Review: Carnival Splendor - 12/20/2008 Sailing

[marcjoli]

This was our second time on a cruise. We took the kids(teens), and our parents on this cruise with us over Christmas.

 

I will start with our notable dissapointments.

 

Biggest Dissapointment: No Christmas!

 

• No Christmas religious services in any way. There must not have been any minister or priest on board? I felt for all of the staff and crew working thier butts off on Christmas eve and Christmas day with no option for them to celebrate.
  
• The closest thing we got was a christmas show with trees, santa, and only one single religious song.
  
• Considering there were many families there with bunches of kids and grandparents, I know many felt the same way.
  

O2 and Circle C

 

There were 1,300 kids in this sailing evenly split between young kids, early teens, and older teens. Even so, my kids did not partake in any Circle C or O2 club activities after the first night. The counselers did not make it fun the first night at all; and my teens are shy to start conversations with strangers -- someone needs to engage them in some sort of activity. Instead, in O2 they were told the first night to simply "hang out"; and in Circle C, they were told to roam around the ship looking for other teens to recruit into the club.

 

Pool Decks and Sun Decks

 

This ship does not have many large areas for sunning. Instead, there are small decks in many areas. Everybody was saving chairs with towels at 9 in the morning on sea days, but often nobody would return to these chairs until noon. Chairs would be left unoccupied for hours.

 

The Lido staff should have actively re-enforced the policies about "no saving chairs". Those that wanted some sun found it very difficult to find any place to sit, or they felt bad having to take over a saved chair.

 

Bar service on all of these small decks was aweful. Comparing to our previous cruise on the Imagination two years ago where we had a drink of the day in our hands at all times; service on the Spendor was non-existant. On some decks nobody ever came around. On the Lido, there were some servers but they rarely asked us if we wanted anything. They were really really short staffed considering the number of people on these decks during the day.

 

Ok, that's it for dissapointments. Everything else exceeded my expectations.

 

FOOD:

 

All the food was terrific. I had read somewhere where someone complained about the food on Splendor-- I completely dissagree!

 

Lunch and Breakfast buffets in the Spledido Lido were always fresh and tasty. I was especially pleased with the Indian food buffet at the Aft pool deck and the Thai stir fry that was offerred a few times. These were as good as any Indian or Thai restaurant I have ever been to.

 

Diner in the dining room was terrific and a highlight of our cruise every night. The menu had good selections and variety. Everything tasted great. Our only incident being a steak that was cooked a bit too rare.

 

My parents have never eaten so well in thier life, and they felt really pampered. My kids were also impressed even though they are not as adventurous in thier choices.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

 

The production shows were great. The performers were impressive.

 

Comedian was very funny in two shows. Hypnotist was good. Juggler was also good. These were not as impressive, but still worth watching.

 

Lounge acts were very good. In particular, I loved the Piano Bar. The Piano Man seemed a bit moody and serious for a sing-along bar; but he can really SING so it made it very entertaining. The place was full every night with several "regulars" returning every night.

 

CASINO:

 

This ship has a large casino that was well attended. It was full every evening. There was a nice atmosphere in there with people celebrating their wins, lounge singers nearby, and a nice bar.

 

EMBARKATION and DEBARKATION:

 

Both processes were quick and efficient.

 

We arrived at the terminal at 1pm on sailing day and we were on the ship well before 2. The craziest part is getting to the terminal by taxi. There were zillions of taxis for all the ships that were embarking at the same time.

 

For debarkation, everything went smoothly. From the time they called our zone, we were off the ship and in an airport shuttle in less than an hour.

 

PORTS OF CALL

 

We had the greatest times on the 4 ports of call we had:

 

In San Juan, we took a nice city tour excursion and visited the fort.

 

In St Thomas, we went to Megan's Bay on our own, and then took the Trunk Bay excursion.

 

In LaRomana, we took the speedboat excursion to Saona Island. Maximo and Lina were terrifiec hosts.

 

In Nassau, we hapenned to walk off the ship as a Boxing Day Junkanoo parade was just starting. This was a really great treat to see!

 

 

OVERALL

 

We were very impressed with the ship itself and it's design. The pink polka-dots everywhere are a bit too much; but it's a beatiful ship. We would love to go on the splendor again.

 

I don't know if we would do a Christmas cruise again. The staff might have been a bit crabby because of Christmas and being away from family. Or, maybe it was due to all the large families on board. The ship was full and a third of the passengers were kids and teens.

 

We really had a great time and will sail Carnival again.

 

Marc