Splendour Of The Seas

[CruzR887]

The May 31st sailing was fantastic! One of our best cruises ever. I know it is very subjective, and the luck of the draw, but our room attendant, waiter, asst. waiter and head waiter, were the best we've ever had in our seven cruises over the last four years. We found the ship very enjoyable and the food, we felt, was very good, both in the dining room and Windjammer. The ports were terriffic and sailing into and out of Venice was spectatular.

 

I am no RCL cheerleader. We were on Brilliance in January and the food was so bad we cancelled a future Brilliance cruise. Diner service was slow and impersonale and debris on our balcony on the first day of the cruise was still there on the last. We only had enough time for a seven day cruise this time and love Europe and the Med so we took a chance and booked the Splendor despite our Brilliance experience. We are so glad we did. Again, it is very subject but for us this was a great cruise.

 

I would add this. We usually like a balcony, but with the weak dollar and high air fares we got an inside cabin, the very smallest on the Splendor. Do't do it. We've had E1 and D1 balconies and the difference in size was barely noticable. That is not the case with the smallest inside room, at least our cabin 6051. 1/3 less closest space. 2/3 less bathroom storage. The bed is against the wall with the chair at the foot so that the person sleeping by the wall must climb over your partner or climb over the chair to get out of bed. This, though was our fault and we dealt with it and it did not dimminish a very good week at sea.

[JennJ99738]

Thank you, CruzR887 for the great info. May I ask what deck your cabin was on? Oh, I see, Deck 6. I am going on a group cruise and just found out that my outside cabin is on Deck 2. Yikes! I have always booked my own cabin and gone for at least Deck 6 so I'm not happy but will suffer through. LOL.

 

Did you have any trouble tendering? And finally, what time were you able to disembark on Saturday?

 

Thanks again for the positive info.

[nicknish]

Hey ,

 

im on this ship on july 5th to the Med and was worrying as most ppl dint have great stuff to say. I hope i can come back with some positive reviews too. I too wud like to know when did u disembark , if ur ship docked in at 7am? I wud like to get out by 11ish , as i have a train to rome at 12. Do u think il be able to make it?Thanks

[cuise lady]

We were on the splendor in March 2007-now I realize that is awhile ago but we had a great time and the service was very good...we did encounter one problem in that on our first day at sea we awoke to a room that was flooded. the carpet was wet throughout most of the room (we had a cat d1) needless to say this was not the way to start out a crusie. I have to say though we were treated very well.. We were given a room to use for the day while they tried to dry out ours--when it became apparent that the room would take several days to dry out they moved us to a js-aft. what a great room! we also received tickets to the con lounge and in addition a voucher toward our next sailing. needless to say the service was more than was expected. I hope this helps in some way-I just wanted you to know that the service was very good

[Onessa]

We cruised Splendour's last eastern Med cruise last season (November 2008). Crew was great -- very attentive, very professional. Ship was clean and in good shape (some of the decor of the public areas are a bit dated). Pax our week were primarily US (because it was T'giving week). I'd do that cruise on that ship again. Can't speak to the TA.

[idoshoes]

What did you do in the ports Ships tours or private? Let me know your experirnce. So glad to hear the positive review of the ship I will be going on June 28th

[BallFour4]

Albeit a little old from 2006 here are some shots of the Splendour.

 

The ship is different from the Rhapsody in some ways, the dining room has a two story wall of glass versus round windows, the theater is not as nice and the ship just didn't feel as "classy" as others in this class.

 

For those that remember the old Costa Maya some images are here as well!

 

I need 29 days at sea...:)

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/548567126FHRsit

[donno]

I went on the Splendour last summer out of Venice and loved every second of it. I can't think of a single instance of bad service, the food was great (IMHO) and the shows ranged from soso to very entertaining. And the sail out of venice...yeah, that was something special...

 

check out my review for more info:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=42580

[CruzR887]

Hi everyone, sorry it's takien me so long to reply to your questions but I came home to find I had no internet service and Comcast can't figure out why. AT&T DSL is on the way!

 

Anyway, getting off the ship was a breeze. We had the ship's shuttle to the airport and we were there at 7:45AM The airport is only abouty 20 minutes or so from the port.

 

As far as the ports, we took the train from Piraeus to Athen. Got off at the Plaka and walked up to the Acropolis. We hired a private guide at a "guide station" just utside the entrance. With out a guided tour ruins can just be ruins. The stroy behind it all make it come to life. Cost 85e.

