Saint Greg's Splendor - Seattle to Alaska - Live - May 24-31

[Webecruzen]

Thank you for a wonderful review. We are off to Alaska on Holland America round trip Vancouver in July.  Port fees and taxes only.  Oh, and the crazy air fare….

[Saint Greg]

[Saint Greg]

Inflight snack

 

 

[Saint Greg]

Inflight meal..chicken.

 

 

[Saint Greg]

[Saint Greg]

[Saint Greg]

They had about 400 movies/tv shows you could watch for free

 

 

[Saint Greg]

[Saint Greg]

Lots of windmills south of Wichita Falls

 

 

[Saint Greg]

Texas motor speedway

 

 

 

[luvcruzing]

Great job, as always, Greg.  Thank you.

[princess76021]

Welcome home!!!

Hugs

[Saint Greg]

[19cruiser59]

Thanks for the great review and fabulous photos !

[Saint Greg]

[n6uqqq]

On 5/30/2022 at 12:30 PM, Saint Greg said:

You go doe the buffet get to crab legs and lobster. Then realize you’re at the seafood shack.

 

Formerly known as the Burrito Bar. Got to make way for the pay venues! 

[Cruise, J.D.]

Thank you for the great review! 

[Saint Greg]

[aztekpm]

Thanks for the great review!

[Eli_6]

We just got home to Houston a couple of hours ago from the same sailing.  Had a great time!  We also got the same letter about noro virus. We did see a lot of people in hazmat suits and cleaning rooms and it put a little damper on the last couple of days of our cruise, but otherwise we had an amazing time.  And debark was quick and easy. We were off the boat by 6:45 am. We were at the airport and through security before 8 am. Made our 10:12 flight with plenty of time to spare. 

[land64shark]

6 hours ago, RollTide1966 said:

 

Out of curiosity, you posted a letter that went out about passengers having a some gastro issues.  Did anything come of that or was it a non-issue best you could tell?  

My daughter on the cruise got Norovirus late Friday night. She threw up 6 times and had diarrhea as well. She ate nothing at all on Saturday and stayed in her cabin, missed Juneau. Sunday she "felt better" and ventured into Ketchikan, but was weak. Nibbled on cornflakes and eggs...and regretted it. Monday she said she felt fine, but still didn't want food. She barely touched her dinner in the steakhouse. Today, she is beginning to get her appetite back (now that she is off the ship). Interestingly, she says she was able to drink alcohol for the last couple of days, just not food.

 

She also said she talked to a bunch of people that were affected from as early as Wednesday. She said people were talking about their "food poisoning" on the bus back to the airport, oblivious to the Norovirus outbreak announcement and information letter.

 

None-the-less, she still said it was a good trip!

[Eli_6]

10 minutes ago, land64shark said:

My daughter on the cruise got Norovirus late Friday night. She threw up 6 times and had diarrhea as well. She ate nothing at all on Saturday and stayed in her cabin, missed Juneau. Sunday she "felt better" and ventured into Ketchikan, but was weak. Nibbled on cornflakes and eggs...and regretted it. Monday she said she felt fine, but still didn't want food. She barely touched her dinner in the steakhouse. Today, she is beginning to get her appetite back (now that she is off the ship). Interestingly, she says she was able to drink alcohol for the last couple of days, just not food.

 

She also said she talked to a bunch of people that were affected from as early as Wednesday. She said people were talking about their "food poisoning" on the bus back to the airport, oblivious to the Norovirus outbreak announcement and information letter.

 

None-the-less, she still said it was a good trip!

There were DEFINITELY signs of it around the ship if you were paying attention even for people who didn't get it. Lots of people in hazmat suits and with cleaning equipment.  I also had someone throwing up in the stall next to me by the main pool on day 4 or 5 of the cruise.  Super gross and I went back to my room and immediately took a shower.  I don't know why they would be out and about while still throwing up unless it was a staff member throwing up in the bathroom.

[Roscoe13]

5 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Look at that timing.

 

 

Did you bet with Earl Hafler on actual arrivals and departures vs ETA's?

[Saint Greg]

I enjoyed cruising out of Seattle. There is a lot to do there pre-cruise. In two days I didn’t get everything I wanted to do done. That was with a boundary I set for myself between the stadiums and the space needle. I can expand that and come up with even more to do on a future trip.

 

I liked having the link train. A $3 ride from the airport was great. I think staying near Westlake station was smart. I’m not a fan of the uphill walk from the waterfront. I have heard there are elevators that have been down due to covid. I personally didn’t see any. The uphill walk could be minimized by backtracking through pike place market then walking back since the streets seemed to be more level in that area. 

 

The port was great. The line was long but it moved fast. The mobile printer for boarding passes was nice. And they once I got through the line, I walked right on the ship. It was the  earliest embarkation I’ve had since the restart.

