The Mexican Riviera Drive-By Cruise aboard Carnival Splendor April 26, 2009 By Cruise Critic Host JoeThis was our sixth Carnival cruise, but have not been on one in a couple of years. We started our cruising life out on Carnival many years ago. We have sailed across several of the different lines. We had not planned on sailing again Carnival after a return to Carnival two years ago on Carnival Victory and a not so favorable experience onboard, however we were invited to sail with some of the other Cruise Critic hosts and decided to give it another tryPre-Cruise-We arrived in Long Beach a couple of days early and stayed aboard Queen Mary. We really enjoyed our stay there, and it was so easy to walk across the parking lot to board Carnival Splendor

Embarkation-Mid-morning of embarkation day we walked across and did a very fast check in and dropped off our bags. We were told to come back at 1:30 p.m. for embarkation. We had to check out of Queen Mary at Noon and decided to just walk over and check on the status of embarkation. At around 12:30 p.m. they started boarding and there were droves of people already there waiting. I have to say, it was a bit of jungle getting aboard as the lines stopped and went often while twisting and turning. At first I thought this was going to be a speedy check-in, but it really turned out to be quite lengthy. We enjoyed a tasty lunch in the "Splendido Lido" once aboard. I was puzzled at why they scheduled muster drill for just a few minutes from sail-away. I looked up as we were in the midst of the drill and we had already sailed away. I love to be up on deck at sail-away, not in a muster drill

Stateroom-We had stateroom 7262, which was an 8B balcony cabin. The cabin was quite nice, and large by standard balcony comparisons across the different cruise lines. The bed was very comfortable, and the duvet and linens very nice. The introduction of a flat screen interactive TV really opens up the room and is very convenient. The bathroom was of good size and was convenient. The decoration of the stateroom was good with the exception of the pepto-pink trim, which I will never understand. The Ship-After being on other Carnival ships, I was expecting a garish and crazy design scheme, so it was no shock to me when we boarded that this ship was no different from other Carnival ships. Pink everywhere, with a mish-mash of different designs all over. The main color theme reminded me of a collision between a zebra and a giant bottle of pepto. It is not the pink that bothers me necessarily, but rather what a shame it is to look at many of the design elements individually. Those elements would be beautiful if they were by themselves. For instance there is a beautiful array of copper-like ceiling elements that are gorgeous, but their beauty is lost because there are panels of pink zebra patterns mixed in and around. I find that the design throughout the ship never lets your mind relax. The dining room design is the same, with the famous fried eggs hanging over your head along with other bizarre patterns that look like science experiments. The pattern of the ship is very confusing to navigate. I do really like all of the convenient staircases which allow you to navigate different areas of the ship quickly. Being a tall man, I found the ceilings to be quite low, and felt I needed to duck in a few instances. I do have to say that we noticed how little entertainment there was in the evenings. We had a hard time finding a nice bar to sit down and enjoy a cocktail before and after dinner. There were several nice bars that were only open once or twice throughout the week, such as the jazz club. It seemed the main bar was in the casino, which did not appeal to us due to all of the smoke everywhere. I noticed many using their complimentary bath robes as regular attire throughout the ship on a daily basis. This did not bother me, but I found it very peculiar Read more