Splendor - the right size?

[abyss]

Having just returned from the 5/24 sailing on the Splendor from Long Beach got me to thinking about the ship. I agree with everyone else that has posted reviews that the dining room food was much better than expected, the lido food was as expected, and all the staff that I came in contact was very pleasant and helpful. Of course, until debarkation when they all seemed to kind of disappear and left the inmates in charge of the asylum. Many other posts have been made about this topic.

 

The thing that I did notice about the Splendor was that I had to stand in line for just about everything and I overheard a crew person that there was approximately 3300 people on board for our cruise. The Splendor is capable of carrying 3700 people at full capacity, so I started looking at other ships of similar capacities. The Splendor's gross tonnage is 113,000 tons. By comparision, the Mariner of the Seas, who we were docked next to in Victoria, has a gross tonnage of 138,000 tons with a maximum capacity of 3800 people. If you compare passenger-space ratios, Splendor has the least space per person of any cruise ship that I could find.

 

I guess that my feeling of cruising with a lot of people in a small space is well-founded. The Splendor replaced the Pride sailing out of Long Beach. The Pride's maximum capacity is about 2700 with a gross tonnage of 88,000. On the Pride the passenger-space ratio is 40 and the Splendor is 30.5.

 

There has been a lot of discussion about the fiasco that has gone on with embarkation and debarkation in Long Beach. And much blame has been placed upon the City of Long Beach for not supplying adequate facilities, for example, the problems with the gangway not working. People have said that is not Carnival's fault. I would beg to differ with that. In going over past reviews of the Pride, this gangway has been problematic for many years. Yet Carnival chose to home-port the Splendor which has a capacity of 1000 more people than the Pride to try and squeeze in and out of a very small terminal. I think because of the size of the Splendor, there will continue to be problems with embarkation and debarkation if anything does not go perfectly. With this many people into this small of an area, there is just no fudge factor. So I believe that this was a very poor choice by Carnival to place the Splendor into Long Beach. As you can see by my sign-on, I live in Long Beach and we sure can use the revenue, but unfortunately, having gone through the last debarkation, I am not sure that it is worth it.

 

Oh, and I did find one place that I did not have to stand in line on board the ship - that was at the casino cage - lol

[falkcor]

And much blame has been placed upon the City of Long Beach for not supplying adequate facilities, for example, the problems with the gangway not working. People have said that is not Carnival's fault. I would beg to differ with that. In going over past reviews of the Pride, this gangway has been problematic for many years. As you can see by my sign-on, I live in Long Beach and we sure can use the revenue, but unfortunately, having gone through the last debarkation, I am not sure that it is worth it.

 

if long beach can use, and is benefit of the revenue - and the gangway has been problematic for many years, why on earth would the port not fix the gangway? splendor or not? why not use some of that maintained revenue, to maintain and provide better services, to open the possibility of greater revenue, in for instance, splendor vs. pride, with an added revenue to the tune of 1000 people per sailing? the investment would more than pay for itself.

 

i hope i'm not missing something here, but i assume that carnival does not own the port facilities (like they do in some of the islands), so wouldn't it be the responsibility of the port authority and staff, to resolve issues like a gangway that has been malfunctioning (?) for years? :confused:

 

seems like an instance of putting the cart before the horse... and if long beach told carnival their horse could pull that cart (and allowed that cart to be pulled by the horse - i.e., splendor docking in long beach), their horse should darned well be able to pull that cart. if it can't, then it's the horse's fault.

 

lol, sorry if that was a bit convoluted, maybe i'm missing something? :o

[falkcor]

btw - just as a point of reference... although this is an example of municipal stupidity, in my opinion... the port of houston's bayport cruise terminal has recently... well, almost 2 years ago, been completed - at a cost of about $81 million.

 

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2008/09/an_ike_miracle_bayport_cruise.php

 

and it doesn't have any cruise ships. carnival made good use of it during the aftermath of hurricane ike - spawning the story linked above - 'hey look, it's actually being used!'.

 

my point is, that port facilities are very expensive to build, and maintain, and those costs are typically on the municipality. if they didn't have a port, carnival wouldn't call there, obviously. so really - if the problem is the facilities at the port, that's that port's responsibility.

 

if the port accepts a larger ship, and is benefit of the added revenue, they better be ready to support it. even ports of call in mexico, the caribbean, and everywhere else, specifically invest in their port infrastructure, to be suitable and appealing to cruises and the revenue they bring.

 

if all the problems are at embarkation and debarkation, but the cruise was wonderful, then carnival is making due with what they've got, to be able to service a demographic they want to (people around la, that part of california and adjacent states) - and the PORT needs to step up.

 

if not, we've got a brand new $81M facility in bayport - we'd love to have the splendor, too. :cool:

[caribbean dreams]

I do agree, the larger the ship, the larger the lines.

 

Although i like to sail on the larger ships much better than the smaller ships, i don't like the "waiting" for everything.

[iluvdoxies]

The Spirit class are my favorites and the Pride is one......didnt care for the Splendor at all.

[tink24]

Maybe I'm off in la-la land somewhere, but I sailed the Splendor on 5/10 and didn't even know the Splendor was a big ship until I recently read about it here. Had no problem with lines, chair hogs, etc. Only real complaint was debarkation. I've been on 12 cruises on multiple lines so it's not like I have nothing to compare it to. I guess I got lucky.

