Splendor June 7-14 Review CANADA!!!

[bankonus]

Hi everyone,

 

Just back from Splendor cruise to Canada. I will try to cover all the details, and will answer questions for all the stuff I forgot.

 

Embarkation-Piece of Cake! We stayed at the Best Western hotel which had shuttle service from the Long Beach airport and the cruise terminal. Nice savings there. We signed up for the first shuttle at 1000am Sunday morning. We were dropped off right in front, gave the luggage to the porter, and went to the dome to check in. There was no one in line and we were checked in within 5 minutes. We then went next door to the Queen Mary and walked around and took pictures for about 1 hour. We went back to the check-in area and waited until they called zone 1. We were on the ship by 1230 and having lunch. The line onto the ship was steady moving and I have to say one of the easiest embarkations we have ever had.

 

One thing I would like to add at this point. When our itinerary was changed and I assume people cancelled, they changed our dinner time from waitlisted to confirmed. However, when we checked in, we did not get the time we requested. We went right to the Maitre'd and waited in line to change. He was unable to make any changes until the following night he said. By that time we had already met our waiter and table mates (who were perfectly suited for us) so we cancelled and kept the late seating.

 

Our room was 7279 on the Empress Deck. A few heads up about this room. It is an end room, inside, which is located by the glass elevators. While the location of this room was awesome for us, there was one drawback. It is also located next to the room stewards pantry so they loaded their carts "very early" every morning right outside our door. If you are a light sleeper or have trouble going back to sleep, stay away from this area. I was awakened every morning but able to fall right back to sleep. Our room steward was Putra, and he was awesome!

 

We had late seating in the Black Pearl dining room, table 170. Our waiter and asst. waiter were Christopher and Roy. Both were absolutely amazing! We couldn't have been matched better to our tablemates which is one of the reasons we decided to keep late seating, which we really don't care for. I guess we were afraid of what the other outcome could be. LOL

 

My bone of contention- Buffets! We had some of the rudest people on this ship when it came to stand in line at the buffet. Almost every single trip I made to the buffet I fell into the "person cutting in line" trap. "Can I just grab a yogurt, milk, butter, etc"? Then proceed to stand in line in front of you the rest of the time to fill up the tray! I am not a person who is confrontational as sometimes it really isn't worth it. The few times I did say something, they all of a sudden couldn't speak my language anymore. Hmmmm.....didn't you just ask in English? I have to say it was rampant throughout the ship and usually occurred from the older crowd. I am more than happy to let someone in who is feable or needs assistance but this was plain ridiculous. Don't they have buffets in other countries? LOL Lines were either very crowded or non existent. Just depended on your luck of when you walked in I guess. It wasn't the same everyday. I think I prefer the Glory size ships as they are just the right size and with the Splendor having more people on board, where are they supposed to go but stand in line right?

 

Burrito bar and Rottisserie were fantastic! Highly recommend them!

 

Astoria- was small but quaint. Very mild weather that day, and no rain.

 

Canada- we had awesome weather! Shorts for sure! Did a whale watching excursion and saw about 6 Orca whales. Awesome!

 

Most of you will not be doing this itinerary so no long reviews about the ports.

 

Cruise Director was Brad, and he was perfect. Didn't stay on the loudspeaker anymore than he had too. Nice pace from the last cruise I was on, where we couldn't get ours to stop announcing!

 

Debarkation- Had breakfast at 840am, somewhat full at the buffet. We went back to our room and grabbed our suitcases at 915am. Took the elevator down walked off the ship in a short but steady line, walked through customs with only a couple of people just standing there collecting customs forms and letting you walk on through. Took us 17 minutes from start to finish. Grabbed a taxi and then off to the airport. Easiest we've ever been through again!

 

Any questions? I'll be happy to answer if I can.:)

[luvvp]

I hope our debarkation goes as well as yours when we cruise in Sept.

 

There have been so many different experiences on this subject for the Splendor.

 

I booked our flight home yesterday hoping 1:30pm will be plenty of time.

[Tgianco]

We were on the Splendor the week before. How I wanted to do a back 2 back!

 

We, too, had perfect weather in Victoria and Vancouver. I could totally see going back to those two ports again. The towns were beautiful, the people there were beautiful (nice and nice to look at).

 

Like you, the only ruse people on the ship were some very senior members. Most were very cool, but it was very interesting to see the rude people, the most considerate and most entitled be the senior set... not what I expected at all.

 

To be very clear, though, most of the seniors were great, but there were some who were would not be pleased with anything.

[CRUISING71]

How was the sea going up to the coast? Was it rough?

[Payd]

Hi everyone,

 

Just back from Splendor cruise to Canada. I will try to cover all the details, and will answer questions for all the stuff I forgot.

