GAPearl Goes Solo on the Splendor! 11/1/14 SJU-MIA Repo Cruise Review.

[cookiem]

Kim, Love your reviews. Followed all of them, but never posted. With your sense of adventure, you would be perfect for Amazing Race, if you could find a life minded friend. By the way toured with Sean & his mom in St Lucia.

[Sundown331]

Awesome review .... Dominica looks as beautiful as St Lucia, they both have that land before time look. This has to be the Island at the top of my bucket list and Grenada would be a close second.

 

I wish Carnival would make this itinerary a regular thing. I'd sign up for sure.

[wrigley80]

Just now getting around to your review (sorry) lol i love your reviews. You seem like you enjoy every minute life. Another great review. Thank you.

 

Hello Matt. Have you been cruising lately???:)

[Patty421]

I have read your past reviews and excited to see a new one. Loving it so far. You seem like a lot of fun. Hoping to see you one day on a ship! I have 3 currently booked and am going crazy with how long it's taking for them to get here. Hopefully reading your review will keep me tided over till January.

[gapearl]

Just now getting around to your review (sorry) lol i love your reviews. You seem like you enjoy every minute life. Another great review. Thank you.

 

Better late than never. lol Thanks for reading!

 

I should be working but I can't stop reading your captivating review!

 

You are a classy, stunning lady!

 

Thanks for the kind words. :)

[gapearl]

Never mess with a Gemini ! ( may 31st birthday right here )

 

someone once told me " you will get sick of cruising " I just smiled and said "Only when I'm dead " 😀

 

June 19 here. :D

 

I always say when I get to heaven, I'm going to look for Noah and see if he can put together another ark. I'll get on a boat however I can. :p

 

I should've stopped going to Lido after the disco every night! I don't want to see pizza or alcohol still! :p

 

And here I am wishing I had pizza more with you guys!

[gapearl]

I met this couple at the Casino bar. They were so nice. We just hung out and they let me pick their brains for what were the best ports of call and so on. We ended up talking for over an hour. Wish I could have got their names.

 

Hey there Big Guy! lol They were indeed so nice! I wish I could have talked to them more.

 

I am on page 11 now. Seems I just can not get caught up.

 

your NEW camera is taking awesome photos

 

Hopefully you're all caught up now! I'm getting ready to start on the next post. The new camera is indeed a good one. I don't like it as much as my Canon G12 but it's ok for now.

[gapearl]

Love your reviews - both commentary and pics!

 

And I just have to say, that I couldn't agree more with your comments about the DJ's on the Carnival ships. In my more recent experiences, they only play one type of music (which is usually THEIR type of music) and are not open to taking requests. If they do manage to get the dance floor full, it usually only lasts a song or two and then they go back to their favorite music which obviously isn't the crowd's favorite. A good DJ should take cues from the crowd and see what fills the dance floor and what doesn't! The night club used to be one of my favorite places on the ship to spend my evenings...but lately that hasn't been the case.

 

Still working my way through your review...can't wait to read more!

 

Misty

 

OMG I'm so glad to see someone else on this board has noticed the same thing about the music! Also I noticed when the partnership with DJ Irie started, there would be two DJs. This was awesome as one would play music and the other would be out working the crowd. I LOVED this. Now they just sit behind their glass wall playing music no one wants to hear and having no crowd interaction. I hope this eventually changes.

 

So much more on the way Misty!

 

You are the BEST! Absolutely love your reviews.

 

Thanks so much! Glad you're enjoying this one. :)

[gapearl]

Oh yes, the disagreement. Let's just say Kim handled herself quite appropriately with a closed minded individual.

 

Well thank you very much. *flips hair, twirls around and walks away*

 

Kim, Love your reviews. Followed all of them, but never posted. With your sense of adventure, you would be perfect for Amazing Race, if you could find a life minded friend. By the way toured with Sean & his mom in St Lucia.

