Jamman54

Going on the Splendor in January. Loving your review. I think I should get back to work but i'm so into reading it I can't stop!

Glad you are enjoying it, and hope it answers any questions you have. If not, ask away!!

Do you think they will strip as much as they can off the ship before floating it away? I mean things like the water slide and other removable items that are on the top decks.

The waterslide, masts, and most of the funnel were already removed before yesterday.

Wonderful job! Thanks so very much for writing it!

I hope the fix it job will hold in the window , lol I thank you for taking the time to have them fix it! I can not wait to sit on that balcony! Thanks for all the pics :D

No problem getting the leak fixed. (I think). :) Check out my video of "your" cabin!!

Thanks for writing such a great review and the pictures were a bonus. I too looked forward to your daily posting. I feel like I was on the cruise with you and your family. The best part is I get to do it again in 2 weeks..Happy Cruising ;)

Thank You, and enjoy your cruise!!

Thanks for taking us down memory lane Jeff!!! It was wonderful!

I also agree that the staff was absolutely wonderful! Konrad and I both work in hospitality so we understand how hard their job really is. If any of them had a bad day you would never know it! They truly take pride in their work and it shows!

Weezie was the name of the assistant cruise director. I could take or leave Malcolm...but Weezie drew me in! She just cracked me up! Herself and the rest of the entertainment staff were awesome!

Also, as FTTF, we also had Zone 1. In case anyone was wondering.

I haven't gotten a chance to go through my pics yet but if I have anything that you haven't covered I will share them!

Hope we can meet up again someday!

Thanks Angie!! It was a pleasure meeting you and Konrad. Hopefully we can all cruise together some time in the future!!

Loved, loved, loved your review! We are sailing the Splendor on 9/14. It is our first Carnival cruise, and thanks to you, I feel like I've already sailed! Thank you so much for taking the time to post such a detailed review!!

You will love the Splendor. Enjoy your cruise!!!

Hey Everybody!! Just uploaded our first video from the cruise, a tour of our cabin. Enjoy!!

When's your next cruise. I'm already looking forward to your next report.

Not really sure when the next one will be. I've been unemployed for quite a while, so the cruise fund is just about dried up. Time to really get to looking. Will work for cruises!! :)

I went back down to our cabin, where I found Patti and Ryan getting dressed. Patti took a few more pictures on our balcony.

Ryan on our balcony….

Fuel Barge coming in to refuel the Carnival Splendor for her next cruise….

Last look at the best balcony we have ever had!!!!

At this point we went up to the Lido for our very last breakfast. Afterwards, back to the cabin to finish packing our carry offs, then said our goodbyes to Anak and Supartha. They could be our room stewards anytime!!

They began the self assist debarkation right around 7:20am. For those not familiar with this process, after Diamonds, Platinums, FTTF, and special needs, they debark by deck numbers.

At 8:30am, we made our way down to the Spectacular Lounge to wait for the Zone debarking to begin. Diamonds and Platinums are given Zone 1 tags, I’m not sure if the FTTF were also given Zone 1 tags, but I know they were in the first few zones. At 8:45, we were given the clearance to leave the ship. We went down the gangway, through the terminal and into the baggage area, where we easily found our luggage under the Zone 1 sign. We gave our bags to a porter, our declaration form to customs and we were out the door. The porter took us up the elevator to the parking deck, delivered our bags right to our car, and even loaded them in. We gave a big tip to this guy!!! As I left Pier 90 heading for the exit, Patti leaned out the window and took this final shot of the Carnival Splendor…..

The End

I’m not going to make too many comments here, as I think anything that I had to say, I did it during the course of this review.

Living in the New York area, cruising from here is more cost effective for us, since there is no airfare involved. I will always love the Spirit Class ships the best, and really miss the Legend and Miracle whom we sailed on many times when they were here. But the Splendor is ours now, so the million dollar question is, would we sail her again? Absolutely!!!! First of all, this was a happy crew. EVERY single crew member that we came in contact with this cruise, had a smile on their face, were extremely polite, and always helpful. I know that on every cruise there has to be the worst room stewards, the worst wait staff, etc, but we ran into the best all cruise long, so even the worst must be pretty darn good!!!

The cruise director Malcolm “Woo Hoo” Burn, you either love him or hate him, we just chose to ignore him.

Only real downer for me was the Serenity area, but I knew that before we even boarded. Hopefully, they will correct that mess in the future. Bring a hardhat for those errant golf balls!!