 

Embarkation-Piece of Cake! We stayed at the Best Western hotel which had shuttle service from the Long Beach airport and the cruise terminal. Nice savings there. We signed up for the first shuttle at 1000am Sunday morning. We were dropped off right in front, gave the luggage to the porter, and went to the dome to check in. There was no one in line and we were checked in within 5 minutes. We then went next door to the Queen Mary and walked around and took pictures for about 1 hour. We went back to the check-in area and waited until they called zone 1. We were on the ship by 1230 and having lunch. The line onto the ship was steady moving and I have to say one of the easiest embarkations we have ever had.

 

One thing I would like to add at this point. When our itinerary was changed and I assume people cancelled, they changed our dinner time from waitlisted to confirmed. However, when we checked in, we did not get the time we requested. We went right to the Maitre'd and waited in line to change. He was unable to make any changes until the following night he said. By that time we had already met our waiter and table mates (who were perfectly suited for us) so we cancelled and kept the late seating.

 

Our room was 7279 on the Empress Deck. A few heads up about this room. It is an end room, inside, which is located by the glass elevators. While the location of this room was awesome for us, there was one drawback. It is also located next to the room stewards pantry so they loaded their carts "very early" every morning right outside our door. If you are a light sleeper or have trouble going back to sleep, stay away from this area. I was awakened every morning but able to fall right back to sleep. Our room steward was Putra, and he was awesome!

 

We had late seating in the Black Pearl dining room, table 170. Our waiter and asst. waiter were Christopher and Roy. Both were absolutely amazing! We couldn't have been matched better to our tablemates which is one of the reasons we decided to keep late seating, which we really don't care for. I guess we were afraid of what the other outcome could be. LOL

 

My bone of contention- Buffets! We had some of the rudest people on this ship when it came to stand in line at the buffet. Almost every single trip I made to the buffet I fell into the "person cutting in line" trap. "Can I just grab a yogurt, milk, butter, etc"? Then proceed to stand in line in front of you the rest of the time to fill up the tray! I am not a person who is confrontational as sometimes it really isn't worth it. The few times I did say something, they all of a sudden couldn't speak my language anymore. Hmmmm.....didn't you just ask in English? I have to say it was rampant throughout the ship and usually occurred from the older crowd. I am more than happy to let someone in who is feable or needs assistance but this was plain ridiculous. Don't they have buffets in other countries? LOL Lines were either very crowded or non existent. Just depended on your luck of when you walked in I guess. It wasn't the same everyday. I think I prefer the Glory size ships as they are just the right size and with the Splendor having more people on board, where are they supposed to go but stand in line right?

 

Burrito bar and Rottisserie were fantastic! Highly recommend them!

 

Astoria- was small but quaint. Very mild weather that day, and no rain.

 

Canada- we had awesome weather! Shorts for sure! Did a whale watching excursion and saw about 6 Orca whales. Awesome!

 

Most of you will not be doing this itinerary so no long reviews about the ports.

 

Cruise Director was Brad, and he was perfect. Didn't stay on the loudspeaker anymore than he had too. Nice pace from the last cruise I was on, where we couldn't get ours to stop announcing!

 

Debarkation- Had breakfast at 840am, somewhat full at the buffet. We went back to our room and grabbed our suitcases at 915am. Took the elevator down walked off the ship in a short but steady line, walked through customs with only a couple of people just standing there collecting customs forms and letting you walk on through. Took us 17 minutes from start to finish. Grabbed a taxi and then off to the airport. Easiest we've ever been through again!

 

Any questions? I'll be happy to answer if I can.:)

 

Thanks for your review - I'm glad you enjoyed Canada!!

[bankonus]

How was the sea going up to the coast? Was it rough?

 

 

We had the smoothest sailing up and back. We were worried since we'd heard some bad stories. It was one of our smoothest trips yet. The roughest I felt the ship was on Friday when we had to stop the boat and the Coast Guard met the ship to take someone off for medical emergency. When we started moving again was the only time I felt vibration.

[yogi2929]

Hi Bank, I am adding to your review.

We had about 100 on our rollcall. Carnival gave us The Cool for our M&G, they even listed it in the Capers!

 

The varying shades of pink were fine for me, but I got tired of the circles and spheres that I saw everywhere.

There was signs of age already showing on the Splendor. The 'New Ship Smell' was in our hallway because they were replacing the carpeting in the hallways.

 

We also loved the ports for this cruise. We spoke with a lot of people who would like to see this itin available every so often.

 

The food was like the girl with a curl. When it was good it was very very good, but when it was bad it was horrid. The Tandoori and the Deli were our favorites. The rotisserie was also very good. I usually love the yam/squash/cheddar pot pie. It was horrible on this cruise. Didn't run into problems with the buffet jumpers.

