Report from Splendor 9 day cruise 12/08-12/17

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

1 hour ago, jctdlt said:

Herb/Sheila how was swimming with pigs?  Our daughter is doing this in January.  Enjoy the splendor.

Well….. Herb took the tender to the island with others to be at the desk at 11:25 am. They got there, presented their shore excursion tickets and we’re told the only tour scheduled was at 8:30 am. No one knew it was canceled. So… Herb said…. He showed up but the pigs didn’t. 
Everyone was disappointed except the pigs. 
sheila

[mrlevin]

12 minutes ago, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

Well….. Herb took the tender to the island with others to be at the desk at 11:25 am. They got there, presented their shore excursion tickets and we’re told the only tour scheduled was at 8:30 am. No one knew it was canceled. So… Herb said…. He showed up but the pigs didn’t. 
Everyone was disappointed except the pigs. 
sheila

Wow, very disappointing (as we get on next week and have excursions in most ports).  Who is in charge of Destination Services onboard?  

[flossie009]

The ‘A’ team are looking after us on board Splendor:

 

 

Well under 600 guests for this cruise, with the vast majority being from the U.S.A.

[mrlevin]

Susan, thanks for the staff information; do you know who is Social Hostess?  Can you ask John if his family will be joining the ship for Christmas?

 

thanks,

 

Marc

[RachelG]

Loving all the reports.  Can't wait to board Jan 6. 

[califsealion]

Thanks for the updates!  I'm disappointed to hear the pig excursion didn't work out - I've heard about that island and it sounds fun.

[flossie009]

6 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Susan, thanks for the staff information; do you know who is Social Hostess?

Clair is the Social Hostess

 

6 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Can you ask John if his family will be joining the ship for Christmas?

John’s family will not be joining him on board

[BNguy]

Last night my wife and I had a great dinner in Chartreuse and I thought i give you some pictures to give you some idea.

 

Our appetizers were:

Alaskan crab meat wrapped in Daikon Radish, all which sat in Melon juice, my wife declared it wonderful

 

Meanwhile I had the Emmenthal-Blue Cheese Soufflé which came with a onion sauce

What looks like something dark on top is really a hole opened up to pour the onion sauce inside the soufflé.  It also was quite good

 

Next we both enjoyed some Lobster Bisque

 

Our Main courses were

Baked Lobster Tail which sat on top of Scallop Mousse and Asparagus

 

and Chicken Supreme, there was a lot of description of this menu item, I just knew it tasted quite good.

 

Finally for dessert we each had the Lemon Bavarian Cream with berries

 

Everyone is this restaurant made us feel special and didn't look down upon as if we didn't understand what some of the menu items meant.

 

Seas last night was what I'd call medium along with some gusty winds, just now they announced we are running about 1 hour late getting in San Juan.  Because we knew it was going to be a lazy morning we tried Compass Rose for breakfast.  The options are basically limitless, there are so many ways you can have breakfast.

 

We chose Blueberry Pancakes, a Fruit Plate and Waffles which the next 3 pictures show

 

 

 

That's all the food "porn" for now.  We just booked another cruise this morning after breakfast so now it's time to get prepared to visit San Juan.

 

 

[kjbacon]

Enjoying your report so much! Great job. It all looks delicious but that lemon Bavarian cream is a wow. Keep that food porn coming!

[1982CruzStart]

Thanks so much for all the pictures and commentary. It is wonderful to be 'along' for your trip.  Have a super time.

[flossie009]

17 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Clair is the Social Hostess

Update: Clair Wilson is leaving Splendor at the end of this cruise (Dec 17th)  and Annabelle will take over as Social Hostess

 

[flossie009]

Some food photos from Pacific Rim:

 

Duck & Watermelon salad

 

Soft shell Crab Tempura

 

Duck Spring rolls

 

Korean Lamb Chops

 

Pink Tiger Prawns

 

Fried noodles

 

Coconut Tres Leches

 

 

[Gilly]

@flossie009 did you have the paired sake?

[flossie009]

3 hours ago, Gilly said:

@flossie009 did you have the paired sake?

No, Sake is not our favourite tipple

 

[kjbacon]

12 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Some food photos from Pacific Rim:

 

Duck & Watermelon salad

 

Soft shell Crab Tempura

 

Duck Spring rolls

 

Korean Lamb Chops

 

Pink Tiger Prawns

 

Fried noodles

 

Coconut Tres Leches

 

 

Wow, these are great pictures and a meal that I look forward to in just a week or two! Hard to pick but I think the duck salad and the coconut tres leches might look the best. Thank you for this post.

