Unless you are familiar will NYC i would not reccomed driving to the port. The traffic in NYC is a nightmare.
Take a shuttle or cab.it's worth the expense.
We have not cruised on Carnival for many years do to a bad experence on the Jublee. The Splendor is a newer ship and well maintained and managed. The food in the main dinning was of high quality and very good. The food in buffet area was "ok" just avarage for a ship buffet.We liked the burrito bar in the buffet area. The lines in the buffet area we fast moving and we had little wait time. An impressive item was elevators on the ship. We hardly ever had to wait more that 30 second for an elevator,most of the the wait was less.We have been on other ship where the wait elevators seems endless.
We always choose inside cabins. We have cruised 12 times. On the Splendor the inside cabins are the largest of any ship we have sailed on. 182 sq,ft. Very nice. I would rebook this cabin again because it is near the air ducts for the ship and the noise is very loud. So loud,the tv had to be turned up all the way to hear it.The noise never stopped day or night. That being said,just moving two cabins left or right of 2385 and there was no noise at all. The passageways to the inside cabins are wide and roomy even with luggage in passageways. On many ship the passageways are narrow in inside cabin areas and you have to turn sideways to pass other guest in the hallways.Very nice.