgap and her husband after all these years, and of course, we had several other friends onboard.  Plus we met some new friends who we   Hope to sail with in the future.

I will add my thanks for one of the best live reviews with your experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly, is appreciated. After being on many RC and X cruises, mostly X the last few years, we are thinking of exploring other lines and Regent is one that has us intrigued. Your review as helped to spur that along. 

[Linda VH]

Thank you so much for a great and informative read!