This was my sixth, my husband's fifth, and our daughter's third cruise - my third and their second trip on Carnival. Overall we had a very good time and would definitely sail on the Splendor again - but not in February out of NYC!

We drove down from Vermont on the day of embarkation (Friday 2/21). We left early - 5am - as there was freezing rain up our way that day. Our trip to Manhattan was uneventful and traffic wasn’t too bad. Before the trip I’d made a reservation to park the car offsite with Alliance Parking at their 560 West 43rd location. It was very easy – I dropped my husband and daughter off at the pier with our luggage and went and parked the car and walked back to the pier (about a 10 minute walk) – this saved us $168 over parking at the pier.

Embarkation was relatively smooth and didn’t take terribly long. Once onboard the ship we headed to the Lido for lunch – found seating in the usually empty Rotisserie area on deck 10 aft. We then headed to our cabin around 1pm and found it ready for us – we had a Balcony Spa cabin on Deck 10 Starboard Forward, #1049. This was an absolutely PERFECT location – close to the stairs and quiet, we loved it. The cabin itself was nice enough but not as immaculate as I would have liked – mirrors were smudged, bathroom shelves not sparkling. Our room stewards were very hardworking and kind men, but not the most particular in terms of attention to detail. For instance there were several times our used water glasses were not replaced, that sort of thing. Not enough to complain about really – but noticeably less than perfect attention to the cabin. Read more