Carnival Splendor Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,475 reviews

Made tons of friends, typical for Carnival but the crew seemed off

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Splendor
User Avatar
SWuycheck
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

Rating by category

Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Fitness & Recreation
Service
Cabin

Additional details

Sail Date: Jan 2015
Cabin: Ocean View

We had a really wonderful vacation! Wanted to say that from the start. My partner and I always have fun on a Carnival ship. Boarding the ship was a breeze, taking us about 20 min to get on ship. I'm glad they weren't selling the faster to fun the night before. It would have been a total waste for us. (We always try to get in line right at 12Noon) got the cheers program right away. We like to drink. The buffet, which we tried to avoid for weight reasons, was the best we've had on a cruise. Hands down. The cook staff is on point. The steak house, which we've never done before was amazing. It was the best 30 bucks I've spent on a meal in a long time. The movie selection, which we would catch bits and pieces of when bar hopping was really good. The destinations were beautiful. Negatives: someone threw up in the back pool so that was out of commission for about 10 hours. Boo on whoever couldn't get to the restroom! The drinks were very weak after day 1. I may not do the cheers program again due to the quality of the drinks after we left the port of Miami. Will stick with beer to ensure my money's worth. (I like beer and mixed drinks equally so no (-) there on my part.) I wasn't the only one who though the drinks were weak. After spending almost the same for the cheers program as our cabin/taxes/and gratuity I'm very skeptical of the cheers program... The Cabernet was very nice. Was 9.50 a glass so it qualified for the cheers program. They also had a nice California sparkling which qualified and was nice. End rant on cheers program. The room service team did their job nicely regarding keeping everything clean and providing fresh towels. they were not very personable though and they were definitely not the hovering type like I've experience in the past on other carnival ships. For me that's not the worst thing. others we met didn't have that experience at all and had a more traditional carnival room staff experience aka that were very friendly and always around. My one issue with my room staff team was we never got our excursion tickets delivered to our cabin, which was annoying. After calling twice and leaving two messages with our room staff manager the tickets still never arrived. Since we never saw the team to ask them in person if they had them per the excursion desks instructions that made communicating with them more difficult than in the past.) it all worked out but that missing touch made us wait in line two different times for something the staff should have delivered.) The dinning waitstaff, especially the drink staff was slow on this cruise. The maitre d announced that due to how amazing the staff used to be and all the wonderful reviews that the staff received, a lot of the servers and wait staff recently got promotions. Maybe the constant confusion, slow dinner staff service was due to a new crew being on board? The food itself was wonderful at all times. I heard if you did the any time dinner times the staff was on point. i wil definitly choose anytime from now on. ***we had the late dinner. The piano bar was not managed like I've experience in the past. Requests were always granted even if that meant hearing / playing the same song three times in one night. Also our guys voice sounded like Cartman, from south park. If you were in the piano bar it wasn't bad but if you were at the martini bar or waiting in line for the comedy club it was pretty funny. The comedy club act we saw was pretty funny. The dance club, the red carpet had the worst video on loop. Imagine DDR figures that were more like monotone icons popping up in random dance moves the ships dancers wouldn't even do. Even if the chorographer told them to... It was funny the first few nights. After that it was sad. Please pay the extra royalties and actually have the music videos like a video bar is supposed to have... Cutting a very weird cost corner in my opinion. I don't like or enjoy talent shows so the headline act the last night was a huge letdown. Really... A talent show? We didn't catch any of the dance acts so can't comment on those. With the late dinner we missed a lot of the evening entertainment in the front theater. Another reason to try and get the anytime seating. I heard the headliner they flew out after the first stop was very entertaining though! Getting off/ Tendering at Grand Caymen was a pretty stressful situation but getting back on was fine. All said though, we did have a great time on and off the ship. We met a lot of very fun people. Which is exactly why we keep coming back to carnival. It's our demographic.

Cabin Review

Ocean View

Cabin 6B

Love a window room. We don't stay in the room long enough to warrant a balcony but a window is so much nicer than an interior.

previous reviewnext review

Find a Carnival Splendor Cruise

Any Month

Get special cruise deals, expert advice, insider tips and more.By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

© 1995—2024, The Independent Traveler, Inc.