If you have any questions at all please ask, and myself, or my fellow roll call members will be glad to answer them for you.

And speaking of my fellow roll call members, it was a pleasure to finally meet all of you. We shared a lot of stories, laughs, and mass quantities of alcohol. I will never, ever, forget our day at HMC!!!

Finally, thank you all who have been following along from the very beginning, and for your numerous positive thoughts and comments. The whole purpose was to take you along for the ride, provide some information, and maybe help you decide if you would like to sail on the Splendor, or visit the ports of call that we visited. I would like to think that we accomplished that. For those that are booked on the Splendor, you will have a GREAT time!! Be sure to stop back here after your cruise and tell us about it.

Again, thank you all very much, happy sails, and bon voyage!!!

Jeff “Jamman” Maskall

The tugboat is helping us out….

Here we are at Pier 90…..

We are almost home…..

We are docked. It is exactly 7am…..

Our van is still there waiting for us….

This is the final topside photo that I took….

To be continued…..

The Intrepid Museum….

Approaching Piers 88 & 90….

British Airways Concorde on display at the Intrepid Museum….

Pier 88….

Good view of the parking on top of Pier 88….

We are pulling into Pier 90….

To be continued….

We have a tugboat escort….

The Chelsea Piers….

Approaching the Intrepid Museum…..

The sun is rising on the Freedom Tower….

The sun breaks over the Manhattan skyline….

The Empire State Building….

To be continued….

The Brooklyn Bridge….

Approaching Lower Manhattan….

Jersey City….

Sailing by the Freedom Tower….

The Erie Lackawanna Terminal….

Sailing up the Hudson River….

To be continued….

Well gang, just as it is when you are on an actual cruise, all good things must come to an end. So, with a little bit of sadness, I begin this final segment. Enjoy!!

Diamond / Platinum Debarkation information…..

I woke up at exactly 5am, don’t know why, but since I was up, I went out on the balcony to see where we were. It was still dark outside. I could see that we would be passing back under the Verrazano Bridge in a little bit, so I got dressed, grabbed the video camera, and went up to deck 11. I shot quite a bit of video, until we passed under the bridge. I got myself a cup of coffee, headed back to the cabin, and out on the balcony to take both video and pictures. I eventually wound up back on the upper decks until we were docked. The following pages contain some of the pictures I took as we sailed back into New York. Of course, Patti and Ryan slept through all of this!! Lol.

The Moon over Staten Island….

We have passed the Verrazano Narrows Bridge….

Approaching the Statue of Liberty….

Lady Liberty all lit up……

Ellis Island….

To be continued….

The full moon was rising in the east…..

Ryan had made a few more towel animals from his book and left them for us….

It was time to head to the Gold Pearl Restaurant for our last dinner aboard the Splendor. Once again Bertram and his assistants were at the top of their game!! I had the shrimp cocktail, portabella mushrooms, grilled chicken and bacon mac n cheese. Patti had the vegetable lasagna as her entrée. We both had the apple pie a la mode for our dessert. Constantine gave his goodbye speech…..

Then the wait staff sang their traditional “Leaving on a Funship” as their last song for us. I couldn’t help but get teary eyed…..

Bertram and one of his assistants……

We said our goodbyes, then headed back to the cabin to finish packing and put our luggage out in the hallway to be collected, since we would not be doing self assist debarkation. As Platinum members we were given Zone 1 tags.

Our final towel animal……

Patti decided to go out and walk around, then check emails, but I decided to just hang out on the moonlit balcony and have a few beers. When Patti got back we decided to call it a cruise. Ryan got in about 1am. Good for him!!!

Coming up next: Sailing back into New York, debarkation, and final thoughts.

The other Liner Pool ship model….

Back to the cabin where I found Patti just about done packing and relaxing on the balcony….

Our final sunset for this cruise was going to be another beautiful one!! Me and the setting sun….

Patti and the setting sun…..

Our final sunset……

To be continued……

These were the only two slices of pizza that I had on the whole cruise. Very thin crust, but not bad at all…..

Another view of the Liner Pool and hot tubs….

Ship’s Wake…..

The Liner Bar. I had quite a few drinks there!!!

Looking down from the Lido deck to our balcony. (above the C A)….

Liner Pool ship model……

To be continued…..

Cloud 9 Spa T-Pool…..

Splendido Pool….

Seaside Theater….

Looks like the pizza is ready…….

