Sailed on Splendor 4/8 - 4/16 from NYC... OK... A little background details about myself. 5th cruise on Carnival, but 14th overall. Others have included Princess, HAL, Cunard & Seabourn. My last cruise on Carnival was 2004 & I greatly enjoyed it. I sailed on the Legend and I loved the ship and the cruise overall however I wanted to try other lines plus I have no kids and like relaxing more then parting so HAL/Seabourn/Cunard fit the bill better. I picked the cruise to take my family (siblings & the parent of 2 of my siblings, but not my parent) on their first cruise. I'm always talking about cruising and just CruiseTalk all the time that it was time to drag them on one. I chose Carnival because of a few reasons. While not my personal favorite, I had enjoyed my previous cruises with them, it sailed from NYC, and we live in NYC. The itinerary was nice, I'd done it 2 times before, and Carnival does deliver what they promise of Fun For All... So everyone in my family would have things to do. So Done Deal!

Embarkation: Super quick. 20 Minutes from getting out of our car and into the ship. I've sailed out of NYC too many times, both the west side and Brooklyn. We arrived at around noon. However.... we had priority embarkation because we were in suites so that is why it was fast. However... it was disorganized. I actually waited in one line for a few minutes until someone came and took us to the front because we had priority. There were limited signs. Pier 92 is way better... but the Russian billionaire with his big yacht is parked there till further notice.

Cabin: We had 2 suites... An Ocean Suite and a Grand Suite. Grand suite was for 3 people, and Ocean suite was for two. Small suites compared to HAL or Cunard and even some Princess ships but I knew that coming in. They were great though. Most time was spent in the Grand Suite. I had not originally booked the suites and was upgraded a few weeks before by Carnival... however I later found out my company had paid for the upgrades for me as a gift. They just need bigger TV's in all rooms. But no issues with the cabin. The Grand Suite was even able to accommodate a little cocktail party I hosted at Sail Away from St Thomas. Not all so spacious, but not cramped either, & we had about 15 people. Read more