[jimbo5544]

if long beach can use, and is benefit of the revenue - and the gangway has been problematic for many years, why on earth would the port not fix the gangway? splendor or not? why not use some of that maintained revenue, to maintain and provide better services, to open the possibility of greater revenue, in for instance, splendor vs. pride, with an added revenue to the tune of 1000 people per sailing? the investment would more than pay for itself.

 

i hope i'm not missing something here, but i assume that carnival does not own the port facilities (like they do in some of the islands), so wouldn't it be the responsibility of the port authority and staff, to resolve issues like a gangway that has been malfunctioning (?) for years? :confused:

 

seems like an instance of putting the cart before the horse... and if long beach told carnival their horse could pull that cart (and allowed that cart to be pulled by the horse - i.e., splendor docking in long beach), their horse should darned well be able to pull that cart. if it can't, then it's the horse's fault.

 

lol, sorry if that was a bit convoluted, maybe i'm missing something? :o

 

I agree, the hit goes to Long Beach. Carnival does not own the facility. Let's face it, Carnival has made a significant invest in the west coast by adding their newest ship here.

[jimbo5544]

Having just returned from the 5/24 sailing on the Splendor from Long Beach got me to thinking about the ship. I agree with everyone else that has posted reviews that the dining room food was much better than expected, the lido food was as expected, and all the staff that I came in contact was very pleasant and helpful. Of course, until debarkation when they all seemed to kind of disappear and left the inmates in charge of the asylum. Many other posts have been made about this topic.

 

The thing that I did notice about the Splendor was that I had to stand in line for just about everything and I overheard a crew person that there was approximately 3300 people on board for our cruise. The Splendor is capable of carrying 3700 people at full capacity, so I started looking at other ships of similar capacities. The Splendor's gross tonnage is 113,000 tons. By comparision, the Mariner of the Seas, who we were docked next to in Victoria, has a gross tonnage of 138,000 tons with a maximum capacity of 3800 people. If you compare passenger-space ratios, Splendor has the least space per person of any cruise ship that I could find.

 

I guess that my feeling of cruising with a lot of people in a small space is well-founded. The Splendor replaced the Pride sailing out of Long Beach. The Pride's maximum capacity is about 2700 with a gross tonnage of 88,000. On the Pride the passenger-space ratio is 40 and the Splendor is 30.5.

 

There has been a lot of discussion about the fiasco that has gone on with embarkation and debarkation in Long Beach. And much blame has been placed upon the City of Long Beach for not supplying adequate facilities, for example, the problems with the gangway not working. People have said that is not Carnival's fault. I would beg to differ with that. In going over past reviews of the Pride, this gangway has been problematic for many years. Yet Carnival chose to home-port the Splendor which has a capacity of 1000 more people than the Pride to try and squeeze in and out of a very small terminal. I think because of the size of the Splendor, there will continue to be problems with embarkation and debarkation if anything does not go perfectly. With this many people into this small of an area, there is just no fudge factor. So I believe that this was a very poor choice by Carnival to place the Splendor into Long Beach. As you can see by my sign-on, I live in Long Beach and we sure can use the revenue, but unfortunately, having gone through the last debarkation, I am not sure that it is worth it.

 

Oh, and I did find one place that I did not have to stand in line on board the ship - that was at the casino cage - lol

 

Let's see, the city owns the port, but it's the cruise line's fault that the city was not prepared....... The cruise line must have really twisted their arm to add the extra clients and dollar drag that goes along with that. Sorry, don't buy it. The city should step up to the plate and fix their problem.

[momofzeke]

I've sailed on 2 Spirit class (Pride and Miracle) and 1 Conquest class (Valor). I loved all 3 cruises, but the Spirit class definitely felt less crowded to me all week long.

[jimbo5544]

I agree, not to big and not to small. I would doubt they will go back to this size ship (different builder as well) but it makes one wonder if someday.....

[abyss]

I appreciate your points, but the bottom line is that Carnival has been using the Long Beach for many years with its problems and now has elected to put a bigger boat into the same port when, just 5 miles away, they could have based this boat at Los Angeles to service the same market.

 

When things do not go as planned, is Long Beach inconvenienced? Or the tenant, Carnival, inconvenienced? No. It is you and I, the cruisers, who have paid our money, and have to tolerate Long Beach's port facilities and Carnival's decision to use this port. It's you and I who are standing in line and having to endure the inadequate facilities of Long Beach and the inadequate decision by Carnival to accept these facilities. We are the losers here, because these circumstances are well beyond our control. But we still have the final vote, by not accepting these conditions and these decisions. We can go elsewhere. Forewarned is forearmed.

[spencercoop]

Carnival owns the Long Beach cruise terminal.

[BSQ]

Carnival not only owns it, they built it completed around 2003.

[falkcor]

i hope i'm not missing something here, but i assume that carnival does not own the port facilities (like they do in some of the islands

 

you know what they say when you assume...

 

maybe i'm missing something? :o

 

i was. oops :o i retract any of those assumptions...

 

i did say, though, that the danged gangway should be repaired if it's been malfunctioning for years. i stand by that assERTION. :D