[Gilly]

8 hours ago, flossie009 said:

No, Sake is not our favourite tipple

 

 

Not particularly ours either, but it was interesting to sample the pairings and taste the wide variety of flavours of what we'd always thought to be simply "sake".  In the same way as all red wine doesn't taste the same, each sake was distinctive and complemented the dish well.  Of course, we could never repeat the exercise at home, so we thought it a good opportunity to experiment 🙂

 

[mj_holiday]

While not a sake fan, would like to try some recommended with various food. The last and only time we have been on Explorer and ate at Pacific Rim (twice) didn’t see any kind of sake menu. Do you have to ask for it?

[Gilly]

17 minutes ago, mj_holiday said:

. The last and only time we have been on Explorer and ate at Pacific Rim (twice) didn’t see any kind of sake menu. Do you have to ask for

 

We hadn't noticed it before, but I guess we spotted it on the menu.  It was definitely a suggestion and not something we'd have thought of ourselves.

[1982CruzStart]

Thanks Susan. Great pictures.

[Zqueeze1]

What a great thread to read and revisit our cruise memories!  Great job and awesome pics.  Enjoy your cruise and keep writing. 
Z and TB

[ronrick1943]

Nice food photos———-have wonderful cruise.  Thank you

[BNguy]

I know I'm a bit behind on reporting, and hopefully will have some later today.  But when I got up this morning, this is what greeted me.

 

 

This is St. Johns, Antiqua, hope everyone is doing well

[Huggsy]

With 9 weeks to go and reading all your reports & seeing the photos I'm bursting at the seams here! 😂

[BNguy]

Going to try and catch up with things.  We were due to arrive in San Juan at noon but due to strong winds and current we got a bit behind.  We were finally cleared to get off the ship about 1:10.  No problem as our tour was scheduled for 1:35.  My wife and I had decided to take the small city tour and then a rum distillery tour.  That particular tour had been scheduled to go to the Barcardi factory but it then got changed.  Our tour started off visiting the Castillo San Cristóbal, the fort in Old San Juan.

 

 

View of the shoreline from the top of the fort.

 

Our distillery tour had been changed to tour this facility

 

This place specializes in attention to detail and less to quantity.  Every part of the process is touched by people, not so much by machines.

 

Our course at the end they offer a cocktail to "sample" their product.

 

The biggest issue on the return to the ship was that Puerto Rico was celebrating some 500th anniversary and EVERYONE near San Juan was coming into town.  Our tour bus got stuck in the traffic and at one point we only traveled about 1 block in 45 minutes.  Several couples including us, got up and demanded he open the door so we could walk.  It was only 3 blocks and we made it back just fine.

 

Our experience when in San Juan, no vaccination card checking, no passport or government photo document, only the ship card was checked several times.  Since we didn't wander around we don't know how private business was dealing with that in town.

 

Dinner that night was in the compass rose, sorry I forgot to take pictures but it was a pretty simple meal, shrimp cocktail, caesar salad, thin prime rib and dessert of Key Lime Pie.

Although here is a picture of the Key Lime Pie that was served.

 

Entertainment this night was a blockbuster, at least in my opinion, the title of the show was Broadway in Concert and honestly we sat there enthralled for the entire 50 minutes of the show.  The production staff is great and got two standing ovations.

 

That night was a bit rougher on our way to Basseterre, St. Kitts but again we both slept fine and we pretty much arrived on time though instead of using a new pier, we had to tender and the rougher waters made tendering "interesting".

 

Our excursion for the day was to ride the St. Kitts Scenic Railway.  During the 30 minute trip to the boarding site we learned about St. Kitts by a very energetic driver.  Soon our train arrived.

 

Each car is a double decked, with the top being open and the bottom enclosed and air-conditioned.

 

The trip is 17 miles one-way and covers about 2/3rds of the island, you are bused the other part.

All the crossing of roads are with manual gates

 

They do serve drinks along the way, many rum based drinks and soft drinks

 

Native dancers come through the cars showing off their skills

 

The ride lasts about 2 hours

 

Then there was a quick ride back to the ship, in order to get ready for the Christmas sing-a-long

 

Yes this would be the first Christmas celebrated on the Splendor since last year never happened.

It started off with the arrival of Santa Claus

 

 

Boogie then came and greeted my wife!

 

Boogie and Kasia played some songs and the singers from the production staff also sang, but to me the highlight of the night was John Barron's singing of Silent Night.  I recorded the entire sequence but it won't attach here.  Perhaps when I get home next Friday evening, I can post a link to the song on my youtube account, we shall see.

 

Dinner for us was again in the Compass Rose with waiter Billy (a newly upgraded "runner") and he is extremely great to be around and Antonio our wine steward is keeping my wife and me happy with the wine selections. (but sorry no pictures, I'll try better tonight!)

 

Last night was a very smooth night for us, both of us slept well again.

I'll continue all this in another post a bit later.

 

 

[BNguy]

We just got work that St. Barts call was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas.  So now we have 3 sea days to get back to Miami.  I'll be updating events since my last post later today.