Carnival Splendor Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,475 reviews

The Splendor won me over!

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Splendor
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cortcase
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

Rating by category

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Sail Date: Sep 2016
Cabin: Cloud 9 Spa Balcony

Hi there! Thanks for reading my review. Brevity is not my strong suit, so if you just want the bottom line, here it is: This ship is showing its age, but the service, entertainment and food (mostly) make up for it.

If you like lots of detail, by all means, read on.

To introduce myself: I'm Cortney from Michigan, I'm a 36-year-old small business owner, and I'm a cruise junkie. I'm a firm believer that a day on sea is always better than a day on land, and it's really hard to have a "bad" cruise.

Cabin Review

Cloud 9 Spa Balcony

Cabin 8P

In general, this room is very good. The decor is a little ... jarring. It's billed as "Asian-inspired," by which they meant violent yellow with paintings of birds and koi that look like they were created by children. But you get used to it. The balcony is very nice: no one above, only one person to the other side, very quiet.

For the most part, this room is in an ideal location. It's right next to the spa, at the end of a hallway with only about five staterooms on it, so there's not a lot of walking traffic. There's a door at the end of the hall that lets out to the Thunderball Pool, but it's a small pool, mostly occupied by adults, and it's never noisy. One deck above is the Serenity Deck, which is 21 and over and is very quiet (most of the time - see below).

We did have a major problem one night when they held the after-party for the big Lido Deck party at Serenity. We were awakened from sound sleep to the thumping of "Blurred Lines" as if it were being performed by Robin Thicke right in our room. Our ceiling was literally shaking from the thump of the bass and I could have sang along with every word. I called down to Guest Services and was essentially blown off; the bored-sounding guy promised to send someone to verify how loud it was, but never did. Awhile later, my husband called and was told that the noise was within accepted limits and it was a sanctioned activity so — oh well. And the guy also said it would be over by midnight (this was around 11:15 p.m.). When it was still raging at 2:30 a.m., I called and went a little crazy because I was exhausted. They finally sent up a legit officer to check out the noise and he was appalled by how bad it was. He said he would go try to get them to at least turn down the bass a bit. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night.

We never had any other problems in the room and they ended up crediting our account $30.35 (?) a person for the annoyance, even though we didn't ask for it. They kept calling the day after to try to get a hold of me and speak to me about it, and I appreciated that.

Bottom line: 1101 is mostly awesome, but on that one night (it was mid-cruise, the night we were in Curacao for us), you might as well just go to the party or nap elsewhere, because you won't be sleeping in your bed unless you have better earplugs than me. I was really annoyed at the time, but I was over it by the next day. It's not like it ruined the cruise for me.

Port Reviews

Miami

We LOVE Miami. Love. Love. This was our second time, and can't wait to come back. We love Bin 18 and Uvaggio for wine bars and dining. Love walking South Beach for the art deco and neon (but not for staying long, because it's ridiculously expensive for dining/drinking, and also, we're not partiers. We're kinda boring.) Love staying in the Hilton Miami Airport for the night before; very clean, good workout room, nice exterior, good (albeit overpriced) breakfast options. We Uber everywhere in Miami and it's the best. We also visit Cigar Boutique of Little Havana, on Calle Ocho, every time we're here. If you like cigars, stop in and say hi to the owner, Cesar Marmanillo, and tell him Cortney and Shannon from Michigan sent you. A hidden gem! At nighttime Casa de Montecristo by Prime Cigar is a great place in the Brickell area. Cigars, whiskeys, scotch and — for me — $12 Veuve Cliquot by the glass. Score!

La Romana (Casa de Campo)

Dominican Republic was the most disappointing port. Once you get out of the main port area and go downtown, it's very impoverished; you feel so bad for the people there. :( If you did an excursion offsite, maybe it would be great? I don't know. We bought a shuttle ticket downtown and as soon as we stepped off the bus, tour guides were upon us and pretty much wouldn't take no for an answer. We ended up agreeing to let a nice guy named Francisco take us around for $20, but we didn't do too much because the area was really not tourist-friendly once you got outside the main square where all of the vendors were. It was sad, and, in some places, a little nerve-wracking. If I came again, I'd either stay on the ship or book an excursion.

Curacao

Curacao was so cool. I had seen photos of the multi-colored downtown, but it was neat to see it in person. The Queen Emma pontoon bridge is fascinating, too; it moves aside when boats are coming through. It was off to the side almost the entire time we were there, but they have a fast, free ferry service available to get from the one side of the straits to the other. Our favorite part was finding a cigar lounge near the ship. It was called Kandela, and it was beautiful and very comfortable, with great service. I don't smoke, but my husband smokes cigars, and he really enjoyed it, and I liked reading there. We enjoyed it so much that we came back after eating dinner on the ship, since we were in port until late.

Aruba

Aruba also was awesome. Such a cheerful looking place! We really enjoyed strolling around downtown Oranjestad. Surprise, surprise, my husband had looked up a cigar place, Cigar Emporium, and we hung out there for a bit. Very friendly, great service. We ate at a place called Café The Plaza, and it was very good. The woman at the Cigar Emporium recommended The Old Fisherman or Sea Salt, but they were both under renovations at the time. I'd love to come back to Aruba sometime and explore it even more and hit up those restaurants. I'm sure the excursions for snorkeling, etc., were great, since the water looked pristine and it was pretty gorgeous around there.

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