To be continued……

The Basketball court…..

The Splendido Pool roof is closed……

Cloud 9 Spa Entrance….

Cloud 9 Spa Hallway….

Cloud 9 Spa Treadmills….

Cloud 9 Spa Cycles….

To be continued….

More shots of the Chocolate Extravaganza…..

Afterwards, Ryan went to hang out with his Club O2 friends. We wouldn’t see him much for the rest of the day. Patti went to her last session of bingo, and though she didn’t win again, she finished WAY ahead of the game. I went up to the Casino to play blackjack for a while, and I lost a little bit, but I made sure that I also went home a winner. I don’t think that I mentioned this before, but the Casino staff were extremely wonderful, and very friendly. I had even run into one of the pit bosses that remembered me from my last Miracle cruise in 2010!

Back to the cabin, where Patti and I hung out on the balcony, and did some packing. A little after 5pm, I went out for a final picture tour of the ship. It’s something I do on just about every cruise I’ve been on. Kind of my way of saying goodbye, and thanks for the good times!!

The Liner Pool and hot tubs…..

Splash Park…..

To be continued…..

The Splendido Pool….

The famous Farcus Funnel….

Look how flat the ocean is today…….

Because the ocean was so flat, there were a lot of Dolphin sightings today, but I didn’t catch any on camera….

Back to the cabin for a little bit, turned on the tv, and was given this visual on how close we were getting to home…..

We decided to go up to the Rotisserie for lunch, and as usual, there was absolutely no line. I loved the chicken, baked potatoes, and salads up there. We then walked down the stairs right into the Chocolate Buffet which is only available the last sea day from Noon to 2:30pm. Patti took the following mouth watering pictures…..

To be continued….

Hello Everybody!!! Time to tell you about our final sea day……

I awoke at 6:15am, and a peek behind the curtain revealed that today would be another beautiful day. The seas were so flat, that you would think we were sailing on a lake. I grabbed our camera and made my way up to deck 9 to have a cup of coffee, and take some shots of what was another beautiful sunrise…..

I went back to the cabin to snooze for another hour or so. When I woke up for good, I wasn’t feeling like having breakfast today, but Patti did, and afterwards she went to the internet café to check emails and other things. The internet manager told her that he was refunding 25% of our plan price because the internet was not working right for two days. We were happy about that!!

I started getting things together to begin packing and prepping for when they would be kicking us off tomorrow. The last day is so bittersweet for me. Yes, you are still aboard and there are plenty of things to see and do, but in the back of your mind you are also thinking about what you need to do by tomorrow morning. Patti stopped by to get Ryan, and go to the morning session of bingo, (no winners). I decided to walk around and snap some more photos. I made my way down to the Lobby Bar and decided to have a few Thirsty Frog Reds….

I started to make my way upstairs. The photo gallery……

Looking up the Atrium to the skylight……

To be continued………

You guys aren't far from us- we are in East Windsor!

Yep, not far at all, but I bet you root for the Philadelphia teams! :D

I just have to remark on this because it kind of scares me. You are leaving Boston in mid December to drive to Manhattan and you are imagining a "casual drive of 4 hours" which includes stops? :confused: I imagine it IS possible, but this just scares me. You COULD have bad weather then and there is always the Christmas crowds in the city on top of the "regular crowds." Just sayin'.....I wonder if it is possible for you to drive down the day before, you could see the Christmas lights, the Rock Center tree, the window displays and have a relaxing embarkation on the ship. ;) Just MHO. Good luck and have a great cruise! :D:cool: I went to college up near Boston, in Beverly! Sorry for the highjack, Jamman. :o

Not a problem Karry!! Whenever information is being given or discussed, it is a GOOD thing!!

Do any of the cruisers remember the name of the Asst. Cruise Director? She was awesome and I can't remember her name at all! I know I should be keeping notes in my old age ;)

Sorry Angie, I have no idea, and a search thru the Fun Times didn't help!

and this shall be titled "waiting for the tender" lol!!!

The perfect title!!!!:D

Your pictures and your words tell the story as though I am watching it on television, great review, thank you for posting it!

Thank You!! still a bit more to come!!

Your pictures are fantastic. I can't wait to get on the Splendor in just 11 days!! What type of camera did you use?

Most of the shots were taken with our Sony DSC-H10. We also used our waterproof camera which is a Fuji FinePix XP60 for those in water and other shots.

You will have a GREAT time on the Splendor!!