Hesitations on booking the Splendour?

[Jen516]

We are considering booking the Splendour for next June for a Greek Isles cruise for our 10 year anniversary. We have a few things holding us back:

 

1. Age of ship -- is it worn, old and/or tired?

2. Kids on ship -- we are trying to get away from ours for this special trip and don't want a million kids running around. How is it during the summer months in the Mediterranean?

3. Special ship -- we have been on a number of RCCL ships before and worry this won't be a "special ship". How many meals can we have in the Windjammer?

 

Thoughts on these issues? I love the itinerary and it doesn't seem like there are any other 7 nights out there that work for us (except a HAL inaugural, which we are weary of)

 

Thanks!

 

Jen

[mjldvlks]

If you like the itinerary, I would not worry about it. Our first RC cruise was on Splendour in Nov 2007. It is an older ship [though not the oldest] but it is well maintained. They are still letting it make TA runs twice a year. It can't be in that bad of shape. We thought the the crew were great. There is no ice rink or flowrider, but hopefully that's not why you are going to the Med. There are also no specialty restaurants, but the MDR was great as far as we were concerned. We had a great wait staff and the best headwaiter we have ever had (Hans). The balcony cabin we had on deck 7 was a good size -- bigger than the JS we had on Monarch. The Windjammer is about the same as avery other Windjammer. Eat there as often as you like. It was a special ship for us -- great cruise in a great location with great friends and a great crew -- doesn't get more special than that.

 

For port intensive itineraries, I think smaller ships are better -- you are bringing smaller crowds with you.

 

We loved Splendour, if the itinerary and price is right, I would not hestate to book another cruise on her.

 

You asked about kids. We went in November so there were not that many. Maybe more in the Summer, but certainly not a million. It only holds about 2000 pax to begin with.

[cruisin4kicks]

We did Croatia, Turkey, and the Greek Isles on the Splendour in May of 2007 and loved it. The ports were great, I don't remember a lot of kids on the cruise. The previous poster mentioned that the ship is well maintained. It was in great condition when we cruised. We took our kids (27 and 26 years old at the time) and we had two of the bigger inside cabins (forgot the category name but they are bigger than the other inside cabins). My wife and I would both rank that cruise as our favorite ever because of the itinerary and the fact that we had our kids cruising with us... something that is getting more and more difficult to do based on everyone's schedules.

 

Tim

[Jen516]

Thanks for the feedback!