We cruised Splendour of the Seas departing Tampa 1/8/05 for the Western Caribbean itinerary (Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Belize and Cozumel). Previously we cruised on Disney, Carnival (Paradise) and HAL (Zaandam). Overall we were pleased with the cruise, but were surprised at how it compared to other cruises on other lines. This is a long review/comparison.

Embarkation went smoothly; we arrived at the port around noon and were on the ship in a short time . . . less than 45 minutes from dropping off our luggage, and that includes parking the car. We ate lunch at the Windjammer, dropped our carry-ons in the cabin and explored the ship. Our luggage arrived around 6:30 including the beer suitcase. For those interested in "smuggling," there was no indication of any examination of the bag. The first night I asked the cabin attendant for a gallon bag of ice and showed him where I wanted it. From then on, the beer was kept cold. You would think a ship out of Tampa would have Yuengling, but they didn't.

Our fellow cruisers were, for the most part, great traveling companions -- friendly and polite. There were chair hogs out in force on the two sea days, but we did just fine "borrowing" the chairs while they were off doing whatever it is they were doing with their towel and shoe holding the chair. In the hour or two we used the chairs we never did meet the "owner." I was somewhat surprised that the cruisers most closely matched the demographic we experienced on Carnival -- a lot of teens and groups of young adults as well as families with younger kids. The difference being that there were somewhat more older adults than on Carnival . . . but not as many as on HAL. We never ran into the "roving noisemakers" that some reviewers experienced. Read more