 

It is my DREAM to make it on The Amazing Race! Unfortunately I have no one to apply with me. I was going to apply with my friend Jackie (from my Navigator review) but she found out she was pregnant a couple of months before we were going to go to the open casting. Maybe if they had a race for solo travelers. :rolleyes:

[gapearl]

Awesome review .... Dominica looks as beautiful as St Lucia, they both have that land before time look. This has to be the Island at the top of my bucket list and Grenada would be a close second.

 

I wish Carnival would make this itinerary a regular thing. I'd sign up for sure.

 

The southern islands are so beautiful. I hope these islands become regular port stops in the future. One of the crew on my Grenada catamaran said this was the first time Carnival has been there in 14 years!

 

I have read your past reviews and excited to see a new one. Loving it so far. You seem like a lot of fun. Hoping to see you one day on a ship! I have 3 currently booked and am going crazy with how long it's taking for them to get here. Hopefully reading your review will keep me tided over till January.

 

I'd love to meet all of you one day on a ship! January will be here before you know it. I booked this cruise 11 months out and it was here before I knew it. Keep reading!

[gapearl]

 

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Thursday, November 6

Cruise Day 6- Fun Day At Sea

 

As much as I wanted to get up and go work out today, I decided to let my body rest and slept in a little. I had done something active every day for the last 5 days, especially the day before in Dominica, and figured I had earned this break. I was up at 8:30 am to take a shower and head up to the lido deck for the morning. I made it poolside an hour later and there were still plenty of chairs free, but by 10 am they were all taken by the chair hogs. I saw chairs with towels and no bodies stay empty for much longer than the allowed 40 minutes. None of the pool activities had started yet so I ordered a mocha chocolate getaway and drifted off into La La Land.

 

 

 

 

 

At noon I was up again, hungry and ready to eat. I went to the rotisserie grill, which is upstairs in the aft of the lido buffet. Well well well, what do we have here?

 

 

For those of you reading one of my reviews for the first time, you really have to read the others to appreciate the significance of this. I'm a southern girl that has become quite appalled and slightly offended at what Carnival tries to pass off as cornbread.

 

This. Is. Still. Not. Cornbread.

 

 

My 10 year plan is officially changing because I've decided to go to culinary school. Forget the fact that my student loans will be paid off in the next 9 months. Sallie Mae and I are about to start all over in a new relationship. When I graduate from culinary school, I'll be applying for a job with Carnival Cruise Lines as a cook. I'll be trading my spacious three bedroom 1,700 square foot house that I have all to myself for a tiny shoe box cabin on a ship with a roommate. I'll start in the kitchen peeling the potatoes if I have to and work my way up to head chef from there. When I become head chef, not only will I be changing that dreadful curry chicken recipe from what I had yesterday, but I will be changing the cornbread recipe as well. If this is what I have to do to get Carnival to stop serving fake cornbread then so be it. If you can just be a little patient with me while I set out to accomplish this, you should be able to have some real cornbread on your cruise around 2024. It'll be worth the wait though, I promise.

[gapearl]

At 12:30 pm there was supposed to be a dance class on the lido stage by the pool to get ready for the Blue Iguana deck party tonight. 15 minutes after it was supposed to start, someone from the entertainment staff said they'd be starting in 5 minutes and invited people to come up. Well no one came and she just stood there the rest of the time talking to the DJ. If he would have played the Cupid Shuffle and if she would have gotten on the microphone and gotten the crowd energized, maybe they would have had some participation. It was disappointing to see them not even try.

 

This is how many people came up to participate.

 

 

Funship special drink.

 

 

Our official roll call meet and greet was at 1 pm in the El Morocco Lounge. We had about 200 people show up. About 50 people participated in the gift exchange, where you bring a small something from your hometown.

 

 

I got this pretty cool gift bag from Utah with a coffee mug, calendar, beer koozie, and sea salt. I cook with sea salt exclusively and can't wait to use this in my kitchen. Whoever brought this awesome gift, thank you so much!

