Carnival Splendor Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This was my 3rd cruise on Carnival. Carnival is more of a budget cruise line and I had cruised the Mexican Riviera previously on NCL. I had planned to take another NCL cruise, but they no longer sail in the Mexican Riviera.
Decor
We saw the reviews of the Splendor and were prepared for the strange "pink" decor. I have to say, I'm stumped as to what Carnival or the designer was thinking. They could have done anything, but a good amount of the ship had very strange design elements with clashing colors and patterns. We opted for assigned dining in the Golden Pearl and some of the elements were nice, but what's up with the "fried eggs" all over the ceiling? The Lido deck areas looked like a kids craft project.
Cabin Review
Aft-View Extended Balcony
We got a great deal on an Aft Balcony room. It wasn't until after we had already booked that we came across several reviews for the exact cabin we had booked where we discovered it was directly above the Morrocan and suffered from quite a bit of noise from the sound system and vibrations from the base. I tried calling to see if we could switch, but the upcharge was more than I wanted to spend, so we decided to roll with it.
It helped knowing this going in and I would recommend to Carnival that they have a disclaimer that goes with this cabin. It didn't end up being a problem for us because we went to the late shows and usually by the time we returned to our cabin, there was no more music from below. The rest of the time, the cabin was quiet and peaceful - with the exception of some loud guests one night. I think we would have been annoyed had we not known about this in advance.
We LOVED LOVED LOVED our cabin! This was our first time with a balcony and I won't ever get anything else. We had a good amount of space and the balcony was nice sized. Having space to move around and the option of going on the balcony meant we could spend time in our room if wanted and actually enjoy it! The bathroom was more spacious than the last cruise we took. While the bathrooms are never huge on cruise ships, there was room for both of us to put our toiletries.
I did have trouble getting hot water the first night - I'm not sure how the system works so maybe everyone was taking showers at the same time. It was better after that.
We propped open our balcony door several nights - it was great to sleep to the sound of the ocean. We did get a fair amount of boat motion in our room on a few nights. The water was a bit choppy, but we didn't mind it - I just mention it because someone else might have an issue.