 

The kids had a blast in Club 02. Before the second CE night they all went to the spa. There was a Club 02 special ($50), kind of like a MaryKay party. They were even given a large container of sugar scrub for home.

 

We were in two aft balcony cabins. 7444 and 7446. No complaints about 7444. A word of caution of 7446 (and 7453). These dead center aft cabins are about 8 inches narrower (yes, I measured) than the other aft cabins. 7446 and 7453 connect to each other, but not to cabins on the other side.

 

The only complaint that I can have is the marble floor coming off the Lido pool area into the buffett area. DD15 fell on liquid that was spilt on the floor. A very slippery and dangerous situation. DD is OK, she only suffered a bruised knee and an injured pride.

 

 

Forgot to add: The Platinum gift was the picture frame. We were issued the Old Old Cards upon check-in and we received the Old New Cards on board for our key only cards..

[Essiesmom]

I was on her B2B May 17 & 24. I too noticed that the carpet in the hallways was not holding up well. Actually, it wasn't the carpet but where they had to join pieces of it...It was ravelling. It actually looked worse every day. I hope they take note of this when they do the Dream, or refurb other ships...Carolyn

[yogi2929]

When we were disembarking we saw 5-6 carts of carpeting being loaded onto the ship.

 

I also saw our room steward replacing the shower curtains.

[imykdzmom]

We sailed on the May 31 cruise, I was so pleased with all aspects of the cruise, the ship is lovely, the people friendly and the ports were wonderful! We enjoyed the gym every morning and only took the stairs so I don't think the chocolate melting cake I ate 2 nights in a row went straight to the waistline!! I would love to see Carnival use this itinerary again.:D

[bankonus]

Hey Yogi!

 

They replaced the carpeting on our floor, both sides and we had a new shower curtain! :D We also saw all the carpeting being loaded. They have their hands full with that for sure. All in all, we had an awesome time considering the itinerary change. Now we've done Canada and can look forward to booking the Mexican Riviera! I mean we have to right?:)

[tnf]

Hi everyone,

 

Just back from Splendor cruise to Canada. I will try to cover all the details, and will answer questions for all the stuff I forgot.

 

Embarkation-Piece of Cake! We stayed at the Best Western hotel which had shuttle service from the Long Beach airport and the cruise terminal. Nice savings there. We signed up for the first shuttle at 1000am Sunday morning. We were dropped off right in front, gave the luggage to the porter, and went to the dome to check in. There was no one in line and we were checked in within 5 minutes. We then went next door to the Queen Mary and walked around and took pictures for about 1 hour. We went back to the check-in area and waited until they called zone 1. We were on the ship by 1230 and having lunch. The line onto the ship was steady moving and I have to say one of the easiest embarkations we have ever had.

 

One thing I would like to add at this point. When our itinerary was changed and I assume people cancelled, they changed our dinner time from waitlisted to confirmed. However, when we checked in, we did not get the time we requested. We went right to the Maitre'd and waited in line to change. He was unable to make any changes until the following night he said. By that time we had already met our waiter and table mates (who were perfectly suited for us) so we cancelled and kept the late seating.

 

Our room was 7279 on the Empress Deck. A few heads up about this room. It is an end room, inside, which is located by the glass elevators. While the location of this room was awesome for us, there was one drawback. It is also located next to the room stewards pantry so they loaded their carts "very early" every morning right outside our door. If you are a light sleeper or have trouble going back to sleep, stay away from this area. I was awakened every morning but able to fall right back to sleep. Our room steward was Putra, and he was awesome!

 

We had late seating in the Black Pearl dining room, table 170. Our waiter and asst. waiter were Christopher and Roy. Both were absolutely amazing! We couldn't have been matched better to our tablemates which is one of the reasons we decided to keep late seating, which we really don't care for. I guess we were afraid of what the other outcome could be. LOL

 

My bone of contention- Buffets! We had some of the rudest people on this ship when it came to stand in line at the buffet. Almost every single trip I made to the buffet I fell into the "person cutting in line" trap. "Can I just grab a yogurt, milk, butter, etc"? Then proceed to stand in line in front of you the rest of the time to fill up the tray! I am not a person who is confrontational as sometimes it really isn't worth it. The few times I did say something, they all of a sudden couldn't speak my language anymore. Hmmmm.....didn't you just ask in English? I have to say it was rampant throughout the ship and usually occurred from the older crowd. I am more than happy to let someone in who is feable or needs assistance but this was plain ridiculous. Don't they have buffets in other countries? LOL Lines were either very crowded or non existent. Just depended on your luck of when you walked in I guess. It wasn't the same everyday. I think I prefer the Glory size ships as they are just the right size and with the Splendor having more people on board, where are they supposed to go but stand in line right?

 

Burrito bar and Rottisserie were fantastic! Highly recommend them!

