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My husband and I have cruised with Carnival twice before this trip. Both times we were happy with the cruise- but not this time.
Pros:
1. Big ship so it seemed that there was a lot of space- it didn't seem crowded.
2. Our room steward, Erwin, kept our room clean and the ice bucket filled. He
did a wonderful job and was a very pleasant person!
3. Check-in was easy and we flowed right through- we arrived around 12 noon,
which was perfect timing!
Cons:
1. The food. Main Dining Room food was salty, undercooked/overcooked, gritty,
lukewarm, and unappetizing. We skipped dinner a couple of times, but missed
catching up with our tablemates, so we went back- unfortunately the food was
the same quality each night. :(
2. Our waiter never called any of us by name. His assistant disappeared every
night and came back only to offer coffee.
3. The hot tubs on Lido Deck were closed on Sea Days. There were a group of 20
somethings that took over both hot tubs and broke tiles and jets. They needed
maintenance and that took until the next day to fix. When asked by security
to get out of the hot tub, no one would budge. Head of security showed up and
ordered them all out... we counted 32 in one of the hot tubs. While all of
these young people were in the hot tubs, the bar waiters continued to serve
them alcohol.
4. Kids running free all over the ship. It seemed like parents didn't care what
their kids were doing... many times I saw the same three young girls by
themselves. They were about 8 or 9. There were also screaming kids in the MDR
that parents would not take out (we had late dining).
5. The layout of the ship. Even tho the ship was big and seemed open, there were
floors that did not go through. It was tiring going to floor 3, only to have
to go back to floor 5, walk part way down the ship, then take another
elevator down to 3. There should be some way to have a flow from end to end
on each floor.
Compared to our other two cruises with Carnival, this was a nightmare. I heard many, many people saying they would never cruise with Carnival again. I spoke with quite a few folks who were cruising for the first time. I told them not to base their cruising experience off of this ship.
Our ship's itinerary did change. Shortly after leaving port, the captain came on the intercom to announce that there "technical difficulties" and that we would be heading straight to Puerto Vallarta for 1 1/2 days and then to Cabo for 7 hours. Our original itinerary was to be Cabo for 1 1/2 days and Puerto Vallarta for 12 hours. This change caused many problems for people who had booked excursions through outside companies. And most of the cruisers were very upset about losing a day in Cabo. I heard many times, "I chose this cruise because of the two days in Cabo."
The Splendor has had many problems with her engines. It may be time to take her out of service and retire her.
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