Saw this cruise pop up after returning from a Bermuda trip last fall out of NY on RCCL, and while not having had a great experience on Carnival Valor, out of San Juan, this time last year, could not refuse the pricing. An aft balcony, with PPG and a credit, for less than we paid for our first balcony 6 years ago, sounded like a deal, so we bit. Carnival has clearly had some market share issues post Concordia, and trouble on this ship and others, and appear to be doing their best to win it back though pricing. This trip(cold weather out of NYC, the week after Presidents week) is a tough sell when one can fly to FL for better weather, but the convenience and pricing are hard to beat. That said, Carnival is leaving this market for the winter months, I suspect because of low fill rates.

All of this made for a ship running about 3/4 full, I guess, which resulted in an excellent crew/passenger ratio, and far better service than we experienced on Valor during Presidents week a year ago. As many of you may recall, Splendor had an engineering casualty a few years back, off San Diego, and while there was nothing particularly unusual that I noticed, there is a slight sewer gas order on some decks in port, and fuel oil odors occasionally. While not uncommon on Navy vessels, it was surprising on a newer passenger ship, and I suspect there are some ventilation issues somewhere aboard. It would not keep me from sailing on her again, but Carnival needs to address it.

The cleanliness of the ship is very good in all spaces, cleaners are always about and Purell dispensers are well located. Food service was very good, and quality of the food was above average for what I have had on Carnival. I found the staff pretty much across the board to be very helpful and cheerful, although the pressure to sell spa treatments and photos resulted in some surprisingly rude comments in the passageways by staff. This particular ship design leaves the main passageway(deck 5) as the only full length passage for going forward and aft on one level, and the number of solicitors for photographs and services is far too many for my taste. Read more