Carnival Splendor ~ Photo Review 1/13/13

[QTPieRye]

After many months of anticipation and planning, the engine problems with the Splendor, the delayed repairs in P.V., and 1 day embarkation delay….. it was finally time!

 

Day 1- Embarkation Process

We arrived at the Port of Long Beach at approximately 11:00 a.m. on Monday, January 14th. What a nightmare! With the Inspiration arriving the same day at the Port of San Pedro, it was obvious that Carnival was very understaffed for the embarkation process. There were 3 people managing the check-in lines outside and the line wrapped all the way back around the Queen Mary. It was insane! Luckily, we beat the majority of the crowd and were on the ship in only 2 hours. I felt bad for the people that arrived after Noon. The ship ended up not embarking until approximately 1.5 hrs later than scheduled and all of the activities were revised accordingly.

 

 

 

Once on the ship, I immediately went to guest services and got the passengers switched in the cabins, which was no problem whatsoever and DH took kids up to the Lido deck to have lunch at our favorite spot, the Rotissorie :) Once finished with lunch, we went to our cabins and unloaded our carryons. By the time we were done unpacking our carryons, our luggage had already arrived and our cabin steward, Gilbert, was there to greet us with a smile. He asked if we had any special requests to let him know. So far, Gilbert has been our best cabin steward to date. He really took great care of all 7 of us (3 cabins) throughout the week!

 

As we finished unpacking our suitcases we set out to explore the ship with the kids. This was their first time on the Splendor and they loved it! We also enjoyed our first DOD on the lido deck, as we waited for the famous muster drill.

 

Immediately following the drill I headed up with my CC signs to for our CC sail away… since I wasn’t able to easily identify anyone, I simply hollered out “Is anyone hear from Cruise Critic”. Yes, they all looked at me like I was an idiot, but I didn’t care. I was bummed that we didn’t meet any of the people that we had talked to over the past several months :(

 

After exploring the remainder of the ship, we got changed and headed up to the Black Pearl for dinner. We had YTD for 7 people. The entire process, including the wait time for a large table was nearly 3 hours. Certainly not the most efficient, but survivable!

 

Once done with dinner we headed to the O2 Club, where we dropped off our 3 girls (ages 16, 17 & 18). They were having a meet and greet for the teens. Later we saw the girls around the ship, broken into groups, doing some sort of a scavenger hunt. They seemed to be having lots of fun! We headed up to hot tub, which was a first for us. It was just DH, myself, son and daughter's BF, and another 2 couples. We had a pleasant conversation and had fun. We ended up heading to bed around 11ish, as DH was not feeling well and had been fighting the flu :(

 

 

More to come :)

[QTPieRye]

 

 

[QTPieRye]

 

 

Muster Drill :)

[QTPieRye]

Cabins (6456- Aft Extended Balcony / 6446- Inside Cabin for 3 / 6473- Inside Cabin for 2)

When we arrived at our aft extended balcony cabin # 6456, it was obvious that this cabin was narrower than a standard balcony and much smaller than the L-shaped cabin we had last year. Overall, the cabin was nice with standard accommodations, etc. Due to the shuttering of the ship and noise from the Morocco Lounge, we will never book another aft extended balcony again. We did not feel it was worth the extra $100.00, plus you have no privacy whatsoever on your balcony.

 

 

View from our balcony :)

 

[QTPieRye]

 

 

Day 2- Sea Day

We woke up around 9 a.m. and to room service knocking on our door. After eating, showering and spending a little time on our balcony talking with our neighbors, we gathered up the kids and headed up to the Lido deck around 11 a.m. for the days activities. Most of the chairs were already taken or had towels, books etc on them, but we were able to find 4 chairs together. When the people next to us saw us sharing our chairs, they offered to move down, so we ended up with 6 chairs together. We had burgers and fries for lunch and spent the day watching the mixology contest, the hairy chest contest, ice carving, etc. Overall it was a fun day, even though it was chilly, windy and the seas were rough.

 

[QTPieRye]

Tonight was elegant night so we headed back to our cabins around 4:30 to get ready. After stopping at all of the photo opportunities, we arrived at YTD around 7 and were given a pager. We ended up sitting in the Splendor lobby people watching for nearly 1 hour. Once seated, service again was slow. The process took 3+ hours in total, which in my opinion is simply too long.

 

 

 

After dinner we changed our clothes and headed out for karoke and the disco with our oldest son, while the other kids watched movies under the big screen on the Lido deck.

[CWcruisers]

We used to get the aft wrap cabins on the Spirit, but after the third round, we deceided we couldn't take the shuttering anymore either.

 

I think in general, the cabins on the Splendor seem narrower than other ships. That was my first impression, I could be wrong, but that is how it seemed to me.

