First off let me say that we have sailed with 5 different cruise lines so are in the position of making comparisons. We look for good value for money in a holiday. This trip we sailed on RCI's Splendour of the Seas Greek island cruise, leaving Venice (Italy) on 3rd October 2009, and calling at Split (Croatia), Corfu (Greece), Piraeus (Athens - Greece), Mykonos (Greece), Katakolon (Greece) and returning to Venice (Italy). There were 35 different nationalities amongst the passengers, the majority from the U.S.A., the next largest group was British then German.

The Ship. Difficult to fault the ship. Splendour is what I would call medium sized, holding a maximum of just under 2,100 passengers (on this trip there were a few more than 1800) and weighing in at around 70,000 tons displacement. Although apparently one of RCI oldest ships, you wouldn't know it from the way the ship is maintained. It is excellent, with few signs of wear and tear (a few marks or torn fabrics on the 42nd street theatre and Centrum couches.) It is well laid out and easy to find you way around unlike some other ships we have sailed on (Costa Serena - nightmare!). There are plenty of places to sit and relax in the evening either out on deck or inside, listening to the many offerings of live or recorded music you will find available all over the ship. There is a wide variety of bars, some focusing on music some with back-ground music. There is a "space" to suite everyone, but therein lies a problem; bars mean drink. With Royal Caribbean International, drink means profit; a BIG profit. More of this later, for the cost of drinks and extras with this company put a BIG dampener on this holiday for us. On the one and only full day at sea on this trip, there was plenty of room all over the ship, both inside and on the many sun decks to accommodate all us passengers with ease. Plenty of sun beds to go around. The crew also made the sea day very entertaining and supplying even more food (if that is possible) by way of an on deck BBQ, plus of course all manner of entertainment.

Cabin (sorry - stateroom) We were located in an inside "L" class cabin on deck 6 (main deck) with of course no windows at all. This cabin along with most others are referred to by RCI as a stateroom. Being inside and no windows, the room really was pitch back once the lights were out and many times we nearly over slept! It was good enough being clean, tidy and adequate. With a small toilet/shower facility and enough storage for all our clothes plus a small TV with enough channels and information available, though I was unable to find how to access our on board account via the TV. I suspect this cannot be done on this ship or level of stateroom. The bed was most comfortable, and absolutely huge (super king size). So big in fact that on my wife's side (fortunately) there was only 3 inches gap between the corner of the bed and the fitted cupboard/tv cabinet requiring my good lady to climb over the corner of the bed to access her side of the bed. She found this far from amusing at 3 A.M!, though at bed time I found it most amusing! The room was fairly quiet, but footfall noise from next deck up could become intrusive. Overall; not bad, not bad at all. Read more