Just off the Splendor - 1st voyage since dry dock

[Cruisin'Trooper]

Background - Platinum CCL travelers and CCL Stock Holder. Spring Break cruise for my wife, son, and I. Picked this cruise since it would be the first voyage after its Dry Dock.

 

Arrival - We are FL locals so we arrived at the Port at 10:45am. Parking was off the chain since there were 7 ships in port (CCL, Disney, NCL, Celebrity, & Oceania). Organized chaos basically as thousands of people were coming and going and most had no clue how to get from their parking spot to their ship with luggage due to the 6 ships on our side of the port and the 1 across the highway.

 

We walked right in to the Terminal and went to the Platinum/Diamond lounge where we found about another 500 passengers. The computers were down so they had to manually check us in which did not work. So the lady took our boarding passes and sent us to the ship w/o the photo being taken. Upon entry to the ship they were ticked off that we did not have a photo and security had to do it on their end. For whatever reason the photo did not take and every time we made a purchase on board they denied the transaction due to the photo issue. Each time we had to go to Guest Services to get our picture made and each visit there resulted in the same comment "Your picture is there, I don't know why they cant see it ...." This got old about the 20th time - we quit making purchases .... their loss".

 

Ship - Well ..... I guess we expected visions of grandeur since she is fresh out of dry dock - that's our fault. We also were told a number of different things that they would be doing to the ship (mostly by CCL personnel) so that had our expectations high.

 

We had a balcony cabin on the Upper Deck. The room was very dusty, damaged furniture, filthy balcony (they did clean it on day 5), soiled cushions, and the mattresses and sheets were not new (this was validated by our steward). Bathroom showed signs of wear and light fixtures were covered in dust.

 

Common areas of the ship were dirty as well, many soiled cushions on chairs, broken fixtures throughout ship, and broken tiles in lobby, lido, etc. We did notice that the carpet was new in the shops and the casino tables seemed to have new felt .... so much for an immaculate ship fresh out of dry dock.

 

In the middle of the night, we were woke up to the PA system alerting crew to close water/air tight doors on 0, 1, and 2. Then an announcement from the Captain over and over advising of "some smoke" down below in an electrical panel. Later from others on 1 & 2, the smoke was super thick in some parts of the deck and the smell of burning oil/fuel was noticeable. Fire, smoke, whatever - made for an unnerving morning until we docked in Honduras and we could see daylight.

 

Ports of Call -

 

Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras were nice and we did an excursion in each port that was nice.

 

Costa Maya was skipped due to winds and waves and then the following announcement that we were returning to Cozumel for a passenger that needed medical attention. 6 hours later we arrived in Cozumel and were informed by the CD on the PA and I quote "As you can tell we are back in Cozumel but we are not going to stop since the passenger that needed medical attention has died so we are going to continue our trip back to Miami and your Fun Times is back up to date at this time". Thoughts and prayers to the family of this passenger.

 

Food - The lido was not as good as it normally is. Bland and no flavor for most part in everything. The lines went quickly for everything and it never felt too crowded due to the special Splendor layout.

 

MDR food was okay too, not bad but not great. Traditional CCL menu is still on the Splendor. They have not received the new American Table menu yet.

 

Entertainment/Talks - The 80s show was good. Majority of the cast probably wasn't born yet, but they did a good job. No more live bands, so the canned music was fine for this production but probably lacking in other CCL shows company wide.

 

The Future Cruise talk was informative and the CCL travel agent did a very good job.

 

The Platinum/Diamond cocktail party was nice. They did a good job with a little video and some light hors devours and drinks.

 

Disembarkation - We arrived back in Miami at 6:30am and the Platinum/Diamond folks were off the ship at 7:20am. It was nice to see that they docked at a terminal closer to our car and not the terminal we left out of :-) There were a total of 4 ships in port this morning (CCL, NCL, Celebrity, and Aida) so it probably wont be as chaotic for passengers today.

 

DRY DOCK DISAPPOINTMENTS - Just a quick list of what was not there and what not to expect. I only mention them since CCL personnel and other web sites claimed that this stuff would be there.