 

Astoria- was small but quaint. Very mild weather that day, and no rain.

 

Canada- we had awesome weather! Shorts for sure! Did a whale watching excursion and saw about 6 Orca whales. Awesome!

 

Most of you will not be doing this itinerary so no long reviews about the ports.

 

Cruise Director was Brad, and he was perfect. Didn't stay on the loudspeaker anymore than he had too. Nice pace from the last cruise I was on, where we couldn't get ours to stop announcing!

 

Debarkation- Had breakfast at 840am, somewhat full at the buffet. We went back to our room and grabbed our suitcases at 915am. Took the elevator down walked off the ship in a short but steady line, walked through customs with only a couple of people just standing there collecting customs forms and letting you walk on through. Took us 17 minutes from start to finish. Grabbed a taxi and then off to the airport. Easiest we've ever been through again!

 

Any questions? I'll be happy to answer if I can.:)

 

Thanks for the great review!!

About the rude people, we also had alot of rude people on our cruise May 24. I think people leave their manners at home while they are on vacation. Either that or they are just plain rude all of the time and thats terrible!!!

[victory2020]

we did this on the 31st & just wrote a letter to CCl begging them to add the itinerary at least a couple of weeks a year. If all of us who loved it does this (maybe?) they'll see there is a market for it.

I sent the letter to: Guest Relations

3655 NW 87th Ave

Miami, Fl 33178- 2428

 

 

At least send an email!

[southbayer]

Thank God someone has done that. On each cruise, on customer comments, I always tell them that I would love to see an L.A. to Vancouver round trip sailing. I know this route isn't desirable for the snow birds out there, but with the pacific coast and Vancouver being so beautiful they should offer it some months out of the year.... For those who agree with me -

 

Post it in the comment cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or write to Carnival.

 

 

[yogi2929]

My TA spoke with her RCL Rep. The Rep said that RCL was considering adding this itin on an occasional basis. If RCL adds it will Carnival follow? We could do a B2B - PNW & MR.

 

I requested this itin on my comment card.

[cali-croozer]

About boarding; I have read that if you want to get on the ship early you can check in early at the Queen Mary. But, it sounds like you just went to the regular check in around 10:30 and got on with the first group. We usually like to get to the port around that time ourselves. I'm just getting confused because I've never sailed out of a port that has more than one check-in option and am wondering what I should do. Any thoughts/comments?

 

Also, can I ask what you paid for your room at the Best Western........I can't seem to find any deals for park and fly specials when we are cruising in November (maybe it's still too far out for any deals?).

 

Thanx;)

[gtarbet]

Bankonus, Thank you for the great review. It was very helpful. We will be going on the Splendor in a few weeks and I am trying to figure out debarkation. We have a early flight out of LAX. It sounds like you did the self-debarkation. Is this the fastest and best way to go. I have heard mixed things. I did not know if it would be better to go to the purser's desk and tell him of our early flight and ask for help getting off the ship early. I beleive our flight leaves LAX at about 12:30. It is going to be cutting it very close. Any advise as to the best way to get off the ship.

[yogi2929]

About boarding; I have read that if you want to get on the ship early you can check in early at the Queen Mary. But, it sounds like you just went to the regular check in around 10:30 and got on with the first group. We usually like to get to the port around that time ourselves. I'm just getting confused because I've never sailed out of a port that has more than one check-in option and am wondering what I should do. Any thoughts/comments?

 

Also, can I ask what you paid for your room at the Best Western........I can't seem to find any deals for park and fly specials when we are cruising in November (maybe it's still too far out for any deals?).

 

Thanx;)

 

Check in when you arrive. It starts around 9:30 in froont of the Dome. Eventually they will move it into the Dome. If you are VIP, there is a little building between the parking structure and the Dome.

 

I have found deals under park and cruise or snooze and cruise. Google these.

 

Bankonus, Thank you for the great review. It was very helpful. We will be going on the Splendor in a few weeks and I am trying to figure out debarkation. We have a early flight out of LAX. It sounds like you did the self-debarkation. Is this the fastest and best way to go. I have heard mixed things. I did not know if it would be better to go to the purser's desk and tell him of our early flight and ask for help getting off the ship early. I beleive our flight leaves LAX at about 12:30. It is going to be cutting it very close. Any advise as to the best way to get off the ship.

 

They started getting off the ship around 8:45. VIP was taken off at 9:15. Zones 1-5 were already called at this point. It will take about 45 minutes to get to your terminal at LAX from the port. Self disembarkation is always an option.

[gtarbet]

Thanks that is helpful. Do you think that it is faster to self disembark or to tell them that we have an early flight? We have 3 kids, the youngest one will have trouble with her luggage but we do manage it on our own from the airport to the hotel etc. it all has wheels and that kind of thing.