 

Enjoying all your photos and looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Crusin Karen]

We are booked on the Splendor in May from Manhattan. Given we have been on Spirit class ships that past couple times, we are looking forward to a "new ship." :pThanks for sharing your cruise with us! ;)

[QTPieRye]

Day 3- Cabo

We awoke early to make sure that we got an early tender. DH went to the lounge at 8 a.m. like instructed and he was told that they were not handing out tender stickers until 9:30 so we went back to the lounge at 9:20 and ended with Zone 6, which somewhat annoyed me because of what they had told him earlier, but whatever. We ended up getting off the ship around 10:00 (11:00 Cabo time), which was just enough time to catch a water taxi to take us over to Dock 1 where our excursion was departing.

 

WARNING: Don’t let the water taxi peddlers haggle you. The guy we used told us it was going to cost $3 pp to go across the marina. I told him I would pay $2 pp and he came back with $15.00 for all 7 of us. Perfect. Then when we got to the dock, he told us there was a $1 pp dock fee. I told him no bueno and that it was $15.00 or I’d keep walking further and get the price I wanted. He agreed to my price. I did give the driver of the tender a $5.00 tip, so in the end it cost $20.00 for all 7 of us.

 

 

 

[QTPieRye]

I had pre-booked the Buccaneer Queen Pirate Ship Adventure to Chileno Bay. The tour was scheduled to depart at 12:00 Noon, but we ended up not leaving on time due to a few passengers not arriving on time. Had I known they would wait for everyone, we could have simply walked the marina, but we were on Mexico time… which apparently does not exist! LOL

 

From the time we set foot on the shipt was fun. They had an open bar the entire trip, served lunch, did games, dancing, etc. Overall it was a fun experience and the kids had a blast! The snorkeling at Chileno Bay was much better than our past experiences to Santa Maria Bay. One of our guides got into water with us with food and there was an army of fish surrounding us. They also had a rope swing which was a lot of fun  On the way back, they did a cute little pirate show and had everyone dancing on the stage to Follow The Leader.

 

 

 

Once we arrived back at the Marina, we opted to walk back. It took us about 25 minutes to walk from Dock 1 back to Dock 5.

 

Once back on the ship, we ate dinner on the Lido and then headed out for our evening of fun!

[QTPieRye]

Son and me

 

[QTPieRye]

Note: Daughter's date was wrong on her camera!

 

 

[QTPieRye]

 

 

[QTPieRye]

Day 4 – Cabo

Today we opted to sleep in a little bit before heading into Cabo. We were onshore around 10:30 a.m. and had a nice relaxing day walking through the marina, shopping, getting hair braids, etc. Since the last tender was at 1 pm, we didn’t really have time for much more than that.

 

 

 

 

[Maraprince]

Does the ship have the new 2.0 upgrades?

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[QTPieRye]

 

 

[QTPieRye]

Once back on the ship, we headed up to the Lido deck for lunch and spent the day soaking in the sun and people watching :)

 

 

 

[QTPieRye]

Does the ship have the new 2.0 upgrades?

 

 

MARAPRINCE

 

Unfortunately, NO.

[gusandgidgetsmom]

Do you have any pixs of the inside cabin for three? We normally book a balcony or Ocean Suite and this time we have an inside room on the Splendor. I am having such a hard time not upgrading to a balcony but people are telling me the inside will be all right. This is a filler cruise for us until we go to Hawaii. We are not doing the same itinerary that you are, we cruise from NY but did the Mexico cruise a few years ago and loved it so your pixs are helping me relive that.

Thank you.

[Cruzface]

Great pics. What a nice family.

[4hunters]

Does the ship have the new 2.0 upgrades?

 

 

MARAPRINCE

 

No it does not.

[4hunters]

Also, to the OP I'm really enjoying your review. I've been on Splendor 3 times and we're going to miss her when she leaves. Sorry though that your trip was cut short by that delay in PV. :(

[wrigley80]

Nice Review......I haven't seen one on the Splendor for quite some time

[QTPieRye]

Do you have any pixs of the inside cabin for three? We normally book a balcony or Ocean Suite and this time we have an inside room on the Splendor. I am having such a hard time not upgrading to a balcony but people are telling me the inside will be all right. This is a filler cruise for us until we go to Hawaii. We are not doing the same itinerary that you are, we cruise from NY but did the Mexico cruise a few years ago and loved it so your pixs are helping me relive that.

Thank you.

 

I will check with my daughter when I get home tonight, as I think she took some. I will tell you that their triple cabin (6446) which was on the end, was a lot smaller than our previous inside quad we had on the Spirit. I am thinking it had something to do with it being on the end, because our other inside cabin for 2 people was larger (on the opposite side about 4 rooms from the end 6473).

[QTPieRye]

I forgot to add that on the 14th of January, which was our 21st wedding anniversary and originally scheduled to be formal night, DH surprised me with this :) It was waiting inside of our cabin when we arrived (it's no wonder he insisted I went to guest services right when we boarded). LOL Even after all of these years, I am so in love!