Splendor Oct 14-22 Eastern Turned Western Quick Review

Just back off of Splendor and wanted to get a short review of some of the good and unfortunately bad points of the trip. Just to start we did have a great vacation, it's what you make of it so we made sure we had fun and enjoyed the trip, but it could have been better had Carnival tried a little harder. Understand the change in itinerary due to the hurricanes, would have liked going South instead of West, but what can you do.

Low Point - Embarkation, in a word "awful". We arrived at 11:50 for our 12-12:30 arrival time and finally got on board at close to 2:00pm, no signs, no marking of lines, no friendly staff helping direct people. The consistent theme from what we heard was it was the worst most people had seen. I started sending Carnival messages through their FB page but did not get a reply.

We did not meet our cabin steward until the second day, we asked a steward in the hallway if he was in charge of our cabin or else we may not have met him then. Was fine after that, but was a sign of what was to come. The room 7225 balcony was fine, bed comfortable and had no issues with room. Good location forward.

Dining - Don't know what is going on but we averaged over 1 1/2 hours for dinner. Wait 20 minutes get bread and order, another 10 minutes and wine shows up, 15 minutes later appetizers arrive, 30 minutes later main course arrives, 15 minutes later dessert menu, 15 minutes later dessert arrives. Had to ask our waiter one night what was taking so long, he looked confused, but of course everyone was trying to do the dance and song instead of serving meals. Most of our meals arrived just warm and usually slightly cold, didn't send back because we had already waited so long. Saw a couple of people storm out due to wait. Breakfast in MDR was fine and recommended. Buffet is an odd layout and tended to have long lines and tough to find a place to sit.

Serenity - no pools or whirlpools available, bar service was primarily go to bar yourself, but it was for the most part quiet and relaxing.

Entertainment - started watching a couple of shows and just couldn't stay, comedians were good but lounge is very crowded and usually ended up standing unless you showed up 15-20 minutes early. Music was good enjoyed the band in the atrium each evening, they were fun.

Ports - Princess Cay-basic beach day, drink service good, we sat at the far left of the beach if looking from the ship, quiet and relaxing. The beach itself is very rocky and watched a lot of people stumble and fall trying to get to an area without rocks. Beach lunch was a no go for us, line was very long and we didn't want to wait for burgers. Spouse ended up waking up the next day with sand flea bites all over her, made for an itchy rest of the week.

Ocho Rios - Our least favorite port in the Caribbean, we did a little shopping in town and then had lunch at Margaritaville and used their beach before going back to ship.

Grand Cayman - Taxi to Calico Jacks, rented chairs and umbrella, got bucket of beers and enjoyed the beach, some shopping in town and back to ship.

Cozumel - Have been here several times and tried something new this time, the Cozumel Bar Hop to the Eastern side of the island. Best part of trip, loved it and would do it again and again.

That's it for now, may do more later but tired and work calls tomorrow.

Thanks for your objective feedback. Not a good experience with the MDR Service!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the report.

Thank you for your review/report.

Keith

We had the same dining room experience on our back to back cruises the two weeks before yours. Most nights we left before dessert because we had already been there two hours or more.