 

No Guys Burgers or Blue Iguana Cantina

No Water Works

No American Table or American Feast menus

The ship IS NOT as fresh and clean as you'd expect :-(

 

All in all, its nice to get away and we are blessed to be able to cruise!

Edited March 27, 2016 by Cruisin'Trooper

[SMSACE6]

Thanks for your report, and sorry that so many things were just not up to par.

 

I have heard/read here on CC that crew stay on board while ship is in drydock. It is too bad that they could not have taken that time to freshen up the cabins, by dusting, vacuuming etc, and otherwise making the cabins look fresh and clean.

 

I will be on Spendor, this coming fall, so I appreciate your report very much.

[cmptrwiz]

Thanks for taking the time to report!

[cmptrwiz]

we arrived in Cozumel and were informed by the CD on the PA and I quote "As you can tell we are back in Cozumel but we are not going to stop since the passenger that needed medical attention has died so we are going to continue our trip back to Miami and your Fun Times is back up to date at this time".

 

that is just crazy!

Edited March 27, 2016 by cmptrwiz

[sanmarcosman]

Thanks for your report.

KIRK

[LMaxwell]

we arrived in Cozumel and were informed by the CD on the PA and I quote "As you can tell we are back in Cozumel but we are not going to stop since the passenger that needed medical attention has died so we are going to continue our trip back to Miami and your Fun Times is back up to date at this time".

 

that is just crazy!

 

Really?!?! Wow! That's classless.

[AHS123]

CCL must train CD's in these situations to merely announce: " we no longer need to stop in Cozumel so we will proceed to..." unless the deceased died of a highly infectious disease, think Ebola, and the passengers need to be informed of that it's not necessary to announce the death of a passenger from natural causes.

Edited March 27, 2016 by AHS123

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[lbrandon]

Sorry to hear about the passenger that passed away. We were on NCL Dawn the same time you arrived in Costa Maya and wondered why your ship decided not to dock after both NCL and HAL had already docked safely. We also noticed an ambulance waiting at the end of the dock and wondered which ship they were waiting for.

 

It was very windy in Costa Maya that day. The HAL Veendam had a hard time docking too and had to circle round a few times.

Edited March 27, 2016 by lbrandon

[smarks]

Thanks for the report. We are sailing on her in May. I hate the dust part. We just got off the Sunshine and the dust was 1/4 in. thick in our cabin. I used lysol wipes and cleaned the cabin and removed all the dust, even from the board over the bed. I have never seen any ship that bad. We thought maybe they had blown out the vents. I didn't report it till the next to the last night when the dust was back and just as thick. I knew I had been breathing that stuff. So asked for a new filter and was told they usually don't have one but someone came in and put one in for us. Hope the next person could breathe a bit easier. Hope they get it fixed on the Splendor. Glad you still enjoyed your cruise.

[lbrandon]

The Splendor was actually the first ship to arrive in Costa Maya. Since there was a medical emergency onboard I wonder why they didn't allow Carnival to dock first.

Edited March 27, 2016 by lbrandon

[ccruisequeen]

Background - Platinum CCL travelers and CCL Stock Holder. Spring Break cruise for my wife' date=' son, and I. Picked this cruise since it would be the first voyage after its Dry Dock.

 

[b']Arrival -[/b] We are FL locals so we arrived at the Port at 10:45am. Parking was off the chain since there were 7 ships in port (CCL, Disney, NCL, Celebrity, & Oceania). Organized chaos basically as thousands of people were coming and going and most had no clue how to get from their parking spot to their ship with luggage due to the 6 ships on our side of the port and the 1 across the highway.

 

We walked right in to the Terminal and went to the Platinum/Diamond lounge where we found about another 500 passengers. The computers were down so they had to manually check us in which did not work. So the lady took our boarding passes and sent us to the ship w/o the photo being taken. Upon entry to the ship they were ticked off that we did not have a photo and security had to do it on their end. For whatever reason the photo did not take and every time we made a purchase on board they denied the transaction due to the photo issue. Each time we had to go to Guest Services to get our picture made and each visit there resulted in the same comment "Your picture is there, I don't know why they cant see it ...." This got old about the 20th time - we quit making purchases .... their loss".