 

 

We were supposed to have a couple of bartenders but Carnival got the times wrong and they didn't show up until 1:30 pm. It was nice to chat with more new friends I had been "talking" to all year. I left early but wish I had stayed a little longer to see Keith propose to his beautiful lady Suzette. Congratulations you guys! And Suzette, be sure to throw me the bouquet. ;)

 

I dropped by the art auction again for a few minutes and stood in the back as a lurker.

 

 

lfslifooiug;0[g9i9egejj;owiruv9soviwj;ofw; five hundred HEY hgvduf;gvoiuie;rogj;aeoigju;oiejasjlaxe

 

Uh-uh, I'm leaving.

 

I went to the shore excursion desk to book something for Grand Turk. As I was leaving I heard a call for operation bright star in the showroom backstage and saw a couple of officers go running back that way. I said a prayer for whoever it was for and hoped they were ok. I ended up back at the aft pool again where I ordered another drink and laid out about an hour. Eventually I left my comfy spot to go take some pictures around the ship.

Edited November 23, 2014 by gapearl

[gapearl]

The waterslide I never rode all week.

 

 

 

 

 

I never knew the ship had this.

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

A spectacular view!

 

 

 

There's a basketball court behind the whale tail.

 

 

Aft adult only pool.

 

 

 

A pink zebra exploded everywhere!

 

[gapearl]

The Pinnacle Steakhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

The rotisserie grill, upstairs lido aft, where they serve fake cornbread.

 

 

Lots of places to sit up here because no one really knows about this area.

 

 

The lido buffet.

 

 

 

Dessert station.

 

 

Mongolian Wok.

 

[gapearl]

Lido grill.

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Tonight was our second elegant night at dinner. I invited Sean to come join my table since we had an extra seat and he wasn't too happy with his tablemates.

 

 

Here's the right picture of the escargot. I'll never eat these but everyone seems to love them.

 

 

Not one but two orders of vegetable spring rolls. These are so good! I wish Carnival would package them and sell them at Kroger.

 

 

Roasted chicken.

 

 

I have no idea who ordered this or what it is.

 

 

I had my wcmc for dessert.

 

[gapearl]

This was our maitre'd, Konstantyne. He serenaded the ladies with his smooth voice tonight. What a handsome, charming, and friendly man he was! He came by to check on all his tables every night.

 

 

Our waiters danced to "Low" which is one of my favorites.

 

 

Me getting low, low, low, low.

 

 

Georgia Pearl in Vera Wang. Ladies, I'm proof that it really pays off to dig through the clearance racks at Ross. I saved 85% on this designer dress! :)

 

 

There wasn't much happening after dinner tonight. I didn't want to the see show in the theater and judging by the previous two deck parties the one tonight would likely be a dud, so I headed back to my room to get comfortable and do what I do every Thursday night- watch Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder. Well I fell asleep half way through Scandal and woke up half way through HTGAWM. Fail! I was so comfy in my Carnival bathrobe and really wanted to go right back to sleep, but I got dressed and headed out to see if I could find anyone hanging out. No surprise the club was dead again and the ship was quiet. I said hi to Jenna and her crew on the lido and went back to bed 10 minutes later.

 

What IS this exactly?

 

 

Up next: The most awesome view of the ship ever.

[Mkehlb]

Hi. We should be thankful they don't try to make hush puppies!

[gapearl]

Hi. We should be thankful they don't try to make hush puppies!

 

Oh the horror! :eek:

[rozeedee45]

Great pics. Your thread really makes me even more excited and confident about my first solo cruise on the Carnival Victory next week. Just being in the mix all out the ship taking and sharing photos seems like sooo much fun

 

 

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[rozeedee45]

* out and about the ship*

 

 

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[GreytRacer]

My friend Cheryl and I are in your aft pool picture! Cool! :-)