Debarkation was also quick and easy. They don’t have the facial recognition yet but the manual process didn’t seem to cause much of a delay.

 

No problems with the carnival transfer other than a lack of signage indicating where the transfer bus is located. And I didn’t appreciate the driver’s handling of my luggage.

Splendor is a good ship. It basically feels just like a conquest class ship with the comedy club of a Dream class ship. 

 

It is most similar to a conquest class ship but they have changed that worthless bar across from the deck 4 aft dining room into a nice red frog pub. I don’t like that it’s mostly just a karoke bar. They have nice TVs in there that just tell you about mask wearing and whatnot. Let’s put some sports on those TVs.

 

Another difference is the location of the Serenity area. It’s in the aft pool area which is great because it has a pool. They moved pizza away from there minimizing the number of kids in that area. Not a fan of the bar. It’s a two sided bar that shares bartenders with the non-Serenity side and they really stay on the non-Serenity side. It’s hard to get a bartender on the Serenity side when they’re busy.

The roof over lido deck is great for Alaska. Splendor should always do cruises in areas that have poor weather for this reason.

 

My room was great. Quiet, comfortable. I slept better on this cruise maybe than any other I’ve been on.

Not fan of Stewart pushing morning service. This one pushed harder than any of the others and even cleaned my room in the morning a few times.

 

MDR food was mostly good. I can’t think of any major problems. This is the first ship that mostly seated me by windows and without people next to me. The hostess never knew my name like the one on Glory did after the first day. It’s not a big deal to me but it just magnifies how good the one on glory was knowing my name after the first day.

Steakhouse was great. The steak I had the first night was maybe the most perfectly cooked one I’ve had on carnival.

I only had Guy’s burgers once. It was bad. The fries were wrong. The bottom bun was soggy and they didn’t have the full compliment of toppings. They did add more toppings as the cruise went on. The fries didn’t change. I didn’t get another burger.

 

Masala tiger was an nice change to try something different.

Comedians were good. The first two probably didn’t get a fair shake because I was distracted the first night with my luggage situation. PJ Walsh is probably the funniest I’ve seen so far this year. Kyle Grooms does a great Barack Obama voice/impression.

 

I thought Andy did a fine job as CD. I did like the bonus comedy show he provided. I didn’t like the scheduling of it because he hurt one of the comedians with it. Pushing it back 15 minutes would solve that.

 

I feel like there was less comedy overall because it seems like the other ships I’ve been on since the restart have had some form of comedy in the main lounge. Either late night showcases several nights, a full slate of comedy when the dancers are off, or all of the above. I want to say they had two pg shows in the main lounge one day at 4:30 and 5:30 but no adult shows other than Andy’s show.

The alchemists were both good. I personally think FJ is the better of the two. 
 

I enjoyed all of the ports. 

 

I’m glad I booked the glacier explorer. I got a great look at a whale and got to see the only bear I saw on the entire cruise right there on that excursion.

 

Ketchikan has things you can do right off of the ship. You could make a day of it without an excursion. I did enjoy my excursion and it’s a pretty low priced one for Alaska. I do recommend the saloon and Tracy’s crabs.

 

Juneau has a lot to do. I’m glad I did Mendenhall glacier at my own pace. That’s an inexpensive day with $50 glacier bus.

 

Icy Strait point is the one I was worried about and it was maybe my favorite. Guaranteed eagle sightings. Guaranteed whale sightings. Bars with good local beers and good food right there by the ship. Definitely try that halibut pizza if you go. Free wifi. The zip line is right there. The tram that takes you to the top of the mountain for $50 is right there. Want to go to town? $5 round trip. They had the free tribal show I missed. There’s a lot to do right there in the port area at ISP.

 

I would go back to Alaska. I don’t know that I’d pay top dollar for it. But it did leave me wanting more. There’s more I want to do in Seattle. I want to see more bears in Alaska. I want to go to Skagway. I could see another trip coming. Maybe even next year. I haven’t found anything for next summer yet. I may add Alaska to my search.

[Saint Greg]

Thanks for following along. Lots and lots of stuff from this trip will be posted on my website throughout the course of the summer. Usually with better detail than I’m able to do live. 

 

Eleven weeks from Saturday I’m flying to New York City. 

 

I can tell you I’m going to be trying out the big front seats on Spirit for the first time. It’s the closest they have to first class. 

 

I’m staying 4 nights at the Warwick in NYC. I have tickets for a Mets game and several Broadway shows. And I’m going to be doing all of the sightseeing. It’s going to be Seattle on steroids. 

 

Then I board Carnival Magic for a 5-day overnight Bermuda cruise.

 

Should be a lot of fun. I’ll post that thread here. So if you subscribe here you’ll get the alert.