 

Ship - Well ..... I guess we expected visions of grandeur since she is fresh out of dry dock - that's our fault. We also were told a number of different things that they would be doing to the ship (mostly by CCL personnel) so that had our expectations high.

 

We had a balcony cabin on the Upper Deck. The room was very dusty, damaged furniture, filthy balcony (they did clean it on day 5), soiled cushions, and the mattresses and sheets were not new (this was validated by our steward). Bathroom showed signs of wear and light fixtures were covered in dust.

 

Common areas of the ship were dirty as well, many soiled cushions on chairs, broken fixtures throughout ship, and broken tiles in lobby, lido, etc. We did notice that the carpet was new in the shops and the casino tables seemed to have new felt .... so much for an immaculate ship fresh out of dry dock.

 

In the middle of the night, we were woke up to the PA system alerting crew to close water/air tight doors on 0, 1, and 2. Then an announcement from the Captain over and over advising of "some smoke" down below in an electrical panel. Later from others on 1 & 2, the smoke was super thick in some parts of the deck and the smell of burning oil/fuel was noticeable. Fire, smoke, whatever - made for an unnerving morning until we docked in Honduras and we could see daylight.

 

Ports of Call -

 

Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras were nice and we did an excursion in each port that was nice.

 

Costa Maya was skipped due to winds and waves and then the following announcement that we were returning to Cozumel for a passenger that needed medical attention. 6 hours later we arrived in Cozumel and were informed by the CD on the PA and I quote "As you can tell we are back in Cozumel but we are not going to stop since the passenger that needed medical attention has died so we are going to continue our trip back to Miami and your Fun Times is back up to date at this time". Thoughts and prayers to the family of this passenger.

 

Food - The lido was not as good as it normally is. Bland and no flavor for most part in everything. The lines went quickly for everything and it never felt too crowded due to the special Splendor layout.

 

MDR food was okay too, not bad but not great. Traditional CCL menu is still on the Splendor. They have not received the new American Table menu yet.

 

Entertainment/Talks - The 80s show was good. Majority of the cast probably wasn't born yet, but they did a good job. No more live bands, so the canned music was fine for this production but probably lacking in other CCL shows company wide.

 

The Future Cruise talk was informative and the CCL travel agent did a very good job.

 

The Platinum/Diamond cocktail party was nice. They did a good job with a little video and some light hors devours and drinks.

 

Disembarkation - We arrived back in Miami at 6:30am and the Platinum/Diamond folks were off the ship at 7:20am. It was nice to see that they docked at a terminal closer to our car and not the terminal we left out of :-) There were a total of 4 ships in port this morning (CCL, NCL, Celebrity, and Aida) so it probably wont be as chaotic for passengers today.

 

DRY DOCK DISAPPOINTMENTS - Just a quick list of what was not there and what not to expect. I only mention them since CCL personnel and other web sites claimed that this stuff would be there.

 

No Guys Burgers or Blue Iguana Cantina

No Water Works

No American Table or American Feast menus

The ship IS NOT as fresh and clean as you'd expect :-(

 

All in all, its nice to get away and we are blessed to be able to cruise!

 

Guys Burgers and Blue Iguana probably not added because they are planning to send it to China in the next few years

 

 

 

I no longer see carnival from my condo front porch :(

[Jeepenfun]

Something else i saw in another thread a few days back was starting March 20th Splendor was supposed to get a steel drum band on board. did you guys see that on the ship?

[Star24K]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

[sternfanla]

Thank you for all the review.

I have always said that I would not take the 1st cruise out of Drydock.

I would wait a couple of months.

[shortstop95]

I was on the same cruise and the comments posted about the return to Cozumel are being exaggerated. The cruise director merely informed us they we would not be docking in Cozumel as previously told as the passenger had passed away. He asked for prayers for the family. It was handled well. The smoke incident was minor as well. With updates during the incident as well as the next day by the captain. Again handled well.

 

Others aboard can comment as well.

Edited March 28, 2016 by shortstop95

[Clarea]

Thank-you for the feedback.

