We cruised on Splendour of the Seas from November 17-24, 2007 and were very happy with all aspects of the cruise. This was the first time in quite a while for us on a "smaller" ship and any concerns we may have had regarding the activities and amenities of this ship soon proved to be groundless. Splendour is an excellent ship and one that we would cruise again.

We flew into Venice one day ahead of departure and spent one night at the Best Western Hotel Ala, just a short walk from San Marco. As we had to connect through Brussels, and the original morning Brussels Airline flight had been canceled, we were placed on a 2:30 pm flight to Venice, giving us a 7 hour layover in Brussels and a 4:30 arrival in Venice. We took advantage of the layover to go into Brussels and visit the Grand Place and walk about a bit before returning to the airport for the flight. Upon our arrival in Venice we made our way to the Aliguna Water Bus pier and took that service to San Marco. This took about one hour and 15 minutes total, meaning that we did not check into our hotel until about 6:30. Following check in we walked about a bit, had dinner, then off to bed. Hotel Ala is a very nice 3 star hotel and we got the one night for a very decent rate of 110 Euros, a bargain for Venice. The included breakfast was substantial and included hot scrambled eggs, a rarity in Italy.

After spending some time in Venice, we boarded the Vaporetto Number One for the ride to Piazza Roma, arriving there about 2:30 pm. This was the only part of the whole cruise where we felt that RCCL really dropped the ball. Once at the bus stop area there was no one from RCCL to direct you to the proper bus and the bus itself had very poor marking as to being the shuttle to the ship. There was a large crowd of cruisers trying to find the right spot and the right bus and many were becoming testy. Once the bus arrived each of us had to load our own luggage into the hold and find a seat. This was a very unorganized way to do this and RCCL should address this. However, the transfer was free and one should appreciate that, as people that became impatient and used one of the taxis were being charged an outrageous 70 Euros for a 3-4 minute ride. Read more