Carnival Splendor Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,475 reviews

Fun and Relaxing

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Splendor
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SeaMan92
6-10 Cruises • Age 30s

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Sail Date: May 2017

Cruised from Ft. Lauderdale to the Southern Caribbean stopping at Grand Turk, La Romania, Aruba, and Curaçao. I have cruised on Carnival many times and it was my girlfriend's 21st birthday and it was her first time. We got an inside cabin on the 1st floor which I'm sure you're thinking is a terrible idea right? Wrong! Our cabin was perfect because we party enough to only be in there when we're sleeping or changing. Also, it was super rough so being on the bottom is perfect because you don't rock as much. I read reviews about the rooms being a little hot and the showers flooding and yes I had problems with both but to prevent that I noticed the small refrigerator was blowing off significant heat so I unplugged it and it made a 30% difference. Don't worry you won't use it anyway because the fridge doesn't keep anything cold. Our steward was OK. If we were still in the room when it was time to clean, he would come back when we were gone but only make the bed and change towels, nothing else. Make sure you tell them you want them to clean in the afternoon so you are out and about so they can clean thoroughly.

The ship itself was pretty good, they usually do a good job keeping up with the maintenance and cleanliness. I wish the captain went a little faster through the rough seas instead of going slow. We could of plowed through and a lot of people wouldn't have gotten so sick. Mar Q was our cruise director and he was awesome. You can tell he loves what he does and he always makes sure everyone is having fun and enjoying their vacation. He hosted most of the games and shows on the ship. Entertainment on the ship was great. The shows were cool and the comedy shows were surprisingly funny. I only went to the R rated ones though, I'm not sure how funny the PG ones are. Service was good but only if you went to the bar yourself. If you sat next to the pool and ordered a drink from the server or ordered one at dinner, expect to wait. I noticed over the years as technology advances, they need to accommodate for everything. For example, people have selfie sticks, Go Pros, or their own cameras they want to take their own pictures, not have the crew come out and follow them around while they try to capture every moment as they pull into a new port or if they walk around the ship. I understand they want the customers to pay for the pictures but it's only necessary like on an elegant dinner night when everyone is dressed up. The food was good, nothing spectacular. They did however have multiple different cuisines like Mexican, BBQ, deli, etc which was great so you don't get bored with the same stuff.

We didn't really do excursions while we were on our trip because we live in Florida so I already do most of those things here. Just wanted to relax on the beach with a cold beer in my hand. Grand Turk was fun, we went to the pool and had drinks at Margaritaville. La Romania was a little sketchy and they wanted to charge us a $60 cab ride for two of us to the beach that was 10 minutes away. Not only that but the cab was full and they wanted to squeeze us in with everyone else. Sorry, I'm not riding 2 deep in the front seat with a big sweaty dude. Got a new cab. Aruba was definitely the best one. All beaches were gorgeous and they had a lot of American tourists there so they didn't hastle us as much. I will be making a trip back to this island soon. Curaçao was ok. Cool little town but just your basic shops and stuff. I've never been to the Southern Caribbean so I had to give it a shot. I usually do cruises to Eastern and Western Caribbean.

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