[Joules1111]

I found the announcement that the passenger had died to be tacky both in the fact that they made a ship-wide announcement and in the way they told us.

[Keith1010]

Thank you so much for your report.

 

Keith

[kay1864]

DRY DOCK DISAPPOINTMENTS - Just a quick list of what was not there and what not to expect. I only mention them since CCL personnel and other web sites claimed that this stuff would be there.

 

No Guys Burgers or Blue Iguana Cantina

No Water Works

Curious as to who claimed these would be part of the upgrade, since the goccl.com site mentions only:

 

- Routine hotel maintenance

- Cosmetic enhancements such as new carpeting and tile work in lounges and public areas

- Addition of 6 new Scenic Ocean View staterooms and 2 Captain's Suites on Deck 9 forward

[cschwall]

Thanks for the report! We will be on the Splendor in a couple of weeks!

[missholly24]

Wow, that announcement is quite interesting. I guess with the severity of the itinerary change they would have to "justify" not stopping in Cozumel after all. Working in the medical field I would not have been bothered by that announcement as death is a part of everyday life (if it was done tactfully as some have reported). I'm hoping the OP is exaggerating the negatives a little, I cruise in a few days....eeks.

[MMLEsq]

I was on the same cruise and the comments posted about the return to Cozumel are being exaggerated. The cruise director merely informed us they we would not be docking in Cozumel as previously told as the passenger had passed away. He asked for prayers for the family. It was handled well. The smoke incident was minor as well. With updates during the incident as well as the next day by the captain. Again handled well.

 

Others aboard can comment as well.

 

That's my recollection as well.... Kevin (CD) said "passed away" not "died" and mentioned prayers for the family.

 

However, even though his words were not as blunt as previously suggested, I still felt informing all of the passengers was not the right decision, so I'm not sure I would agree that overall they handled the situation well. They could have simply said something to the effect of, "It's no longer necessary to make the emergency stop in Cozumel," and let everyone assume what they will (either that the passenger was doing better or had passed away). There was no need to confirm the worst possible news. I happened to be in an elevator about 15 minutes later and two boys, probably about age 12, were discussing how the announcement was inappropriate (I'm pretty sure they used that exact word). Later, at dinner, we heard from our tablemates how much the announcement had upset them (it was a widowed mom with two teenaged kids who just lost their husband/father unexpectedly six months ago).

[missholly24]

That's my recollection as well.... Kevin (CD) said "passed away" not "died" and mentioned prayers for the family.

 

However, even though his words were not as blunt as previously suggested, I still felt informing all of the passengers was not the right decision, so I'm not sure I would agree that overall they handled the situation well. They could have simply said something to the effect of, "It's no longer necessary to make the emergency stop in Cozumel," and let everyone assume what they will (either that the passenger was doing better or had passed away). There was no need to confirm the worst possible news. I happened to be in an elevator about 15 minutes later and two boys, probably about age 12, were discussing how the announcement was inappropriate (I'm pretty sure they used that exact word). Later, at dinner, we heard from our tablemates how much the announcement had upset them (it was a widowed mom with two teenaged kids who just lost their husband/father unexpectedly six months ago).

 

Good post. I'm sure there will be some coaching from the higher ups regarding this situation.

[shortstop95]

That's my recollection as well.... Kevin (CD) said "passed away" not "died" and mentioned prayers for the family.

 

However, even though his words were not as blunt as previously suggested, I still felt informing all of the passengers was not the right decision, so I'm not sure I would agree that overall they handled the situation well. They could have simply said something to the effect of, "It's no longer necessary to make the emergency stop in Cozumel," and let everyone assume what they will (either that the passenger was doing better or had passed away). There was no need to confirm the worst possible news. I happened to be in an elevator about 15 minutes later and two boys, probably about age 12, were discussing how the announcement was inappropriate (I'm pretty sure they used that exact word). Later, at dinner, we heard from our tablemates how much the announcement had upset them (it was a widowed mom with two teenaged kids who just lost their husband/father unexpectedly six months ago).

 

It didn't sit well with me at the time either. It's a difficult situation- I was just trying to inform folks the announcement wasn't as flip as the original poster made it sound.