This review might be a little biased, After cruising Carnival for 27 cruises, I know what to expect, and what needs to be understood, and what needs to be changed. This cruise hit the mark on all of these three points. I am the first to say that a cruise is what you make of it, You only get out what you put into your adventure. So with an open mind, packed bags, and a cruise price that was so low It was nearly free. (I get an OBC of $100 for owning Carnival Stock). First the ship. Whoever told that Farcus guy that Pepto Bismol is an appealing color should be sent to the naughty room. This ship is dripping in pink, Like really pink.... everywhere. OK, I got over this design flaw and settled in on the cabin. Snagged a great Ocean View #2462 one of the larger cabins in this category. The cabin is just like on the other sister ships and has the same configuration so I was really familiar with its size and the layout. No surprise there. Now the Cabin Steward issues started to show up little by little. When he finally showed up to introduce himself, it was nearly 6pm, He was pleasant enough but distant, and there was no sheet to sign that I was satisfied with my cabin, as had been the practice in all other cruises. He asked me my dining time? Really? I know they have this info, but I told him I was on Anytime Dining and would usually be gone @ 6:30pm for dinner. This really did not seem to matter because they never seemed to schedule my cabin clean/straightening up at any specific time, except when I was already in the cabin...The assistant stewards were what I now refer to as Zombie Team #1, they never smiled, just grunted and moaned in the hallways. Greeting me by name,..Never happened, except at the dining room. The cruise was still great I made it work. Met some great friends, had 2 wonderful meals in the steakhouse, served by the ever smiling Alex. Made some great friends. Coined a new Cruise Director term on this cruise he was Robo CD, his real name was Malcom and he was the mystery voice over the PA system, I actually only saw him once during the whole cruise. But I did talk to and see the assistant CD Wally lots of times, he was everywhere. Maybe Wally was in charge of plugging in Robo CD Malcom LOL.

One last bitter taste was on the last night of the cruise. I had a liquor delivery to my cabin, I did not order or buy the liquor, but I had made lots of friends who said they might do this for me. Anyway, 2 bottles of Kailua appeared on my bed with my cabin # plainly inscribed on the bag. So I took one of the bottles out and took it to the friends that I thought were the senders of this gift. They were not responsible, but I gave them the extra bottle anyway. At nearly 10pm I was getting ready for bed and packing up the last items in the carry on, bags were already outside when I heard a very ambitious knock on my cabin door. The Cabin Steward was frantic, He wanted the liquor back. It was not for me (Kinda like the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld) I told him I had already packed the 1 bottle and re-gifted the 2nd. He made me go into my suitcase and unpack the remaining bottle and give it to him. What??? Yep there I was in my PJ's having to haul my suitcase back inside my cabin to find and return this bottle of Kailua. He took it and off he went, ticked off that he only got 1 of the two, no apology, nothing.

I really think this could have been handled better than the way he did. Will I still cruise Carnival, Yes I will but not on the Splendor for quite a while.