 

By the way I had printed instrutions on getting to the train station from the ship and found them wanting. It's about a 20-25 minute walk. Just leave the port terminal and turn left. Walk with the port on your left side until you see a pedestrian overpass. Just past it you'll find the train station a yellow building on the opposite side of the street.

 

Mykonos we did on our own. We did not go to Delos. Lovely, ovely island.

 

We took the ship's excursion to Olympia. There is supposed to be a train but watch the times. The train schedule didn't work for us.

 

There was bus drivers strike so all excursions in Corfu were cancelled. I ride a motorcycle and so we rented a scooter and went to the monestary and the palace and the old city. Turned out to be a great day.

 

In Split we did another ship's tour to the Roman ruins of Solin and the old and very neat city of Trogir. Trogir was great but we decided that when in Europe we'll never again do any ship's excursions. For the limited time you have being on a tour eats up a lot time waiting for the bus to fill and even the pace of the tour can be too long or too short.

 

There are scooters and cars that can be rented everywhere. This time of the year, and later in the fall I'd presume, you don't even need a reservation. A small car, off season, was about 45e and the scooters 20e. No special license needed. We decided we'd even rather pay for a taxi just so we can maximize our time while in port.

 

As far as tendering, it went off without a hitch. There was a bit of a line in Split for the return trip but one of the best things about a smaller ship is there are a lot fewer people waiting to be tendered!

 

Hope this helped.

[goldiemom]

Thank you so much for the information. I will be on the Splendour in the fall. I was wondering if you had enough time to visit anything else in Athens? How long was your tour of the Acropolis? We have a rental car already reserved at Katakolon and Corfu. I guess no International Drivers License is needed.

[CruzR887]

Goldiemom,

 

We got off the train in the Plaka area, had lunch and then walked up to the Acropolis. The tour itself was about 45-minutes to an hour. We then walked back down to the Plaka area for an hour or so before heading back to the port.

 

The drive to the monestary, I forget the name, statrs with a "P", was very nice and that part of Corfu is beautiful, with a coastline that reminds one of Capri. Very nice area. The Achillion Palace is nice, but if I were to do it again I'd concentrate on the northern part of the island for the better scenery. By the way the roads on Corfu are very well marked.

 

As far as the drivers licenses, I didn't need one for the scooter and I've heard of others who rented a car but had not planned to, so I guess it isn't required.

 

Have a great time.

[idoshoes]

Glad to hear it is easy to rent a car and an international license is not necssary. I hear the car rental p lace in Corfu is at the pier. and the car rental place in Mykonos is a mile and a half away from the pier. Please confirm. If this is true is there a shuttle from the ship in Mykonos to town where the car rentals are available

[CruzR887]

idoshoes,

 

Corfu is a large island an a fair sized city, so it depends on what company you use. There is a shuttle, but it takes you from the pier to park in downtown Corfu.

 

The walk from the tender drop off to the car rental places I saw was not far at all, the equivilent of a three city blocks, perhaps. The tender drops you of right in the middle of the shopping and commercial part of Mykonos.

[idoshoes]

Thanks I appreciate the information you sent

Looking forward to the cruise

[feistytigger]

just back from the june 14, 2008 sailing! i don't have time to go into much detail, but here's a 10,000 foot overview.

 

the good: the ports. omgosh, the ports were so awesome. totally worth just about any condition on the ship. the activities were good - there was lots of dancing; most of the shows were tolerable; the cruise director staff was terrific. we liked the climbing wall and mini-golf.

 

the bad/mixed: food was poor to fair - limited options, not very tasty most of the time, not particularly nicely presented, and sometimes very limited availability (i was surprised to find that we'd been spoiled by carnival - who knew?!). service was poor to excellent - the people who worked with us on a regular basis (steward, waiter, assistant waiter) were good, but bar service was poor and the windjammer folks could be downright rude at times. the small number of bars was frustrating to my friend with a soda card; she had trouble using it much other than at dinner in the dining room. we couldn't believe how tiny the showers were; i was relieved to be finished with mine each day whereas i normally enjoy getting clean.

 

all that said, i'd still recommend to someone wanting to go to those ports with only a week's vacation to go on the cruise. i'm glad we did.